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Scribnia: Yelp for Writers

Adam — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:04:35 +0000

A little while back, I saw a tweet from Stuart Foster stating that David Spinks had invites to give out to a new site called Scribnia. Excited by the description of the site, a review community for bloggers, journalists and other writers, I immediately sent David a tweet asking for an invite. I’ve been using the site for the past month now and feel confident in sharing my thoughts about it here with you.

What is Scribnia?

Scribnia is a Boston based startup company that is working to provide an online community for users to review bloggers, reporters, columnists and other online writers. It’s a five month old company that is still currently in private Alpha mode but is expecting to launch publicly this week. Side note, if you can’t wait and want to try out Scribnia today, send me an e-mail. I’ll invite my readers as long as I have Alpha invites to give out. All I ask is you in public beta mode.

Scribnia allows users to rate writers on a scale of 1 to 10. There are also niche specific metrics that allow you to rate a writer based on criteria relevant to writers in that niche. For example, the profiles for sports bloggers like Bill Simmons or Josh Gans list the following three “Context Ratings” on a sliding scale:

Statistical Reliance

From “Distrusts stats” to “Stat geek”.

Tone

From “Light” to “Serious”.

Controversialness

From “Non-controversial” to “Controversial”.

This context scale is a great way to sort authors, but it has one downfall. For writers like me who bounce from subject to subject, site to site, the Context Ratings system isn’t able to capture all the niches multi-topic authors write about and instead hones in on one niche.

For instance, I’m listed in the Blogging sub-category, but I also write about social media, Boston, bicycling, business, sports, and news articles for The Dorchester Reporter. If someone reads just the posts I write at Sports Fan 4 or just the news stories I write for The Dorchester Reporter, they’re not able to fit that material into the blogging metrics. So, in other words it’s not a perfect system but for most writers who focus on one or two niches it works splendidly.

Scribnia Rocks

If Scribnia rocked any harder they’d be in danger of passing Dewey Cox on the list of people/companies that rock/walk hard. The site itself not only kicks major butt, but their contact points are all quick and know what they’re doing too. Scribnia really gets the blogging community, which is huge for a site where bloggers (and other writers) are reviewed.

For Scribnia to succeed they must successfully reach out to bloggers and give us a tool we’ll enjoy. Well, they use Twitter well (@scribnia) and their site gives feedback to writers, which near any blogger will tell you is much appreciated. It also gives bloggers another venue for us to post our opinions.

Speaking of Twitter, they borrowed an idea from the micro-blogging platform and have their own follower/following system implemented directly into the site. It allows reviewers to follow other reviewers and thus see what they’re reading and reviewing. It’s a great way to check out new authors and see what your friends think of other authors. Follow me on Scribnia. Scribnia also has a commenting and thumbs up/down system on each review. Following other users will allow you to see where they commented and which reviews they gave a thumbs up or down to.

So far, I’m really digging Scribnia and think you will too. Much like Yelp I’ve found the reviews are genuine, critical, and well written. They are really on their way to developing a database of online author reviews that will become the main stop for anyone looking to expand their reading collection. When it launches publicly it will become the top resource for online author reviews. ~~So don’t delay, send me an e-mail today to get in before everyone else!~~

Write up a review of me on my Scribnia profile.

Here’s a few more posts on Scribnia from other bloggers.

Is There Room for Sarcasm Online?

Adam — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:13:00 +0000

As a Bostonian, I have an ingrained sarcastic style. Nearly all Bostonians, and especially the ones born and raised here, and certainly all the ones who remember a time when Boston sports were full of sham (no wow), have a similar sarcasm built into their DNA. It developed as a defense mechanism to protect us from the cold, hard defeats we’d learned to live with in the sports world. It was a layer of protection from the winters when we’re cooped up in the house, angry at each other because Mother Nature forces us to stay in our quarters.

The Boston Personality

A lot of people outside the City of Boston used to struggle with my Boston personality, mistaking my dry sarcasm for truth. When I lived in Southern California and North Carolina, there were many times someone would apologize or get upset when I said something, not realizing it was a joke or “witty” comment.

I don’t blame them. Our sense of sarcasm is derived from the British and their dry sense of humor. It’s often tough to tell when we’re being sarcastic and when we’re being genuine.

When I first started writing online back in the late 90′s, it was quickly apparent that this sarcastic bit of my personality would be extremely difficult to portray correctly online. Heck, it’s tough to spot in person, even by other Bostonians, so it’d be nearly impossible to spot in written form.

I experimented with all types of ways to keep my sarcastic side. From quickly explaining when someone misunderstood me to preparing ahead of time and marking my sarcastic quips with tags to notify everyone before hand that the words between these tags are not to be interpreted literally.

Eventually, I gave up and realized that online, it’s best to skip the sarcasm and speak literally. That way there’s no room for misinterpretations. Sure, it sucks a little bit to push aside a part of my personality, but as anyone who knows me in real life will tell you, it’s probably for the best as I tend to overdo the sarcasm.

When Sarcasm Attacks

Still, it pops up here and there, mostly as a way for me to deal with an upsetting event or to poke fun at something without having to think of a joke. For instance, after last night’s Terrible Thursday for Boston sports (the Red Sox lost in extra innings, the Celtics lost a close playoff game, and the Bruins lost in Overtime to end their playoffs run), I updated my facebook status to:

thinks North Carolina is a stupid, smelly, ugly state that doesn’t even like hockey, nay, scratch that I know they don’t like hockey. Boo you Hartford Whalers, boo you. Still, go TarHeels.

Now, I think it’s clear to most of my facebook friends that the above is complete and utter sarcasm, apart from the booing of the Hartford Whalers (aka the Carolina Hurricanes), but wonder if people who don’t really know me might take offense at the statement. My facebook profile is completely and utterly public, meaning anyone can view it. Some Carolina residents might stumble upon my status and think I’m genuinely calling the state “stupid, smelly, ugly”.

I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for over two years so clearly I didn’t hate it. In fact, I loved Chapel Hill and though it was a beautiful part of the country filled with smart (and for what it’s worth, attractive) people. But, a potential employer or client or any person on facebook who does not know me might not realize that the status message is oozing with sarcasm. They might think I’m mean spirited, petty, and someone apt to fall into fits of random rage over sports.

To Be or Not To Be…Sarcastic

My friends know the comment is sarcastic to the bone but these people who don’t know me might read it literally. Are these rare moments where I allow that sarcastic side to do its thing OK? Or is the potential damage to my personal brand not worth it? After all, I doubt anyone who’d find that comment offensive, dumb or childish would go out of their way to contact me to see what the real deal is. They’d just skip over me and move on.

All this talk and wondering about sarcasm comes from a conversation I had with a fellow Bostonian over Twitter. She had sent me a direct message to let me know that an earlier tweet was sarcastic (sounds just like something I used to do!). I replied back saying no worries, since I know that 90% of the population in Boston are wicked sarcastic.

But does the rest of the world realize that? Heck, even I wondered a bit about some of her tweets. I figured most of them were sarcastic, but of course did not know for sure.

And that’s the problem with sarcasm online. It’s very tough to pull off in a way that leaves you feeling confident that the other side knows the tone was sarcastic. It’s why I try to limit my sarcasm and try to be conscious of how I communicate online. In the end, I feel it makes some of my writing a bit dry, but at least it’s not misunderstood.

Now, I know that there’s tons of satire and sarcasm all over the internet. The Onion is one of the most popular sites online and it’s filled with nothing but satire and sarcasm. But is there room for sarcasm in our blogging, our tweeting and the other forums where we interact and communicate with each other? Should those of us with a sarcastic side try to play it down or should be let our freak flags fly without a care in the world?