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Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

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Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

#41

Post by jhs »

barrkel wrote: post #23

I listen to No Agenda (JCD & Adam Curry) primarily for entertainment value. My gf and I spend quite a few minutes every week mocking their ignorance. The political stuff is blatantly biased and the faux naive outrage is annoying to the point that I skip most of it, especially the clips. The H1N1 coverage is actually rather an antidote to hysteria - they don't think it's as serious as all that - the hysteria more rela…

I'm in a similar situation. My favorite podcast is The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, which follows in the footsteps of Houdini and Sagan, applying critical thinking to life.

Still, even though No Agenda is basically the complete opposite, I just can't stop listening. There's something about it.

Also, Dvorak is a columnist, people, not a journalist. There is a difference.

Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

#42

Post by quizbiz »

tjogin wrote: post #10
vijayr wrote: post #7

Can't the same thing be said about people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter? They twist and turn facts, drum up controversy and spread hate/fear.

Oh, definitely. But they might not be trolling on purpose; there is the off chance that they actually believe the stuff they're saying.

I can believe that Rush and Colter might, might actually believe what they spew out or ignorance or persistence or whatever reason. But Glen Beck, how he has moved from HLN to Fox, how he has pushed and pushed his book, how he puts on a show to get people to emotionally react on a news channel.

When reading/viewing any type of media always keep in mind its origin, value, purpose, and limitation. I thank my school's IB Programme for that.

Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

#45

Post by ahoyhere »

ujjwalg wrote: post #4
fallentimes wrote: post #2

Yes.

I believe he is. However, I believe a lot of news organizations/blog owners are trying to do it these days. They will have very controversial/eye catching headlines with no substance in the article to gain more traction. Dvorak is a few steps ahead, he tries to justify those headlines by pulling fake data.

Dvorak has been a professional troll since before it was popular.

Does no one remember his writing 10-15 years ago? I do. It was trollish even then. The whole "Mac continuum" hated him.

Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

#46

Post by extension »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #37

His status as a troll was cemented with his infamous anti-CSS tirade: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1987181,00.asp My favourite quote: "The first problem is the idea of "cascading." It means what it says: falling—as in falling apart. You set a parameter for a style element, and that setting falls to the next element unless you provide it with a different element definition. This sounds like a great idea until…

There actually are Web sites that mock this mess by showing the simplest CSS code and the differing results from the three main browsers and the Safari and Linux browsers.

He forgot Google

Re: Is Dvorak a Professional Troll?

#47

Post by blasdel »

jganetsk wrote: post #11
nostrademons wrote: post #8

Most journalists are. If they weren't, nobody would pay attention to them, and if nobody pays attention to them, they don't make any money. (Ergo, they can't be a professional without being a troll...)

The difference is that Dvorak is little more than a troll.

The difference is that he's good at it
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