Can I get iMore minus the Rene Ritchie posts?

techieTroy

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Can I get iMore minus the Rene Ritchie posts?

I know that sounds harsh, which is so not my style or personality. But I consistently recognize Rene Ritchie posts by the titles alone. I follow a crazy number of mobile tech news, blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts. Rene consistency tops the list of agenda-driven, highly biased, definitely not objective, fanboy writings. I don't appreciate that approach in politics or technology or, well, anything except maybe charity efforts.

This isn't intended to be personal, but simply my sincere feeling as a reader and fellow mobile tech enthusiast. No doubt Rene is a fantastic guy, and I know he wouldn't be in his role without notable accomplishment. And he is certainly passionate about Apple products, which I can appreciate -- they're amazing in quality and user experience. But I prefer to make my own judgements, based on information, not advertising or propaganda. Nothing is always perfect and the best in every way for ever and ever and always will be. Not even beloved Apple.

I want relevant information. I want objective comparisons. I want balanced reviews. I want to enjoy great articles/posts about the mobile tech I'm so passionate about by people who are passionate but tempered with reality, who endeavor to inform and inspire me not force their bias on me.

I've read so, so many responses to Rene's articles by Apple fans who are highly annoyed by what often seems like sponsored Apple promotions with lame disguises. So many mobile tech and Apple enthusiasts do not appreciate that. It's not what we're coming to iMore for. It's not why I've read iMore for years...since before it was iMore.

I'm not writing this to gripe. My point is not to bash Rene. However, I reached a point today because of my frustration with his articles that I've decided not to follow iMore anyMore. I'm just too tired of it, and for me it's now outweighed the great writing others do.

I realized making that decision that you might care to know that it is that big of a deal.
 
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nikkisharif

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I'm sorry you've decided not to follow iMore any longer. There is a section in the forums called Ask Rene & hopefully you'll be able to have a discussion with him. I think he's a great writer but I don't agree with everything he says. I make my own conclusions and just take articles I read as informational. Again, please feel free to direct questions his way in the mentioned thread. Here's a link

https://forums.imore.com/ask-rene/
 

Sherry_B

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Can I get iMore minus the Rene Ritchie posts?

I want relevant information. I want objective comparisons. I want balanced reviews. I want to enjoy great articles/posts about the mobile tech I'm so passionate about by people who are passionate but tempered with reality, who endeavor to inform and inspire me not force their bias on me.

Agreed. 100+%.
 

Quis89

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Sad to hear that you've chosen not to follow iMore anymore. I have to be honest, I've stopped reading the posts on the main iMore page for the most part. iMore seems to have shifted focus to product reviews/advertisements and how-to tutorials. Neither of which I have a huge interest in. I've started going to other websites for my Apple News and editorial/opinion pieces. But the iMore community is great. So maybe you'll find enjoyment in the forums and in discussions with other members.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I feel you expressed it very respectfully as well, which is great. We all won't agree with everyone. And that is ok.

I'd agree with Nikkisharif's recommendation. Maybe start a discussion in the "Ask Rene" forum to get a better understanding of his writing style and what sways his opinions in one way or another.
 

Just_Me_D

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.....Rene consistency tops the list of agenda-driven, highly biased, definitely not objective, fanboy writings......
Like the rest of us, Rene is not perfect. If anything, he gets a bad rap for trying to bring understanding and clarity to something Apple has done, is doing or may do. Sometimes, people reject understanding or clarity and simply want to be in disagreement for reasons that makes sense to them, and that's fine. In no way am I throwing you in that group, and I hope you don't take it that way. I'm just saying that you calling Rene "highly biased and "definitely not objective" is a bit much.
 
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pkcable

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I moved this thread out of Ask a Question. This thread is MUCH more like Site Feedback than a question with a definitive answer.
 

Garz

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I want relevant information. I want objective comparisons. I want balanced reviews. I want to enjoy great articles/posts about the mobile tech I'm so passionate about by people who are passionate but tempered with reality, who endeavor to inform and inspire me not force their bias on me.

I've read so, so many responses to Rene's articles by Apple fans who are highly annoyed by what often seems like sponsored Apple promotions with lame disguises. So many mobile tech and Apple enthusiasts do not appreciate that. It's not what we're coming to iMore for. It's not why I've read iMore for years...since before it was iMore.

These two paragraphs, I agree. I visit iMore for the forums. I haven't read the blogs here in a long time. I don't appreciate one sided articles so I chose to read Apple news elsewhere. Just my opinion but I agree with much of the OP. I'm not writing this to be mean. Just giving honest feedback and that the OP isn't the only one who thinks that way.
 

pkcable

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I'm probably a little bias about this myself being the Q&A person and all, BUT I like all the help guides that iMore provides as well as the balance of other content. YES I could do a bit less with the Pokemon Go, BUT I do get that a certain crowd likes those blogs. Just about EVERY blogger or tech reviewer or any reviewer for that matter has probably been accused of having a bias or a slant at one time or another. We are all human after all. Rene has opinions and he gives them. He can be a bit of an Apple fan boy at times, BUT I've seen him point out the flaws in the past too! I think he's as balanced as most. I'm not going to bring up anyone else BUT I could cite other examples of bloggers or sites that have a MUCH more pro Apple slant than iMore. And besides iMore IS an Apple fan site after all! That being said they have been trying to expand their horizon's a bit lately and I don't think that's a bad thing. You can always just skip over the blogs you don't wish to read. Like I'm skipping over the Pokemon Go stuff, BUT I am reading the Nintendo Switch stuff!

Anyways just had to put in my 2 cents. It's just my opinion though, feel free to skip right over it and/or have a different one, THAT is what a forum is all about! :)
 

selovell

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I take the blogs as they are and enjoy reading them for a perspective. I realize the writer has a particular viewpoint but I appreciate the perspective. I review different sites for Apple info and do not rely on just iMore.

Reading the "how to's", I use them as a refresher when I need a quick review on how to do something. And, they are useful for people new to the ecosystem.
 

Rene Ritchie

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Sincere question: what's biased or factually inaccurate about my writing? I get that we might have subjectively different personal opinions on a variety of topics, but as long as they're not objectively false, I think different opinions are a good thing. I know I learn a ton from them.

Can you give me some specific examples?

I don't find "fanboy" helpful because more often than not it just kills discussion by saying "i hate you for no specific reason i can explain so I'll just attack you personally."

I appreciate the chance to learn and improve. I want to get things right. (Though I realize that won't always make everyone happy.)

(FYI: I'd get way more clicks for just mindlessly hate raging on Apple like many bloggers do. I prefer to try and explain the reasons for why Apple is doing something. Even if I disagree with that reason, I'd rather dislike it in an informed way then a knee-jerk reactionary way — and often factually inaccurate way. I care deeply, incredibly deeply, about our readers and always want to give them the absolute best information available anywhere. That's why I do this.)
 

John Yester

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Based on other sites, it's just that "Apple news" and that only. In my opinion Rene and other writers try to tie in a personal approach to each writing they present. It give a more up close view on things rather then the general media write ups. I can find that else where if I want to, but I do honestly look at his and others articles from time to time and have gained knowledge and insight from certain topics, and some maybe not so much, because it didn't interest me at the time. But that doesn't make it wrong.

As mentioned above it won't make everyone happy from time to time but there is a lot of choices to read from. Not that iMore should copy what others are doing to remove that choice from readers, but I am very sure almost if not all of the writers including Rene read other sites.

iMore and Rene set themselves apart from everyone else and I am glad with the end result, It could have some more in depth techie write ups but most of the time they do have that, it's just not constant. The other sites throughout pretty much all link to each other or use each other article to provide a spot on the page. iMore make it from scratch but maybe briefly mentioning a site every 20 articles.

I for one give any writers on Mobile Nations, let alone Rene a pat on the back it's a lot of work as I did some for Crackberry back in the day, iMore could have sucked years ago, it could have bombed like some sites have came and gone throughout the internets, but they chugged along, gave person reviews in articles and detailed information with out fluff and still one of the best camera How to articles out there.

Keep up the good work!
 

techieTroy

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Like the rest of us, Rene is not perfect. If anything, he gets a bad rap for trying to bring understanding and clarity to something Apple has done, is doing or may do. Sometimes, people reject understanding or clarity and simply want to be in disagreement for reasons that makes sense to them, and that's fine. In no way am I throwing you in that group, and I hope you don't take it that way. I'm just saying that you calling Rene "highly biased and "definitely not objective" is a bit much.

Maybe so, but I hope I balanced out that statement in the context of my whole post. My intent was not to imply that every sentence he writes is like that, but that he tops the list of generating content of that nature across all the mobile tech sources I've followed. I worded it that...pointedly...to express the sentiment that I come away with from so much of his writing, which many others have expressed in response to his articles.
 

techieTroy

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Sincere question: what's biased or factually inaccurate about my writing? I get that we might have subjectively different personal opinions on a variety of topics, but as long as they're not objectively false, I think different opinions are a good thing. I know I learn a ton from them.

Can you give me some specific examples?

I don't find "fanboy" helpful because more often than not it just kills discussion by saying "i hate you for no specific reason i can explain so I'll just attack you personally."

I appreciate the chance to learn and improve. I want to get things right. (Though I realize that won't always make everyone happy.)

(FYI: I'd get way more clicks for just mindlessly hate raging on Apple like many bloggers do. I prefer to try and explain the reasons for why Apple is doing something. Even if I disagree with that reason, I'd rather dislike it in an informed way then a knee-jerk reactionary way — and often factually inaccurate way. I care deeply, incredibly deeply, about our readers and always want to give them the absolute best information available anywhere. That's why I do this.)

Hello, Rene! First off, thank you for responding personally! I'm such a passionate mobile tech geek and follow it so much that content creators like you who've been visible for a long time are a bit like celebrities...or ARE celebrities!

Customer-focused companies are smartly concerned about reasons customers leave. That's true where I work, and we greatly value feedback at any stage. I hope it was apparent that my motive was not personal or just to gripe, but rather to communicate the reason I chose to leave as a consumer BECAUSE I respect you and the crew at Mobile Nations.

I think of content as a product, and I think it's fair as a consumer to critique a product. I do realize in this case there is a person behind what I'm critiquing, and I wanted to be respectful of that while still fully expressing my sentiment, hoping you would care to understand it as sincere feedback. Your follow-up on my post demonstrates that you care, which I appreciate.

(It always breaks my heart when some people's passions turn personal and get hateful in comments. Healthy disagreements can be wonderful, but some people can't handle it. I don't know you to have a personal opinion, and if I did know you I would never hate you -- most likely, we would get along great and have wonderful conversations about how your articles annoy me! LOL! I respect you. What I expressed is about the product.)

That said, I really tried to put everything I wanted to say into my post. I don't frequently engage in comments and such on content sites -- I skim through to find the content I want to take in, and fly past the rest, as others responded that they do as well. I'm not looking to debate or build a case.

I really tried to express myself well in that post, so please reference it, but in response to your kind response.... What finally got me to the point where I quit following iMore was not the facts or opinions in your articles. I also love a mix of passionate opinions, and I have no problem with disagreements. For me it is more about what you provoke in your articles, or what they provoke in me. As I mentioned, I have almost a perfect record of identifying your articles simply by their titles. I often just check to verify if I'm right or not, but sometimes I can't help myself...and I start reading. Instead of the kind of content I'm looking for, which I described in my post, I typically experience something that, even if it is factually based, is incredibly off-putting to me. I've seriously questioned if they are paid, agenda-based articles to promote Apple rather than celebrate and inform about their products. But then of course Apple does an incredible job promoting Apple all on its own!

To not beat around the bush, I just find many of your articles and the approach to them so annoying that I just didn't even want to run across them anymore. I apologize for being that harsh, but I'm trying to be respectfully​ direct about the sentiment. (Sentiment is not always entirely rational, but it is what it is.) The others at Mobile Nations and so many sites share facts, opinions, passions, etc., and even promotional content. I read a whole lot of it on an almost daily basis, and none of it ever provoked me to want to avoid it entirely...except for.... Now that just seems over the top and way too dramatic for me, but honestly it's true. In one sense, that probably says something very special about you as a writer as well!

Between my initial post and this very long response, I've probably used more words than in all of my blog comments over the last decade combined. Very sincerely, I do hope that is helpful in some way. That is truly and honestly why I took the time to share it.
 
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techieTroy

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I appreciated Rene's personal response, and I responded to him, but it appears it will be moderated (probably because it ended up quite lengthy).

I wasn't intending to provoke public response, and honestly just wanted to give my feedback to Rene and Mobile Nations. (I may not have found the best or most appropriate method to do that.) But I was really impressed and appreciative of the many thoughtful responses that followed. Despite variations in agreement and opinion, all of them that I've read so far were kind, respectful, and appropriate. Very cool! :)
 

Just_Me_D

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Maybe so, but I hope I balanced out that statement in the context of my whole post. My intent was not to imply that every sentence he writes is like that, but that he tops the list of generating content of that nature across all the mobile tech sources I've followed. I worded it that...pointedly...to express the sentiment that I come away with from so much of his writing, which many others have expressed in response to his articles.

I understood what you were saying, but you've stated several times that what he writes is not what you want to read, and because it's not what you want to read, even though it's "factually based", it annoys you. That's more about you than him, in my opinion. Furthermore, in your most recent post, you stated, "What finally got me to the point where I quit following iMore was not the facts or opinions in your articles....it is more about what you provoke in your articles." What specifically does his article provoke?
 

Just_Me_D

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I appreciated Rene's personal response, and I responded to him, but it appears it will be moderated (probably because it ended up quite lengthy).

I wasn't intending to provoke public response, and honestly just wanted to give my feedback to Rene and Mobile Nations. (I may not have found the best or most appropriate method to do that.) But I was really impressed and appreciative of the many thoughtful responses that followed. Despite variations in agreement and opinion, all of them that I've read so far were kind, respectful, and appropriate. Very cool! :)

On behalf of everyone who replied, thank you...
 

techieTroy

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I understood what you were saying, but you've stated several times that what he writes is not what you want to read, and because it's not what you want to read, even though it's "factually based", it annoys you. That's more about you than him, in my opinion. Furthermore, in your most recent post, you stated, "What finally got me to the point where I quit following iMore was not the facts or opinions in your articles....it is more about what you provoke in your articles." What specifically does his article provoke?

I have honestly already surpassed my comfort level with expressing these things in a public forum. I really wanted to give feedback, not put this out there for everyone. I really tried to articulate my point in my original post and then the response to Rene. And I feel bad that this has become more than my intent to give feedback that could be helpful. I don't know Rene, but I have a fondness for him because of what he does, his passion, and his knowledge, despite my feelings about many of his articles.

Oh, I agree that it's about me -- it was my choice to quit following based upon my own reasons related to his articles. That said, over the years I'm sure I've read hundreds of comments that expressed similar sentiment, and I know others who have quit following for essentially the same reasons. This is why I wanted to take the time to give my feedback. Despite my choice, I want them to be successful.
 

Just_Me_D

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I have honestly already surpassed my comfort level with expressing these things in a public forum. I really wanted to give feedback, not put this out there for everyone. I really tried to articulate my point in my original post and then the response to Rene. And I feel bad that this has become more in my intent to give feedback that could be helpful. I don't know Rene, but I have a fondness for him because of what he does, despite my feelings about many of his articles.

Oh, I agree that it's about me -- it was my choice to quit following based upon my own reasons related to his articles. That said, over the years I'm sure I've read hundreds of comments that expressed similar sentiment, and I know others who have quit following for essentially the same reasons. This is why I wanted to take the time to give my feedback. Despite my choice, I want them to be successful.

I understand, and thank you. Take care.
 
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Can I get iMore minus the Rene Ritchie posts?

I know that sounds harsh, which is so not my style or personality. But I consistently recognize Rene Ritchie posts by the titles alone. I follow a crazy number of mobile tech news, blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts. Rene consistency tops the list of agenda-driven, highly biased, definitely not objective, fanboy writings. I don't appreciate that approach in politics or technology or, well, anything except maybe charity efforts.

This isn't intended to be personal, but simply my sincere feeling as a reader and fellow mobile tech enthusiast. No doubt Rene is a fantastic guy, and I know he wouldn't be in his role without notable accomplishment. And he is certainly passionate about Apple products, which I can appreciate -- they're amazing in quality and user experience. But I prefer to make my own judgements, based on information, not advertising or propaganda. Nothing is always perfect and the best in every way for ever and ever and always will be. Not even beloved Apple.

I want relevant information. I want objective comparisons. I want balanced reviews. I want to enjoy great articles/posts about the mobile tech I'm so passionate about by people who are passionate but tempered with reality, who endeavor to inform and inspire me not force their bias on me.

I've read so, so many responses to Rene's articles by Apple fans who are highly annoyed by what often seems like sponsored Apple promotions with lame disguises. So many mobile tech and Apple enthusiasts do not appreciate that. It's not what we're coming to iMore for. It's not why I've read iMore for years...since before it was iMore.

I'm not writing this to gripe. My point is not to bash Rene. However, I reached a point today because of my frustration with his articles that I've decided not to follow iMore anyMore. I'm just too tired of it, and for me it's now outweighed the great writing others do.

I realized making that decision that you might care to know that it is that big of a deal.

Easy way to have iMore minus any writer you don't want to read:
Look at the author of the article before you click on it.
 

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