motomatters

motomatters, 7 months ago to journalism

This is a spectacularly good analysis of why traffic referrals from social media have fallen off a cliff and what it means for publishers. This all comes out of what @pluralistic calls the enshittification of publishing, social media, and ads. People are tired of and overwhelmed by clickbait journalism. The answer, of course, is to provide actually good content, and present it well.

#content #journalism #media #SocialMedia

https://baekdal.com/strategy/the-future-trend-around-not-having-social-traffic-at-scale/84077F55DCCD4F3C875B8449020AD4F2BA4469560BCD0BE15EE758EC2010D078

What doesn't work is to produce even more crappy content. If Netflix did that, everyone would cancel their Netflix subscription. Instead, the winning strategy (which is not as easy as it sounds) is to produce really good content for bored people to watch. It's the same for magazines or newspapers. You can't fix this by creating more crappy content because the 'source' of traffic is not realistic. For instance, I see many who are saying that they will just use AI to produce a ton of low-quality crappy articles to have something for their bored audiences to see, often via SEO. But, it's only going to be a matter of time before Google de-ranks that type of content because none of it is what people want when they are searching for something they need.
And finally, we have the elephant in the room... which is advertising. The way advertising works today, for publishers, is fundamentally hostile to our future business model. Obviously there are different types of advertising, but the main culprit here is third-party programmatic display advertising. The problem with that model is that it's defined around scale and volume, and now that publishers are seeing a decline in that area, these third party ad networks are acting against our future strategies and revenue potentials. For instance, right now we see a lot of economic uncertainty that has caused brands to not only demand better results for less money, but also made brands very reluctant in terms of ad spending.

motomatters, 5 months ago to random

You've heard of Elf on a Shelf, how about a:

motomatters, 11 months ago to internet

I see that #Twitter has removed the Translate Tweet option completely now. Unpaid bills, I assume.

motomatters, 11 months ago to random

New on MotoMatters.com:
Mugello MotoGP Saturday Subscriber Notes: Seeking Excitement, Changing The Schedule, And Heading For 370
https://motomatters.com/analysis/2023/06/11/mugello_motogp_saturday_subscriber_notes.html
#MotoGP #MotoMatters

motomatters, 10 months ago to MotoGP

New on MotoMatters.com:
Editor's Blog: Assen Round Ups Will Be Late, But Long
https://motomatters.com/blog_entry/2023/06/26/editor_s_blog_assen_round_ups_will_be.html
#MotoGP #MotoMatters

motomatters, 11 months ago to random

Remember Pecco Bagnaia saying gaps between factory and satellite bikes needed to be bigger, like in the old days?

I first checked to see whether the gaps really were bigger before. Spoiler: they were. Much bigger.

And I explain how MotoGP got here, and why they can't solve the early lap danger easily. Because changing rules is hard.

#MotoGP

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2023/05/31/crunching_the_numbers_is_bagnaia_right.html

motomatters, 1 month ago to MotoGP

New on MotoMatters.com:
Paddock Pass Podcast Episode 395: Lawson? Rainey? Schwantz? Who Would Thrive In MotoGP Today
https://motomatters.com/podcast/2024/04/10/paddock_pass_podcast_episode_395_lawson.html
#MotoGP #MotoMatters

motomatters, 4 months ago to MotoGP

In 2023, MotoGP riders were given 24 warnings and time penalties for breaking tyre pressure rules. In 2024 riders will be disqualified for that. If that rule had applied in 2023, just how different would the championship have looked? I did the maths.

#MotoGP #Michelin

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2024/01/18/crunching_the_numbers_would.html

motomatters, 4 months ago to 13thFloor

I wrote a sub-300 word piece of microfiction about how wealth can't protect you from the passage of time.

#Fiction #Microfiction #SciFi #CliFi

https://emmett.nl/article/avatars-end

motomatters, 3 months ago to MotoGP

At the Ducati launch, I interviewed Davide Barana. He talked about how to make the Ducati even better, what motorcycle manufacturers have to learn about aerodynamics, the role of AI, and why success isn't as easy as just poaching engineers

#MotoGP #Ducati #AI #Aerodynamics

https://motomatters.com/interview/2024/01/29/ducati_technical_director_davide_barana.html

motomatters, 1 month ago to MotoGP

My preview of the Austin #MotoGP round is posted. Is Austin a good place for MotoGP? What makes COTA so weird? Can Marc Marquez regain his crown as king of COTA? Should we be looking out for Maverick Viñales? All this and more

#MotoGP #AmericasGP

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2024/04/11/austin_motogp_preview_deciphering_the.html

motomatters, 11 months ago to random

... if you gottum

motomatters, 7 months ago to MotoGP

Oriol Puigdemont, who is usually very well informed about these things, says Marc leaves Honda on his own. Nobody goes with him, not even Santi Hernandez. Ducati don't want engineers who could go elsewhere seeing the insides of their bike.

#MotoGP #Honda #MM93
https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/marc-marquez-will-leave-honda-motogp-team-for-gresini-ducati-in-2024/10528508/

motomatters, 6 months ago to theNetherlands

There are elections coming up in The Netherlands on 22/11, and there are too many parties to choose from. Over on my personal blog, I wrote a grifter-by-grifter guide to the depressing choices Dutch voters face.

#NLKiest #Elections #NL #TheNetherlands

https://emmett.nl/article/idiots-guide-dutch-elections

SGP If the ChristenUnie are the caring face of the Dutch Reformed Church, the SGP are the party of beating sinners into submission with a six-kilo hardback of the Statenbijbel, in all its 1618 Synod of Dordrecht glory. Like all biblical literalists, they pick and choose their favourite bits from the bible, and as it happens, those are the bits which forbid everything smacking of the vaguest hint of pleasure. To say that the religion of the SGP lacks joy is like saying that the surface of the sun is reasonably warm. And for the SGP, politics and religion are one and the same thing. To give you a sense of this: it was only in 1989 that the SGP changed its opposition to women voting. Women were barred from becoming members of the party until 2013, when they were forced to change their party rules by the Dutch equivalent of the Supreme Court. The SGP lost much of their charisma when the terminally dour Bas van der Vlies handed over leadership to Kees van der Staaij. But that mood remains: it would be wrong to call the SGP a party of hate; they are more a party of stern and severe disapproval and admonishment. Why vote for SGP: because you regard the Taliban as dangerously liberal Why vote against SGP: because you think women should be allowed to leave the house sometimes
NSC The Nieuw Sociaal Contract party of Pieter Omtzigt describes itself as centre right. That is true, I suppose, if you take extreme right wing policies and some left wing policies and average them out. Omtzigt is the latest in a long line of right-wing populist parties to spring from the polder on a seemingly biannual basis. Like a cross between Hydra and Ourobouros, every time a new right-wing populist party emerges, it cannibalises the one that came before it. The BBB arose to eat the lunch of the FvD, and now NSC is sucking the life out of the BBB. It’s the populist political party version of the human caterpillar. Omtzigt’s principal political belief appears to be a profound and enduring belief that Pieter Omtzigt should be party leader. He left the CDA in a huff when he was robbed of the leadership by establishment fave Hugo de Jonge in 2020. (He was not the only one: the other candidate, Mona Keijzer, also fled, to the BBB.) His speciality is in feigning disinterest in leadership until forced into it by others. He wasn’t going to set up a political party, until he did. Now he’s claiming he doesn’t want to be PM if the NSC is the biggest party, so it’s odds on he will put himself forward - Reluctantly! Because his voters have asked him! Because the moment demands it! - when the time comes. Populism really is just sparkling opportunism.

motomatters, 5 months ago to MotoGP

Saturday MotoGP Valencia Round up posted:

How the championship keeps swinging between Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin.

Marc Marquez' last shot at a podium.

And the trouble with tyre pressures

#MotoGP #Valencia

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2023/11/26/valencia_motogp_saturday_sprint_round_up.html

motomatters, 5 months ago to climate

For engineering geeks, the Maeslantkering, the storm defence flood barrier just west of Rotterdam, has been closed automatically due to a storm for the first time in its history. Two giant gates floated out, turning on the largest ball bearings on the planet. Exciting stuff.

The Maeslantkering features in the Neal Stephenson CliFi novel Termination Shock, for those who have read it.

#Maeslantkering #climate #Flood

https://nos.nl/artikel/2502459-maeslantkering-automatisch-gesloten-voor-het-eerst-vanwege-hoogwater

motomatters, 8 months ago to random

So a while ago, I mentioned I was writing a review of my BMW R1250GS Adventure. Well, I finally got around to finishing it.

It is mostly very positive, but with some trenchant criticism as well.

And it's long. Really long.

https://emmett.nl/article/14000-km-bmw-r1250gs-adventure-it-any-good

motomatters, 9 months ago to MotoGP

The thing about having 5 weeks off racing is you sort of forget what happened. Here's a recap of the weirdness of the first 8 races in 2023, plus a brief look at Silverstone.

#MotoGP #BritishGP

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2023/08/03/2023_motogp_season_recap_and_silverstone.html

motomatters, 8 months ago to MotoGP

One of the things that struck me most in Austria was the frankness with which Alex Rins and Pol Espargaro talked about the long-term consequences of the massive injuries they sustained this year.

So I wrote about the unseen pain which riders go through. They lie awake, unable to sleep, knowing that the pain isn't going away.

#MotoGP #PE44 #AR42

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2023/08/25/the_aftermath_pol_espargaro_and_alex.html

motomatters, 9 months ago to MotoGP

You thought Honda's 5-cylinder 125 RC149 was radical? Try a 50cc V12 four stroke
#engine #MotoGP #motorcycle

https://youtu.be/Zt1gttIhtZY

motomatters, 8 months ago to Cruise

On my personal blog, I wrote about how robotaxis represent the enshittification of mobility. They represent a spectacular failure of imagination on the part of Silicon Valley techbros, whose only answer to every question is 'just add software!'. Invariably, the wrong answer.

I point out that 15-minute cities actually benefit people who want to drive, by removing unwilling drivers from the roads.

#RoboTaxis #Cruise #WayMo #mobility #15MinuteCities

https://emmett.nl/article/robotaxis-silicon-valleys-spectacular-failure-imagination

motomatters, 10 months ago to Geology

Today I learned about the geological formation called tempestite, laid down in the past by tropical storms.

#geology #paleotempestology

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempestite

motomatters, 1 year ago to random

One perhaps for the @TheWarOnCars

In my Dutch newspaper, a story about someone researching colonialism and missionaries to Africa in the early 20thC. Up until the end of WWI, the missionary reports are incredibly vivid and detailed. Then after 1920, they suddenly became much thinner.

The reason? Previously, missionaries had traveled by cart, slowly and with locals, meeting and talking to them.

Cars meant they traveled faster, slept in their cars, met fewer locals.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/toen-mijn-bronnen-uit-afrika-opraakten-kwam-ik-tot-een-verrassend-inzicht~b7015e9a/

motomatters, 17 minutes ago to MotoGP

New on MotoMatters.com:
Barcelona MotoGP Friday Round Up: Grip Gone Missing, Espargaro's Mindset, And Why The Ducati GP24 Is Suddenly Better Than The GP23
https://motomatters.com/analysis/2024/05/24/barcelona_motogp_friday_round_up_grip.html
#MotoGP #MotoMatters

motomatters, 16 minutes ago to MotoGP

Friday round up posted:

• grip, and whether Barcelona needs resurfacing

• Aleix Espargaro's retirement serenity

• The GP24 is better than the GP23 for the first time

• Acosta puts journalists in their place

• Honda and Yamaha new aero

#MotoGP #BarcelonaGP

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2024/05/24/barcelona_motogp_friday_round_up_grip.html