Why May 1 is NSFW

Hat tip to John Scalzi for reminding that today is the official date for enjoying the world's least polite rite of Spring, courtesy of Jonathan Coulton.

The best stories of April 2013 (according to my Twitter feed)

Superheroine Long Beach Comic Con 2011 (Photo credit: richcz3)

1. Drawing the impossible? Fully dressed Superheroines (560)
2. The one true secret to sustained creative success (82)
3. Using Moore's Law to explain the Fermi Paradox (55)
4. “Straight Male Gamer” told to ‘get over it’ by BioWare (27)
5. A T-Shirt for Louisville Web Nerds (15)
   xkcd: Authorization (15)
6. ALL THE WANTS!!! (14)
7. Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition (13)
8. Data journalism busts lawbreaking cops, wins Pulitzer (12)
9. The fact that this pizza franchise doesn't exist is a personal insult to all nerds (11)
   10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About America (11)

Stats gathered via Buffer

Are fantasy readers less demanding (or less logical) than sci-fi fans?

Storm Trooper Jayne (Photo credit: Cayusa)

We all know that one guy who claims to love science fiction but throws a galactic hissy fit if any story involves faster-than-light travel. But is that FTL-snob typical of science fiction in a way that, say, historical swordcraft experts are not typical of epic fantasy?

In other words, are sci-fi fans more anal about details than fantasy readers?

SF Signal convened another panel of qualified experts (and me) to debate the issue via podcast. Those answering better than me include:

• Jeff Patterson
• Paul Weimer
• Josh Vogt
• Jamie Todd Rubin
• Patrick Hester

I hesitate to say we arrived at a conclusion, except for, "FTL snob guy? Lighten up."

As always, my litany of past SF Signal podcast sins is available here.

Related articles

• The Hard, Soft, High and Low of it
• New Documentary Sets Out to Rewrite Science Fiction History
• How Do You Like Your Sci-Fi?
• Top 33 Writing Terms You Should Know
• Chris Nolan is going hard sci-fi with his next movie Interstellar

Kickstarter doesn't validate your product; it validates your pitch (and that's okay)

I came here to praise Kickstarter, not to bury it, but this article on major corporations using Kickstarter for product research reminded me of a lesson we covered at the Louisville Digital Association's crowdfunding workshop a few months ago: Kickstarter is sales training, not product research.

Well, that's not entirely fair. Kickstarter does provide some basic market research about your product description and maybe your price point, but only in the context of your marketing. Kickstarter can't validate a product that doesn't exist. It can only validate what you're putting in front of the consumer and all Kickstarter puts in front of the consumer is your marketing pitch.

Kickstarter validates your marketing pitch, not your product.

Twitter's 27 favorite links from Dec. 2012

Below are the 27 links I shared on Twitter in Dec. 2012 that subsequently earned at least 100 clicks

1. RT @annathemoony: I just found out about the shooting in CT and the Onion pretty much sums up my feelings. (22,337)
2. How to Become a Morning Person (1,897)
3. Please Don't Learn to Code (629)
4. "If you're not paying for the product..." xkcd+Instagram edition (618)
5. 5 APIs that will transform the Web in 2013 (556)
6. The Web We Lost (410)
7. US patent lawsuits now dominated by 'trolls' -study (377)
8. Basketball Isn't a Sport. It's a Statistical Network (344)
9. LEGO Produces Discontinued Set So Boy Who Saved Up For 2 Years Wouldn’t Be Disappointed (324)
10. Windows 8: The perfect Christmas gift for someone you HATE (305)
11. Why an A-list VC firm sold a startup to fund a lawsuit (232)
12. How tall can a Lego tower get? (216)
13. The Inconvenient Truth About SEO (210)
14. How do we read code? (209)
15. The Basement (206)
16. Search Mad Men Style: Animated Punchcard Interface for Google Search (204)
17. Losers exist. Don’t hire them (189)
18. R.I.P. Frothy Times, A Return To Normalcy for Startups and VCs (189)
19. Design Mistakes We Made in Our iPhone App (188)
20. Cards Against Humanity: Results of "pay what you want" (180)
21. A 50-Point Checklist For Creating The Ultimate Landing Page (171)
22. What science says about gun control and violent crime (161)
23. Rethinking Mobile First (151)
24. 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person (148)
25. How to Email Busy People (144)
26. Wikipedia doesn't need your money - so why does it keep pestering you? (119)
27. Why are frontend developers so high in demand at startups if front end development is relatively easier? (109)

Stats gathered via Buffer.