Mnofdichotomy’s Celebrity Death Articles
A response to criticism.
I have been writing here at Triond for the better part of two years now, first under a different pen name, and them under Mnofdichotomy. I have, in my time here, achieved some level of success. I write on a wide variety of subjects; everything from political articles to sports pieces, from religion to current events. I have written on a number of controversial subjects; I have tackled abortion, gay marriage, and racism just to name a few. A number of articles have elicited a great deal of attention here at Triond, but none so great as my recent string of celebrity death rumors.
I was a bit surprised at the amount of interest these articles have drawn here in the Triond community. I do very little promoting here; most of my promotional efforts are intended to spread my articles to the far greater number of viewers beyond the boundaries of my home site. But the attention has grown to such that it needs to be addressed.
This idea was, as it began, an experiment. Anyone who is familiar with my work here knows that I am constantly experimenting, and that I always share my discoveries with the Triond community. I have worked extensively to help improve this site; I am of the opinion that the more people succeed here, the better the odds are that in an age where the shelf life of sites like this are normally not more than a few years, this one, which I have chosen to make my literary home, will achieve a level of longevity.
But as I said, an experiment. I have managed to gather a good understanding of how this machine works. I have had a good number of my articles go viral, but have yet to grasp an understanding of how that happens. These celebrity death articles are currently one of the hottest, if not the hottest commodity on the web writing circuit. This medium afforded me an opportunity to map some of the traffic tendencies of what I refer to as quick hit articles; articles that, for a few days, do hits by the thousand and then die.
This isn’t an idea I created, by any means. There is a reason that every day or two you find a rumor of some celebrity or another dying on the Google trends list; because it happens constantly.
I have been accused numerous times over the past several days of doing this for views, and my response is this: Of course I am. It’s why we’re here; we want people to read our articles. But I don’t need to resort to this to gain views. If that was the case, I would sit back and write opinionated politics and sports and articles one after another. If you pay any attention to the hot content list, you know that I do amazingly well with these, and lord knows there will never be a shortage of subjects in those areas to write about.
I think my track record here speaks for itself; enough so that when I claim that this isn’t just a plug for cheap views I would receive a bit of the benefit of the doubt. I have spent countless hours (we’re talking hundreds here) working on my ‘Triond how to’ articles and anthologies, knowing full well that at best they would garner a few hundred views. I have worked with literally dozens of Triond writers to help them learn how to succeed here.
But with these articles, I have inspired the ire of a number of people here; enough so that I have had people tell me that both my children and I need to be dead ourselves. Which raises the question… why are people so upset? And why is the vast majority of the angry response coming from people here at Triond, when 99% of my views are from elsewhere?
Is it because the title stated that a celebrity was dead, and they really weren’t? Most of the ‘indignant’ commenters will claim this, but that simply isn’t the case. While we are a society that worships celebrities far too much, these articles pop up constantly. In fact, the only one that seems to have upset people to this degree is the Johnny Depp one. Is Johnny Depp that much more popular than 50 cent or Angelina Jolie? And why is the anger prevalent almost exclusively to Triond writers?
The fact is that this isn’t a moral issue at all. In my time here, I have seen a number of offensive articles on the hot content list. A little tidbit; I read every article that reaches the list, in an attempt to understand how it got there. I have literally thousands of them bookmarked, and I can assure you that these articles don’t even make the top 100 list of most offensive subjects. This is about money. People are upset because I am making a profit on these articles. While so many of them are waving a moral flag here, rest assured no more than a few of them are at all truly offended by the subject itself.
For the benefit of those who may truly be offended, don’t read the articles. I’m done with them now, and the article on what I learned will be published tonight or tomorrow. I am curious to see how many of the people who so openly criticized me will use the rather useful information I acquired doing this; I’m guessing they won’t be nearly as vocal while they do.
So there will be no apologies here, other than this: If you were genuinely offended by the articles, I am sorry that you were. But I would say that if a rumor piece like this is enough to genuinely offend you, you must live a blessed life. If your life is that free of genuine problems that you can get worked up over a something as inconsequential as this, all I can say is that I envy you.
If you were upset on the grounds of ‘journalistic integrity’, my response is this: As I said, I believe my record here speaks for itself. I have learned things from it that will help both myself and numerous Triond writers to be more successful at what we do.
If you were, as the majority of the commenters most likely were, simply jumping on the bandwagon, I would suggest this…. spend less time trying to make yourself look good at my expense, and more time focusing on learning how to write and promote, so that you can find success of your own.
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Tags: articles, celebrity, death, mnofdichotomy, rumor
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January 15th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
nice article..
January 15th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
For the record, the article I wrote about the untimely and utterly fictious death of Mnofdichotomy was not written because I was offended or to teach him a lesson as several commenters have assumed. To be honest, I wrote it out of pure greed. I thought that I could ride the wake of his success and see if I could make the hot content list.
My article was initially declined by Triond as containing offensive material. I wrote to the editors and explained that it was just a joke. I sent a copy of it to Mnofdichotomy to ask if he found it offensive, and he wrote back to say it was a magnificent idea.
Also for the record, I am done writing fake death reports too.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I have a better idea; I’m going to kill you all and then write death articles about it. They will become viral because as each of you die the method will become more gruesome.
*Please delete this comment, so as not to implicate me in your death, thank you*
January 15th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
From my own perspective I was quietly concerned about your articles for two reasons. Absolutely no sweat was broken but, hey, here is what I think…
My worries were…
Firstly, that it might bring the Triond sites in to some disrepute and then harm my own reputation (for what it is) as an online writer.
I don’t have any evidence to suggest that has happened as of the date of this comment.
My second concern that the celebrities themselves, while no doubt used to rumours of their deaths (though the few articles of yours on this subject I have read did not appear to state the ‘fact’ as rumour!) might get litigious, and in so doing bring down Triond which has been my main writing portal since 2007. OK. No sign of that, but these things take time. I would probably be upset if that were to happen but I imagine Triond has, somewhere in its ToC something that says you are solely responsible for any litigation because of your content…
One of the main reasons I avoid the forums on Triond is that people there spend way too much time getting het up about things others are doing – and then very little time in the process of writing and publishing themselves. Lack of publication is something you cannot be accused of at least!
People need to decide whether they are on Triond to create ‘art’ or make money or both. I have tried to do both and that is – I believe – the hardest balancing act to achieve, to retain integrity as a writer while increasing one’s readership. I think that you have, with these articles, erred on the side of the tightrope marked ‘money’ and there is no harm in that (from where I am standing) unless concern 1) and 2) kick in. After all, these celebrities have had much worse said about them than that they are dead.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
solid points, rj. i did look into the legalities of the articles prior to writing them. but you voiced your concerns in a professional manner, and as such you have credibility, unlike those who chose to launch personal attacks on me.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
This is a tough one for me to call MN. On one side, I do understand that these types of articles are hot right now, better yet, celebrity gossip is all over the net and in the supermarkets. I mean, I could buy some trashy magazine at the store which is poorly composed, or, I could read your articles for free and get a laugh while I’m at it.
I agree with RJ, however, that reputations can be affected and I’m hoping you are taking that into consideration.
I look past many things, and I do think you go out of your way to assist new writers in a professional manner, so one or fifty articles for the internet junkies can’t hurt.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I am still disappointed in your actions. As I feel they do a huge disservice to the community as a whole and to the celebrities you are fictitiously killing off. not to mention your reputation. I still consider you a friend but I am not above telling a friend he was wrong to do something.
This was wrong because it causes pain to people family members of the celebrity and their fans..
January 15th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I left this site months ago. It’s no place for a professional writer or even a serious amateur. You apparently got your nose bloodied, and now you’re trying to hide behind the facade that you “help people” or that you’re “experimenting” with viral articles. None of that is believable.
Frankly, you come across as some scared, pudgy, insecure kid ridiculously posing with a prop Thompson submachine gun while your wife and kids look on in confusion. If you ever want to do it for real, the U.S. Army and Afghanistan await you.
The best thing that could happen to Triond is fumigation, followed by a massive air strike, after which a better site could hopefully be constructed from the rubble. Where’s the dysfunctional God of the Old Testament when we really need him?
January 16th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
As I said in the forum, but problem was not with what you wrote as so much as it was with the placement on factual looking sites. Had they all gone to Authspot as Fiction, I would have had no problem.
Keep in mind you do not know what is going on in peoples real lives at the time. Some are sick, and dying, others may have friends or family members who are dying, as such they do not take JOKE articles about death in such a way as you may wish.
Also I suppose some people really freak out when they think a celeb is dead. I probably didnt even know who half the people were.
January 17th, 2010 at 6:36 am
Man, don’t try to redeem yourself for the kind of crap you put on Triond. The real point of Triond is pure writing talent. Not a talentless man who promotes himself day and night. Maybe you want to become more famous on StumbleUpon or Digg? Triond really isn’t the place for you. The fact that respected writers have decided to criticise you is downright shameful. If I were you I’d be hanging my head down in shame or something. As said in the other comments don’t try to hide behind the mess you created in the first place. You stewed the crap and now it is just fair that you wallow in it. I absolutely have no respect for you or your stupid little promotion tactics or your articles. You say that the main reason why all of us are on Triond in the first place is promotion. UH -NO! I’m here so that I can create a nice portfolio from writing so that I’m able to WORK HARD (some thing that you lack) so that I can present this portfolio to a good university which I want to get into. Maybe take a leaf out of my book and I’m a “kid”. I’m not saying that what you wrote was horrible, like I said in another article, it is still bad because it shows your disrespect towards people and what a low person you can be but it’s the fact that you persisted to write such crap defeating the purpose Triond that has led many to seriously defame you. I need to get the hell outta your page and not give you any more views to be honest.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:56 am
You know, if people have a problem with others writing controversial articles that stir up the online community, they go ahead and complain, but you do have free speech… as do I, with my articles, though none as popular as yours, as they are much less serious. I very much enjoy reading your articles, then the comments below them. as you put it experimenting with people, basically screwing with their heads, to better the site as well as to survey the audience and see what gets hits. Now I just have to try to do that.
April 4th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
So you stopped Writing celebrity death articles, failed to submit your “experimental” report and then do another one on sarah jessica whatever? Oh well, I guess successful people don’t need to waste their riches on integrity.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:51 am
haha are these people serious? does it even matter? you stated why you did it…no ones dead..no one is even forced to read your articles…so why do they complain?
November 12th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Ha fucking ha, LMMFAO!!