Verizon's attempt at technology journalism has seemingly been halted, as its widely mocked news site hasn't published anything new in more than three weeks.
The site, SugarString is bankrolled by Verizon Wireless and got off to a rocky start when its editor, Cole Stryker, was seeking out reporters and told prospective candidates that the site would not write about spying and net neutrality.
Sugarstring has fallen silent ever since the Daily Dot broke the news of the site's self-censorship on October 29th.
A couple questions are raised here -- the first is, knowing that techies are overwhelmingly pro-privacy and pro-information, why would such a corporation embark on such a foolhardy endeavour? The next question is, how did they manage to make a site more horrible than Beta?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 22 2014, @10:18PM
Because you are doesn't mean "overwhelmingly" by any stretch.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Saturday November 22 2014, @10:58PM
I find it a riot that "Sugarstring" was puffing up Anonybox 37 days ago - after everybody else, including Kickstarter, realized this was a scam.
Verizon and Comcast. They ALMOST make AT&T look GOOD. But then I remember AT&T's Rape Room. [wikipedia.org]
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23 2014, @12:33AM
> Because you are doesn't mean "overwhelmingly" by any stretch.
Agree. Fascism has a strong hold among techies because it is an ideology of black-and-white and if there is one thing techies like it is binary over-simplifications because nuance is especially hard for those on the spectrum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 23 2014, @10:23AM
>muh assburgerstism
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 22 2014, @11:42PM
Look - if you control the discussion, the flow of information, you can control the behaviour of the audience.
We've known this forever.
Why they would blatantly advertise what they were going to sensor is a very interesting question.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday November 23 2014, @12:27AM
This is it.
Nice to see the VeriSlime having a problem. DNS karma [wikipedia.org] is a bitch..
(Score: 2, Funny) by stroucki on Sunday November 23 2014, @12:42AM
They could have just had their DNS hijacker send people to their news site to bump up impressions.
(Score: 1) by curunir_wolf on Sunday November 23 2014, @03:32AM
I am a crackpot
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Sunday November 23 2014, @01:07AM
Corporations ought to have honest conversations with the public, but they won't. Their legal departments won't let them. Ambitious Marketing executives have tried to circumvent that reality with these kinds of vehicles, but they almost universally fall flat. Public forums on goods and services inevitably draw complaints from dissatisfied customers, which then instantly turn into legal liabilities.
It is actually to Verizon's credit that they have tried to openly advocate for themselves in this way. Most modern corporations have taken the route of paying PR firms to astro-turf for them. That's why forums like /. have become shilling free-for-alls.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Wrong Turn Ahead on Sunday November 23 2014, @03:58AM