Shameless Corporate Mobile Plug

I’d just like to thank a moment to say how awesome I’ve been these past few years and how much awesomer I plan to become in the future.
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I know the quality of my awesomeness has diminished in the eyes of some, and the cost to you of my awesomeness has increased significantly (due to a violent drop in individuals subscribing to my awesomeness), but things are going to get better.
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For instance, a new iPad application that connects you directly with my awesomeness, will only cost you $5/week! The advantages are so eco-awesome (no ink stain, saving trees, diminished effort going to the trash bin!) that you’ll forget that you’ll actually be paying $240/yr more for this eco-awesome digital connection to my awesomeness.
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In conclusion, your appreciation of what makes me awesome is awesome. Check it out today!
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PS. And it helps to keep the lights on.

(though, frustratingly, without the comments)
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Nice snark.

Michael Scherer:
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Swampland (though, frustratingly, without the comments).
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To whom do we go to inform them of this incredible, dreadful display of business incompetence?
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I’ve been Tweeting things like this for a year:

@TIMESwampland Once again I hate your mobile product for not displaying commentary along w/posts. Whoever is fine w/this policy is an ass.

, but it seems as if a nameless, faceless bureaucracy is staring back from the void of that Twitter account.
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You do understand that we can’t even access the normal, non-mobile Swampland page through a mobile browser, right? You know that your server looks at the page request, figures out that it’s coming from an iPhone or another mobile device’s browser, and then sends down the Mobile version of the page, whether I want it or not?
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I’d be using the Mobile app every few minutes during certain portions of the day, and thus being exposed to TIME’s advertisers, if it weren’t for this miserable oversight. Who would think that this policy would be acceptable for users, or useful for building an enthusiastic, dedicated, engaged, interactive blog audience?
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Why should I, enjoying the convenience of my mobile device, click twenty times a day on a web page containing a post that I’ve already finished, if not to check for updated commentary?
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Don’t the pro writers understand that the demand for new content from them is proportionately less, when we in commentary are providing new things to read, and new reasons to click throughout the day and night, minute my minute, hour after hour? Wouldn’t they appreciate less of a burden placed on them for constantly updated content? Hasn’t anything been mentioned in some meeting, somewhere?
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Don’t the folks in charge of this blog understand that there’s a 20-or-so/7 conversation going on here, and that’s the reason to keep clicking and refreshing any given Swampland entry page? Do those responsible have any idea what a blog actually is, or why one would choose to access a blog on a mobile device?
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To whom may I direct my suggestions for remedying this shocking level of blogging failure, Michael Scherer?

The complaint has been filed. Not sure why it has not been remedied. You are of course right.

What Stuart said.

and with fewer words.

I have resisted getting a smart phone, but am going to have to deal with this sooner or later. If Swampland comments were available that would help to push me along. I usually turn off my desktop during the evening, but the last couple have had such entertaining conversations (in response to your 1,000 Words, MS) that if I had a smart phone I would be inclined to check in – if there were comments.

Fewer words — comments, me too!

I very, very, very much appreciate your response to commentary that I would not have been able to see, had I been accessing Swampland from a mobile device at the time, Michael Scherer.
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Thank you so much, I’m absolutely sincere.

SZ wouldn’t be SZ without the lengthy answers anymore than I would be me without the tastetless snarks. I’m grateful we all are who we are.

“Shameless Corporate Mobile Plug”
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Now that the door has been opened…I like KitchenAid products. Our stove, refrigerator, freezer, mixer, microwave oven and blender are all KitchenAid. I also like the Beatles (and the tons of memorabilia I have), the Goodman whole house airconditioning and heat pump we had installed in 2009, my John Deere tractor, my Dodge Avenger, the Samsung 67″ widescreen DLP tv upstairs, the Pfizer faucets that my wife insisted on (I thought they were a little overpriced but they look really nice) and I love Blue Bunny ice cream. If you want shameless plugs, I got em’.

So many other sites make comments accessible on apps and mobile browsers. I don’t understand Time’s failure to do the same.

Time is also losing a unique opportunity. The technological playing field for mainstream news organizations is no longer even. Some organizations have amazing apps or well-designed sites for mobile browsers, and that quality is a factor I consider when deciding which sites to visit.

Eventually Time and other more technologically backwards news organizations will catch up, and once again the playing field will be roughly even. But how many people will be regular readers of Time’s competitors at that point?

18 and over, entertainment purposes only

Oh no! No comments! Now you will have to talk to actual people that might know your real name. Thanks. Matt Yarusso.

SZ, that may be the shortest response I’ve ever seen you make. Just out of curiosity, have you ever lost it on somebody that demanded a “yes” or “no” answer? I’m kidding of course.

My real name is Harry Bottomdanglenuts but for obvious reasons I post under something else.

But the other sites may not use Word Press the Wonderful as a base.

Better handle than Harry Palms, though. At least more picturesque and descriptive.

I don’t know if many other people my age (55) are hesitant about getting those new toys like I am because almost all of the guys I work with that are younger are always buying new models and talking about new features that they want. I realize that progress marches on and that those things are considered indespensible, but I’ve never even bought a cellphone and yet somehow I’m still alive.
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Just last week the guy I’m working with forgot his cellphone and had his wife drive 18 miles just to drop it off at work and she wasn’t even mad. I don’t understand the reliance on the those things. Half the time during lunch I sit outside at the picnic table and eat by myself or with one other guy because everyone else is talking or texting on their cellphones. I don’t think it’s really a good thing to be so addicted.

It’s really just Mike, but that doesn’t have a zing to it.

This is the absolute truth: I only come here for the comments. I doubt I’m the only one.

I think most of us come here for the interaction and the chance to see what other people from various parts of the country say is really going on. Most of us have little faith in polls and would rather hear what people actually say rather than rely on leading questions asked by organizations with an agenda. It can also be a real hoot too because some of these people have elevators that don’t make the run to the top floor anymore.
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I don’t know if you caught my welcome when I returned several days ago so…welcome to swampland perry.

Ivy_B, good point. Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised!
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sacredh, My mom is about your age and she’s much more interested in new technology than I am.
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I worry that taking the internet wherever we go will make us chronically distracted and eventually shorten our attention span. I just don’t know if our brains can handle these constant temptations to switch our focus to something else. And what about children who grow up checking facebook every five minutes at the dinner table?
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If I ever have kids, I’m going to be that mom who forbids fun technology that all my kids’ friends have! And my mom will be sneaking them smart phones behind my back…

rose, it’s good to see you commenting again. Your voice was missed. I’m not anti-technology by any stretch of the imagination. I have dvd recorders in both living rooms, I have three computers set up (and sometimes running simultaneously doing different things) in the library and 6 tv’s (five with surround sound systems). It’s just that I feel that cellphones have a dehumanizing aspect that I feel is more detrimental than is worthwhile. My son and his friends hang out at our house frequently and it makes me crazy if we’re trying to watch a movie and the cellphones go off and the texting begins.
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If they start that I just hit the pause and stare at them until they put them away or leave the room. If they do get up and ask if I mind putting it on pause while they answer the phone I ask if the call is an emergency. If they say no then I say that yes I do mind. I have no problem being just as rude as they are.
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I think you’re wise to consider limiting the potential children’s use of technology. When a child plays games and only does it on video games, the problem becomes a lifelong habit.

I think I posted here a year or so ago that my wife and I were at the movies and during a quiet part a person down front was laughing and talking on a cellphone. I yelled “WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT THAT F**KING THING OFF OR ELSE TAKE IT OUT INTO THE GODDAMNED HALL?” Everybody in there applauded and the person left.

Hear hear.. Finally I can make an on-topic rant about this “no comments” situation.
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But I’ll pass and I reserve my judgement on how awesome Time.com is.. until I can see Swampland comments on my iPhone.
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I’ve had more cases of people sitting next to me and texting than actually talking on their cells during a movie. But that can be worse because if I told them to stop, I would be disturbing people who hadn’t been disturbed by the texting. I try glaring but it hasn’t been effective.
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I also really appreciated the guy sitting next to me who expressed his approval of the leading actress’ appearance by whispering “Hot” every time there was a close-up of her or any scene where she wore slightly fewer clothes. Every. Single. Time.

For the ultimate in horrific public theater experience stories: “I Will Never Go To The Court Street Movie Theater Again”
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http://tinyurl.com/ygvygnw

Thanks for the link SZ. I think we’ve all had a movie experience from hell story. As for Paranormal Activity, I hated that movie. I didn’t think it was scary. I didn’t like the main characters. I WANTED something to happen to them. After I had bought a copy, I was telling the guys at work about it. A couple wanted to borrow it. I gave it one of them and told them I never wanted to see it again. Not ever. Under any circumstances.