Putting The “Cult” In “Cult Of Mac”
8:35 am, February 3rd, 2009, Giles Turnbull
Last week I posted some half-baked rants about iPhoto 09, and as usual the comments briefly buzzed with some agreement and disagreement.
But there was also this comment, from reader KaL MichaeL (reproduced sans editing):
“I love your blog except when you say anything negative about an apple product. I feel that if you are promoting the Mac Cult then you are a apple Fan end to end.”
And that… that struck me as a little weird.
No personal criticism intended, KaL MichaeL, but words cannot express how much I disagree with you on this.
The Cult of Mac celebrates all that’s good and great about Apple and its products, but that doesn’t make us blind to its failures and errors. A blog that simply promoted Apple and Apple fandom from “end to end”, as you put it, would be beyond dull. In fact, it would probably be a little bit like Hotnews: nothing more than PR puffery.
And that’s not what we’re all about. We don’t want to do that. We want to celebrate what Apple does (in our opinion) right, and moan in a grumpy manner about what it does (in our opinion) wrong. What else, after all, is the blogosphere for?
Cult readers, now’s your chance to cut me down and demand more slavish devotion to the Church of Mac. Or not.
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Cult of Mac, Opinions | Comment on this article
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I couldn’t agree with you more. Don’t criticize for the sake of criticizing, or praise blindly to appease Apple or their fans. Just be honest. That’s what I’m here to read.
thelottery, on February 3rd, 2009 at 8:43 am
No one is perfect – Apple sure isn’t. If I wanted to look at Apple with rose-coloured glasses, I’d head to their website where everything Apple is perfect. But not everything is. Bugs and their idea of perfection is not what I, & many others consider perfect, at at least very good.
That one fan should take off his rose-coloured glasses and look at the world (& Apple) as it is!
Pete, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 am
Indeed. If everybody is only posting the good, there won’t be much positive change. They’ll keep making the same mistakes. I actually planned on upgrading to ‘09. I saved my money for now though. I wanted the new iPhoto. The integration with Flickr sounded great, but not the way it actually works. Thanks for saving me some cash to spend on other toys.
Zhizn, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 am
I always assumed the name Cult Of Mac was meant to be a joke..
Nothing wrong with criticism where it’s due! I stopped reading macdailynews.com because I thought they were too biased towards Apple.
Shaun, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 am
Sometimes I like to think people at Apple read these blogs and actually take our criticism and ideas into account.
Crazy huh?
Church of Apple, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
I find that at times, this blog exhibits the same rabid, blind fandom/critisism that all Mac enthusiast gatherings and collectives have. It seems to me the origin of this Mac fanatic phenomena began around the time Kevin Rose was first leaking iPhone details.
When I first noticed this in the Cult of Mac, I became irritated and stopped reading. But then I got over it and came back because almost all blogs today contain more editorial and regurgitation than actual content. And every so often, I feel that Cult of Mac actually has something interesting to say.
But then again, I get pissed off at every customer who believes their service experience should not be hindered by any business, engineering, or time constraints let alone the rights of the business or other customers. I also don’t care for the unqualified language and statements made as though the writer is an expert at running a multi-(m/b)illion dollar company by building up their role as a consumer. Comparison and contrast would help me believe corporate and marketing advise, but that might take too much time to research and analyze in today’s quantity-not-quality 24+ hour “news” ecology.
I don’t thing that Cult of Mac is special in occasionally irritating me by being a heavy basher or praiser of Apple, because it seems like everyone right now is more interested in re-reporting the minutiae of the messiahs Steve jobs or Barrack Obama.
If anything, the lack of compelling content prevents me from visiting the main site, seeing ads, or participating in comments. I don’t really read the articles unless there are pictures, a compelling headline, or the promise of content. Instead I just skim through my RSS reader and waste the bandwidth of my hundred or so content providers looking for that gem of quality in reporting.
Mike, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
But of course! What are we? Blind people with no opinion or freedom to express what we think and feel?
To be honest with you, when I want to buy a product, I skip all the positive comments (you can see the ‘good’ stuff most likely on the product page..) and read more thoroughly the negative ones. Not that I always believe them, but always paying attention to them.
Please keep being honest as previous comment says.. simple as that.
oberdone, on February 3rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
Pay attention, KaL
2 definitions of “Cult” are:
• a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister
• a person or thing that is popular or fashionable, esp. among a particular section of society
Based on these two meanings (omitting the “religious,” obviously), cult is a correct appellation for this blog. Certainly when it started back on the Wired pages, Apples were a small group of users viewed as odd, perhaps even anarchical by PC users. Now that Apple is the 3rd best selling computer, it qualifies as popular and fashionable, and the users have always felt they are particular.
It’s not called “Cultish Devotion of Mac.” It’s certainly not called “Ideologues of Mac.” If you only want to read positive things about Apple, go to their web site. If you want to find useful information, including what doesn’t work, wastes your money. or might cause harm to your system, read CoM.
imajoebob, on February 3rd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Totally agree, I love the fact that Cult of Mac is true to itself and knows who it is and what its for. A blog like that can change many things…
Oh yeah, how exactly was the image at the top of the article made? What did you do to achieve that effect?
Austin, on February 3rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Okay here I am with the unpopular post. Oh well, I am used to it. I sympathize with KaL Michael, the name of the blog, which you chose, supports his opinion. However, it is your blog to do with as you wish but the name is a bit misleading to be intended to be a good and bad news source. Sorry but that’s the facts.
Now that being said, I read the blog and enjoy the content. I just agree that the name and the content are at times dissonant.
Now as far as your comment, “A blog that simply promoted Apple and Apple fandom from “end to endâ€Â, as you put it, would be beyond dull.”
It is one thing to explain your own blog, it is another to put down others. I run such a “beyond dull” blog, and oddly enough some people like it. Others don’t. But myself, and my readers, sure don’t appreciate being judged as beyond dull. In fact a satirical rabid Apple fanblog is way beyond dull.
Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean others won’t. But I won’t be unsubscribing, I will just rant on idrankthekoolaid about how beyond dull I am.
dizzle, on February 3rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Giles, despite the fact that I really enjoyed your work on Buffy (oh, and thanks for avoiding the Apocalypse all those times), I feel that you’re really not getting KaL’s point about being a apple fan until the end.
Until you’re ready to accept this, perhaps a slight name change for the blog is in order, or let a true Cult member like a KaL take over.
Scott, on February 3rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Better cut apple down. show all the problems with their hardware/software. Thats what its all about.
Lance G, on February 3rd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I am at a loss to understand why people believe the name of this blog means that every article must be completely pro Apple (as pointed out by another poster before me).
It’s pretty clear to me in everything I read on this site that the writers love Apple and their products, even when they’re pointing out that they believe Apple has done something wrong. Loving something, however, does not mean that everything this something does is automatically right. I love my country (UK) but, by God, it does some massively wrong things. When it does, I moan about it. I think it’s nice to read that people just want something they love to be better. That’s one of the reasons I read this blog.
handsomematt, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
The 09 iLife is great. I love the new faces feature in iPhoto. Made quick work with my more than 6000 pictures photo library.
Partners in Grime, on February 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Personally, I feel it’s often been like having a small pebble in your shoe… you’re going along smoothly, then you get this slight nag or nick pick and it ruins the whole walk in the park… many times, I stopped from forwarding an article and sharing it with a fellow Mac Fan.
Aren’t there enough Apple haters out there, that you don’t have to have full articles about something you personally have a problem with? There’s way too much to cover out there that is positive and undeniably great about Apple and the related vendors and fans that use them than to have to resort to even 1% of the articles be about something you have to vent and complain about?!?
Sorry if this sounds like I’m angry and blunt, but I have often felt misled… this is not following the lead of Leander Kahney’s books and very much reminds me of how clueless and arrogant Macworld’s attitude with Apple and the community has only caused a slow death…
With two wars, the economy, Steve Job’s health concerns, etc… Mac fans want to be inspired and hear good news. Again, there is plenty of it, in fact more than ever! True, the truth is good and it’s good to be real, but why would you think we would want to read, on this web site, almost the exact same things that MS/PC Fans always say on those other web sites that bash Apple?
CG, on February 4th, 2009 at 12:29 am
I agree with the above comment.
dizzle, on February 4th, 2009 at 5:22 pm