On July 19, 2016 an article "No More Odyssey. Please." was posted on WordPress. The article entitled a voiced opinion towards what the Odyssey consists of and what us writers are like. Below are some statements that were mentioned in the article.
1. "In my opinion it's just a website where sorority girls can spew out more pointless bullshit than John Brinkus on SportsScience"
2. "So it's basically just where people can write Facebook statuses on a separate website and then put that link in as their Facebook status"
3. "This is just full of college aged girls pretending to be journalists by writing articles that even BuzzFeed would be ashamed to read"
4. "Starting her list of facts with such a false claim is almost like introducing yourself to your girlfriends Dad as a sex offender, just not a good start"
5. "I'm not saying that these girls should give up on their dreams, I'm just saying that your articles fucking suck and I'm tired of seeing '18 Reasons Why Drunk Pizza Is The Best Pizza'..."
I am not at all offended, if that is what one of the intentions towards the article was, but I do want to address a few things.
Not all Odyssey writers are sorority girls. I am not in a sorority, nor are the men who write for the Odyssey. Also, I have written, as well as read, many articles that are not "spewing pointless bullshit". I have been inspired by a lot of the articles posted on the Odyssey, as well as others.
Majority of the time when I am scrolling through my feed on Facebook I will come across Facebook statuses that would be claimed as a "rant". 50% of the time, it is quite an uneducated rant, but the other 50% of the time, it is a very educated rant with very well proven claims.
The Odyssey is an internship that allows young and inspired writers to have a voice and improve their writing skills. We are not "pretending to be journalists", as stated before, it is an internship, not a full-time job. We are learning and gaining new skills as we write; not all of our work is going to be perfect. I frequently read BuzzFeed posts, and I would have to state that majority of their posts are pathetic and noneducational.
The article presented a list of facts with false claims as well, which is quite hindering to the introduction, and not a very good start, as well. So, maybe some actual given facts would be nice... Also, I thought I should point out the fact that "girlfriends" contained no ownership to "Dad". An excellent writer would had written it as "girlfriend's Dad" ;-)
The Odyssey contains articles that cover a large variety of topics, such as Politics, Social Issues, Global Issues, Lifestyle, etc. Maybe some of the articles posted on the Odyssey are not the greatest, but I am positive that they all include some sort of evidence or claims. If an article contains content followed with good evidence and/or claims, then it passes the test of good writing.
The Odyssey is "a social discovery platform committed to democratizing content creation while personalizing discovery". We as writers are socially discovering and allowing our discoveries to be personalized. We as writers are making mistakes and learning from them, which in return makes us stronger writers. We as writers are voicing ourselves and, at times, making an impact.
So, more Odyssey, please.