Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

my accepted was to stevie, xposts

tbrr a lot of the time I probably have a more generous reaction to these kind of features than they deserve because they wind up the atrocious pig people who comment underneath them so much

the Creme Egg one I took to be at least partly inspired by that 'pimp my snack' thing which, and I'm not gonna spend time seeing if my stereotypes are accurate right now, seems likely to be the domain of probably-childless 30something males

don't have any kind of issue with Tony Naylor's writing either fwiw

re the Kanye news piece that Matt highlights earlier. That was me. That was written, literally, in 10 minutes, while simultaneously cooking my kids' tea, so we could get it out at the time of the announcement - that was all the notice we had. Not only was it written by me in those 10 minutes, it was also put on to a web page by me, had its furniture done by me, had its tags done by me, had its picture added by me. So I apologise for the fact that in those 10 minutes I wasn't able to reach the heights of great writing, as well as doing all the production work. It is what it is.

Also generally the cult of baking is a pretty suffocating presence in Britain these days.

get with the cult, baking is AWESOME

being baked for is the most awesome :)

i love cooking - like i couldn't live without it - but my office last year had a baking rota and it was this horrible intense thing, it also meant eating lots of food i wouldn't normally eat and feeling like shit.

i'd been thinking this had gone too far for a while and then suddenly it's like you have to spend your free time outside the office baking a cake, due to duress. it does all feel kind of tory too.

being baked is the most awesome

baking your kids is a delight

How do you eat yours

seems more to do with the oppressive conditions of the modern workplace than baking

I dunno, I don't find my office too oppressive to be honest - it's mostly pretty positive. But when I have, baking and chocolate do seem to be tools of the oppressor.

being baked is the most awesome

^^^^

and yes, enforced baking and also the union jack bunting on the great british bake-off are both terrible. though i do love the actual show itself, as baking is actually a FASCINATING area of cooking (yeast and suchlike are the work of magick) and its vibe is so much more gentle and goodnatured than the awful rote repetition and painfully false narratives of say masterchef

chocolate the delicious, delicious tool of the oppressor

look do we even know if homemade creme eggs involve baking will someone read the article and report back please

you have to warm up the chocolate at least (i read the article! there were some gently funny bits in it!)

Sorry ithappens - occupational hazard round here of criticising something someone else reposted here with no context. I get that this sort of stuff is essential to running a website and never intended to be Pulitzer-worthy.

No worries. It's not the piece I'm proudest of.

could've integrated the cooking the kids' tea thing to make it into a surefire ilx hit

Perhaps they should replace it with an article in which Zoe Williams reads solemnly from Doktor Faustus, a child on each knee, pointing out the parallels to the rise of fascism.

realise this is sarcasm but i am prepared to own this point of view

otm

wtf is this

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/03/lent-earthly-vice-40-days-sacrifice

they shd run that same piece every day with a different topic

"So you're off to Glastonbury? You realise there are people starving, right?"
"So you're watching the FA Cup final? You realise there are people starving, right?"
"So you bought your family Christmas presents? YOU BASTARD, I HOPE YOU HATE YOURSELF"

http://i.imgur.com/M56djPs.jpg

that dave bry piece is some scorched earth of journalism shit

xp are you complaining that the text differs from the graphic? if so read the article again.

or are you complaining about something subtler to do with the data. would be glad to hear what you have in mind, since i ... *cough*.

or are you complaining about the guardian writing about twitter, in which case fair enough.

the article btw http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/apr/03/why-do-fewer-women-tweet-political-party-hashtags

I posted this horror a few days ago: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/mar/31/country-music-image-problem-bro-country-sexist

Featured comment

I like Stewart Lee's writing, but it's always the comments that provide the main interest. The section is always populated mainly by readers who have seemingly taken Lee at face value and assumed, for example, that he needs people to cook his steak, and by smug readers who celebrate their superiority over the other readers because they understand the joke.

So far so good, but then I wonder if the readers who were slagging Stewart off were in fact just joking so they could get a rise out of the earnest types. Then I worry that the earnest types are also just joking, and they understand full well that everyone gets the joke, and are just playing their part. Then I wonder if this is all obvious and I'm being the only idiot by even imagining that anyone is being serious with their comments.

Now I'm worried I'm spoiling the whole pantomime by just writing this comment.
giantmoth's avatar
giantmoth
5 Apr 2015

There's a particularly uninspired Geoff Dyer comment is free article today, "Underground culture isn’t dead – it’s just better hidden than it used to be".

Never has 'underground culture sounded' so dull, nor does he give any indication that he has any sense of what's going on. Don't know why he's so complacent.

xpost That reads like what Syd would write for Jugband Blues for the modern day.

pretty sure 'giantmoth' is Stewart Lee

Whole piece feels like a framework on which to prop the gag about feeling like a big-shot author because his books aren't in the determindley obscurantist bookshop.

the whole Geoff Dyer piece

Don't know why he's so complacent.

He's a fkn idiot.

I've enjoyed some of his writing in the past, though more his novels than his journalism.

the Guardian view on...

I’m a Facebook baby bore. If you don’t like it, log off

On this fourth #EdBallsDay, has the hype become too much?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/04/royal-baby-hypocrisy-quick-toast

I can't help thinking they may have shot themselves in the foot with this prince Charles letters thing. Maybe it's just that it seems to me like prince Charles writing letters to ministers about homeopathic medicine, or whatever, is the least of the country's worries right now but it seems more like a convenient (though accidental, timing wise) distraction and actually seems fairly ridiculous when related to the actual breaking apart of our civil rights that's imminent. I realise the timing is out of their control but I feel like the meagre notes they are trumpeting seem ridiculous w/r/t what is actually happening to us.

I know I'm not much of a deep thinker but this is more frustrating, to me, than helpful tbf.

Nick, Michael, Lex, any other Guardian types who hang about this thread...

Who would I pitch to, a piece detailing the failures of a tech-giant not only to fail to protect their users by enforcing their own terms of service WRT stalking/doxing, but also giving out downright dangerous official advice in responses to complaints?

I don't know if that would be Tech or Women or Comment Is Free, but any suggestions as to who to pitch at?

Possibly any of those. Email me at albaba at gmail.com and I can be more specific.

Cheers! Sent.

Joel Golby writes about general stuff for VICE and the Guardian Guide

nakh that really was the worst thing I've ever read

the rest of his articles look like they could provide some competition if you have the will to go through them

I don't

checked out this lad's twitter earlier and he could be the millennial Michael Hogan we were all waiting for