I’m not doing the Alt Text column any more. It’s been discontinued as part of a move away from columns over at Wired.com. The good news, however, is that I’ll still be doing the videos. I’m pretty jazzed about that. I like the idea of writing specifically for video, and not having to come up with something that will work both textually and visually. I’m also going to be upgrading the graphics. (I’m taping in front of a green screen now, which opens up some possibilities.) And, on the financial side, let’s just say I’m quite happy with the arrangements.
At any rate, the first video is in the can, and I’m working on the second so that we have a little tiny backlog before we start putting them up. They’re both Ratings, so that should be fun.
8:42 am, October 16, 2008 -- 27 comments
Awesome. Don’t get me wrong, your writing is the bee’s knees but the videos have been a lot of fun.
Will they still be called, as it appears from the icon that they might, “ALT TEXT”, even though they will be apparently now more “alt” than “text”? Or would you be looking for suggestions for a new name?
I’m gonna miss the Alt Texts. They were usually very good. Then I just had to go an complain about the last one, and bam, they’re over. I’d almost blame myself and cry, if it weren’t for the videos taking their place. Yay video goodness.
Would there be jumping for joy if you found the time for some more D&D comics? I think there probably would be!
Yay for video, yay for money, boo for no column, yay for not having to decide whether to view the text or video version first.
Pretty much agree with everything Rubrick says. As long as there remains some writing of that type, this could be a good development. Also, to reiterate part of Rubrick’s point, yay for money.
I don’t understand this abandonment of good-old text-based journalistic punditry on the part of WIRED.
If they have some stylistic objection to the column format, they could have tried an alternative format. Perhaps that might have joggled them out of those same-ol’-samey blues? They could at least have transitioned to rows first, instead of flat out-ditching a time-honored, tradition-steeped “absurd words that sit patiently waiting to be read and laughed at” style of humor that dates back to the Bible, at least!
I’m not hurt by it, I’m just vexed. It seems arbitrary and capricious to me.
By the way though, Lore – that’s not to pooh-pooh what seems to seem to you to be a freeing move. Certainly if the text edition had become a hampering drain, and certainly if you find that the prospect of a deeper exploration of the possibilities of the video format gets your creative juicer whirling at a higher rpm, then by all means that makes it good news in my book!
Perhaps I’m just a rank nostalgist at heart, saddened by the fade and perhaps demise of a form which has brought me much amusement over the years – amusement to which you, sir, have indeed contributed your mighty share.
But I’m no Luddite. Let’s plunge boldly into the future, wearing ever more elaborate and futuristic goggles as we do so!
Well then. That’s said.
I think Wired has been moving away from columns for a while now. It’s been over a year since I even found the front page worth visiting. It’s basically just been a list of recent blog posts, so I’m further ahead to just subscribe directly to the feeds.
I wonder if this is why they dropped Regina Lynn, who wrote a 2-page bi-weekly column.
I don’t really watch video at work, so I’m pretty bummed about the discontinued Alt Text Column. It was the only column I read regularly at Wired. I guess I’ll just have to stalk you here, then.
long time lurker, first time poster… It’s a sad, sad day…
That sucks! Yours was the best column!!!!
I really enjoy the audio variety of the Alt Text. The written form is good, too, but I can’t read and drive at the same time. Or, at least, not well. I’m still making payments on that toppled billboard. Thanks a lot, Lore.
Assuming we can still download the videos to our various iDevices, however, life will march on.
I’m pretty much where colormist is at: there’s no good way for me to consume video at work, so the discontinuation of the Alt Text column is something of a bummer. Ah well. Glad to hear that you’re pumped about the video side of the divide, though, and always glad to hear when Deserving Individuals(tm) are receiving their fair share of coin from The Man.
Various Items:
I’m hoping to find some time to do something non-video for those of you who are video-averse. Probably more comics. But just take that as the whisper of a notion of a concept, I need to make sure I get the video schedule down solid first.
As I understand it, there will still be audio podcasts, but they’ll just be the audio track of the video podcast. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, maybe you audio types could let me know how it comes across.
I’d like to change the name, but Wired may be attached to it. How does “Crits” sound?
How does “Crits” sound?
Dirty.
“alt.binaries” doesn’t have the same ring, does it?
Being a recovering gamer that I am, I find the name Crits brings to mind critical hits. That’s quite fine with me, but you have to keep your whole demographic in mind, Lore :)
As you PROBABLY know, Lore, there are already a couple audio versions of the video podcasts out there. I don’t know what your new ones will be like, but it works great for the past ones. There was the downside of “ooh, a new one!” followed by “oh, it’s just the audio of an existing video”, but that was about it.
The audio versions have the added benefit in the ability to seamlessly be included in audio playlists on iTunes. Choosing audio over videp saves battery power on iPods and people aren’t always in a position to watch their screens (i.e. driving), so it’s good to have. Heck, some MP3 players don’t even have video, and I know Wired likely considers such devices to be sacrilege, but they are out there.
In addition, the video podcasts use up more memory. This doesn’t matter much for, say, a 160 GB desktop or iPod Classic, but becomes an issue on lower memory devices. This includes the popular iPhone, so it’s not an uncommon issue given all the other stuff people might want to stick on them, such as 44 minute video programs that take up about half a gig each.
The alt text videos aren’t terribly memory intensive, but the more there are, the more of an issue it will be to have all of them on lower memory devices. I personally like to have a lot of entries in my playlists so I can loop through them without going insane, and audio versions will help with that when dealing with my 8 GB iPod Touch.
So, yeah. Audio only versions would be appreciated, at the very least, by me.
I am very sad your column is discontinued
So who do I talk to about recovering the missing Alt Text audio files for episodes 18, 31-39 & 51? The iTunes feed lists them as “file not found”, and I am an unabashed completionist.
Now that you’ve done Ratings for Brunching, radio, book, Wired, podcast and video, you should have a Ratings rating.
Ironically, I just took a survey for Wired the other day, and put down that your Alt Text column was the only reason I started reading their website, and that it was my favorite feature.
Ooooh, I totally agree with ardgedee. I mean it would be incredibly “in-joke” of you, and self referential and all that. But it would be great to see how you rate the format of the ratings. Would you count the “dedicated website” as one, as well?
Add my voice to the growing clamor of requests for a Rating Rating. That oughtta get any “meta” out of your system for a while.
Rumor has it that Lore already uses a device known as a “meta filter” on a daily basis.
Saw the new video on YouTube; will it be showing up on iTunes any time soon? I’d like to add it to my list of things to listen to while driving so that I may do so more recklessly.
I can’t view videos at work, so I’m not really excited about this move. Reading Alt Text was one of my Wednesday morning rituals (I’m at the other side of the pond), and now I have to resort to actually working.
Well, I’m gonna catch up on your videos this evening then.
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