p2pnet.net news:- I promised I’d do a post on the results of p2pnet’s first, but not last, online survey, and here it is : )

“p2pnet has been online since 2002 and a lot of things have changed since then,” I said in the intro. “p2pnet is expanding and within the next two or three months you’ll see a brand now look and we’d like to get your help in making sure the content stays relevant. With that in mind, we’d really appreciate it if you’d answer as many of the questions below as you can. And we will, of course, run a post on the results.”

About 950 people took a look, and 133 responded. I say ‘about’ because I accessed it quite a few times myself, and I didn’t think to keep count. Anyway, most visitors came from Canada (# 2) or the US (the majority), with Britain (# 3) following and Australia and Germany in the 4th and 5th places.

Most of the 126 people who answered the ‘age’ question were under 30, with the under 40s and under 50s in the 2nd and 3rd spots, and most of them (124 answers) were men (86.3%), and most people, male and female, (118 responses) have been readers for at least two years.

We already run comments under each story and readers can leave their thoughts, anonymously if they want, which is by far the preference. But soon (I hope : ) there’ll be a new and expanded p2pnet and we were thinking about including forums in this. It’d be a popular move with 75 of the 115 people who checked the Yes or No to this question wanting to see forums introduced. So that’s the way it’ll be.

Would you like to see independent music downloads offered through p2pnet? Of 114 responses, 73 said Yes. And price? Most people thought 25 to 50 cents/pence would be fair.

Criticisms? The most common were (using actual responses to sum them up)

tad too passionate
I feel strongly about things I feel strongly about : )

I think p2pnet is a great resource, but can be even better if it only had a more attractive and modern design, a bit easier navigational system (for example below or above every story a category in which it is stored) and overall improved user interface
The plan is to take care of a lot of this in p2pnet 2.

would like to have a wider range of stories things like WGA, media player 11 not letting you back up your licenses, other stuff that the big companies try to slip by us paying saps
I’ll definitely be taking care of that in the next version which’ll have distinct sections.

Poor browseability with Lynx (links to filler GIFs spoil the screen and inability to post comments) and occasional spam-flooding
This is something I wasn’t aware of and I’d appreciate suggestions on how this might be fixed.

Not as many stories as I’d like to see
Well, at this point I’m the only one compiling the content. Eventually, I’d like to have at least two other people editing/contributing/looking for subject material.

The most ‘popular’ complaint? p2pnet’s ‘bias’.

Three against:

in many of the articles, especially the ones about The Big Four’s latest assholery, the bias shows pretty clearly in the language…don’t get me wrong, i love the site, and i don’t expect it to be super impartial, but since you’re asking what i like least, there it is.

considering the nature of the site I shouldn’t complain but I think the articules could be a little more unbiast.

Articles tend to be very biased… always with the “mainscream media” and the “Big 4″. The stories tell their own truths, you don’t need to be quite so obvious.

Three in favour:

please don’t change editorial focus, or the type of things you report on

Your field of reporting is something that effects a large proportion of Internet users, yet few seem to care enough to speak out against it, even if they have those feelings. I applaud this site for taking the initiative to do this and not just sit back in silence.

I like you just the way you are. I hope you can continue to use the very effective K.I.S.S. method/format you’re currently using. Yes, less is in deed more!

The question of my ‘bias’ has come up more than once since p2pnet has been online. For example, in a recent story on Joni Mitchell’s ballet, I quoted her views on the corporate music industry, to wit:

“I’ve been screwed from the beginning,” Canada’s Joni Mitchell once said, going on, “the deal that I got was just atrocious. I mean, it was like slave labor … And I’ve never really had a good deal in the business.”

Said one comment post >>>>

Jon, are you capable of writing anything without trying to tie it into your attacks on the major music labels? Your continual diatribes have become extremely tiresome, and so have you. Please give it a rest.

Responded CSMatt >>>>

Well, you can’t really blame him for negatively commenting on the material he posts when stories like those that appear here show up in the blogosphere.

However, I would like to see Mr. Newton stop to[u]ting himself as being “unbiased.” In many instances, this blog is like Fox News: it claims to be “fair and balanced” and “without bias,” but a more accurate claim would be “biased in the opposite direction.” This isn’t entirely his fault. After all, there is absolutely no news source which is unbiased, as we all subconsciously insert bias into things by our mere choosing of what to report, among other methods. But calling yourself “unbiased” when in reality your are just biased in a direction opposite that of the mainstream is just being dishonest in my opinion.

In my answer to CSMatt, I asked >>>>

When and where have I ever said I was unbiased? I’m as biased as they come, I’ve explicitly said so on a number of occasions, and I’ve never pretended to be otherwise.

I’m biased against any and all efforts to kill free speech, online or off. I’m biased against the entertainment cartels as they pretend to be honest businesses trying to earn an honest living. I’m biased against their efforts to penetrate school classrooms to spread their poisonous ‘educational’ programs, claiming they represent decent standards for children to follow. I’m biased against the one-sided reporting by many, if not most, elements of the mainstream media who DO pretend to be fair, balanced and unbiased. I’m biased against attempts to flood us with tricky Net advertisements designed to force themselves past our natural barriers of free choice. And I could go on : )

I’m biased, Matt. Most definitely. And since you mention Fox, where does it afford viewers a chance to air their opinions, named or otherwise, without without edits? On p2pnet, though, anyone can comment freely, whatever their views. Ask Gachnar and others like him/her. And that’s the way it’s always been.

A revised p2pnet is on the way and it’ll have both forums and comment posts for articles. You’ll have to register for the first, but the second will allow anonymous posting, as ever.

So far, no one has ever offered to submit anything offering the corporate perspective. If and when one such comes along, I’ll run it untouched just as I do other papers and articles.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to call it like I see it and although I enjoy your frequent posts, Matt, I must say this time around, I don’t like your accusation that I’m being dishonest. Whatever else I may be, that I am not.

Cheers!

Thanks to everyone for taking part in this first survey. As I say earlier, it was really helpful and I’m going to do my best to implement some of the suggestions, and you can be sure I’m paying attention to all of the criticism.

The second survey, The Sultans of Spin, is already online and it’s interesting to note that less than 24 hours after it was posted, it already has half the total number of responses submitted for the first.

Stay tuned ….

Slashdot it!

Also See:
iproduce a subpoena – The RIAA vs Don Leadbetter, February 5, 2007
advertising medium – Big Music spoof ‘marketing’ ploy, October 19, 2006

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 12:28 pm and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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