never mind the ethics, feel the dollars Hide threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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never mind the ethics, feel the dollars
that girl again
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If you see any ads on this or any other wordpress.com blog, they are Automattic's. Not mine. Nothing to do with me. I could get rid of them if I were minded to hand over $30 a year, but to be honest I think I probably need the money more than Matt does. If any of them offend you or seem inappropriate, do please inform our Google overlords.
timethief 8:39 pm on June 25, 2008 Permalink |
new moderator bubel http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=30814&replies=4
Josh 8:54 pm on June 25, 2008 Permalink |
I am sure that this has been said many times before, but maybe less people would think “is this a catch?” if they properly fessed up to how the advert insertion worked.
What? Pay?
ian in hamburg 10:00 pm on June 25, 2008 Permalink |
So I guess it’s up to you to educate the masses and dolts like me: how do I see which ads are being thrown up on my blog? I’ve tried to look from friends’ and wireless hotspots, but never seen any.
that girl again 12:29 am on June 26, 2008 Permalink |
@tt — yeah, I think it’s probably him too, thread closure rates went up noticeably when he got hired.
@Josh — pay for hosting, I suppose, though I daresay there’s one or two free hosts with nominal PHP support still knocking around. And pay Automattic too, albeit indirectly, if they find hosting through the officially recommended channel (a.k.a. the Page of Affiliate Link Joy).
@ian — here for now, but I really need to write up something more linkable, with screenshots and such.
Dr. Mike Wendell 1:52 pm on June 26, 2008 Permalink |
Sort of new moderator with a nearly empty blog: http://bubel.wordpress.com/
I love how his URL for his account goes to the go.com website.
@Josh, do also note that theye are hundreds of wordpress hosts out there with the same or nearly the same setup as wp.com. Many of them without adverts: http://wpmututorials.com/wpmu-blog-hosts/
timethief 5:09 pm on June 26, 2008 Permalink |
the blog buble has linked to his wordpress.com username is here http://espn.go.com/
that girl again 3:35 am on June 27, 2008 Permalink |
What on earth does he hope to accomplish by that? The time to run around hiding his real blog was before he started work, not after. If I had linked my forum profile to a site that was nothing to do with me, I would have been banninated a lot sooner than I was
.
I do feel quite sorry for him, because he’s evidently been chucked in at the deep end and expected to provide support for a service he’s never really used and knows very little about. Like, today he informed someone that if they linked to a pdf containing all their previous blog entries their blog would be deleted. And told somebody else that they couldn’t use their domain name outside wordpress.com. Yes, everyone makes mistakes while they’re learning, but I’m not sure making them in a public forum is a good idea; it’s embarrassing for the newbie, it’s confusing for the users, and it’s not exactly great for Automattic’s image. Hopefully he will be relieved of his moderator duties soon and get to start his real job in marketing.
options 12:37 am on June 28, 2008 Permalink |
bubel’s authorative response:
RLY?
what, does he fucking seriously believe that people blog on .com solely to bring revenues to Automattic rather than to share stuff?
or, may be sheep are supposed to link to Automattic’s partners only?
Dr. Mike Wendell 1:11 am on June 28, 2008 Permalink |
Better watch out, Option. Last time it got pointed out that a statement made by a member of Automattic staff was far from the truth, they got locked out of their account.
Dr. Mike Wendell 1:19 am on June 28, 2008 Permalink |
But to raise another issue about Option’s search as well as the rapidshare tag page, I must be imagining all those mature blog posts in there. I’m sure that if those “flags were raised” as bubel says they are, all those porn downloads must be my imagination.
I’m sure that it’s once again just an oversight and Matt and crew will be correctly the issues post haste.
options 7:48 pm on June 28, 2008 Permalink |
ha, what do you think, they’ve modified .com search engine so that now it doesn’t output results linking to rapidshare.com :rofl: (it seems an every link to automattic resource should be accompanied with a screenshot)
but hey you, ceiling cats! I’ve got some more homework for ya to do. you’d better off cleaning that mess (just 11 pages on Google) rather than watch our wank and ditch the only useful feature of your service.
that girl again 2:08 am on June 29, 2008 Permalink |
http://wank.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/8771.jpg
Tip: if you’re trying to hide something, it’s generally more effective to lie and say there’s nothing there (like you do with tags linked from mature blogs) than to say ‘hey guys, we’re hiding 8771 things from you!’ Because then all I have to do is head for Google.
Of course, once you think about it for more than five seconds you realise that the ‘red flag’ line is obviously a crock, since they cannot possibly check every single link posted on wordpress.com and the only other way flags get raised is if readers happen to raise them. The idea of Automattic monitoring our outgoing traffic for links to sites they don’t approve of is deeply unattractive. And it would never even have occurred to me if staff hadn’t brought up the possibility. Clearly I am not yet paranoid enough.
(Also, in a forum context, the fact that someone is asking whether it’s OK to do something is generally an indication that they’re not an Evil Spammer Doing Evil Things. The actual bad guys don’t ask. Posting in the forums is like painting a big red bullseye on your forehead, and visible targets are going to get hit more than invisible ones. )
Dr. Mike Wendell 2:46 am on June 29, 2008 Permalink |
The rapidshare tag link up there still works.
Actually with a plugin that flags for specific content, it’s fairly easy to do it. You don’t have to check for every outbound link, just the ones that go to sites that you consider to be questionable. I’m sure that they use some along those lines. (In fact it’s been mentioned previously in the forums way back when)
Search for rapidshare and megaupload still work.
options 2:48 am on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
lol, this “8771″ thing is a screenshot of the week! title: “safe search is on”.
I should say I missed that number of found items myself (when you suddenly see a blank space where just yesterday were results it’s a shocker); perhaps, it’s a bit misplaced.
I seem to be digressing this thread: any content filtering (like search results) or policing links is a very controversial matter, of course (but can anyone imagine just a mere existence of a similar thread on .com news blog or fora?). otoh, I do feel Ian’s pain — it does hurts. and yes, I know kids shouldn’t be allowed access the net (at least till they’re under 14). but, alas, to my deepest frustration, it’s so much easier to say than to do nowadays — damn socium is pressing hard on kids no less than on us. may be even harder.
Kissing Bandit 4:13 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
Well, the good news is that a general query for “rapidshare” still brings in a good number of results with links.
Oh, and I did take a screenshot for posterity.
-KB
Kissing Bandit 4:16 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
On an almost unrelated note, I find it somewhat funny that they’re even hosting a blog called http://hackrapidshare.wordpress.com/…
that girl again 4:31 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
Good. I was on a Sims 2 forum yesterday where they were sharing houses through rapidshare, and banning you from doing that here would be, well, sort of stupid. I know they advocate using bittorrent for legal downloads instead, but the entry barrier for uploading torrents is rather higher than using a filesharing site and it’s probably unreasonable to expect that level of geekery from the average wordpress.com user.
sunburntkamel 8:48 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
why bother even having an official preference for how people download files? if it’s due to the box.net partnership – you can’t run around trying to protect your affiliate’s mindshare. if box.net wanted to compete, they’d up their storage size.
options 10:26 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
I guess it might rather be due to the bills from Amazon S3 which they’re using for storage.
btw, any ideas why the ‘Upgrades’ page says, “Subscribe for one year” but the price tag says, “$x.xx per day” (despite one can’t subscribe for a single or several days); is such a ‘math’ a common thing in Matt’s favourite shops?
Dr. Mike Wendell 2:30 pm on July 11, 2008 Permalink |
Interesting responces from Tellyworth in this one. I can attest that they do not always respond to DMCA requests as I’ve had a few made by my clients that are still open.
Dr. Mike Wendell 8:43 pm on October 1, 2008 Permalink |
Oh lookie. The rapidshare links are back.