Hi!
I am very happy that Voigtländer joined the MicroFourThirds group and I am happy that we from 43rumors where here to report you the news. As you know the BIG caliber Panasonic and Olympus are supposed to announce the new products by mid-September. Before that I wanted to propose you a new value system and talk about some issues we had with some of our rumors:
1) The value system is to complicated (FT1 to FT5).
2) Even trusted sources have prooven to fail with some of the rumors.
3) The rumor language.
So here my proposed solutions:
1) I propose a new rumor value system:
FT1 = Rumor from unknown or external source. In that case we don’t know if there is some truth behind the rumor and it’s likely that the rumor turns out to be false
FT2 = Rumor from one of our trusted sources. A trusted source is a source that gave me correct infos in the past.. This doesn’t mean that the rumor is automatically correct because there is still the possibility that he received wrong or partially incorrect informations.
FT3 = Rumor from trusted sources + evidence (example image leak). Sometimes sources do send me a “proove” and they ask me to not post it. So you should know that when I post a FT3 rumor without posting a “concrete evidence” this happens because I can’t post it.
In any case you should keep in mind that those are rumors and not official news. So there is always a chance that it tourns out to be false! I will also try to underline that in every rumor I will post on 43rumors.
An example. Once we leaked the Panasonic G2 images and specifications on the Panasonic website (!). I posted the rumor with FT5 value. As you remember those specs were wrong! Just to explain you that even on official websites (which are supposed to have correct informations) there could be still errors!
2) Even trusted sources can fail to give me correct informations.
There are many reasons why a trusted source can give me uncorrect informations (not deliberatley!). Olympus and Panasonic do their best to close their information leaks. And they are aware that 43rumors is trying to get infos about upcoming products. That could be a reason why different trusted sources can sometimes receive slightly different informations about the same camera. Another reason is that I receive mostly cryptic and partial informations. It’s rare that a source writes me and says “Hey the GH2 has those and those specs”. They mostly use a codified language I have to interpret.
3) The rumor language.
Every source has a different character and different language. Yesterday for example one source said that a new product was coming and “99% of you will want but only 20% of you will buy“. I didn’t know what was coming until the very last hours. Don’t blame on me if this doesn’t turn out to be 100% correct (not everyone likes the Voigtländer). My job is to post what I receive. And next time I will make it clear that you have to take such statements with a grain of salt!
I also have to improove my “rumor” language. Most of the times I am in hurry. I work on 43rumors during my coffea breaks, pauses and when I am at home late evening. I also never learned english at school and it is not native language. That makes it easy to be misunderstood. Now that we are getting closer to Photokina I will double-triple check every text I am going to post. But please be aware that my language is far from beeing good!
So keep always in mind that this website has an unperfect and personal style!
Many Thanks you all!
Me 🙂
[poll id=”5″]
30 Responses
New rumor rating system to me better reflects the face value of the rumors.
I do not mind the rumors turn out later false. They are called rumors for the reason.
I know you get a lot of people saying that you should not post rumours, only really news etc. But fact is that there’s a lot of fun in watching the excitement grow in anticipation of a new product release.
Thanks for sacrificing your coffee breaks, and keep up the good work.
Are you still planning to release the GH2 specs?
I don’t see the value of a rating system. Just write the headlines and copy according to your judging. “Pana to announce GF2 within the week”, “Oly rumored to skip E-5 for E-7”, etc. Than describe the source and your interpretation.
That’s how other rumor sites work and I think that’s fine.
just my 0,016€ 😉
Look don’t be so hard on yourself. I for one think you are doing us readers a great service! Without 43rumors I would have to spend a long time scouring the nets looking for dets – instead of glancing at my rss reader.
People with their panties in a wad about rumors not being 100% correct are idiots.
A) Don’t believe everything you read online (shocker!)
B) The site’s name is 43 RUMORS! You shouldn’t have to remind people in every post that it contains -gasp- rumors. Tho a post with the definition of the word rumor would be pretty funny. 😉
To sum up, don’t worry about the haters – you’re doing a great job. 😀
yeah… people really had a sad when apple didnt release the jesus camera yesterday (MFT of course)
Admin, you do a nice job. thanks!
Thanks Admin. I agree with everything you just said in this post. I understood that the 20% number and English language statement could have been salesmanship puffing or a slightly inaccurate use of “will”. I would not even have the guts to try to run a web site or make a press release in a non-native language.
Being a relatively new forum member, I am surprised at some of the animosity between 4/3 and u4/3 users.
As a 4/3 user, I can’t use this lens yet until someone makes a u4/3 to 4/3 adapter. However, the lens seems to have nice qualities for some applications. Everyone should remember that photography is a very diverse hobby and profession with photographers focusing on all different kinds of picture-taking and applications. No one product or feature set will meet every photographer’s needs.
The good news is that another vendor is making compatible products for the systems that many photographers on this forum have chosen.
Agree.
Keep up the good work!
Nobody is forced to log on. And log on. And log on. Especially if they do it just to leave a post saying how much they hate logging on.
As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
Keep up the good work.
Now. More please. FT1 will be fine… 🙂
R
For me your ‘rumor language’ is fine. I’m also no native english speaker and I understand your posts very well.
I don’t think it is necessary to double-triple check every text.
It’s not your problem ifIf someone doesn’t understand what ‘rumor’ means.
This system sounds good to me. I am thankful that this is a RUMOR site and not a news site. Let Oly, Pan, etc handle press releases. I know that rumors can be false and I have had no problems with the shortcomings of recent postings as the are just “rumors”.
I would beg of you Admin to not try to be legalistic or so cautionary about postings that they become boring. Its the excitement of the rumors that makes your site so much fun.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
I have just one remark concerning the new system. I think you should change the names of the levels (called it something else and not FT*). If you keep the same letters it can become quite confusing for some time because there will be rumors with the new system, coexisting with older, but not obsolete, rumors usning the old system. There will also be persons who will miss the change’s anouncement, and who may be confused. The new system is good, but the change should be made clearly visible.
There is no need for a system. Rumours are rumours. As long as you state the relative reliability/worthiness of the rumour/source, that’ll do.
I’m not sure it’s a good idea to kick up such a fuss over a pending announcement to save people being disappointed. Counting down to an announcement builds up expectation that is hard to justify.
A new player announcing a nice lens for ‘our’ system is all well and good but it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Hi Admin,
I think your new rating system should work better. However, I would agree even more with what the poster “Sporty883” wrote.
I would like to add the following: While I have been chekking this site on a regulare basis for very long – in fact since its launch and mostly to know about the future for Four Thirds rather than M43 (a little ironic in fact) I have not paid great attention to the “rumour” nature of the posts.
I have an idea, that whatever slip or leak you may recieve from any of your trusted sources or not these are mostly intentional from the manufacturers. E.g. Olympus could not have been against the massive “rumours” about the Pen EP 1 because they were “behind” Panasonic that had already launched the G1 and later GH1 without Olympus having anything else than the orange mock-up.
So I interpret many of the rumors (when they have some logic and connection with existing products) as indication of something going on in this or that area (and that a manufacturer would like its customers to pay attention to it).
On the other hand I have many times felt that this sites information about new third party or out of the ordinary products e.g. underwater housings, legacy lenses, bags and cases etc. as indeed very usefull and valuable. And I also believe that this site at least is very well up to date whenever products are actually launched.
The information (again probably an intended leak) yesterday about the announced Cosina/Voigtländer MFT lenses is a very good example. I felt this was very usefull and even though it could have gone in any direction it was quickly directed to right area. It all happened while I had ordered a Zeiss ZM Sonnar 50 mm f 1.5 for my EP2. Although I have ended up today purchasing that lovely lens (and the M-mount to M43 adapter) I would probably have felt less pleased if your rumor yesterday had not been there. (I made a more informed purchasing choice even though my decision didn’t change). None of the Four Thirds sites, that I regularly visit made any announcements about the upcoming release nor once it was actually released ( only forum posts on such sites have mentioned it). Dpreview announced it, but it came in between all the Canon announcements and waseasy to miss.
To sum up, what I really think is valuable is to separate the posts here between (a) posts about actually announced new products, other published news or advertisments ( or what can be considered very close to that) about forthcoming product announcements and (b) any other information, hints, rumors etc.
BTW, I don’t know if you have seen my suggestion, I liked the way the comments were organized before (as an never ending list where you scrolled down to see them all).
The current design as pages of comments is a lot harder to follow. 🙁
These last days with some posts reaching hundreds of comments I gave up very quickly… 🙁
Totally agree, please put all comments on one page. It makes the page load slower, but much easier to read. Ones who do not want to read comments can read your posts directly from the homepage.
Thanks for the hard work. It’s fun reading rumors for what they are and your interpretation has proved to be quite accurate most of the time anyway. 43rumors.com is valuable to me by making it possible to understand the dynamics of product development rather than just see the surface (i.e. announced products).
p.s. your English is good enough. Don’t beat yourself about it.
I wanted to add to the chorus of voices who think you’re doing a great job, providing super information. I like the rumors and the deals (thanks to you I saved about 10% of the cost of my camera/lens combination).
I agree that rumors are more fun than press releases. If I didn’t want the rumors, I’d just stick with DPReview.
As far as the system, I agree with “I”. You need a new prefix if you’re going to switch from one system to another. Perhaps one of the following?
I) 43-A, 43-B, 43-C
II) u1, u2, u3
III) MFT1, MFT2, MFT3
IV) ???, ?!?, !?! (!!!)
It’s your website – I’ll read it whatever you decide, and that’s not just a rumor…
Thank you for providing us with a great service!
I agree with Bilgy_no1 & Scott.
I dont particularly mind one way or the other regarding the rating of rumours – possibly 4 levels would be better than 3 or 5 – FT1 & FT2 could be merged together as one level.
Rumours are fun – if the speculation is intelligent it doesnt matter if it doesn’t turn out to be true.
Speculative & imaginative discussions about future cameras may even have some influence on future products – Panasonic & Olympus people visit this website and no doubt take great interest in reading what customers are hoping for.
The rating system doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a rumor. The only reason to rate the rumor, is if you expect your visitors to filter them.
No one will.
If it’s a rumor, I want to read it. That’s why I’m at 43″RUMORS”.com. If I wanted press releases (which at times I do) I’d be at dpreview.com.
I’m a new visitor, who started reading your blog about 7 days ago. The whole time I had no idea what the hell the FT garbage was before all your posts.
You just need to ask WHY you’re labeling the rumors.
1. Is it so we can filter the content?
(We won’t)
2. Is it to protect you when they turn out to be wrong?
(You’re taking criticism too seriously. If it turns out to be wrong, it’s because it’s a rumor, not because you did something wrong)
3. Is it because you want to convey how significant your source is?
(You tend to tell us that in the post anyways.
The label is only nessesary if we need that info FAST and FIRST. We don’t. We’re all here to read the post, and we will.
The rating in the title does nothing more than confuse your new visitors.
My .02.
🙂
Thanks for a great site. I’m going to be lurking here until I get info on the GF2. Wasn’t there supposed to be something new announced from Pano today?
Rob
If they turn out to be true, no one in their right mind will be surprised. Disappointed sure, but not surprised. If it’s a rumor
Its a basic knoqledge that rumors are not 100% predictions, therfore you shouldnt worry about some of the rumors not going thru, otherwise you shouldev changed the website to “43facts”
the only thing i belive needs to be changed is the confusing “FT” markings, after more then a year i still dont know what FT stands for(fourthirds?), and because of that i tend to confuse FT5 with FT1, frankly i always ignored the rankigs and looked for a “written in text” confirmation about the rumor’s “rating”
I suggest changing FT with something more cachy, like:
RP=rumor probability
RS=rumor source
RC=rumor class
or to
Class 3
probability 3,
and yes i think the 1-3 ratings is a good idea,
anyway thanx for all your work and effort, you have done amazing job!
If you end up changing the scale, I’d suggest using another naming scheme. If you don’t do that, your older post wont make any sense to new readers.
Regards
Patrick
Kudos for an excellent blog, and excellent analysis of rumors and how you handle them. I sure hope other sites take notice of your editorial style and public airing of policy.
In other words, give you all the credit if you get it right, and don’t blame you if it is totally wrong? That is awfully confusing.
You did not quote anyone when you initially posted the FT5 rumor yesterday. You got pissed when someone called you to attention, making a bet that you would close the site if you failed! AND YOU FAILED! The news did not come out in the time mentioned, and it was not something that 99% of us would want. I doubt 20% of us would even desire such a lens.
You are acting like quite a temper tantrum prone little kid. You want to spew nonsense and not be held accountable. You need to rethink this whole thing.
Wow, Frank is a douchebag
Anyways, you should try to come up with a system that is more obvious than the 1, 2, 3 model. To me #1 seems a higher value. I dont see what is wrong with a single word description, not like it would take much more space. Like under the title have ‘value: proven, trusted, unknown’? You could even add a color value to associate with them as well. Make it obvious so the visitor doesn’t have to find a key to figure out what you mean.
I can’t believe people are busting your balls for the “99% of you will want but only 20% of you will buy” comment. It’s obvious hyperbole to make a point.
There are a lot of idiots that take things literally and don’t understand how to read between the lines. They also don’t understand the difference between rumors and news. Don’t let these morons keep you down, you’re doing a good job.
absolutely needs a new scale if you change it, you already have FT* … to drop the 4&5 isn’t clear enough
FT:Rumor … Rumour (unknown source)
FT:Trusted or FT:Scoop … from a trusted source
FT:News … Fact!
The one problem with numbers is that people don’t understand them! How many reviews have you seen on iTunes or the android market where people say the app is junk and buggy then give it 5 stars, or the app is great and then give it 1 star. When 1 is bad and 5 is good. But 1 = 1st = best! And 5 = 5th and last place?! Grrrr!
Kill the numbers
PS – A HUGE Thank you for being so right on the rumour of the Voigtlander lens pre-announcement, ‘a rangefinder co’ … excellent SCOOP! 🙂
Hi,
I also agree that you are doing a very nice job. If Frank doesn’t like it, he can go to any other website.
I’m happy with the way you manage the page, I like the new design, and I frankly don’t care about the rumor numbering, but it just have to be consistent (I voted no in the poll because I think it is good enough).
Cheers, and enjoy!
I think the three-step rumor classification is better than the old five-step. Whether in numbers, words or colors, it would be clearer.
As for the website, I like the style and it is clearly better than other ***rumors.com photo websites because it is constantly updated with useful info ( no offense to your friends administrating the other ones ).
And English is good enough, no need to apologize …
Continuare così e tutto il meglio a voi. Spero che la tua gamba guarisce presto.