Yahoo Contributor Network articles about disc golf

[scarpfish]

...and while I'm on my soapbox, examiner.com articles too, or any website that lets some amateur self-proclaimed journalist rehash some semi-plagiarized material from someplace else, so they can get $.0002 every time some fool clicks on it.

I have a link set up to get Google news articles for disc golf news from around the country, and while I used to get links to nice articles from local rags about new courses going in, about half of what I see now are YCN articles from this K.C. Dermody gal, who apparently writes on a variety of topics, and has for whatever reason started writing about disc golf, specifically PDGA tournaments.

Now, does this gal actually go out to disc golf tournaments and interview people or take in the action like a real reporter from your newspaper would? No, she pretty much just takes the PDGA tournament schedule and results, and rehashes it into paragraph form. I can honestly say that she was not anywhere near the B-tier I was at a couple weeks ago. The photo accompanying the article isn't even from that course! Its just a stock photo from wikipedia.

We also had a member here who was constantly posting spam links to his "this week in disc golf" articles in the tournaments forum. (Dig down enough in there and you'll find some of them). Don't see him much any more. Maybe he finally got the hint.

I seriously don't know why people who waste their time doing these articles think they're contributing anything meaningful. Is the meager pay they get for these things really that good? I mean anybody with an tenth grade understanding of English can rehash a results page from an event they were nowhere near and puff it up into nice fluffy air filled paragraphs (kinda like store brand bread), but once you've read one of these folks articles, you've essentially read them all.

So Ms. Dermody, I doubt you're reading this, and doubt that you care if you are, but seriously, one person's advice here....give up please. Nobody cares to read an article that could have likely wrote themselves, or perhaps wrote even better considering that they were actually at said event. You're better off sticking to writing about vacation hotspots or the latest Kim Kardashian drama, assuming that you're not just rehashing that from somewhere else as well.

And while I'm one here, does anyone know some boolean magic that I can add to my bookmark link to make these gawd awful articles go away?

 

[Oklahyzer]

I think you're being a bit harsh on her and maybe throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yeah, she's doing the puff regurgitation thing with her articles...but c'mon, you're reading Yahoo contributor stuff, what do you expect? What shows up on there isn't even the quality of many decent blogs available, and it's definitely not mainstream news quality in either content or skill. That said, this girl is pumping up disc golf and spreading it to a large audience in positive ways. Doesn't matter what photo she uses, what matters is that she's showing our sport as, hey, a sport! And she's not referencing any of the usual stereotypes while doing so....she's offering legitimacy.

Those kinds of writers are trying to make a living writing and just do these kinds of things until they can find a decent job or get published with a book, etc. I have a friend in Texas that is doing this now - she and a couple others I know refer to this kind of work as soul-sucking. The money is ok - pays the bills at least - but the content is marginal at best, and they know it. I doubt any of them think that they're "contributing" something meaningful with these articles. One thing in her favor here, at least Ms. Dermody is writing about what she knows, unlike a lot of web project contributors. It could be worse....those Expert Village folks could be taking a stab it the same articles! :thmbup:

I say take it easy on her and see the positive for what it is. Not much negative there that I can see. Heck, she even promoted the Chains movie at least twice that I just saw. She's cute, too. Probably cuter than you are.

 

[notapro]

Yeah that is bad. Just look at the first sentences of each event:

The Wichita Round-Up was a PDGA sanctioned B-Tier event that was held at Herman Hill Park Disc Golf Course in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday.

The Bark at the Moon VIII was a PDGA C-Tier event that was held at the Vienna Park Disc Golf Course in Temperance, Michigan on Saturday.

The AAAAAAA was a PDGA V-Tier event that was held at the BBBBBB in CCCCCC on DDDDDD.

The winner was. The event was. I bet her historical fiction set in ancient Ireland is great.

 

[ATrainWecker]

I have never really enjoyed her articles. They are very poorly written. I always get a laugh when people link to her articles and act like it's a big freaking deal. Any one of us could sign up to write articles like her on Yahoo.

 

[ejvogie]

The Bark at the Moon VIII was a PDGA C-Tier event that was held at the Vienna Park Disc Golf Course in Temperance, Michigan on Saturday.

I was at this one, she definitely was NOT there. I may have cashed too, if not for the 5th of Jager I won beforehand :hfive:

 

[puttlikeablowfly]

And while I'm one here, does anyone know some boolean magic that I can add to my bookmark link to make these gawd awful articles go away?

How about typing the following into the google news search box, and then saving the bookmark?

"disc golf" -dermody

Sure, you might miss all those other articles that have the word "dermody" in them somewhere, but I'm guessing that's a sacrifice you'd be willing to make.

 

[Paulie]

Didn't read the article, but if they start like this,

The Wichita Round-Up was a PDGA sanctioned B-Tier event that was held at Herman Hill Park Disc Golf Course in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday.

The Bark at the Moon VIII was a PDGA C-Tier event that was held at the Vienna Park Disc Golf Course in Temperance, Michigan on Saturday.

Event, location, time. All pertinent pieces of info, right up front. What's the problem?

 

[scarpfish]

How about typing the following into the google news search box, and then saving the bookmark?

"disc golf" -dermody

Seems to work. Thanks. :thmbup:

Didn't read the article, but if they start like this,

The Wichita Round-Up was a PDGA sanctioned B-Tier event that was held at Herman Hill Park Disc Golf Course in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday.

The Bark at the Moon VIII was a PDGA C-Tier event that was held at the Vienna Park Disc Golf Course in Temperance, Michigan on Saturday.

Event, location, time. All pertinent pieces of info, right up front. What's the problem?

The problem was that she was not at these events. She did not interview players, watch any of the action, or snap any pictures. She merely took some names and numbers off of the PDGA results page which you and I can see for ourselves, hit the links to the winners player profiles to see what else they have won, added a stock picture, and just fluffed it all up like it was original material. That's not journalism. That's crap.

And lets be real here folks, these were B and C tier events. They were of local interest at best and to my knowledge nobody from the Wichita newspaper or TV stations showed up to cover mine. I highly doubt anyone living on the coasts cares about two lower tiered PDGA events held in the Midwest, when there were 25 other PDGA events held the same weekend, including an A-tier, some of which were probably a lot closer to home.

But seriously, read the article, and then read this week's edition, and one from a couple weeks ago. Its the same cookie cutter structure every single time, just with different names and places.

Seriously, if I had no interest in disc golf, her articles wouldn't do a damned thing to get me interested. Since I am interested, and am a PDGA member, if I really want to see the meat of what she was writing about, I'd skip her fluff and go straight to the results pages, complete with round scores and ratings. Perhaps she could link me to those pages, but that would probably expose to her readers what she is doing.

 

[Clempson13]

i doubt half the sports columnists are actually at the events they write on either. welcome to the world of journalism, even if it is YCN.

 

[Oklahyzer]

You want attendance and interviews from a Yahoo Contributor web project? Seriously? You know what those are, right? Sounds like you're putting unfair expectations on this....like wanting ESPN coverage at a local high school football game or something. I guess I just prefer to see it as something positive because she's put out a lot of dg-related pieces and absolutely none of them are negative or demeaning. Maybe you could send her some friendly constructive criticism instead of bashing her so completely in such a negative way. You could also just practice Freedom of Mouse and not read her stories. Geez, dude.

What do you think about these two pieces from her?
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10418371
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-8935327

 

[medicinalfunk]

I mean anybody with an tenth grade understanding of English

:|:|:|:|:|

 

[Connor Jones]

:|:|:|:|:|

Thought about quoting that part, forgot too, I lol'd.

 

[medicinalfunk]

i'm the last person in the world to be a grammar nazi but when you say something like that AND mess up your a/an's, i HAVE to point that out

 

[bradharris]

A lot of sports press releases are very boiler plate. My wife writes tons of releases for equestrian events. They always have the same basic format. In fact, often times when she's pressed for time, she'll write out the framework before the event, then tailors it afterwards. She does, however, attend and photograph the events she writes about. Usually incorporating an interview with the winner.

I've also heard that there's software that can take in a state line (I believe for college basketball) and pump out a generic article about the event.

So there is a paradigm for this sort of templated sports coverage. It's not meant to be a good read, but portray information succinctly. Unfortunately, there's not enough interest in disc golf results to make this at all worth the effort.

 

[scarpfish]

You want attendance and interviews from a Yahoo Contributor web project? Seriously? You know what those are, right? Sounds like you're putting unfair expectations on this....like wanting ESPN coverage at a local high school football game or something.

No. I want people who write articles for those websites to contribute original material, not rehash already published results from a tournament that they seemed to have picked at random off the PDGA schedule from three states away, and make it sound like they were there.

If Ms. Dermody had been at my event, she would have known all the pins were set short, that we threw two alternating layouts, or that despite the short course, there was only one under par score during the morning round. You know, the kind of thing that a real reporter might get. If this can't be provided, I would rather there be no coverage at all, as the forensic details of said event are otherwise insignificant to most of the readership.

To those whom it might be significant, they know where the results page is located. We by and large do not play tournaments to win the respect of our sport's laymen after all.

I guess I just prefer to see it as something positive because she's put out a lot of dg-related pieces and absolutely none of them are negative or demeaning.

I would have no issue with her articles if they were original, involved some legwork, and were a bit more meaty than a well taped up cut and paste job. There's plenty about our sport that she could write about that would satisfy that.

Maybe you could send her some friendly constructive criticism instead of bashing her so completely in such a negative way. You could also just practice Freedom of Mouse and not read her stories. Geez, dude.

I did in the OP, and my apologies for the spit and vinegar, but when I see so-called "journalism" that is about a hair away from being plagiarized material, I don't find it terribly constructive to hold back.

What do you think about these two pieces from her?
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10418371
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-8935327

That's better. She should write about the game more along those lines, or about the opening of new courses in her neck of the woods, or blog about her own experience playing, or dare I say it, go actually cover a local tournament, than write faux robo-reports about PDGA events that were nowhere near her, and likely are nowhere near 95% of her audience.

I'd honestly much rather see our tournaments covered by the local news, even with all the laymen's goofery that we've come to expect from reporters not well versed about the sport, or see no coverage at all, than see that.