The Engadget Show: Philippe Starck Q&A bonus round
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Nov 13th 2009 3:51PM
posted Nov 13th 2009 3:51PM
Host: Thomas Ricker
Directed by: Daniel Gallenkamp
Edited by: Chad Mumm and Michael Slavens
Music by: Bit Shifter
Titles by: Julien Nantiec
Subscribe to the Show:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Download the Show:
Starck Q&A
Download The Engadget Show in HD (720p M4V)
Download The Engadget Show formatted for iPod / iPhone
Aww... Bonus. Today feels special.
What happened to all the comments written within the first 20 minutes?
Considered worthless until we arrived.
Different post.
It's on the blog post right under this, there's 2 on main page...
They're in the other post...
"I am public opinion all men fear me"
Joshua Topalski, In the interest of transparency I urge you to restore the ability to up/down rank your comments.
@sacapuntas Yeah, I doubt I'll be doing that. I get enough public opinion. This isn't a soapbox, it's our site. Also, it's Topolsky.
I actually corrected myself below (the comment missed its target here...), my apologies again.
As far as this site not being a "soap box" and it being 'your site' I would recommend of once richest man in the world who advised his employees:
There is only one boss: the customer, and he (or she) can fire everyone in the company from the chairman and down, simply by spending their money somewhere else"- Sam Walton
And while he was speaking of a consumer environment for business the logic rings true. If you become indignant to your "customers" they might stop coming. I mean no offense, but you are, in a way, accountable to the community here. Being able to see when we up/down- rank you is a means of keeping a pulse on the community here. If you lose that pulse, "your site" will start to suffer.
Just enable voting but remove the transparency thing for editor postings, and perhaps change it to a numbering that says x:positive x:negative.
And yes comment sections ARE soapboxes really aren't they?
@sacapuntas If the community acted in a responsible and respectable manner, your attitude would be right on. Unfortunately, a lot of this community has a tendency to be trollish and downright mean.
It's our job to be accountable to all of our readers, not just a small segment of them, and moderation of comments is one of the ways we're working to make sure the site is useful and enjoyable for everyone.
What we've found is that there's a healthy portion of our readership who can't be trusted with voting editors up or down -- that they abuse the power, and by doing so make it more difficult for us to keep the peace in comments.
Don't worry, this is just the first step in a handful of changes that will make the commenting experience more pleasant to use -- for everyone.
@Wwhat No, the comments aren't soapboxes. It's a place for readers to engage in conversation, not a place for angry people to spout hate, spam, or just generally troll (despite how often that happens). That's the point: we're working to change the tone here.
@joshua
I guess you aren't familiar with the origin of the term soapbox, which is not referring to the behavior you ascribe to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soapbox
So in a sense we agree I guess?
How about just bringing back the option to vote you up? Seems like a worthy, brown-nose inducing compromise =].
Voting is just a handy way to vent I think, without people having to all make a post, but having editors comments become unreadable (without addons) is no good either, and having the term 'low ranked' seems also not quite right for editors, but I personally think that you should not completely exclude yourself from receiving some negative feedback when you run the show, but we'll see what the final changes will be.
(although I believe this quick no-voting change is a direct result of the 'chris incident', and I agree something had to be done, and that on a regular basis the voting is used as a way to be an asshole rather than voice a view..... specifically when you vote me down of course)
So Josh, what you're saying is you can't take being down ranked, even though you know it would inevitably happen?
Isn't that a N97 he is playing with?
he's been wearing the same ducati leather for the past 11 years. lol
I guess it's erm timeless, and a boost for the rest of us doing that kind of thing.
Religion. "A shame". bwahahahaha +1
What is he doing with that Nokia in the picture? I thought that iGadget was apple only...
You're pretty original.
*Topolsky
My apologies.
I actually corrected myself below (the comment missed its target here...), my apologies again.
As far as this site not being a "soap box" and it being 'your site' I would recommend of once richest man in the world who advised his employees:
There is only one boss: the customer, and he (or she) can fire everyone in the company from the chairman and down, simply by spending their money somewhere else"- Sam Walton
And while he was speaking of a consumer environment for business the logic rings true. If you become indignant to your "customers" they might stop coming. I mean no offense, but you are, in a way, accountable to the community here. Being able to see when we up/down- rank you is a means of keeping a pulse on the community here. If you lose that pulse, "your site" will start to suffer.
If you want to be a Wal-Mart.
Fortunately, most people don't reduce things to that level.
If you ever have the misfortune of meeting this guy in person like I did, you'll soon realize he's a total prick / prima donna.
He has to be, they don't pay big designer bucks otherwise heh.
In my experience, Starck was very gracious and approachable, not at all what you describe.
So conflicting reports, but his approachability might have to do with you being an engadget journalist/blogger, I imagine josh might call balmer approachable too, but is he really?
Not that I think starck seem the worst person in the world, or on engadget even, and I don't mind a bit of snobbishness when applied right :)
I'm sure starck doesn't mind the rabble bitching a little though.
Isn't there a character in the TV show eureka called stark who's a bit hauteur? Makes you wonder if it's coincidence.
I always say topolosky, we all make mistakes :)
Maybe we should use 'josh ryan' because we seem confused by o's
I'm still partial to topolosky though.
Was suppose to be a reply to acapuntas's apology
I want 6 minutes of my life back.
And you will have it, stand by as I arrange something.
Fuck Starck and Lacan and Foucoult: Three pretentious Frenchmen.
There are two posts with his picture...you could have at least made one of them with a Jason mask....
@Nathaniel Hansen You make a good point...
I don't rate Starck at all. He claims he focusses on function, but most of his products have major flaws in their function.
In 'Design for Life' as soon as someone designed something that looked better than another, he ignored function entirely.
Philippe Starck is an artist not a designer. -Dieter Rams
Who the hell is Jonathan Hive? See around second 40, when Stark answers "The best".
It´s Jonathan Ive. Designer of the iPhone.