The Rise And Fall Of Plastic.com
from the it's-still-alive? dept
I remember reading about Plastic.com when it launched and thinking "uh oh". There was way too much hype for what really was yet another weblog sort of thing. Sure it had some "big" names behind it, but they were the types of big names who thought their own names were a lot bigger than most other people thought their names were. And, as always, I get nervous when any venture launch involves focusing on the "who" and not the "what". I visited it for a couple of weeks and then gave up. It wasn't that interesting or that insightful - and always seemed a step slower than other, smaller, sites. I haven't visited it since. I had thought it was shut down when Automatic Media shut down that Plastic would just go away, but it turns out that Carl Steadman (who I actually usually do find interesting and insightful) ended up buying it. Online Journalism Review has the story of the rise and fall of Plastic.com, which I think is a bit misleading - because it assumes that it really rose. I remember hearing all the hype about it when it launched, but never has anyone suggested to me that Plastic was a "must read".
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
TechDicks
Suck Rocks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I love Techdirt
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: TechDicks
..you're right about one thing though: Suck does indeed rock. but Plastic is no Suck now, is it? let's see: take the smarmy hipster attitude of Suck, add an unhealthy dose of irrational liberalism, subtract insightful commentary, and devide by an enormous audience of overeducated fanboy nitwits. take this mess and hammer it into Slash code. congratulations, you've got Plastic. woo-hoo, now i can spend hours constructing a political argument so irrelevent white 20-somethings can vote me up or down! *sigh*, to think the crew that mercilisly mocked the stupidity of Slashdot went on the recreate it.
..techdirt, on the other hand, consistently informs, amuses, and interests me. plus, they spend alot of time mocking the stupid for my amusement. remember when you used to do that Joey, instead of providing a forum for them?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: TechDicks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Soft Landing?
I read Plastic sometimes, and other than not having a cross-linking agreement with some other dot-bomb on every page, the content doesn't seem any different than before their so-called fall. Perhaps there's a lesson in there somewhere.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Soft Landing?
[ link to this | view in thread ]