by site editor Rick McCharles
This site is an aggregator.
I scan the web for stories of interest to acrobatic coaches, and link to the best. Contributors send me story ideas every day, as well.
On posts linking to those stories, I’ll often add commentary. And related information.
One of the first aggreator sites, still considered one of the best, is Techmeme. Exerpts are short. There’s no confusion regarding where the reader interested in any particular post can find the details. The news outlets they link love this site.
Often cited one of the worst aggregators is Huffington Post.
… the mother of all news internet impostures. …
The recipe is simple and extremely efficient: you take a 2600 words Vanity Fair interview of the financial reporter Michael Lewis on the rotten Greek public finances, you squeeze it down to 360 words (that’s down to 14% of the original length), and you have a self-supporting article that perfectly sums up Lewis’ point. This fits the internet era’s snippet culture: unless you nurture a secret passion for Hellenic bonds, you have no need to click and link from the HuffPo back to the original Vanity Fair story. …
I really enjoy the Huffington Post. And I really enjoy Amanda Turner’s posts for International Gymnast. But she’s very guilty of not sending traffic back to her sources. Amanda’s articles may be legal. But I’d say many are unethical.
Is Gymnastics Coaching doing enough to be a good aggregator?
Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
This rant was inspired by a superb post on Monday Note by Frédéric Filloux – Aggregators: the good ones vs. the looters
If you are a blogger, definitely click through to Frédéric.
22 comments ↓
I agree about IG. There’s a definite lack of journalistic integrity there.
You are a good aggregator. I labelled you that, back in WWGym, when I surveyed the Gymternet.
I like a little more content and take though. But I’m OK.
Huffington Post is an aggregator? You could have fooled me. And I read that site fairly often.
I love your site and you always cite your sources. Keep up the good work!
Yoko, read the darn linked article. Cripes. Think.
You’re good.
TCO, I guess you are one of the people that needs everything explained to you.
I was being sarcastic. The words “often cited as one of the worst aggregators…” is on the face of the post. No reason for anyone to have thought I even needed to read the linked article.
Coach Rick is right – Huffpo really looks like it’s filled with original content as opposed to being an aggregator. They really did fool me….until now.
This site is nothing like that. It’s a good mix of editor commentary and links.
I love how you bring all things gym related together, sometimes I borrow your articles for the Chalkbucket and I know you do the same. It is just another way of spreading more info about.
I like the fact you comment on what you find, and then edit as more info pops up.
Don’t stop what you do.
This is one of the very best gymnastics sites I’ve found out there. Keep up the good work. How does one become a contributor?
Hi Louis,
If you have a story idea of something to recommend for the site, email the editor at Rick_McCharles@hotmail.com.
I thought Huffington Post was one of the great new internet “newspapers”, too, until a journalist explained to me why she HATES the site.
It’s not a good business model. I actually boycott Huffpo now.
You know, you shouldn’t boycott the Huff. There are some amazing writers on there and its not their fault the Huff post has a bad business model. I know one of the writers on the site and she’s a fantastic person and an amazing writer (including just self-publishing her own book!). So don’t boycott something that they have no control over.
HuffPo is bringing in Peter Fineman of Newsweek to be their editor. Hopefully he’ll bring some old school journalism standards to the table and rein in some of the reporters.
As much as I don’t want to solicit blogs, I find so much news through them that the mainstream media is not covering. I used to write for a small local paper (three kids have decimated my writing ability for anyone who wonders how I did this for living) and had an editor breathing down my neck making sure all facts were checked and no editorializing took place. Hopefully, journalism can get through this identity crisis.
You do a great job. I like the way you keep the integrity of articles originally posted by marking and noting corrections, and as far as i can tell you always reference and link to original sources. Keep up the good work.
How about great smorgasbord? You can find just about everything on this site. How do you find the time?
Wanted to add, Rick that I haven’t had to re-up my subscription to IG because you normally have it up first…and you’re not afraid to cover controversial aspects of the sport. IG is a little afraid sometimes.
I agree with Louis, this is most definitely one of the best gymnastics sites I’ve yet to find.
but…. if you’re looking for faults
, and this will be highly debatable, I think that your “general/all around” gymnastics site does not differ from any other like it when it comes to its “attention distribution”, meaning – WAG is always the leading topic.
You’re still pretty balanced compared to others, but it is noticeable.
You are what you say you are (as everyone should be). It seems that you cover, or at least connect us to, everything that even remotely touches the world of gymnastics. I would call this site a perfect example of an ethical and fair aggregator. I once found one of my blog posts on another site appearing as if it was written by someone else. You have never done that to me, and I’m confident you never will. Keep up the good work!
Guilty. … WAG U.S.A. is the default.
Mainly because most good content posted on other sites is WAG U.S.A.
… Actually, I try to cover other disciplines / nations more in an attempt to balance it a bit. Not too successfully.
Thanks Mark. Thanks to all.
Well, I guess that what really bothers me is not that WAG is getting all the attention but that other disciplines fall back and are not as popular (in the general sense – not related to your site).
anywise, keep on the good work
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