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07 Feb 2012 14:17

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About: New writer at ShortFormBlog: Manic, Chill’s Scott Craft

  • Greetings Internet! My name is Scott Craft, and I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be joining the amazing team here at SFB as a weekend contributor. A bit about me: I’m an IT professional, native Texan, and current Denver resident who you will rarely spot without headphones. An avid fan of hip hop, in my spare time I blog about music, being bipolar, politics, and more at my personal blog “Manic, Chill“. Now back to the news you care about, in the shortest form possible!
Posted by Scott Craft • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Nov 2011 19:17

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Politics: ShortFormBlog + DC Decoder = GOP debate fun!

  • It’s that time again, folks! Tonight we’ll be providing coverage of the GOP presidential debate along with DC Decoder — we’ll also be participating in a livechat of the momentous evening — a CNN joint based in DC and moderated by Wolf “colossal dork” Blitzer — to boot. The stakes are rather high this evening; Newt Gingrich storms into tonight’s debate as the polling frontrunner, despite recent revelations of his high-paid work for Freddie Mac. As these revelations haven’t yet registered in any painful way for Newt, a strong debate performance tonight could vault him even higher in the esteem of the anti-Mitt contingent. Which is not to say he’s the only candidate with a lot on the line; tonight’s debate is on foreign policy, a topic on which Herman Cain has recently floundered (and how). It’s impossible to say what exactly will happen tonight, but we bet it will be damn compelling viewing. And for those of you who want a break from these debates, we promise this is the last one … for roughly three weeks. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Nov 2011 19:03

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Politics: Join us for tonight’s CNBC GOP presidential debate!

  • “Your money, your vote”: We’re thrilled to be covering tonight’s GOP presidential debate, coming from Oakland University in Michigan. This one is being presented by CNBC, and is purported to be about jobs, economics, and fiscal issues. (Follow along at our CNBC Debate tag.) However, with one of the two contenders pictured above fighting off a slew of increasingly damaging sexual harassment claims, it’s anybody’s guess what the tone of this debate will be. Especially considering Mitt Romney, the man who stands to retain frontrunner status if Cain falters, has employed a somewhat hands-off approach in prior debates. Smelling some blood in the water, will Mitt attack or hang back?
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Aug 2011 16:19

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About: What I learned this summer, from departing intern Justin Jones

  • Editor’s note: Justin Jones, our summer intern, has spent the past few months updating SFB and learning a couple of tricks along the way. As he begins his time back at the University of Florida again and leaves our humble abode, he wanted to share with you a few things he learned over the past few months. Enjoy. Oh, and thanks for the help, Justin. Much appreciated. — Ernie @ SFB
  • On people Community and the people who make it are critical, and it’s awesome here on Tumblr. I already had experience with that. What I didn’t have experience with is manning a Facebook and helping with the Twitter, and I learned how to do it in a way that interacted with all of you! I thought it was challenging, but in the end it ended up being really fun and a great learning experience.
  • On accuracy When you’re trying to post something quickly, it’s easy to misinterpret something from the source you’re getting it from. Having a fact error is the worst sin a journalist can commit (other than mispelling someone’s name), so I learned to double check everything before I posted it — and realized that sometimes only an editor will catch your mistakes.
  • On relevance Not every article you run across is relevant to your audience, or even important to post about based on what we’re trying to achieve with SFB. It’s a careful judgement you make each time you write a post, and one I honed with time — and I think this is my favorite thing I learned, because it’s that important. Not only that, but I hadn’t even thought about it much before.
  • » In addition to all of this, I also learned how to write in such a tight space. ShortFormBlog’s style is to keep things, well, short. It’s not as easy as it looks to summarize an entire news story into a quote and 100 words. I think it’s invaluable skill to have, and I learned from some pretty awesome guys. So now I’ll thank Ernie, Seth and Chris for having me around this summer — and for teaching me so much. I know now that I’m better prepared for my last three years in school, and I’m ready to take on some of the more challenging classes in the journalism college here at UF!
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Aug 2011 20:47

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About: New staff writer said hello, then waved

  • I promise to keep this short. It’s tradition to do so around here, since it’s our name. I’m Sami Main, a spunky writer that is way too excited to be joining the SFB team. I’m a journalism junior at the University of Florida; when I’m not having an opinion about the Oxford comma, I can be found on Tumblr and Twitter. I’d rather be raising the roof than the debt ceiling.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 May 2011 12:46

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About: Tumblr blog moves closer towards legitimacy with new intern

  • Yep, that’s us. We’re cool like that. Hello all! I’m Justin Jones, and I’m going into my sophomore year as a journalism major at the University of Florida. I’m interning with ShortFormBlog this summer, and I’m excited to learn a thing or two along the way. In my free time, I like to read news, argue politics and drink too much coffee with my friends at IHOP.  If you’re interested you can check out my personal tumblr and drop me a line.  source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jan 2011 13:23

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About: New writer at ShortFormBlog: Everybody say hi or something!

  • GREETINGS EVERYONE! My name is Chris Tognotti, and I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be joining the excellent team here at ShortFormBlog! To be brief, I’m a dedicated writer, and am especially passionate about politics and media criticism, based out of the San Francisco bay area. In my free time I also operate The Crater, a blog of indeterminate subject, goal, and merit. Very happy to make your acquaintance, all!
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Oct 2010 22:22

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About: Today on ShortFormBlog, we learn about imitation & flattery

  • Since our friend Charles Apple wrote about this, we should probably make a public comment here. We’re sure that the creators of Sigaw Mo meant well when they created a site that was very inspired by our own, down to the same plugins. Filipinos deserve a great source of short news, yes. But our look and feel is our look and feel. And we have to defend it. So, to be clear, we’re flattered by, but do not endorse, Sigaw Mo, which has a link on the bottom of its site to this one. And if you’re the owner of Sigaw Mo, who we’ve e-mailed multiple times already, please contact us so that we can discuss this. Here at ShortFormBlog, we don’t like to crack skulls or stomp on people’s heads like Rand Paul supporters. We prefer conversation. (Update: Alex of Sigaw Mo has graciously offered to take the design down for now. We really appreciate it.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 15:36

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About: Our latest project (in beta): ShortFormBlog comes to Tumblr

  • Our latest big project? We’ve been working on a presence on Tumblr, for a few reasons. First, we think that what we do is a good fit with what Tumblr does. Second, Tumblr has a growing presence as a platform, and we think their community is pretty cool. Third, we also think that the current site might benefit from a reconsideration of its approach. Finally, we think that it’s not important that you come here to read us, but that you see what we read. If you prefer reading here, it’ll still be here. If you want a “lite” version with fewer bells and whistles, that’s over there. So that’s where we are here. We think it’s pretty cool. We hope you agree. And if you see any bugs, of which there are some, please let us know. (Oh yeah, follow us!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Sep 2010 22:50

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About: In beta: ShortFormBlog’s new mobile site. (Exciting!!!!! (!!!))

  • Our backburner projectWe’ve wanted to do a proper mobile site for ShortFormBlog since we started this thang. A lot of things happened between then and now. First, we got a job. Second, we committed ourselves to posting on the site every day until the end of time. Then we redesigned. Then we freelanced for AOL News. Then we did a massive congressional spending project for AOL News. Now, 21 months later, here we are. We finally have a mobile site. Took us long enough.

    The highlights• A simple, basic interface that lets the content shine on its own, complete with all the awesome content styles you love us for.
    • An effort to shove in as much of the big blog onto the little blog, complete with graceful degradation. YouTube clips will load as images.
    • Comments from Disqus! Like buttons! Ways to Tweet! A desire to want to throw your phone!

    What we want from youTry it on your phones (it should work by loading http://shortformblog.com on your iPhone, iPod Touch or Android). Tell us what you jerks think! Hope you dig it.

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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