That New York Times Profile
from the blatant-self-promotion dept
As some of you might have seen, this past weekend, the NY Times ran a very nice profile about me, written by Kashmir Hill. There’s not much to say about it, other than it was an interesting (if somewhat awkward-feeling) experience to be the subject of a story, rather than the journalist covering it. But Hill is an excellent reporter and spoke to a bunch of different folks for the profile (including one who kindly called me in a panic to alert me that the NY Times was “sniffing around” for what they feared was a hit piece).
“Whenever tech policy news breaks I always want to see what Mike’s take is going to be,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, in a statement. Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, has called him “insightful and reasonable.” The tech entrepreneur Anil Dash said he “shows up and ships every day” and has been “filing constantly for decades on a beat that is thankless.”
Anyway, I thought regular Techdirt readers might enjoy reading it. I’ll just note a few bits that I found amusing. First, I’m going to make use of this description any time anyone asks me what I do for a living, since I’ve always struggled with that question:
The best way to describe how he makes a living is as an intellectual gig worker, equal parts business owner, tech journalist, policy analyst, research fellow and game designer.
This description is also fun and would go on my business cards if I still had them:
“an outsider whom insiders read…”
Finally, Hill (gently) mocks Techdirt’s design:
What Mr. Masnick apparently hasn’t had time for is a redesign of his blog. A wall of text, heavy on hyperlinks, it has not evolved much since its founding.
Which… fair enough. Some day, perhaps, we’ll update the site to make it a bit more modern, though it would help if companies and policy makers just stopped doing so much stupid stuff for just a little while to let us catch our breath. (But also, every time we mention updating the site, we get comments from people afraid that we’re going to destroy it and take away the blog format — that’s unlikely to happen. We like the old school blog setup, and changes would be more about improving the site and modernizing it around the edges, rather than the entire concept — and have no fear: we won’t fill every page with unnecessary images or pivot to video or anything like that).
Anyway, if you hadn’t yet seen it, figured we’d share it here.
Filed Under: kashmir hill, mike masnick, profile
Companies: techdirt
Comments on “That New York Times Profile”
I’ll thank you. Thank you, Mike.
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I’ll thank you. Thank you, Mike.
I happen to like this old school blog format. No nonsense. Functional. Maybe I’m just old. Although…
Can I haz dark mode, pliz?
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I can agree on dark mode. Hopefully Mike will have time to get it up and running at some point.
Re: Re: Dark Reader extension
I just use the Dark Reader Chrome extension for pretty much everything. I had no idea Techdirt had a white background before today.
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If it ain’t broke, and all that.
Streisand?
What you should have done is post a very angry article here decrying it as a hit piece asking people to ignore it and see if you could have Streisand effect it to an even bigger audience.
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Brilliant. Mike can threaten to sue the New York Times for defamation and then right an article about how this Mike person is just going to make things worse for himself.
That sound you hear is antidirt, John Smith, Richard Bennett, Tero Pulkinnen, out_of_the_blue, Koby, Lostinlodos, Paul Hansmeier, Norman Zada, Colette Pelissier, Shiva Ayyadurai et al weeping salty tears that Techdirt still exists.
That New York Times Profile
I saw the headline and thought that looks interesting and was pleasantly surprised that it was about you Mke after being a reader here it really is like you are a trusted friend and so there was a little pride in reading about you and the thing that struck me was this quote
“It hasn’t paid very well, but what Mr. Masnick doesn’t have in wealth he makes up for in influence.”
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Hey, you forgot me, restless90210. I’m gonna sue for that!!
The site is perfect as-is. Anything “modern” is just worse.
“The best way to describe how he makes a living is as an intellectual gig worker, equal parts business owner, tech journalist, policy analyst, research fellow and game designer.”
Mike, you clearly forgot Google shill. Jeez, at least be honest. 🙂
Times got naywall
but the good part of the web comes thru for us: https://archive.is/CDWoI
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The New York Times’ paywall can be bypassed simply by disabling Javascript on the domain
nytimes.com. The same works for a lot of news sites.What’s wrong with the site? As macOS developer I loathe the stupid design ideas Apple has had in the last years. Techdirt is perfectly functional. Links look like links and I can find what I need.
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I guess Techdirt could get closer to modern media standards if it
I mean, it’s turn the place to S**t, but it’d look more like a “modern media site”.
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Jotting down notes here…
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Remind me not to look at the site on next April 1st in order to avoid eye cancer.
Re: Re: Re:2 April 1st
That would be a lot of work for a one day a year kind of thing, but I would love to see it. (As long as it’s just for that one day!!!)
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Some more notes:
multi page posts
“click here to continue reading”
checking that javascript is enabled before the page loads or completely breaking the site without javascript
the RSS feed is too easy to find
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The redesign should come with the “sad but true” button some have requested.
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DAMN RIGHT.
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That’s called “insightful”. How about “funny but false”? It would kind of provide a community-managed sarcasm tag. The normal “offensive” button is more like “stupid but false”.
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OR they could go bleeding edge, and have an ML algo generate (unused) CSS constantly, that a background JS script could keep pulling down while you browse the site.
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OK now that’s just evil.
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I am appalled that Apple’s screen of equal-sized and otherwise uncustomizable and unpositionable icon squares still persists in this day and age.
When will developers finally realize that different users have different likes and needs and finally let us customize and clutter our screens with as many or as few deep context menus as we please instead of letting the Star Wars Imperial interior decorator dictate the UI on our own devices?
When I dream of Web3, it is a browser setting that would tell websites to serve their usability-focused css that would pack content densely and require fewer clicks. That’s the sort of thing I would give up a few bits of privacy for.
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I am appalled that Apple’s screen of equal-sized and otherwise uncustomizable and unpositionable icon squares still persists in this day and age.
When will developers finally realize that different users have different likes and needs and finally let us customize and clutter our screens with as many or as few deep context menus as we please instead of letting the Star Wars Imperial interior decorator dictate the UI on our own devices?
When I dream of Web3, it is a browser setting that would tell websites to serve their usability css theme that would pack content densely and require fewer clicks. That’s the sort of thing I would give up a few bits of privacy for.
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Well, a tool to self-flag and remove direct duplicates might be worthwhile.
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I sometimes get a warning that I tried to post twice. I think that’s when I navigate back though. I don’t post often enough to know the triggers.
(Not those triggers)
Nonetheless, I happily look forward to the day when I can stop coming to Techdirt because you’ll have nothing to write about (you know, one of those “days that will never come” things).
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You know that even if they stop posting new stuff, you’ll continue coming by on Saturdays for 15 (or 25) years, reading the roundup of Techdirts Past.
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Yep, you got that right.
Pretty rich, coming from someone whose writing appears on one of the most obnoxious news sites out there.
(No beef at all with Ms. Hill, though. Her writing is exceptional, and always worth reading.)
Nice story!
It was great to come across that story yesterday, long overdue. Whenever tech legislation comes along I always look to see what Techdirt, Wyden, and the EFF have to say. And I quite like the site design. Cheers!
"Wall of text"
[…]
Oh God, no. I hate it when people think they know better than myself at what rate I ingest information and how to keep me entertained should my attention span wander.
Instruction videos drive me bonkers because they don’t let me skip or dwell where I need it.
A “wall of text” with paragraphs and hyperlinks/footnotes is allowing me to keep the overview over what I want to peruse, giving me the ability to dig deeper when I want it without losing that overview.
Please don’t add “modern” distractions and obstacles to techdirt.
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Agreed. No reason to modernize, just to modernize.
I have been coming here For the techdirt perspective since SOPA. I wish they would listen to you about copyright laws, ISP monopolies, and right to repair. When I occasionally write about politics, I aspire to the same careful, thorough style techdirt uses.
errors?
Whenever I have insider knowledge of the subject of an article on a ‘news’ site, I find that the vast majority of journalists make errors. So what did the NYTimes get wrong in their profile, Mike?
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I will say that there was a fairly thorough fact checking process, so I don’t think there were any actual errors. We caught a few very minor ones in the fact checking before the article went live.
But I do think the games I design are fun. So I’d push back on that point…
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Ah! Journalists who actually deign to some sort of fact checking. Unicorns, IMO 😉
Heh I saw a Mike hater in the wild… it was… odd.
What I really enjoyed was hearing how Google paid him to spike laws they didn’t like and their “proof” was an article about a stupid cryptocoin law that was so poorly worded and thought out it was going to make anyone who ever transfered a cryptocoin a mandatory reporter.
But then this asshat was replying to another asshat who was claiming that it was all a plot against 230, backpage, and the shitty anti-trafficking laws all bought and paid for by the usual boogeymen.
People sure do seem to have a lot of notions in their empty little heads, if only they could actually read the articles instead of just hallucinate what they must say because the Tech Overlords have deployed the Masnick.
Deep inside the bowels of Meta in a hidden conference room a PR team is having a damage control meeting. Zucks had mentioned his latest project where FB was collecting blood types & working on setting up organ “donations”.
The head PR person pulls out a burner and slides it over to Zucks…
We can’t fix this crazy shit… call in The Masnick!
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That’s The Masnick™, pal. Get it right, or lawsuits will be forthcoming.
Regarding the site design:
One reason for website redesigns is the self-perpetuating goal of keeping web designers employed. That, and the fact that the less information-dense you make a site, the more ads you can fit, the more scrolling people do, and therefore the more time they spend on the site. Both of these reasons are to the detriment of the user.
And then there’s the obsession with fashion, where change is seen as inherently good, if not mandatory (witness the many tech reviewers who complain if a smartphone’s design doesn’t change every year).
The reason that successful merchant sites like Amazon remain densely-packed is that it’s conducive to sales, irrespective of the aesthetics. It makes it easy on the user and it gets the job done. Like Techdirt.
As for the “wall of text,” you have paragraph breaks. Good enough for me.
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I like a wall of text. I’m used to reading books, so I know how to scan text with my eyes, not by endless scrolling.
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aka Code Monkeys. Just about the only job on the planet where one can self-justify his paycheck merely be exclaiming to the check-signer “Look, I put in even more bling!!”.
Today’s Life Lesson: DON’T FEED THE GORRAM CODE MONKEYS!!!!!
(Actually, that’s a good lesson for every day. Code Monkeys are demonstrably worse than trolls – they actively remove value from both the websites they touch, and from the overall economy.)
Oh, wait…..
Shit, another brain fart. Here, hold my beer….
In another topic (Warren and Graham want to dumb down the web), site designers will be tasked with Disneyfying the entire internet, that being the only way to keep children “safe”. That’s diametrically opposed to code monkeys being tasked to generate more bling. The only winner of that battle? AI designers. You read it here first, folks.
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Did someone say Code Monkey?!?!?
https://ironcurtain.bandcamp.com/album/code-monkey
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No, but sumgai did, he he he he…..
Re: Re: Objection, y'honour!
As a full-time & long-time code monkey, I object to your characterisation of code-monkeys as being the source of constant change for changes sake. We are the last ones to want to make spurious changes to any system or website! That means work, and testing and risk. And if we’re lucky, we’ll have something resembling a ghost of a specification for the changes!
It’s the bl**dy business analysts and marketing droids who keep wanting to change things, “to keep them fresh”. Ugh.
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…“blendy”?
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Sorry, but I’m not buying it. I’ve been on both ends of that argument, and the Indian sub-continent is not in the habit of teaching people how to manage coders, their in the habit of teaching people the bare minimum of how to assemble bits and pieces into a near-facsimile of a properly coded webpage/website.
For a no-amount-of-alcohol-can-fix-your-brain-afterwards look at what a large number of these “graduated” imbeciles can wreak on the internet, you need look no further than The Daily WTF. I’ve been reading, and occasionally contributing to, them since shortly after they started. A follow-on site named Coding Horror is also a good choice for replacing your nightmares about #45 with examples of terrible coding practices.
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Well, our designer is in house and does lots of other important work (why we haven’t had time to redesign) so there’s no fear of employment issues there.
Yeah. We’re definitely not going in that direction.
But there are some improvements we can make for usability/readability… Nothing extreme.
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Yes, NYT writes glowing reviews of Leftist activists all the time, actually.
Congrats, you’re the Greta Thunberg of tech journalism.
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lmao you think that’s a bad thing
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I think literally only idiots could think it’s a good thing.
That may indeed include….basically the entire Left. It’s sad, really.
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You think it’s a bad thing that a young woman is willing to commit acts of civil disobedience in furtherance of a noble sociopolitical cause?
I’m guessing you have nothing but good things to say about Rosa Parks and MLK.
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Let me summarize your persona here on TD:
Hi! I’m Matthew M Bennet, I make sweeping generalizations based on things I invent out of thin air or taken out of context. I support the right to post CSAM on social media if the intent is something I like. I also have no clue how case-law works and I’ll happily quote things out of context thinking it proves me right. I’ll also make shit up about people I don’t like and I will refuse to back my arguments up with facts, usually I will give you some bad excuse like “I can’t be bothered, go fuck yourself”. I have no problems making myself look like a total idiot in my effort to defend anything Musk does, regardless how stupid and reprehensible it is.
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You forgot a few things, like “And when pushed into a corner, I will physically threaten to shoot you because my side has all the guns.”
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You also forgot to include “I like making personal threats towards Techdirt readers that exhibit some level of brain-power greater than mine, all the way from fucking them full-on, to just plain ol’ shooting them where they stand. Depends on the time of day, and how long since I last got my jollies.”
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Please remind me again where the actual leftists, aka, THE COMMUNISTS, are again?
Because there’s no Communist power bloc ANYWHERE in the world.
Re: Re: Re: You’re more pathetic than sad really
That may indeed include….basically the entire Left. It’s sad, really“
Accusation= confession
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If you think Masnick is the Greta Thunberg equivalent… do you fancy yourself to be the Andrew Tate in this equation, Matthew?
It would certainly explain all the small dick energy emanating from your corner of the ring. The upside is, you’ll have to be arrested some time soon. Shouldn’t be hard with all the Musk-CSAM advocacy hill you seem intent to die on!
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[Projects facts contrary to copious evidence]
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That’s not quite the insult you think it is, MMB.
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She’s too old for Bratty Marty, defender of CSAM
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Your seething, ugly, jealousy over someone who has made you look like a fool getting some truly positive praise and recognition is noted, Matthew.
What a pathetic life you lead, always trying to tear down people smarter, more knowledgeable, and well respected, while you sit in the corner hoping one day Elon might smile at you.
Interesting. Clicked on the link and was told I’d reached my limit of free articles on the NYT site. Which is strange because I’ve never gone to the NYT site while here at work. So, tried it on my phone using my mobile data. Same result.