The Fiction Press blog is bad for the Singapore blogosphere
I should credit Fiction Press blog is their creativeness in coming up with fake news about Singapore
However, what they are doing is bad for the blogosphere and it seems Ping.sg members are becoming unwittingly supporting them.
Yes, the make-up headlines are getting the hits, but it is like the boy calling wolf.
The Fiction Press blog can be found at http://noitcif.blogspot.com/and I am not hyperlinking them to give them the visitors they don’t deserve.
It is also giving those who are against blogs ammunition to argue that blogs are not a bit reliable.
They are very misleading and unfortunately there isn’t a way Ping.sg members can say no to that blog.
The creators for Fiction Press blog should put the word <Fiction> in front of their headlines.
Uzyn should also get his programming brain to start working on a way which members can show their displeasure on the blog.
Yes you have written what was on my mind. Usually on the ping.sg site I will check out who’s the author before I pong a title that I’m interested in so that it’s not another made up content. However, if I’m reading the ping.sg rss feed there is no way of telling, so maybe the author’s identity could be put up on the feed as well. I like the idea that we can somehow get the authors to put a fiction tag before the title so that it will not mislead people who want to read real content.
Isn’t there already a header that says everything on that blog is fake? Readers should know that whatever written there’s fake right?
Just like books, there’s the fictional and the non-fictional. It all depends on the reader which they want to read and belief. :)
Yes, I totally agree with you on this. Twice, they walked on very thin line using my company BAK2u logo and reference in their ‘fake’ news. It created some problems for us including calls from our legal advisers where they placed the logo of the company onto some fake news.
The author did a public apology the first time and then again, tried to be funny again on the next article a few weeks later. Then again, another public apology.
There wont be any 3rd time lucky, we will act immediately to weed out confusing news playing with our company logo and reputation. It is very damaging for a startup trying to filter out fake news with actual news.
Paddy Tan
BAK2u.com
im in support with you on this. i found no clear disclaimer that the site was publishing fake news, with the header simply saying “we create news and stories”. which is a very loose interpretation at best, and i guess arguable that it definitely isn’t journalism.
in fact, i didnt know it was publishing only fake news until you said so. i had my suspicions, but because without clear disclaimers and transparency of these bloggers, i thought i might have been a little too uptight. thanks for clearing the air.
i do wonder what the purpose of publishing fake news is? if you’re in the business of publishing fake news, i can’t take anything you say seriously. and if they’re gonna argue satirical like The Onion, i’ll say they’re anything but. not much wit, and not even any good social critique going around. it really is the cult of the amateur at one of its worst.
at the most, its a money grubbing site, trying to attract the attention of readers and increase its revenue from adverlets. nothing wrong with that, but i hope they try some other method.. and at the most, i don’t like, i won’t read lor.
I agree with you too. I think that the main problem is that most of the headlines they use is plausible, in the sense that you can’t tell that it’s fake just by reading the headlines alone. Only when you check the author’s name or actually click on the link that you realise that it’s actually fiction.
I find that the fact that vorny uses a generic avatar in Ping.sg contributes to the misleading pongs, as one can’t easily tell whether it’s him/her or any other members using the same avatar.
@Claudia, Interestingly, when I was a journalistI liked to joke with my peers and PR friends that the business of the media is never to tell lies, but to make up stories.
If you see the pun in the statement, great. If not, don’t bother thinking about the irony.
Fiction News takes the cake though and I would have been glad that a blog shares my same thoughts.
I am also not against censorship, that’s why I didn’t call for the blog to close. I called for the authors to clarify clearly its a fake news, especially when it wants to get a ping from me on ping.sg.
Yes, I would like readers to decide for themselves if it is fake or not, but it is making use of Ping.sg to get readers by calling wolf. And there is nothing that Ping.sg members to do that can warn other members that it is a fake news, but to give it more Pongs. More Pongs bring it to the daily top 10 where the multiplier effect occurs.
Is this fair to the real bloggers out there who put up real important posts that is worth reading?
Another problem here is that some readers may actually believe that the news is so true because many readers ping on it.
Or it can be seen as that the news is being described as fake, but is actually true because given the media climate here in Singapore, it is better to disguise it as fake.
Take example its latest headline “Homosexual Men BULLIED Completely In MRT”. Are Singaporeans so homophobic that we bear arms against the pink parade just because a majority of Singaporeans are support of a law that makes sodomy illegal among men?
It never happened, but what if somebody out the in the world who reads the Internet thinks it is? Or cut and paste and go around spreading news that Singaporeans are a nation of homophobics?
At the start, yes I made a joke. But as a journo, I had a responsibility to write the truth and at the same time making the article interesting to the reader.
@Paddy, Do you think Uzyn should be doing something about it? If I am not mistaken, if Ping.sg, though is a blog aggregation site, under the laws, it is seen as a medium propagating fake news about Bak2u.sg?
I believed you are a friend of Uzyn and this blog is also benefited from the site. You may not have any intention of suing him, but some other brand owners might not be as kind.
I doubt ‘responsibility’ ever mattered to the owner of that blog. In Bak2U’s and Paddy’s case it was pretty clear cut, trademarks and names of known people were used or hinted at. I was surprised Advertlets and Josh lim didn’t take it negatively after their names were sullied.
Along with another guy who admitted to posting photoshopped and staged photos to STOMP, I have hit [-] on them. And, if their posts ever made it to top 10, I won’t click on them at all.
Yes i agree with you.
There is no clear line that states that whatever they have written is fiction, and it can often be misleading when people tend to just believe what they write, especially since its from Ping.sg and when it gets up the top-10.
There should be at least an express disclaimer stating that its all made up.
I foresee that they’ll get into a lot of trouble soon if they don’t do something about it.
I posted a personal comment on this topic about this blog as well just a few days ago.
http://emperor.haspoken.com/2008/01/14/people-posting-incredulous-stories-to-get-traffic-moral-dilemma/
The problem is I suspect many promiscuous women on ping.sg are writing sex stories and incredulous posts which are at best, half-truths. Now, at least Fictional Press blog bothers to put on their banner stating that is it fictional.
One might argue that writing about sexual escapades, albeit fictional or semi-fictional, are interesting and no one really minds reading free soft pornography.. then you can compare Fictional Press’s site with www.theonion.com , which is honestly funny and popular.
I guess the problem with Fictional Press is that people actually expect to read credible and honest opinions. If that’s the case, may be you should also suggest to Ping.sg to stop ping pong people with advertisements in their blogs (including mine).
This comment is getting a little lengthy, I’ll write more about this in my own blog. Hah.
I agree with you totally!
At the beginning, I keep seeing these weird headlines and really thought it was real news until I’d clicked it and realised which blog it was from.
Now, I can just easily spot the fake news among real blog entries.
[…] in response to my blog entry or themediaslut’s entry (I suspect it’s due to latter), they added a […]
Interesting news they have there but bet they haven’t realize that truth is stranger than fiction. Anyway, bloggers do have a say. One can click the minus sign on ping.sg if he/she hates that blog.
x2!
ok lah, it’s not all ping.sg members who fall in love with fictions, there are those who don’t give a damn, and some who ponged aren’t members of ping.sg.
look at the date i joined ping.sg. I see it grow, now I seldom even look at the top10 knowing what i will be expecting to see there.
is there legal way to tackle ppl who spread false news? (ok maybe that’s too extreme)
[…] don’t have a conclusion. Anyway, there is no black and white answer about this. Reading what other people has to write about it just makes me a little confused. Now I’m left with more […]
I think creativity should NOT be discouraged, however using real companies and real people is NOT fiction and one day will land them in very volcanic water… fiction press should re-think how they want to entertain themselves their readers and still make the money from their site advertisements… maybe this is TOO late
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There is plenty of information and dis-information even in main stream media. Fiction Press is not doing anything different.
At best they are training us to think and decypher the truth.
Hi,
I will not hesitate to take legal actions if the next time he tries to do something funny again with the company brand name. It took us blood and tears to build it up over the years and if place us into some stupid blog, he will get his ass whip hard by our lawyers.
It may be clear from their site that their blog articles are fiction, but may not be as evident on ping.sg. I’m not begrudging the traffic it generates, but an entry like the one about attacking gays is extremely disruptive and can lead to hate-mongering.
But hey, freedom of speech right? Wait till you become one of his talking points.
have any of you seen what they write on blogs about the US presidential hopefuls - this in the land of where blowing a kiss might land you in court defending a lawsuit -
Come on, is it that hard to lighten up and have a bit of fun in Singapore ?
@Daniel, As you mentioned, the attack on gays can lead to hate-mongering. As such, Freedom of Speech comes with its own responsibilities. If you want to satire, do it but be aware of the boundaries you are going to cross. In this case, Fiction blog didn’t and was almost threatened legal actions from a business brand.
Again, I have never asked for the Fiction blog to close. I suggested that they should put the tag in front of their headlines as their bombardment on Ping is just a lure of other.
If this blogger become one of his talking points, why not? If it is satire, I will just laugh with other readers.
@Harro!, If you feel the main stream media is filled with both information and dis-information, that doesn’t mean that blogs and bloggers should follow too.
And if blogs continue to do so, that’s why the title says it will be bad for the Singapore blogging community.
@APlink, I am for fun.. but as you said yourself, “using real companies and real people is NOT fiction and one day will land them in very volcanic water…”
If I was writing a satire on Bak2u (sorry Paddy for using you as an example), I could write a “Tag2me brings lost ugly ducklings to the market” and how tagging ducks ensure there are no lost ducks in the island state. And I wouldn’t use any of Bak2u’s logo, but create a new Tag2u logo. (Hopefully there isn’t a Tag2u out there either).
just like talkingcock.com, they warning you before U click “enter” at their main page. So U know the post there is fake, just for fun only.
[…] sends Fiction Press into Hiding -itsReal Jump to Comments TMS has spoken, well written, and Fiction Press has Heard it Loud and Clear …. long live TMS The […]
I agreed with Daniel’s ‘But hey, freedom of speech right? Wait till you become one of his talking points.’
There must be some responsibilities whether blogging or not .. shooting off the mouth whether in a country with freedom of speech or not still means the person has to bear the responsibilities too.
the(new)mediaslut, no worries I am cool with that. At least I know it is funny and not just some lousy method to drive traffic to the site.
[…] themediaslut wrote a post to question the ethics of such an endeavour: I should credit Fiction Press blog is […]
Just checked TMS - there is NO tag2u.com but i think the domain is purchasable Paddy
what service might be created
Paddy you are kind, if I am you I will definitely blast that kid up and take him up to task for that and make sure his school knows about it too.
FP also authors another blog for some secondary school, found from ping.
[…] While Motd do not have any problems about creating fictional entries, this whole episode amplifies the need to highlight that a post is fictional, it is important that it should be stated that its fictional earlier if possible. (Read my entry about the Fiction Press blog.) […]