Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The rumor mill and the danger of trusting it


Soo every blogger worth his weight in salt knows to make sure you put dissclaimers on your rumor mill posts. This is because some people just like to poost things to build a reputation, and to also create anger in the community. Kroothawk at DakkaDakka has posted a prime example of this. Please remember everyone, while the internet is huge we all draw our data from the same sites. So we could all be hit by people like this guy. Thank you Kroothawk for bringing this guy to light.

Via Kroothawk at dakkadakka.com

Hi,
guess this should not be buried in the release schedule thread.

Hastings, a trusted rumour monger for years, announced quitting the rumour business because 80% of current rumours are deliberately made up. This started a heated Warseer discussion on credibility of rumours, in which ghost21 posted this

ghost21 wrote:
I made It up,I wont be posting any more

So if you see an old rumour thread with rumours by him, don't give it any value. This includes a lot of Tau, Black Templar, Sororitas, Eldar, Hrud, Fantasy Contingent Supplement among others. While his first correct rumours about Dreadfleet gave him some credibility, he was wrong on a real Sororitas Codex with plastic releases and most other things that were released until now. That's why I was reluctant lately to post his rumours when not backed up by real rumour mongers like Harry, Hastings, BramGaunt and Frgt/10. But keep in mind that some things may turn out true even if made up, because ghost21 read rumour threads and used part of it when making up things.

So the quantity of real rumours remains quite low due to GW's anti-word-of-mouth-campaign. While rumours are not facts and always can turn out false, a few black sheep deliberately make up rumours to enjoy public attention. This is not cool. But we have to deal with this. Good thing seems to be that Hastings is back posting rumours about the next 40k starter set

Cheers, Kroothawk

BTW, here an insightful post on the topic by straightsilver:

I used to post rumours fairly regularly, and more often thatn not they haven't always panned out at all, or if they did not in the way that was expected.

I'm sure this is the case for all the rumour mongers.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the rumour was strictly wrong, things do change but there is also an element of Chinese Whispers as well.

By the time it gets to Warseer (or other forums) it is more often than not 3rd hand information at least.

There has only been one rumour that I have posted that I was 100% certain about, and that's because it came directly from Jes Goodwin, however in in that instance I feel out of respect for Jes that maybe I shouldn't have posted it,

Although in my defence it wasn't apparent that anything he said was top secret, but in hindsight maybe it was only meant for my ears and not the wider community.

I have however posted other rumours when I wasn't so sure because I thought it's what the community wanted, but unfortunately that isn't always the case.

Rumours are just that. The only people that really know are the people at the top, and it's not often that anybody gets to speak to them.

I have 2 sources at GW HQ, both of whom I have been friends with for 20 or so years, and both of whom hold positions that I would consider to be very reliable.

However they are not necessarily privy to the GW release schedule, just what projects they are working on at the time.

We alll know that GW often holds back releases until they feel it is the optimum time for them to sel them, and more often than not they are held back for a reason, and that means changes will be made.

And any source is of course only human, they have opinions and predictions of their own, which then get passed on by somebody else, and somebody else etc. These rumours get embellished and added to long before they get onto the internet.

GW at the very least know 3 months in advance what is coming as that's when White Dwarf is sent to the printers, but I suspect it is a bit more than that.

What I will say is that I have held back on posting rumours for several reasons.

One of which is the trolling or flaming that occurs, but to be honest I am big enough and old enough to ignore that.

But the other reason is because I have been asked not to. I haven't got anybody into trouble, but obviously things said to me by my friends probably shouldn't be repeated on these types of forums.

And the other simple reason is that there simply aren't that many rumours at the moment, or at least not that I can discern.

Thinngs at GW HQ have got a lot tighter, sources have become a lot more tight lipped and although people are working on projects they aren't necessarily told when these things will be released, they are as in the dark as the rest of us.

Obviously they have the same deadlines but this doesn't necessarily equate to a release date any more.

There are projects that have been on the go for more than 2 years now, but there is no indication they will be released any time soon.

So I guess my point is don't be too hard on thhose that do provide rumours, just accept that's alll they are unless they can be absolutely certain it's true (which more often then not thhey can't).

If I would also address the OP, the reason there are simply so many rumours regarding 40K at the moment is simply that there is just so much 40K stuff going on at Notts at the moment.

It is quite possible that projects that should have come out last year were being held back for the 25th aniversary, or it may just be that upon completion GW weren't happy with the end project and had put it on hold.

I would also like to say thankyou to all the rumour mongers, I still enjoy reading them even if they don't pan out so don't be put off posting them.

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