Scott Adams To Try Crowdsourcing Dilbert's Jokes?
from the can't-wait-to-see-dogbert's-take dept
While I've had my own minor run in with Dilbert-creator Scott Adams, I remain a fan of the strip. Adams has always received many of his ideas for the strip from readers, incorporating them into the storylines and jokes. Now, it looks like he's taking that idea even further: letting his fans write the comics themselves. Late last week, the Dilbert.com website got a massive makeover, which upset many folks, in particular for its wide use of flash. It also broke the "unofficial" RSS feed that someone had created for Dilbert comic strips -- though the Dilbert people (finally!) realized it wasn't such a bad idea to offer one of their own. While the new site may be a bit flash-heavy and annoying to manage, it's quite interesting to see that one of the features on the site will be to allow fans of the strip to write their own punchline, filling in the text for the final frame. Eventually, this will extend to filling in the text of the whole cartoon. While there are no official plans to publish any of the results, Adams seems curious to see what pops out. He even admits the realities of copyright when it comes to these cartoons (which is amusing, since the argument we had was over copyright), telling News.com:"We're accepting the realities of IP on the Internet, and trying to get ahead of the curve. People already alter Dilbert strips and distribute them. If we make it easy and legal to do so, and drive more traffic to Dilbert.com in the process, everyone wins. Plus it's a lot of fun to see what people come up with in the mashups."Even though there is something of a filter in place, it's likely that (as with other such efforts) some of the results will push the boundaries of tastelessness. Still, once you get past that, it will be worth seeing how much this impacts Adams' work. The suggested punchlines could influence future strips, or Adams may eventually do something interesting with those alternative panels. Of course, the whole thing could fail miserably, but it'll still be fun to watch the experiment in action.
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Filed Under: comic strips, crowdsourcing, dilbert, scott adams
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Since there is little likely hood of the idiots who made this mess straightening it out I have had little alternative but to remove Dilbert from my Toons bookmarks. Said but no more daily Dilbert for me; If I can not read it I can not read it.
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Fan submissions
What we have just begun to do is to implement a separate section where we publish strips written by the fans and acknowledge their contribution. We give them due credit, but keep the fan-scripted strip separate from our weekly run. Something like this would be interesting and enjoyable for Dilbert.
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Works in IE7
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Web Site Mess
> massive makeover, which upset many folks, in
> particular for its wide use of flash.
That's a bit of an understatement. They've gone an "improved" the site to where it's almost unusable. Two out of the three computers I use regularly won't even load it.
Thankfully one can still access the daily Dilbert strip at United Media's site in the old reliable format without all the ridiculous new bells and whistles.
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/
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Re: Web Site Mess
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Not just the website
The unitedmedia website is still available but I will not be surprised if it goes away before too long.
This is the same Scott Adams whose RSS feed went from full stories to twenty-word summaries as an "improvement."
How sad that the creator of Dilbert doesn't get the internet.
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BTW...
Not only is everything you create their property, but any disputes will be settled with mandatory arbitration.
Really looking to pack the maximum amount of evil into the smallest possible package.
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Fail Miserably?
I'm really not sure how the whole thing could fail miserably? I think he has the right idea. Provide the blanks to fill in on the official site and potentially get more visitors. If the feature is seldom used, what does he lose? I guess the only thing that could be an issue is how much tasteless material is added (as you already said) but fail miserably?
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"By participating in this glorified fanfiction contest you explicitly waive your right to file cease and desist orders, sue for theft of intellectual property, bitch about it on your LiveJournal or go and set the Artist's house on fire if he shamelessly plunders your entries for any good gags. And no, you don't get a cut if the result turns up in the omnibus either, but you'll be mentioned by name if you behave yourself."
And take it from the guy who writesare some so don't even start!- are pretty okay with this.
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@Jake
Write what you want and do what you want to do with it.
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The new site
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Re: The new site
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Firefox is saying something
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Dilbert new Website
The first day of the new site found me unable to load it, however, that apparently was the problem of the new site.
Subsequently, I've been able to load it and while I more or less appreciate the colorized version, I have no use for any of the other parts of the site.
I use IE7 and have the latest Flash update.
I can only hope that they have an appreciation for the criticisms of the new site, and make user friendly changes.
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What is left?!?
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Dilbert Hole anyone?
I'm sure you can find The Dilbert Hole with a google search. Be warned, it's very NSFW. (Did I mention it was hilarious?)
Yup, here ya go...
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