Saturday, April 02, 2005
Tacitus Has Gone Downhill
I'm not sure what's happening at Tacitus. They went through a rebuild of the site with a different layout. Tacitus provides few articles now, leaving the bulk to his contributors ("stringers"?). But the contributors' article are relegated to a single headline on the right column with a link. Maybe I would have set it up differently, but that is the lesser of my concerns with the site.
My primary criticism is the contents - more specifically, the lack thereof.
Example 1
Headline:Example 2
Jerk!
Content:
By Bernard Guerrero, Section Diary
Posted on Fri Apr 1st, 2005 at 03:16:53 PM EST
Via The Volokh Conspiracy.
[The last line is a link.]
Headline:Example 3
Lefty Thugs Escalating Frequency of Attacks Against Free Speech
Content:
By hunter, Section Diary
Posted on Fri Apr 1st, 2005 at 08:59:27 AM EST
Leftwing politically inspired violence seems to be on the rise. When will it escalate to throwing more than pies and salad dressing?
[followed by a link]
Headline:Example 4
Michael Schiavo Celebrates
Content:
By hunter, Section Diary
Posted on Thu Mar 31st, 2005 at 08:08:14 AM EST
Terri has died.
Headline:Example 5
Pope is going out on a high note
Content:
By Timmy, Section Diary
Posted on Fri Apr 1st, 2005 at 07:05:53 PM EST
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,008 adult Americans, including 241 Catholics, found 78 percent held a favorable view of the ailing pontiff, while 11 percent held an unfavorable view of him.
If you are wondering about the 11%, just read the comments here
[The sentence referring to the poll is a link.]
Headline:
India rebuffs US over arms sales
Content:
By ebclimber, Section Diary
Posted on Fri Apr 1st, 2005 at 11:02:14 AM EST
After the US sold F16's to Pakistan last month we offered to sell F16's and F18's to India. They did not react as expected.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0401/dailyUpdate.html
Possible future scenario -- China and India aligned against the US?
This isn't writing; this is laziness. I noticed this trend when I clicked on the Schiavo article. In each article page cited above there is far more content from many of the individual comments that follow, trying to flesh out the sad start. Not all the articles are "constructed" in this manner, but I found these five links without browsing through half of them.
Now, maybe my memory ain't what it used to be. But it seems to me that contributors to Tacitus' old site made an effort to present a point of view with substantiation. I typically disagreed, but at least there was something to consider and discuss.
Tacitus, you need to impose better standards upon your contributors.
