WSJ covers Aaron Wall, whom Traffic-Power.com sued for comments on Wall’s SEO blog.
StartSeeingThings.org bewilders Malatron. He cries fake. Is he right? The site looks too well done, too coherent, for its conspiracy-theory theme. The whois anonymization is sketchy too.
Lately, Blogcruiser’s all about Hurricane Katrina. BoingBoing has a massively updated post for hurricane relief, and a first-hand account. Matt Haughey’s donation post asks no questions. Jeff Jarvis does. Gawker even makes the requisite gay joke. Every blogebrity you and I read has a donation page up. Maybe that’s a hint. But don’t get scammed.
Unlikely future blogebrities: Westchester personal bloggers.
Data Mining finds the blog search engine du jour. More analysis when Yodelsearch.com has more than a “coming soon”.
The Onion was down earlier, just a blip before a redesign noted by Fimoculous. Looks more…texty. And more updat…ed…y. And Googly. Must have bought some jokes from their blogging softball opponents.
Incidentally, Gawker played softball with the New Yorker. Photos confirm that Jesse Oxfeld is hawt, no matter what Radar’s PR man says.
A writing class at Texas Christian University discovers blogging in their collaborative Frog Blog. Turns out all our stupid lists are pointing them to good stuff. Kinda cute to watch.
When celeb weeklies cover publicists, Blogebrity will nearly feel legitimate. But we will not blog for hope, because we’re hopeless cynical bastards.
Oh snap, Gizmodo. If ReadyMade didn’t seem like Make warmed over, I’d feel pity.
Yet another 9rules member: Garrett Dimon joins the network voted “best dressed on the runway” 10 years in a row.
More bored than I? Watch the Ultimate Blogging Showdown, where the top 64 Feedster 500 blogs compete for links in a single-elimination tournament. Jeff Jarvis, in his excitement, forgets that he disregards Feedster’s fancy A-list.
Jury’s still out on blogger drugs, but I do remember that Heather Armstrong gets drunk.
Gizmodo gets sillier.
Both of Angelina Jolie’s kids have blogs. No, not really. No, don’t correct me by e-mail.
Metroblogging gets caught in a Wikipedia deletion fit. Bloggers and blog-haters, can we all band together peacefully to mock the Wikipedia wonks? For they are silly.
Help Jason Calacanis find dog-friendly hotels in southern California.
Tags: quickies
Chris Pirillo turns his podcast into a telemarketer honeypot, encouraging readers to stick his phone number into web forms and mail forms. His motive, he tells me, is “to fuck with them.” Chris Pirillo, he badass.
BoingBoing runs a meaty uber-updated news post. Best dialog from this event:
SHEPARD SMITH: You’re live on FOX News Channel, what are you doing?
MAN: Walking my dogs.
SMITH: Why are you still here? I’m just curious.
MAN: None of your fucking business.
SMITH: Oh that was a good answer, wasn’t it? That was live on international television. Thanks so much for that. You know we apologize.
There’s video here, if hearing “fucking” on air really gets you off. The hurricane brings out the worst in anchors too.
WIN contract update: Gawker Media declined to share its contracts with Blogebrity, and has no plans to publish them in part or in full.
Craig Newmark posts a baby! Awwww!
Mark Lisanti always wanted to be a Suicide Girl.
Nadine Haobsh’s life is full of ethical drama: “I think it just doesn’t feel right putting on “night cream” during the day, or SPF-infused moisturizer at night.”
Jonathan Maus organizes a bike industry blogger meetup in Las Vegas.
You can take MAKE mobile: they launched a WINKsite.
Hugh MacLeod sees film geeks on drugs and realizes that blog geeks stay sober. But I’d put money on a David Hauslib coke habit or a Jessica Coen Saturday night passed out in front of the TV with a bottle of Jack upended on the couch. Jeff Jarvis would pop prescription pills, and we all know the entire BoingBoing staff is on some undiscovered drug secretly developed by John Battelle.
Tags: quickies
Jeff Jarvis talks to CBS Public Eye blogger Vaugh Ververs:
Exactly what Public Eye will be, Vaughn says, is “eclectic” which is to say, I think, that it’s still being invented. In fact, Vaughn is looking for advice and at the end of this post, I’ll ask you to give him some.
Dooce has a new flamingo banner and journal posts from her childhood.
Gawker can’t avoid the hurricane joke. Current mood: hackneyed.
Chris Pirillo ponders two Gnomedexes a year.
How the hell have we not found the subway wanker?
Utterly not news, but I still think it’s funny when a guy’s last name is He.
Josh Hallett turns 33.
Sometimes Jessica Coen just phones it in. (Not a joke about a Gawker podcast. Sorry to disappoint.)
Dang it, Joi, you’re too cool to write an apology for silence. Pass it off as a philosophical “unpost” time. You know we’d believe that.
Streetsy
On Monday, the Wooster Collective and the -ist family of sites (Gothamist, LAist, SFist, etc.) will launch Streetsy, a street art photography blog (currently, featuring the streetart of New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Santiago, Chile.)
The photos–like this one–are posted on the blog, then link thru to Flickr-hosted photos. So Web 2.0 of them.
The concept shows a ton of promise. Let’s just hope that the street art of many other cities around the world get into the mix. (In the name of Shepard Fairey, L.A. better get its due soon enough.)
Law firm Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP works through the EFF to defend RIAA-accused filesharers (and those who own filesharing computers). They launched a Blogspot blog, Recording Industry vs The People, about “the RIAA’s lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people.” [via BB]
Burningbird reminds bloggers to help with the hurricane, you’re not the Red Cross.
Gizmodo disobeys a cease-and-desist.
Lindsayism covers a cease-and-desist from Blogger sent to A Tale of Two Sisters, claiming they stole copyrighted material here, here, and here. Lindsay says it’s because the Two Sisters parody Stephanie Klein’s Greek Tragedy. So okay, that’s fully legitimate and legal, especially since I can’t find any directly lifted sentences. (Incidentally, someone should code an open-source plagiarism detector that I could run a URL through.) Blogger has to stop this vigilante C&Ding, especially if it always omits what actual content was stolen, from whom, and who complained. Otherwise, it’s just Guantanamo justice: assumed guilty, given no right to trial. And that’s death to free expression.
So if you feel someone’s stolen your content, first talk to them directly.
Blogcritics is as worried as I am about the subway wanker vigilante journalism. Post includes the memorable term “trial-by-Flickr”.
Tags: quickies
Responding to the Accidental Hedonist WIN controversy, Paul Scrivens releases the 9rules contract. In this little contract, the blogger promises to keep up the amazing work and display the 9rules button. 9rules promises “to provide you with the help to make your site successful and to make it easier to accomplish the goals you have set forth for both you and your site. We also promise that your site will be given equal weight on our homepage regardless of traffic or design.” Foggy, yes, but a more encouraging direction. This paints WIN even more as the Burger King of networked blogging: it’s blandly branded, massive, treats employees like commodities, and pulls in more than the cozy 9rules mom-and-pops.
Phu Ly’s analysis, quoted earlier, goes on:
In comparison to the “volume first” approach of Weblogs Inc, 9Rules has gone in the other direction to actively recruit quality. What is particularly interesting is that the authors are not being directly compensated in monetery terms for their writing. In addition, via it’s recruitment philosophy and the type of blogs it has gathered, it is directly rewarding and encouraging quality over quantity.
In comparison, Weblogs Inc has entered into a “work for hire” arrangement with it’s members. Is being paid badly is worse than not being paid at all? Well, maybe, if it breeds resentment, and creates an adverse working arrangement. The issue of being rewarded with experience and exposure appears far more genuine with 9Rules than with the volume working mentality encouraged with Weblogs Inc.
Also, there are a number of authors in the 9Rules network who are managing non-9Rules blogs and indeed, far from adversely affecting the network, I suspect that Paul Scrivs is pleased that such blogs are around.
Is one approach better than the other? There’s no doubt that what Weblogs Inc is profitable; However, I know which one I would rather join.
9rules, at the end of its post, wonders aloud whether it should invite Accidental Hedonist. Maybe AH can tell us how much 9rules pays. Or does 9rules even involve money?
Tags: 9rules, WIN, contract
Accidental Hedonist’s Kate storylines her WIN contract controversy, ending with: “I wonder if I’ll hear from lawyers. If so, anyone got any advice?”
Meanwhile, Phu Ly analyzes the WIN contract in detail:
What is more interesting is that this offer itself says a lot about the strategy, thought processes and opinions of Weblogs Inc. Firstly, it shows how much value is being placed on a blog post and that the work done by a blogger is little more than a commodity. More importantly however, is that the compensation structure values quality over quantity. Instead of rewarding authors that produce insightful posts, it rewards authors who are willing to pump out volumes of short links.
Girl asks Cat why the net is more self-aware than TV.
Xeni Jardin, Facebook starlet, writes a witty LA Times story on Facebook:
But most dead-tree yearbooks don’t have 3.6 million members or party construction systems. Real-world sororities don’t have names such as “Alpha Mega Pimpin,” “The Divine Innocence of Jessica Simpson” or “I Just Tried to Ford the River and My … Oxen Died,” in homage to the 1980s video game “Oregon Trail.”
Xeni Jardin, for the first time in her life, censors a “fucking.” Those fucking oxen always die.
Incidentally, you can’t make a multi-school Facebook group. This would be useful for honoraries, but more importantly, for a giant Flying Spaghetti Monster group.
Crazy About Crochet joins About Weblogs. Editor Gwynne says:
In this blog I’ll be covering all aspects of crochet, from the basics of a chain and single crochet, to garment creation, specialty stitches, pattern resources, book reviews, site reviews and more. I’ll have hints and how-to’s for tackling those difficult, but beautiful, stitches, such as the Boullion or Roll stitch, as well as a twice a week Crochet-a-Long.
The folks who brought you Pug Blog and the Blog Business Summit open inflightHQ, a Connexion-sponsored blog for the business air traveler. Posts topics include a Palm-run airline timetable finder.
Blog Herald reports: Traffic-Power.com sued blogger Aaron Wall. EFF, hear Aaron’s cry! Don’t let Scoble be right!
When you blog from the front lines of Iraq, protect your anonymity if needed. The National Guard demoted Leonard Clark for his allegedly troop-endangering comments on a blog critical of the Iraq war.
Tags: quickies
The 9rules Network invites Richard MacManus’ Read/Write Web into the fold. MacManus, now a full-time freelancer, could use some work.
Flickr lags today, thanks to a poorly made Firefox extension. The bar constantly loads images from Flickr, hammering their servers, so Flickr’s handing popups to toolbar users, telling them to uninstall immediately. For a bit, the detection script gave non-toolbar-owners false positives. Talk about it in Flickr forums. [Thanks, Adam!]
The Sydney Morning Herald covers a tiny Wikipedia/BBC scandal:
After investigations and publicity on the digital media website Boingboing, apologies were received from the people responsible for the false entries, one unaffiliated with the BBC who wrote the Jamie Kane entry and another, a BBC employee, who made an entry for the bogus Kane’s fictitious band…
Wikipedia has now produced a page linking to other suspect entries on the site. These include an entry for a Burger King campaign that now carries a note saying the article is being considered for deletion “in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy” and asking for the community’s views.
Last week the site carried an entry for a supposed new religion involving a deity known as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The religion is a parody of the Kansas State Board of Education’s decision to allow theories of intelligent design (the idea that the universe was created by some unknown intelligent agent) to be taught in science classes. This entry is now also being considered for deletion.
That Flying Spaghetti Monster deal…I’ll cover that soon. Meanwhile, follow the ‘pedia controversy here and here. Not sure what this “page linking to other suspect entries” is; there’s a long-standing Wikipedia deletion system.
I called in to Chris Pirillo’s live stream/podcast tonight. It should show up in the archives, over “Ask Leo - Is Advertising Evil?” any time now. Not sure if my bit will survive the cut-down from a 3-hour live show.
Anyway, tonight’s show has some great comparisons of Google Talk, Skype, MSN and other VoIP clients. I do wish they could have tried some SIP - which, incidentally, Google will support soon if talks with Earthlink go well.
I asked Chris about RSS readers; I currently use NewsGator Online, because I hate Outlook and thus all the readers that latch onto it. Anyway, without going into details (e-mail me if you must know), I’m not happy with this service or with Bloglines, and I just might buy FeedDemon or a better version of NewsGator online. I’m really surprised no one has a better web-based RSS reader. Is there a developer in the house that could build me one in 6 months for under $500?
Before I lose the non-techies in the audience, Chris Pirillo is a jack-of-all-tech who runs Lockergnome. He’s a great guy and runs a fun podcast, The Chris Pirillo Show, on Thursday nights. Call him up with a tech question next week.
Tags: ChrisPirillo, RSS, podcast
Terribly sorry I didn’t show you this last week: The Columbia Journalism Review interviews Jessica Coen and Jesse Oxfeld. Best part is about tipsters:
PM: How is the email flow during the day? Do you get a lot of what you write through reader tips?
JC: Tips, outside of spam, maybe 200 emails a day. It depends on what we’re covering and who we’re working with. Links to things we might not see, or breaking news …
JO: That’s what I find most useful — ideally, we could be reading every media item, but you can’t. The things I like the most aren’t some great inside tip or gossip but just something someone emailing in saying “You have to check out the seventeenth paragraph in this story in the Times, where they have this ridiculous quote about such and such.”
JC: We read everything we can, but we’re always going to miss something, especially when it’s breaking. It’s kind of great that readers think of Gawker and send us things. Conventional wisdom is that if we get three reader emails about something specific by 11:00 am, Gawker should have an item on it. People are expecting Gawker to cover it.
JO: Some tips are “I work at such-and-such and someone got fired but here’s what you didn’t know …” but that’s the vast minority. What I really love are the ones not saying “Did you see this front page item in the Thursday Styles section?” because yes, we saw it, but people flagging little obscure things. It’s the classic Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen distributive journalism kind of thing: “Our readers are smarter than we are,” as Dan Gillmor said. And it’s great to steal someone else’s joke, and have them thank you for it.
JC: It’s true …
JO: I don’t steal the jokes verbatim, but sometimes there’s a good line and you end up using it, and people are like, “Oh, my god they’re using my joke!”
At least they’re stealing good jokes.
Gawker’s Team Party Crash writer Jill Singer sez, “It’s 1 o’clock. Sia’s gone. Interpol still hasn’t shown.” Nine photos up is a guy from Interpol - according to my source. I’m too hip to follow popular indie bands.
Update: Stevie Mizek tells me that’s Dan Kessler, Interpol’s guitarist.
Tags: Gawker, Interpol
When Nick Denton flickrs this sort of NSFW shit, I worry for him.
The Chicago Tribune does the standard Dooce piece.
BlogPulse interviews Jeff Jarvis, its blogger of the week.
Gawker tells us that Romanesko’s all up ons and Clublife got a book deal. They also didn’t check their Daily Nightly link.
Lists like this are why I don’t like old people. (I kid! I kid because I love!)
Joi Ito is also cute in World of Warcraft.
Jason Kottke plays Mr. Rogers with Google, feeling he can make it a little better, and that every Google user can. I just note that Kottke’s neighborhood can support a Starbucks, and mine cannot.
Conde Nast launches a business magazine and web site. When Conde Nast becomes Gawker, will Gawker still be cool? Sure, anyone’s cool if the New York Press loathes them.
Cory Doctorow can’t stay awake to Anansi Boys.
The Observer wants bridal bloggers. From their site (right column, scroll way down): “We’re looking for a few good brides-to-be who like to write! If you’d like to apply to blog the chaotic, moving, unforgettable months leading up to your wedding, please email bridalblog@observer.com.”
Micro Persuasion starts a little trackback fight.
An airbrushed version of Hillary Clinton blogs at Yahoo. [via MP]
Replace the crummy Blogads logo, win a thousand bucks. Tell ‘em I sent you.
Matt Haughey is in the New York Times. Hell yes. With this, Joi Ito’s op/ed, the combination of print and web staff, and the more serious coverage of blogging, I’d say the NYT is making a healthy turnaround. Now just open up the archives and drop the lame registration. Come on, NYT, you know we all use Bugmenot anyway.
ConvergeSouth is October 7-8 in Greensboro, NC. Speakers include Jeff Jarvis, Dave Winer, Glenn Reynolds, Duncan Black, and Jay Rosen. I can’t find the price on the site.
Jarvis keeps Dell’s feet to the flames.
Doc Searls acknowledges the decline of the geek bloggers, then geeks out:
The company toured the country running these amazing harmonic distortion tests at hi-fi salons, running customer amplifiers and receivers through tests on expensive Hewlett-Packard instruments that shamed just about every brand other than their own. (Including a Dynaco Stereo 35 amp I had built, which didn’t come close to delivering the 17 watts per channel Dynaco claimed, and only dropped to tolerable distortions at under 10 watts per channel.)
Granted, it’s wise to keep an eye on the guys cleaning up the shit for the rest of us.
Oh sure, Biz, gaming a poll is real classy. You too, Paul.
Tags: quickies
Weblogs Inc. offered Kate Hopkins of Accidental Hedonist a gig with Slashfood. She asked about the contract, got either stonewalled or innocently forgotten (I’d guess the latter). So she posted the contract in a comment on Food Blog S’cool.
Highlights (Most of this is boilerplate, but you care anyway, don’t you. Geek.):
“You shall be an independent contractor and you acknowledge and confirm Your status as such. Nothing herein shall be deemed or construed to create a joint venture, partnership, agency or employee/employer relationship between the parties for any purpose, including but not limited to taxes or employee benefits.”
“You shall not create any obligation or make any representations on behalf of Weblogs, Inc. and You will not hold Yourself out to the public as having any right or authority to do so.”
“As compensation for Services rendered, Weblogs, Inc. shall pay You $500.00 for 125 monthly blog posts, along with monitoring of comments, responding to readers in comments, and deleting offensive comments. Posts under the goal of 125 will be pro-rated at $4.00 per post.”
“Weblogs, Inc. has advised you that, as a condition of Weblogs, Inc.’s use of Your services, Weblogs, Inc. requires that You sign and deliver to it a confidentiality, non-solicitation, and non-competition agreement in the form of this letter. In order to induce Weblogs, Inc. to use Your services, You are herewith executing and delivering to Weblogs, Inc. this letter intending that Weblogs, Inc. rely on it.”
“You shall not own, operate, manage or be employed or engaged in any work that is in direct competition with the Services you provide to Weblogs, Inc., blogging Gadlin.com and our upcoming Food blog, during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement;
You shall not attempt in any manner to solicit from any customer or supplier of Weblogs, Inc. business of the type performed for or by Weblogs, Inc., during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement; and You shall not employ as an employee or retain as a consultant, or persuade or attempt to persuade any person who is or was, an employee, agent of or consultant to Weblogs, Inc. to leave Weblogs, Inc. or become employed as an employee or retained as a consultant by anyone other than Weblogs, Inc., during the term of this agreement and for a period of six months following the termination of this agreement.”
“Weblogs, Inc. acknowledges that You are being engaged on a non-exclusive basis and that You may engage in ‘other business’ activities during the term of this agreement except as provided in Your Covenant Not to Compete as set forth above. ‘Other business’ activities includes, without limitation, writing for print publications and for personal web sites, and recording for distribution online, by podcast, CD/DVD, and other recording media. Weblogs, Inc.”
The incident is Metafiltered. Some commenters are sad that The Man is taking over the Cool New Anarchic Space: “Which is to circuitously say, fuck Weblogs Inc for doing their part in turning what once felt like a revolution into yet another obvious gimmegimme Nike Revolution whoreathlon.”
As always, the real reason to visit Metafilter is for the inevitable descent into surrealism: “Damnit. I only get paid in recumbent bikes. I like recumbent bikes and all, but have you ever tried to buy a loaf of bread with one? They only give you your change in rubber pants.”
Tags: weblogsinc, contract, slashfood
Currently:
HowardSternblog.com redirects to Weblogsinc.com.
CharlieRoseblog.com redirects to Weblogsinc.com.
Tugblog.com holds the chrome for The Unofficial Google Blog, currently run at Google.Weblogsinc.com.
DeadSpin.com was registered by Gawker in July. If you try to load it, you fail to know the username and password and get dumped onto a 401 page.
Which one will make money for people in NYC first?
Update: Kyle did all the work on this.
