Announcing Disputations

9.64K

Max Read

06/30/14 08:57AM

Campfire is a useful tool for editorial work and link-sharing but it's also a time sink and a trap.

Starting today I am going to start kicking people out of Campfire for 24-hour periods if they use it to argue about food, cities, music, movies, news, politics, or anything else that is smart (or at least funny) enough that it should appear on our website.

If you have stuff you want to talk about that doesn't have a direct editorial function, take it here, to Disputations.

Everyone on our masthead is an author who can start posts and comment. There are no rules to Disputations posts. They don't need headlines or art. They don't need to be current or newsy or interesting to anyone besides yourself. They will not be shared over to the front page (necessarily). You are not obligated to approve or star comments, or encourage outsiders, or invite people (though go ahead if you feel like it). The next time you have a link or a joke or an argument that you would otherwise drop into Campfire or put on Twitter, put it here instead.

20

JOE MACLEOD Max Read 06/30/14 10:20AM

Dear Disputations,

I know it is early days yet with the new Disputations blog "vertical," but I am writing in to observe that so far only two individuals—Hamilton Nolan: "New Jersey— bullshit state" (Disputations, 45 minutes ago), and Taylor Berman: "No one will check Disputations (Disputations, 25 minutes ago)—are resonating with the "disputation" idea, to wit, debate or argument.

This blog currently appears to be some sorta new channel for needling the Editor of Gawker, but maybe that is the normal Initial Stage in the peristalsis of Editorial edicts at The Gawker.

I am not on the Masthead so I would not presume to offer a dispute for Disputations, but I believe I speak for a qualified majority of consumers of GAWKCO product when I wish everyone here at Disputations great success with this enterprise, and, as I check in from time to time, I hope Disputations blossoms into a fulfilling and exhaustive exercise and worthy intellectual pursuit.

Thank you,

Joe MacLeod, Kinja user Level Zero

1

Max Read JOE MACLEOD 06/30/14 10:21AM

Thank you for your well-wishes, Joe.

2

Rich Juzwiak Max Read 06/30/14 09:29AM

Is this because we laughed too much?

Max Read Rich Juzwiak 06/30/14 09:31AM

You could never laugh enough for me, Rich.

2

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 09:21AM

The main problem with this is that no one will check Disputations because there's no way to notify us all when there's a new comment.

1

Max Read Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:25AM

Well, that means less distraction from our actual jobs. What was the last time you needed to be alerted to something that happening in Campfire, in the sense that it was of actual importance with respect to the site itself?

(You can also pretty easily "follow" all of your coworkers (or the ones whose posts you want to see) and then check http://YOURSCREENNAME.kinja.com/private/follow… It'll show you all their latest posts.)

1

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 09:57AM

I guess I don't think of Campfire as a distraction. I feel like conversations without initial direct ties to anything editorial-related have led to a lot of funny ideas and posts (plus lets us interact with co-workers in a sort of normal-ish way—good for our morale!). And it seems like regularly refreshing Disputations would be at least as distracting/time wasting as checking in on Campfire every now and again, and much less efficient. I do think we should publish more of our bickering/dumb commentary somewhere, but an outright ban on non-business Campfire chats seems excessive.

2

Max Read Taylor Berman 06/30/14 10:14AM

Well—you manage to produce at a high rate while also hanging out in Campfire constantly. Not everyone can do that. Consider also that Funny Campfire Guy Taylor Berman is very different from Gawker Writer Taylor Berman. There's a portion of you, your intelligence, and your character that currently exists only in a locked, private space. It's a huge waste to keep so much ability in a place where only Lacey and Caity and I can see and enjoy. The same goes for everyone who works here.

But, look, the point of Disputations—one of them, at any rate—is to create a semi-public space for "conversations without initial direct ties to anything editorial-related" that can turn into ideas and posts. We can do all the same fun stuff here that we do in Campfire, but it's no longer a time waste.

J.K. Trotter Max Read 06/30/14 10:40AM

I wonder if we could get something like Live.Gizmodo.com rejiggered for this vertical. I certainly like the idea of Disputations, and the execution isn’t bad, but I think a big part of Campfire’s appeal is the absence of (technological) friction. You just type or paste—no need to make a new post or whatnot.

1

Max Read J.K. Trotter 06/30/14 10:47AM

Yeah, that's a really good point (and a good question). I'm inviting Ben Regenspan by to see what he says/thinks.

This partly gets at the heart of what Kinja is, and what it's doing—is it more like a message board, or more like a social media platform, or more like blog software?—and those kinds of questions are sort of above my pay grade. But if Disputations works the way I expect, it might help us answer some of them anyway.

3

Ben Regenspan Max Read 06/30/14 10:52AM

This is also above my pay grade! I'm roping in Lauren to see what she thinks about continued use of liveblog tool for this. It hasn't been updated much in awhile (and I'm not sure what the roadmap is for it), but it might just work.

3

Lauren Bertolini Ben Regenspan 06/30/14 10:58AM

The live blog tool is a bit of a hack to be totally honest, we have to turn it post-by-post and we typically forget about it until someone mentions that they need it for something. BUT, integrating what makes it feel fun (it updates live and without you needing to refresh) into Kinja is something that is on our yet-to-be-published road map.

We're having a meeting about this part of the road map on Wednesday, I'll see what the powers-that-be have to say.

1

Max Read Lauren Bertolini 06/30/14 11:02AM

Cool news!

3

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 09:07AM

What about lunch discussions?

1

Max Read Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:08AM

Do you mean discussions about what we're going to have for lunch, or general thoughts about lunch foods/Wednesday lunch options?

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 09:08AM

About what we're going to have for lunch.

2

Lacey Donohue Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:08AM

What do you have to say about lunch today?

2

Taylor Berman Lacey Donohue 06/30/14 09:09AM

I was thinking chicken fingers or a fried chicken sandwich.

Max Read Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:10AM

Let's do it in Disputations and see what happens.

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 09:13AM

Okay, but Jim Cooke will never know when people are ordering now.

Max Read Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:15AM

Jim can read Disputations just like everyone else! Also we can still IM him like we have to do anyway.

Lacey Donohue Taylor Berman 06/30/14 09:16AM

How about chicken without breading? How do you feel about that?

1

Max Read Lacey Donohue 06/30/14 09:21AM

Kinja can do a lot but it can't make Taylor healthy

1

Taylor Berman Max Read 06/30/14 12:00PM

There's no science that proves "breading" on chicken is bad for you.