How To Get More Diggs

This morning it was brought to my attention that there is another blog article about How To Get More Diggs.  This one is entitled Think Again Before Submitting To Social Bookmarks by  Malathi Badri.  Malathi provides a short and sweet article about her trials and tribulations over getting backlinks and from Social Bookmarking and how she resolved the issue by following the advice of Chris Lang of Key Web Data.

I have read Chris’s book, I’m still working on doing the things he said in his book, even though I am nowhere near done with doing all the things I should be doing… my sites have shown an increase in the rankings.  I can only imagine what those rankings will be when I am finished.
Kudos goes out to Ms. Badri for her insight.

Personal Security on the Net

Warning: the Internet may contain traces of nuts.
~Author Unknown

Today’s internet has an estimated population of over 1.2 Billion Netizens.  If we considered it a country of it’s own, it would cover a land area larger than the old Soviet Union and more populated than the country of China.  This country would exist partly in the real world, part in a fantasy world and would be inhabited by people of all walks of life.

The Internet is arguably a tool for great possibilities involving social change, it provides us with ways of interacting with people from all over the world in ways not possible  2 decades ago and new ways of doing business.  Sadly it also provides some with a tool that can be used for darker purposes in ways not 20 years ago.

The Real World

Life is just a fantasy, can you live this fantasy life
~ Aldo Nova

There is a term out there used by some people on the net known as “The Real World”.  I hated this term with a passion for over 10 years now.  Even though I will sometimes use the term myself, I have always felt that it downplayed the reality of the net and made the net seem as if it were a harmless world, like of the nature that you’d find in some elaborate role-playing game.  The Internet can be as real as the so-called “Real World”.  We can fall prey to others who wish to take advantage of others on the net and the effects can be every bit as real.

Everyone On The Net isn’t There For You!

You may never understand
How the stranger is inspired
~ Billy Joel

One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve seen on the net is the idea that everyone is on the net to make friends or to be open and honest with others.  Although it is true that you can meet some of the best people you have ever seen through the net, the opposite is equally true.  On the net you can meet some real scumbags who are out for their own self-gratification and don’t really care one iota for anyone or anything else.  It isn’t easy to pick out the worst elements of the net, in the past I met some who seemed like really decent people… right up until they turned on someone for no good reason.

Internet Crimes And Near Crimes

I cant believe the news today
Oh, I cant close my eyes and make it go away
~ U2

According to an article entitled “Internet Crime Complaint Center Releases 2007 Statistics” by Matt Sarrel:

“In 2007, the IC3 received 206,884 complaints of Internet crime of which they referred more than 90,000 to law enforcement.  In total, there was almost $240 million in reported losses, a $40 million increase over 2006.”

Much of the harm that can be done to us on the net involves fraud of some sort.  People who are unscrupulous by nature have all sorts of scams to defraud us out of our hard-earned money.

Harassment and stalking are other things which can occur on the net, and they occur more often than some people wish to believe.  Harassment can be minor things, such as one member of a forum hassling another consistently with-in a forum… or it can be major by one person going outside the net to harass a person in their real life.  Stalking became such a problem on the net that it developed a new term called “Internet Stalking”.  Internet stalking allows people to follow others around on the net with-out ever leaving their computer chair and it can be as much of a pain as in the “Real World”.

According to Wikipedia, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children funded a study by the Crimes Against Children Resource Center in 2006 of youth Internet users over a five year period. The findings were:

An increase in encountering unwanted exposures to sexual material (from 25% to 34%)
An increase in cases of online harassment (from 6% to 9%)
A decrease in those receiving unwanted sexual solicitations (from 19% to 13%)
40% of all youth Internet users said online solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves.
Only a minority of youth who had unwanted sexual solicitations, unwanted exposures to sexual material, or harassment said they were distressed by the incidents. One-third of the solicitations (31%) were aggressive, meaning the solicitors made, or attempted, offline contact with youth.

Predators abound on the internet and the worst part is that it’s fairly easy to fool someone into thinking your are someone, or something, you aren’t.  These predators do not always confine their activities to the net, there have been case after case reported over the years, as well as sting operations set up by those in the Law Enforcement community and the Media, which proved internet predators are alive and well.  There are even cases where these predators came from other countries to prey on our young.

As with most things, there are sites out there who wish to debunk the stats found for some reason.  There are such articles as Schneier on Security (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fear_of_interne.html) and I Speak Of Dreams:  Debunking Internet Predator Statistics (http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2006/05/debunking_inter.html) which try to debunk the stats being given out.  The real fact of the matter is that in some cases these debunkers are right or partially right.

Cyber bullying is another phenomena on the net which is not only practiced by teens on the net, but adults that one would normally think should be mature as well.  The net allows normally mature adults to behave in ways they would most likely never do in person.  It the next section we will touch on a few of the reasons why this type of thing happens.

The Criminal Element

Trust everybody, but cut the cards.
~ Finley Peter Dunne

The Internet is a great place for the criminal element to thrive, due to it offering some things which are advantages to them.  In addition many law-enforcement agencies are either over-burdened with work or they don‘t take reports of net-crimes seriously enough to follow up on.  The following are only a few of those advantages::

Anonymity

The first thing all Netizens should understand is the fact we don’t know to whom we are speaking. On the net we can claim to be whoever, or whatever, we wish to be… we only have to keep to the script and be consistent in what we tell people.

Obscurity

I could say I am anywhere I choose and most people wouldn’t know or bother to find out.  I could also use a variety of methods to show I am from where I say.  I can go to great lengths to prove where I live, but most often I could be a little evasive in offering proof because of personal net security reasons.

Personality

We can seem to be anyway we wish on the net.  We can seem like the nicest person in the world, but in reality we can be nasty and mean.  A person can act as if they are a wholesome and honest person, but all the while plotting a way to take advantage of you in ways that would really hurt you mentally, physically, emotionally or even financially.

Trusting Souls

I’ve been on one net or another for almost 15 years now and the one thing I learned is that most people are trusting souls.  My theory on this is that since they are on the net to have fun and not harm anyone, then they figure most others are too.  They are often easily fooled by people who ‘seem” nice or pleasant.  Even if they are aware of the fact that there are some real sleazebags on the net, if you talk to them long enough and treat them right… they automatically assume you are an o.k. person.  This plays in favor of those who are out to take advantage of people.

The Freedom of Speech And Other Rights.

Our right to throw a punch ends where it invades another’s personal space!
~ Anon.

Censorship is something many Netizens oppose, they often take the default position of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression.  They most often resort to such claims when it is they, or friends of theirs, who have been called down because of some violation of the rules.

There is an old adage which states, “Your right to throw a punch ends at the tip of my nose”, I personally prefer the revised version of the saying “Our right to throw a punch ends where it invades another‘s personal space”.  The intention of either saying is to impress upon the minds of people that the things we view as rights and freedoms do not only pertain to them… they are for everyone.

Internet Concerns

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
~ Will Rogers

Our main concern is not over what information that big business or the government has on us for that information is most often used for valid reasons and they don‘t always make the personal information on people they have records on public.  Real businesses have a thing called The Privacy Act which they must abide by or face penalties.. There are also certain records on files in the business world that are not on computers, let alone on the Internet.  Other businesses keep their business records separated from their internet computers.. Yet there are some places that do put out information, under the guise of public information, which are quite personal.  Many court systems across the country, for example, have information online about the court cases which went through their courts.

We are concerned too much over what information these people have, but we are concerned over the information on us which Joe Netizen can obtain on us… or should be. In other words we have to differentiate between public and private records.  There used to be a saying that dealt with throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When we justify that some insurance company or the Government has data on us to support the idea of our giving out things like where we live, how often our 14 year old daughters are alone at home and when, or how much we earn a year… we are simply allowing the mindset to grow that we don’t need to be held liable for our own personal safety.

It’s not always easy to find accurate information about a particular person on the net.  You do have things such as  People Searches on the net, but to get any possible information of value… you have to pay for it.  Even if you pay for the data, there is no guarantee that information, or all of that information, belongs to the exact person you are interested in.

There is also a thing called “The White Pages“ or “Internet Phone Books“, however the drawback to that is if  a person doesn’t have a phone in their name then what good does it do?  There is also a thing called Private Phone Numbers, where the person pays a little extra a month to keep there phone number unlisted, in most cases these online phonebooks will not contain these private numbers.

Many people like to use  IP Trackers, but mostly these trackers will only take you to where the server is located or it will go to a thing called “City Level“.  In large areas like Phoenix or Los Angeles, these trackers don‘t always take you to the sections of the city or the neighboring cities.  For example, if you lived in the Phoenix Valley, a search on your IP number may say Phoenix, Glendale or Tempe when you actually live in Avondale or North Phoenix or Peoria.

Another search site are places like ARIN or RIPE.  Both of these are known to not even take you to the proper city, let alone straight to your home.  A very common result from WHOIS is Amsterdam and in the past that was said to happen because many servers go through that city, as does many proxy sites.

There are other sites on the net which can be utilized, but even with them the person doing the research has to have something known in order to judge whether the information they obtain is good or bad.

Never Assume… for it makes an @ss out of U and Me

Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
~ Steven Segal

Steven Segal was basically right when he made this quote.  When analyzing facts, people have the natural tendency to make leaps of logic, they put 1 and 1 together and get 3 or 4 for their answers.  Another thing to remember is that once someone gets it into their head that something is right, it’s hard to shake them of that belief.

Genealogy is the study of one’s ancestry, basically.  It’s very much akin to what we are talking about here.  When searching an ancestor, you may find dozens of possibilities in the records for the person you are researching.  Sometimes you will find people that you are convinced are your people, only to find out later that you made a mistake.  Anyone can assume something is right just because it seems right, but to successfully find your ancestors, you have to weed through the facts and match up various bits of information.
Trying to find someone on the net today is not unlike researching genealogy.  You still have to search through many names and facts in order to match it to the person you are wanting to find.  Most often the only way to confirm that the person you want to find will depend upon information from that person or people who actually know that person.  If we neither confirm nor deny, all most research will do is provide unproven claims.

Now, as a side note, if a child predator on the net is after your child… odds are they won’t care if they get your child or someone else’s.  The upside is if they pick the wrong child, that child might end up getting the person caught because they have no idea who the person approaching them is and they call for help.

In Summary

Privacy is not something that I’m merely entitled to, it’s an absolute prerequisite

~ Marlon Brando

We can’t expect to live in today’s world and have none of our personal information let out to those we feel don’t need it, but we take precautions against Identity Theft and other crimes against people.  We may tear up or shred items with our important information on them before throwing them out in the garbage or we don’t give anyone talking to us on the phone or in person any bit of information they ask of us.  I know many people refuse to put their social security numbers on their state driver’s license because they would rather remember a new number than have someone get their data.

On the net we also should strive to not make it easy on the criminal element.  Many sites now will tell you such things as “We will never ask you for your password” and they advise you to notify them of any case where someone claims to be a part of the site and asks such information.  In message forums we ought to be aware of what we tell people, search your own messages and see how much information you let out and then learn the lesson by watching what you say.

Even Business men and women need to be aware of safety on the net.  Many businesses have facilities set up for their business and they have phone lines and internet accounts for that purpose.  Other people who operate businesses on the net don’t have such things.  These people will often work out of their homes and use the tools they already have because they really can’t afford to do more or because the opt to work from home.  These are the people who need to be more wary of the information they let give out.  There are several ways to deal with the business/personal safety issue — but I will name two good ones:

1. Email:  The purpose of email is to provide a way to be contacted or to contact someone.  Usually emailing is a quicker and easier way to contact those in the business world than by phone or a written letter.  Take a look at the number of successful business people who provide email addresses, they do this for a valid reason.  You can start off by only allowing people to contact you by email, once you get and review the email then you can decide whether you want this person to have your home phone or home address.  It’s like part of a scanning process.

2. Cell Phones:  Cell phones are a great way to avoid giving out your home phone number.  Most Cell Phone search sites will only take you as far as the city level and the cell phone is great for people on the go.  Cell phones and services can be very affordable, you can go to the Tracfone site and get 50 minutes of air time and a phone for about $25.  I prefer using one of the regular cell phone companies and you can get a free phone with your service for $30, more or less.   Those people that want to spend more can do so, if they wish, and they might be better off… but the idea here is to show how inexpensive a cell phone can be.  With a cell phone you can also shut it off when you are at the doctors or out playing golf.

Not everyone on the net are only on the Net for strictly business reasons. Some of us enjoy visiting the message boards or doing the Myspace or Facebook thing.  If you are of this type of person, you may wish to separate those identities from your business identity. In some cases that will be hard because in the business world people tend to go by their real names.  You may look into whether the systems you are on allows for multiple accounts and set up your Business account with your business email address.

Remember, it is up to you as to whether you want to not only run risks for yourself… but for your family and friends as well.

Source:

US Legal

2008 Internet Fraud, Scams and Crime Statistics

Internet Crime Complaint Center Releases 2007 Statistics

The Golden Path

The Golden Path

The Golden Path, what is it?  Some of the ideas about this include, but are not limited to, the idea of The Golden Path being:

• The path to success
• The proper route to follow
• An unlimited power of intuition used to master life
• A metaphysical theme for success

Although similar, in some ways, these ideas are not exactly the same.  The Path to Success, for example, is not always The Proper Route to Follow for we can often achieve a goal by the use of alternate paths.  Also “an unlimited power of intuition used to master life” is not the same as a path or route to success for one can achieve goals with-out utilizing the power of intuition. .

In short people take the basic meaning of the term “The Golden Path” and they define it in ways they understand… or want it to mean.  Prior to going on, let’s check out Frank Herbert’s Golden Path.

Frank Herbert, Dune and the Golden Path

“And he saw the vision of armor. The armor was not his own skin: it was stronger than plasteel. Nothing penetrated his armor — not knife or poison or sand, not the dust of the desert or its desiccating heat. In his right hand he carried the power to make the Coriolis storm, to shake the earth and erode it into nothing. His eyes were fixed upon the Golden Path and in his left hand he carried the scepter of absolute mastery. And beyond the Golden Path, his eyes looked into eternity which he knew to be the food of his soul and of his everlasting flesh.”

~ Heighia, My Brother’s Dream from the Book of Ghanima - Dune

According to Wikipedia, The Golden Path was “an expansive prescient interpretation that was only visible to the Kwizatz Haderach, a term within the Dune universe used primarily by the Bene Gesserit. which translated as literally meaning “Shortening of the Way”.  It foretold the fluid events of the future, both great and small. More profoundly, however, it revealed an optimum path through the countless threads of cause and effect that were encountered by the human race.”  Now what does this mean?

Well, what this tells me is that the Golden Path was “A vision of the future, large in scope or content, which was only visible to a select group of people”   The Golden Path dealt with powers of the mind and/or spirit, along with the ability to make the choices to make these visions either a reality or to avoid them entirely.  I will agree that my translation of The Golden Path begins to swerve from that of Mr. Herbert’s, but to this point I think I am still close enough to proceed with what The Golden Path came to mean in the world outside of that created by Frank Herbert and his son.

Our Golden Path

The Golden Path is basically a path to enlightenment.  Frank Herbert utilized the metaphysical and Buddhist philosophies for his story and he wove some of those ideas into a fairly well written story.  People became so enamored with the idea of a Golden Path that they adopted the term to fit in with their own ideas and ways of wording things.

The fact is that there is just not one Golden Path, or route to enlightenment, for everyone.  All Golden Paths may have similar aspects, but since each of us is different in some way… our paths will vary to a greater or lesser degree.  Two elements have to exist for a person to be on their Golden Path.

The first element is that The Golden Path must include aspects of “enlightenment“.

According to Emanuel Kant, “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.”

The Golden Path and Success

The Golden Path and Success are not one in the same.  The Golden Path, when keeping to Herbert’s ideas set forth in Dune, basically follows a path to enlightenment to a successful outcome which was for the benefit of mankind, whereas Success is “a personal  achievement which is desired, planned, and/or attempted“.  You can be a success in life with-out the spiritual or zen-like qualities, there have been many successful people in history who’s only desire was for the self and it didn’t matter who was hurt or killed in the process of their achieving success.

In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the Golden Path did not exclude great power or wealth from the heroes of the story, in lieu of performing a greater good for humanity.  In fact the materialistic and spiritual went hand-in-hand.  Paul and his son both achieved greatness for themselves, while the entire human race benefited from their actions.

The Golden Path is not always “the easy route to follow“ either. If you read Dune you will find that the heroes took some pretty hard roads in their attempts to succeed, even though we might have wondered why do things that way - another way may have been easier.  The fact is that people can take easier paths in life to success and they probably can achieve some semblance of  successful conclusion to the visions of their future they have had… but quite often short-cuts change things.

So to be on the Golden Path takes involves more than the self and our personal success, it also incorporates the effects our decisions have on others.  We can achieve personal success through the Golden Path, but following the Golden Path also involves some benefit for the masses.

The Golden Path, Social Marketing and Social Media Marketing

Remember, the basic definition of The Golden Path is the road to enlightenment, which may bring one success in obtaining their goals.  The Golden Path often involves a humanitarian aspect where success is only achieved when the person helps others.  There really is no rule saying that all a person does, who is on The Golden path, has to be for the betterment of mankind.  You can achieve great personal success while making things better for all.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

I know I am repeating myself in this blog, but the message must be made clear that the Golden Path is just not a path to our personal success or failure.  A person on the Golden Path may reap no benefits for themselves, Buddha, for example, did not gain wealth and power because of his Golden Path.

The Golden Path, where social marketing and social media marketing are concerned, involves a way for the entire community to benefit… it’s not all about selling my product or service or idea and making millions.  This Golden Path may involve my coming up with something which helps others in the long run, and the fact of whether I personally benefit in the materialistic sense or not is a separate issue entirely.

Someone on the Golden Path, where it concerns SM and SMM, may have opened up a group like “Love it or hate it” or “Social Marketing Central”, they may have developed a place like “Email Delivery Jedi” or they might post blogs aimed at helping others who are interested in social marketing.  The fruits of their labors may be the reward they get for when giving people something back with out the expectation of being paid for the service - one achieves a spiritual or karmic quality that those expecting to be rewarded do not often get.  The helping of others also might be a way for a person to achieve materialistic rewards. People sometimes respond well to being helped and the effect of “What comes around, goes around” comes into play.

Summary

To an extent I believe “The Golden Path” is real, it’s as real as the air we breath and the things we can see and touch.  To judge whether a person has traveled the Golden Path is extremely difficult, especially if we personally do not know the person and have first-hand knowledge of all the person has done in their lives.

Bill Gates, for example, is an extremely wealthy man and with that wealth comes a certain amount of power. There is no doubt that Bill achieved success in his life, only a fool would try to deny that Microsoft and the accumulation of his own personal wealth is anything but success… but has he followed the Golden Path or has he simply followed a path to success is anyone’s guess.  We can gain insight by what greater good he has done with his wealth or the products he put out, but you don’t find a lot on the media concerning how much money or materials he donated for those in need.

Mother Theresa, however, obviously traveled the Golden Path in her life because of the good she has done in her life with-out concern over her own personal being.

A third example I give is Andrew Carnegie.  Despite what some say about him, the benefits of Andrew’s labors in life extended far beyond his lifetime and are still felt today by many. Andrew obviously traveled the Golden Path and it brought him wealth, power and fame — but it also helped many others who were less fortunate than he.

In closing, the Golden Path and personal success are not mutually exclusive, but just because someone is successful does not mean they traveled the Golden Path.  There is much more to it than the acquisition of personal wealth or power.

Paris Parody II - Update on Study:

On Wednesday, the 14th of May in the year 2008, I posted a parody of the news article Paris Hilton’s Parents: Benji Already Like Family and called it Paris To Wed Benji. I estimated the time of the original posting to be a little before 7AM. We employed some of Chris Lang’s techniques and observations to promote the article during the afternoon on the 14th and last night a small group of us began analyzing the data..

Tonight, approximately 24 hours after Chris told me to make screen shots of some of the items like the stats, I took another set of screenshots. Last night I took this screenshot of my WordPress Stats graph:

Tonight I took the following screenshot of my Graph:

This graph comparison shows how the Paris Hilton to wed Benji post spiked my ratings. Tomorrow we will take another look to see how the graph looks.

I then made several screenshots of my full WordPress Stats page. These screenshots are portions of that huge image I have saved on my computer. This next section are the screenshots I took for my Blog Stats yesterday and Today:

14 May, 2008 at 8 PM PDT

15 May, 2008 at 8 PM PDT

As you can see, my total views were 97 - today they tally 141. This is an increase of 44 views and those views do not include my views. The old record for best day was on April 22nd with 20 views - today my best views ever was 56, making today my best day for people viewing my blog. Once again, my views are not added in with these stats.

Here is my chart for Referrers (to my site):

Note that this list of Referrers is not for the purpose of determining a “Before Paris Post” and “After Paris Post” comparison, all of these referrers are a result of my Paris Hilton Weds Benji post to my Blog.

I suppose the next item to show is my charts for Yesterday and Today for the Top Posts & Pages charts. These charts shows the number of views, which we can compare, but I think it’s important to note that the screenshots of both charts were made “After” the post was uploaded to my blog. Let’s take a look and see what has changed in the past 24 hours or so since that upload:

14 May, 2008 at 8 PM PDT

15 May, 2008 at 8 PM PDT

There was a definite change, there is no reasonable doubt to the claim that the Paris Hilton To Wed Benji post didn’t elevate my number of views to my blog. It is also important to note that none of these figures includes my visits to my Blog Site.

Now let’s talk about the Web and Blog Searches. Tonight, about 10:30 PM PDT, I noticed Google changed it’s look for the Blog Search. It is now is orange where it was Blue last night. I won’t explain further, you’ll see the changes.

This is a Web Search under the search term of Paris Hilton to wed Benji.

Notice that I ranked about number 55 on this search. I also found entries about my blog item, which linked to my article, at numbers 1, 17, 21, 52 and 57. As I recall one was a duplicate entry. It should be noted that I did a Web Search for my article under the search term of Paris Hilton and found not one entry in over 923 entries. (92 Pages).

I then went to Blog Search on Google, above I commented on the color change… take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

What you see is that under the search term of Paris Hilton, I ranked number 10 on Blog Search. This is something to get a little excited over because I am not a Paris Hilton fan blog, nor am I a celebrity fan blog… yet I beat out dozens of newer postings made by such sites which did have Paris Hilton in their site titles and blog entries. This gave me a strong feeling that Chris Lang’s SEO tactics works… but let’s finish the study to see if we can determine that once and for all.

Next thing I did was search the Blog Search with the search term Paris Hilton to wed Benji.

As you can see, I ranked number 3 on Page 1. I am the 3rd highest ranked entry under that search term. The entry above mine is Chris Lang’s Propeller submittal. I feel pretty good that it took someone like Propeller to take my number 2 slot away.

The next image is of my Blog Search under the term of Paris Hilton and Benji. I didn’t use this term yesterday, it came as a result of my posting of the analysis follow up of the article I posted to my blog on Paris Hilton to wed Benji. What we see is that I am ranked 16 (Chris’ post on Propeller is number 13).

I’ll keep my eye on this one too, this analysis might be taken off the blog, but it will probably continue for a couple of days just to get a bead upon whether the tactics for SEO work or not. Well let’s take a look at the image:

What we found out, by doing the Web Search and Blog Search is the following:

Search Term Web Search Blog Search
Paris Hilton Not listed/Not Listed 2/10
Paris Hilton to wed Benji 62/55 1/3
Paris Hilton and Benji Not Found/Not Found Not Checked/16

This chart is what all that information mean, I dropped 8 spots on Blog Search for Paris Hilton in the past 24 hours… however that was to be expected. I dropped 2 spots on the Blog Search for Paris Hilton to wed Benji. It should be noted that these terms went up and down all day long, but this is what it settled as at the 24 hour mark. What does surprise me is that I rose 7 spots on the Web Search for Paris Hilton to wed Benji search term. I figured I’d drop like a rock. I’ll have to ask Chris about this later to see if we can figure out why I am pretty stable there.

The only tracking results that displayed rankings for the search terms I used in the article on my blog came from Google and GoogleUK, for that reason I am going to ignore the other search engines. The chart below shows last night’s and tonight’s readings:

Google GoogleUK
Last Night Tonight Last Night Tonight
Paris - / - - / - - / - - / -
Paris Hilton - / - - / - - / - - / -
Paris Hilton and Benji 4/7 5/7 2/7 6/7
Paris Hilton to wed Benji -/- -/- -/- -/-

Now here is the portion of my Ranking History that pertains to this topic:

Notice that on the 14th of May, 2008 - I ranked 65 with the Paris Hilton To Wed Benji article. Also note that I uploaded that article around 7 AM on the 14th. On the 15th of May I rose 1 spot, to 64. When I took the data on the evening of May 15, 2008 at about 8 PM - was rated 55 and that is recorded at being May 16, 2008

Paris and Benji on the rise

On Wednesday the 14th of May, 2008 at about 6:58 AM PDT; I posted the following article to my blog at Ashmadai’s Web log:

Paris Hilton To Wed Benji
May 14, 2008 by ashmadai
Paris Hilton’s Parents: Benji Already Like Family

Tuesday April 15, 2008 04:45 PM EDT
Last week Paris Hilton took to the Web to announce her loving feelings for boyfriend Benji – and now her parents are gushing the same sentiments.
They also have given him the green light to join the clan, says the socialite’s mother.
“This has honestly become the real thing,” Kathy Hilton, 49, tells Vegas Luxe Life blog. “It’s a great love match, and I have a funny feeling it’s going to go all the way, and we’ve already given it our approval.”
Added husband Rick Hilton, 52: “He’s the perfect example of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ He’s polite, well mannered – he’s even housebroken, unlike most of Paris’ past boyfriends.”
Paris, 27, and Benji, 29, returned to the U.S. after a month of touring Europe and South Africa with Madden’s pack. Since getting together in February, the couple have rarely left each other’s sides and wear rings on their engagement fingers of the other’s initials.
“Their life has never been better,” Kathy Hilton tells Robin Leach, who wrote the Vegas Luxe Life blog. “We agree with Paris that he is amazing… He’s changed her life, and I really think she’s genuinely in love for the first time.”

Approximately 12 hours after I posted the blog entry on my site, Sexy Social Marketing posted my story to Jack Humphrey’s Friday Morning Traffic Report (aka Social Marketing Central). This was about 7:00 PM on the 14th of May. At the time of Sexy’s post, I was ranked 4 on the Google Blog Search for Paris Hilton. It was not long after she posted that I responded to her, but before replying I rechecked Google’s Blog Search and found I dropped to number 5 under Paris Hilton, but I was number 1 on Page 1 under Paris Hilton to wed Benji.

Chris Lang joined in on the conversation and he told me to save my stats on this so that we could have a sort of before and after comparison, so a little before 8 PM PDT I began making screen shots and saving my stats. I also saved screenshots from Google’s search engine for the placement of my blog article.

To start off with, this image is from the Stats section on the first page of the Dashboard on my Ashmadai WordPress Blog site:

As you can see, the image was taken around 8:14 PM on Wednesday the 14th of May, 2008. That is about 13 hours and 15 minutes after I first posted the Blog entry. It shows the Paris Hilton Parody post with 14 views.

This next image is from my Stats from WordPress, also. It’s the section called Top Posts & Pages. This table tells us which posts got the most traffic for yesterday and today. Today it shows the Paris Hilton post at 16 views. Yesterday the top post was The Anatomy of the Lie with 3 views. This also shows the Paris Hilton post with 1 view for yesterday, but I didn’t post this 24 hours ago on the site… I posted it around 7 AM this morning, Pacific Time in the US. That means on the East Coast it was 10 AM today. So I wonder how it figures yesterday, unless WordPress up-dates in the early to mid morning period.

It’s plain to see that about 13 ¼ hours later, the Paris Hilton post drove up my number of views over 5 times the highest number of views for yesterday. That’s pretty impressive, or pretty sad, I am not sure which.

Let’s look at the Top Posts & Pages table:

This next item is called Search Engine Terms, it shows us the terms people use to find my blog. Today the keyword used the most to find my blog was Paris Hilton.

Next we have my Blog Stats: The total views I have had (to date) is 97 views. The best day was Tuesday the 22nd of April. Today’s views around 8 PM to 8:15 was 17. Don’t worry, the day is still young… the old record could shatter with a resounding crash… I have faith in the Paris Hilton fans who are hungry to know her every move. Then again it wouldn’t be the first time I misplaced my trust in others.

I’ve decided to not show my full stats page, for one reason the writing would be so small that it would be useless. Another reason is that I already posted a goodly part of the information. So let’s move on to other things.

I also will not post my tracking program images, instead I’ll create a table that will be easier to read. This tracking information was screen shot at 8 PM PDT.

Paris Paris Hilton Paris Hilton to wed Benji
Google - / - -/- 5/7
Yahoo - / - - / - - / -
MSN - / - - / - - / -
GoogleUK - / - - / - 6/7
AOL - / - - / - - / -

Note: the first number is the rank, the second number is the page. Therefore on Google I was the fifth entry on page 7, on GoogleUK I was the 6th entry on page 7.

Remember, this was according to my tracking program and not the Google Search. I then went and did some screenshots of the Google Search, the time was about 8:30 PM on the 14th of May. It was now about 13 ½ hours since I first posted the Blog entry. What I found was the following data.

On a web search at Google I did not find my article listed under Paris Hilton in the first 500 entries (the first 50 Pages, however I did find it as the 2nd entry on page 6 (number 62) under Paris Hilton to wed Benji. This surprised me because I thought I wouldn’t find it under either listing in the Web Search. Take a look at the screen shot:

Next, I went to Google’s Blog Search. Under the keywords Paris Hilton, I found my article as the 2nd entry on Page 1. This means it was ranked number 2. In a matter of about 1 to 2 hours I jumped from number 5 to number 2. Take a look at the screen shot:

I then search the keywords of Paris Hilton to wed Benji. This was also in Google’s Blog Search. I found my article at number 1 on page 1. I was the top ranked blog post for that search term. Take a look at the screen shot:

At 10 PM PDT, I ran my tracking program and found

Paris Paris Hilton Paris Hilton to wed Benji Change
Google - / - -/- 4/7 +1
Yahoo - / - - / - - / -
MSN - / - - / - - / -
GoogleUK - / - - / - 2/7 +4
AOL - / - - / - - / -

Over a period of about 2 hours, my rankings in Google went up +1 and +4.

According to my Blog stats, I have 108 views now, the best day ever was the 15th of May with 28. As a search term, Paris has 11 views. I have 5 referrers today. Finally Paris Hilton to wed Benji got 25 views.

I did a Google web search for Paris Hilton to wed Benji, I see I am number 64 now. I dropped two slots there. Paris Hilton to Wed Beni is also number 1 on Blog Search under Paris Hilton to wed Benji and it’s number 2 under Paris Hilton.

Tomorrow I will add to this in order to show the new changes.

Paris Hilton To Wed Benji

Paris Hilton’s Parents: Benji Already Like Family

Tuesday April 15, 2008 04:45 PM EDT

Last week Paris Hilton took to the Web to announce her loving feelings for boyfriend Benji – and now her parents are gushing the same sentiments.

They also have given him the green light to join the clan, says the socialite’s mother.

“This has honestly become the real thing,” Kathy Hilton, 49, tells Vegas Luxe Life blog. “It’s a great love match, and I have a funny feeling it’s going to go all the way, and we’ve already given it our approval.”

Added husband Rick Hilton, 52: “He’s the perfect example of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ He’s polite, well mannered – he’s even housebroken, unlike most of Paris’ past boyfriends.”

Paris, 27, and Benji, 29, returned to the U.S. after a month of touring Europe and South Africa with Madden’s pack. Since getting together in February, the couple have rarely left each other’s sides and wear rings on their engagement fingers of the other’s initials.

“Their life has never been better,” Kathy Hilton tells Robin Leach, who wrote the Vegas Luxe Life blog. “We agree with Paris that he is amazing… He’s changed her life, and I really think she’s genuinely in love for the first time.”

The World’s Largest Shout Number 1 for 3 days

What is Digg?

Digg is a site owned by Kevin Rose which allows the members to post items which interest them for other members to read and Digg (vote upon). If you go to the Digg site and read the information they give out about themselves on their About Us page, you will note that Digg says 3 things about themselves:

1. Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web.

2. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best.

3. Digg is all about sharing and discovery, there’s a conversation that happens around the content.

What is a shout?

What exactly is a shout? Well according to the Digg FAQ, a shout is “a message that can be sent between two or more users on Digg.” There is a long explanation, but as of the time of this writing, there were no limits set upon how many URLs one could place in a Shout.

Is Digg a SPAM site?

If asked my opinion on this, I would have to say “No it isn’t“. When registering as a member of Digg, you are made aware that the site is for the posting and sharing of content, which makes the emails and shouts you get from the other members on Digg as outside the realm of SPAM.

If you read my blog post on SPAM, I discuss what SPAM is, and what it is not… and the key to an item being SPAM lies in whether the item is unsolicited and unwanted… it doesn’t necessarily lie in the fact of whether you don’t care for what is being sent to you or whether something posted to a site is liked by all members. When signing up to Digg you are saying that it’s ok to send me your Fluff, your garbage, your inane submittals. It is not a matter of whether you think an item someone else submitted is “Newsworthy”, it‘s whether the submitter thinks the item is “Digg Worthy“… at least in theory this is how things are supposed to be.

Why did you sign up for Digg?

One of the reasons for going to Digg was because I knew there were several people interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Marketing. It took me 3 days to not only find out that articles of this nature were being buried, or marked as possibly having inaccurate content (what a cop out! That type of comment would never pass muster on a real message board.), but I’ve found blog posts dating back to over a year which offered similar complaints. Digg might be a great place if you wanted to know where Paris Hilton passed out last night or whether Dog Hair is responsible for global warming, but it’s not such a great place if your interest lies in actual conversation or in topics which you can‘t find on 10 Million other sites across the net.

Why post a shout containing 66 URLs?

During the 2 weeks I’ve been a member of Digg, I was assaulted with emails requesting me to “Digg (and share) this!”. People didn’t care what they asked you to Digg, and many didn’t pay particular attention to how often they asked you to Digg an item. All they seemed to do was to submit an article and send mass shouts. Every so often they would resubmit their shouts not paying attention to who had already Dugg the post. It was not uncommon to receive 3 and 4 requests to a Digg submission after you already Dugg that item. Sometimes the time lapse was in hours, and once in awhile in days, before receiving a new request to Digg the article you‘ve already Dugg..

Most members would send 1 URL per Digg, request, which meant you could receive 8 or 10 Digg requests per day for different articles submitted by the same person. It was not uncommon to receive requests for Diggs containing 2 to 4 URLs.

On top of it, the members would send their Digg requests asking you directly to “Comment and Share” the article they have submitted, in other cases they simply said something like “Digg This” and implied the fact that they wanted you to “Comment, Share and/or Digg“ the item. As a result what happened would be that you could receive dozens of Digg requests per day, which helps because a thing called “Net Congestion”. On the personal level I think it helps eases internet congestion by posting more than one URL per shout than it is to post 1 shout per 1 URL.

While talking out in the driveway on Sunday night, a discussion ensued over how the posts made on the topics we posted were consistently being buried. We knew that Digg was a good site for some things, but Digg did not live up to it being a good site for all topics. We discussed such articles as: Digg And Social Marketing Issues, How Google Ranks Blogs, How To Get More Diggs, How to Get More Diggs, Part 2, and How Not To Get More Diggs, and How To Get More Diggs, Digg Privacy Breach and What Shouts Mean To Your Search Rankings and how they were all being systematically pushed buried. We touched on how other blogs were making complaints strangely similar to our findings too. Such blogs as: Diggers can’t handle the truth (about SEO), How To Be A Dirty Digger, The Hypocrisy Of Digg, Digg’s Spam Policy Is Still In The Dark Ages, Digg Acts More Like Google And Less Like A Social Media Site, Digg’s 2.0 Spam Fighting Getting Reputable Domains Banned, Spamming, Sphinn, Digg and Others and Digg Upgrades Spam Armor, Unblocks Sites all seemed to have certain aspects of the same things we observed about Digg.

It was time to make a statement and see if the people at Digg, as well as the users of Digg, would pick up on it. We knew that if we persisted on the track we were on that Digg would eventually ban us, so a change in tactics was required. It was time to give Digg what they seemed to want. A site known to us called The World’s Longest URL had over 500 articles which we felt the Digg Members would love, in fact I counted and the number totaled 538 articles containing the world’s longest items. Since Digg had no policy on how many articles one could post in a day, or a certain set period of time, and it was nearing 11 PM West Coast Time, there shouldn’t have been a problem with posting as many articles as could be posted. After all, if the information provided by Chris Lang was “inaccurate”, as some “readers” reported, then surely 538 posts being submitted and shouted would elevate Digg up to the Number 1 position on the search rankings for weeks to come.

In addition, I wondered how large one could make a shout. I knew that I could only send about 66 Shouts at one time, then I had to wait about 30 minutes to send the next 66. In order to shout a message to all 280 mutual friends, more or less, I had to do it in 4 or 5 different shouts. Digg allows you to have 1,000 or more Friends in your list, the max I could get was 1,001 people, yet they didn’t allow you to Shout All of them at once. I’ve always found that stupid, to tell the truth. If they only allowed 60 or 70 shouts at one time, why not only allow 60 or 70 friends so that you could shout them all at once? Hey, that’s just the way they opted to do things, so you live with it.

At any rate, using the figure of my having only 280 people on my list, and all of them being mutual friends at the time, in order for me to shout every article at one submittal per page, I would have to send about 150,080 shouts. That was only my contribution to the Net Congestion it would cause. If every one of those Mutual Friends (that is those people who befriended me in return to my befriending them) only sent the diggs to 10 people each, which meant that the Digg Servers would have to handle an extra 2,800 shouts? As the shouts went on, the number of shouts Digg would have to handle could rank up into the millions, just for 536 submittals. Instead of doing it that way, I decided to only send 66 URLs in the first wave, then we would wait to see what happened. So I sent 82 people one shout each of 66 URLs. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, I figured over half of those people would look and delete the shout. The rest would be a mixture of people who would respond to my request due to my digging anything they sent me with out question. They might not have dugg all the submittals, but surely many would digg the first one. It was an experiment in seeing which mutual friends were willing to respond in kind and which only wanted you to Digg their stuff.

So before I submitted the large shout, I went to Digg and found out that they had no stipulation on how many posts one could submit, nor did they have a limit on how many URLs you could post at one time. Surely by now the People at Digg realized their mistake and corrected it, then again…. Maybe Not! I compiled the massive Digg and sent it out, but only sent it out to a portion of my list of Mutual Friend, as I stated above.

When we decided to quit, Digg was just waking up. The one or two members who were posting (and receiving Diggs by me, BTW, during this whole time), turned into 10 or so people. It was time to stop and see what would happen… after all, what was posted made the point., no sense in going further.

So you admit you SPAMMed Digg?

No, actually I haven’t. I refer you once again to my blog entry on SPAM and advise you to read it carefully. Everyone who signs onto Digg is informed that there is a process to share articles. It doesn’t take long to realize these shouts arrive in your email. By signing on you accept the fact that you may get articles which do not interest you in the least. There is no spam because the articles on Digg are already things you agreed to get via Shouts.

Secondly, on Digg there were no limitations set on how large a shout could be, it was not in writing nor was it set automatically in their shout program. We proved you could list 66 urls in a shout, it would have been interesting to see if 100 URLs could have been sent in one shout. The fact that someone befriends you in return solidifies the fact that there is no spamming involved because if you don’t want people to send you shouts, there are ways to stop that… even if you remove yourself from Digg.

Thirdly, I took the time and thought to try to reduce the mass mailings as much as possible. Everyone got one massive Shout, instead of everyone getting 66 shouts. I also stopped sending at 82 mutual friends, instead of doing the full 280, more or less. In addition I didn’t finish mailing all of the submittals made, I only sent out the URL for 66, instead of 538.

We can call it SPAM, in fact I can label it as SPAM myself… but technically “The World’s Largest Shout” does not pass the SPAM Litmus test for SPAM.

The World’s Largest Shout!

On Monday morning I awoke and found an IM stating we were through at Digg. I laughed and asked “What took them so long?”. Most of my sites run with 1 or 2 admins or moderators and we manage to get unwanted messages and undesirables off the system with in an hour or two. Digg is much larger than the sites I run, yet it took them over 6 hours to react.

I then found out what I thought was true, they actually banned us - along with a few people that had nothing to do with what went on in the process. This made me laugh harder at the incompetence of Digg. No other system I have been on, save one that shall remain nameless, has show incompetence to such a degree as this. Incompetent people who think they are competent are always a source of amusement with me… but that’s just my opinion.

The next thing I received was a Google search. I was told to go search Google for World’s Largest Shout and take a look. The thing that made me laugh the most was that someone took the time and effort to screenshot the monster of the shout and post it as a message entitled “The World’s Largest Shout”. This made me spit my coffee all over my keyboard, but no worries - I needed a new keyboard anyway. It was hilarious that someone actually went to that work, and what was phenomenal was that 57 people Dugg the article. In fact, despite someone at Digg burying the article, the article stands today at 73 Diggs. I wonder if it will be the first buried article to reach the front page of Digg. Too funny.

The next thing is that articles started cropping up on Propeller and Searchles. A blog appeared called Digg, So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye and it seems a blog appeared called You Might Be A Digger If… . People are just having a field day with this stuff and it provides much humor for some of us, it seems.

Even though Digg saw it fit to delete the World’s Largest Shout, and ban the person posting it, myself. Even though they are systematically removing all submittals which I made while at Digg. Even though they banned SexySocialMarketing, Chris Lang, and others,. Even though they are systematically deleting them in the hopes this all goes away… the members of Digg are a persistent lot. Although some may fit into the Brown-shirt class of member, who buries and complains about things they don’t like or understand… many more know humor when they see it and presses on. I’ll be watching to see if they can push this World’s Largest Shout to the first page despite the hurdles.

As Chris stated so eloquently… “So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Good-by” Digg. Personally I think that you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. You have a good site for fluff stuff, but I find more merits in the various message boards out there, where conversation is concerned, and I find other sites where people can post submittals of any topic that treats Social Marketing and SEO with the respect it deserves.

The Anatomy of the Lie

A Lie Is A Lie

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a lot of explanations.
– Saki

Whenever a discussion arises concerning lying, often someone will state the fact that “a lie is a lie”, or something that amounts to the same thing, but are all lies the same and are there instances where the lie is better than the truth. This article will explore “The Lie”.

In order to understand “The Lie”, we first must know what it is.

What is a lie?

Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies. — Oliver Goldsmith

The definition of the word Lie, according to Answers.com, is “A false statement deliberately presented as being true“. The definition does not say that a lie is a false statement which is intended to do harm and all else are simple fibs or untruths. Also, there are no qualifiers in most definitions of the word “Lie” which states that there are many levels of lies. The definition simply states that a lie is a statement made, which is known to be untrue, but presented at the truth.

Who lies?

Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
- Robert Heinlein

Everyone lies, so it is said. At some point in everyone’s life, we lie about something. Quite often our first lies occur while we are very small children. Sometimes the lying child is considered cute at first, but parents and other adults quickly decide that laughing at the child for lying will only serve to teach it that lying is funny. You can see proof of this on such shows as America’s Funniest Videos where an entire audience of adults can break out in hysterical laughter over a video of a 2 or 3 year old covered in cookie crumbs telling his mother NO when she asked if he ate the cookie. More often we can see it in the home first hand.

To make this shorter, through out our lives we find that lying can be a convenient way to save us from all sorts of unpleasant situations or to make someone feel good. We learn that there are such thing as acceptable lies and unacceptable lies.

Types Of Lies:

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic — John F. Kennedy

There are two primary types of lies, those intended to do harm and those which are meant to be harmless. Everything else can usually fit into one of these two categories. Through-out the ages we find people have broken lies down into more categories than the two named.

St. Augustine de Hippo, 13 November, 354 ~ 28 August, 430, wrote the book “De Mendacio (Of Lying)“ as a part of his work “Retractions” in 395 A.D. Scholars have derived from his works the fact that St. Augustine claimed there were 8 types of lies:

1. Lies in religious teaching.
2. Lies that harm others and help no one.
3. Lies that harm others and help someone.
4. Lies told for the pleasure of lying.
5. Lies told to “please others in smooth discourse.”
6. Lies that harm no one and that help someone.
7. Lies that harm no one and that save someone’s life.
8. Lies that harm no one and that save someone’s “purity.”

Today the list of lies became more detailed. The following are the most commonly accepted forms of lying and are not listed in any order of importance:

A, The Harmful Lie: These types of lies are intended to do harm, they are sometimes known as the “Black Lie” or the “Big Lie”. Many of the types of lies given below, such as lies of exaggeration or perjury, could be made with the intention to do harm to another.

B. The Harmless Lie: These types of lies are not meant to harm anyone. They include such lies as “The White Lie“, “The Brag“ and certain “Lies of Exaggeration“.

1. The “White Lie”: This type of lie is told for a reason, yet it is not intended to do any harm to a person, place or thing if the lie is found out. They are often told for the benefit of the liar, or someone whom the liar is covering by saying the lie. These types of lies are most often told to avoid offending someone from the unpleasantness of the truth.

2. The “Emergency Lie“: This type of lie is a form of “White Lie” and is used when the truth cannot be told with out offending or causing harm to another.

3. Lies-To-Children: This is a euphemism for statements said to children. Mostly this type of lie has the intention of making something which is of an adult nature acceptable for children to hear. Lies to children may also include subjects not of an adult nature.

There are probably other types of “harmless lies” as well.

C. Lies of Misconception and Discord::

Lies of Misconception and Discord may also include Lies intended to Mislead. These lies can be either Harmful or Harmless.

1. . Lying By Omission: This occurs when someone tells us a truth, but deliberately leaves out important facts which may cause us to disagree with their view upon the subject. It is a lie of Misconception.

2. Noble lie: This lie would normally cause some type of discord if uncovered, but it offers some benefit to the liar and/or others. It is often told to maintain law, order and safety. It may also help the elite to maintain power.

3. Perjury: Perjury is when one lies, or makes a false statement, under oath in a court of law or any of the various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a lie which is punishable by law due.

4. Misleading Lie: This lie occurs when a person makes a statement which isn’t exactly an outright lie. The purpose of this lie is often to make an untruth seem like the truth.

5. The Bold-faced Lie (also known as “The Barefaced Lie): This is when an untruth is said which is obviously a lie.

D. Lies not perceived as Lies by the majority:

1. Jocose Lies: These are lies which are meant in jest and are usually understood as such by all present parties.

2. Bluffing: This is another type of “harmless” lie, but one that is found to be acceptable. This lie is an act of deception used when playing a game or trying to get out of some situation that might be harmful to the liar.

3. Exaggeration: An Exaggeration is often a true statement which has aspects of being untrue due to the degree of the statements made.

a. The Brag: This is a type of lie which falls under the Lie of Exaggeration. It can be based on truth or it could be complete fabrication.

Jocose Lies: No harm, no foul?

The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with it’s credibility. And vice versa.
~ Robert Heinlein

The jocose lie is one told for the purpose of, or under the guise of, amusement. Whether the lie is harmful or harmless depends solely upon two main things:

1. How the speaker presents the “Joke”. Some comedians tell their lies for a laugh in ways which support the lie as being the truth, even though it is presented in humor.

2. How the audience perceives the “Joke”. Some listeners of jokes told by comedians accept the “Lie” told in humor as the truth, even if the comedian makes it clear they are ’lying’ for a laugh.

It is strange that St. Augustine did not add the Jocose Lie as a part of his types of lies, obviously he did not have comedians and talk show hosts in his day and age or else his views would have included lies that are made under the guise of humor.

Every day citizens are not the only ones who lie!

A monarch’s neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

In life we find out that the common person is not the only ones who lie, in fact we often are quick to recognized a lie from someone who is important or famous. In some cases we will listen to people who know no more about something than we do and believe their accusations of someone lying over the person who is accused of lying.

One of the groups of people that many, if not most, of us believe to be liars are politicians. I would hazard to guess that it is believed by more people that politicians lie and any other group of people… with the possible exception of lawyers. We will often blame the politician for lying, while allowing the news person who asked a question that he or she knew couldn’t be answered completely or honestly by any one in the government escape with out as much as a look of disdain in their direction.

Politicians lie for many reasons. Sometimes they lie because of National Security Issues or Security Reasons, sometimes they lie because if they told the truth they would interfere with the due process of law, sometimes the appear to lie because they are misinformed themselves by underlings who are supposed to tell them the truth or because what they say is taken out of context, and sometimes they lie for personal reasons. As with all lies, we should try to discern the real reason for the lies we are told, instead of blindly following the words of someone who really may not know the full story either.

Synopsis:

The lie is something perpetuated by many, they can be for the purpose of harming others or they can be meant to simply conceal something that we would rather not have known. The choice is ours , but there is always an option to lying. That option is just telling people that you don’t think they need to know that information.

Cyberaudacity

Audacity often has the meaning of “bold or arrogant disregard of normal restraints”. Cyberaudacity refers to the mindset which disregards the normal capabilities of the average, internet user in lieu of promoting and catering to the internet user with more advanced capabilities.

In 2007, the United States was claimed to have about 215,088,545 internet users, of which only 66,213,257 of them used Broadband internet connections. This means that only about 30.8% of all internet users in the US were on broadband. This means about 148.8 million internet users in the US did not have Broadband in 2007.

Now let’s look at a few other places now:

Country Internet Users Broadband Users Percentage

Australia 15,504,531 4,700,200 30.3%
Canada 22,000,000 8,142,320 37.0%
China 162,000,000 48,500,000 29.9%
European Union 269,740,453 90,851,417 33.7%
World Total 1,262,032,697 308,909,975 24.5%

You can extrapolate the figures, as I did for the US, from these figures above. The fact is that only about 24.5% of the world is on broadband, leaving 75.5% of the world who roam the net with out high speed internet. Yet there are very few places on the net which are designed for the most common user.

In the 90s the trend shifted from designing sites on the net for the average user. When I learned to build message boards and web pages, it was driven into my head that I could not neglect the average user if I wanted a successful site. In fact it was urged to consider those with 14.4 Modems, even though many of us had faster speed modems. The object was to attract as many users to our sites as possible and you couldn’t do that if you only designed your sites for those with the most powerful computers with the fastest modems. The logic of these teaching made absolute sense back then, and those points are still logical today.

The problem is that even in the mid-90s, the idea of “Bigger, Faster, Better” was taking root. The idea of “symbolism over substance” was being pushed hard. It didn’t matter if your site was virtually a useless site with little or no thought behind it… just jazz it up with lots of images, music playing as background music and lots of scripts and applets which provide people with something to play with and you had it made. People, especially the younger crowd, would flock to the site (despite there being virtually anything of merit on the site) because the word of it being a cool site spread like wildfire. What was worse was that many of these people tried to emulate the site, and some even succeeded in outdoing the cool sites.

Through-out the 2000s, the mindset of the net changed to the idea that in order to have a popular forum or site… one had to provide a lot of resource wasting things. These items were not only visible items, but also scripts and programs which run behind the scenes. The average internet user was left behind in the mad dash for the ultimate site. The simple, easy to navigate and easy to load sites have become a thing of the past.

The dial-up users, and those users with older or smaller computers, struggle daily on the net. Many of them have resigned themselves to simply doing their email or visiting a few sites which loads with-in a reasonable time for their system and set-up. Quite often they tire of sitting around for long periods of time just to see what a new site offers.

A year ago I heard one young man make a comment of “Let these people get cable and better computers” as his response to a conversation going on concerning “How do we reach these slower users”. The sheer audacity of the comment made some angry and others laugh at the person. Imagine thinking that everyone, or most people, can afford $2000 computers and $50 a month for high speed internet… let alone those people who live in area where they cannot get high speed internet. I suppose his response would have been “So… move” if anyone would have stated they lived in an area where they only could get dial-up. I remember the young man leaving because one member of the conversation said something about “Not everyone has Daddy paying for their internet”… so I figured the comment struck a nerve and moved on.

In the field of Marketing, whether a person is selling a product or idea, the very fact of up to 75% of the people in the world are not being reached because our sites are too slow loading for them to stick it out should be appalling to us. That’s a lot of people who we are missing out on reaching. Some of those people will buy our products or services, others may buy into our idea and yet other might join our message boards and such.

Don’t get me wrong, I like large, fast sites with lots of toys too… however I do think that we ought to remember the average user more when designing our sites.

Source:

Internet World Stats: Broadband Statistics for 2007
http://www.internetworldstats.com/list2.htm

Shadowlands

Cool site of the week!!

The Shadowlands has been a site dedicated to informing and enlightening visitors on such topics as Ghosts and hauntings, mysterious creatures, UFOs and Aliens, and other such “unsolved mysteries” since 1994. Whether a believer in such things, or a skeptic, millions have flocked to this site over the years to be intrigued by what is found there. Shadowlands is lead by Dave Juliano & Tina Carlson. On their site you can find information concerning the US, as well as other countries.