Rumors vs Speculation

[Analog Kid]

I seem to remember MacRumors once had a firm policy against publishing speculation and focused on rumors only. Recently I've noticed a lot of speculation being published, particularly in the form of "concept" drawings.

Was this an intentional shift in policy?

It's a fine line between speculation and rumor, and I can't find Arn's original post explaining where he drew the line. Where do analyst comments fall-- I think they fit the definition of rumor, but are probably speculation in practice.

In general I'm of the opinion "your site, your decisions"-- just seems like this is the right forum to ask and give feedback.

 

[arn]

speculation = I'm wishing/guessing Apple would do this.
rumors = I've heard Apple is doing this

Reuters iWatch = Rumor
iWatch "crude" size mockup = this is how big it would look based on the specific rumor
iPhone 6 Physical Models = physical models based on leaked specs (rumor)

Analysts can be tricky. We skip stuff that seems like pure speculation, but sometimes they don't say clearly.

We have posted some pure concept models of iWatch before. We may mix in some pure concept designs, depending on circumstances, but generally try to stick to rumors, or based on rumors. But, people call things pure speculation more than they are (like the iPhone 6 models). Our actual mix of pure concept stuff, (not based on anything) is pretty low still.

arn

 

[MOFS]

I think the problem is when you start posting speculation on the front page as if it had the same weight as rumour. My concern is that this is stuff that would have been "Page 2" in the past but is now on the same page as WSJ info, and more credible sources are now being lumped together with less so meaning MacRumors appears less discriminative than before. This appears to have come to a head with the Lewis Dorigo mockup, who has made some lovely photoshop images and a nice one page website, but has no more credentials to anyone else who posts on the site to have their views expressed on the front page.