Talk:DHSOTM/Archive 1

From DreamHost

This article should be in the Example Sites Category. -- 0-0 11:43, 10 Dec 2006 (PST)

Disagree - the DHSOTM is a special case. I think all other example sites should be nixed from the wiki. -- Scjessey 12:26, 10 Dec 2006 (PST)

The current dreamhost site of the month is a gip.

There's already a lyricwiki, free and completely no advertisements hosted for a lot longer then lyricwiki.org ON dreamhost. Lyriki.com, check it out. Second, lyricwiki.org is not legal, it attempts to monetize via amazon.com links. This means it is not covered by the exemptions from copyright law that public non-profit archives are.

This is a rather huge slap in the face by dreamhost for choosing a rather new, rip-off site as site of the month when there's an existing site for much longer.

Just read this as well.

      http://www.lyricwiki.org

As you might surmise, this site is a wiki. It's not just any ordinary wiki though, it's a fun and useful wiki: a wiki of song lyrics! That's even better than a wiki of spy codes and ciphers! Chicks just don't dig spy codes and ciphers the way they do lyrics. And what better way to organize a bunch of lyrics than in a wiki, where everybody can submit modifications and new songs without any kind of central authority or even basic fact checking? No better way in my mind! This is my favorite site of the month, EVER. I love that they just used our 1-click installs to make the whole thing! I love that there are no pop-ups or spyware!

... Does dreamhost not realize there already was a lyrics wiki? One that -is- legal while lyricwiki.org is not? As a matter of fact, this brags on the ability for users to submit, when lyricwiki.org has used a bot to scrape almost all of it's content from existing lyric's sites.

Vote for this site link?

Is it ok to place a "Vote for this site to be DHSOTM" on your website? Heres how I'm currently doing it...
(spammish banner ad with embedded link that generates a vote when clicked deleted by Rlparker 01:54, 1 June 2007 (PDT))

Mr. Apache 22:38, 31 May 2007 (PDT)

That's a question more appropriately addressed to DH via a tech support/abuse inquiry. Irrespective of the answer regarding placing it on *your* site, it is *NOT* appropriate on this discussion page. -- Rlparker 01:54, 1 June 2007 (PDT)

I have some concerns about that trick, but suffice to say rlparker is right - spamming our wiki with thinly veiled promotional links is absolutely not allowed -- Jeff 05:52, 1 June 2007 (PDT)

Sorry for promoting DHSOTM so much, I'm such a stupid spammer that I don't even try to disguise my spam. You can tell I'm a spammer because all the articles that I was "spamming" are all disguised as good content, albeit not well-written because I stupidly thought I was helping people not selling people crappy buzzwords, my posts are about the code and the how and the why.. I won the contest fair and square, go read some of the near 100% positive comments about askapache.com in the DHSOTM panel that my fellow DreamHosters kindly left for me. I haven't made a single penny from DreamHost Referrals or DHSOTM! I came up with a new and creative way to promote my site and dreamhost and I spent the time to write an article [sysop's note - link to article containing display ad with embedded action deleted - see previous discussion re "thinly veiled promotional links - Rlparker 03:06, 26 June 2007 (PDT) ) about how I did it and I shared it with everyone so they could do it too and all us DreamHosters would benefit. I'm doing Web Development Research and sharing what I learn because I love DreamHost's system so much. Do you see how many other hosts are even mentioned on my blog? Dreamhost has its own category for crying out loud. The idea that any of my links are spam is appalling and pretty darn offensive to say the least. I acknowledge that I sprinkled the links too liberally around here but I thought other people who use the wiki to learn stuff like I do would really appreciate having an additional resource to check out. Its a TINY contest not the Hoosier Lottery... I get paid more in a single hour as a Web Developer & Designer than any form of AD-revenue from all of my sites combined for the past 10 years. Anyway, I'm pissed that I followed all the rules and promoted DreamHost (again) and won the contest by a big margin, with great comments and high ratings... I was robbed of my DreamHost Glory even though I'm a great customer for you guys and a great resource for fellow customers that don't mind stepping over an occasionally redundant link. Mostly I'm deeply offended to have my name, wiki contributions, and site dragged through the mud and I especially resent being called a spammer.. If you look at my site I actually have a number of articles about tracking spam and spammers, setting up SPF anti-spam DNS TXT records on DreamHost, using apache tricks to get rid of comment spam, etc.. I spent a huge amount of time over the past 2 years writing down and sharing something I already knew and taking the time to help others, all so that 1 or 2 people that don't do their research can call it spam? To be continued... Cduke250 23:09, 25 June 2007 (PDT)

None of that is really relevant to the *article* associated with this talk page. Actually, I think Josh handled the whole thing *very well* - his mention of your site, acknowledgment of your cleverness, and positive comments about the usefulness of your content in the newsletter was a great way to recognize *you* and your site *without* allowing you to "game" the voting. It's obvious that you truly don't understand that, clever as it was, aspects of your process bear the marks of all that is bad about "linkspamming" and less-than-obvious embedding of actions in links. None of this has *anything* to do with the cleverness of the "hack", though it *does* have something to do with where and how you use such tools.

I know and understand that you are a great DreamHost fan, and that you quite likely had only the best of motives *as you see them*, but that does not change the fact that splattering links with embedded actions in forums, newsgroups, or other venues where they are not welcome is considered a violation of DreamHost's Anti-Spam policy. I think you are looking at this in the wrong way; it was a *huge* win for you that you "got the nod" in the Newsletter from Josh in the way that you did. The huge distribution of your site's link there was just as effective as being named "the winner", and you got positive comments about *your creativity* as well as the quality of your site. He could have simply "disallowed" your votes and never mentioned you at all; instead he complimented you, and promoted your site, while maintaining what he (and I) believe was the integrity of the vote. I suggest you "learn something" from this, and move on to continue making your site even better.

All that said, and regarding your closing remark of "to be continued...", please note the tag placed at the top of this page, and respect the policy that discussion pages in the wiki are for discussion of the *article*, not DH policies, in general or particular, but *articles*. You are welcome to take the discussion directly to Dreamhost Support, or to the Forums (even though the whole issue has already been pretty thoroughly discussed there) where ongoing discussions of policies and procedure are appropriate. Do *not* attempt to continue *this* discussion here, as it is no longer about the *article*, but about the policy and Josh's action regarding the reward.

Continuing to discuss *that* here, after you have been asked not to, is not only counter productive, but could result in temporary or permanent banning of your user from editing the wiki. Let it go, or discuss it elsewhere. Thanks! -- Rlparker 00:09, 26 June 2007 (PDT)

And here I was so busy trying to be "nice" to you I didn't even initially notice that you *again* linked from this wiki to your DHSOTM "ad" page bearing the "Vote for my site" graphic with the embedded "action" link - I've now deleted the link, again, and point you to Jeff's prior admonition to you about such linking. Do Not place such links on this wiki. I do not know of any way get you to realize that his method of "promotion" is not acceptable here, so I'm no longer trying to do so. Just stop it. -- Rlparker 03:06, 26 June 2007 (PDT)

REL=NOFOLLOW for winners? isn't this ridculous?

they should be honored..

I see your point, but unfortunately, the rel="nofollow" is "automagically" added to *all* "user generated" links in the wiki - you can thank the link-spammers for that. While I'm not sure it does that much good, I'm in favor of *anything* that discourages these guys and prevents them from benefiting from their behavior. Google suggests this is one helpful approach to all that. `` Rlparker 06:46, 2 June 2007 (PDT)