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    • When an Online Community looks more like an Online Mob

    November 16th, 2009 Posted in The Tech Bar | No Comments »

    On my mind?  The state of American journalism.  I keep seeing a pattern of our major metro daily using inaccurate headlines and opening up the community for comments. The article may be fair, the headline…no.  Case in point: Teachers Broke Law by Posting Top Scores. (No indictment or arrest, this was an advisory opinion by one state office.)

    Why do that?  Only one rationale I can see…first use inaccurate headline guaranteed to inflame and then drive traffic to the online community and in the process gin up huge numbers.  Desperate answer to desperate times for newspapers, I think.

    Make no mistake; many people want to do this.  The process is so simple it’s hard to have enough character to withstand the temptation.  And any post critical of the strategy gets lost in the swirl of online community vitriol. 

    So what we now have is not online community; maybe we could call it online mob?  Online violence has a short payout.  Inflamed numbers won’t fix advertising revenue, won’t attract long term participants, and won’t enhance a reputation for a business desperate to be known as a community player. 

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