Donald Trump tweeted that mail-in ballots in California would lead to fraud. Twitter added a content warning on his tweets. If you think this is the start of Twitter fact-checking tweets, you’re wrong. It can’t. The problem is context. Let’s review what actually happened. Here’s what Trump tweeted: Twitter did something it rarely does: included…
One of the most pernicious of pieces on the opinion pages of our newspapers is the passive voice editorial, which pleads that something must be done — but doesn’t suggest who should do it. That’s particularly worrisome during the current pandemic, because we already know that things are screwed up and people are dying. We…
I get dozens of emails every week from people who want to post shit on my site — despite the fact that I have never posted an unsolicited article. They don’t benefit my readers and they annoy me, so I’ve declared war on them. Here are some samples: Hi there, I know you’re swamped, so…
I’m not getting together in person with very many people these days. I connect with all my professional friends on social media and email. And you people are remarkably consistent — you either offer value, or you don’t. Here’s what I value: original, thoughtful content, and information I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. For example: Data,…
So far, 14,000 people have read my little post about my outrage with the end of the Scrabble app — and with Scrabble GO, its replacement. Now I’ll tell you why Scrabble’s EA app is going away for good, what it’s like to play Scrabble GO as a decent player, and how you might enjoy…
Disney asserted that it has the rights to do whatever it wants with your content, just because you used the #MayThe4th hashtag. That’s not how hashtags work. Here’s what Disney tweeted: Here’s the thing about hashtags: Nobody owns them. If I want to use #MayThe4th in my tweet about Star Wars linked to porn, I…
I noticed these headlines while perusing the Boston Globe app this morning. Do they seem a bit off to you? I’m an editor. My internal grammar checker is like an oenophile’s nose. And something here stinks. Does Senate candidate Joe Kennedy actually have a head inside of himself? Weird. Did he swallow it or did…
Streaming performances are missing something crucial: the crowd. We’re going to need that. So today, I’m releasing a spec for the product we need: Virtual Stadium. If you build it, we will use it. Any good performer — musician, athlete, or public speaker — knows the crowd is an essential part of the performance. Did…
You can repurpose the packaging from The Serif, one of Samsung’s “Lifestyle TVs,” into other uses, as shown. As nice as it is to find a better use for waste cardboard, I found something about this picture troubling. Can you spot it? (It’s not the cat.)