Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to Andre Alessi,
I don't mean to question the value of inclusive language generally, but I do think it's important to make that distinction between that and merely "speaking for" as another kind of empty rhetorical device intended to win arguments on the internet, or to police communities into being less inclusive rather than moreso by excluding people who aren't aware of the specific terms used to talk inclusively.
I think you've said it for me and I can move on ...
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I suggested that Sky employing Tony O’Brien as a full-time lobbyist representing their interests in Parliament was a case of “unusual influence” in NZ politics (deflecting potential regulation of Sky’s monopoly position, for example).
This kind of lobbying is something that Sky has done for a long time. They've never been shy about putting the frighteners on MPs.
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Up Front: Life on Mars, in reply to Jolisa,
I just got my copy of the SlutWalk Listener… and wanted to congratulate Emma for her excellent points, extremely well made. Anyone who picked up that issue just hoping for a quick “phwoar” or a giggle would have gotten an eyeful, all right – of cogent, powerful argument. Nice one, well done.
Indeedy. That's a very successful magazine story.
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to giovanni tiso,
“Blind spot” could be construed as ableist only by Peripheral Vision Man, surely. And owls.
I feel bound to say that the person who who tried to shut down my argument by condemning my ableist metaphor would earn a lively response. I’ve spent 20 years living with profound difference as a fact of family life, and having that real experience cheapened and turned into a point-scoring vocabulary game would quite probably cause me to lose my temper.
Indeed, I did see someone do precisely that in a blog argument recently, and my thought was you’re bloody lucky you didn’t say that to me.
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to Lilith __,
Given that I fixed that typo in less than 30 seconds, you'd think I'd get away with it.
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to Stephanie,
I’ve noticed that I only comment when people talk about lurkers – pretty sure this was the last time I commented, ooh, about 4 years ago. I’m the archetypal lurker. I’d offer myself as a research subject but I’m too busy lurking to answer any research questionnaires.
But what if someone really, really needed to know whether you are a chief household shopper?
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to recordari,
Had to go back a page to catch up. It’s not generally like that here, but the editorial oversight committee has some pretty big props apostrophe but even my years as an EFL teacher didn’t prepare me for the high standard of prose encountered here for the most part.
And people like me and a few others, who can write really quickly. I can see how that's all daunting. And also that there's a performance element to commenting here.
But I'm really proud of people like the artist Steven Crawford, who came in here dyslexic and struggled to express himself well on some sensitive (not least to him) topics. It used to take him ages to craft a one-paragraph post. He got in some scrapes. But he gradually got pretty bloody good at the kind of writing that goes here. I'm impressed by that.
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to James Butler,
The copyright of all the code I write is owned by my employer, as it should be – I mean seriously, what would I do with it? Optimize supply chains at home in my spare time?
I'm saying you're just the crazy kind of guy who's gonna do that.
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Righto: need to go and clean the kitchen and make dinner, albeit of the here's-a-curry-I-prepared-earlier style.
I'm quite enjoying having a, er, safe place talking about some of the recent feminist blogosphere things. And I feel bound to say that in particular Queen of Thorns has a dazzling, intelligent prose style, but it's wasted on a bad-faith style of debate; all that special-vocabulary-as-weapon stuff, and strawman hyperbole about what people have said. She could be way better than that. Sayin'.
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to James Butler,
But what we have built is a system in which the rights are exercised by the trolls, and I’m not sure how it could be fixed.
That's a good way of putting it.
But it's still reasonable to ask the rights owners sector to get its act together when it comes to facilitating use. Half the reason we see so few great BBC documentaries here (and the reason the BBC wasn't able to name a fee for The Virtual Revolution to be screened at NetHui -- TVNZ 7 changed its schedule instead!) is cost of sale. The Beeb has an excellent annual deal for unlimited use of music -- not everyone else does, so it's quite a job clearing stuff.
Sometimes, even when they try, stuff doesn't get cleared. Prime example: The international version of The Seven Ages of Rock doesn't include the best thing in the entire series -- Hendrix, newly arrived in London, getting invited by Cream to play support, then utterly upstaging the headliners by finishing with his incredible version of 'Sunshine of Your Love'.
Thank goodness for my auntie with her VHS recorder.