144 replies to this topic 9 votes

[Dot Matrix]

Perhaps you should have been more forthcoming with your plans for a follow up post?

[Exynos]

Mephistopheles, on 28 January 2013 - 13:02, said:

Again - it wasn't the idea behind the poll I'm opposed to. It was how it was formulated which made it a very daft move.

Ehh?

Again, it's a very simple question. Do you hate Apple?

If i hate Apple, then i can answer to that question and if i don't hate Apple i can also answer why i don't hate them.

Can the question be any better or different when it's about hate?

Neowin should be allowed to ask about things you hate.

EDIT: We all knows that alot of peoples are in fact hating Apple for what they do and what they are. So it's just normal to asks those who hate Apple about why they hate Apple.

[+Mephistopheles]

Do I really have to explain again why the question was a bad idea? Come on now.

It would have been equally stupid to ask 'do you hate Microsoft' or 'do you hate Windows 8'. All it does is drive further wedges between the various factions the community splintered into, and make guest visitors question the intelligence of the news staff.

[Exynos]

Mephistopheles, on 28 January 2013 - 13:12, said:

Do I really have to explain again why the question was a bad idea? Come on now.

It would have been equally stupid to ask 'do you hate Microsoft' or 'do you hate Windows 8'. All it does is drive further wedges between the various factions the community splintered into, and make guest visitors question the intelligence of the news staff.

No it would not be stupid to asks any of those things. Why would it be stupid to asks those questions at all?

There is always someone hating Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola and so on. So why would it be bad to ask those things if you hate someone?

Have you ever heard about free speech?

[Mikeffer]

Just a question though. If it'd been "Do you hate that stupid company Apple" then fair enough, but it didn't, it merely asked a straight forward question. To many opinions ruining everything around here.

Just as an aside. I would have voted no. I only own one Apple product which frequently annoys me but hate is such a strong word. I disagree with a lot of the way they do business but is it even possible to actually 'Hate' a company?

[+Mephistopheles]

Exynos, on 28 January 2013 - 13:17, said:

No it would not be stupid to asks any of those things. Why would it be stupid to asks those questions at all?

There is always someone hating Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola and so on. So why would it be bad to ask those things if you hate someone?

Have you ever heard about free speech?

Have you ever heard of journalistic standards?

[Exynos]

Mephistopheles, on 28 January 2013 - 13:19, said:

Have you ever heard of journalistic standards?

So, how would you ask the question about Apple then if it's about hate?

[xendrome]

Mark, on 28 January 2013 - 12:52, said:

I was opposed to the article in question, not because I wanted to defend the company or anything else other than the poll question was asked in a biased way.

It really wasn't an article, it was a simple poll, there was no discussion beyond that as stated in the post. Not sure how anyone could take it so personally or think it was biased in any way, since there was no story/commentary at all to go along with it.

Exynos, on 28 January 2013 - 13:17, said:

Have you ever heard about free speech?

Freedom of speech only applies to the government censoring it's people. It has nothing to do with private media, in the work place, etc.

[cork1958]

The name of the game for a lot of people in a any forum, is to try to get under the skin of some one or to try to show off their intelligence (which usually has the exact opposite effect)

Your poll was way to easy to accomplish both those facts.

Unfortunately,
I have had the exact same issues when ever I see that totally stupid "The big wwe thread" pop up on the front page. Simply can not believe that there are that many adults who can actually tolerate that totally insane and unbelievable junk, and sometime just can not resist posting my feelings on that dumb a** s**t!!

[Kenny Kanashimi Chu]

Title is a bit off (no offence)
To Apple Fanboy: Most people have different taste. Just get over it....
For me wasn't a big deal. The Fanboy are bit retarded..

I just wish those guys who hate the poll should get off neowin for few days or don't touch the net. I've seen many Fanboy(girl) wars, they are just plain stupid and retarded.

[tiagosilva29]

Mephistopheles said:

Have you ever heard of journalistic standards?

Neowin's standard is: unprofessional.

[TheDogsBed]

Really? This needed an apology? It's hardly Watergate! Oh boy. <Wanders off smiling at the absurdity of life....>

[Mikeffer]

TheDogsBed, on 28 January 2013 - 13:44, said:

Really? This needed an apology? It's hardly Watergate! Oh boy. <Wanders off smiling at the absurdity of life....>

Gotta agree with this.

Neowin, stop pandering to the lowest common denominator and whiners. Let your talented writers get out there and do their jobs without having to delete polls and apologize.

[+Mephistopheles]

For Zarquon's sake. Some of you still don't get it.

The poll in its published form was daft because all it did is fuel the fire and incite flame wars. If a member had posted the very same poll on the forum the topic would have been closed and the member warned. Double standards much?

It also made Neowin look rather silly to visitors. Can that be what the news staff is after? Attract visitors with troll-ish headlines for the sake of getting more clicks? I think not. I was under the assumption that the editors have at least some journalistic standards.

And lastly, it's regardless of which company the poll had been about. Apple, Google, MS -. the way it was asked would have been daft all the same.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Exynos, on 28 January 2013 - 12:57, said:

Free speech and the ability to express our views on different things is something that should be allowed everywhere.

So why are you against people criticising the poll or asking for it to be removed? Surely that would come under "free speech"? Not that it matters, as we've already established isn't covered on private forums anyway.

Mikeffer, on 28 January 2013 - 13:18, said:

Just a question though. If it'd been "Do you hate that stupid company Apple" then fair enough, but it didn't, it merely asked a straight forward question.

It's a leading question. I really don't know how to make it any clearer.

xendrome, on 28 January 2013 - 13:25, said:

It really wasn't an article, it was a simple poll, there was no discussion beyond that as stated in the post. Not sure how anyone could take it so personally or think it was biased in any way, since there was no story/commentary at all to go along with it.

It's about the slanting of the question. If the question had been "do you think Bill Gates is a Nazi?" then you could similarly argue it was just a question but that would be ignoring the obvious bias. It's the same with "do you hate Apple?", as the implication is that Apple is worthy of hate. Further, the limited options meant that people who dislike Apple would rather click "yes" than "no", despite there being a significant difference between 'hate' and 'dislike'. By limiting the possible responses and slanting the question it's basically ensuring that the poll favours the "yes" outcome.

It's not a big deal to me - I've seen worse on Neowin and on other sites - but I do think it is worthy of discussion, particularly as so few seem to understand the issues.