Sam Jones: In part that’s because, as Flaubert and the makers of American Idol knew, there’s nothing funnier than stupidity.

Don Hall: A distrust for the megacorporations that own the media...?

Jim DeRogatis: Yeah. And are they aware of the street teams of computer bloggers hired by studios, record companies, etc. to post (many of those) “unbiased reviews?”

Sam Jones: I mean, with user reviews you get smart stuff, too, but the stupidity is a certainty.

Anne Holub: Could that just be a Web versus print preference?

Kris Vire: Anne: user reviews. Edited Web publications were a separate category.

Nathan Rabin: I think it has a lot to do with an anti-intellectual bias that has long persisted in our culture.

Nathan Rabin: The idea that snooty eggheads don’t know anything ’bout movies that Joe Six-Pack doesn’t.

Kris Vire: I think Nathan’s on to something. There’s a sense that critics are snobs.

Donna Seaman: Having strong opinions makes one an elitist?

Jim DeRogatis: I think what most people really do is what I do: Google a movie or book or album (after forming my own opinion in the latter case) and see, via a mix of blogs, user sites, webzines and print publications, what a variety of people are saying.

Sam Jones: Seriously though, user reviews ensure a kind of scope of coverage no editorial team can provide.

Jim DeRogatis: No, Sam. No way.

Chuck Sudo: User reviews can be very unreliable. And prone to ringers.

Nathan Rabin: That’s true but there’s also no barrier to entry, which is both a good and bad thing.

Anne Holub: Isn’t there strength in numbers? Like democracy in action?

Jim DeRogatis: Here’s what no one is doing that should be done: Matter magazine did it in the ’80s. One lead review of, say, 400 words. And then four other critics each weigh in with 150 to 200 words. It was a great way to get that conversation and broad range of opinion. After the end of print and before Home Depot, my webzine will work that way.

Donna Seaman: I agree, we need a mix.

Sam Jones: But honestly, no print source is telling me about Gonçalo Tavares. But some reader out there is. You can bank on it. No matter how obscure—it’s out there. And that matters.

Jim DeRogatis: But we just said earlier that in the new age, the reader is the writer. The writer is the reader. I thought we just killed those distinctions, Sam.

Sam Jones: Let’s say—some nonprint, nonprofessional, nonedited, nonpaid, nontrained writer.

Don Hall: I’m right here.

Jim DeRogatis: But a writer nonetheless.

Sam Jones: True.

Jim DeRogatis: Somebody should hire that writer. But there are fewer and fewer jobs all the time.

Anne Holub: Didn’t we all start out that way on some level?

Kris Vire: That’s how I got here.

Chuck Sudo: Sometimes I think I’m still there.

Mike Sula: Or soon to be.

Sam Jones: For many people, the Internet is a vast internship opportunity.

Nathan Rabin: That’s true. I’ve always seen criticism as an extension of fandom. If you’re not passionate about something you probably shouldn’t be writing about it.

Donna Seaman: Most people writing on the Web hope to be in print, too. Look at the new anthologies, in book form, or Web lit.

Chuck Sudo: For the writer who truly wants to work on his craft, the Internet can be invaluable.

Jim DeRogatis: I spent ten years writing for free for fanzines. The webzines of their day. But I had to sneak into Kinko’s at night and have a friend run off the copies for free on his key card. Now, it’s as simple as getting some server space. Kids today don’t know how good they have it.

Jim DeRogatis: Unless they wanna make a living at it.

Kris Vire: For those of us who do get paid for our writing, would you still do it if you weren’t? Would you head to Blogspot and keep cranking it out?

Donna Seaman: Yes, ’fraid so.

Nathan Rabin: Oh yeah.

Mike Sula: Sure.

Jim DeRogatis: Hell yeah.

Nathan Rabin: I’d be a lot more frustrated, but I’d still be out there trying to say something that matters.

Chuck Sudo: Absolutely. Still do.

Anne Holub: Definitely. Of course, I don’t get paid now sooo…

Don Hall: Which indicates that for all the bitching about money, money has little to do with this thing we do.