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This is an editorial I wrote in response to some of the "suggestions" that were made recently. I figured I'd share it and see what feedback occurs. Here's a small snippet and a link to the full blog post:

There has been some minor backlash at people who post rumors, so let's talk about that.

Recently we had a situation where we found out that two rumors that were making the rounds were fake. And this has prompted some criticism that I think should be addressed. So dig into some of what was said and see why it doesn't hold any water.

http://www.talkwargaming.com/2013/09/lets-talk-about-rumors.html

Hmmm. Your blog doesn't appear to be a safe website, friend. It kept trying to do something to my computer. Perhaps you could post the article here, like they do in the off-topic forums. From what I read of it, I can't really say I agree with your point of view, but it's always possible that you take me all the way out to Mordor but bring me back to the Shire in the end.

In any event, sorry that people got mad at you for posting rumors that weren't true. (It seems that's the basis for this article, yes?) I hope that things go better for you in the future.

His blog is fine. It has some fun scripting to make the chat window work, which might wig out on certain configurations.

OP has a good point. Rumours are rumours (however you spell the word...!). If they were verified, they wouldn't be rumours, so there are gonna be fake ones around. People getting snitchy about it should calm down. I read some of the comments going on over there, and wow do some people miss the point...

I'm not sure that I've seen any of this vitriol that we're supposedly heaping on rumour posters. Rumours that are passed on in good faith are generally well accepted even if they turn out to be bogus. I don't remember ever seeing Pretre or Kroothawk attacked for forwarding rumours. Of course, they always cite their sources and not just go "hai guise I herd the space wulves will get rending drop pods is this true lel" like so many others.

The only ones that really get flak are scumbags who intentionally make stuff up (ghost21) and Natkfa, and we all know why that is.

Actually, I don't know why that is, blackfang. Could you elaborate for those of us who aren't really big followers of the rumors threads? The blog seemed to be in support of Natkfa, and you're saying there's a legitimate reason for complaints against him? Or am I confused?

I'll be honest, when I first opened the thread, I thought this was kind of a non-issue. Dakka seems to track it's rumors pretty well, and aside from the obligatory "grain of salt" posters, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of crap aimed towards rumormongers, from what I've seen. The part of the blog I read came off as overly defensive to me, since I'm not really seeing any of the behavior that is, I guess, instigating the necessity for such a post.

Natkfa is basically a giant joke since he just reposts whatever he's told with no critical thought and most of the time with no cited source. Which leads to hilarious results like completely contradicting rumours posted just a day apart. It makes him fairly worthless as a rumour source even if he does get some real info, because it just gets lost in the chaff.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Natkfa is basically a giant joke since he just reposts whatever he's told with no critical thought and most of the time with no cited source. Which leads to hilarious results like completely contradicting rumours posted just a day apart. It makes him fairly worthless as a rumour source even if he does get some real info, because it just gets lost in the chaff.

While I agree that Natkfa doesn't always have solid information I visit his site everyday. Natkfa has always said upfront that he just reports rumours as he gets them. Its up to us to sift through the BS to determine what/may or may not be factual. If everything he reported was true, we would be lucky to see a update post once a week. It would also mean he would have direct communication with someone who works within GW/FW or some other direct source which no doubt the GW legal team would investigate further. I think its fun to speculate & get excited about possibilities.

I dunno Benny. I think it's only fun if there's some reasonable expectation of it being true. 90% if the rumors I hear down at my local shop about GW products wind up being completely bogus, which is part of the reason I don't really mess around with the rumor threads here too much.

So if he has two rumours that sound 'viable' he shouldn't post either of them because they contradict?
Wouldn't it be a good idea to just put BOTH on your blog and let the readers decide about it?

"No cited sources."
Do you really want people to lose their jobs so you can feel more reliable about rumours?

 Jimsolo wrote:
I dunno Benny. I think it's only fun if there's some reasonable expectation of it being true. 90% if the rumors I hear down at my local shop about GW products wind up being completely bogus, which is part of the reason I don't really mess around with the rumor threads here too much.

Aah, on the internet it's more around 75% being true.
But the people get really aggressive about the 25% that isn't true.

No, Kangodo, but if there's no reasonable degree of reliability, then I'd rather people didn't bother passing those rumors on.

Kangodo wrote:

"No cited sources."
Do you really want people to lose their jobs so you can feel more reliable about rumours?

Of course not, but it would be nice if he could say something like "this comes from the same person who gave me the CSM stuff that turned out to be correct".

As it is, he could be getting some stuff direct from the GW studio and some from a 4chan troll and we'd never be able to tell which is which.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Hmmm. Your blog doesn't appear to be a safe website, friend. It kept trying to do something to my computer. Perhaps you could post the article here, like they do in the off-topic forums. From what I read of it, I can't really say I agree with your point of view, but it's always possible that you take me all the way out to Mordor but bring me back to the Shire in the end.

In any event, sorry that people got mad at you for posting rumors that weren't true. (It seems that's the basis for this article, yes?) I hope that things go better for you in the future.

I'm surprised to hear this. It's hosted on Blogger, so I have no idea why it's behaving that way. I'll pass that along to the guy who maintains the blog though.

And really it's more than just people who were taking pot shots at me, but rather a vocal few that were taking pot shots at anyone who posted rumors. I won't get into everywhere I saw these comments, but I will say that they were definitely some spiteful people posting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I'm not sure that I've seen any of this vitriol that we're supposedly heaping on rumour posters. Rumours that are passed on in good faith are generally well accepted even if they turn out to be bogus. I don't remember ever seeing Pretre or Kroothawk attacked for forwarding rumours. Of course, they always cite their sources and not just go "hai guise I herd the space wulves will get rending drop pods is this true lel" like so many others.

The only ones that really get flak are scumbags who intentionally make stuff up (ghost21) and Natkfa, and we all know why that is.

It doesn't happen so much on Dakka, but it does happen. And sometimes people need reminders that rumors are not serious business and no one actually owes them anything when it comes to them.

And Natfka doesn't fabricate rumors. He does screen them, but as I said in my article the only way to know if they're accurate is really to post them and see what plays out. I'm willing to bet that some sources don't get posted anymore due to not being right, while others do, and when he gets a new source he posts them until he can start to see how right they are. It's a method that just about everyone uses, the only difference is we can't see the full process because he doesn't reveal the names of his sources.