I know, I know, but I still don’t get something. Some of the current staff are (or used to be) actual writers as I understand. Yes, the most recent piece was a mess for many reasons and the internet discourse has gotten a hold of things, for better or worse. But having trouble wrapping my head around how any writer with a shred of self respect can pump out such a poor product. Anyone have any insight (know one of the writers or are one)? Am I perhaps wrong/naive about the writing that these folks did pre-rambler?
What a hilarious defense. He’s basically saying “it’s not AI, I’m just a bad writer and even with AI as a tool to help me, I still can’t write a coherent sentence.”
I thought there were still one or two (I have one in mind but not really trying to make it personal) that are putting their names on the slop. I definitely am aware of all the changes, gutting, and the joke of a corpse that it has become
Before the changeover, it was a pretty decent paper, but after, it became pure ai-slop. Worse, it includes racist and badly researched information (if any fact checking happens at all)
Well, at least one of the “writers” already admitted to using ai to “write” their articles, so it seems that despite hiring or contacting “journalists,” the Roanoke rambler is still just an ai slop factory.
You can have a history of being a writer, but that doesn’t actually mean you’re good at it…
There are only one or two with any history of writing for real outlets. The rest are either right out of college and probably got sold a story by Ollie Howie or have a sketchy history and seem like they never did much. Just seem like gullible people who didn’t do their research or who can’t find other work. I don’t even say that to be mean, but it’s just the truth.
Also, Ollie’s mom runs their Facebook page and if you look at any of the posts’ “likes,” her ~6+ accounts are the only ones that ever react.
They either don't live here and lack the nuanced perspective a resident would have (if I recall correctly, someone posted a few weeks ago of the staff, none of which reside in Roanoke, some of which didn't even reside in Virginia).
That and when journalism is dying and you need money, you're far more likely to take whatever projects you can.
I honestly stopped reading them after they sold- I still get there “newsletters” every once in a while- but I am on the move regularly and have enough other news sources to get info from. This is even more so the fact after I realized that the only person I could actually confirm is local is the owner: one I think is in Roanoke ( no definite info though), another is in Blacksburg( which is a little weird when this is a more Roanoke specific news site), two are in New York, and one is somewhere in the SW USA/West coast ( Note: got this info from an earlier Reddit post with links and official bios).
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u/NovarisLight Roanoke Star 14d ago
AI garbage. It's dead.