... you know, that newspaper you never see anyone read, yet it somehow gets printed every months or so.

Somehow I ended up on that website, and suddenly remembered "oh yeah, it's this thing that MSU still prints, I remember that. Why don't I check out what my money gets wasted on?". So I'm browsing through checking out the articles.

The website is clearly written by a bunch of hipster vegans that do their English Degree homework writing those articles. You can easily trace their liberal attitude in half of the articles. In fact the latest article is about a bunch of hippies getting together in the Mills library to do a photo shoot together, talking about how great their freshman-15 bodies are and so on. However, while the video (oh yeah, it's a video article too) shows them doing that undressed, the last shot is of people clearly dressed like furries. What the fuck? Is my tuition paying for this shit?

I sure hope the answer is no. Because as I kept going thru the articles, there was an article on lowering bus pass replacement cost. Can you imagine that MSU actually got complaints about $150 for a damn piece of plastic? I know, neither can I (sarcasm). So the article was about how the bus pass will now cost 40 for the first replacement, 100 for the next one, and so on.... So if you lose it twice or 3 times a year - you are shit out of luck, and that's assuming the cost gets reset after the old card expires. Otherwise you will be better off buying a shitty car. So now I am looking at how much MSU wasted on those retarded cards, that clearly give no benefit over the old stickers other than an extra piece of plastic to lose and pay to replace. While I was looking for that (I still am).

So I was thinking, maybe MSU can save up our replacement costs by stopping supporting this disaster of a newspaper of ours. According to MSU operating budget The Sil has their budget at around 180k, that's almost 4000 replacement cards if they cover half the price. I mean holy shit, The Sil is so bad, their website has dropped 2 million positions in Alexa rankings in the past 2 months, which is so pathetic. The paper issue is usually used for wrapping garbage, and like I've said I've never seen anyone read it. Most of the relevant news are provided by McMaster itself, they post it on daily news, as well as twitter and facebook. So really as far as I'm concerned The Sil exists only to allow some people to make photo shoots in the Mills Library... wearing mascot costumes... and it has no real value to the students. Whatever they get paid to post there, they can post on their own blogs (that are free by the way), and they don't really need to tap into my pocket for that.

What do you guy think?

I think you spend 100% of your time tearing things apart, when you actually don't have an iota of a clue on how to improve it or do better -- at least not practically.

On the Sil: It has it's issues, and always has, but probably shouldn't be cut entirely, since it's supposed to reflect student opinions; the Daily News is the University Administration's point of view... The Sil's critics, especially those who write 5 paragraph rants full of derogatory terms, should get involved to fix it --- maybe leaving the unprofessionalism behind (oh, so tempting to make another Trump analogy...).

I think you've never really tried to do anything to fix something you've trashed and torn apart, other than writing that it's "retarded", "irrelevant", "fucked in the ass", "worst {in period of time}", or some other derogatory terminology. (Fun fact, those are phrases from 4 of your past 11 posts; I could add "...worse than AIDS" to that list, but that'd just be cheating).

So you are comparing closing schools down that affects millions of people and the future of a nation... to shutting down a lousy campus newspaper that no one reads but yet somehow keeps on existing on our money. Hmmm, okay.

This is just a student forum, I'm not running for president, so I express myself as if I'm to my equals. If you think my opinion is wrong, and The Sil is somehow worth its money, you are welcome to argue your point. That's why I said "What do you guys think" at the end of my op.

<deleted post>
Reason: OP didn't like the armchair critic-Trump analogy. Sorry OP. I've fixed my original response for you.

I'm comparing your armchair criticism to Trump's political campaign --- Which is hardly the point... Don't change the subject.

Oh okay. My original post was about The Silhouette sucking, not about your views on Trump or my criticism.

Don't change the subject.

Since it's supposed to reflect student opinions;

Okay. I will counter that with all the mediums where students can reflect their opinions without the need to tap into pockets of others:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Macinsiders
- Reddit
- Wordpress (and its alternatives)
- Various MSU forums

It's not just even the fact that it's useless, it's the fact that newspapers are outdated as a medium of information. The option to shut it down is economically sound, as The Sil has nothing to return in the long run.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

Okay. I will counter that with all the mediums where students can reflect their opinions without the need to tap into pockets of others:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Macinsiders
- Reddit
- Wordpress (and its alternatives)
- Various MSU forums

We're talking about news media; not social media or community discussion forums.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

It's not just even the fact that it's useless, it's the fact that newspapers are outdated as a medium of information.

Tell that to those working in the print media industry, which is still alive (if a little under pressure), and which maintains/compliments an online media industry, as does the Sil.

Again with the insults and the inaction: "has nothing to return in the long run."

We're talking about news media; not social media or community discussion forums.

It's the same thing. The main purpose of both is to spread information to as many viewers as possible.

Tell that to those working in the print media industry, which is still alive (if a little under pressure), and which maintains/compliments an online media industry, as does the Sil.

The difference between something like The Star and The Sil is that The Star has readers.

There's no data on readers who use the paper issue, because it gets printed and distributed throughout the campus either way. It is wasteful, because it can be read by absolutely no one, and based on the undistributed number of issues I see around the campus, that's exactly what happens.

The only solid way to get some idea of how popular it is, is the online traffic. Like I said before, it dropped 2 million points on Alexa ranking, getting to over 3 million mark. There are practically unknown online resources that have better results than that. They only get around a few hundreds of clicks a day, while McMaster has over 30000 potential readers. That's beyond pathetic for a website that exists since 2008, and a newspaper that exists for 85 years.

Again with the insults and the inaction: "has nothing to return in the long run."

It is a fact. Media that has no exposure, has no value.

Most "news" sites are indistinguishable from "social media" sites now-a-days. The content is the same click bait style crap.

Originally Posted by justicebeaver

Most "news" sites are indistinguishable from "social media" sites now-a-days. The content is the same click bait style crap.

So do you read The Silhouette?

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

So do you read The Silhouette?

I think i've seen it laying around...untouched

They don't have ad do they? 180k should cover publication costs right? right? I don't think ad blocker work on paper (yet)

Originally Posted by justicebeaver

I think i've seen it laying around...untouched

They don't have ad do they? 180k should cover publication costs right? right? I don't think ad blocker work on paper (yet)

They can only charge for ads if they know how many people read their news paper on average, which I doubt they do. The paper is free, and it is being distributed uncontrollably (they just print it, put in baskets around the campus and that's it) so they can't gather any data on readers reliably.

Plus McMaster might have ethical and reputation problems by turning The Sil into an ad brochure (like those ads newspaper you see in Starsky or something).

random idea... pretty sure >80% people have a mobile device... why not email them the sil. save you know those green brown things poking out the the ground.

Originally Posted by justicebeaver

random idea... pretty sure >80% people have a mobile device... why not email them the sil. save you know those green brown things poking out the the ground.

I was thinking about making a petition, and sending an official letter to MSU wanting to know the breakdown of those $183k... but then again I would have to use my real name so I probably won't do it.

Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas

but then again I would have to use my real name so I probably won't do it.

You're absolutely useless as a critic...

BTW, you could likely get a better idea of the breakdown of the budget if you just participated in an MSU-related discussion at some point in time. If $183K is simply an opaque line item on the MSU's budget, then you'd have grounds to take action to petition for more insight. But I suspect there's a better breakdown out there already; and surely they get ads, because another campus magazine (which will remain nameless), which you have definitely seen even less of, gets a large chunk of its funding from sponsorship. You clearly misunderstand the practical game of obtaining sponsored ads in print media; but that's funny, because you have no problem criticizing things based on your assumptions about it.

OF course, all of this would be very obvious knowledge to you if you were more than an armchair critic, and if you had bothered to do something before spewing criticisms and assumptions about who can charge for ads, and what they need in order to do so...