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A complaint.

So I’m zipping through my Bloglines list on my morning break and The Minor Fall, The Major Lift has a squib pointing to a Guardian article or maybe an interview or something about that guy from the Brass Eye. I think. See, I followed the link and found this notice that, well, since MediaGuardian.co.uk has slaved away putting virtual brick on virtual brick to build its reputation as the UK’s leading media news website, and by golly they want to maintain this reputation come hell or high water, they are planning to introduce registration starting March 11. Now, I was not until this moment aware of said reputation. —And on the one hand, I usually click away from registration notices, since I find them tedious, an unconscionable impediment to my flitting about the web on a morning break looking for diverting nuggets of infotainment quickly consumed and easily forgotten, and actively painful. But it is a profile or maybe a puff piece about that guy from the Brass Eye, maybe. And they promise the registration will be as quick and painless as possible. So I give them my email address and I make up a password and I get this notice saying that I need to validate my account with them; they’ve sent me some email, and all I have to do is respond to it.

Sigh. This is more effort than I really want to put into skimming a mild rewrite of a BBC press release, even if it is about the guy from the Brass Eye, as I think it might be. But. In for a penny, etc. So I bring up my email.

Bupkes.

Okay. Fine. Maybe it takes a minute. Yahoo has its quirks. So I skim through a couple more links off Bloglines and then check my email again.

Still with the bupkes.

I think you can see the punchline from here. My break is pretty much over and I’ve still not heard anything from the Guardian and I still don’t know what’s up with an as-yet unnamed person who might have had something to do with the Brass Eye once, and by the time the email does show up in my in box I’ll be all, what? What is this about? The MediaGuardian what? Why do they have my email address?

Yeah, I know. You should have such problems.

—Filed 7314 days ago to .

  1. Glenn P.    Apr 15, 08:37 am    #
    The Brass Eye should do an expose on this injustice!

    (33 counts of customer dissatisfaction, clarify. Misprint -- completely happy. 42 customer complaints -- rectify.)

  2. Tim May    Apr 15, 11:30 am    #
    Yes, it's a bloody irritating policy. I use bugmenot on such things myself.

    You're not missing much; the substantive content of the abovelinked article is as follows:


    Channel 4 has given the go-ahead to a new series from Morris, which is understood to feature Nathan Barley, a character from the satirical website TVGoHome.

    Barley, the loathsome star of a fictional docusoap, is a public school educated, Hoxton-dwelling new media type who is obsessed with gadgets and extreme sports.

    Morris is working on his new Channel 4 show with Charlie Brooker, the Guardian Guide's TV critic and co-creator of the TVGoHome.

    "We're working on a series that I think will be on later in the year, or possibly early next year," said Brooker, who was also one of Morris's collaborators on the Brass Eye special.

    Brooker would not be drawn on whether the new show will feature the Barley character.

    However, he hinted that the series is likely to move away from the spoof news and current affairs format of Brass Eye, towards a slightly more traditional sitcom style.


    There's a little more, but it's basically background information on Morris.

  3. Cat    Apr 15, 01:05 pm    #
    I always try logging on with cypherpunk/cypherpunk or cyberpunk/cyberpunk first. If that doesn't work, to heck with 'em.

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