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Wine Software

Apology to Readers, Corel, et al. 74

Posted by justin++ from the totally-my-fault dept.
Yesterday, I posted a story speculating that Corel might drop WINE in favor of (what isn't really) a competing product. This was a huge mistake on my part, and I hope Corel, Wine developers, and the Slashdot readership in general will accept my apology. Normally on a blooper like this, I'd update the story, but I think this needs to be noticed by everyone who read the original.
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Apology to Readers, Corel, et al. More

Apology to Readers, Corel, et al.

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  • That corel is still supporting WINE.

    Do Not Duplex Transparencies

  • I must admit to getting my panties in a bunch about it.

  • Stuff that matters . . who needs the truth (Score:5)

    by Money__ ( 87045 ) on Tuesday November 23, 1999 @02:21AM (#1510949)
    I would like to thank /. for putting up a retraction after getting a story wrong. This is good to see. Thanks for being up front and honest about the situation. Sometimes fast moving news isn't always firm. I would rather see the fast moving news keep coming (with an ocasional oversite) than see the speed of /. slow down for editorial reasons.

  • Agreed! (Score:1)

    by Mr Z ( 6791 )

    After all, like Linus says, "Release early, release often!"

    --Joe
    --
  • And I'd like to think those who slammed you yesterday will find forgiveness in themselves also.
    Congratulations on having the guts to admit your mistakes.
    I forget if it's a traditional, or some eminently quotable source, but "If you've never made a mistake, you've never made anything".
  • Yeah.. thanks for being honest about it.. we all make mistakes, but it takes an incredibly large amount of charisma to admit it.. so yes, we forgive you =) -- C
    ,-----.----...---..--..-....-
    ' CitizenC
    ' "Bug? That's Not A Bug, That's A Feature!"
    `-----.----...---..--..-....-
  • What is the truth surrounding this WINE/Corel issue? Does a press release exist that explains current events?


    Mr. Schroedinger, for $10000, is it behind door number 1 or door number 2?

  • This is probably redundant, but I must congratulate Justin on being able to fess up to a mistake. So very many people would put some english on it to make it seem as if it was not their mistake.

    It takes courage to act with honor and honesty when you do a boo boo.

    'Nuff sed

    Da
  • After reading the article I quickly understood that this was not a competeing product with WINE. Then I read the few comments that were posted at the time and it seemed that others felt the same way. I just took it up as one of those "Exagerated Headlines" the /. usually posts.

    No harm done, but thanks anyway Justin.

    Steven Rostedt
  • I agree. We all make mistakes sometimes. It often takes guts to own up to it, especially to the net in general. What I would like to see from /. is less US bias. Perhaps there should be more non-US folks posting stories. Here in the UK nothing much gets posted until mid afternoon. There surely must be something interesting to us europeans submitted once in a while. Is this too much to ask?
  • It was really nice to read such a sincere apology.
    When newspapers retract things, they usually do it
    at the bottom of page 20 in 2 point italics,
    in a manner which shows zero sincerity. This
    gives a very *good* impression of slashdot as a
    whole, I think.
  • Not many people would admit to making a mistake like this so publicly- really the submitter and not you put the 'dropping wine' slant on the article. shit does happen. keep up the good work.
  • Not only is there a benefit in fast-moving news for its own sake, but due to the quick turnaround in this forum, the retraction can show up within a day, instead of being buried and forgotten in some magazine issue two months later when everyone has forgotten the original piece. It's not like traditional print media has a stellar record on truthfulness and substantiation...

  • Exactly, all mass media seems to be like that. They admit the truth in fine print, but don't actually make an effort to get it out to the readers. Of course to be fair, When newspapers are competing for eyeballs i guess the headlines can't be "we f'ed up yesterday."
  • Two weeks ago they claimed that Mozilla will ship within a month and wouldn't support XML. The sad thing was that a swedish newspaper (Computer Sweden) cited this article also. I've never seen an apology fot that piece.
  • Being able to own up that a story you wrote was incorrect/inflammatory is the sign of a good newsperson, and helps keep the integrity of /. strong.

    -ShieldWolf
  • >After all, like Linus says, "Release early,
    >release often!"

    Or like the normal reporter would say:

    "Never check a good story"

    I like the fast reporting of /. , one mistake every once in a while is acceptable, as long as it gets corrected when proved to be wrong.

    Keep up the good work everyone. And keep hacking on wine.
  • Do you think I actually believe anything I read on SlashDot? Sheesh. What makes SlashDot interesting is the breadth of opinions, not the accuracy of opinions. If I want accuracy then I do the research myself!
  • Since when have press releases reflected the truth? :-)

    -----

  • Good to have an apology and a retraction, but perhaps there should also be an update to the original artice, since if someone searches the archives they might find that article and assume it was true, if they didn't read around it.
  • I am glad to see that at least /. can admit to their readers that they may have mistakenly reported false information. Now if we could only get the rest of the media to do the same...
  • For some people, "I was wrong" is the hardest thing to say. Can't say that I'm good at it, either. If posters had karma, Justin's should be bumped up.
  • Part of slashdot is being in tune with the "buzz" of the industry/community, whether or not that "buzz" always turns out to be true. Just as long as slashdotters know to take a rumorous story with a grain of salt, and that articles are being totally fabricated, it's cool.

  • Probably should update as well (Score:4)

    by Gleef ( 86 ) on Tuesday November 23, 1999 @03:45AM (#1510975) Homepage
    Justin, you probably should put an update on the story as well, perhaps pointing to this one. That way people searching through the archives later won't get confused if they just find the older story.

    ----
  • Hey, mistakes happen. I won't pretend I haven't made them, publicly. You won't see the "big media" - which probably snickers at the mention of Slashdot - run front-page apologies. We've heard only bare whispers of retractions when the media jumped the gun on Egypt Air. And they never retracted on their "profiling" of the Columbine killers, and playing into the hands of the would-be bookburners who want to begin with video games and movies...

    ANYWAYS, I don't want to see Slashdot slow down, but there's a lesson for you here in facts-checking. It's not always the case, but here you had month old press releases which contradicted the gist of your post, links which the Slashdot Peanut Gallery was more than quick to provide. :)

    If all goes well, we'll see just a little more fact checking on some of these posts. I'd rather see some of the stories last a little longer than 36 hours, and carry some real back and forth debate like the old /. (it seems like some stories get rolled off while still news, and active posting).

  • Justin,

    It's good to see that you have made such a public apology and maybe all Slashdot readers and posters can learn something from this.

    Maybe we should all start checking our sources and reading everything three time to make sure that what we are passing on is actually true. More than one business has been destroyed by terrible untrue rumours and that is not what we want to see happenin the Linux community.

    So, let's start thinking about what is being posted. What is said here is being read by thousands of people each day and unfounded rumours or incorrect facts can be very damaging to all parties involved.

  • I'll join the chorus of people giving Justin kudos for running this, and I'm sure that you're giving some thought to how you can try and prevent similar incidents in the future. It's not a trivial problem - I think we, the Slashdot readers, should be thinking about it too!

    This was quite a big mistake, so it needed a prominient correction, but little mistakes slip into /. stories all the time, sometimes spelling mistakes, other times misunderstandings of the slant of a story; it ends up that you *have* to read at least the highest scored articles on a story if you want to know whether there's any truth to it. What can we do in future to try and make it easier for the /. editors to post accurate stories?

    Here's an idea. Could be shot down, but might inspire workable ideas along the same lines. Nominate a group of "slashdot helpers" from among the higher scored volunteers (like moderators). When ./ editors post a story, they can choose to put it in a queue waiting for a helper to give it a once-over; helpers will be notified that there are stories awaiting their attention. Helpers can either accept the story as is, or bounce it back to the writer with a comment, or perhaps a suggested modified version (the original is of course preserved). When writers resubmit, they can choose to put it back in the queue or put it straight on the pages.

    I bet there are a hundred or more /. readers who would make good helpers for this sort of job. I think you could choose some good helpers and still have no story waiting in the queue for more than ten minutes. And I'm damn sure it would improve the spelling and factual accuracy of some of the stuff here!

    You could even give helpers specialities - I for one have often wished I could have commented on a crypto-related story before /. posted it...

    I'm sure this idea has problems. Consider this put in the queue - let's see what ideas people have!
    --
  • I for one would be willing to do just what Paul suggests. Anyone else?


    Dive Gear [divingdeals.com]
  • I've always seen slashdot as a news and rumour site, so I'm never surprised when something turns out to be inaccurate or misleading. I'm surprised at how many people believe everything they read on slashdot.

    I think that posting a retraction as a story is unecessary and clutters things up. Writing an update on a story is the best thing to do in this situation. Adding a section for retractions would also be a good idea.

  • Ummm... don't you think you were just a tad-bit too hard! This whole thing (/.) started off as a couple of college guys with too much time on their hands ;-) and has turned into (in my opinion) one of the best OS/Technology/general-geek-stuff websites in the world. As someone earlier in this thread mentioned, it's not like they retracted this story 2 months later with a small print blurb on page 107 (as most "respectable" print publications do)!

    Thank you /. for keeping me up to date on all the coolie-cool geek stuff in the world. Thank you /. and Justin for posting a prompt and honest apology. Now if I could just get the USAF (my current warde... umm... employer) to apologize for years of hell and give me that raise I so dearly desire (letting me becoming a civilian), the world would be perfect place!


    Actually, you can teach a donkey how to sing, but he will still sound like an ass...

    --
    Kir

  • Retractions are honest (Score:3)

    by Outland Traveller ( 12138 ) on Tuesday November 23, 1999 @05:41AM (#1510987)
    I'm very glad to see such a visible, open retraction. Every publisher (especially news publishers) make mistakes. What seperates a site with integrity from a site like, say, anything ziff-davis is the ability to admit mistakes.

    I want my news to be simply informative- retractions don't take away from that. The kind of places that don't care about retractions are usually trying to use their position as a news provider for more self-serving ends. They don't care so much if the news is true, so long as you get it from them.
  • . . . would need someone that Rob, Hemos, et al, could trust enough to have near-root access. After, all, mid-afternoon in the UK is Start Work time on the East Coast, and most are still asleep on the West Coast. So, for a more European angle, we'd need at least one European editor. . .

    Rob, Hemos, Justin et al. . .
    Who would be a good choice for a European editor for /. ????? How could one be chosen ??? And what sort of say does Andover.net have to say in all of this ?????

  • Brave and admirable, to admit one's mistakes and to apologize. I must say, there is no level of technical proficiency that could ever impress me more than what Justin has done. Ultrakudos, man!





  • It's been said before, but it's still true. The quicker news cycle (i.e., from time story is first acquired by the news outlet to the time is it released to the public) is shortening by the minute, and the primary victim of this reduction in time is complete fact checking before publishing.

    It's always been up to the reading public to demand complete verification of stories from the news outlets they use, just now people are required to be on top of the media, to demand quality from it.
  • Corel showed 6 of their apps compiled with WineLib at COMDEX: WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations,
    Paradox, CorelDRAW, and Photo-Paint.

    There are some screenshots of some of the apps here:

    http://newmedia.corel.com/webcast/gallery.htm

  • You should also update the previous article for those people link directly to slashdot. Joseph Elwell.
  • Slashdot has set a high standard,when it bring stories to it's readers . I am glad to see your human and admit you make mistakes. Now Zd should do the same but one better , admit they made a whole bunch of mistakes and close their doors .
  • Slashdot needs a Kiwi editor. +12 hrs ahead of GMT. If anything happens on January 1, 2000, they'd be the first to know.
  • Speaking of spelling, it's "amateurs."
    Seriously, though, if we keep on second-guessing ourselves and adding in more double-checks to make sure embarassing things like this don't happen, you know what we get, in the end? A bureaucracy.
  • Gee, Slashdot didn't sound half as remorseful about erroneously posting JZW's death.

    You're a winner!
  • Damn you Justin! Damn you to hell!!!!! I lost everything becuase I thought Corel was dropping Wine. My Wife, my family, my job. If you had just gotten the facts rights the first time none of it would happend. I belived you when you said Corel was dropping linux, I trusted you. Damn the day you were born!!!!!!
  • Way to go nitwit
    Now please do it again, PLEASE????
  • I was reading an obituary ealier this month in the Australian [theaustralian.com.au] (australian national newpaper) about an academic (the name escapes me, but it's not important) who compiled literary encyclopedia's for a living. She would get three independent sources before should would even consider an addition. What I would like to see before you start submitting more stories...
    • email address of person(s) submitting story: - so we can confirm it if we have to

    • html links to other sites: - that also may carry to a story
      gut reaction factor: - comment, given your experience and checking within the industry about the likelyhood of a stories truth (bs detection).


    Slashdot allows me to get the latest tech news, raw - facts and then analysis of those raw facts. If I want humour, I'll go to segfault (segfault.org), gonzo journalism - zdnet. If i want the latest breaking (inaccurate timely news) I'll watch the news on local television (go channel nine!)... But I come to slashdot for the FACTS, FACT BASED OPINIONS and CAREFUL ANALYSIS... not baseless rumours.... Nerd and geeks can smell bs a mile away :)




    fine print:
    (with exception of transmeta, bill gates throwing away visual basic and taking on gcc and make and building a bewoulf cluster using windows ce hardware and microLinux software ports and various references to freeBSD)
  • Well, the BBC Sci/Tech news site gets cited pretty frequently. I don't think the UK does so badly, unlike continental Europe whose representation is really dire, especially considering what a high proportion of Linux development goes on in Germany.
  • Well, there is no guarantee that any of the helpers knows anything about the story, and it would delay the time that news takes to surface, kind of defeating the purpose of this kind of site.


    In the current case, what would have made a difference would have been if Justin had asked Corel whether or not this affected their plans for supporting WINE. Slashdot really should establish relationships with open-source friendly companies to ensure they can get quick responses to these kinds of questions.

  • ..mistakes are ofent made. The Chinese have a saying, "If you make a mistake, and don't correct it, you've made your second mistake". :)

    --Brian
  • Good work Justin! Neither the reputation of yourself or /. has been harmed because of your swift retraction and apology. Well done!
  • sorry? sorry? sorry isn't good enough ... I want blood!!! .... BLOOOOODDDDDDD!

    hehe ... don't sweat it Justin, we all do it ...
  • Well Said. It takes strength to admit a mistake.

    Bruce

  • "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -- Albert Einstein
  • You make it sound like he is prolonging a terminal illness. Actually, his contributions will help improve health standards, and the immunizations will save a lot of people. You might say it doesn't matter. I'd say it matters to the people that don't get sick because they were immunized. As for the "agonizing existence of being in poverty" ... well at least they have a fighting chance of building the country if they live to adulthood.

  • Really and do you know the chances of a third world country getting out of poverty?

    Not as low as you think. For example, China, Malaysia, and Singapore have all come a long way forward in the last 30 or so years.

    As for curing starvation - it's about as easy as "curing" human rights abuses. A lot of the problems are political, and it's awfully hard to do very much about them. Take a look around the world and you will see that the countries with stable, sensible political systems ( NOT the countries with the most resources ) are the most succesful.

    Cheers,

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