Role the Hosting Media Should Play

[allan]

From another thread:

Originally posted by Deb:
I'm also a bit concerned for the clients since I see a number of reviews from 'third parties' (review sites, magazines and assurance companies) taking the words of the host at face value and advertising them as facts. This burns me up inside when I -KNOW- the words are false so we end up with a client being "assured" that the false statements are true and *sigh* that isn't going to help :P


I didn't want to go off topic in the other thread, but I found this comment fascinating and thought it would make an interesting conversation in its own right.

Specifically, I am interested in the role of the media in promoting hosting organiztions. When I used to write for Hosting Tech, there was a lot of pressure put on me by my editors to not say anything overly negative about hosting companies, especially certain hosting companies who purchased a lot of advertising :).

This is a complaint about technology reporters, political reporters, financial reporters, and just about every other type of reporter -- that they are not knowledgable/critical enough of the thing they are wirting about.

To give you an example: I wrote an article comparing three control panels. Of the three, I felt one performed the best -- based on my tests -- and another performed the worst. In the article, I outlined the tests I performed and explained how each did, I also tried to stay away from qualitative analysis like the feel of the design.

Well, when the company that performed poorly saw the results, they were naturally irritated and complained to my editor. So, I passed the data from all of the tests I had done to my editor and said that the company was welcome to repeat the tests I was confident they would come up with the same results.

That was pretty easy, but there were other stories that weren't as quantitative, where I felt like I was being pushed to only say nice things about hosting companies -- even if I had reservations. Part of that, is of course that my doubts did not necessarily constitute fact, but there was a definate pressure to appease advertisors. I must point out though, that my editors never forced me to change anything in the articles I wrote.


I guess my question is, how critical do you expect technology media in general, and hosting media specifically, to be? Certainly, not everything should be taken at face value, but at the same time that needs to be balanced against just railing at everyone and everything.

I'd love ot hear other's thoughts on this.

[Living Media]

I don't trust them at all. They're either ignorant, or pandering to the advert money, or both.

I think that in another generation, when more people understand the Internet just a smidge more and it's lost its "oooooh-aaaaaah" factor (ie, when e-learning is just called learning and people forget the origin / breakdown of the word email), the technology media will be forced to be a little bit more objective. Also, by that time, some publications will emerge as "trusted" versus "load of bunk".

Also, possibly, more of these hosting companies will be dinged for their false / misleading advertising. (Who else sees the MCI "unlimited calling" plan ads and is just itching to test their theory - and then drag them before the FTC for false advertising? Or is it just me? Just me? Thought so. Anyway...)

It's never going to get to the point where your average AOL user understands why it can take up to 72 hours for a domain name to be visible. There will always be people who don't understand the hosting industry, and so can't as easily tell what's false and what's true. They either won't understand, or won't care to understand. I freely admit that I'm this way with TV and DVDs and so forth. If it works, I'm happy, if it doesn't, I'm not going to buy it unless a trusted friend recommends it. Still I think that one or two publications will emerge as trusted, impartial voices where the hosting industry is concerned. Or maybe Consumer Reports will add a few hosting-service-savvy writers to their staff.

[JeremyV]

Originally posted by Living Media:

(Who else sees the MCI "unlimited calling" plan ads and is just itching to test their theory - and then drag them before the FTC for false advertising? Or is it just me? Just me? Thought so. Anyway...)



haha, funny you mention this, I see those commercials and am always looking for the fine print or what other ways they are conning us into thinking we can really talk for unlimited time :D

[Deb]

I guess my question is, how critical do you expect technology media in general, and hosting media specifically, to be? I feel the answer would be "Equally Critical".

If the editor spends x amount of time on ItemA then I expect them to spend an equal amount of time on ItemB and return the results in an equal manner. Note, I do not mean rating both A and B the same, but rather ensuring A and B are rated against an equal scale.

So & So is cheaper so such and such being broke isn't as big of a deal. <<== Untrue.

So & So Costs less than the Other Guy
So & So's feature is broken
The Other Guy's Feature Works.
True.

Most of all however, if the editor has not found the facts for his/herself then they need to be careful writing them.

So & So claims to have a data center equipped with blah, blah and blah is meaningless...

We confirmed that So & So has a data center equipped with blah, blah, and blah and saw proof that each of these items were functioning -- Helpful.

I absolutely will not call names etc but I will note that I have seen more than one DC with fire suppression and air conditioning and raised floors etc that LOOKED fine. However, looking under those floors to find 6 inches of dirt, a tangled wired mess, and electrical tape holding it all together is a concern. Even more so is the concern that their fire suppression tanks aren't full, arn't up to par with the fire codes, and the room has air leaks...YIKES! Add to this the fact that the air conditioner's filters are caked on mud, it leaks underneath, and there is no maintenance plan...ugh. It's the untold truths that hurt. Sadly, those of us "in the know" also know better than to blow the whistle too loudly. Hence the need for those third party views many clients keep crying out for.

We all would rather see the positive side. For the editor that needs to also report the positive, I think the real trick is just ensuring what you report is true.

Tough job for sure ...

[thebyp2]

as much as i hate to say it i think its another of those fact of life 'kinda' things. All the time a company or person is backed by finance that is basically recomended by association with a publication, by intention or not, that publication will always end up being somewhat 'influenced'.

There are very few sources i trust to be impartial. theregister being one and the bbc being another. (i know the bbc can be just as biased as anybody if they wanted to but as of know they are still the best of a bad bunch so to speak).

As it stands there is no real independant global news source for this area. Having said that, if anybody wants to start one up i will happily host it gratis. infact theres an idea ...

[Living Media]

El Reg has a bias - they think very very bad things about just about everything Microsoft does, but I tend to side with them on that one :D - but reading news sources with conflicting biases helps even things out.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Register. Tech news and snarkage...my favourite way to start the day. But they do have a small bias, namely a severe distrust of large corporations (kind of justified) and a sniggering disdain for the British government's technical ineptitude (again, kind of justified). People who don't know the tech arena as well, or are humour - impaired, could read one of their articles and come away with the impression that Microsoft and all their little wizards are wretched, wretched, absolutely wretched in just about every conceivable way.

[thebyp2]

Originally posted by Living Media:

.... with the impression that Microsoft and all their little wizards are wretched, wretched, absolutely wretched in just about every conceivable way.

I can't see how that would be wrong, and i say that as a man who makes his living from that damn software :D

[Living Media]

Originally posted by thebyp2:

I can't see how that would be wrong, and i say that as a man who makes his living from that damn software :D

Well, the fact that they actually made a point of creating a graphical user interface back when most companies were content to not go after any home market (even though they ripped the concept from Xerox) strikes me as an overall good. Their attitude of "Our clients are so stupid we don't have to release a fully functioning product" and "The overall marketplace is so ignorant that we can use FUD as our sole marketing tactic" really cheeses me off.

Microsoft is guilty of contempt of client base.

[James]

i agree someone should set somthing up like you guys are talking about but there is the possablty that some host with a huge advertsing monies would come by and say if you do this for me ill pay you blah amount. now with most people they would jump at the cash (exp if its in the range 500-1500 bucks) so in time it would not be as efftive as it was.
im not saying that will happen but it could.

[thebyp2]

Ok folks, so how many of you would be interested in writing articles for a non - advert funded 'ezine' released in pdf format on a regular basis?

also based online of course.

[kunal]

Originally posted by thebyp2:

Ok folks, so how many of you would be interested in writing articles for a non - advert funded 'ezine' released in pdf format on a regular basis?

also based online of course.

Just because something is run on advertising money, does not mean it will be influenced by advertisers. It can be unbaised and simply state the facts and let the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

kunal

[thebyp2]

wasn't suggesting that. i simply thought i would throw that idea out onto the floor and see if anybody was interested.

equally though i think you credit some people with more will power than they actually have.

[kunal]

Originally posted by thebyp2:

wasn't suggesting that. i simply thought i would throw that idea out onto the floor and see if anybody was interested.

equally though i think you credit some people with more will power than they actually have.


thebyp2, I just realised I came off a little harsh there. I dint mean to.

I think the real problem is that people always have a bias towards or against something. As long as someone related to the magazine/ezine has a personal interest in the same industry, they will have a bias in the article. There will always be a conflict of interest. It is human nature. It is upto the people in charge to make sure that this bias does not smudge the facts.

kunal

[thebyp2]

Originally posted by kunal:

thebyp2, I just realised I came off a little harsh there. I dint mean to.

I think the real problem is that people always have a bias towards or against something. As long as someone related to the magazine/ezine has a personal interest in the same industry, they will have a bias in the article. There will always be a conflict of interest. It is human nature. It is upto the people in charge to make sure that this bias does not smudge the facts.

kunal

hey, no worries. just thought it was an interesting idea somebody else raised, just wanted to run with it for a bit to see what happened.