
Google Is Butchering The Written Word, or “How to Buy PEX Tubing Online” - blasdel
http://www.wagsrevue.com/Issue_5/index.php#/81
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philwelch
If it wasn't for the fact that this site has the single most annoying
pagination scheme ever, or the fact that this author feels compelled to write
long, distracting, inane footnotes, or the fact that even in the main text the
author feels compelled to write long, distracting, inane asides, I might have
had the patience to read more than two "pages" of this.

EDIT: Apparently he gets all the way from page 81 to 89 to start expressing
his main point: SEO is changing writing styles for the worse. I'll refrain
from commenting about whether this guy has any standing criticizing other
people's writing style.

~~~
madair
It's not perfect, needs some testing on smaller screens, and isn't my favorite
color, so I'll write another single-sentence paragraph to tear it down and
ditto the travesty that is experimentation and originality, and, we shall see
for hopefully the author will drop by and get to see that I thought he sux and
will fix all the things I don't like about his writing and page turning
mechanics and all such productive endeavors, and then the world will truly be
a better place, _for I have made the other into me_.

(Sarcastically said, even while I cringe as I think of all such hit jobs that
I have done in my lifetime)

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krschultz
It feels to refreshing to read an essay that gets away from the "blog" style
of writing. There are few writers on the internet and a lot of people writing
articles. The articles often make great points and have excellent content but
rarely is reading them fun for the sake of reading.

~~~
dspeyer
Your mileage may vary I guess. I found it obnoxious, dense and far too in love
with itself. When I hadn't found a point by the second page (with no obvious
indication of how long it was going to ramble) I gave up.

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blasdel
A PDF version, for those so inclined:
<http://www.wagsrevue.com/Download/Issue_5/Litton.pdf>

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blahedo
Best is the comment on his shambolic PEX article that he quotes in footnote
#15:

"Finally, someone has succinctly and clearly articulated this process. Buying
pex tubing online has never been easier - thanks!"

 _shudder_

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gojomo
The nut graf is 8 'pages' in:

 _That is to say, the AdSense program makes possible an entirely new and
utterly despicable business model online: get an assload of written content
together—quality be damned—distribute it across a bunch of different sub pages
of a central site, add AdSense at every turn, and voilà—a healthy revenue
stream fully formed from the head of Zeus._

The essayist is a former Demand Media pieceworker feeling guilty about the
useless crap writing he did for them, including "How to Buy PEX Tubing
Online". He reworks an old Michael Caine quote to good effect:

 _Ah, fuck all. Your essayist’s name will be attached to that rubbish in
perpetuity, for anyone and everyone to stumble upon online. He wishes he could
be like Michael Caine in regards to his role in Jaws IV: “I’ve never seen it.
I hear that it’s awful. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it
is terrific.” The closest your essayist can come: “I have seen it. I bloody
well wrote it. And the Subway sandwich and 12-pack of Miller High Life it
purchased were mediocre at best.”_

