New feature…
Posted Aug 5, 2004, 2:39 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
In case you missed it we are adding a new feature to WIN blogs (WIN=The Weblogs, Inc. Network btw): MOST
COMMENTED ON
Here are the lists from http://www.bloggingbaby.com and
http://www.Autoblog.com
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My Farking Followup
Posted Aug 3, 2004, 7:40 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
OK, so it’s a day after my post and I’ve
communicated with both Drew and his 3rd party sales person Gogi from
Guptamedia.com (his one-man sales firm).
Drew claims he didn’t know what Gogi was doing, Gogi isn’t giving any straight answers (he could at any time in the
comments below, and I encourage him to do so).
Some answers to the various points that have brought up in the comments and to me via IM/email:
1. Is Fark.com doing something wrong?
I think so. You shouldn’t lie to your users and claim that something is editorial when it is advertising. However,
maybe I’m just old school and not progressive enough.
2. Is this the end of the world?
Of course not, but when you are at the start of medium and you’re trying to make it a business you need to have
standards. If you’re a blogger looking to make money from blogs you don’t want to get on the phone with an advertiser
and have them say “well, if you don’t play ball and give us editorial space then we will just give our money to
Fark.”
3. Is Fark really selling their editorial space?
All I can tell you is they offered to sell me their space, their rep firm told me that Drew knew about this and was
cool with it (I asked because I was shocked), and that they had great success by doing it in the past.
Drew told me he didn’t know about it and Gogi isn’t talking. So, who knows what is going on—it doesn’t sound good
that’s for sure. All I can tell you is their representative told me they do it all the time and tried to get me to do
it.
4. Why do you care? Why did you bring this up?
Well, I’m a publisher in the space and I think this is an important issue for anyone who is doing a blog. This effects
every publisher (see point two above).
5. What do you think will come of this? What would you do if you were Drew?
My gut tells me Fark was working it and that now they will come clean. If I was Drew I would do a couple of
things:
- a) fire the sales guy
- b) make a statement to the readers about what happened (Drew has deleted any mention of this from the TotalFark.com site I’m told).
- c) go back and mark any stories that were ads as advertising
- d) clearly label advertorials as advertorials in the future with a statement like “Advertisement: Please support Fark by clicking on our clearly labeled ads—it’s not like you have anything better to do!”
I’d love to see Fark make a living, and I promise to click on every advertising link I see… I do this every time I
visit a small media site because a) I want to see who the advertisers are, and b) it’s good for the brands.
Anyway, I love Fark and from everything I’ve heard Drew is a great guy. I hope he does the right thing and we can all
go out and get drinks when this dies down. We’re all in this blog publishing thing together and it would be a shame to
damage this very promising medium for a quick buck. Drew says he agrees with me on this.
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Doom III
Posted Aug 3, 2004, 11:49 AM ET by Jason Calacanis
Ohhhhhh…. Doom 3 is coming out. Can’t wait!
I can still remember the LAN parties Josh Harris used
to have at Pseudo.com back in the day. Supermodels on the laps of geeks dressed in Doom regalia, huge installations of
Doom weapons and this sense that the Internet would change everything.
More at Joystiq.com
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NPR RSS Feeds — nice!
Posted Aug 2, 2004, 1:57 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
NPR now has RSS!
All Things Considered
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=ATC
Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=ME
Day to Day
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=DAY
Tavis Smiley
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=TAVIS
Motley Fool
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=FOOL
Weekend Edition Sunday
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=WESUN
Weekend Edition Saturday
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=WESAT
Talk of the Nation
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=TOTN
Fresh Air
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=FA
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Fark.com sells their editorial, and the loyalty of their users.
Posted Aug 2, 2004, 1:09 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
So, I’ve been looking to spend some money on advertising our new blogs
(www.autoblog.com, www.joystiq.com and
www.bloggingbaby.com), so I turned to one of my favorite, high-traffic blogs:
Fark.com.
I love Fark, it’s funny and I check it every day. I’m a fan.
After trying to figure out a deal they told me that I could just buy the editorial. The cost? Like $300 to $400 for a
story.
I was shocked…. all this time I’ve been reading Fark.com it turns out that some percentage of the stories are paid
for. Looking back on it I’m now sure the adult links are all paid for, as are the ifilm.com links.
I feel like I can never trust Fark again.
The stupid part about all this is that Fark.com could easily just put “Advertisement” by the stories and their readers
would click them 2x as much just to support Fark. It is so dumb.
Say it ain’t so Drew! Clean up Fark, I want to love it… really I do.
I’ve been going back and forth with Drew and his sales person Gogi over today and this is their response is even stupider then their behavior:
Jason -
I don’t think that either Drew or I are willing to engage in a discussion regarding the business ethics of our decision.
However, if you look at any news source, they are influenced by PR agencies, wine & dine’s and similar events. Take a look at the Graydon Carter as example #1. I challenge you to find a pure editorial voice in news today.
Also, its not news, its Fark.com. ;-) We run stories that we know are false, run satire, try not to let our personal political views affect the content and often include adult-natured items in the daily roundup. We don’t hold ourselves to the same standards as the NYT, and I would urge you not to either.
Regards, Gogi Gupta
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Ban Team America, and please back the Constitutional Amendment to Protect Against Parody
Posted Aug 2, 2004, 12:05 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
I for one support the President’s recent suggestion to protect the
country against the dangers of political parody. Films, websites and other assorted media that rallies against
everything we stand for as Americans is dangerous and only empower our enemies—the enemies of truth, justice and the
American way.
I’m truly shocked that Trey Parker and Matt
Stone would deviate from their normally family-friendly fare and
stoop to the level of depravity of parodying the President and Al Queda. The
Team America boycott start here!
Our country is built on the back of the fighting men and women of our armed forces, and to force them to suffer the
indignities of parody while they risk their lives is truly evil. As such I’d like to expand the President’s ban on
parody to include Hogan’s Heroes, certain segments of Saturday Night Life and, of course, Dr. Strangelove. The new
version of the Manchurian Candidate should also be considered—at the very least edited.
Now, some of you are going to say “who decides which parodies are ok and which are not?” Come on, we all know what is
indecent and what is not when we see it. Let’s not be naïve here. The standard doesn’t need to be explained, and it’s
clear that there are people smarter then you and I who can determine what we should watch. Please sign your support
below in the comments, also if you could add offending material you find that would help us clean up the media space
that much quicker.
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Best film of the year: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Posted Jul 31, 2004, 6:55 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
Manchurian Candidate is one of my all time favorite films, so I’ve been equal parts dreading and looking forward to the remake that opened last night.
From the first 10 minutes of the film I could tell this it was going to be good, but I had no idea how good. Now, I’m not saying this is as good as the original—how could it be without Frank Sinatra’s amazing performance—but this is an amazing film and a worthy remake.
It is also hyper-politically charged. Don’t want to ruin it for you but the tightly-woven story takes place on a masterfully created, yet disturbing, world filled US-based suicide bombings and Halliburton-style companies gone wild.
In other words this is what will happen—in the mind of the director at least—if Bush stays in office another four years.
Turns out that Fahrenheit 911 isn’t the biggest anti-Bush film of the season—this film is. If any film is going to convince people that we’re on the wrong path this one will.
For me this is the must see film of the summer. Four stars, hands down one of the best films I’ve seen.
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Craigslist goes paid…
Posted Jul 30, 2004, 8:50 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
For those of you not paying attention out there, Craigslist is going to go paid in about 24 hours. (well, it’s been
paid in San Fran fro jobs for a while, but more a couple of more locations are going paid).
Sad in some ways, but exciting in others. Craigs and his crew fight all day long to make the site valuable and I’m
psyched to see them make some money from it.
Of course, I’m also counting the days till someone does freecraigslist.com.
Update: As Craig himself says below, they are still 99.99% free… just paid in NY, LA and SF jobs. Of
course, that makes it 100% paid to me. :-)
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Lake Tahoe Trip
Posted Jul 30, 2004, 2:49 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
Visited Lake Tahoe this week… one of the most beutiful places I’ve ever been. Some photos follow…
Jason driving Mark kicking it.
Mark’s got skillz….
.... Jason does not.
Amy takes it all in.
The lady of the lake.
Doesn’t even look real huh?!
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Technorati down (again)?
Posted Jul 26, 2004, 2:53 PM ET by Jason Calacanis
Am I crazy or does it take like 20 tries to do one technorati search? Everyone is talking about how technorati is this amazing company, but I don’t get it. Their server(s) never work and their service is the same as Feedster, plus Google and Yahoo will have this service on their massive infrastructure in about 2-3 months.
What is the value of technorati?
Comments?
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