Blog
(short for “Web log,” a kind of online journal or diary)

The Awl. Needlepoint and Lite-Brite used pixels well before monitors came into use. The Awl is a Gawker manqué rendered in needlepoint and Lite-Brite – a hand-crafted Gawker, sold at an artisanal farmer’s market free of 4chan-like agents provocateurs. Here, comments work.

Runner-up: Well, the Tea Makers, obviously, now populated solely by 4chan-like agents provocateurs. Here, comments FAIL. Of course I regret the great schism, which I think about all the time, but I didn’t cause it. Alphonse Ouimet will continue to thrive, until something else blows up, and possibly after that, too, if history is any guide.

Not the winner: Mondoville. The fourth iteration of this concept is tolerable only in no-JavaScript, no-Flash view and has nothing to offer anti-Twits. Here, comments are AWOL.

Honourable mention for consistency: The Torontoist. Not all guys in their 20s are on 4chan.

“Viral” video

“Web Site Story.” Needs captioning, but they all do. Approaches Pythonesque levels of canonicity; I can recite the whole thing. Bonus? Green-shirt guy is doable. “True love on the Intanet? Ha!”

Overdue realization

Even the most Aspergerian of Toronto new-media strategists are slowly coming to realize the way their “friends” and “followers” present themselves onliné is an act. Nobody, but nobody, is that happy, optimistic, or blithe all the fucking time. Like Kuznicki, Toronto, and indeed Canada, these people need more curmudgeons in their lives. People who are right more often than they’re wrong tend to have what Normals call a bad attitude. This doesn’t mean I’m getting my hopes up.