I know I’m not the only one that’s just a little sick of user created content. Not so much the quality of content itself, more the whole exploitation model. As someone commented (source forgotten) user created content = unpaid freelancers. Not that I think everything should be compensated, most of it really can just be seen as conversation and part of the Commons and it’s nice that the website facilitates it. Of course, if you’re getting something back (eg MySpace hosting etc) then that’s even fairer. I don’t even mind the competition models like worth1000.com. What IS worrying when that company starts to take other people’s IP away from them (ie YouTube’s policies re: ownership if you post stuff on their site, MySpace were forced to change theirs) or they use it to start replacing content they would have previously used from paid staff. Recently, SMH has started adding pleas for user content at the beginning and/or end of their stories. It’s so irritating. I read this today and was absolutely stunned:

Shop horror as butcher stabbed - National - smh.com.au

Did you witness the incident or see the attackers escape? Send information or photos to 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767 764) or to scoop@smh.com.au

Shouldn’t this information go to the police first? There’s no mention in the original story of any plea for information for the police.

,