John Gruber jumps the shark • Hacker News Board

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#11

Post by jroes » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:05 PM UTC

gjm11 wrote: post #7

niceguy101 wrote: post #4

From the comments: 'Gruber even edits his posts without disclosing it. I saw him call Apple's decision to ban an app as a "nameless individual App Store reviewer" fault and not Apple's!' The irony is that Gruber's fame originates from the outrage related to his app rejection.

> The irony is that Gruber's fame originates from the outrage related to his app rejection. Huh? Gruber's fame, such as it is, originates from the fact that for years he has been writing a blog filled with mostly-Apple-related stuff that lots of people (mostly Apple users) like reading. Daring Fireball has been a big noise in Apple-land since before there even was an App Store.

He also did Markdown.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#12

Post by mtts » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:09 PM UTC

ubernostrum wrote: post #5

commandar wrote: post #3

"It was probably an off-hand comment, but it speaks volumes about where John's current psyche is. He said: iPhone critics have seldom let facts get in their way." That line actually bothered me too, but for me it was triggered by John's recent decision to start attacking Android for somehow using private APIs on the sly because he couldn't be bothered to A. understand the basic architecture of Android (those pesky fa…

I guess I take it a bit differently -- the stuff he's usually responding to is from "respected industry commentators" like Rob Enderle or Paul Thurrott and, well, the record kinda speaks for itself. Mainstream coverage tends to pretty consistently publish a lot of things which are flat-out not true (e.g., the oft-repeated claim that iPods can only play music purchased from the iTunes store). And, for better or worse,…

I'm under the impression that the amount of writing about other tech writers on Daring Fireball has increased during the last few months at the expense of writing about, well, tech.

Which makes the site less pleasant to read for me.

And in a sense it's "jumping the shark" - having run out of ideas, the John Gruber show is starting to fill episodes with unlikely, contrived subplots that have nothing to do with the original premise of the show, which was to write, in depth, about Apple products.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#13

Post by sounddust » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:13 PM UTC

The author writes an entire article accusing Gruber of failing to follow his assumptions to a truthful conclusion without giving a single example of him doing so.

I think that there's a lot of criticism toward Gruber because his opinions are not a carbon-copy of the unified public geek opinion that you'd see on a site like Slashdot. I think it's refreshing to see a solitary source of Apple commentary in which the author actually attempts to understand Apple's motivations rather than blindly lambast them. Gruber is not afraid to criticize Apple (I've read dozens of criticisms of the app store approval process, for example).

And that's always been his attitude: The opinions from someone who is a long-time fan of Apple products and does not instantly overreact to every news story about them like most tech sites. You can't accuse someone of jumping the shark for consistently doing what they've been doing for years.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#14

Post by scottmagdalein » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:18 PM UTC

Bloviating waste of time.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#15

Post by npp » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:19 PM UTC

Gruber does approach technology from a pro-Apple viewpoint, but many of his articles are at least organized around verifiable facts, though some may argue with his opinions or conclusions. In most (though not all) Gruber articles, it is at least not hard to tell which part is the facts he started with and which part is the opinion that some may disagree with. This is so basic, but most blogs are a complete muddle.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#16

Post by eli » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:20 PM UTC

If you're going to accuse someone of writing weak arguments, you should probably make sure that your own argument is really well supported.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#17

Post by watty » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:20 PM UTC

One Apple blogger accusing another Apple blogger of being a fanboi? Does this really need to be top of HN?

Edit: Can you at least reply when you down vote? I know this was voted to the top of HN so it deserves to be there.

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#18

Post by isleyaardvark » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:22 PM UTC

It was probably an off-hand comment, but it speaks volumes about where John's current psyche is. He said:

iPhone critics have seldom let facts get in their way.

It does say a lot about John's thinking. He's thinking that there is a lot of criticism of the iPhone is not based on facts. Not only did he link to an earlier article that very day that had 10 reasons not to buy an iPad that Gruber says got 9 out of 10 reasons factually wrong (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/03/warman), but the very same article that quote appears in discusses misconceptions about the iPhone that are factually wrong. (Can I load my own videos and music on it, or only stuff I buy from Apple?)

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#19

Post by noonespecial » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:26 PM UTC

raganwald wrote: post #2

Nit: "Jumped the shark" or "Jumping the Shark" does not mean "Has started to suck." It's a specific subset of suckage where the subject is clearly aware that they have no new ideas and resorts to ever-more desperate tricks to try to appear fresh and new.

I know (especially by the quick upvotes) that you are preaching to the choir here, but I have noticed a lot of non-thechnical, non-geek, never-even-heard-of-happy-days types beginning to use this phrase (incorrectly) just in the past few months. I've given up explaining who the Fonz is and just accepted this new reality.

Once a meme goes mainstream, the primary idiom dilutes with use until its just a curios catch phrase.

I just nod, smile and go to my happy place where there's a guy water-skiing in a leather jacket...

Re: John Gruber jumps the shark

#20

Post by niceguy101 » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 1:27 PM UTC

gjm11 wrote: post #7

niceguy101 wrote: post #4

From the comments: 'Gruber even edits his posts without disclosing it. I saw him call Apple's decision to ban an app as a "nameless individual App Store reviewer" fault and not Apple's!' The irony is that Gruber's fame originates from the outrage related to his app rejection.

> The irony is that Gruber's fame originates from the outrage related to his app rejection. Huh? Gruber's fame, such as it is, originates from the fact that for years he has been writing a blog filled with mostly-Apple-related stuff that lots of people (mostly Apple users) like reading. Daring Fireball has been a big noise in Apple-land since before there even was an App Store.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info. I came to know about the site after that app rejection. Thought the site came into light after that issue. My bad.