Is there some definition for “viral mill”? or, how would you explain it to someone whose native tongue is not english? I know Buzzfeed and Business Insider, but I would like to understand the concept better.
I’m wonderung where you got that from…:
The German word is actually “Verschlimmbesserung”. It comes from “Verbesserung” (= “Improvement”), wherein “schlimm” is inserted, which can mean anything “bad”:
“It’s getting worse and worse” = “Es wird immer schlimmer”
Your other “word” is not a word:
A construct like this does not exist in German. It would rather be a list, like so:
“Zeit-, Geld- und Auskunftsmittelvernichtung”.
Note there was also a “typo” in it:
Auskunfstmettels → Auskunftsmittel
(I think this means something like “things you can live from”. Where is that coming from? “Das Kapital”? It’s very uncommon, and probably academic.)
I always wondered whether English allows a similar construct, though. What this actually means is:
“Zeitvernichtung, Geldvernichtung und Auskunftsmittelvernichtung”. Writing “Vernichtung” thrice is a waste (of time, money and resources ;)), so you can replace it with hyphens on the first two occurences. Can you do that in English? How do you handle the missing word?
Well, durn. This rather saddens me. As I mentioned, I got the words from New Scientist, probably from their Last Word section, some few weeks before the time my letter was published. Unfortunately, I think a subscription is needed to go check that.
Oh, I certainly did not intend to sadden you!
Actually, to make it a little better: The missing “Ver” is not that bad. “Besserung” is commonly used for “improvement” in medical terms:
“If his condition does not improve, we have to administer Sauerkrautsaft.”
->
“Sollte keine Besserung eintreten, müssen wir Sauerkrautsaft verabreichen.”
So the meaning is not lost …
Or Marquee. I think Blink would cause too much overlap in the vast Doctor Who fandom that comprises much of the internet right now.
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I generally think of “viral mills” as sites that aggregate other content that has already gone viral. I’m not sure if any of them ever post stuff BEFORE it goes viral, I certainly have never seen it happen but it might.
I find it particularly annoying when my friends repost Upworthy links to Youtube posts, when they could just post the original Youtube link itself.
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