Sometimes, quotes are taken, in media, without much context or deeper investigation. It’s like all they want is a dirty sexy soundbite or something. I wish this were surprising, but it has ever been thus.
What he doesn’t want is stagnation – he’s always moving and thinking about what’s next. That’s what the envelope-pushing boss-types do.
That’s why it’s my job to think about you guys, to dream up and argue for things I want for you to have. But far from being kicked to the curb, I think future iterations will see commenters even more appreciated, empowered and featured.
But I can tell you for a fact we care very much about our commenters and their contributions – exceedingly so – and these sites would not be the same without you all. If you go, I’m going with you.
Kaila Hale-Stern, the new Gawker Ombudsperson appointed to take the side of commenters.
You know what I think? Denton dropped this Ombudsperson bomb during yesterday’s post hacking debacle, in a casual answer during the Q&A. It would take a lot to convince me that this wasn’t a move he decided to implement in order to try and deflect attention from his comments (only a day earlier, before the hacking!) that commenters keep Gawker “in the ghetto”. This Ombudsperson was never mentioned before. Suddenly, when all commenter accounts are hacked, BAM! a Gawker employee to work on improving commenter relations.
Wouldn’t it have been more honest to announce the function as part of the “we promise to do better” campaign instead of sneaking it as if it had been common knowledge for ever?
And that was today’s lesson in “News and Media Organizations: you need to learn the new ways”.
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