Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Crap Detection, Claire Theobald


Although Howard Rhiengold does make a valid point when it comes to his "CRAP" detection strategies, I fear his article was more like going into an art class to teach about painting-by-number. Chances are, if you have posted your article online, you are preaching to people who already employ these blatently obvious tactics to wade through the sewage spewed in many search engines. However, if we are to blind ourselves to the problems within the crap detection system, we find that he does do a fairly good job of following his own made up rules.




Unfortunately for Howard Rhiengold in his article "Crap Detection 101", he appears to fall on his own sword when his writing proves to be primarily opinion based, and also lacking in a certain level of currency. The issues of currency arise in the topic itself. Using search engines blindely is not an issue, because search engines and their chronic issues of credibility have become second nature to our modern, western society. Then there is the fact that his piece is purely based on opinion. His rules clearly state that one should "turn your skepticism meter" up a notch when faced with a broken rule. However, I contest that this rule would only apply if one is looking for a scholarly article as having opinions does not necessarily mean a complete lack of credibility.




In short, his CRAP rules need to be taken with a grain of salt.






5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. You just made an enemy with a herculean moustache. Kaiser Willhelm made that same mistake. Lord Kitchener had a better 'stache, and he won the war.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. (This is attempt number three because of keyboarding errors)

    To Howard Rheingold,

    No hard feelings and nothing personal meant, I'm sure you are a good person who works very hard and takes pride in your work. We shall forever agree to disagree.

    Sincerely,
    Claire Theobald

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  5. I agree with Claire on how opinionated Rheingold is, I mean he uses pieces of writing that he wrote as references, and other ridiculous links like easywhois and wikipedia.
    But I do have to agree with Chairman Wow; Rasputin had the greatest moustache of all, and he braved through poisoning, stabbing, shots to the chest, and being thrown into a river. Unfortunately he caught a cold and died soon after.

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