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iBorg · Dec 21, 2003, 05:40 PM

WTF........

"Lord Tooki" has now decreed that "rumor threads" are no longer allowed? (by locking a thread on this)

ROTFLMAO

iBorg

Spheric Harlot · Dec 21, 2003, 05:42 PM

Cry me a river.

rjenkinson · Dec 21, 2003, 06:11 PM

-r.

Tomster · Dec 21, 2003, 09:38 PM

The last few "rumors" on this board truly stunk. Whoever made them up didn't even bother to check on the specs of the current machines - total waste of everyone's time.

Now as for REAL info on the next crop of Powerbooks, I'm all for that. I doubt if there are any developers or Apple employees willing to risk their livelihood on enlightening us though. Apple seems to take those NDA's pretty seriously.

Drakino · Dec 22, 2003, 12:24 AM

I can understand the moderators position. Rumors have a pretty negative influence. They can get peoples hopes up, just to be let down. If someone holds off on buying because of a misleading rumor, well, even more damage is done.

Yes. One day a G5 Powerbook will exist. Does that mean people wanting a notebook now should wait? No. Based on the little tidbits Jobs and others have released, it is doubtful we will see a G5 Powerbook until late 2004. Thats a year away. How would you feel if someone here strung you along for that year saying "Oh, well, maybe this Tuesday, since the G5 Powerbooks are so close." every week?

tooki · Dec 22, 2003, 01:58 AM

And what you people may not realize is that promoting rumors could actually put MacNN on very bad terms with Apple, which would be... bad. (This is not hypothetical, by the way, it has happened to other Mac news sites.)

tooki

P.S. Threads poking fun at other forum members (including, but most decidedly not limited to, mods and admins) is grounds for revocation of posting privileges. But I'll be nice this time, because I feel like it.

tooki · Dec 22, 2003, 02:00 AM

P.P.S. And yes, I'll be honest... I have no tolerance for stupid rumor threads like the one I closed. (I'd love to see real rumors, but nobody ever has any any sooner than the night before, and for the reasons mentioned above, I have to try and keep them off our forums.)

seanyepez · Dec 22, 2003, 06:09 AM

Rumor threads should be allowed. However, I agree with the locking of the previous few. They were utter and complete garbage.

I also understand his point about MacNN's relationship with Apple being tested by rumor threads.

WizOSX · Dec 22, 2003, 09:37 AM

Originally posted by tooki

I'd love to see real rumors, but nobody ever has any any sooner than the night before, and for the reasons mentioned above, I have to try and keep them off our forums.

It seems to me that there is somewhat of a contradiction here. "Real" rumors have to come from somewhere "somewhat" believable and it seems to me that those are precisely the ones that Apple would prefer not to see.

WizOSX · Dec 22, 2003, 10:08 AM

A few additional points:

1) Rumors are a large and important part of all internet forums--whether they are about computers, digital cameras or make-up.

2) The only cases where sites got into trouble with Apple were when they published photos of unreleased products that were taken within Apple Computer. Clearly there is no problem with a thread that starts "a friend of mine works for one of Apple's suppliers and I have it on good authority that Apple will begin selling a purple people eater pod next Friday"--these sorts of rumors are everywhere and Apple has never said a thing about them.

tooki · Dec 22, 2003, 12:05 PM

Originally posted by WizOSX:
It seems to me that there is somewhat of a contradiction here. "Real" rumors have to come from somewhere "somewhat" believable and it seems to me that those are precisely the ones that Apple would prefer not to see.

I said I'd love to see real rumors. I didn't say I wanted to see them on MacNN.

Originally posted by WizOSX:
A few additional points:
2) The only cases where sites got into trouble with Apple were when they published photos of unreleased products that were taken within Apple Computer. Clearly there is no problem with a thread that starts "a friend of mine works for one of Apple's suppliers and I have it on good authority that Apple will begin selling a purple people eater pod next Friday"--these sorts of rumors are everywhere and Apple has never said a thing about them.

How mistaken you are! Apple has threatened MacNN, if I recall correctly, and MacNN hasn't ever published photos and whatnot. Many sites have been put on Apple's blacklist (which results in such pleasantries as denial of Macworld Expo press passes) for precisely the things you think Apple's cool with. They're not.

tooki

P.S. Since Macworld magazine is Apple's bitch, they (and MacCentral, since owned by Macworld) can get away with stuff that no other Mac sites can get away with.

WizOSX · Dec 22, 2003, 12:48 PM

Originally posted by tooki

How mistaken you are! Apple has threatened MacNN, if I recall correctly, and MacNN hasn't ever published photos and whatnot. Many sites have been put on Apple's blacklist (which results in such pleasantries as denial of Macworld Expo press passes) for precisely the things you think Apple's cool with. They're not.

Yes, but that is MacNN�s news portion of the site. Forums aren�t responsible for what individuals say in those forums. If forums don�t allow the sort of rumors that I�ve just referred to then the forums will be poorer for it. These rumors often help those trying to make decisions. Most people buying a Mac today are glad to know that there are strong rumors of new machines in early January. They can take that into account. If they buy now they are less likely to be disappointed.

WizOSX · Dec 22, 2003, 12:57 PM

If we never said things on these forums that Apple didn't like then these forums would just become apologist sites for Apple.

tooki · Dec 22, 2003, 03:29 PM

Look, why is this even up for debate? U.S. law has found that forum operators can be held responsible for what members post on the forum, even if they don't really have control over it. MacNN has to watch out for what goes on in the forums -- yes, Apple reads them, too. And yes, Apple will blacklist us for promoting rumor threads. We admins would *love* to have a rumors forum. Guess why we don't? Apple.

Guess why we can't allow ATI Radeon card firmware flashing instructions on the hardware forum? Cause ATI threatened to sue us.

We're not trying to be a pain, WizOSX, but the fact is that you -- like most members -- have no idea about the pitfalls of running a forum that is run by a commercial entity. It's not that we want to be tyrants, it's that we have to keep a lot of things in check if you want these forums to remain in existence to begin with.

tooki

P.S. MacNN used to have a rumor site, run under a different domain -- I think it was passed on to someone else when Apple threatened legal action against MacNN because of it.

WizOSX · Dec 22, 2003, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by tooki

Look, why is this even up for debate?.

I think this is up for debate because many people clearly want to discuss rumors about upcoming Apple products in this forum. If MacNN has a general policy for all the subject areas in its forum, i.e. "no rumors allowed," then let that be posted right now as a sticky in every area.

BTW, tooki, I am not taking issue with you locking the one thread. You should have locked it--because it was intentionally outrageous/satirical and so belonged in the Lounge, labeled as such. But not because it contained rumors.

rambo47 · Dec 22, 2003, 04:47 PM

If you want rediculous rumor threads ad nauseum, head on over to Apple Insider Forums. They seem to love that stuff over there. Me, I get agita listening to that crap-ola.

tooki · Dec 22, 2003, 05:22 PM

Originally posted by WizOSX:
I think this is up for debate because many people clearly want to discuss rumors about upcoming Apple products in this forum. If MacNN has a general policy for all the subject areas in its forum, i.e. "no rumors allowed," then let that be posted right now as a sticky in every area.

OK, how's this: it's not up for debate.

I KNOW people want to discuss rumors, I'm not debating that. The fact is, we CAN'T have excessive rumor threads, because we're a news site and Apple WILL blacklist us.

This is not negotiable (because Apple won't negotiate).

If you want to discuss rumors, go to a rumor site like MacOSRumors.com or AppleInsider.com.

tooki

P.S. I wanna be totally clear here... I don't like rumor threads any more, because since Apple went to the "need to know basis", no rumors have ever been accurate except for one or two days before an event. Silly "wishlist" rumors are of no interest to me, and certainly aren't worth risking MacNN's news-reporting ability for.

WOPR · Dec 22, 2003, 05:49 PM

I'm with tooki on this - there's enough rumour sites already.

mrmister · Dec 22, 2003, 09:54 PM

"OK, how's this: it's not up for debate."

Post it as a sticky at the top of your forums, and let people know that they should be leaving for other sites--if you don't have the balls to let people speculate, you don't really deserve the traffic, either.

ae86_16v · Dec 22, 2003, 11:00 PM

Originally posted by mrmister:
"OK, how's this: it's not up for debate."

Post it as a sticky at the top of your forums, and let people know that they should be leaving for other sites--if you don't have the balls to let people speculate, you don't really deserve the traffic, either.

It's funny how people just don't understand English.

joe_kr · 12:23 AM

Originally posted by tooki:

If you want to discuss rumors, go to a rumor site like MacOSRumors.com or AppleInsider.com.

MOSR doesn't have forums, and aren't desirable for other reasons too.

try http://forums.macrumors.com

applenut1 · Dec 22, 2003, 11:23 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
And what you people may not realize is that promoting rumors could actually put MacNN on very bad terms with Apple, which would be... bad. (This is not hypothetical, by the way, it has happened to other Mac news sites.)

tooki

P.S. Threads poking fun at other forum members (including, but most decidedly not limited to, mods and admins) is grounds for revocation of posting privileges. But I'll be nice this time, because I feel like it.

wow, you're a real asshole