On the Yahoo finance boards I have befriended:
- Several college professors.
- An employee of the NSA.
- A high ranking government official from a major US City.
- A small businessman who was doing the CEO’s secretary of a mid cap publicly traded company.
- An executive vice President of a major tech company
- And many other highly interesting people too numerous to mention.
Coming from that to hang with the unwashed massed on several local newspapers and blogs a few years ago, it did not take me long to figure out that as a general rule newspaper web masters were pretty much clueless about the power they had in their comment sections and forums. And without naming names I’ve seen a couple of local journalists write they did not read comments to their stories and I’ve had a couple tell me the same. I was always amazed at the specter of writers not wanting feedback on their own work, though I’ll grant a thick hide is required.
With that said, it appears the folks over at NOLA.com are getting hip to the subject as they profile David Lat of Above the Law, a site we have linked a time or two through the years here on Slabbed. Lat was also a blogger when he was a federal prosecutor, which career ended when he was unmasked by New Yorker magazine. Continue reading “The notion of the “informed insider” is why people read message boards and blogs. Let’s talk Henry Mencken 1951 a bit more.”