The Internet Plague; The Art of Copy and Paste
Posted by Dave Walsh on March 31st, 2009
If you are here, reading this, you probably read a lot of Mixed Martial Arts sites. You might have a RSS viewer, a Google Homepage or you just know the sites you read by heart and read them every day. Total MMA is not a site for you to come and scope out the latest news tidbits or to hear some rumor. Honestly, our hearts are not in the concept of reporting news, or more aptly, copying and pasting news and trying to present it in an original yet uninspired manner.
There is no bullshit here, because, honestly, you can get bullshit anywhere. Easily, you can read something on here and declare it bullshit, that is your opinion. But it is what we, fans of MMA find interesting or is on our minds. When I check my feeds every day, there are only a few sites that I check, do you know why? Because every site has the same information from the same sources saying the same thing. What does this remind me of? It reminds me of how the internet was in the late 90’s and early 00’s when it came to pro wrestling sites.
Copy and paste sites ran rampant. If you wanted your news, you could type in any pro wrestling related domain you could imagine and it would most likely pull up a site with poorly Photoshopped banners of half naked men and women that look like men in bikinis, pop ups, banner ads and feeds of worthless news and rumors. The news more or less originated from a few trusted sources, and ended up filtering down to every other site that had no original ideas or opinions. Funny enough, one of those sources is one of the only real sources in Mixed Martial Arts right now; Dave Meltzer.
Sure, there were sites like 411 and Lords of Pain that had lots of “columns” posted by internet fans under their super secret/cool screen names, but what did it matter? Sites like this (they still exist, actually) were presenting you with an overload of information from the nameless and faceless fans on the internet. It doesn’t matter if people enjoyed their writing or thought it was garbage, there was an excess and most of it was worthless. In the end, it doesn’t matter what a guy named “Phantom Lord” or “NetCop” thinks about guys fake fighting each other. What you were getting were the same, recycled opinions presented to you in somewhat different voices.
It is well over ten years after the boom of these pro wrestling websites, and instead of pro wrestling, Mixed Martial Arts is the new fad. There are sites that will argue their importance when their very existence is posting news tidbits from other websites and sources. A big and possibly the only difference is that most MMA sites understand common courtesy and provide credit and a link to the original story. Other than this common courtesy, we have reached a point where you can type in any term related to Mixed Martial Arts, add a .com or .net, and you’ll find yourself at a site with poor Photoshopping, banner ads and the same news as you’ll find anywhere else. You’ll also find hard-hitting “opinions” from the nameless, faceless posters, and you’ll also notice that they don’t vary too much from site to site.
So if the internet right now is full of MMA sites that seem like clones of each other, just like pro wrestling sites in the late 90’s, which ones set themselves apart? This is in no way the only sites that do, but simply the ones that reside on my Google homepage.
While I don’t always agree with him or the things he values, Zach Arnold’s FightOpinion is a site that I check daily. Zach cuts through the bullshit and speaks his mind. Sometimes he is way off or grasping at straws, other times he is spot on. No matter what, he is going to present you with something interesting. He also has an impressive set of sidebars with links to sites of interest. This could really be the only site you need to visit if you don’t mind Zach and the numerous regular posters, such as the incredulous-in-the-face-of-anything-not-Zuffa 45 Huddle or the alarmist Ivan Trembow.
Fightlinker is another site that is hard to ignore. Sometimes there are some bad ideas, like introducing a pay-to-comment service and urinating in a CD spindle as to not interrupt an interview with a fighter on the phone. Fightlinker is a site with a much needed sense of humor in a world of self-important MMA “reporting.” The opinions can of course be hit or miss, but even the best of sites will be hit or miss. What is important is that you can read Fightlinker and not feel like you are wasting your time or getting nothing but regurgitated junk.
Nightmare of Battle not only has the best name of any MMA site in history, but is a great resource for Japanese MMA. Mainly covers the big league Japanese promotions of SENGOKU and DREAM, but also goes into depth on DEEP, SHOOTO and so on, usually as long as it involves fighters who will end up in the big leagues or are “slumming it” in a smaller promotion.
One of the most obvious and also most ridiculous is Yahoo! Sports. Home of aging boxing commentator and UFC mouthpiece Kevin Iole, Steve Cofield’s entertaining and often-insulted MMA blog and most importantly, Dave Meltzer’s columns on MMA. Regardless of your opinion on any of the three, they make Yahoo!’s MMA site a must-read.
There are of course sites like Sherdog who have risen to the top due to simply attrition as well as their massive records database and FiveOncesOfPain that land some impressive interviews and feature some interesting commentary, but they really don’t need any real mention.
At this point I sincerely doubt that any of this will get any better. I doubt that the internet will suddenly one day be full of interesting and unique MMA coverage. The only real direction we can look forward to is eventually people will get bored, get sick of copying and pasting for little real return, pack up and leave. Rise above the filth and support the sites with a sense of integrity, unique opinions and just the ones that you enjoy viewing or enjoy the community at.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:47 am
Flattery and backhanded compliments will get you nowhere.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:13 am
tbqh erryone should get their news from meltzer and then reasoned analysis from the fine minds here at total-mma.com
April 1st, 2009 at 8:04 am
Excellent piece of work that echoes my own opinion.
Look around some MMA sites’ archives: there is nothing there that can’t be had from 100 – if not 1,000 - other sources. I’ve heard the blogosphere called the “Great Echo Chamber”. This label has never been truer when you look at the MMA side of it. I used to check the big two MMA news sites on an almost daily basis. Until recently, I also subscribed to the RSS feeds of several MMA-themed blogs. I used to chuckle when a new story would pop up on, oh, say MMAWeekly and 15 minutes later it would spread around the blogosphere with a few rearranged sentences, usually with the word EXCLUSIVE somewhere in the post title… with no link back to the original news story.
And, with a few notable exceptions, there is a complete lack of true opinion pieces out there.
And I think that’s because many people misunderstand the true purpose and value of an opinion article. On one hand, it’s about building credibility and demonstrating understanding and expertise. One the other, and I think this is far more important, creating an opinion article presents yourself as the thought leader. Speaking with authority, building that authority on a clear set of points leading to the point you’re trying to make, and then making that genuinely new or innovative angle that your reader should remember when he or she gets to the end.
In short, it’s about having an opinion.
Something sorely lacking in the ‘cut-and-paste’ culture out there.
Thanks for the read.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I will give you all the relevant news for the upcoming week: one douches punches other douche for little to no cash. Bad clothing abounds. More fuckable chicks than wrestling has in the crowd.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 am
Hey Dave,
Some of my posts are cut & paste but my best posts are better than anything you’ve ever done and the cut & paste posts are the reason my other stuff has an audience.
Kid Nate
April 2nd, 2009 at 8:27 am
The fact you’ve replied while not anywhere near being called out means you are hella insecure. I’m pretty sure I never attacked you, personally, anywhere, so this is lol-worthy.
“…but my best posts are better than anything you’ve ever done…” — seriously? Are you fucking 12?
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
I also want to add, does having an audience mean complete lack of basic grammar and basic writing techniques? Jesus. I thought that I was bad sometimes, but at least I come across as a dude who at one point was educated.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Fightopinion is the only MMA news site I need. How do you think I found this article?
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Exactly. Zach has enough feeds on the side to a variety of different kinds of sites. From Kid Nate’s disasterpiece to the caustic ones like this. It is all there.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Who is Kid Nate? Link? He seems like he will be THE BEST MMA JOURNALIST!!!
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Hmm, that came off more dickish than I meant it. I also mistakenly assumed you had written the previous post bashing BE.
But while I’m behind, can you point me to an actual good post you’ve written about MMA?
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:46 am
I have no misconceptions about anything I write about dudes slugging each other in the face for money, all trying to win the heart of a bald homophobe.
If you want you can read some back things I’ve done like everybody else.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
This is the most “internet” of all internet flame wars. Which of you is the keyboard warrior and who lives in their mom’s basement? For those wondering, this is by far Dave’s best piece:
http://www.total-mma.com/2008/12/21/reviewed-total-mma-by-jonathan-snowden/
And this is Kid Nate’s:
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/1/3/707631/bloody-elbow-book-review-t
Buy often!
Also, a hearty lol to the whole thing.
April 3rd, 2009 at 8:13 pm
i am a better writer than everyone else here. just saying.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I don’t even write shit and I’m better than Andrew.
So fuck you all!