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Technology

Information Obesity 195

Roland Piquepaille writes "How many phone calls, emails, voicemails, memos or stories do you have to go through every day? Probably more than last year. And probably too much. This article from the Sydney Morning Herald looks at this problem of information overload and how to deal with it. Here is a quick and not well-known fact: Website content management author Gerry McGovern says that something like 70 per cent of most websites goes unread. Despite that, when putting content on the web, "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?" Good point. Check this column for a summary if you don't have time -- and who has? -- to read the original article."
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Information Obesity

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  • Obese?? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Is that what all those stories last year about 23% of all Americans being obese were really about??
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:31PM (#6033581)
    We're not the only one reading the articles?

    But seriously, what's not of interest to some people may be exactly what one individual is searching for. I know I've found obscure information only available on a page or two in all of Google, and I know people have come to my sites on some pretty strange search terms.
    • something like 70 per cent of most websites goes unread

      don't you mean, we're not the only ones not reading the articles?
    • by Pooua ( 265915 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:30PM (#6033754) Homepage
      But seriously, what's not of interest to some people may be exactly what one individual is searching for. I know I've found obscure information only available on a page or two in all of Google, and I know people have come to my sites on some pretty strange search terms.

      That's exactly the point I came on here to make. It is impossible for the private Webmaster (and probably commercial Webmasters) to know what information might be useful.

      I have an eclectic mix of information on my personal Web site. I doubt very many people would be interested in everything I post, but my Web site offers information found nowhere else on the Web that I know is of interest to several people. Several people have expressed interest and appreciation in the copy of Bagster's "History of English Translations and Translators" that I have on my site, and others have said they have enjoyed my story about my Navy experiences. Maybe someone else would be interested in my college class (Advanced Lasers) report on dye lasers? But, what is most relevant to the question of posting only interesting information would probably be my autobiography, which necessarily contains arcane details of limited appeal.

      In matters of research, it is impossible to predict what little bit of information might make all the difference to a single reader. As someone who does a fair amount of research, more information generally is better than less, provided that the information is organized for rapid searching. I rarely need an entire document (the longer, the less-likely), but I often need some brief bit of information that often is not included in any article.

  • Spambayes (Score:2, Funny)

    by Scotch Game ( 442068 )

    Information overload? Spam outweighing your ham? Penis already long enough? Try Spambayes [slashdot.org] a doctor-recommended, safe and effective way to treat one symptom of too much information. Comes in Unix or Windows flavors (Outlook 2000 or XP).

    Disclaimer: Spambayes is not an FDA-approved medication and is not a cure for impotence, hair-loss, depression, runny nose, or jungle fever. Pregnant women, men with hairy underarms and people in general who look like monkeys should not use.

  • RTFA? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by subreality ( 157447 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:33PM (#6033589)
    It's interesting that this subject was brought up in an article that wasn't worth the bits it was printed on.

    In that vein, though, I think that the number of times you have to say RTFA here demonstrates just how much people filter when they're immersed in this much information. I know it definitely applies to me.
    • Re:RTFA? (Score:2, Funny)

      by jonr ( 1130 )
      Exactly what I was thinking, subreality. Total "I am so not interested". And don't get me started on all those stupid bloggers with their today-I-stubbed-my-toe-on-a-threshold-stupid-thres holds blogs.
      Then again, why am I replying to this?
      • Re:RTFA? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Gsus411 ( 544087 )
        Why the heck do you read those blogs then?

        Seriously, most blogs like that are written for friends of the blogger. I mean, that is why I write in mine. Not because I think anyone else out there actually cares about every little aspect of my life. About four of my close friends know of my blog and they all have blogs too.

        Also, there is the aspect of venting when you are frustrated. Believe it or not, writing relieves stress for some people. It's nice being able to not carry a journal around and just be able
      • Re:RTFA? (Score:2, Insightful)

        And don't get me started on all those stupid bloggers with their today-I-stubbed-my-toe-on-a-threshold-stupid-thres holds blogs.

        It strikes me that 'blogs are great for two purposes: fandom and family.

    • I usually read the articles before commenting but as you said this one was just lame.

      Really if you don't want as much information turn something off. Leave you phone, PDA, and laptop at home. Take your significant others, kids, or a friend and just go hang out and experience reality. It's all a choice to be connected or not.
      • Of course then you'll get back to 100 new emails, 10 voice messages, and several "action items" that'll keep you busy for quite some time.
    • Any salient bits in the article will be repeated in the commentary. Lots of salient bits that are not in the article will show up in the commentary.
      The New York Times does not present its readers with information overload. You do not have to finish something to figure out you don't want to start reading it. Ever notice how a reporter's story always seems to fit the allocated space? It doesn't, really. Only what fits sees print. The remainder is just left out. The readers will read until they have read enoug
  • <cartman>
    HEY! I'm not obese, I'm just big vocabularied.
    </cartman>
  • RTFA? (Score:5, Funny)

    by worst_name_ever ( 633374 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:37PM (#6033604)
    Who has time to read the article? I have to put up another webpage about my cat!
  • by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:38PM (#6033609)
    that 70% of all wesites now are blogs
    • by plemeljr ( 250971 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:27PM (#6033748) Homepage
      Too Bad /. can also be labeled a "blog."

      blogs != crap

      While I agree that most of the "blogs" out there are of little or no use - some are important to a small group of people. I have a blog, and my family and close friends read and post to it. Will it ever be /.? Hell no, but it serves it's purpose, and that's why I do it. I also post photographs I take with some of the cameras I make. Is this content "worth" anything to you? Probably not. UNless you want to see pinhole photography.

      Don't be so quick to judge.
  • by Maditude ( 473526 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:39PM (#6033615)
    Another day in the office, which, according to one recent study, consists of handling 46 phone calls, 25 emails, 16 voicemails, 23 items of post, eight inter-office memos, 16 faxes and nine mobile phone calls.

    The article wasn't really clear on this -- are we supposed to believe EACH employee is getting that much crap to deal with and respond to? Or, if that's spread out amongs the "100 to 499 staff", then it doesn't sound like much at all...
    • are we supposed to believe EACH employee is getting that much crap to deal with and respond to?

      That sounds like the crap a personal assistant has to deal with. I know that if I were to do all that, I'd never write any code.

    • by jerdenn ( 86993 ) <jerdenn@dennany.org> on Sunday May 25, 2003 @02:07AM (#6034104)
      Another day in the office, which, according to one recent study, consists of handling 46 phone calls, 25 emails, 16 voicemails, 23 items of post, eight inter-office memos, 16 faxes and nine mobile phone calls.

      Of the 46 phone calls, 45 of them are personal.
      Of the 25 emails, 24 of them are FW: FW: FW chains from friends that don't know any better.
      Of the 16 voicemails, 15 of them are from the wife trying to find out whether you'd like steak or fish for dinner.
      Of the 23 items of post, 22 of them are renewal notices for "Free" copies of InfoWorld or some such sludge.
      Of the eight inter-office memos, 7 of them are from the "CEO to all employees" type, telling you to save money by not using so many staples.
      16 faxes? Who still uses fax?
      9 mobile calls? It's your girl on the side letting you know that the EPT just tested pink.


      -jerdenn
  • I would actually venture to say that no more than 3% of the content of any of *my* Web sites has ever been read by anyone but me.
  • Oxymorondot (Score:4, Funny)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:40PM (#6033619) Journal

    when putting content on the web, "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?"

    Is anybody really intersted in this?

  • Could we be starting to develop Nerve [amazon.com] Attenuation [sonypictures.com] Syndrome [google.com]?
  • Does that 70% include this article. The last thing I need is someone to tell me I've got too much to read.

    It's like someone yelling to me "hey, it's loud in here." Just because they're too old. Feh.
  • they must not be counting blogs...
  • hello (Score:5, Funny)

    i am a comment you will never, ever read

    if you are reading this, then you have entered the ironic realm of self-referential commentary

    • . . . i am lost in the realm of self-referential commentary . . . it is very cold here . . . send food . . . very cold realm . . .
      • Re:hello (Score:3, Funny)

        by Dun Malg ( 230075 )
        you're in a maze of twisty little comments, all alike.

        your lamp is getting dim.

        • I thought the poor old Wumpus had already been hunted to death by now... :-)
          • Usually when you hunt something, you kill it. At least I do. Might you mean "hunt to extinction"?

            I can just see a bunch of liberal treehuggers gathered about hunting things and then letting them free...
  • by msheppard ( 150231 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:49PM (#6033654) Homepage Journal
    I am getting far less voice mail and email than this time last year. I think it is becuase we laid off a lot of the middle people. As a developer, I constantly have to answer questions from marketing types who really have nothing better to do then write a 50 page spec, of which 2 paragraphs describes what the system does... and those two paragraphs were cut/pasted from an email from me.

    M@
  • Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by alptraum ( 239135 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:52PM (#6033663)
    Website content management author Gerry McGovern says that something like 70 per cent of most websites goes unread

    And something like 65% of all statistics are made up? To say 70% of most websites is a very broad statement and really needs narrowing of scope. And does he state anywhere how he came up with this figure? Any journal articles, documents outlining his research, etc?

    Looking at the massive amount of blogs, personal sites, and other sites that hold little interest to those outside a set few, what about the percentage of websites that are read at all?
    • oh, come on now people! get it straight. we ALL know that it 82% of all statistics that are made up :P
    • Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MyHair ( 589485 )
      To say 70% of most websites is a very broad statement and really needs narrowing of scope.

      I agree. I have an http server on the internet that I use for my own purposes--development testing, links on my own home page, etc.--and I don't tell anyone else about it. It doesn't even have a registered domain name. But from time to time someone browses through a few pages.

      I think all web pages are read by somebody, even if they are generally worthless.
      • "I have an http server on the internet that I use for my own purposes--development testing, links on my own home page, etc.--and I don't tell anyone else about it. But from time to time someone browses through a few pages."

        Yeah, usually "../../../../../../winnt/registry.dat"

        Why is it they never even request the front page with "You have just setup an apache server" on it?
    • "Website content management author Gerry McGovern says that something like 70 per cent of most websites goes unread

      And something like 65% of all statistics are made up? To say 70% of most websites is a very broad statement and really needs narrowing of scope. And does he state anywhere how he came up with this figure? Any journal articles, documents outlining his research, etc?"

      From what I have heard and Read online and from people who work for ISPs something around 60 percent of the internet traffic is
    • It might be true and it's going to get worse. Individuals and clubs put up useful information. Corporations polute the net with crap, adverts and other shit not even the boss will read. As the web is more dominated by corporate interests, the crap content will increase.

      Stuff that's put up by an individual is read and useful by definition. At work, I share my information as well as the company will let me. Even if no one else is interested in the details of what I'm doing, I am and want to have them wh

    • by Jerf ( 17166 )
      I read that as "For an average website, only 30% of it will be read."

      Consider the vast number of archives online, mostly unread. For instance, I have my weblog posts going back to 2000. I probably use them more then anybody else (due to the nature of the weblog and a project I'm doing) and I still don't use that much.

      If you're talking about read reasonably "often", then the vast majority of jerf.org is unread.

      However, it was all read at some point, so it depends on the exact definition. If you're talking
  • by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:52PM (#6033666) Journal
    OK, so most people don't read every last word on every website that they visit. Big deal.

    I don't read every last word in my morning paper and I certainly don't watch everything on TV.

    But I do appreciate having the choice of being able to read what I want in my paper, or watching TV when I want. Similarly, I do appreciate being able to go to a website and pull information that's useful to me, when it's useful to me, regardless of how often it's been accessed in the past.

    For example, I recently was putting an older hard disk drive in a PC, simply to see if it still worked reliably. If it did then I was going to keep it around for emergencies or perhaps donate it to someone else, if it didn't then I was going to recycle it.

    Unfortunately, this drive didn't have its master/slave jumper settings, or even acceptable CHS (cylinder, heads and sectors) values on it, and the accompanying documentation had long since disappeared.

    All I had to do to get the information that I needed was drill down to the relevant page of the manufacturer's website and, voila, I had the drive up and running within minutes.

    Now, I can't imagine that there are many people who've looked at the same web page in the last year or two (after all, this was "only" a 540MB hard disk drive), but having that web page there where the information could easily be found made sense both for the manufacturer and for me.

    The manufacturer spent next to nothing putting that information there where it could be found (and no doubt saved a lot of money that it would otherwise have spent on technical support calls) and I got what I wanted too, almost instantaneously. A win-win situation all around.

    Now, why would the manufacturer care about how often the page has been accessed? It it somehow hurting it's bottom line to have that page sitting on a server somewhere? I don't think so.

    Much as I loathe the phrase "information wants to be free", sometimes it does.
    • by the uNF cola ( 657200 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:51PM (#6033812)
      There's a difference between volentary information and being spammed with it.

      For instance, I get mail from a cow-orker who loves to send us a lot of junk mail. Problem is, I can't just write a write a filter or auto delete. One day, he's gonna ask me something, then report to my manager how I'm ignoring him.

      I've also had some weird inverse. Currently, I gotta write a status report every day of what I do. I'm a programmer. I get projects that last me weeks at a time. Writing, "I wrote a function" is kinda.. lame.

      So as much as information wants to be free, sometimes, it should just have a nice warm cup of "shut the hell up".
      • For instance, I get mail from a cow-orker who loves to send us a lot of junk mail. Problem is, I can't just write a write a filter or auto delete. One day, he's gonna ask me something, then report to my manager how I'm ignoring him.

        Try asking them not to send you that stuff. If that does not work. Get four co-workers to auto reply "that's funny". They will quit when they get's 4 times as much mail as he puts out. It's an easy way to make the point.

        Currently, I gotta write a status report every day o

    • by Reziac ( 43301 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @01:08AM (#6033993) Homepage Journal
      Bingo -- a little HTML that's seldom accessed doesn't eat much. In fact, it's probably more cost-effective to just leave it in place than to decide "No one uses this old crap anyway", hunt it down, and delete it. After all, someone has to take the time to make the decision and do the dirty work. Why bother? As to dead internal links, if you just leave the old structure alone and put new structure beside it (with new links to old pages as needed) this is a non-issue.

      Want to be first in my thoughts when I consider an upgrade? Keep all your old FAQs, KB, and support files online forever. When you show me that you care about your past customers, you're far more likely to gain me as a future customer, and better yet, as a loyal *repeat* customer.

      [rant] This is why it grinds me that M$ *does* delete old support pages (no doubt to "encourage" upgrades). Whole classes of information have already gone away. -- I got notice of a major knowledge base killing spree as of last January, and consequently one of my machines spent two weeks leeched to a friend's cable modem, pulling the entire KB before the deadline. -- How much data was it? Including all the patches and utils, not quite 6 gigs (about 140,000 files in all). Six bucks worth of disk space for IDE, and maybe $60 worth for SCSI, but either way a drop in M$'s bucket. [/rant]

  • Not (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AvantLegion ( 595806 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:54PM (#6033672) Journal
    The quote about "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?" kinda misses the point.

    First of all, it's hard to know what websites are going to "take off". Did the guys at homestarrunner.com expect the kind of response they got? Not initially, that's for sure.

    Second, not every website is MEANT for lots of activity. I have a homepage, and it's meant for small traffic from people I know. It's probably low traffic enough to be counted as one of those sites that goes "unread", but it serves the purpose that I intended it for.

    There's no denying that the web has plenty of bad abuses of HTML. (Many of which would be erased if Geocities and other sites would just clean out their inactive accounts). But it's not hard to avoid such sites and move on.

    • Re:Not (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Reziac ( 43301 )
      "...not every website is MEANT for lots of activity."

      Very true. Frex, my own plethora of sites: the main site is my major advertising method, has been linked far and wide, and gets around 30k visitors a year (that's tons for the topic). It has info useful to its typical visitor.

      My various subsites (which get traffic from 10k/yr down to none) exist as much to amuse myself and a few friends as for any other purpose. If anyone else reads 'em, cool; if not, I'd do 'em anyway. If they're useless, well, you're
  • Useless Gadets (Score:3, Offtopic)

    by chickenwing ( 28429 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:55PM (#6033677) Homepage
    My favorate quote:

    "Don't use new technologies blindly. Don't use them just for the fun of it. Think about how all of your tools encourage certain behaviours and discourage other behaviours and make sensible judgements about whether you like those tendencies or need to be alert against their shaping your life in a way you're not happy about," he says.

    As one who cannot afford all the new masturbatory gadgets that come out, I often wonder how much they actually contribute to productivity, rather than further encumbering their users.
  • by Gulthek ( 12570 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @10:55PM (#6033679) Homepage Journal
    Sure we can pull some odd-ball statistic saying that 70% of web content isn't read, but is it the same 70% for all people? Of course not.

    Your average internet user doesn't read slashdot, and doesn't care about slashdot news material. But that doesn't mean that /. is without worth.

    The same goes for just about any website. I don't need to read a website describing someone's two week ordeal that it took to get a salt-water fishtank in proper condition. I don't have fish, I might never have fish, but if I ever needed anecdotal advice it would now be there for the consideration.

    The Internet is such a beautiful thing because of its high availability of information. As such, of course not all of it will be relavant to all people at all times. Frankly, I'm surprised the percentage is that low. I'd estimate that I view about one to two percent of web content at most.
  • Well, I would post the full article here in case of slashdotting but, as you're going to ignore 70 percent of it, here's the first 30 percent:

    Spinning around

    By David Adams
    May 20 2003
    Next

    Another day in the office, which, according to one recent study, consists of handling 46 phone calls, 25 emails, 16 voicemails, 23 items of post, eight inter-office memos, 16 faxes and nine mobile phone calls. While that sounds scary, its even more alarming to think that those figures - taken from a 2000 survey of compani
  • by Daverd ( 641119 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:00PM (#6033695) Homepage
    But my parents always told me I was just information big-boned.
    I knew I should have spent more time exercising and less time reading newspapers.
  • who gives a fuck? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by delmoi ( 26744 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:01PM (#6033698) Homepage
    What diffrence does it make if no one ever reads it? Hard drive space is cheap, it's not like there is a 'limit' to the web.

    Just having the information out there for someone to search and make use of is a benifit. Unless some harm can come from it, It should be online for someone who might need it to find it.
    • by seefried ( 211451 )
      I think the point of the article is not that there is too much information but that people choose too many ways for the information to be delivered to them. By choosing to own a mobile phone and answer incoming calls I may actually be causing myself undue stress. By choosing to read certain webcomics each day I consign away much of my time. By choosing to play a computer game I can waste days.

      The point is, maybe it is better for me to make the choice _before_ I become engrossed in the information that is
    • Storing content is cheap. Creating content isn't.
  • by Gyorg_Lavode ( 520114 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:03PM (#6033701)
    If you give a powerpoint presentation and try to fit as much stuff on a page as fits, no-one will read any of it. At most you want 1 thought or 1 bulleted list per slide. And no list should have more than 3 entries really. People just stop paying attention pretty quickly.

    A good example would be to ask how many people read the text anywhere on slashdo tbut main articles. I know I ignore everything else including the text to the right and left sides of the main screen.

    • Those aren't really related. When you're driving, you look in front of you, and at the spedometer. You rarely look at the battery gauge (maybe once a trip if you're concerned) but nevertheless, the information is there, easily accessible if you need it. The stuff to the right and left of the /. main page is there, easily accessible if you need it. I use parts of it fairly often for various reasons (and i don't spend all that much time here) and appreciate its layout.

      However, a presentation DOES need t
      • You're partially right
      • Too much information on one slide
      • Isn't a good idea
      • But neither is
      • Too little
      • information

      By the way, did I ever mention how much slashdot's lameness filter blows? It really, really, really sucks. I hate it. Very much so. More characters per line please. Blah blah blah. Goddamnit, the solution is moderation, not pitiful attempts at automated filtering. How many fucking characters do I need in a line? Brevity is the soul of wit. Most people don'

  • Don't know where I heard this piece of wisdom.. anyhow, some guy is talking about the effectiveness of advertising. He's complaining some large fraction of his money is wasted on ads nobody pays attention to.

    The problem is, he doesn't know what worked and what doesn't. While most of the information is never looked at, you don't know who it will benefit when. Since space is almost free these days - it's the bandwidth that matters - just leave the information online.
  • by Badmovies ( 182275 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:25PM (#6033744) Homepage
    I tend to stay away from websites for a couple of reasons:

    The pages are poorly organized or poorly laid out.
    The navigation is terrible.
    And the big issue:
    The person cannot spell, has no idea what grammar means, and resorts to using four-letter words over and over.

    Honestly, basic writing skills go a long way. I want to read something written by someone who has a brain. If they cannot even run spell check on their article, why should I care to read it?

    Another thing to remember is that some websites are niches. I do not know how many sites I have run across that are fan sites for old television shows. For some reason a question comes up about the show and I go looking through Google for information. Those small fan sites can be awesome resources - when you have that particular need. I have seen counters in the double digits on sites that were virtual shrines to a children's show.

    Ditto with information on other little things, like short stories by a certain writer. I do not need the information constantly, nor is there a lot for me to talk about Joseph Payne Brennan, but I wanted to find out about compilations of his work. A quick search turned up the names of his books. This is certain to work for writers many times more obscure.
  • by Unregistered ( 584479 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:26PM (#6033747)
    E-enema.
    haha i kill me. Mod this down appropriately now.
  • by dorfsmay ( 566262 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:32PM (#6033760) Homepage
    when putting content on the web, "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?"

    I for one put stuff on my webpage as reference for myself. I do put some small content there for other to read, and the logs do show that it does get read.
  • by IGnatius T Foobar ( 4328 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:32PM (#6033761) Homepage Journal
    Ok, so perhaps 70 percent of all content goes unread. It's still good to have it there. Even if the site's navigation controls are terrible, even if the site is poorly organized, even if it's not updated very frequently...

    The information can still be Googled.

    The fact that Google and other search engines index by content rather than by title, author, or whatever, means that when someone does go to look up a particular piece of information, if there's something relevant on your site, they'll find it there. If you think about it, this is the ultimate indexing system. Microsoft has been trying to make this work in Windows for nearly a decade (remember the abomination called 'Find Fast' - not to mention their latest attempt, WinFS?) and failing miserably. Google handles it with all manner of grace and speed.

    So go ahead, put up that content. Put up as much content as you like. Someday, it's going to be just the thing somebody needs to read, and when they need it, they'll find it on your site.
    • I remember "Find Fast". It never really helped you find anything, but it sure did a good job of slowing your computer down/wearing out your hard drive. It would essentially read through EVERY file on your hard drive and try to index it. I'd say that most people never used this feature, but there it was consuming system resources.
  • On the front page of /., I'm not reading the sidebars, and I look at the slashboxes less than daily. I ignore the small print between title and story, and I'm ignoring the "Important Stuff" written below the box when I'm replying. I automatically skip the ads on the screen.

    I do that because I know my way around the site. Some sites have a much cleaner design, mostly Blogs(Memepool [memepool.com] for example), in which case I read like 98% of the page. Obviously this statistic varies.

  • by analog_line ( 465182 ) on Saturday May 24, 2003 @11:40PM (#6033778)
    ...that I got from an old boss.

    "The question you need to continue to ask yourself while writing anything is, 'Why should anyone care about what I'm writing.'"

    When I bother to ask myself that question, I generally avoid the embarassment of writing pointless drivel, either here or on the various sites I've put up. Haven't always kept it in mind, but last I checked I was still human, so that's not surprising.
  • Duh. Slashdot. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zapp ( 201236 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @12:01AM (#6033834)
    I don't know about the rest of you, but I only read comments ranged 4-5, and MAYBE 3 if it's a slow day. the rest of those comments go ignored, and bloating the /. database.

    if only people would check to see if someone had already posted the same thing, stay on topic, not flame, and once again ask 'does anyone want to read this'?

    I my self am breaking a few of those rules right now. I know this same comment has already been posted, and I know most of you don't care about it, AND... my bet is it doesn't break 3.
  • by ChilyWily ( 162187 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @12:04AM (#6033843) Homepage
    Simply put:

    - Producing good quality material takes time and patience.

    - People have always cranked out "information' that really isn't. The forms may have become different (e.g. powerpoint slides with spiffy animations) but the real substance is more often lost.
    + Couple this with an uncontrolled profit motives and the situation is even more appalling (as an example, just recall how many "technical" presentations are just sales pitches in disguise).

    - The abuse is much more rampant today as the good stuff is increasingly drowned out by the ever rising noise level.

    enough said :)
  • 70% is not bad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rigau ( 122636 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @12:05AM (#6033844)
    Im sure a much higher percent of books in libraries goes unread. It is not a bad thing. We hoard information because it is never certain when it will be usefull. There are tons of books from ancient grece that we can't find now because no one kept copies. we only knoe they existed because they are referenced in other books we did keep. tons of scholars would kill to get their hands on those books that are now lost.
  • Information overload? 70% of the Internet goes unread? Hell, I for one know I don't read any of the articles Slashdot links to! And judging from the /. crowd, most of like to make those linked articles part of the 70% and get directly to the Funny Comments (mmmm, Beowulf, Soviet Russia, hot grits, and 1.2.3. profit jokes!)
  • by Captain Beefheart ( 628365 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @12:11AM (#6033862)
    Rotten Tomatoes" [rottentomatos.com]
    Google News [google.com]
    Game Rankings [gamerankings.com]
    GameTab [gametab.com]

    I think sites like these are the future of info dissemination. I don't have the time to check out the separate game review and movie review watering holes. I have my local paper bookmarked, and BBC News, but all other news comes from Google. So on down the list. These meta-sites save a buttload of time and research.

    When I do my online shopping, I always look for customer ratings. Now, I don't have to. Instead of the opinions of fifty average joes, I have the opinions of fifty paid professionals. Now, before you come at me and say that those reviewers might be paid to say something good, I can say from experience that bought opinions aren't as prevalent as you think and least come without a slew of spelling and grammar mistakes.

    It's the wave of the future, like it or not. ve3d.com is fast becoming the unofficial hub of gaming news, despite the fact that you could fit its in-house content in a thimble and their admins' lack of journalistic ability is exposed on a daily basis.

    And honestly, how many of you have /. as your primary info source? It's great, don't get me wrong, but it's another example of a meta-site...one where many people don't even take the time to RTFA. Content is not king once you realize the threshold of human consumption. You just end up bowling people over with sound and fury. I don't have a cell phone, pager, or use IM, but I'm still overloaded by email. I have my primary email, my site registration email, my new primary since the old primary's shot through with spam, my work email, a website email, an alias for that website email...Then there are stock tickers, weather reports, sports scores, online banking...

    I think, however, that the worst element is spam. Not just unsolicited email, but telemarketing calls, junk mail, door-to-door, etc. Then there are TV commercials, radio commercials, print media commercials. It's advertising that kills. Something like 80% of all email in the US is unsolicited. How many dinners have you completed without a sales call? How many days have you gone without another credit card in the mail? Yadda, yadda, yadda, and I wonder how many even read this far.

  • Death by Email (Score:2, Insightful)

    by edwardwong ( 461086 )
    I pulled out some statistics from my email activity for the past two and a half years:

    Highest number of emails sent in one day: 14 May 2003, 26 emails
    Highest number of emails received in one day: 10 Jan 2003, 80 emails
    Average number of emails sent daily: 4.75 emails
    Average number of emails received daily: 15.2
    Total number of emails sent (to date): 1747
    Total number of emails received (to date): 11355
    Ratio of received to sent emails: 6.5 (ie. 1 email is sent for every 6.5 emails received)

    The above numbers a
  • by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @12:54AM (#6033965)
    "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?"

    Yes. Big Brother is very interested in consuming all of this information.

    Check this column for a summary if you don't have time -- and who has?
    Big Brother has the time, the skills, the manpower and the hardware.
    Google for Echelon, Carnivore, Patriot Act I & II,
    etc... There are hundreds of articles in yro.slashdot.org covering these issues.

    Keep the email flowing, it keeps Big Brother busy.....

  • What the article meant to say was that 70% of Slashdot posters don't actually read the article before posting to the thread...
  • Planning and Utility (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MourningBlade ( 182180 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @01:20AM (#6034021) Homepage

    Something about this article really set me off. Read if you're interested.

    First off, the only way to solve the "too much crufty information" is to implement a central planning system of some sort. This doesn't have to be a "central committee" or anything like that. It can be as simple as marketing types deciding what's cool and what's not. Then you'd have to deny people the ability to put up (or at least have linked to) what you consider "uncool."

    You'd have to do this to reduce the amount of cruft.

    Of course, we've seen the success of these restrictive planning systems.

    The funny thing is that the internet does this, after a fashion. Things that people aren't interested in are not linked to, and thus are far less likely to be found by search engines. If you wanted to eliminate cruft, you might just not pay attention to anything below a certain linking threshhold. It wouldn't be perfect, but it wouldn't be bad.

    Also, a note about receiving crufty emails. Yes, it happens. People send you the strangest, most useless crap all the time. We have a situation where I work where two or three secrataries dominate my inbox by inundating it with "word tips," "lost and found notices," and seminar announcements. It makes up about 1/4 of my non-automated email every day. Can't delete it because important stuff is sometimes in there.

    The problem is because the sender thinks that these things are important. Most likely, in her little microcosm, it is. If you ask a secretary the most important things about running an office, you'll probably get answers like "office supplies and appointments," or "maintaining a friendly atmosphere" (which they interpret to mean everyone helping everyone else).

    Of course, she's not alone. All of us have different priorities for running the business. I think that keeping the main fileserver and code repository running is a big thing. Surprise, surprise, that's my main job.

    I think the solution to many of these problems is not to filter the emails (though that certainly helps), nor is it to disallow the emails. I think the best solution is to provide an appropriate forum. A private usenet server is an excellent place to post seminar announcements. A web page or wiki is a great place to have end-users help end-users. Might also be a good spot to have that lost-and-found list.

    We've put up a wiki, and I'm introducing people to it, especially the serious email bombers (or maybe they're strafers?). We'll see how it works out.

    Another problem, of course, is making all of these tools available and usable in the right way without the tools consuming all of your work time. I don't know the solution to this, but I do think that proper tools and proper integration are the future path of the information world.

    Anyways, let me know what you think.

  • Anyone seen Johnny Mnemonic [vcsun.org] Sure it was just a movie made out of the RPG Shadowrun (IMO) but it was a fun little movie. The cause for NAS (nerve attenuation syndrome) is said by Spider to be information and technology overload. Just watch out for anyone with the black shakes, they are probably some white collar corporate grunt. Also watch out for the street preacher.
  • hmm (Score:3, Funny)

    by FunkSoulBrother ( 140893 ) on Sunday May 25, 2003 @03:08AM (#6034219)
    Despite that, when putting content on the web, "rarely do we ask the question: is anybody interested in reading that?"

    Oh.. kind of like radio.slashdot.org
  • Sure, if it's a commercial site with ads, you want max viewers. But the goal of offering a website isn't necessarily to get the most people to view it.

    In fact, one of the best things about the web to me is the number of small, specialized sites that are basically labors of love offered by enthusiastic amateurs. No ads, no Flash, just otherwise hard to find information brought together in one place.

    Another reason people have websites is simply to store their stuff somewhere - sort of an online archive that
  • Here's an idea (Score:2, Insightful)

    Think of the WWW as a huge, unedited encyclopedia that also includes porn, gambling, urban myths, lies, scams, the goatse guy, rants, conspiracy theories ... you get the idea. Now, let's say you go to the ATI website to download the updated drivers for your video card. Are you going to read the whole website? Hell, NO! You're only going to read what you absolutely have to to get the drivers. That people don't read everything on every site they visit is a sign of selectivity, nothing more.
  • So what...

    Google currently claims to be indexing around 3 billion pages. So if 70 % goes unread thats still about 1 billion pages that get read on a regular basis. That's amazing!

    The cost of publication on the internet is so low that it just makes sense to include everything including the kitchen sink. The key is good design heirarchy so that the esoteric stuff doesn't distract the casual reader.
  • Education to blame (Score:2, Insightful)

    by PRES_00 ( 657776 )
    Many english courses require you to write a specific
    number of words in your essay. This has taught us to write a lot of bs because it seems that quantity is more important than quality. Teachers usually don't care if the information is relevant or not as long as it stays in subject and that you formulate proper sentences. There's our influence!
  • 3. Learn to research better. Be thorough about what you do. According to a survey conducted last year, only one in 20 people will scroll to the second page of search results.

    *Better* researching indeed. Given multiple pages of results on Google (or another engine), I'd far rather submit a finer grained search than read every result. In fact, I rarely read past the first 5 entries of a search, but yet I don't often miss critical data.
  • I've seen an awful lot of web pages holding very little useful content (mostly stuff I accidently ran into while searching for something else), but they often seem to be put together by students learning HTML, or beginners simply excited they finally have a place they can call their own on the web.

    Even if someone writes a page nobody reads, who's to say the learning experience of building it wasn't useful or important? Besides, they're not carved in stone. If the author realizes his/her site isn't gettin
  • An endless supply of content ranging from banal trivia to awe-inspiring knowledge is why the Internet has become the modern equivalant of the Greek Oracle.

    There is literally no question that I can't Google an answer for within ten minutes. It really is the sum collection of all human knowledge and the idea of periodically "cleaning it up" is simply ridiculous.
  • I'm a Mac tech and I'm amazed at how many people out there have over 1000 messages in their in box (mostly unread) and have never set up the most basic filter. I go and show them how to set up a couple of filters and they think I'm some kind of email Odin, smiting spam with my spear and magic helmet. There's a reason I can charge $75.00/hour for basic setup.

    As for my own email, I have over 100 filters that sort out email lists, friends, humor, spam, etc. Even after being on vacation for 10 days, I was able
  • "Another day in the office, which, according to one recent study, consists of handling 46 phone calls, 25 emails, 16 voicemails, 23 items of post, eight inter-office memos, 16 faxes and nine mobile phone calls. While that sounds scary..."

    Does 25 emails a day sound "scary" to anyone? Sure those 46 phone calls are kind of off-putting (and I get 16 faxes a month, maybe), but this doesn't really sound that overloaded to me. I guess Aussies are just "barmy"...

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