Commenter clumps are revealing 

I'm fascinated by the comments on Rocketboom. Reactions to the artsy field report shown today were all over the map, and I thought I sensed a pattern in them that might sway some prospective sponsors. A commenter named George summed what I was thinking as I was reading:

"I hope the show can appeal to a more intelligent, mature and thought provoking crowd, along with some fun. Really tired of the of the dick and fart joke crowds on these vblogs."

Exactly. The crude little boys were there en masse with pleas for tight t-shirts and with bigotry about the new host's Englishness. Don't ask me why, I think Amanda is really classy looking, but her fans who came out to comment today sound young, crude, intolerant and not terribly literate. Positive commenters on the whole had more substantive things to say, and said them using better grammar and vocabulary.

Advertisers look carefully at social class and education in the audiences of the media they buy. I know it sounds awful and elitist, but media planners paint pictures, and the painting today showed a grouping of Amanda fans sporting mullets and rusty pickup trucks in contrast to the opposing clump reading books in their Volvos. The good demos can mean two, three times as much money as a "general" audience. Andrew may have done himself a huge favor by putting up the documentary fare today as a way of documenting how the audience filters itself.

The music was Baron's composition. Really nice.

I lied 

I said don't ask me why Amanda attracts those types, but I really do have an opinion about it.

On Saturday I took the liberty of outlining some advice for Andrew including:

3. Consider lightening up on the babe factor. I was surprised and pleased to hear Andrew say that the vampier host behavior was usually Amanda's idea. Cool, let her take that away with her; it doesn't play to all your viewers. I liked Amanda's quirkiness, but I'm straight. The flirting didn't do anything for me...

That's what you get when you are overt about the host's sexuality -- it's implicitly giving permission to the public commenters to be overt about it too. If I've never seen Rocketboom, and I read things like [the cup size comments] I'm going to get the impression that it's something like the Man Show and I won't be inclined to want to check it out.

Just my opinion, but from what I've seen so far the new host's approach is more inclusive. She's going to appeal to more women and men at the same time because her charm is more neutral. She comes off as fresh and friendly and interested in things. That leaves the door open for guys to fantasize about her if they like her, but it lets women feel like she might be making eye contact with us, too.

Israel doesn't mess around 

I admire how tough and nimble the Israeli military is, but at the same time it bothers me a lot to find myself approving of aggression. It's nearly always responsive (like Entebbe or Munich), maybe that's why it seems OK, and almost right. Also, it's tough to disapprove of the very American notion of "Don't tread on me."

From the Foundingfathers.info Gadsden page: "The seal from a 1778 $20 bill from Georgia. The financial backing for these bills was property seized from loyalists. The motto reads "Nemo me impune lacesset," i.e. "No one will provoke me with impunity."

Then there's the "never again" attitude, and it's impossible to discount the reasons for that.

When bloggers get annoyed 

Watch out. Can you feel the collective angst in that part of the Force that uses Six Apart's Typepad service? It wasn't allowing posting for much of the day yesterday. Those things happen.

I'd like to tell you more about webisodes but my interest died on the vine 

Ten internet-exclusive webisodes of The Office premiere today. They're intended to keep viewers engaged over the summer. Here is the story from Newsday through an L.A. Times conduit that doesn't want me to navigate away from their page so they are making me go hunt for a link. That's what the Coroner thinks my lazy ass needs to do if I know what is good for me but it just ticks me off. I don't watch The Office. My interest is purely in the phenomenon, so I'm not going to invest a lot of time in hunting it down. The tactic did not succeed in keeping me on the site.

Later: OK, OK. now I've become curious and found the thing. Here is the phantom menace (ep 1). The Office site on nsc.com is cleverly themed with familiar office visuals like file folder tab labels and laminated ID badges with lanyard clips.

Is the show about all white people? I didn't see any color in a quick look around.