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Wow...Zero Respect from Walter Football

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Redwine4all, Jun 18, 2018.

  1. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    It really is. Back around 2007, Google started a program called Authorship that tracks the quality of writing for all journalists, writers, etc on the internet. I was still writing for Yahoo at the time plus I was writing guides for eBay and Quickbooks, which are obviously 3 sites that get tons of traffic. Because I'm a pretty good writer, Google gave me a super high authorship score and I was literally getting hourly job offers from companies all over the globe. The higher your authorship, the better your content ranked organically from day one- and people/companies abused the heck out of it. It still exists but it's no longer public info and it's not as heavy of a factor anymore.

    I even had people messaging me offering to pay me if they could post their content on their site with my name.

    For anyone in that type of industry, they realized that clicks are way more valuable than you actually enjoying the article. So if I wrote a title like "Tannehill Killed in Car Crash" and Google was already secretly promoting me behind the scenes, that article could take 1 million hits in a single day.....which makes my reputation score go through the roof. That's about the time the YouTube movement kicked off as well and it's exactly why you see so many crazy titles....clicks equal money. Now, you want to have good content to get people to subscribe but you have to realize that's a two-way street........there's way more Dolphins haters than fans (AKA, Bills Jets and Pats fans).

    So if my only job is clicks and getting people on my side, it makes financial sense for me to say the Dolphins suck and the Pats are amazing. That's the sad reality. And who knows, maybe a NE beat editor sees my stuff and offers a gig; that's a national audience so it probably pays better than anything for Miami sports. That's the mentality for most writers because it's the one that pays- you can't get a job when you continually say all the other writers out there suck because they have no idea what they're talking about. So you have to play the game to be a notable sports writer....and that's why I'm not a sports writer. LOL

    For instance, last year on this site I said Ajayi sucks because he's not hitting his assigned holes...and you guys saw how much flack I took for "disrespecting" Miami's most talented runner. If a beat journalist did that he would have a decent chance of being fired from all the hate comments that publication would receive- even if the person was 100% right. Because when we really get down to it, a lot of people don't want to hear the unblemished truth, they want to hear what they already believe.

    That's modern journalism and it's very sad; it's basically why I moved onto marketing.
     
  2. Surfs Up 99

    Surfs Up 99 Team Flores & Team Tua

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    Wow! That was excellent! I really enjoyed reading that. I can see why everyone thinks so highly of you. You have amazing writing skill!!
     
    KeyFin likes this.
  3. VanDolPhan

    VanDolPhan Club member Club Member

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    Keyfin I get you, but it's the same guys writing this time and time again. I was also just pointing out their bad grading math.
     
  4. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    And you're 100% correct- it doesn't add up. But when you're writing for a national site and mentioning the Miami Dolphins, there are 4+ teams looking at it. In fact, most of those articles are tagged at the bottom for Buffalo Bills, NY Jets, etc to get those people on the page. Remember, clicks mean money and journalists will take them absolutely any possible way they can get them to advance their careers. Pleasing you doesn't even fall into their top five priorities.

    Plain and simple, it makes more sense to write Miami articles for people that dislike us. That's true for every NFL team except maybe the Pats, the Cowboys, and whoever won the Super Bowl last, because the haters will always outnumber the fans.

    One quote I love to use is from Howard Stern's movie Private Parts. It applies to all journalism these days because of the viral aspect-being loved or hated really doesn't matter. Take a peek-

     
  5. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Thank you for the insight, Key. Its eye opening, and a real kick to the groin. I guess its something most of us will just have to keep dealing with. I'm certainly not going to stop reading about the NFL.
     
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  6. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, you definitely shouldn't- you just have to realize who's writing for the love of the Dolphins and who's out there trying to grab a headline or appease a desk editor. While we dislike most of the local Miami reporters, at least most are trying to be unbiased while giving the good and the bad. The big difference is that they're writing for the Miami audience so it's not in their best interests to stay doom and gloom like the national folks.

    As I've said a billion times over the past 5 or so years, if we sweep the Pats then the national media will fall in love with us once again. Heck, we can go 2-14 with two wins over NE and the narrative would still change, just because that makes us relevant on the big stage. Until then though, the network guys are going to look at us as a typical 8-8 team that really doesn't deserve much study- they're going to watch the teams surging upward and has the most fan interest for the year.

    For instance, nobody in New York or Minnesota cares if the Fins go 2-14 or 6-10 or 9-7...each means they aren't in the playoffs so it doesn't matter how good/bad they actually are. They don't care about hurricanes or hurt QB's ether because their national fan base isn't interested- they just want the weekly highlights and a look at their home team. But winning cures all...even in media. If we sweep the Pats (or split again) and make some noise in the playoffs, then we'll be the "darlings of the dance" with positive stuff nationwide. We will matter again because that kid in Deluth, Minnesota who doesn't really get football is paying attention to the Dolphins.

    Hopefully that helps- I never even thought to explain this stuff. The big thing to remember is that 90% of the journalists out there aren't writing for hardcore fans....their job is to entertain the casual reader. Think soccer mom who's husband is a fan- that's really the target demographic. That's why very few go into all the details that matter to us.
     
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  7. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I'm not looking for sunshine and rainbows for the Fins, though. I just want informed, level headed, unbiased and mature coverage of all 32 teams. I'm very aware that there is a notable portion of fans who are causal, and/or only care about their own team. Those people make up about 80%+ of the fans I've ever met in person. But catering to the lowest denominator is always just such a lazy, cheap and tacky move. Just wish it was better.
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2018
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  8. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    Sure, but how are you going to get a news network to cater to only 10-20% of the nation's fans? That would be like Kenmore or Whirlpool ONLY making the mack-daddy, top of the line dishwashers and refrigerators. They know they'll lose 90% of their customer base and be bankrupt in a matter of weeks. Only with the NFL, you have 32 teams to focus on instead of just one thing, so the news agency you want would have to be huge AND highly unprofitable.

    Don't get me wrong, I agree with absolutely everything you've said in this thread. That kind of coverage died with newspapers and magazines though- the free mass media online is just too popular. Your best bet would be to find 32 Travis's that are all super passionate about their teams and build a pay site for maybe $10 a month....you'd have each one as an expert on their team and vert knowledgeable about their division. You pay each writer $3k a month, let them dive deep into details, and hope that you can build up to 15k subscribers quickly so it's profitable. I mean, it's a doable business model and you'd make a lot of people very happy- but somebody is going to have to front that $100k payroll for awhile to get it started.

    I think the demand is there though- who wants to do a Kickstarter campaign and see if there's enough interest? We'd basically need 500 hardcore fans from each of the 32 teams to make it an actual business. We'd need 32 awesome writers as well, but that's probably the easy part since a lot of folks would love to be real journalists again.
     
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  9. Redwine4all

    Redwine4all Well-Known Member

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    Agree completely. But, I guess someone has to pick first. LOL. I just think a critical look at the Fins deems more than 1 - 3 wins. But we'll know soon enough.
     
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  10. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I look at Miami and see a floor of six wins , and a cap of ten. How the team plays against the teams of about the same quality will determine where they fall in that area.
     
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  11. Tin Indian

    Tin Indian Rockin' The Bottom End Club Member

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    That's kind of what I thought. Except that I hadn't considered that there is more value in the negative press than the positive.
    I just assumed it was monkey see, monkey do. This guy that doesn't really know what is going on writes a piece and everyone accepts his opinion as fact and everyone blindly follows along or uses the 1st persons article as the basis of their "research". In truth they arent paying any attention to anything going on down here or any players down here. Why else would anyone think letting Pouncey go is a "loss"? He is only a name now and nothing more and they don't see that because they don't even look.
     
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  12. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    Think about it this way- 99% of Dolphin's news pieces out there start with, "Last year Tannehill got hurt so they brought in Cutler. The team struggled and looks to bounce back from...." Just from the first paragraph, you know that it's written for someone that doesn't have a clue who the Miami Dolphins are or that they're even an NFL football team.

    Here's a good example of an "article" I was just dumb enough to read-
    Magic Johnson says he’ll resign if Lakers don’t sign elite free agents in next two years

    Basically, this entire piece is based on a Twitter quote that someone else said. The "reporter" Dan Feldman added nothing to the article, the story or anything else other than to repeat what was already said in the title. To make matters worse, Dan linked that "Magic pledged to resign" in his second sentence, which links to another article of equally crap quality. Only, once you click on it, there's no quote from Magic Johnson there at all....meaning it's not only crap journalism, it's also making up facts to support an agenda.

    By tomorrow, some other young reporter will read one of these crap articles and quote it as a source for their crap article....and the cycle goes on and on. There's not a single drop of news anywhere in these types of pieces- in the industry we call them fluff. Fluff is basically nothing- it's just a bunch of words with no real substance, and all media outlets thrive on it these days.

    Writing about what someone said is hardly a news piece but that's 99% of what floods your news feeds today. That's also why so many scream "fake news" these days- in real news, something happened and you get firsthand expert commentary. Summarizing someone's Tweet hardly qualifies as journalism but that's all we see in this "quality over quality" media age.

    It's not just the Fins folks...unfortunately it's everywhere.

    What can you do to change it? Pay attention to where the worst of those stories are appearing and stop visiting those sites completely. For instance, the fake Magic Johnson article was on Yahoo- don't read Yahoo Sports anymore! The clicks are the only thing that matters to publishers these days, so stop giving them so freely. And for God's sake, don't leave a comment on those articles because it's a positive ranking signal to Google. So even if you say it's the worst article ever, Google counts it like a thumbs up.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2018
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