Okay never more irritated to not have the contact details! Did I miss them somewhere in the article?
Article with facetime contacts:
Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#22Although I think this is wonderful, I wonder is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people? I’m also curious about how well these eels can perceive screens. Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it. Is there some biological difference here, maybe the frequencies of light emitted by a TV/monitor being designed for human…
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Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect there is motivation for a news organisation not to send users away from their website.
Probably because content outside of news websites is a lot more worth a read.
And often, but not always, actually contradicts the headline and/or the content of the "news" article itself.
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#24[deleted]
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#25Here’s the Japanese news post by the Sumida Aquarium, which includes the Email addresses to FaceTime the eels: https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/news/details/2236/ A shame that The Guardian’s article did not include a backlink to it.
It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.
Fwiw, I recently started writing for a well-known website.
When I asked if it's okay to link to sources, they told me I was allowed to if absolutely necessary. I should try not to because it takes readers away from our site, and they might not come back.
I suspect that many sites have the same line of reasoning.
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.
Fwiw, I recently started writing for a well-known website. When I asked if it's okay to link to sources, they told me I was allowed to if absolutely necessary. I should try not to because it takes readers away from our site, and they might not come back. I suspect that many sites have the same line of reasoning.
> I should try not to because it takes readers away from our site, and they might not come back.
> I suspect that many sites have the same line of reasoning.
Not your fault, obviously, but FFS: this is the most vapid line of reasoning. If I want to find out more I'm going to leave your site anyway, so surely it's better if I'm not irritated by your lack of citations when I do inevitably go?
Does Wikipedia worry about people leaving and not coming back? No. Do you know why I go back to Wikipedia all the effing time, often using it as a starting point for research? Well, one of the big reasons is that many articles have a decent list of authoritative citations and external links at the bottom that I can use to find out more when I need or want to.
Talk about myopic: even the BBC do this, and it's incredibly frustrating. Absolutely smacks of some clueless senior manager[1] setting up the wrong metrics for measuring site performance.
[1] Manager bashing is a bit of a tired trope here on HN and I'm not trying to make a generalisation but, as with every job, some of them are certainly idiots/clowns.
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#27Here’s the Japanese news post by the Sumida Aquarium, which includes the Email addresses to FaceTime the eels: https://www.sumida-aquarium.com/news/details/2236/ A shame that The Guardian’s article did not include a backlink to it.
I suggest to repurpose the hashtag (#pleaseRememberHumans) for an initiative about human needs regarding news sites – and also for issues with overly crafted UX in general (e.g., websites shying away behind a shield and hiding behind a subscribe dialog as soon as a human visitor shows up) –, once the original event is over.
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fwiw, I recently started writing for a well-known website. When I asked if it's okay to link to sources, they told me I was allowed to if absolutely necessary. I should try not to because it takes readers away from our site, and they might not come back. I suspect that many sites have the same line of reasoning.
> I should try not to because it takes readers away from our site, and they might not come back. > I suspect that many sites have the same line of reasoning. Not your fault, obviously, but FFS: this is the most vapid line of reasoning. If I want to find out more I'm going to leave your site anyway, so surely it's better if I'm not irritated by your lack of citations when I do inevitably go? Does Wikipedia worry about…
Wikipedia’s business isn’t monetising people’s attention.
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's absurdly common with news articles. They never link the stats/paper/organisation. I often wonder about the amount of collective time spent by individuals simply trying to find the data summarised in an article. For all the lamenting about the media's decline there's plenty of amateur blogs out there that manage to link their sources when writing an article.
This is my biggest pet peeve with news in general. Why does a high school paper have more rigor in terms of citations than the average post from a major news organization? It honestly drives me crazy. How in the world can a majority of major news organizations not overcome the hurdle of... adding links to what they're covering..? It makes digesting political news all but impossible.
>This is my biggest pet peeve with news in general. Why does a high school paper have more rigor in terms of citations than the average post from a major news organization?
Because news is not meant to inform, it's meant to indoctrinate and keep you passively under the thumb of the rich.
https://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Econo...
>It makes digesting political news all but impossible.
The question is do you know the upper classes know your brain doesn't see the world as it is, you can be told the facts and not reason to the right conclusion?
Re: Japanese aquarium urges public to video-chat with eels
#30Aquariums in Japan are simply awesome. One of each five aquariums in the world are there. This means that there is a permanent competition for public's eyes and the risk to the people forgetting about a particular installation and favouring other.
The direct translation of this article for me is: Aquariums are expensive to maintain, especially if the public expects a high level of excellence. If your bussiness depend on massive loads of people and suddenly this is not possible anymore by the current situation, you have a problem. Some systems will struggle after two-three months of sudden lack of income. Either they are trying to monetize remote viewings or, if coronavirus keeps pushing, "Adopt an eel" campaign will most probably follow.
Both are reasonable solutions to a problem, of course, as long as people remain informed if their video-chat data are being monetized somehow.