Ars Technica
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Ars Technica is a technology-related website, run by Ars Technica LLC, a for-profit Limited Liability Company. [1] Since 1998, the site has published technology news and editorial. The name "Ars Technica" is a Latin phrase for "(The) Technical Arts." The main content is a blog-style presentation of news stories, interspersed with advertising. Featured articles are less frequent but go into more depth than the news stories.
Contents |
[edit] Ars Front Page
The Ars Technica Front Page has two main sections: From The News Desk and Featured Articles. The News Desk generally consists of short articles featuring analysis of technology and science-related news, but often contain political opinion and commentary, leading John "Hannibal" Stokes to defend the inclusion of political content at Ars.[2] The News Desk came under scrutiny in March of 2006, when IP Democracy blogger Cynthia Brumfield accused Ars Technica of using material from her site without attribution. Ars writers Eric Bangeman and Nate Anderson apologized for the incident.[3]
Featured Articles are sub-divided into two subsections: Journal.Ars and articles. The bulk of the entries are a part of Journal.Ars, which are quick, blog-style postings of rumors and news about technology and the sciences. They are often staff opinion pieces, and are categorized into four distinct topics: Infinite Loop (Apple Computer centric), M-Dollar (Microsoft centric), Nobel Intent (science centric), and Opposable Thumbs (video game and technology gadget centric).
Featured Articles outside of Journal.Ars are further divided into reviews, guides, columns, and other articles. The reviews are largely limited to video games, software applications, operating systems and hardware reviews. The guides contains only the Ars System Guide, as AskArs! is now defunct. The columns (Linux.Ars, Mac.Ars, Science.Ars, and Ye Olde Games.Ars) are a subset of the general articles, and the columns are presented as general articles on the articles page. For example, the Linux.Ars column includes content contributed by members of the Ars Technica Linux community.
There are additional article sections that provide content not contained in the Ars Technica columns: Technology and Culture, CPU Theory & Praxis, Hardware, and Paedia (itself consisting of CPU Theory & Praxis and Hardware articles). The content of articles often overlap the various categories, but the non-column articles tend to be more technical.
[edit] Appearance
- 1999-2001: Black background with white text.[4]
- 2001-2004: Black background, with more orange detail.[5]
- 2004-present: White background with adjustable color, scheme and fonts.[6]
[edit] Ars OpenForum
Ars Technica also maintains the OpenForum, a mostly-public Internet forum with references to Latin and Ancient Rome in places such as the ranks and titles of the forums.[7] The OpenForum is primarily dedicated to discussion of technology issues.
Members of Ars hold meets for members to meet one another in person, with an annual meet held in Indianapolis.[8]
Per its user agreement, Ars Technica, LLC asserts ownership and copyright over all information and works posted to its forums by its users. [9].
In addition, Ars Technica reserves the right to restrict subscriber access from the site for any reason, without notice. [10]
[edit] Subscriptions and Billing
Ars Technica, LLC uses third-party subscription services, and does not handle its own billing directly. As such, these third-party subscription services will automatically place a subscription renewal charge on the user's account on a regular basis, unless the user contacts these services to terminate the automatic billing. [11]
After the initial trial period, the Basic Subscription is non-refundable.
[edit] Ars Technica Profit Sources
Ars Technica's revenue derives from the following sources:
- Affiliate sales commissions (including "Sale" notices posted under the news section")
- Advertising on Ars Technica (through Netshelter, approx. $8 per CPM)
- User subscription fees
[edit] History
- 1999-2000: OpenForum was moved to UBB.classic.[12]
- 2000-2004: Forum moved, code changed to OpenTopic.[13]
- 2004-present: Forum moved from OpenTopic to UBB.x (later renamed Eve/Groupee).[14]
[edit] Moderation
Moderators use the site's posting guidelines to moderate the forum and rely in part on reports from Ars Technica readers.[15] Ars Technica's Terms of Service note that they do not monitor the entire contents of their forum.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/etc/subscribe/agreement.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20040122-3327.html
- ^ http://www.ipdemocracy.com/archives/001363dubious_blogosphere_web_journalism_ethics.php
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/19990422164255/http://www.arstechnica.com/
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20000815053602/http://www.arstechnica.com/
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/articles/redesign.ars
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/site/postguide.ars
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050626-5039.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/etc/subscribe/agreement.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/etc/subscribe/agreement.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/etc/subscribe/agreement.html
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/19990824222354/forum.arstechnica.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/2q00/openforum-1.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20031114-3112.html
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/site/contact-mods.ars
- ^ http://arstechnica.com/site/postguide.ars
