4 ms·

What's the quota of Android victories that an author is required to cover?

by GHFigs 15y ago

achompas 15y ago
Who is talking about quotas? ICS has revolutionized Android, but you wouldn't know it from reading DF. That's already a failure by Gruber, as a tech journalist.
- GHFigs 15y ago
  I'm confused by what you're saying. You claim to not be talking about quotas, but cite not covering the fact[1] that "ICS has revolutionized Android" as a failure. If he had covered it, that would be better, correct? So evidently there is some level of positive Android coverage he's required to do before he's allowed to say what he actually thinks and link to what he actually wants to link to. If that's not a quota, what would you call it? [1] Here I get absolutely bewildered by what you're saying, given that the first device with ICS was released today, and I know this precisely because I read it on Daring Fireball yesterday, wherein Gruber writes: "I spent a few minutes playing with Topolsky’s Galaxy Nexus in the On The Verge green room; some of the text editing improvements in Android 4.0 alone make it quite obviously the best Android phone in the world".
  - achompas 15y ago
    Have an upvote: you're absolutely right, and I shouldn't have hammered out a response during class. Forgive me though--it's finals time, and I only caught this through HN (and not my RSS feed).
  - deong 15y ago
    Yeah, but it's always couched in some sort of snark. Yesterday, he posted something offhand about wondering how many people were going to line up for the Nexus release, clearly worded in a way intended to mean "we all know it will be none". So today, people sent him images of lines outside a Verizon store, and his one line reply (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/15/galaxy-nexus http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/15/galaxy-nexus) was, "Quite chivalrous of them to let all the women in first", which again, is intended to be read as, "look at all the nerdy guys". Now do a google image search for "iPhone 4S lines" -- just pick the first few hits (here's the first one: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-lines.html http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-lines.html) -- and count the ratio of men and women. I'll save you the trouble and tell you up front there are a lot of men in those lines. But Gruber literally wouldn't think of commenting on that, because to him, people line up for the iPhone because it's wonderful, and they line for an Android phone because they're abnormal in some way, and that's simply how he processes the information. Whether or not its a conscious strategy is mostly irrelevant to me as the reader: if my choices are dishonest or incompetent, I'm going to look elsewhere. Which is a shame because he's a good writer.
- Steko 15y ago
  Gruber is not a general "tech journalist", he's an apple centric blogger. Two of his main themes are that the following bits of conventional wisdom (which you can get on any of dozens of "tech journalist" websites) are incorrect: (1) Android is winning. (2) Android is as good as iOS (or better or nearly as good).
  - achompas 15y ago
    Serious question: are those points conventional wisdom? Aside from Engadget reviews or whatever. I'm biased, as I actually get a decent amount of my tech news from DF.
jamesaguilar 15y ago
Let's suppose there is some ratio of Android victories to Android failures in the mind of the "typical user." I'll wave my hands at the exact measurement of that ratio -- it would probably be some product of the number of instances and the magnitude of each instance. But there is a ratio. If a journalist covers mobile devices in a given category at a significant rate, I'd expect their stories on that category of device to have a similar positive-negative ratio as the actual wins the category has achieved. I wouldn't trust a guy who had 90% negative articles when the win rate in the eyes of a typical user is more like 50%. I also wouldn't trust someone who posted 99% about the losses when the typical user sees about 90% losses. I don't have enough data on Gruber to know exactly how far off the mark he is, but I do know enough not to trust that he is anything like objective. Now, if his blog was titled, "Apple news and Android criticisms," fine. You can post 100% criticisms if that's the domain you're claiming to cover. But I've never seen such a disclaimer from Gruber so I can't give him a pass on that one either.
- GHFigs 15y ago
  All you've done here is substitute undefined numbers for an abstract concept.
  - jamesaguilar 15y ago
    No, what I've done is express my view that one should not update one's thoughts about Android on the basis of what Gruber says, unless he says something positive. His negative views on Android phones or features provide nearly zero information, because he was going to say something negative or nothing at all whether or not the news represents an improvement. Put another way, I'll admit I can't tell you exactly how many positive articles Gruber should have written by now. I could probably calculate that number if I cared enough, but I don't. What I can tell you is that he is well south of where he should be on this topic, IF he cares about providing me with information with which I can update my beliefs about the quality of Android OS.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]

What's the quota of Android victories that an author is required to cover?

by GHFigs 15y ago

What's the quota of Android victories that an author is required to cover?

Who is talking about quotas? ICS has revolutionized Android, but you wouldn't know it from reading DF. That's already a failure by Gruber, as a tech journalist.

GHFigs 15y ago
I'm confused by what you're saying. You claim to not be talking about quotas, but cite not covering the fact[1] that "ICS has revolutionized Android" as a failure. If he had covered it, that would be better, correct? So evidently there is some level of positive Android coverage he's required to do before he's allowed to say what he actually thinks and link to what he actually wants to link to. If that's not a quota, what would you call it? [1] Here I get absolutely bewildered by what you're saying, given that the first device with ICS was released today, and I know this precisely because I read it on Daring Fireball yesterday, wherein Gruber writes: "I spent a few minutes playing with Topolsky’s Galaxy Nexus in the On The Verge green room; some of the text editing improvements in Android 4.0 alone make it quite obviously the best Android phone in the world".
- achompas 15y ago
  Have an upvote: you're absolutely right, and I shouldn't have hammered out a response during class. Forgive me though--it's finals time, and I only caught this through HN (and not my RSS feed).
- deong 15y ago
  Yeah, but it's always couched in some sort of snark. Yesterday, he posted something offhand about wondering how many people were going to line up for the Nexus release, clearly worded in a way intended to mean "we all know it will be none". So today, people sent him images of lines outside a Verizon store, and his one line reply (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/15/galaxy-nexus http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/12/15/galaxy-nexus) was, "Quite chivalrous of them to let all the women in first", which again, is intended to be read as, "look at all the nerdy guys". Now do a google image search for "iPhone 4S lines" -- just pick the first few hits (here's the first one: http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-lines.html http://www.iphonehacks.com/2011/10/iphone-4s-lines.html) -- and count the ratio of men and women. I'll save you the trouble and tell you up front there are a lot of men in those lines. But Gruber literally wouldn't think of commenting on that, because to him, people line up for the iPhone because it's wonderful, and they line for an Android phone because they're abnormal in some way, and that's simply how he processes the information. Whether or not its a conscious strategy is mostly irrelevant to me as the reader: if my choices are dishonest or incompetent, I'm going to look elsewhere. Which is a shame because he's a good writer.
Steko 15y ago
Gruber is not a general "tech journalist", he's an apple centric blogger. Two of his main themes are that the following bits of conventional wisdom (which you can get on any of dozens of "tech journalist" websites) are incorrect: (1) Android is winning. (2) Android is as good as iOS (or better or nearly as good).
- achompas 15y ago
  Serious question: are those points conventional wisdom? Aside from Engadget reviews or whatever. I'm biased, as I actually get a decent amount of my tech news from DF.

jamesaguilar 15y ago

Let's suppose there is some ratio of Android victories to Android failures in the mind of the "typical user." I'll wave my hands at the exact measurement of that ratio -- it would probably be some product of the number of instances and the magnitude of each instance. But there is a ratio. If a journalist covers mobile devices in a given category at a significant rate, I'd expect their stories on that category of device to have a similar positive-negative ratio as the actual wins the category has achieved. I wouldn't trust a guy who had 90% negative articles when the win rate in the eyes of a typical user is more like 50%. I also wouldn't trust someone who posted 99% about the losses when the typical user sees about 90% losses. I don't have enough data on Gruber to know exactly how far off the mark he is, but I do know enough not to trust that he is anything like objective. Now, if his blog was titled, "Apple news and Android criticisms," fine. You can post 100% criticisms if that's the domain you're claiming to cover. But I've never seen such a disclaimer from Gruber so I can't give him a pass on that one either.

GHFigs 15y ago
All you've done here is substitute undefined numbers for an abstract concept.
- jamesaguilar 15y ago
  No, what I've done is express my view that one should not update one's thoughts about Android on the basis of what Gruber says, unless he says something positive. His negative views on Android phones or features provide nearly zero information, because he was going to say something negative or nothing at all whether or not the news represents an improvement. Put another way, I'll admit I can't tell you exactly how many positive articles Gruber should have written by now. I could probably calculate that number if I cared enough, but I don't. What I can tell you is that he is well south of where he should be on this topic, IF he cares about providing me with information with which I can update my beliefs about the quality of Android OS.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]