Opinion: What is a Rumors Site?

Canon Rumors Guy

Canon EOS 40D
CR Pro
Jul 20, 2010
10,832
3,197
Canada
www.canonrumors.com
HTML:
I started this site 9 years ago, more as a joke than anything. I stole the idea from the likes of <a href="http://macrumors.com">macrumors.com</a> and <a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/rumours.html">northlight-images</a>. It was never meant to be more than a fun place for me to write about current and coming camera gear, I never imagined it would explode to the level of popularity that it has.</p>
<p>However, it seems every year or two I have to remind a small (but loud) percentage of folks about what a “rumor” is.</p>
<blockquote>
<h3>ru·mor

ˈro͞omər/</h3>
<h3>noun

1. a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts:</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>With success comes responsibility, even if you haven’t asked for it.</p>
<p>We try to be correct with information 100% of the time, this is a lofty and completely unattainable goal. We are not CanonFacts.com or the New York Times or the BBC, we are Canon <em><strong>Rumors</strong></em>. No one is going to be correct 100% of the time, and you cannot treat anything you read as 100% correct, whether the writer had that intention or not.</p>
<p>We hear the latest in cliche words, “clickbait”, “fake news” & “altfacts” all come to mind. There is nothing at Canon Rumors that is intentionally any of those 3 things.</p>
<p>We are fine with criticism, and actually welcome it. However, if you’re going to be critical, please do so based on what we have written and not what others have written.</p>
<p><strong>What we do not control:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Things people send us. 95% of the stuff that appears in my inbox never appears on the site because I can generally confirm the information internally.</li>
<li>What others sites decide to publish. If another site wants to link one of our stories, that’s great but we do not seek it. They are running the risk of the rumor being untrue or partially untrue.</li>
<li>I have no control on how people read between the lines and then hit forums or social media and spread these things as “fact”. Things I never wrote appear places and then are taken as fact and then people are mad at us if it turns out to not be true.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What we do control:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Every post on the site is my responsibility and when it’s wrong, I’m wrong, and that bugs me.</li>
<li>The ratings we put on posts. This <a href="http://www.canonrumors.com/crop-factor-change-for-4k-canon-eos-5d-mark-iv-included-in-coming-update-more/">latest firmware update post</a> we didn’t put [CR1] on it, as we should have. The post says “new source”, but it was our oversight that we didn’t rate it for whatever reason.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>How to make it better going forward?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Making sure we rate every post and we’ve put the rating system in the side bar of the site. I don’t like posting [CR1] stuff, but sometimes they can turn out to be true. I will make sure to better articulate that a rumor is unconfirmed and to take it for what it is.</li>
<li>All video related rumors are going to be vetted differently. I have lots of photography knowledge, but my videography knowledge is lacking. This latest firmware rumor would have probably ended up in the trashcan if I had passed it onto a couple of people prior to posting for evaluation.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks for reading my rant and visiting Canon Rumors. In the end we do this for fun and we hope you read it for fun.</p>
<p> </p>
<span id="pty_trigger"></span>
 
Yup keep up the good work, love the site, lots of info and a great source for worsening my GAS condition.

I guess the problem is that people don't want to use the black box above their shoulder, my motto always is "Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see" and what you read must be treated the same as what you hear.
 
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Well said - having had a 'rumours page' or pages on the Northlight site since 2003 I long gave up on trying to explain that rumours were rumours to some people...

I re-wrote the Northlight Images site from scratch last year and seriously did consider whether I could be bothered to keep those pages going. I asked around and enough people responded asking me to include them in the new site, so they are there - I probably publish less than 10% of what I get sent, most is so patently absurd that it goes right in the bin.

It's easy to get caught out - someone on a trade stand at the recent Photo Show in the UK recently led me astray with some 6D mk2 comments ;-)

However, I've always regarded my articles and reviews as the real complement to my photography and print making and the rumours just a side entertainment. Fortunately, an attitude shared by the many lens, camera and printer manufacturers I do product testing with ;-)

Craig - keep up the good work, and continue to treat the haters (and loons) with the disdain they deserve ;-)
 
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It's disappointing that this conversation is even necessary. If other websites/readers choose to take the content of a rumour site and then re-publish that as fact, that's obviously on them. They should look stupid for taking freely available content presented as a rumour and then re-purposing it as fact - that's a stupid thing to do!

I think CR has done a great job for as long as I've been reading (and lurking). I would be really disappointed if the loud minority of users were to dissuade release of rumours for fear of backlash.

Don't change a thing! The fact that people are taking posts here as fact is a testament to the accuracy of the site.
 
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Sharlin

CR Pro
Dec 26, 2015
1,415
1,433
Turku, Finland
It's unfortunate how many people don't really have the tools to reason about potentially unreliable information at all. Even if one only published things they were 95% confident of being true, and was perfectly calibrated, one would still publish untrue information 1/20 of the time by definition.

In my experience CR has been consistently well-informed and well-calibrated. Thank you for doing this and keep up the good work.
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
CR Pro
Aug 16, 2012
12,441
22,878
keithcooper said:
Well said - having had a 'rumours page' or pages on the Northlight site since 2003 I long gave up on trying to explain that rumours were rumours to some people...

I re-wrote the Northlight Images site from scratch last year and seriously did consider whether I could be bothered to keep those pages going. I asked around and enough people responded asking me to include them in the new site, so they are there - I probably publish less than 10% of what I get sent, most is so patently absurd that it goes right in the bin.

It's easy to get caught out - someone on a trade stand at the recent Photo Show in the UK recently led me astray with some 6D mk2 comments ;-)

However, I've always regarded my articles and reviews as the real complement to my photography and print making and the rumours just a side entertainment. Fortunately, an attitude shared by the many lens, camera and printer manufacturers I do product testing with ;-)

Craig - keep up the good work, and continue to treat the haters (and loons) with the disdain they deserve ;-)

I prefer rumours to rumors as well. But, I do like Canadian loons.
 
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Yours is one of the rare rumor sites that actually provides some real added value and genuine information about things to come. It may not always be 100% right, but it's reliable, we know it's been vetted by you and that actually means something.

This is in contrast to many other rumor sites that just pass along any bit of info they receive, and then throw fireworks when, inevitably, one of their 100 rumors that month turns out to be proven true. That, to me, is completely useless.

So thanks Craig, and keep up the good work !

(But seriously, come on, spill the beans about that 85mm lens already :mad: ;D )
 
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Valvebounce

CR Pro
Apr 3, 2013
4,549
448
57
Isle of Wight
Hi Neuro.
I guess you prefer simplified English over the traditional form! :eek: ;D
Two countries divided by a common language. :)
You might have seen this, it is quite old, if not you may find it a tad funny.
http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/european-commission.html

Cheers, Graham.

neuroanatomist said:
AlanF said:
I prefer rumours to rumors as well. But, I do like Canadian loons.

I prefer facts to rumors, and I prefer rumors to rumours. I also like Canada geese, although they're eponymously and not geographically named. :D
 
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Don Haines

Beware of cats with laser eyes!
Jun 4, 2012
8,246
1,939
Canada
The rumours and discussion over them is interesting and informative, but there are some fantastic examples of photography in the images pages, and the amount of advice on technique and gear is phenomenal! The site and particularly it's members have become a valuable resource to Canon shooters everywhere.....

It is also one of the very few sites on the internet where squirrel pictures outnumber cat pictures.
 
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