X-Surface: don't believe everything you read - Polidicks

[B][url]http://x-surface.tumblr.com/[/url][/B] [quote]I am a gamer. I don’t work for Microsoft. I, like most other gamers, am sick of seeing endless rumours and speculation citing “anonymous sources” or “insiders” with no evidence, no proof, no guarantee that they’ve been fact-checked or can be relied on. The games industry is the only one I can think of that will quite happily publish guesswork as news. So-called ‘analysts’ are no different - they make money by guessing. They’re about as much use as a ‘source’ as I am. So let’s see how easy it is to be a ‘source’. At 1:41am GMT today I sent out an email to a bunch of gaming sites claiming to be a Microsoft employee working on the new Xbox. I made up every single word of it along with a couple of specs copied from other rumours that have been appearing on the Internet. This was a bit of an experiment to see just how easy it is to get a fake story taken seriously. And it is shockingly easy in the games industry. The outbox of my anonymous email account: [t]http://i.imgur.com/IMXFux5.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/9QNIQBy.png[/t] By 9:58am GMT, it was already ‘in the news’. Pocket-Lint.com were the first to run with the news, almost exactly one hour after saying “we have to make an effort to validate”; two hours before I got the chance to reply. It was posted with zero validation, no fact-checking, no source information. Just a simple email basically saying “I work for Microsoft - believe me?”. I feel bad for lying, but it proves the point very well. [B]The spread begins.[/B] And this is where we come to the most important part: it’s not just that it was easy to get a site to publish the non-news… it’s also the fact that every other site will then leech the information. As if linking to the original site absolves them of the need to check up on the sources. Not to mention the Chinese whisper effect. I have listed below many different links to sites that took this news from Pocket-Lint.com: have a read through each one and play spot the difference. There is always at least one bit of information that was changed, mistranslated (even on English sites) or not mentioned at all. This is no way to run a ‘news’ website. How would people react if they found out the BBC got all their news third-hand from a copied article that had been changed twice along the way? It is not reliable. No other industry works like this. Why do we accept it on gaming sites? [B]At the time of writing, my fake news is appearing on major sites such as:[/B] Yahoo [url]http://uk.news.yahoo.com/xbox-720-just-called-xbox-hub-x-surface-095800010.html[/url] CNET [url]http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/the-names-xbox-just-xbox-and-this-is-my-friend-x-surface-50010233/[/url] Gizmodo [url]http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/microsofts-new-xbox-will-be-accompanied-by-x-surface-gaming-tablet/[/url] Venturebeat [url]http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/23/xbox-720-may-just-be-named-xbox-to-help-power-x-surface-tablet/[/url] Tech Digest [url]http://www.techdigest.tv/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.fcgi?blog_id=2&tag=X-Surface&limit=20[/url] VG247 [url]http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/23/xbox-720-to-simply-be-called-xbox-x-surface-gaming-tablet-inbound/[/url] NowGamer [url]http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1778450/xbox_720_to_be_named_xbox_support_for_xsurface_tablet.html[/url] And many more. This Google search shows the global reach this non-news has been getting over the past 6 hours (at the time of writing). [B]This is not journalism.[/B] Many games ‘journalists’ have no right calling themselves such things. The vast majority do nothing but copy & paste from other sites, and will willingly publish information without fact checking a single thing or attempting to verify the source. It’s all about being first. To get such news out (whether you believe it or not) before any other publication does, will guarantee you page impressions, and that all-important advertising revenue. Gaming ‘journalism’ is completely broken. By tagging a post with ‘rumour’, most writers/editors believe they can get away with spreading false information for their own benefits. They are the only ones to gain from such practices, whilst the gaming fans end up with speculation and, sometimes, outright lies. [B]TL;DR - Until Microsoft/Sony announce something: don’t believe even the most reputable gaming sites.[/B][/quote]

Didn't something like this happen when some guy spread rumors about a google phone?

That's really clever. Just proves that you shouldn't believe everything the gaming sites say.

otherwise, lets wait for E3

[QUOTE=macotaco;39331762]Didn't something like this happen when some guy spread rumors about a google phone?[/QUOTE] yeah but that had a reasonably legit-looking 3D render and stuff along with it. This is just a guy making stuff up without any kind of evidence to back it up.

That is very impressive and informative. But surely its common sense to only believe something is true once you have heard it officially from a developer..

Legendary. Good work, hopefully they change their ways.

Most people that work for these online gamingmagazines are like regular bloggers. Just a tiny advice for you Max, use the quotetags. Without them so will it look like for some people like you wrote everything. EDIT: Even if you did so still, use them.

twist: it's actually true, and this thread and that tumblr is a hoax to see how easy it is to get legit news branded as a hoax

Pure win.

Hey it's like the time that guy did the exact same thing with a fake mobile phone he rendered. Still, good job.

Remember that the "don't believe everything you read" applies to Facepunch news posts too. You guys seriously believe that they could fake this that easily, just from a quote on a forum? [sub][sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]:P[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

[QUOTE=Uber|nooB;39331870]twist: it's actually true, and this thread and that tumblr is a hoax to see how easy it is to get legit news branded as a hoax[/QUOTE] hah, was about to post that :v: somebody did the exact same thing with Android rumors some time ago, it was pretty amusing. You just keep on pretending and it works

And that's why I don't follow the news. I treat what I see here in SH as a mere story to discuss because I can't trust a word of it to be true, and I don't even watch the TV news because it's just as bad.

[QUOTE=grr164;39331840]Legendary. Good work, hopefully they change their ways.[/QUOTE] They won't, games "journalism" as said in the article is almost completely founded on who will get the most page views, and in turn who gets the most ad revenue from said page views.

'gaming/tech journalism' 99% of cases this phrase is an oxymoron

[QUOTE=Uber|nooB;39331870]twist: it's actually true, and this thread and that tumblr is a hoax to see how easy it is to get legit news branded as a hoax[/QUOTE] Obviously, that's what they want you to think so they can cover up their leak.

Very illuminating on gaming journalism (which I wasn't a fan of beforehand anyway). Here's a conversation with one journalist from CVG who called out the person behind this on his bullshit. (warning, large images) [IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBUHkR1CEAA-vtV.jpg:large[/IMG] [IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBUHq7LCUAAQOTZ.jpg:large[/IMG] [IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBUHvdUCUAAIOAf.jpg:large[/IMG] [IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BBUHz1XCEAErX7r.jpg:large[/IMG]

That CVG dude's being pretty professional, what a joke.

[QUOTE=Shadaez;39341843]That CVG dude's being pretty professional, what a joke.[/QUOTE] Yeah, sounds like is just same as hole who wanted to see how many people he could trick rather than make any meaningful points about journalism.

Wow the hoaxer wrote some pretty untrue stuff about his convo with the CVG editor, is this another part of the don't trust what you read test or is he just trying to be a dick.

[QUOTE=usaokay;39341807]lol[/QUOTE] What a dick. One thing to make a point about game news, another to simply game people's jobs for fun.