Ladies and Gentlemen,can we not be civil? What happened to good manners and decorum? It pervades all areas of our society but of late I am seeing too much of it on the internet. All I am trying to do is catch up on the news of the day or read an article full of information that I find important. Yet invariably,I come away disheartened by the inhumanity of my fellow information seekers who take delight in lampooning these news and entertainment gathering services.
Take for instance this actual comment I found August 9 while reading the informative piece "The Highest Paying Jobs You Can Get Without A Bachelor's Degree":
"I think Yahoo uses a roomful of chimps throwing their keyboards around as journalism staff."
And if that wasn't hurtful enough,a follow up remark from an internet smart aleck stated:
"This is the head of the chimp union and we demand an apology and a ton of fresh bananas."
I'm sure these kind of remarks aren't exclusive to Yahoo but Yahoo is my news and entertainment site of choice. And I have a particular soft spot in my heart for Yahoo's journalism expertise.
I am a member of the Yahoo Contributors Network and have submitted several articles I had hoped they would consider for publication. As I was preparing my last award winning feature piece for the Herald Ledger* that had been rejected for use by Yahoo, I was considering that perhaps all my years writing features,articles,humor and news for a myriad of publications had drained me. Apparently I had lost any writing ability I had ever had and I had Yahoo to thank for bringing me to that realization. My contributions were deemed "Too Poor Of Quality" and I called myself out in an article of that same name that I sent to the Contributors Network. Unfortunately, they didn't see it as the ephiphany I had meant it to be, and for some reason threatened to "quarantine" me if I continued to send articles of this type. Some of my friends found this very funny but I took it very seriously.It hurt,as my fellow authors would agree.
Wow,this sounded serious. I know people have been quarantined when they had an infectious disease or the measles or something. But to quarantine me for writing articles like "Too Poor of Quality" seemed harsh at first blush. And given that Yahoo Contributors Network passed on articles other publications happily accepted,odds are being under quarantine wouldn't affect me much. Even "Too Poor Of Quality" turned out to be a pretty well read and entertaining blog column complete with Yahoo's editorial quarantine threat.
I have reconsidered all this. I have sympathy for Yahoo and a readership that holds them in such low esteem.Yahoo is a bastion of journalistic prowess and were I them, I'd pass on all the stuff I submitted that other more widely read and respected publications snapped up. The Yahoo Contributors Network is all right by me,even if an english teacher would blanche at the "too poor of quality" critique.
Today,I decided to take to the YCN and laud them for their literary vigilance and the hard work that goes into choosing the articles accepted for publication.
Good work,Yahoo! Bananas for everybody!
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