Top News:
New York Times:
Trump has integrated Twitter into the fabric of his administration, reshaping the presidency with 11,000+ tweets while in office, lately posting even more often — With a single tweet last fall, Mr. Trump sent his administration into a tailspin. “I must, in the strongest of terms …
Discussion:
New York Times, @mmcintire, @mcquillan_ruth, @porpentina2017, The Independent, @mmcintire, @timothynoah1, @katzish, @nytimes, Politico, @connieschultz, @tonyposnanski, @sarahfrier, @kadrigursel, @nytimes, @nytimes, @brianstelter, @maggienyt, @maggienyt, @davidklion, @mmcintire, @timobrien, @amaramarasingam, Raw Story and New York Post, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Mike McIntire / @mmcintire: 1/ NEW: We examined each of President Trump's 11,000+ tweets (so you don't have to) and the ways he finds things on Twitter. What we discovered was alarming. w/ @karenyourish @larrybuch https://www.nytimes.com/...
@mcquillan_ruth: NY Times comprehensive analysis of all Donald Trump's tweets - if you still doubt we are living in a post-truth, reality TV dystopia, this will change your mind https://www.nytimes.com/...
Porpentina / @porpentina2017: Take away for me from this article: Donald may or may not know that he RT bots, Russians, extremists, Q accounts, or just plain whack jobs. Regardless, there's a concerted effort to help him spread conspiracy theories & use others as a “punching bag”. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Joe Sommerlad / The Independent: Donald Trump ‘needs to tweet like we need to eat’, says Kellyanne Conway
Mike McIntire / @mmcintire: “Boom. I press it and, within two seconds, ‘We have breaking news.’” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Timothy Noah / @timothynoah1: “A conservative analysis by the Times found that nearly a third of [Trump's Twitter followers], about 22 million, included no biographical information and used the service's default profile image—two signs that the accounts may be rarely used or inactive.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Amanda Katz / @katzish: You think you know Trump and Twitter, but this NYT analysis has so many crazy stats and details—like Scavino printing out proposed tweets in giant fonts, or the fact that Trump thinks high tweet engagement—often a sign people are horrified—means support for the content. https://twitter.com/...
@nytimes: Of the attack tweets identified in our analysis, nearly half were sent between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., hours that President Trump spends mostly without advisers present. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Blake Hounshell / Politico: POLITICO Playbook: Robert Mueller's long tail
Connie Schultz / @connieschultz: “[N]ew data analysis and previously unreported details, offers the most comprehensive view yet of a virtual world in which the president spends significant time mingling with extremists, impostors and spies.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Tony Posnanski / @tonyposnanski: I didn't need the New York Times to tell me this. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier: Imagine spending your days in a closet-sized room off of the Oval Office, waiting for the president to beckon you by shouting your last name. All so you can tweet for him. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Kadri Grsel / @kadrigursel: Triumph of great journalism. Read that perfect, methodological research presented in an impeccably written article on how @realDonaldTrump uses #Twitter to generate power by deepening polarization and distrust in society. https://twitter.com/...
@nytimes: President Trump's tweets have helped spread a culture of suspicion and distrust of facts into the political mainstream. See how conspiracy-mongers, racists and spies have influenced what he absorbs and amplifies on Twitter. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@nytimes: Early on, aides wanted to restrain President Trump's Twitter habit, even considering asking the company to impose a 15-minute delay on his tweets. That didn't happen. A barrage of personal attacks, bombast and outrage over more than 11,000 tweets did. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: The NYT is out with a huge new feature about Trump and Twitter. One part looks “inside the alternate reality of President Trump's Twitter account, where he absorbs and amplifies a noxious stream of disinformation.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Maggie Haberman / @maggienyt: In the Oval Office, an annoyed President Trump ended an argument he was having with his aides. He reached into a drawer, took out his iPhone and threw it on top of the historic Resolute Desk: “Do you want me to settle this right now?” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Maggie Haberman / @maggienyt: “The aides seek to cultivate the image of a man who understands ‘regular people.’ Mr. Trump's team believes that his unvarnished writing, poor punctuation and increasing profanity on Twitter signals authenticity — a contrast to” his rivals' feeds. https://www.nytimes.com/...
David Klion / @davidklion: Gonna start doing this when I get into arguments IRL, as part of a project to lose all my friends https://twitter.com/...
Mike McIntire / @mmcintire: @karenyourish @larrybuch 7/ This story is part of a package. Here's a great piece that dissects how Trump's tweeting has reshaped governing and how his aides initially tried to stop @shearm @maggieNYT @nickconfessore @karenyourish @larrybuch @collinskeith https://www.nytimes.com/...
Tim O'Brien / @timobrien: “By retweeting suspect accounts, seemingly without regard for their identity or motives, he has lent credibility to white nationalists, anti-Muslim bigots and obscure QAnon adherents like VB Nationalist.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Amarnath Amarasingam / @amaramarasingam: “Trump has retweeted at least 145 unverified accounts that have pushed conspiracy or fringe content” to his 66 million followers. “Trolls and fringe elements quickly figured out that the best way to reach Trump is to appeal to his ego.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
The debate over Facebook's political ads policy has been too US-centric and the company hasn't explained how that policy will work in other countries — What do Zuckerberg's bromides about American values mean to Facebook users in Kashmir or the Philippines? — @juliacarriew Email
Discussion:
Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review: Facebook, free speech, and political ads
@axios: Top Republicans are privately worried about a new threat to President Trump's campaign: the possibility of Facebook pulling a Twitter and banning political ads. https://www.axios.com/...
Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life: There are no easy answers when it comes to the questions of how social media companies should balance impact of free speech. Twitter's ban of political ads which was lauded as easy answer has goal posts moved since argument now doing this hurts activists https://onezero.medium.com/...
Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi: Twitter's Ban on Political Ads Will Hurt Activists, Labor Groups, and Organizers by @WillOremus https://onezero.medium.com/... // Seemingly simple and popular choices rarely represent a workable solution. Here are some of the issues.
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: I'm not saying that Facebook single-handedly killed democracy in the Phillippines, India and Poland. I'm asking FB to respond to questions about how its policies will work in countries beside the US. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Mathew Ingram / @mathewi: The debate over Facebook's political ads ignores 90% of its global users https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Judd Legum / @juddlegum: This column by @juliacarriew criticizes some of my reporting on Facebook as too focused on the United States but you should read it because it is very good column. https://twitter.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: Harbath's team helped Duterte harness FB to win election in the Philippines. He's gone on to jail journalists. Meanwhile FB exec Campbell Brown says, “It should be the role of the press to dissect the truth or lies found in political ads - not engineers” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie: Look at the intersection of the rise of authoritarians globally and disinformation around elections brought to you bespoke via Facebook. I'm about to go bang pots and pans in the street, so please read my pinned thread so I don't have to. https://twitter.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: It's impossible not to notice that democracy has been severely degraded under regimes that Facebook's election team helped achieve power. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: The debate over political ads on Facebook has entirely ignored the more than 90% of FB users that do not live in the United States. I've asked FB again and again to comment on how it's policy will work in non-democratic countries. They have ignored me. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: The reaction to FB staffer Katie Harbath's role in this controversy is a perfect example of this US-centric myopia. Harbath's history working for the GOP is treated as a minor conspiracy by liberal pundits. Much more interesting is her actual work for FB. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie: You see? This is a feature, not a bug. His campaign and election were absolutely rotten with disinfo https://twitter.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: Harbath's team helped Modi become the most popular politician on Facebook. Yesterday Modi dissolved the constitution of Kashmir, where the internet has been blocked for 13-weeks. What use are Zuckerberg's bromides about democracy to Kashmiris? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Sherri Spelic / @edifiedlistener: “prioritizing commercial speech over political speech is itself a political stance, and not necessarily one that we should want our online communication platforms to take.” Tech will neither protect, nor save us, nor look out for our best interests. https://twitter.com/...
RELATED:
Siva Vaidhyanathan / New York Times:
Vetting political ads effectively and consistently at global scale is impossible; Congress should restrict ad targeting to the level of an electoral district — It's not about free speech. — Siva Vaidhyanathan is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Washington Post, @nxthompson, @pierce, @dylanbyers, @hblodget, @jameeljaffer, @karaswisher, Mercury News and @ellenlweintraub, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Ellen L. Weintraub / Washington Post: Don't abolish political ads on social media. Stop microtargeting.
Nicholas Thompson / @nxthompson: Also, for everyone saying it's impossible to allow only true political ads—that is Snap's ad policy! https://www.snap.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David Pierce / @pierce: This from @sivavaid makes a really important point: the reason Facebook and others don't make rules is that once you make rules, you have to enforce them and can be held accountable for them. It's so much easier to not even try https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: On that note: A spokesperson at @Snapchat, a relatively nascent player in political advertising, tells me that they “accept political advertising under specific rules and guidelines. All get a human review and fact check. Ads and spend are listed on our website.” https://twitter.com/...
Henry Blodget / @hblodget: Yes, you can suggest that, Mr. Thompson! And it sounds perfectly reasonable. The trick is who gets to decide which politica ads are “manifestly false” and how and where those lines are drawn. For example, how about factually mostly accurate ads that are highly misleading? https://twitter.com/...
Jameel Jaffer / @jameeljaffer: This is worth reading and will (appropriately) complicate the debate about how social media platforms should deal with political ads. https://onezero.medium.com/...
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher: Smart alternative idea from @EllenLWeintraub: Don't stop political ads on social media. Stop microtargeting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Ellen L Weintraub / @ellenlweintraub: 🔥NEW!: @Twitter dropping political ads is one idea. Here's another: @Facebook & other ad giants keep ads but greatly enhance sunlight & accountability with a simple but powerful change: drop political ad #microtargeting & sell only by large geographies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Facebook and Google's self-imposed ban on political ads in Washington state, which led to uneven enforcement and confusing rules, is a cautionary tale for 2020 — A troubling omen for Twitter's global ban — On Wednesday, Twitter announced that it will ban all forms of political advertising starting …
Discussion:
Will Oremus / @willoremus: Issue ads seem like the trickiest part of Twitter's political ad ban, but this reporting by @kellymakena suggests banning candidate ads can be a mess in its own right. Good piece: https://www.theverge.com/...
Makena Kelly / @kellymakena: Twitter wants to ban all political advertising. Well, Facebook did that in Washington state and it was a complete disaster. I spoke to a weed entrepreneur + a bouncy house tycoon who ran for Seattle City Council to find out why it's been such a failure. https://www.theverge.com/...
CNN:
Facebook says it will not fact-check ads by UK political parties and candidates running in December election, but will fact-check political groups like Leave.EU — Facebook's political ad policy under pressure — London and New York (CNN Business)A controversial policy allowing politicians …
Discussion:
Kevin Beaumont / @gossithedog: I hope Facebook pays well, Nick Clegg. https://twitter.com/...
@theprolestar: Facebook will allow politicians to run false ads in the runup to the election. Thought they already did... The policy is being championed by Nick Clegg, who himself once complained about “lies” spread during the 2016 Brexit referendum. https://edition.cnn.com/...
Clare Reeve / @clare_jennifer: “The policy is being championed by Facebook executive Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom who once complained about “lies” spread during the 2016 Brexit referendum. They will not fact-check ads!” Never trust a #LibDem or #Tory! https://edition.cnn.com/...
@tig_james: Facebook needs to take a serious look at itself in the mirror. https://edition.cnn.com/...
Damian Collins / @damiancollins: You can read my comments here for @CNNBusiness on Facebook, political ads and Nick Clegg https://edition.cnn.com/...
@marxdeane: Note: “There are strict rules around campaigning in the UK — campaigns only last six weeks and there are no paid campaign ads on television or radio. Instead, political parties and candidates get equal time from broadcasters.” Wouldn't that upset Mr Palmer? #Auspol #LNPfail https://twitter.com/...
Steve Marmel / @marmel: Facebook: You can lie in your ads. Twitter: No more political advertising. Facebook today: “Hold my beer glass full of lies.” https://www.cnn.com/...
Peter Jukes / @peterjukes: Clegg... lamented to The Yorkshire Post about “the colossal scale of the lies spread by the Leave campaign.” However, Clegg, who joined Facebook in 2018, does not believe Facebook should be responsible for fact-checking politicians. https://edition.cnn.com/...
Jacob Montgomery / @jacob_montg: Ads from McDonald's will be ok. Ads for a living wage ... banned. Ads for gun magazines, ok. Ads for gun control... banned. Ads for banks, ok. Ads for bank regulation ... banned. Ads for insurance companies, ok. Ads for MFA... banned. https://twitter.com/...
Nick Gillespie / @nickgillespie: “At some point, we must trust the public, the electorate, ourselves. If we cannot, then we are surrendering democracy. We must put our faith in the public conversation.” Read @jeffjarvis on @Twitter & @Facebook policies on political ads at @medium https://medium.com/...
Rebecca Klar / The Hill: Facebook says its policy allowing politicians to run false adds extends to UK
Michael Allison / MSPoweruser: Facebook will also allow UK politicians to spread fake news in ads
Alyse Stanley / Gizmodo: Facebook Says UK Political Candidates Are Cool To Lie Too. Joy.
Megan Greenwell / @megreenwell:
Former Deadspin EIC Megan Greenwell says the site no longer employs a single writer or editor — And with that, it's over. Deadspin no longer employs a single writer or editor. I am gutted but so very proud of this group of people. Deadspin was a good website.
Discussion:
Digiday, @berniesanders, @barry, NPR, @shrimpalert, @mousterpiece, @manadurphy, @om, @matthew_peddie, @deadspin, @kimjnews, @jbillinson, @thebafflermag, @goldengateblond, @david_j_roth, @foldablehuman, Los Angeles Times, @wrbolen, @lindseyadler, The Wrap, @timmarchman, @jatayler, @albertburneko, @ashleyfeinberg, Deadspin, @thetomzone, @bjanosch, @rauchway, @michaelroston, @dianamoskovitz, @bubbaprog, @xpangler, @alexknobel, @palewire, @erikwemple, @lexialex, Washington Post, @samanthamvb, @priyakkumar, @theisen95, @cpoff, @labuzamovies, @dianamoskovitz, @ryanlcooper, @lukeoneil47, @lukeoneil47, @lukeoneil47, @mollieebryant, @mathewi, @justin_ling, Vanity Fair, @byjoelanderson, @ericgeller, @emptyseatspics, @maxwelltani, @jeremymbarr, @davezatz, @lindaholmes, @thrasherxy, @nick422, @dreamoforgonon, @drewmagary, @geedee215, @ryanlcooper, @maxwelltani, @drewmagary, @david_j_roth, @maxkennerly, @patrick_hruby, @harrymccracken, @bruce_arthur, @caitlin__kelly, Vox, HuffPost, CNN and @jillian_schulz
Discussion:
Kayleigh Barber / Digiday: Ad buyers evaluate what remains of Deadspin
Bernie Sanders / @berniesanders: I stand with the former @Deadspin workers who decided not to bow to the greed of private equity vultures like @JimSpanfeller. This is the kind of greed that is destroying journalism across the country, and together we are going to take them on.
Barry Petchesky / @barry: @maxwelltani FYI this is demonstrably false. According to our analytics department, since the start of the year, non-sports posts have on average double the traffic of sports posts.
Brakkton Booker / NPR: After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit
Shrimp Alert / @shrimpalert: Solidarity and shrimp boats full of respect to Dan and all the other talented people that walked out of Deadspin this week. There would be, pardon the use of literally, *literally* no Walkoff Walk without Deadspin. Great work is still ahead from all of them. 🍤 🤜 https://twitter.com/...
Josh Spiegel / @mousterpiece: It delights me to no end that this tweet was posted over a day ago, and no one at G/O Media seems to know that. https://twitter.com/...
Dana Murphy / @manadurphy: gutted to see this happen to one of my favorite blogs and also deeply in awe of the integrity of these writers. over the past year, I've been lucky to watch @mckinneykelsey do her job brilliantly, hilariously and righteously. I know she was a mirror of the team at large. https://twitter.com/...
@om: Let me rewrite this tweet from Jason. 1/ Deadspin writers are immensely talented and have a huge following. They have a lot of goodwill at present and as a result they should Marshall their collective resources and start a new publication. Let's call it SpunOut. https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Peddie / @matthew_peddie: Wow: “And with that, it's over. Deadspin no longer employs a single writer or editor. I am gutted but so very proud of this group of people. Deadspin was a good website.” After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit https://www.npr.org/...
@deadspin: Deadspin's audience numbers don't support ‘stick to sports’ mandate https://www.latimes.com/...
Kim Janssen / @kimjnews: I was skeptical of the September audience data that G/O Media cited in telling @deadspin's staff to “stick to sports”, so @palewire scraped all the audience data from Deadspin's September posts, and I analyzed it. THREAD https://www.latimes.com/...
Josh Billinson / @jbillinson: when you run a website into the ground and push out the entire staff, you should probably remember to change the twitter password https://twitter.com/...
@thebafflermag: Deadspin was a good website, ruined by the stupidest goddamn vultures in private equity. We stand with @gmgunion.
Shauna / @goldengateblond: seems “change your twitter password when everyone quits en masse” wasn't covered in vulture capitalist school https://twitter.com/...
David Roth / @david_j_roth: I'm putting up some last stories that I edited at Deadspin, all submitted and edited before today. I want to get these writers paid and read. All these stories are good and I feel lucky to have worked on them. Here is one, by @OAlmasri: https://deadspin.com/...
Dan Olson / @foldablehuman: @gmgunion If you're not caught up, this NPR piece puts together most of the timeline of this week that has lead to the firing and/or resignation of every single person who was working at @DeadSpin https://www.npr.org/...
Kim Janssen / Los Angeles Times: News Analysis: I checked the math of the media bosses who told Deadspin to ‘stick to sports.’ It doesn't add up
@wrbolen: Wonder how long it'll take them to figure out how to delete scheduled tweets and log former employees out of their account. This is glorious. https://twitter.com/...
Lindsey Adler / @lindseyadler: This was the biggest story I wrote at Deadspin (and probably in my career thus far). Goodbye to a good website. https://deadspin.com/...
Tim Baysinger / The Wrap: Deadspin Tweets LA Times Story Debunking Owner's ‘Stick to Sports’ Mandate - Despite Staff Exodus
Tim Marchman / @timmarchman: This is completely untrue. Honestly, if the editors went just by the data, Deadspin would have been a lifestyle and politics site with a sports subsite mostly dedicated to football. https://twitter.com/...
@jatayler: Do these herbs really think they can defeat the most online people who have ever existed? https://twitter.com/...
Turkbert Cransauceko / @albertburneko: monkeying with the time stamps on blogs to A) make it look like you have fresh blogs when no self-respecting writer on earth will write for you, and B) get dunks at your expense off the front page without deleting them, is the most clownshoe-ass shit imaginable https://twitter.com/...
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: Just the most phenomenal morons, absolutely incredible https://twitter.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / Deadspin: Transactions, Nov. 1 — This the final Deadspin transaction before relegation.
@thetomzone: You know, I could have sworn this blog- which is titled Transactions, Nov. 1 - wasn't posted on October 1. It must be a mistake on my part- I have a real bad memory- because I can't see any other reason its date would be adjusted, bumping it off the page. https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Brian Janosch / @bjanosch: This story is incredible, and more people should be paying attention. The early promise of the internet is being destroyed every day. There is no longer room for outlets of collective expression. You're an influencer in the pocket of basically two companies, or you're nobody. https://twitter.com/...
Michael Roston / @michaelroston: A lot of journalists are wary of getting too caught up in the analytics about their stories. But this thread shows a good reason why you should always know what's up with your stories — being able to counter a narrative about audience data generated by someone with an agenda. https://twitter.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / @dianamoskovitz: I wrote a very sappy goodbye post. In some ways, it feel like the least-Deadspinny thing I could do. But it felt right. https://deadspin.com/...
Timothy Burke / @bubbaprog: .@fischsticks wrote a script to do this and came up with the same results. The great thing about Kinja—and GED, the CMS that came before it—is that both pageviews and unique visitors for every post are public. Read this whole thread for more info. https://twitter.com/...
Todd Spangler / @xpangler: G/O Media says it will keep @Deadspin going & is in the process of hiring new editorial staff after the entire team quit in protest http://bit.ly/34pY1ea via @variety
Alex Knobel / @alexknobel: Among (many) other things, I'll miss that Deadspin seemed to let Dave McKenna write about whatever local story he wanted.
Ben Welsh / @palewire: The scraper and raw data used to write this story are available as open-source software https://github.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Erik Wemple / @erikwemple: Dave McKenna, one of the best storytellers in all of journalism (and a former colleague of mine), formally resigned from Deadspin today. He told me this moments ago: https://twitter.com/...
Lexi Alexander / @lexialex: I stand with the courageous writers who resigned from @Deadspin because they want to do their job with integrity...and thanks David, for this beautiful article about Al Wihdat and Palestinian refugees https://twitter.com/...
Michael Serazio / Washington Post: Deadspin died just like it lived. The sports world will be worse off without it.
Samantha Melbourneweaver / @samanthamvb: Our @latimes data guy @kimjnews checked the Deadspin traffic numbers that G/O Media cited when telling their staff to stick to sports. They were...less than correct. https://www.latimes.com/...
Priya Krishnakumar / @priyakkumar: telling a very disprovable lie to a bunch of pissed off reporters is not the move *i* would have advised but i guess that's what makes jim spanfeller such a smarty!!! https://twitter.com/...
Lauren Theisen / @theisen95: megan de facto returning to her rightful role as our leader has been the best thing about these past few days https://twitter.com/...
Curt Poff / @cpoff: The @Deadspin death throes are spectacular and sad. Sorry to see it go. Congrats to Dave McKenna in the one-day EIC promotion!
Peter Labuza / @labuzamovies: I'm usually convinced that my parents' failure to understand anything about the last five years of politics from CNN brain rot was a lost case but the only articles I sent them to read was David on The Big Wet President, the only astute reading on this subject. Deadspin forever. https://twitter.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / @dianamoskovitz: Programming note: My Kinja access has been revoked. I apologize for any and all spelling and grammar errors, as I cannot fix them. From here on out, all content published on Deadspin is not us. I hope we sent out Deadspin right. We did our best.
Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper: baffling that there are so many eager little toadies and lickspittles out there, but that's the world we live in it seems
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: The schadenfreude the other sports blog is showcasing over all this could not be more illustrative of why Deadspin was appealing to people like me in the first place. Those guys dream about being the boss while Deadspin's general ethos was fuck the bosses.
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: And the reason you're seeing so many people talk about finding friends and a community through it is that that sort of thinking was a revelation not very long ago. Wait, I can like sports and not love to kiss cops and respect my boss?
Hope He Sees This / @lukeoneil47: My last Deadspin thought is it was one of the only places to recognize that sports are so good but everything about them — the cursed jingoism, red-assed coaches who think they're troops, corruption, fealty to authority, capitalism excesses, etc — were shit.
Mollie Bryant / @mollieebryant: There's still technically a staffer there - it's his last day and I think these posts are probably one last 🖕 https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Mathew Ingram / @mathewi: If I didn't know better, I would think Deadspin management either doesn't know how to operate its own CMS, or forgot to revoke access to it https://deadspin.com/...
Justin Ling / @justin_ling: “As the last editor left with access to our work systems, I'm promoting Dave McKenna to editor-in-chief of Deadspin...McKenna has graciously agreed to accept his new position until the end of the day (this is his last day).” https://deadspin.com/...
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair: “They're Gonna Give These Fuckers a Run for Their Money”: Deadspin Is Zombified …
Joel D. Anderson / @byjoelanderson: If there's any silver lining to this sad and wholly avoidable sequence of events, it's that it thoroughly exposed the execs of G/O Media as a team of incompetents. https://twitter.com/...
Eric Geller / @ericgeller: Sady day for honest journalism and informed discourse. https://twitter.com/...
@emptyseatspics: Long-time Deadspin fans and readers are gonna view @JimSpanfeller and his cohorts the same way sports fans view the owners who moved their favorite teams https://twitter.com/...
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: Jim Spanfeller sent an email to G/O staff this afternoon in which he doubled down on his claims about Deadspin's traffic, blamed the dropped Farmers ad campaign on the “amount of press” it received, and (again) mocked several recent non-sports Deadspin posts.
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: I'm sure, like Mic dot com before it, Deadspin will soon employ a ghost staff of like 2 or 3 people writing 10 clickbait posts per day https://twitter.com/...
Linda Holmes / @lindaholmes: People often say nothing depreciates faster than a new car, but a media outlet you buy and don't respect goes to zero much faster. I will miss all these nuts and their joyful, vibrant, weird adventures. On to the next. May they all find places to write that like good writing. https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Steven W. Thrasher / @thrasherxy: The agony and pride and pain and wonder of solidarity is a thing to behold. Thank you, Deadspin (which is a collection of writers and editors, not an owned brand) for teaching us to the very end, and thank for your service. Godspeed. https://twitter.com/...
Nick Casserole / @nick422: I keep going back to what @wyshynski said (paraphrasing), “Buying Deadspin and telling it to stick to sports is like buying Cheesecake Factory and getting rid of everything but cheesecake.” Long live Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
Connor Goldsmith / @dreamoforgonon: Can someone get these people some money, please https://twitter.com/...
Lando Callipygian / @geedee215: Deadspin was a profitable, very influential site doing the thing it was already doing. these dudes came in and thought they knew better, and picked a bunch of dumb, unnecessary fights with the workers who made it work and knew why it worked. Now it's gone. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Cooper / @ryanlcooper: what an incredible waste. private equity goons are the most childish, thin-skinned little babies alive https://twitter.com/...
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: According to internal stats I've seen, on average, posts on The Concourse earn 108% more than Deadspin posts. As of earlier this year, the average PVs per post for The Concourse was 129k vs 62k for Deadspin's main page. https://twitter.com/...
Drew Magary / @drewmagary: I resigned from Deadspin this morning. That was a fun time you and me had there all those years, wasn't it? Let's do it again sometime.
David Roth / @david_j_roth: I've tendered my resignation from Deadspin. You can listen to the Deadcast if you want to learn more about why, or you can ask me in a few days or something.
Max Kennerly / @maxkennerly: And there it is. Deadspin's management nuked non-sports posts contrary to their own business interests. It was just a personal preference. This happens in business far more often than we admit, particularly when the owners are so rich it's all play money. https://twitter.com/...
Patrick Hruby / @patrick_hruby: Good piece, the important backdrops to this are: 1) private equity's legal bust out business model; 2) the largely phony digital advertising economy https://twitter.com/...
Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken: An editor who runs a publication by giving orders has failed even before everyone quits. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Bruce Arthur / @bruce_arthur: There will be nobody left by the end of the day. Roth is the best writer on Trump there is, and just a marvellous writer in all. Goodnight, Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
Caitlin Kelly / @caitlin__kelly: David is the best, and such an essential writer for this moment. Even more important, he has such a big heart and cares so much about the people he works with. His level of recall for obscure baseball trivia on the other hand is gross and unnatural. I am not afraid to say this. https://twitter.com/...
Alexia Fernández Campbell / Vox: What the mass resignations at Deadspin tell us about work in America
Ryan Grenoble / HuffPost: Deadspin Is No More After Mass Staff Exodus: Former EIC
Kerry Flynn / CNN: Deadspin named its last editor-in-chief, who already quit
RELATED:
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap:
Deadspin got a new freelance contributor, Alan Goldsher, on Friday, but then he quickly quit too following backlash to his tweet announcing his new gig — By Friday, every editor and writer was gone from Deadspin, but the sports-culture site chugged along, sort of, by posting previously-submitted contributor content.
Discussion:
@alangoldsher, The Daily Beast, @bobsaietta, @bobsaietta, @bobsaietta, @bobsaietta, @adamweinstein, @alangoldsher, @alangoldsher, @bcmerchant, @jjones9, @karlbode, @ashleyfeinberg, @shortformernie, @cdgoldstein, @stareagle, @mikeisaac, @vinncent, The Big Lead, Slate, Awful Announcing and The Wrap
Discussion:
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: I've listened to the room, and I'm out of Deadspin. I hear what you guys are saying, and I respect it. This clearly wasn't a good idea, and I appreciate that I was pointed in the right direction.
Robert Silverman / The Daily Beast: Deadspin ‘Scab’ Alan Goldsher Tells All
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: So you know that the blog post that went up today after @deadspin's entire staff quit? It was not assigned by G/O, did not undergo an editorial process with the freelance writer & went online largely untouched from the draft that was filed early Friday. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: Honestly, the most surprising part was that after getting dogpiled people on this website were genuinely kind to Alan Goldsher. (The least surprising part was that driving away an incredibly talented staff for no reason at all would have adverse effects.) https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: Also, the freelancer has no idea how much he might be paid, b/c G/O Media never brought it up. The Paul Maidment era at @Deadspin is off to a great start! https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Robert Silverman / @bobsaietta: but if you're using this as an excuse to a) dance on the grave of the old staff or b) encourage craven bootlicking, here's who your're siding with: the sexual harassment blog and a plagiarist who runs a white nationalist blog https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Adam Weinstein / @adamweinstein: I used to beat myself up over my shortcomings as a worker, publishing professional and manager of people. But then I read this https://twitter.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: The shit keeps coming, but now, there's WAY more positivity, which is awesome. Thanks!
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: And thanks to you and the (heretofore unknown to me) writing community for schooling me.
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: Owning, and how you react to, the error in judgment here is the bigger sign of character than the misstep made in the first place. I think this is really big, and really genuine, cheers man
Jonathan Jones / @jjones9: initial move was very bad. this move is very good. hope people won't be shitty to you now and into the future for an error you eventually realized and tried to correct
Karl Bode / @karlbode: it's the right call and kudos for listening
Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg: i'm sure you're still going to get a lot of shit but this is genuinely good, thank you!
Craig Goldstein / @cdgoldstein: genuinely thank you for this decision
Dave Hogg / @stareagle: It is brutal in the freelance world. I'm out there too. But you're making the right call. Respect.
Rat King / @mikeisaac: congrats on being good now
Vincent Bevins / @vinncent: “Yes, more people have now publicly ditched Deadspin than were even on its staff when the week began.” https://www.thewrap.com/...
Ryan Phillips / The Big Lead: Deadspin's First Replacement Writer Posts One Story, Immediately Quits
Ashley Feinberg / Slate: The Media-Sensational Rise and Fall of “Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb”
Andrew Bucholtz / Awful Announcing: Alan Goldsher's Deadspin tenure lasted less than an hour
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap: Every Deadspin Writer and Editor Is Now Gone
Bryan Curtis / The Ringer:
Deadspin is the latest site to undergo “The Mavening”, where owners hollow out trusted outlets, a trend that has been particularly deadly for sportswriting
Deadspin is the latest site to undergo “The Mavening”, where owners hollow out trusted outlets, a trend that has been particularly deadly for sportswriting
Discussion:
On my Om, @felixsalmon, @nishachittal, @sethmaxon, @carolinemoss, @carolinemoss, @carolinemoss, @carolinemoss, @tomgara, @frankpasquale, @bjbetheltweets, @gregobr, @blakeweirfpn, @jayrosen_nyu, @tomgara, @johngonzalez, @lukeepplin, @niemanlab, @rafat, @corbinasmith, @flyingwithsara, @domcosentino and @kvanvalkenburg
Discussion:
Om Malik / On my Om: How to murder a website: Deadspin Edition
Felix Salmon / @felixsalmon: This is also why journalists should name spokespeople. It doesn't entirely prevent them from telling outright lies, but it helps. https://twitter.com/...
Nisha Chittal / @nishachittal: “Trustworthy brand-name publications are being hollowed out and refilled with unpaid “community” contributors or low-paid, less experienced professionals who don't have the stature to challenge... quotas that generate useless, often-inaccurate content.” https://slate.com/...
Seth Maxon / @sethmaxon: “The truly messed-up thing about this is not that a business would try to cut costs and make money in a destructive way: It's that it can work, because *people keep reading the articles.* ” Read @BenMathisLilley about why there's so much garbage. https://slate.com/...
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: stories on ANY topic go viral when they are smartly written by smart people leading other people to actively seek them out to read and share, not because “baseball is sport that america likes therefore everyone in america will read the baseball story”
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: I look at all of the news about Deadpsin and remember a conversation in which an editor stood on a chair in a full newsroom and said, “the new strategy is that everything we write just has to go viral” and then stepped down from the chair and he was totally serious
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: Billionaires who buy websites are especially primed with this level of thinking, truly believing going into a newsroom to say: “how about you just write stuff that millions of people will read” is a) very easy to accomplish and b) something that newsrooms never thought to do
Caroline Moss / @carolinemoss: furthermore the barometer of a good story should not be how many fucking clicks it gets because all of the metrics that determine success on the backend are totally made up :) any everyone knows it :) anyway has anyone ever just considered going viral to save the industry?
Tom Gara / @tomgara: (It's easy to see the zombie phenomena in media, but it's everywhere in the economy, dying workhorses like Sears or Toys R Us getting one last spurt of cash whipped out of them while they can still stand)
Frank Pasquale / @frankpasquale: The new citizen journalism: Trustworthy publications are “hollowed out and refilled with unpaid ‘community’ contributors...who [won't] challenge editorial imperatives or productivity quotas that generate useless, often-inaccurate content” https://slate.com/...
BJ Bethel / @bjbetheltweets: Putting Deadspin in the same category as Sports Illustrated is stupid. https://twitter.com/...
Greg O'Brien / @gregobr: “Mavened publications want traffic but not thoughts.” https://twitter.com/...
Blake Weir / @blakeweirfpn: The problem with these pieces is that they ultimately ignore the fact that these writers will be replaced by writers. Their problem seems to be that the new writers aren't approved by the highbrow section of twitter which appointed itself to judge who and who isn't worthy. https://twitter.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: Zombie sites: “Trustworthy brand-name publications are being hollowed out and refilled with unpaid ‘community’ contributors or low-paid, less experienced professionals who don't have the stature to challenge editorial imperatives or productivity quotas.” https://www.theringer.com/...
Tom Gara / @tomgara: Great piece on the rise of the zombie media - Newsweek, Playboy, soon Deadspin - carcasses of once living publications, now ruled by the undead https://www.theringer.com/...
Jawn Gonzalez / @johngonzalez: “For them, the worst thing a website could generate is a mild headache—mild and major headaches being pretty much the point of journalism.” https://twitter.com/...
Luke Epplin / @lukeepplin: Well, this is a depressing but I suppose necessary read for anyone who works in the media. https://www.theringer.com/...
@niemanlab: “The Mavening is the way media overlords taunt readers by forcing them to watch as they drag around the corpse of a beloved friend.” https://www.theringer.com/...
Rafat Ali / @rafat: This is well written & analysed, I like the term. BUT important to say: the Mavened media won't succeed, maybe they'll through financial engineering (I doubt that too), but they won't have any loyal audience or be a business success, that I can be sure of. https://www.theringer.com/...
Corbin Smith / @corbinasmith: 1. this is good 2. but its also deeply fatalistic and im not sure that's what we need r/n. this will only happen if we keep putting our future into the hands of VC Clowns https://twitter.com/...
Sara Nelson / @flyingwithsara: Rather than “stick to sports” the writers at Deadspin decided to stick together. ✊ https://twitter.com/...
Dom Cosentino / @domcosentino: I just quit, too. Deadspin was a good website.
Kevin Van Valkenburg / @kvanvalkenburg: A lot about this statement is annoying, but I'd like to touch on one thing in particular. It's evidence G/O Media goofs don't get how you actually build a community of readers that actually wants to return & (wait for it) perhaps see your ads. They just want empty viral traffic. https://twitter.com/...
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Deadspin's entire editorial staff has now resigned; G/O Media says the company is recruiting new staff
Deadspin's entire editorial staff has now resigned; G/O Media says the company is recruiting new staff
Discussion:
@corybooker, @s_m_i, @alangoldsher, @coreypein, @coreypein, @coreypein, @nycmayor, @annaleen, @kateconger, @jason, New York Times, @n_mateer, @owenthomas, @lppny, @erinscafe, @alangoldsher, @jimwindolf, @dagotron, @alangoldsher, @mattdpearce, @laurawags, @offbeatorbit, @kateconger, @bydavidgardner, @tyelland, @nicole_cliffe, @kfcbarstool, @bendwalsh, @emmaroller, @lppny, @benhoffmannyt, @brittanyadesso, @redletterdave, Sports Media Watch, @michaelsocolow, Deadspin, Washington Post, The Wrap and gen.medium.com
Discussion:
Cory Booker / @corybooker: Proud of @gmgunion for defending independent journalism. Outlets like Deadspin, Jezebel and The Root provide a perspective that is too often missing from mainstream outlets. We can't afford to lose that perspective. https://twitter.com/...
Stacy-Marie Ishmael / @s_m_i: Imagine spending months fighting for the editorial integrity of a media organisation you helped build in the face of cavalier mismanagement and then having those efforts be described as “feeling that the executives were meddling” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: Side note: Sorry to come off as a wuss, but all of these mean tweets made me super-sad. The second result of today is that I'm not going to mean-tweet anymore. 🙁
Corey Pein / @coreypein: It also shouldn't be *on them* to figure out how to fix the media business. Business-side staff really need to step up across the industry. Editorial departments have been ahead of the curve on everything digital over the past ~20 years including business strategy.
Corey Pein / @coreypein: I wish the best for all the G/O workers. The Deadspin staff did the right thing. We can't let the greedy idiots push us around and tell us what to do, especially at a time like this.
Corey Pein / @coreypein: If anybody should be busy figuring out how to put together a few million dollars a year to let writers do what they do, it's not the editorial people who resigned over integrity concerns! It is people with sales experience who, unfortunately, tend to be money-motivated.
Mayor Bill de Blasio / @nycmayor: The incompetent corporate hacks at Great Hill Partners should get out of newsrooms and let their reporters DO THEIR JOBS. This city is a union town — we stand with the journalists of @gmgunion and the Deadspin reporters who took a courageous stand this week. https://twitter.com/...
Annalee Newitz / @annaleen: Good journalism comes from strong, independent newsrooms. I stand in solidarity with @gmgunion as they fight to protect it. #DeadspinForever #SplinterForever https://www.nytimes.com/...
Kate Conger / @kateconger: What's been happening at Deadspin is an impressive demonstration of what organized labor can do. @gmgunion #DeadspinForever #SplinterForever https://www.nytimes.com/...
@jason: So much nonsensical socialist attitudes toward these owners. The amount of effort to start a union & beg for crumbs is the same as owning the publication yourself! This victim mindset, where you beg mommy & daddy, the union or the publisher, is just sad.
Katie Robertson / New York Times: Deadspin's Last Staff Member Quits. But Deadspin Is Not Dead, the Boss Says.
Noelle Mateer / @n_mateer: This website let me write 4,000 freaking words on *competitive oyster shuckers* with a mix of both goofy scenes and serious asides into Chinese consumer culture/social inequality. The resulting piece is my favorite I've ever published. Deadspin was a good sports blog https://twitter.com/...
Owen Thomas / @owenthomas: Is this really @nytimes house style? “Ms. Greenwell, who recently worked as an advice columnist for The New York Times, posted a blog in August” https://www.nytimes.com/... (A blog is an entire website. A blog post is a post on a blog. One publishes a post.) cc @anildash
Luis Paez-Pumar / @lppny: Talked to the New York Times about the simple truth: Deadspin dot com might live on, but that's just a URL. The people that made Deadspin what it was are gone, and there's no replacing that. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@erinscafe: “We've got quite a number of recruiters out there pounding the pavement, trying to find great people,” Mr. Spanfeller said in an interview Friday. “We don't just want to get any old person — we want to get good people.” lol ok but do good people want you https://www.nytimes.com/...
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: Color me naive, but I had no idea this would move so many people, that you were all this passionate. Not to be all woe-is-me, but in my 20-plus years as a freelancer, I never had ANY significant support from colleagues.
Alan Goldsher / @alangoldsher: That's my personal experience. That's my reality. Former Deadspin writers should be thrilled that their community has their back. If I'd ever had that kind of support, I probably would've looked at the opportunity much differently.
Laura Wagner / @laurawags: Paul Maidment is now unpublishing old Deadspin blogs and republishing them with no editor's note. @BillBradley3 is a wonderful writer and he is not a scab.
Ashley Reese / @offbeatorbit: Made a statement before Elizabeth Warren........ https://twitter.com/...
Kate Conger / @kateconger: really did not think that the death of independent media would become a 2020 campaign issue https://twitter.com/...
David Gardner / @bydavidgardner: Man makes mistake. Man apologizes for mistake. Man is forgiven for mistake. Am I on Bizarro Twitter today? Can I stay here? https://twitter.com/...
Deadspin Tactical Defence Committee / @tyelland: listening, learning from what we hear, and joining in solidarity when challenged to? we absolutely do love to see it!! ✊ alan and deadspin https://twitter.com/...
KFC / @kfcbarstool: This is so so sad. This dude was bullied into giving up his paycheck. By a bunch of fans and ex employees who are throwing a tantrum. But Barstool readers are the fans who harass people, right? 🙄🙄 https://twitter.com/...
Ben Walsh / @bendwalsh: despite what you've heard from leading columnists, a sincere, thoughtful, mature reaction to public criticism is totally possible. this is great! https://twitter.com/...
Emma Roller / @emmaroller: this takes maturity! let's remember who the real enemies are in all this 🙂 https://twitter.com/...
Luis Paez-Pumar / @lppny: And so, our watch has ended. Deadspin was a good website. Deadspin Forever. https://deadspin.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Benjamin Hoffman / @benhoffmannyt: A good blog, last officially helmed by Dave McKenna, steered into the storm by a brave Diana Moskovitz whose colleagues had escaped on life boats. RIP, Deadspin. https://twitter.com/...
@brittanyadesso: My mind is blown by both the courage of the deadspin staff and the fact that the owners fucked up so badly that the entire staff told them to go to hell https://twitter.com/...
Dave Smith / @redletterdave: Reminder to NOT join Deadspin unless you want to experience what @AlanGoldsher felt today (He did the right thing in the end and I'm happy with his response) https://twitter.com/...
Michael Socolow / @michaelsocolow: I find it incredible [which just shows how old I am] that Mad magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Deadspin all basically ended in 2019.
Diana Moskovitz / Deadspin: Thank You — I had a master plan for today, but it did not go quite as planned.
Ben Strauss / Washington Post: Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone
Kyle Wagner / gen.medium.com: Deadspin, of All Places
John McDermott / New York Times:
How journalists, academics, and opinion writers shunned for their conservative or offensive opinions publish at Quillette, and befriend each other — Depriving people of a platform works — in unexpected ways. — Katie Herzog was a largely unknown freelance journalist living in Seattle.
Rob Wells / Washington Post:
The role of National Thrift News in uncovering a corruption scandal in the '80s shows trade publications can hold the industries they cover accountable — A small trade publication broke the Keating Five scandal, offering a pathway for investigative journalism in cash-strapped times.
Gabriel Snyder / Columbia Journalism Review:
When NYT reporting gets hijacked by bad-faith actors to push disinformation, the NYT often retreats behind its journalistic standards to avoid responsibility — On May 1, The New York Times carried a story on its front page, “For Biden, a Ukraine Matter That Won't Go Away,” by Kenneth P. Vogel and Iuliia Mendel.
Discussion:
Ian Sams / @iansams: “The traditional idea of an independent press holding power to account is dependent on a political system that treats facts as facts and not as meme warfare.” https://www.cjr.org/...
David Rudin / @davidsrudin: this is good and fair from @gabrielsnyder on the NYT and the duty of outlets at a time when accurate reporting keeps getting weaponized https://www.cjr.org/... pic.twitter.com/93oJDRCt2M
Ben Thomases / @benthomases: This is extremely disturbing. Especially the @nytimes editor's cluelessness. Most people don't read the whole story. So a disclaimer in the 19th paragraph debunking a conspiracy theory implied by the opening is dangerous. https://www.cjr.org/...
Cory Brown / @tcb: “Analyzing work like the May 1 story in a vacuum absolves the Times of any responsibility once a story is published — if it meets the traditional guidelines of accuracy and balance. But that's not enough.” https://www.cjr.org/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: “There should be more self-awareness at the Times [about] the similarities between an investigative reporter with a hunch that a politician is up to no good and a political operation that is looking to push that narrative even if it's unfounded in fact.” https://www.cjr.org/...
Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
GateHouse Media CEO Kirk Davis to leave upon the close of the Gannett-GateHouse merger, according to an internal memo sent from New Media CEO Mike Reed to staff — I posted this on Twitter and Facebook on Thursday, but it seems significant enough that I ought to share it here as well.
Discussion:
Don Seiffert / @bosbizdon: I'm not sure either but based on my reporting it's more likely that not. I know that over the summer Kirk Davis was definitely expecting to be in leadership roles nationally in the newspaper industry for at least another year or two. I also know that he and Mike R. we're... 1/2
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
An explanation of “data voids” in search, based on a Data & Society report, and how understanding them is vital for journalists especially amid breaking news — One day fifteen long years ago, in 2004, some SEO consultants decided to have a contest to determine quién …
Discussion:
H Kapp-Klote / @pizza4justice: Been going on for literally decades but I didn't know it had a name until last month. This is is how information spreads in 2019: Data voids https://www.niemanlab.org/...
ICONYC Promotions / @iconycpromo: Whooooo boy is this a good read. And it's just the primer. Now I gotta go read the full paper. This should be required reading for every journalist across every genre. https://twitter.com/...
@scribulatora: Fascinating article, well worth the read. If you had any doubt that “words matter” ... . https://www.niemanlab.org/...
@datasociety: Search-adjacent recommendation systems, like auto-play can also be manipulated to lead users down fraught pathways via #DataVoids https://datasociety.net/...
@datasociety: #DataVoids can be difficult to detect, & typically become a problem when something happens to increase search for a particular term, such as a breaking news event https://datasociety.net/...
@anildash: This is an astute analysis of data voids, and the way they're exploited to enable misinformation on the web. It's also a nice flashback to 15 years ago when, at the very earliest days of the search engine optimization industry, I was briefly the best SEO hacker in the world. https://twitter.com/...