What the hell happened to Boing Boing?

Jul 01, 2020

What the hell happened to Boing Boing?

They used to be a great counter culture site and now they are just a shopping channel. I'm sure it makes them a lot of money, but they have lost all respect and authority in my eyes. They have joined the ranks of sell-outs. I'm sure they all drive BMWs.

Chris

Jul 02, 2020

Simple answer - on their wikipedia - "In February of 2020, founding editor, and key personality, Cory Doctorow was quietly removed from the list of editors for unknown reasons." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boing_Boing

Cory was the soul of Boinboing.

Seb

Jul 03, 2020

Cory is active under https://pluralistic.net

Johnny Walker

Jul 03, 2020

Same thing happened to Cracked. All they seem to do now is sell VPNs

Ron Gilbert

Jul 03, 2020

My goal for this website is it becomes the number one place to buy dog and cat food.

Moschops

Jul 06, 2020

There was always something very on-message about Boing Boing. I actively made myself stop going there around 8 years ago because I always got a sense of.. something disquieting. I could never quite figure out what the message was, but there was one, and it was enforced hard. I think I probably didn't disagree with the message, but I did disagree with the enforcement style and the subsequent uniformity.

Do I half-remember Boing Boing excommunicating someone and erasing her from the collective memory? If I do, that would have been a decade ago, at least.

Kwyjor

Jul 06, 2020

Apart from the ads, I have the distinct impression that they have pivoted from "A Directory of Wonderful Things" to "Things That Will Drive People Towards Furious Arguments In The Comments Section", possibly because Wonderful Things just wasn't generating enough ad revenue. As if the end goal is for Virgin Airlines to invite them to produce a Two Minutes Hate.

I miss having somewhere to discuss Wonderful Things.

Johnny Walker

Jul 07, 2020

@Ron From what I can gather, you're doing everything right so far. Just keep not mentioning dog and cat food for a few more years and you'll be ready!

some guy

Jul 14, 2020

But will we also be able to buy dog and cat? That's the real ethical dilemma.

Tom

Jul 16, 2020

10 reasons why your next car should be a BMW

Steve Brown

Jul 18, 2020

"Are you protecting your family with these five simple <strong>automatic cat food dispensers</strong>?"

Just use that template for your next few hundred posts and you'll have some search quality guy at Google rolling his eyes at you before you know it! (Swap out 'protecting your family' with things like 'saving for your kids' educations' or whatever else people fret over, then replace 'simple' with...just about anything, ex. "Are you saving enough for retirement with these five crucial <strong>bulk dog treats</strong>?"

viola, sir. vwah-freaking-lah.

brandonnn

Jul 18, 2020

i'm not able to post a comment that's simply the upside-down smiley emoji, but pretend i have

Dog Faced Boy

1d ago

Late to this but it resonated with me. I too have noticed the switch in editorial tone at Boing Boing. I don't think it's so much selling out as just turning middle aged. Mark F still has a sense of wonder but doesn't seem to have the same excitement as before. Cory's libertarian politics are not missed by me, but if you like that, he's super active on twitter and elsewhere to fill that gap (plus a considerable amount of self promotion). I think the person who got whitewashed and scrubbed was a girlfriend of Xeni's, sounds like there was some betrayal or breach of trust but ultimately none of our business. It's hard to straddle the line of passion and commerce, but I guess they're leaning towards commerce now. Ah well, things change.