Please note that this database contains only form comments that I have received, and does not pertain to email, web forum, or other types of spam…yet (never say never, though).

I have over 2400 attempts logged in the database at the present time, and more are constantly added. As you can see, there are quite a few beauties in there.

I have a few questions I’d like to ask anyone still reading this blog in order to improve upon the concept:

1) What format, if any, would you like me to present this data in (besides the obvious HTML formatting already used) in order to import it into your own spam databases?

2) Is there a microformat that presently exists for this? (I could look, but it might save me some time if someone already knows). If not, I can create my own, no big deal.

3) My host, Sectorlink, has given me permission to use this data and present it openly as long as I don’t present any pornographic image data or directly link to any sites themselves, since the intent isn’t to openly encourage illicit behavior but rather to fight spam. I don’t think this is an issue, since I’m using Server.HTMLEncode on the spam attempt itself to make sure it shows up as code and not the output, but does anyone see anything that would be obviously pornographic? I’m not talking the text itself, but obvious links to porn sites and lewd images.

4) Does anyone see any false positives?

Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Anyway, I’m going to make some changes to the content of this blog. I’m pretty well going to focus on three major things, and as a result, posts to this blog won’t be daily as they were before…they’ll be whenever the content arises naturally and I have the time:

1. Product reviews. Since I get my hands on a lot of gadgets, and since people generally like my reviews, I’ll review those.
2. Posts on topics where I can either offer a unique perspective or at least one whereby I came to a conclusion independently.
3. Spambaits (although those have more or less dried up lately).
4. Any bizarre dealings I have with paranational idiot charades (including a recent go-around with an IBM tech-support-worker-turned-Mafia-colleciton-agent).

There will be few, if any, SEO or web design posts in the near future…so for those of you looking for a quick fix or an easy answer, go suck the smog out of downtown Toronto.

I’d like to explain my line of thinking, for those of you who may be reading this and wondering what brought it on:

My Primary Goal Behind Starting This Blog has Been Met

I wanted to find out exactly what Wordpress could do, its strengths, its weaknesses…and I’ve done that. So I don’t really need to post anymore.

Not Posting Doesn’t Affect the Traffic to this Site

About 95% of my traffic is related to searches or existing links…so if I stop posting, it plateaus rather than falls off.

The Web Design Industry Is Just Plain LOST

This will be one of the last times, if not the last time, I post something like this. No one wants to hear that web design has become a cesspool of idiocy and instant gratification, but that’s exactly what it is right now…and there are no signs of it changing.

The only solace I have is knowing that I’m not completely alone in my thoughts. Other people have voiced them in private conversations and/or agreed with me completely. The vast majority, however? Not a chance.

The Open Sores Movement

Rather than try things, fail, learn from them, try again, fail, learn, and eventually succeed…everyone wants the easy universal quick-fix answer (ideally, an Open Source answer because Open Source is the future and everyone will use it and no one will ever hack it and we’ll all pick daisies and sing 60s peace songs. Bong pipe, please.)

SEOcial Mediots

SEO as an industry is too far gone for words right now. Buy links. Post on “dofollow” forums or blogs. Buy links. Links are the answer. Google PageRank is sweet nectar. Make sure to get those social bookmarks too…they’ll help you get those extra 4 visitors per year. How big’s your LinkedIn list? Oh yeah, and Twitter…because everyone needs to know that you took a shit after lunch and it lasted 10 minutes.

The Asian Invasion

More and more crap is coming out of Asia, specifically Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan, every single day. I’m going to provide some evidence of this tomorrow with my next site launch.

And it’s the same stuff coming from there every single time. They almost always seem to use the same pseudo-words and phrases too: “plz”. “how i can…?” “wat is…?” “u need on-page and off-page optimization”. “updation”. Apparently, none of them have SHIFT keys, either.

No Paying It Back, No Paying It Forward

This is the big one for me…I’m tired of giving advice myself, and watching a select few others give advice, that I know most people will take and use without any intention of helping anyone in turn. Most people want the answer, but ask them for help and it’s like trying to extract the teeth from a grizzly bear.

I am, however, going to launch one last anti-spam initiative as a thanks primarily to those that get it (the ones that don’t will have no idea what it’s about). I know of exactly one other person that has even thought of it, and it’s someone well-known for fighting automated spam. If spam pisses you off, stay tuned tomorrow.

Lack of True Leadership and Direction

I’ve harped on this enough. If you want to know what I’m referring to, read this blog…there are enough posts about it.

Too Many Ego-Searchers…and it’s My Ego

I don’t get it. People keep looking for me. I don’t even look for me…why are you?

No One Cares About Personal Stuff

We all have our own lives, so why should anyone care what I’m doing besides me? (That’s not a complaint, by the way…I don’t read blogs to find out how someone’s kid is or how their cat didn’t like going to the vets, so why should I have any right to expect the same thing?)

So there you have it…my thoughts on things.

So, for those of you who want to know, this will be the official “update” post. I don’t know when I’ll be willing and able to post again…so this will once again be the last post in a while.

I’m Not Dead

Apparently, some people were wondering this. So there’s the first thing. I’m very much alive.

What I’ve Been Working On

IT-Related Stuff

I’m working on various IT-related projects right now, including some rather unusual ones (e.g. getting to hook a computer up to a 40″ Sony Bravia TV.) As the result of this and other projects, I’ve got issues to sort out with Dell and the clueless idiots over at OneConnect (possibly more on these guys).

I’ve found myself fixing dying/dead hard drives on multiple occasions as well…something that isn’t a pleasant experience at the best of times. I’ve also had to upgrade/replace a series of computers for various people.

Web Design Stuff

I haven’t worked on a lot of sites as such for people (other than the usual maintenance); however, I am involved with a project that I’m quite excited about. For various reasons, I’m not going to reveal that project here at any point, but I am glad to be working with a team that has experience with websites since the dark ages of the late 90s, and both has the experience to have lived through the dotbomb era and the foresight to recognize the impending arrival of Dotbomb 2.0 (i.e. the collapse of social media sites and applications, as has been discussed here before). I’m glad to be a part of it.

Why Haven’t I Posted Public Commentary as of Late?

I’m Being Censored…Even When I Defend a Blog Poster

When Doug Heil posted on iHelpYou forums about a blog post talking about how SMX Advanced went over to the dark side, I posted a comment there because I had some thoughts on the subject. My comments largely supported the original poster’s post (although not subsequent comments), only I dared to speak out against The Leaders (and one specific leader).

Don’t see the comment? You’re not going to. All comments there appear to be moderated…at the very least, mine was, and it never saw the light of day.

The SEO Industry Has Become a Sick Joke, It’s Taking Web Design Down With It, and Even the Good Sites and People Can’t Fight the Idiocy Anymore

I was watching RAW earlier tonight, and one of the wrestlers cut a promo, during which he said that the vast majority of people under the age of 30 were, and I quote, “spoiled, obedient sheep.” The disturbing thing about the promo is that, at least from the web design industry and especially the SEO industry point of view, it was completely accurate. Outside of James, Dan, and maybe a few others (I don’t know the ages of most people online, although I can get a rough idea by reading their posts and comments), most people online blindly follow bad advice and say and do completely idiotic things without any thought given to the ramifications and consequences of what they’re doing.

Some Forum Examples

Cross-posted forum spam is runnin’ wild (I see at least 1-2 examples on a daily basis, with almost no effort being made to curtail the problem…IHY notwithstanding.)
Everyone wants the community to give them all the answers. The only good thing about these types of threads is that the OP gets advice that is worth exactly what it should be…$0.00.
Entire forums are devoted to link exchanges, thus continuing to perpetuate the myth that somehow they’re useful to end users and that “natural link exchange” still exists.

And some of the quotes that I’ve seen lately from people make me want to remove my own eyes with a fork.

From this IHY thread:

I’m not here for promotion I am here to learn more on SEO, just like any other beginner, I wanted to learn the right and proper SEO technique.

News flash: in order to optimize a site for search engines, you’re optimizing it so that it can derive the maximum promotional benefit from search engines. Thus, SEO is a form of promotion.

And pretty well anything from yesterday’s Google rumor debunk post, for those who want other examples. Come to think of it…pretty much the entire Digital Pointless forum could be blown up and not one intelligent thought would be lost as a result.

Blog Examples

Pretty much anything on this blog, one of many which discusses the bizarre notion that social media sites are somehow related to SEO and are a viable long-term promotional solution (I can’t wait to see the look on you stupid bastards’ faces when that bubble bursts).

Of course, we also need to recycle the same drivel that others have been spewing for years.

And my personal favorite…this bizarre and totally illogical series of statements in favor of link exchange. Notice the mention of “high rank” (but not necessarily high referral traffic and/or sales). Notice how he discusses “natural links” and “acquisition rates”, completely ignoring the fact that true natural links occur randomly and therefore may be subject to spikes and dips, as would just about any other form of marketing. And notice the term “full duplex link exchange”…when did link exchange ever get tied into electrical equipment, anyway? Does anyone else think that term sounds completely retarded?

And why do we keep seeing idiotic things like this, over and over again, without anyone standing in the way to stop them?

BECAUSE THE “LEADERS” KEEP FEEDING THE MASSES SELLOUT BULLSHIT, AND THE MASSES KEEP SWALLOWING IT!

(Note to those who have already seen the Bruce Clay post: many of the readers of this blog would not have seen the aforementioned post or heard anything about this. Not everyone who reads this thing knows of the SEO industry. Bear with me.)

Danny $ullIvan

In the Bruce Clay blog post I mentioned earlier, Lisa Barone mentioned that she felt the SMX Advanced concept was excessively blackhat. The amazing thing to me wasn’t that she said it, but how unbelievably arrogant Danny $ullIvan (yes, the god of all things search according to the masses) tried to Sphinn…er…spin doctor and bully his way into getting his point across.

Some of the highlights of the comment in question:

First, I wished you’d taken a moment to ask me before posting. Had you done so, you’d have had a better article since I agree with much of what you found.

It wasn’t an article! It was a woman stating her opinion (and one that could easily be said of pretty well every site you’ve got your grubby mitts on). So now we all have to check with you first before we offer an opinion about a conference or a site or an article? No wonder no whitehat could ever offer an opinion…you’re too busy censoring them.

I don’t think SMX Advanced went over to the dark side, but yes, I think there was a lot more black hat stuff than I would have liked to have seen.

And you control the conference! If you don’t want to see that stuff there, or if you want to limit it, then you’ve got full power to do so! You’ve got no one to blame but yourself for that.

If you go back to this article I wrote:
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3501146

Am I the only one that has noticed this $ullIvan pattern? “If you go back to something I said to support what I’m saying now, you’ll see that what I’m saying now is completely right.” He does this just about every single time he posts a blog or an article or a comment or anything in general…”just refer back to my thoughts where I said this, and it’ll support this theory now.”

Do we all get to do this? There’s nothing wrong with self-referencing supporting material, but he gets a link in to something he’s doing every single time!

think you over estimate what I was “gunning” for, and maybe you should give me a bit more credit given the stuff I’ve written about and recommended in the past.

No, I’d say she got it pretty well bang-on. You sold out to your ethical criminal buddies because they paid up, rather than actually providing useful advice that will help businesses grow long-term. You’re a sellout, Danny. That’s all you’ve ever been. Then again, I’m talking about the same guy who spent years gathering knowledge about how to run conferences successfully while getting paid to do so, only to turn around and start a competitor with the knowledge gained.

Aaron Wall

Rip the Evil Google corporate giant, and the masses will follow.

Every Other Leader Wannabe

See Aaron Wall.

My Nephew’s Soccer Team

The other reason I haven’t posted much lately is because I’m trying to learn more about the game of soccer…of which I know next to nothing other than how to score (which one would think is a rather useful skill, but since there are many other aspects to the game…I figure I should learn more about them, too.)

I’ve found myself, despite having only been to a couple of games, in the uncharted territory of “assistant coach/practice goalie” for a team of 10-11 year old boys (along with my nephew’s dad and another parent/the head coach). For some reason, the kids listen to me. Why? I haven’t got the slightest idea. But I figure if I’m going to be a coach…I might as well learn how to coach and do it right. Besides, it’s a lot of fun when the kids listen and can do what you want them to do.

The Gym

I’d rather spend a couple of hours in the gym improving my body than posting things online right now. And for the first time in my life…I’ve got pecs. Small pecs…but pecs.

So…to summarize all this, I’m finding more and more that I’m no longer interested in fighting a battle that I largely consider to be a losing one, and one with no real reward. I also have better things to do with my time right now. These are a few of the reasons, but I don’t have the time to go into all of them. This should suffice, though.

Anyway, if you’re looking for me…I’m busy.

Apparently a rumor has been started or someone has gotten the idea that I work for Google. The sub-Arctic-temperature-IQ members of Digital Pointless, among others, have somehow gotten this bizarre and moronic idea that I have joined the ranks of big G.

I was prepared to ignore this, as it represents yet another example of how most online marketers lack even the most basic of reading and comprehension skills, until I started getting emails to various email accounts along these lines:

Dear Mr. Adam,

I am Zahir Shah, SEO Karachi. I am understanding that you are a Googler, so I wish to ask you how to rank top in searches for the various keywords and phrase. Plz tell me all parts of Google algorithm.

Sincerely,

Zahir Shah
Cell Num +92 307 2333907
Email: seo-zahir@hotmail.com

The Facts

As much as I’m a fan of the search engine, I’m not even close to drinking the Mountain View Kool-Aid. I work by myself, I work for myself, and I have clients that I work with (there’s a big difference between working with someone and working for someone).

So no, I don’t have inside access to Google information…and if I did, do you really think I’d be stupid enough to jeopardize my hypothetical “position” for no real reason? That’s the thing that really gets to me…how incredibly naive and stupid people are.

Why don’t you just ask Matt that question?
Or Brian?
Maybe Lasnik will print off any code associated with Google search and mail it to you. I bet he’d even pay the postage.

How stupid are most people? Seriously, where is rock bottom as far as the lack of human intelligence is concerned, and why haven’t we hit it yet?

Other Myths and Facts

Since the possibility exists that other idiots will contact me or start up other idiotic tales as the result of Digital Pointless, I’ll go ahead and debunk them now…even though I know full well that some idiot will ignore what I’ve said and come up with something even dumber in the future.

Myths

All of this got started because this blog was deindexed within Google, for reasons that were partly my fault (I’ll explain in the “Facts” section later). The Digital Pointless sheep decided to discuss my “panelization” (sic):

This is a clear case of penalization from Google for link selling / buying.
Google thinks that this blog violates Google tos by selling or buying links.

Strike one. I like this guy too, whoever he is. So authoritative. So knowledgeable. So on-the-ball. So…fucking STUPID!

He has disabled google indexing by using privacy feature .
There are many blogs like that .

Strike two.

Haha disallowed index.php, that could be it!!

And there’s the fastball on the outside corner for strike three.

Facts

This blog was actually banned on June 12, 2008. The following is the message that I received on Tuesday, June 24, when I had the time to check the reason. I’ve bolded the key sentence…the rest is verbatim:

Dear site owner or webmaster of walkonmypath.com,

While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that are outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html. This appears to be because your site has been modified by a third party. Typically, the offending party gains access to an insecure directory that has open permissions. Many times, they will upload files or modify existing ones, which then show up as spam in our index.

The following is some example hidden text we found at walkonmypath.com:

albums download Alient Project download CD Agalloch buy mp3 Alio Die and Robert Rich buy tracks Alienation Mental albums online Aslan Faction Apolokia A Beautiful Machine Absolum albums download Anahata

[...]

In order to preserve the quality of our search engine, we have temporarily removed some of your webpages from our search results. Currently pages from walkonmypath.com are scheduled to be removed for at least 30 days.

We would prefer to have your pages in Google’s index. If you wish to be reconsidered, please correct or remove all pages (may not be limited to the examples provided) that are outside our quality guidelines. One potential remedy is to contact your web host technical support for assistance. For more information about security for webmasters, see http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/09/quick-security-checklist-for-webmasters.html.

When you are ready, please visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reinclusion?hl=en to learn more and submit your site for reconsideration.

Sincerely,

Google Search Quality Team

In other words, the reason that I was banned was NOT due to link buying or selling (since I have neither sold links on this site via any means other than Adsense). It wasn’t due to me removing it. It was due to a hack that was applied to my WordPress install. This is where I’m partly responsible…I didn’t update WordPress, and someone took advantage. I won’t take full responsiblity, because someone still has to hack it. I did take full responsibility initally, but after further consideration came to this conclusion instead.

I fixed the install, and the site’s back up…with the exact same robots.txt file. By the way, it’s actually done this way to avoid duplicate content issues with WordPress…in case anyone’s wondering what the real answer is.

There are three things that scare me about this:

1. Fact checking. Or to put it more accurately, the complete lack thereof. No one even bothered to ask me if anything that was said is actually true, whether it had to do with working for Google or selling paid links or my robots.txt file or whatever…everyone just assumed it was.
2. The sheep mentality. A few people put forth some highly flawed “answers”, and everyone baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaed their agreement without even thinking that the theorists might not be 100% correct.
3. The complete stupidity on the part of “Zahir Shah”. What kind of moron goes around expecting Google to hand over the keys to the car to any idiot that asks for them?

   Mind you, I am making the assumption that “Zahir Shah” is actually a real person and that it’s not some shill posing as him and/or that has access to his Hotmail account. It could, I suppose, be a different idiot. Either way though…heeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s your sign.

So anyway, there’s your answer. I wonder if this FOXesque low-brow comedy qualifies as Reason #101 that Digital Pointless sucks.

I may pop my head up on iHelpYou once every day or two, but that’s going to be about it. I’ll also approve/decline comments as appropriate but won’t respond as such (unless it’s necessary).

Later.

The first odd thing that I noticed (besides the combination of brown text on a brown floral pattern background) was that I was required to register before I could view the content. It’s not unheard of for boards to require registration prior to viewing content, but it is somewhat unusual.

No problem, I thought…I went ahead and registered. It was then that things became more unusual. Most forums require the registrant to click an activation link that is sent to their email address before being considered “registered”. I did not receive such a notification. Instead, what I received was the following message on the board itself:

Thank you MrTVTL. Your registration has been successful. The administrator wishes to preview all new registered accounts before posting permissions are granted. The administrator has been notified of your registration.

A day later, I received the following email from the board admin:

Hello,

You recently applied to join The Boutique Board. In order to approve your account, we need the following information from you:

ebay ID
Full name
Phone number (you may receive a phone call to verify)
Address
Names of other groups or boards you are on:
Where did you hear about us?:
Are you a boutique owner/employee or kids clothing designer

If this information is not provided within the next 48 hours, your application will be rejected.

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping buying/selling/and trading at The Boutique Board safe for all members.
–
Admin
The Boutique Board

I have never seen a forum registration that required this information before. And if this information were necessary, why not just configure your forum to ask for it upfront rather than getting members to register?

Not only that, what would providing an eBay ID accomplish? And a phone number (something I rarely give out under the most beneficial of circumstances, never mind for something like this?) And my address? Why would I give this information out to a board that I only heard about from my referrer logs? This was, and still is, extremely confusing to me.

I emailed “Admin” back just to see what would happen:

Hi there,

My name is Adam Senour. I don’t have an eBay ID because eBay is a den of content thieves.

My sole reason for registering for the board is to check on some referral traffic to my site, www.walkonmypath.com . Apparently you guys are sending users there and I was just curious as to why (although not in a Big Brother sense or anything like that…I just like to know what people are saying about the site and find out where it can be improved.)

I’m not involved in the fashion industry in any way, so that should answer your final question.

Thanks,

Adam Senour

I received a reply from “Admin” a few hours later:

Thank you for your honest reply. At this time we can not approve you. I searched the board and I see no reference to your blog, it’s possible that someone was chatting with a friend about it thru our pm system. Sorry we can’t help you out more.

I decided to let it go at that, since picking a fight at this point probably wouldn’t accomplish much and The Boutique Board wasn’t budging on its policy. It’s their board, and they’re free to operate it as they see fit, including refusing board member applications. I bear them no malice as such.

Nevertheless, I remain confused and inquisitive. What type of board is The Boutique Board (besides a board about boutiques)? Why is it so private? And why does it require information such as an eBay ID, address, and phone number?

The problem occurs specifically with 64-bit editions of Windows, or so it would appear from the help I’ve given to a few people on the subject. Out of the Park Baseball 8 (OOTP8) is a 32-bit game, which represents a compatibility issue.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that this is very easy to fix, and if you’re in the aforementioned situation will only take about 2 minutes.

Step 1: Open Up OOTP8/Out of the Park Baseball 8 Properties

The Out of the Park Baseball 8 installation package will have installed an icon on your desktop; right-click this icon and then left-click “Properties”.

Step 2: Set OOTP8/Out of the Park Baseball 8 to Run in Compatibility Mode, and “As Administrator”

Your compatibility settings should be the same as the screenshot below.

1. Check the box that says “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
2. From the listbox immediately below the checkbox, select “Windows XP (Service Pack 2)”.
3. Check the box that says “Run as Administrator”.
4. Click “Apply”, then “OK.”

Step 3: Open Up OOTP8 Via the Desktop Icon

That’s it. You’re done! Feel free to enjoy the wonder that is Out of the Park Baseball 8.

Sphinn: Home of the Most Comprehensive Set of SEO Tools, July 25, 2007. I predicted that spammers would eventually try to manipulate the Sphinn site.

Eventually, spammers and “social bookmark exchangers” will latch on to Sphinn as a place to perform “Sphinn exchanges” and try to manipulate it as a means of promoting their sites.

Why Social Bookmarking Sites Will Die, and Why I Don’t Use Them, July 31, 2007. I predicted that the continued manipulation of these sites will eventually lead to their downfall.

Social media exchanges and their slowly emerging successors, “social media submission services”, decrease the likelihood that sites with legitimate, organic votes on social bookmarking sites will be found. Unfortunately, the process of voting online is extremely easy to manipulate (as the examples above demonstrate), and there are those people who are so obsessed with drawing traffic to their own sites that they forget that social media sites were never intended to be used by webmasters as a submission service; social media sites were intended for users to exchange quality sites with each other in an organic fashion.

If social media sites are ever meant to succeed, they need a means of verifying organic submissions vs. submissions that had to be encouraged or prodded in any way. And that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

I have continued to make predictions of this nature, and will continue to do so, including today’s post. You have the right to be informed if you’re being unethically manipulated, and most of the manipulators won’t bother to tell you.

The reason I chose to revisit these predictions is that both of them, in a manner of speaking, are beginning to come to pass. The first such prediction is coming to pass as I expected; the second has taken a very unusual twist that I have to confess that I didn’t see coming (but will accelerate the process more rapidly than anyone is giving it credit for.)

The “Sphinn Exchanges” Prediction

I discovered that I now show up on the first page of Google on at least some datacentres for the phrase “Sphinn Exchanges”, when multiple people found the post mentioned above via searches for said phrase.

Danny Sullivan et. al, this is the initial trickle. It’s only a matter of time before the flood hits…and in order for you to stop it, you’ll be forced to alienate a large portion of your “customer base” who simply followed your egocentric vested-interest manipulative lead. I’m reminded of when Michael Jackson purchased the rights to Beatles songs in 1985 because Sir Paul McCartney told him it was a wise investment.

That sound you hear in the distance? That’s the toilet being delivered from Home Depot so that Sphinn can be flushed down.

The Social Millionaire

If you have a social site profile somewhere, this may be of interest to you since you’re about to get “sold to” in a rather insidious manner.

This is the “social media marketing” development that I will openly admit that I didn’t see coming. A young “netpreneur” named Pat Hankinson has created the The Social Millionaire, a “site” containing nothing but a bunch of text links to other sites in a random “tag cloud” fashion (by the way, am I the only one who thinks tag clouds are hideous-looking?) The idea is that Pat, via a series of social networking sites including Myspace, Facebook, Youtube (when did this become a social networking site, anyway?) and Twitter, will promote The Social Millionaire page of text links while making a whole bunch of friends that he’ll gladly spread the message of all of his advertisers to.

Pat managed to get over $1,000 worth of would-be advertisers thanks to a paid review (or so it would seem) on self-interest black heart deluxe John Chow’s weblog. If Pat saw any ROI on this investment, and I tend to subscribe to the theory that he did simply because there isn’t a reason to lie about it and say he spent $500 on an $800 revenue stream, then that’s strictly accidental. Watch for Chow to raise his rates after this glowing testimonial from Mr. Hankinson (I’m thinking around the $550-$600 range myself.)

What’s amazing is that apparently only one person thought to tell Pat the truth in the comments in the JohnChow.com blog post:

What a piece of crap.

Hint to Pat Hankinson: If you want to become an online mogul, build something that is at least interesting if you can’t come up with a few ideas that have some semblance of originality. Oh, and stop trying to feed off of other people’s presumed stupidity. In the end, you are the only one that looks stupid.

For those unaware of what the commenter is referring to, there was a similar site set up a while back called MillionDollarHomepage.com whereby the owner sold his site in “pixel blocks” to try and raise $1,000,000.

Pat, your idea isn’t entrepreneurial.
It isn’t useful (there’s no content or anything of real substance to support it).
It isn’t ethical (social sites weren’t meant for this).
It’s just a contemporary adaptation of a link farm, spread via social media sites because they’re not as sophisticated as search engines at detecting spam and spammers. And the real victims are people who use social media sites legitimately (a percentage that seems to be dwindling with each passing day as the novelty wears off and the spammers set in).

Or, to put it bluntly, this is crap. Steaming, stinking, festering, putrid, overwhelming, nauseating crap.

The only good thing about all of this is that Pat probably won’t make a million dollars off of his idea. He’ll be lucky if he gets to $10,000 (although he’ll manage to expose a lot of spammers in the process without meaning to). He made the mistake of telling people such as those who would comment on John Chow’s blog…the same vested-interest spammers who would probably think to themselves, “wow! What a great idea! And it’s so easy to set up too! It takes almost no effort at all, just like writing the lyrics to a Britney Spears song!” The copycats will come, and they’ll come in spades.

Congratulations, Pat Hankinson. You have singlehandedly put into place the process of devaluing Fadbook and other such sites. Not only that, but you’ll eventually be the one responsible for turning them into modern-day link farms.

If you’re on one of these sites, you may want to yank your profile off…unless you like toboggan rides down steep hills. The same thing goes for Sphinn, although it wasn’t much to begin with.

This week, we’re going to cover a Republican many people think is an idiot (a few of whom even found this site).
We’re going to explain a relatively common business transaction.
We’ve got information on trial software uninstallation.
We’ve got information on a resort in the Greater Toronto Area (Mississauga, to be precise.)
And we’ve got information on Photoshop (something I’m the last person in the world to be giving information on.)

ShelleytheRepublican Idiot / Shelley the Republican Idiot

I’m not sure why people are looking for Shelley the Republican with and without spaces, but okay…I can handle that.

Here’s Shelley the Republican.

Meaning of Contra Deal

A contra deal is just a fancy way to say “bartering”. Two businesses exchange goods and services without exchanging cash.

Remove Trial Software from Gateway Notebook Vista

With the exception of Gateway’s BigFix software, all of the software on a Windows Vista Gateway laptop can be uninstalled from “Programs and Features” (Start–>Control Panel–>Programs and Features). You may need to go into “Classic View” to see the Programs and Features icon; I personally find Classic View is a much easier way to see everything.

Southwest Greater Toronto Area Resort

I’m not sure if this iwhat you mean by “Southwest”, but it’s about as far west and south as I’m capable of coming up with: the Delta Hotel Mississauga is on Mississauga Road just south of the 401. I’ve never been inside of it myself, but I pass by it quite a bit and it looks like a nice place from the outside.

The Difference Between Opacity and Fill in Photoshop

The difference between opacity and fill in Photoshop that I’ve seen is that any opacity changes made not only affect the layer itself, but any effects on the layer; whereas any changes made to the fill percentage only affect the layer itself, and all layer effects remain completely opaque.

I really think
That I can make the grade
There’ll be some changes made round here, tomorrow…
There’ll be some changes made

Chet Atkins (with Mark Knopfler), There’ll Be Some Changes Made

I’m only going to devote Saturday Scribbling to one topic today, since there is only one topic on my mind. If my posts have seemed somewhat shorter, less coherent, or somehow lacking in quality over the past couple of weeks, I do apologize for this; there have been a few major projects that I’ve been working on, including one through a client of mine for a very large company as part of a team. I won’t reveal the company, nor will I reveal the site in question..but rest assured that all of you out there have heard of it. Those of you who have talked to me in the last few days will have a very good idea of what the company is and some of you will have even seen the site in question.

The Cliff Notes version of the story is that I found myself incredibly unhappy both with the site I worked on for the large company and with the process; this is in no way, shape or form the fault of my client, but a deeper systemic issue within the hierarchy established and the organization (or lack thereof) of such. The client himself went to bat for myself and the rest of the team on more than one occasion, and went above and beyond the call of duty to try and keep the ship righted and those of us on his team happy, especially me, so I’ve got nothing but a world of respect for the client (if (s)he should happen to read this) and would gladly work with the client again, as I’ve done many times in the past. However, this was a project that had a number of problems, most of which had very little to do with web design in principle but served to negatively affect it.

Based on this project, and based on a series of other incidents that have occurred over the past 5 years and moreso in the past few months, there will be some significant changes made both personally and professionally over the next little while. Some of them will be obvious, and some of them won’t be quite as apparent. Some of these changes may not be popular changes, some may be popular, and some may be indifferent. Whether they’re popular decisions or not don’t really interest me at this stage; the only thing that interests me is a positive net result from each change. The end will justify the means, and that’s all that’s going to matter.

I’ll be using the Easter long weekend (which is either three or four days in Canada, depending on who you work for and whether they give you the Monday off) to implement some of these changes. That means I won’t be posting on here at all, and those of you who see me on various forums, etc. will likely not notice me around as much. When I pop my head back up out of the sand at the end of the weekend (either Monday or Tuesday), I’ll have something to show you, although I’m not 100% sure what that is as of yet. There will be at least one thing affected, and maybe two. It really depends on how quickly I can work on things.

I’m not exactly sure how quickly or how drastically I’ll be able to make the changes I’m referring to, but rest assured: things are going to be very different.