Thursday, December 20, 2007

Passion in High Places


I must confess: the refreshing directness of this article's editorial slant got me to read it. How could anyone not break out a smile at CBS Reverts To Form, Begins Destruction Of Startrek.com? I can only imagine the internal battle that the author must have been waging. Do I even attempt to adhere to some sort of journalistic objectivity? But they're doing this to my people! Don't I have the right to throw out all pretense at neutrality given the immensity of the evil that is being perpetrated here?

First, and interestingly, it looks like the “so long and thanks for all the fish” news item posted by the StarTrek.com editorial team has been replaced with a “hey, keep the conversation going in our forums” post. In fact, that original post has been purged from the archives. Really tacky, CBS, really tacky. Also, worst first paragraph ever (one ‘loper notes, “It sounds like Dilbert’s boss wrote it”):

CBS Interactive, which oversees StarTrek.com, is reorganizing the way it does business to align the division’s workforce with its new vision that focuses on building communities online.

You lost me at “align the division’s workforce, blah, blah, blah”. Yeah, CBS, you know your audience.

By the way, if you’re going to focus on building community, you might want to brush up on the notion of authenticity. The entire success or failure of an online community is dependent upon authenticity. The above paragraph demonstrates, most unfortunately, the total lack of authentic voice. Most lawyers aren’t good at writing. Just a thought.

Coincidentally, a passing reference to Trekkers or Trekkies led me to discover this gem.

And yes, I'm a little bored. I've had so little time to write lately that I'm intoxicated by the opportunity to just string words together. I'll be more coherent soon, I hope. In the meantime, enjoy!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

John -- Just wanted you know (g), that I didn't wage even a moment of internal war. CBS has made more than a few blunders over the past several years -- for each step forward in their new media strategy, they seem to take three steps backward. And while the firing of the Star Trek team was indeed close to home, it's also indicative of a company that doesn't fully understand the media it's trying to exploit. I don't think you can miss with this franchise, but if anyone can take a silk purse and destroy it, my money's on CBS!

Of course, as may be obvious from my Trekkie/Trekker comment, I'm not a particular fan of the series. I always worry that I'll choose the wrong descriptor.

John-D Borra said...

Point taken. My money's on CBS too. How they manage, I'll never know. Here's to another year of "building communities online"! ;-)