
ViralNova acquired for $100M, while The Dissolve shuts down - plorg
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-100-million-content-farm-thats-killing-the-internet
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tptacek
It's mostly not "superficial" versus "meaningful" content, but rather
"destination" versus "value-added" content.

The problem with The Dissolve is that you have to decide to go there to engage
with it. Most people won't do that.

Value-added content is explicitly designed to be slotted in anywhere on the
whole Internet. _Nobody_ decides to engage with that stuff; it just shows up,
like a banner ad.

~~~
bshimmin
Yeah. I loved The Dissolve every time I remembered to visit it. Sadly, that
really wasn't very often. Even as a fan of cinema, _and_ of the sort of cinema
that The Dissolve often used to write about, there wasn't much to remind me of
the site's existence.

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yborg
Even if it was intended #irony, the random hashtag inserts eventually made the
whole piece come off as clickbaity to me and I actually stopped reading it. I
mean, I got that you are totally hip to the ecosystem in the first paragraph,
you don't have to keep whacking me in the face with it.

~~~
dEnigma
>and I actually stopped reading it

Same here, I thought it would stop after the first ironic paragraph, but when
it went on and on I couldn't stand it any longer

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discardorama
There's a reason why the "News of the World"s of this world stick around. Take
a look at the magazine rack at any checkout lane in the US, and you'll see it
filled with such trash. Why are these people still around? _Because such baity
headlines work!_ It's no secret; they've been doing it for decades. It's not
the end of the world; just like newspapers weren't killed by them.

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doctorshady
I've been thinking about this, and the more I do, the more it feels like
there's some pretty bitter irony in the way things have gone. The internet
became popular (at least the way I see it) by offering an alternative to
mainstream content sources, and it's gradually become the very thing it seeked
to get away from.

So let's say for the purposes of arguing, between the TPP, whois privacy
potentially going away, and all the other crazy/terrible ideas out there right
now, things get really bad? Are you guys okay with starting over from square
one?

~~~
k2enemy
The irony goes beyond media content type. To me, the internet promised free
speech, a worldwide community, and freedom from oppressive governments. And
now it is well on its way to becoming one of the greatest tools for
surveillance and oppression that has ever existed.

I'm all for a fresh start.

~~~
seanp2k2
Agreed on all points, the thing is, what comes after the Internet? The answer
seems to be more Internet.

It's not too hard to get away from the social cable TV news like Facebook if
you try. The Internet is still as subculture-focused and underground as it
always was, you just have to dig a little deeper these days. There are still
phreaking groups on IRC. There are still anon remailer nets. Ham radio is
still a thing. x86 disassemblers are still useful. Soldering is still a
valuable skill.

It's just now, there are a few generations of us out there and the barriers to
entry are very low for the Internet at large. Don't give up.

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jotm
Well, you gotta remember that the big majority of people are dumber than the
remaining (no offense, that's just how it is), plus everyone craves
entertainment in a world where everyday life is just boring.

So it's no surprise that a dumb and entertaining website would be so
profitable - it appeals to a maximum number of users, most of which don't
think twice before clicking an ad or making a purchase, either...

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andy_boot
This whole story reminded me of Pratchett's The Truth. The starting up of
newspapers and William de word trying to write proper articles only to be
defeated by cut-my-own throat dibbler who invented news stories that were much
more exciting with crazy headlines but were untrue.

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cbd1984
The highbrow Internet isn't hindered in any way by the chans or the cat GIFs
or whatever the current New Media bogeyman is. The great thing about the
Internet is that it gives you infinite room to build what you want.

~~~
mortenjorck
The internet may be infinite, but VC attention and funding most certainly are
not.

~~~
pavlov
Why do you need VC attention and funding to publish film reviews?

That is, to me, the core problem in the article. It seems to suggest that
Dissolve deserved to be given money since other less worthy sites are being
acquired for millions.

That's not how the Internet works. The 20th century "highbrow" journalist
enjoyed a certain income because he had a monopoly on access to media. A
widely read newspaper only needed one film critic. But on the Web, any group
of people can start a site like Dissolve.

It's not a special privilege reserved to media elite, and that seems to annoy
the author: Dissolve had "Pitchfork credentials", which apparently implies
that it would have deserved financial success based on that association.

~~~
camillomiller
I agree. This is, unfortunately, the biggest point old media have been
delusional about. We might also add that the way old media tried to stick to
old ways of displaying advertising has contributed to fuel the current status
quo of Internet Advertising. It was their model that pretended to make every
pair of eyeballs equal, now they pretend that they shouldn't be when it comes
to content quality... It's obvious that the current page views based model of
Advertising is going towards self annihilation. In the meantime you can still
exploit it with explosive growth and cash in on that, like viral nova did in
just 2 years.

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petercooper
If you want to make some wine, there are plenty of sour grapes for the picking
here!

It's actually an enjoyable read, but the idea that a site with some _movie_
reviews on it is so much more high brow than Viralnova is hilarious. It wasn't
that long ago movies were considered the lowbrow medium and I imagine some
writer was whining about how opera was no longer getting its due.

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imaginenore
Never heard of ViralNova. Went to their website, and it looks like any other
clickbaity garbage site. I'm amazed how much the sold for.

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GeorgeKap
"[...] in a cash and stock deal that _could be worth_ as much as $100 million
if Zealot appreciates in value."

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Roboprog
Niche content makes a better hobby than a business? Or at least, such content
is best provided for secondary benefits, rather than expecting immediate
riches from ad revenue for a few occasional posts.

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ianstallings
That's basically just one big shit post. Where does he offer any ideas? It's
just a vitriolic long-winded rant that I truly don't understand.

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c_prompt
> The $100 million acquisition proves that there is no more bar for ‘quality
> content.’ Quality content is only a fraction of the equation for
> illustrating #value in a media brand. Projecting the idea of having ‘quality
> content’ might even be more important than spending money on the production
> of quality content. It’s just bad business.

> The funny thing is that Dissolve probably had everything a niche content
> farm needs to be successful.

> But you can’t really justify a ‘team’ of writers producing long content that
> doesn’t even #perform by today’s content economy standards.

> A site like ViralNova demonstrates just how a generalist content site ruined
> the web.

[rant]

Articles like this make me want to scream: "your metrics for 'quality' are
defined by your philosophy!" Your standards (metrics) are based on your
values. Your values, which are hierarchical, are based on your fundamentals.
Your fundamentals = your philosophy.

A crime boss rules his neighborhood by threatening people with violence unless
they pay extortion. He grows rich in terms of money. His large influence is
based on force. For those who fundamentally value quantity of money or
influence, by their standards, he has a quality and successful business. For
those who fundamentally value honesty or the non-aggression principle [1] in
their hierarchy of values as more important, he has a low quality and
unsuccessful business.

No, sites like ViralNova haven't ruined the web and, no, I'm not conflating
content farms and extortion. ViralNova is giving people want they want. Just
as contemporary art is a reflection of the prevailing philosophy [2], so is
ViralNova a reflection of ubiquitous standards that trends, "hotness," and
money are morally proper reflections of value in and of themselves. To
paraphrase a famous book [3], "lowbrow" content is not the root of all evil
killing the Internet. You must ask what is at the root of content. Until
people start experiencing and learning alternative philosophies, their values
won't change. If you want to change the Web and raise the intellectual "bar,"
you need to focus on the philosophies behind the metrics that define
"successful" \- not the metrics themselves.

[/rant]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
aggression_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc)

[3] [http://www.working-minds.com/money.htm](http://www.working-
minds.com/money.htm)

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mpyne
Who dreamed of a highbrow Internet, and how did they get so out of touch with
humanity in the first place?

~~~
cbd1984
> Who dreamed of a highbrow Internet, and how did they get so out of touch
> with humanity in the first place?

The people who invented it, who wanted a way for scientists to access
mainframes using a single network instead of having to use a different network
for each different big computer.

Oh, you mean scientists can still do things like that, and that cat GIFs don't
prevent it? Shut your mouth!

~~~
mpyne
> Oh, you mean scientists can still do things like that, and that cat GIFs
> don't prevent it? Shut your mouth!

If, as you indicate yourself, the Internet could still be used for science
whether or not it also delivers videos of cats, then why would scientists have
fooled themselves into thinking the Internet must be 'highbrow'?

Did they use a 'highbrow' telephone system before that? Did they use 'highbrow
paper' while the hoi polloi read their garbage dailies? No, the Internet is a
tool just as paper and telecommunications were.

What people do with that tool is up to them, but the tool itself won't raise
the nature of discourse just by being, anymore than a really nice socket
wrench will magically make the beams and struts of a building stronger.

I'm glad the title was revised again because the previous version was
practically a contradiction in terms.

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blumkvist
>it’s also a ‘technology company’ with its own content management system and
the analytic tools to find out what is going viral. They have innovative
technology that allows them to A/B test their Facebook headlines.

Such innovation. Many wow.

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mingus68040
So you mean to tell me that the pure pursuit of profit does _not_ serve the
needs of society?

