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Fact-checking and Rumor-dispelling Site Snopes.com Held Hostage By vendor (savesnopes.com)

Snopes.com, which began as a small one-person effort in 1994 and has since become one of the Internet's oldest and most popular fact-checking sites, is in danger of closing its doors. From a report: Since our inception, we have always been a self-sustaining site that provides a free service to the online world: we've had no sponsors, no outside investors or funding, and no source of revenue other than that provided by online advertising. Unfortunately, we have been cut off from our historic source of advertising income. We had previously contracted with an outside vendor to provide certain services for Snopes.com. That contractual relationship ended earlier this year, but the vendor will not acknowledge the change in contractual status and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com web site hostage. Although we maintain editorial control (for now), the vendor will not relinquish the site's hosting to our control, so we cannot modify the site, develop it, or -- most crucially -- place advertising on it. The vendor continues to insert their own ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from us. Our legal team is fighting hard for us, but, having been cut off from all revenue, we are facing the prospect of having no financial means to continue operating the site and paying our staff (not to mention covering our legal fees) in the meanwhile.

210 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. I should probably fact check this... by Aequitarum+Custos · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... by going to snopes?

    1. Re:I should probably fact check this... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      I thought they were all volunteer leftist partisan hacks, who had taken over the site long ago to "debunk" anything favorable to conservatives.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:I should probably fact check this... by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      For those who don't get the reference, it's this. Mikkelson is pretty sleazy in all of this even if he tries to portray himself as the victim.

  2. Rumor by allo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Already debunked by snopes.

    1. Re:Rumor by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, "debunked" here:

      http://www.snopes.com/save-sno... :-/

    2. Re:Rumor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I gather that they don't control their own domain name. A very stupid move for a a site whose main mission is to fight stupidity.

    3. Re:Rumor by rickb928 · · Score: 2

      It's not uncommon for a hosting provider to require admin and technical contact as a condition of service. Of course, this lends it self to abuse, such as refusing to relinquish control, change DNS, etc. I've suffered through this, and advise a previous employer to not take that path when dealing with a deadbeat customer.

      This is hard to fix, since the hoster will claim they are the owner if ti gets to the registrar level. Network Solutions has been from one extreme to the other in these cases, denying the rightful owners a hearing and falling for the scam where someone tells a good enough story to whisk a domain away. They usually kept out of billing disputes, such as this *appears* to be.

      Good luck, Snopes. Even contracts, letters, etc fail. Send lawyers, money, dogs, and guns.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    4. Re: Rumor by PatientZero · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you can present plenty of links to stories mishandled in such a way.

      --
      Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
      I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
    5. Re:Rumor by Chas · · Score: 1

      #ItWasAJoke

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    6. Re: Rumor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      huh! examples? sources? and not Fox/Brietbart/nro crap.

    7. Re:Rumor by gfxguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm guess I'm a douchebag. I contracted the full development of a website with someone for exchange of services. I registered their domain and put it on my hosting, developed the website and put it online - all without anything up front, all in exchange for what he was selling - personal training. He never showed for his appointments at the gym. I got tired of it and cut loose. He wanted the domain. I added up all my expenses, including a very LOW fee for the hours I worked, and he refused to pay it, so I kept it. That IS how you should deal with a deadbeat customer, IMO.

      In Snope's case, it seems like a very different story, but ultimately I'm glad I was in control of the name in my case.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    8. Re:Rumor by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      It's not uncommon for a hosting provider to require admin and technical contact as a condition of service.

      But surely this is exactly why there are multiple sets of contact details attached to a domain?

      The registrant details should always identify the true owner of the domain, and there also ought to be a money trail leading back to whoever is paying the bill. I can't imagine any legitimate reason for any hosting provider to interfere with either of these aspects.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    9. Re: Rumor by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Informative

      you mean that pizzagate actually happened or what?

      I mean seriously. surely you would have some actual examples.

      the problem is that last year like 95% of fake shit and made up rumours were indeed republican/trump made up shit, so what the fuck should a fact checking site do? ignore pizzagate because it's "political"? what the fuck is political about debunking a blatant absurd lie?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re: Rumor by PatientZero · · Score: 1

      Snopes says that Pissgate is unproven. Do you disagree and instead believe the allegations of Russia blackmailing Trump have been verified? Interesting. You should call Fox & Friends!

      All I can find on Snopes regarding Trump and Russia are articles debunking fake news or reporting public tweets, something I'd think Trumpkins would find useful. Instead, you lump all news into fake news, even when it supports your position. You are your own worst enemy.

      "It looks like the evidence doesn't support your arrest, and you're free to go."
      "Lies! It's all damn lies and fake news!"
      "Uh, sir? Are you confessing?"

      --
      Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
      I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
    11. Re: Rumor by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      They're all stupid cunts. Hateful, usually, too.

      Oh the irony...

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    12. Re: Rumor by jae471 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, nothing so obviously as pizzagate. Snopes is very subtle when they politicize things.

      Sometimes they debunk the spirit of the claim, rather than the facts (which may be true). Sometimes they invalid a claim by pointing out that some details are wrong, even though the origin of the claim is generally true.

      Here's an example of the first: "Claim: Hillary Clinton successfully defended an accused child rapist and later laughed about the case." http://www.snopes.com/hillary-...

      The stated claim is 100% true, yet snopes calls it "mostly false". She got the defendant a better deal and later laughed about it on film. Also notice the claim does not match the URL ("freed" versus "successfully defended"; they do not mean the same thing.) Now, Snopes has all the details on why this particular event does not make her an evil person, but lists the claim as "mostly false".

      By labeling a claim "mostly false" that is 100% factually true (even if the spirit of claim is false), they are inserting their own biases into the discussion and not merely presenting facts. They are also throwing red herrings unrelated to the original claim into the mix to make the "mostly false" claim more defensible. They are editorializing.

      (Disclaimer: This is neither an anti- nor pro- Hillary Clinton post. This is merely a convenient example that I could remember off the top my head.)

    13. Re: Rumor by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      What were the terms of the contract? Did it specify your recourse?

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    14. Re: Rumor by suutar · · Score: 1

      So how would you suggest they represent "technically the stated facts are true but the intended implication is not" on the false-true spectrum? This is sounding like a good bug report so far, but a suggested resolution would be good to include.

    15. Re: Rumor by cryptizard · · Score: 3, Informative

      The claim is not 100% true. She was appointed to the case, she did not volunteer. She didn't admit that he was guilty. She didn't get him freed. That makes you wrong in your claim that it was 100% true therefore I proclaim you mostly false.

    16. Re: Rumor by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      No - it was just a verbal agreement to develop a website in exchange for personal training for my wife at a nearby gym they both worked at. He told me the name he wanted, dropped off testimonials (pictures and stories), and that was that. We agreed to a one hour session a week... so I was expending a lot more up front that we were supposed to get back over time (I was going to periodically update and add testimonials). If we were talking about a lot more resources, I'd have wanted a written contract and would have been very angry; instead I shrugged it off - I may have spent time and little money (I already had the hosting), but in the end neither of us got anything and I was able to add the little "and screw you" with the domain name at the end (which he did ask for). BTW, I wasn't asking for a lot - a few hours of development time I spent plus the cost of the name (which isn't a lot). From his reaction, he would have been upset at even paying the original cost of the name.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    17. Re: Rumor by Straumli+Perversion · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they would have been better off just stating what facts they have found and leaving the conclusions to the readers. Maybe a forum on each topic so the readers can hash it out for themselves.

    18. Re:Rumor by BronsCon · · Score: 2

      You bought and paid for the domain, ergo it was your domain. You were absolutely in the right to offer to sell the domain and not give it for free.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    19. Re: Rumor by PatientZero · · Score: 1

      Snopes says the Russian collusion story hasn't been proven yet, but you disagree?

      Got it. You're actually that obtuse.

      --
      Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
      I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
    20. Re: Rumor by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      They debunk the obvious implications of the claims, not just the verbatim meaning of words. This is as it should be, because those implications are what people actually pay attention to when they read headlines like that.

    21. Re: Rumor by jae471 · · Score: 1

      And putting it at the bottom, instead of the top, so the reader has to go through the facts.

    22. Re: Rumor by jae471 · · Score: 1

      Snopes could do better though. Consider what Snopes wrote as their claim:

      Claim: Hillary Clinton successfully defended an accused child rapist and later laughed about the case.

      And now consider this claim, which is actually closer to several of the rumors and the implications of the claim:

      Claim: Hillary Clinton volunteered to defended an accused child rapist, successfully got him freed, and later laughed about the case.

      I would agree that this claim is mostly false.

    23. Re: Rumor by markass530 · · Score: 1

      Well if you a put a disclaimer, it must be true

  3. Lawyers! My kingdom for Lawyers! And a horse! by TiggertheMad · · Score: 2

    The vendor continues to insert their own ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from us.

    How is this not outright theft? If they are failing to pay you money they are contractually obligated to pay, wouldn't that invalidate the contract, or put them in an actionable position for damages?

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Lawyers! My kingdom for Lawyers! And a horse! by XXongo · · Score: 4, Informative

      The vendor continues to insert their own ads and has been withholding the advertising revenue from us. How is this not outright theft?

      Because they are half-owners of the site (Barbara Mikkelson sold her share) and in the middle of a lawsuit.

      The gofundme is here, for what it's worth, with more information: https://www.gofundme.com/saves...

    2. Re:Lawyers! My kingdom for Lawyers! And a horse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      But only one side of the information.

      The two and a half month old complaint makes for interesting reading: http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snopes-COMPLAINT.pdf

    3. Re:Lawyers! My kingdom for Lawyers! And a horse! by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Is there a contract, and precisely where is a copy of that contract?

      Who are the signatories?

      Without that in hand, your question has no answer.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    4. Re:Lawyers! My kingdom for Lawyers! And a horse! by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Considering the outrage with which the American fraction of Slashdot greeted the idea of Norway publishing their citizen's salary and tax details, then I'd expect that in America, it is illegal to publish the contents of a contract without the consent of al involved parties. I am, of course, assuming that Snopes is an American organisation - which is an impression I got last time I used it, years ago.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  4. More to the story by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That contractual relationship ended earlier this year, but the vendor will not acknowledge the change in contractual status and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com web site hostage.

    There's almost always 2 sides of the story, and Snopes isn't doing themselves any favors failing to acknowledge the other side's grievances. I'd sure want to understand the big picture here before donating.

    1. Re:More to the story by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's almost always 2 sides of the story, and Snopes isn't doing themselves any favors failing to acknowledge the other side's grievances. I'd sure want to understand the big picture here before donating.

      Yup. No mention of the party, the contract details, etc. Just "give us money to file a lawsuit". It's hard for us to figure out what's really going on, especially because they used a Private Registration service. I really encourage people to never do that except for small non-commercial websites.

      They apparently have 14 people on staff - this is a small business but not a mom & pop that could easily be running on the razor's edge.

      Rating: partly true.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:More to the story by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just "give us money to file a lawsuit".

      More like, "give us money to defend against a lawsuit that was filed against us months ago, which we're not going to mention because it might make us sound unsympathetic (at the very least)." The complaint is here.

    3. Re:More to the story by msauve · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As mentioned somewhere below (citing Techcrunch) - this isn't a vendor/contract issue. The two equal owners of Snopes (via Bardav, Inc.) divorced, and one sold their share to the company running the web site. Now, the other owner apparently wants to move the website elsewhere.

      It's a dispute between two equal parties in a company trying to take it in different directions. Since the party seeking donations isn't being upfront and honest about things, and actually seems to be deliberately deceptive, I tend to support the other side.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    4. Re:More to the story by torkus · · Score: 2

      Oversimplification of the actual truth: there are many interpretations of any given set of actions and, often, very limited means to understand the intent behind them. That goes even more so with the crappy reporting that keeps getting worse lately.

      Looking at TFS...maybe the other party is trying to force them to comply with some unreasonable demand (sell the brand? take a lower % of revenue?) and using this as a tool to starve them out.

      Maybe the other party believes they own all the content based on the now-expired contract and they're being asked to relinquish it?

      Some things can be factually demonstrated while others are based on thought/intent/interpretation.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    5. Re: More to the story by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Life? Any argument with a woman? Any argument with religious fanatics? 3 Little Pigs and the Big, Bad Wolf? This phrase is so common, they probably say it every other Law and Order.

    6. Re:More to the story by superdave80 · · Score: 2

      Yes, there are. Where did you get the stupid idea that there aren't?

      Snopes is saying, "That's our domain"! That is their side of the story.

      The other company could come right back and say, "You signed a contract stating XYZ, so we will not relinquish control of the site until XYZ is taken care of" or something to that effect. That is the OTHER side of the story, which we have not yet heard. This makes two sides.

    7. Re:More to the story by rhazz · · Score: 1

      For anyone interested, the gofundme update #1 linked to an article with far more details.

      They've raised $111k out of their $500k goal in the 6 hours they've been up so far (4000+ donations).

    8. Re:More to the story by mt2mb4me · · Score: 1

      Very telling, divorces are ugly. This side does need to be heard.

    9. Re:More to the story by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Or possibly they're merely highlighting that seeking a second viewpoint may add some new information that better helps you evaluate the story you're hearing from a single source.

      This does not prevent you seeking additional inputs, and indeed where the first two resources differ that is itself a signal that supplementary information may be of value.

    10. Re:More to the story by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Sometimes there is just one side which is right

      That's why I said MOST of the time.

      When someone tells you there are two sides to a debate they are normally trying to make one side look sensible by choosing a single other opponent who is extremely stupid by comparison.

      Well, considering we know nothing other than that there's a contract dispute, why don't you pull out your crystal ball and tell us what's up?

    11. Re:More to the story by msauve · · Score: 1

      I feel like Paul Harvey...and now for the rest of the story...

      Google "Elyssa Young snopes"

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    12. Re:More to the story by gmack · · Score: 5, Informative

      So to summarize:
      Ex partner / ex wife sells her half of Bardav(Snopes) to Proper Media.. but not really because that would illegal since companies can not own shares in type S corporations.. so instead she cut her share up between Proper Media's owners as an end run around the law.
      She told them it was permitted according to Snopes bylaws but now there is a question if that's true, in which case they should be suing her.
      They accuse Green from Proper Media of working exclusively on Snopes and not other projects.
      Green (and partial stock holder) jumps ship after the fight and aligns with Mikkelson giving Mikkelson just over 50% and control of Bardav (Snopes).
      Green takes 3 employees and their equipment with him. Proper media considers it theft.
      A bunch of angry ramblings about Expenses they don't think should have been permitted.
      Accusations of Fraud for wanting a larger salary than they think is appropriate

      There is nothing here that makes me want to take Proper Media's side in this. From their own words, they put themselves into the middle of a messy divorce by offering to buy out the ex wife and were shocked when that didn't go over well.

    13. Re:More to the story by borcharc · · Score: 1

      It's far more than that. The group that bought out the wife claims they have been frozen out of management and the other partner is draining funds from the company. the complaint paints a dirty picture:

      "Mikkelson was unhappy that Barbara maintained ownership of half of what he always considered to be his company after the divorce. Thus, after Proper Media’s purchase of Barbara’s share, Mikkelson sought to finally gain control of Bardav by aligning and conspiring with Green. Although Green purportedly holds only a small fraction of Bardav’s equity (which he only holds for the benefit of Proper Media), when combined with Mikkelson’s 50% interest, it would purportedly give Mikkelson majority control of the company."

    14. Re: More to the story by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      3 Little Pigs and the Big, Bad Wolf?

      There would be four sides to that story, no?

      The truth is, there are only "two sides" to a story if one of the sides wants you to believe some bullshit. It's like if my kid knocks over an expensive lamp and then tries to say the goldfish did it.

      We only need sites like Snopes because one side in the political debate wants you to believe there is no such thing as truth or facts or reality. "Biggest inauguration crowd in history", or "biggest electoral victory ever", for example.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    15. Re:More to the story by superdave80 · · Score: 1

      I think you don't understand what is meant by 'side'. Yes, there is one set of true facts to the complete story, but sometimes one SIDE will only present the partial facts that support their SIDE. You then need to listen to the other SIDE that will fill in the remaining gaps in the full story.

    16. Re:More to the story by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I think you don't understand what is meant by 'side'. Yes, there is one set of true facts to the complete story, but sometimes one SIDE will only present the partial facts that support their SIDE. You then need to listen to the other SIDE that will fill in the remaining gaps in the full story.

      You have just made a compelling argument for a site like snopes.com.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    17. Re: More to the story by guruevi · · Score: 2

      There was a loyalty agreement that the site remains under control of proper media. It seems that Mikkelson also used the site to pay for his divorce expenses and just took what he thinks the corporation owed him as well as outright theft of employees and equipment.

      Short: Mikkelson screwed over his partners and got caught stealing from his own company.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    18. Re:More to the story by artownz · · Score: 1

      this. It kinda feels odd, incomplete.

    19. Re: More to the story by gmack · · Score: 1

      1: Since we can't see the loyalty agreement and whatever it had for termination clauses, it's hard to know who is at fault there.

      2: Employees changing jobs is not theft. And according to their own lawsuit, it was their own ex partner Green who took the computers after some sort of fight between the partners making it a contract dispute between Green and the ex partners and not Bardav/Mikkelson.

      3: Given their assertion that wanting a larger salary than they think is fair is fraud.. I'm inclined not to buy their assertion that he used the legal expenses to pay his divorce lawyer

    20. Re:More to the story by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      1. History,
      2. Herstory
      3. And the truth somewhere in the middle.

    21. Re: More to the story by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sounds to me more like Snopes was always mainly Milkkelson's creation. And he got stiffed by his wife when they divorced.

      I say this for 2 reasons. Snopes was Mikkelson's username on Usenet which he used for debunking myths before the couple ever met.

      And now, the site continues to be run, just as before editorially by Mikkelson, without input by his ex-wife, and certainly no input by Proper Media, who's connection was only ever as the buyer of the wife's share.

      Mikkelson is Snopes. It wouldn't be Snopes any more if the site was wrestled away from him. In much the same way that Slashdot isn't really the old Slashdot anymore after it's being bought out and run be different people at least twice over.

      Clearly there needs to be some kind of financial settlement, as Proper Media bought a share, and have since been taking the entire advertising revenue. But it would be wrong if the site were taken away from Mikkelson, or if he was left with no way of running it as a financially viable site.

    22. Re: More to the story by borcharc · · Score: 1

      The loyalty agreement you speak of is a fiduciary duty. It's not some contract, it's a legally defined obligation. By being an officer of Proper Media, Green had this obligation as a mater of law.

    23. Re: More to the story by guruevi · · Score: 1

      1) The loyalty agreement is public and is included in the suit.
      2) I read it as if Green fired them (told them to leave) and then took their computers. Not sure whether he was authorized to do that.
      3) That will probably become clearer in the trial. They claimed it in the suit which they should probably have evidence to back it up.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    24. Re: More to the story by makomk · · Score: 3, Informative

      Barbara Mikkelson put a huge and very visible amount of work into the site over, I think, pretty much its entire two-decade-long existence. It was quite common to come across fact checks researched and written by her. Before their divorce the site was generally presented as a joint effort by the Mikkelsons.

    25. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      The saying is oft misquoted (i.e. partially.) The full quote is: "There are two sides to every story, and somewhere in between lies the truth "

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    26. Re: More to the story by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      The full quote is: "There are two sides to every story, and somewhere in between lies the truth "

      And that's what I was objecting to.

      Scientists say humans evolved over millions of years. Creationists say man was made 6000 years ago and woman was made from man's rib.

      Does the truth lay somewhere in between?

      The old saw about "two sides" is no longer operable when there the potential upside to lying is so great.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    27. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      That isn't a disagreement over facts. You have (intentionally?) chosen an example where only one side is offering any facts.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    28. Re: More to the story by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      You have (intentionally?) chosen an example where only one side is offering any facts.

      Welcome to 2017.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    29. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Where you try to make a point by being slick, but you are actually as stupid as Trump and get caught in your own attempts at bullshitting just as easily, so try to deflect, but that turns out to be an equally lame and transparent attempt?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    30. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I do believe you just created a new Slashdot meme! A response made when someone can't understand what they read :^)

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    31. Re:More to the story by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

      And just as always, Snopes only gives you one side of the argument.

    32. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Sure, if I hadn't clearly stated that you infered what I did not imply. You are becoming my favorite stalker! XXXOO

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    33. Re: More to the story by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You are a boring troll. Sometimes trolls are not completely pathetic, but boring ones always are. Get back to us if you ever get any trolling skills.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    34. Re: More to the story by gmack · · Score: 1

      1)Found it, thanks. But it still seems from my reading of Proper Media's description, that they had some fight after which Green quit or felt he was forced out. At any rate, the complaint would be with Green and not Bardav
      2)They should take that up with Green and not Bardav
      3)That's an interesting assumption and given some of the lawsuits in the past and given the rambling nature of the suit and that "Prayer for Relief" item 4 is actually illegal and half of 5 is again, an attempt to make an end run around the laws governing type S corporations.

      I am genuinely curious to know how the judge will take all of this

  5. Why You MUST Own Your DNS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is precisely why you must always OWN your DNS and Hosting yourself. Never, EVER let someone else register and host your domain for you. Always DO IT YOURSELF or find yourself in the same boat with Snopes.

    1. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by The+Snowman · · Score: 2

      This is precisely why you must always OWN your DNS and Hosting yourself. Never, EVER let someone else register and host your domain for you. Always DO IT YOURSELF or find yourself in the same boat with Snopes.

      Never, EVER co-own a company with your spouse, then get divorced, and your spouse sells his or her share to a company (technically, the company's owners, due to the type of company Bardav is) that you now find yourself in a dispute with.

      This has nothing to do with the company managing Snopes, they co-own it. Scroll up a bit, there are links to the actual court documents.

      --
      24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
    2. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 2

      How in the world does it help to OWN your DNS yourself and then your company's two major shareholders get into a dispute with one another?

      The fact of the matter is that for very small companies with >1 people, the "you" in YOURSELF is not an entity with temporal continuity. So doing it YOURSELF doesn't much help you when "you" shatters into two non-reconcilable halves :-(

    3. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Well actually they don't as the company is set up in such a way that only individuals can own shares, not companies.

      Therefore rather than Proper Media owning 50% of the shares, the wife's shares were split into 3, and are held by 3 indivuduals connected to Proper Media.

      However one of those 3 individuals (Green) has sided with Mikkelson. Which means Mikkelson's side has 66% of the company, and thus control.

      Proper Media have no case to control anything. However, they are due one third of the profits (via the 2 shareholders - if there are any profits). But if they are taking all the profits from the advertising and not putting it into Snopes. Then they are in the wrong on that.

    4. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      I think the main lesson is to never split a company into 2 equal halves. That's inviting stalemate. Make it at least 3, even if the third only holds a tiny share. That way the stalemate will always be broken. It might be broken against your wishes - but even that is better than taking a stalemate to court and risking bankruptcy.

    5. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I tried but ICANN wouldn't let me become my own registrar so I need to pay someone for that privilege.

      Also you missed the point. You definitely do not need to own the DNS or hosting. They are both disposable and transferable. You only need to own the domain registration, and more importantly, don't give your credit card to your soon to be ex-wife.

    6. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      However one of those 3 individuals (Green) has sided with Mikkelson. Which means Mikkelson's side has 66% of the company, and thus control.

      56.66%, actually -- the Proper Media shares are not equally split. But the real question is whether Green was allowed under his contract for Proper Media to switch sides. And how the whole tax evasion deal for Proper Media to pretend not to be a company shakes out.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    7. Re:Why You MUST Own Your DNS by edtice1559 · · Score: 1

      This isn't really about owning the DNS, though, it's about corporate structure. Snopes (Bardav/Proper Media) control the DNS. It's purely an internal company issue.

  6. I read on Snopes.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That this is not true. It's a rehashed story from a couple of years ago.

  7. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    *citation needed

  8. Something here doesn't smell right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First, snopes.com is registered with networksolutions.com, not their hosting provider (Peer 1). It's not clear here that there's anything stopping Mikkelson et al from grabbing a backup (or even live version) of the site, getting set up on a new web host, and then switching the IP, like many others who have had a hosting provider suddenly go crap on them. Snopes appears to run on Wordpress, and, well, it's really not that hard to yank a Wordpress site from one provider and get it up on another.

    Second, they're looking for $500k. $500k? Because of problems at their web host?

    And... if they're not migrating to a new web host, won't most of the $500k being donated go back to the web host that is ostensibly holding their data hostage, rewarding that web host for being jerks?

    This really doesn't make sense.

    1. Re:Something here doesn't smell right. by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also, "http://www.snopes.com/save-snopes/" redirects to "https://www.savesnopes.com". Maybe I'm just being stupid, but how did they get that url to redirect if they "cannot modify the site"?

    2. Re: Something here doesn't smell right. by Brockmire · · Score: 1

      Payroll of 14 people plus lawyers over months. Seriously, this shit was spelled out clearly.

    3. Re:Something here doesn't smell right. by mt2mb4me · · Score: 4, Informative

      From the legal documents I can see, The parent company split with the divorce of the two mikkelsons. Because the way the company is structured, the shares could not be bought directly by a corporation. The company that bought in (Proper Media) split their shares with 5-6 people. One of those people defected, and voted with mikkelson to oust Proper Media. According to the contract that was signed, he was not allowed to do that, nor leave Proper Media and work directly for Mikkelson, which violated his non compete. It sounds like Mikkelsen is in the wrong here actually. http://www.poynter.org/wp-cont...

    4. Re:Something here doesn't smell right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The plea says they have editorial control (for now)... which does make it all seem rather fishy.

      Reading up on the dispute from the other side, it's quite clear that Snopes may not be being fully honest (*shocked*): http://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Snopes-COMPLAINT.pdf

    5. Re:Something here doesn't smell right. by mattack2 · · Score: 2

      They said they have editorial control, which means they control the CONTENT of the site.

      "Cannot modify the site" probably means the back end running of the site.

  9. Something doesn't make sense by StreamingEagle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do the owners of Snopes.com own and control the snopes.com domain name? If so, move the site, and redirect the DNS to point to your own servers. Do the owners of Snopes.com have a copy of the site? It's their copyrighted code and content. A vendor can't "hold it hostage", or even hold it at all without explicit rights to do so. If the vendor doesn't have a valid contract (i.e.; if the contract expired or was legally terminated), hosting Snopes.com without permission is a copyright violation... which is a very expensive problem for that vendor. Any number of lawyers would take this case on a contingent fee basis... no up-front money needed... if it's such a clear cut case of a vendor having no rights to host snopes.com, but refusing to give snopes.com access to their code and content, or to their domain or DNS. Some details are clearly missing here... or the owners of snopes.com are technically and legally illiterate.

    1. Re:Something doesn't make sense by borcharc · · Score: 1

      The rest of the story is well worth a read. This is a shareholder dispute. One shareholder is trying to take over the company from its other, 50/50 owners. The gofundme appears to be making wild claims about what is happening. Its been widely reported that Mikkelson (an original 50% owner) has been treating the company like his personal piggy bank in various prior legal actions. To put his dispute with his prior cofounder to bed, she sold 50% interest to this new group of owners and then appears to have gotten back to the same stuff that caused the dispute with the prior cofounder.

    2. Re:Something doesn't make sense by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      It's actually a dispute between legal owners, a result from split in co-ownership after a messy divorce. Further details are provided in comments above this.

      From what I can see, the "save snopes" summary is being deliberately misleading, as they talk about the company "contracted to provide services", etc. No, they were sold an interest in the company. And frankly, that sort of dishonesty is highly disturbing when coming from the head of a fact-checking site.

      It's the exact opposite from a clear-cut case.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    3. Re:Something doesn't make sense by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      Wait until you find out how full of crap all the media really is...

      Even politifact is often full of it...

    4. Re:Something doesn't make sense by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Trust me, I already well know it. I tend to think that the conceit of "unbiased journalism" is an untenable goal in practice, even if admirable in theory.

      I'd much rather someone tell me up front what their political biases are so I can weigh that appropriately when reading something they're presenting to me. I'm of the opinion that it's virtually impossible for an organization or individual to report on *any* issue in an unbiased fashion. As such, I think it's more honest not to even pretend that's what you're doing, when you're clearly not.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  10. Huh? by weeboo0104 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Domain registrar is Network Solutions. Contact support, take control the domain after confirming ownership and copy the site to another vendor or host and change DNS. I had a small business admin contact pass away once and I KNOW Network Solutions will work with you to get control back to the appropriate party.

    They can't manage their domain, but we're supposed to believe that if we send them $10 they can manage that?

    nope.

    --
    It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
    1. Re:Huh? by Tyr07 · · Score: 1

      It sounds like they don't have access to the resources of the site. E.G original files etc. When they said they can't edit or develop the site it looks like with the contract the web development was a part of it (This is purely a guess to how this problem could exist).

      It's also possible the vendor holds the relationship with network solutions, one of those let me do it all for you scenarios that, well lets face it, lots of people don't want to put in the effort of maintaining dns servers or records etc and it's all "mumble jumble" or some crap so it's possible this is also the situation.

      There can be a lot of reasons they can't do anything with the site.

    2. Re:Huh? by acoustix · · Score: 2

      Then how did they setup this page if they had their access cutoff: http://www.snopes.com/save-snopes/ ???

      I have a feeling this "fact checking" website isn't telling us all the facts.

      --
      "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    3. Re:Huh? by Ionized · · Score: 1

      from the fucking summary: "Although we maintain editorial control..." which one could interpret to mean 'we still have CMS access but not file access'

    4. Re:Huh? by yuriklastalov · · Score: 1

      Except they run WordPress and so, given "editorial access" they can install Duplicator plugin and clone the site elsewhere trivially.

      WordPress may be a steaming pile of excrement, but at least it's easy to move from host to host.

      If they don't have Administrator access, well, they're just fucking stupid.

    5. Re:Huh? by Barefoot+Monkey · · Score: 1

      It's right there in the summary:

      Although we maintain editorial control (for now)

      They are limited in their control of the site, but adding pages (apparently with redirects) is still something they can do.

  11. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 2, Informative

    Agreed, they have gotten way too political, resulting in turning off approximately 50% of their readership. When a "fact check" says something is "false" because even though it is true, it didn't push A, B, and C talking points of the "fact checker's" political agenda... good riddance, I'm not weeping over their (potential) demise. Debunking Bill Gates handout rumors was their strong point and they should have stuck to that.

  12. Expect more of the same by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

    As companies move to the cloud, expect more of the same. Sure, you can have the data but we own the url and the app. Or sure we'll give you the app code but exporting all the data into something convertible to a new cloud dbs provider is going to be expensive.

    In other worlds, same old same old. Vendor-lockin isn't a new concept any more than fake news is (National Enquirer)

    1. Re:Expect more of the same by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Web hosting is as old as Geocities or earlier.

  13. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    *citation needed

  14. Re:And Nothing of Value Was Lost... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

    It centralizes the effort and makes it less time-consuming to at least somewhat defend yourself against stupidity.

    For a site run by a couple retardedly-biased hyperliberals, they keep their facts surprising-straight. A few disputes around the edges in tone from time to time, but nothing Hannity-like. Mostly they stay away from political opinion pieces, anyway, so they're restricted on how much political bullshit they can worm into their material.

  15. Always another side by Pascoea · · Score: 5, Informative
    Tech Crunch has some more info

    In August of 2015, Snopes entered a revenue-share/content and ad management agreement with a company called Proper Media, formed earlier that very year. In early 2016, Proper arranged to buy Barbara’s [Estranged wife of the owner] share of Bardav [the company they two started, owner of Snopes], replacing her as co-owner of the company.

    1. Re:Always another side by mhkohne · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ahh, so they half-own the thing and they're trying to cut the other owner out. NOW it makes sense.

      --
      A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
    2. Re:Always another side by mykepredko · · Score: 2

      Thank you for the link.

      The story (as told by Snopes) just didn't add up and, ironically, needed a third party to help explain what was going on.

    3. Re:Always another side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, Snopes is failing pretty badly at presenting the facts of this story.

      Snopes was founded by David and Barbara Mikkelson, and ownership formalized in 2003 as Bardav Inc.

      In 2014 the two began divorce proceedings

      In August of 2015, Snopes entered a revenue-sharing, content and ad management agreement with a company called Proper Media, formed earlier that same year.

      In early 2016, Proper Media bought Barbara’s share of Bardav, making them a co-owner of the company (and therefore a co-owner of Snopes)

      David Mikkelson attempted to end the contract in spring of 2017, but Proper says the terms of the contract have not been fulfilled

    4. Re:Always another side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Snopes Co-Founder Embezzles $98,000, divorces Fat Wife, And Marries A Prostitute

      https://ibankcoin.com/zeropoin...

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

    5. Re:Always another side by borcharc · · Score: 1, Informative

      You got it backward, the person who put up the gofundme is trying to cut Proper Media out. See their complaint.

    6. Re:Always another side by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      Not sure why you were modded down. Perhaps a bit brash, but the comment appears accurate.

    7. Re:Always another side by rjstanford · · Score: 2

      Actually the owners of PM own slightly less than half of it, 5/12 to the Snopes 7/12 (ish), since 1 of the people that held part of the divorcing member's shares went from PM to Snopes.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    8. Re:Always another side by edtice1559 · · Score: 1

      Right but apparently that was explicitly not allowed which is why a court has to sort this out. I struggle with the need for a gofundme for Snopes, though. Seems completely dishonest. The money is coming in and the courts will decide where it goes. Nobody has an interest in taking the site off of the internet. I assume that Dave will use this as a personal slush fund. He has an expensive new wife.

  16. First archive the site by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Write a crawler and archive all the publicly available pages of that site. Ignore robots.txt.

    Then help snopes.com to rebuild the site with them holding the full ownership.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  17. Re: After the couple admitted to fake news... by XXongo · · Score: 1
    They seem to do as well as they can to be unbiased-- "Just the facts, ma'am," in the words of Joe Friday.

    They always give detailed sources for their facts, so they're all right with me.

  18. Re:Good Riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can't. The accusations are primarily from butt-hurt Republicans who got pissed off that so many of Trump's lies were called out as lies on the site. Their 'proof' that Snopes is making political statements is basically just a bunch of "technically, it wasn't a lie because..." followed by an opium fever dream of hatred against everything and everyone that doesn't support Trump.

  19. Did not admit to fake news... by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 1

    Citation needed.

    Not an assertion, a citation: who said exactly what and when, and show me a link.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Did not admit to fake news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You told in an interview that you were a little lying bitch. I don't have any link to the interview or any other kind of proof, but you admitted it in that interview. Even though there is absolutely no evidence for it, you yourself said you were a little lying bitch. So it's a fact.

    2. Re:Did not admit to fake news... by crunchygranola · · Score: 1

      Link to the claimed interview?

      You need to prove that your 'facts' exist.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    3. Re:Did not admit to fake news... by Riceballsan · · Score: 1

      You don't have to bury your head to not see... facts that aren't presented. If it's an interview, then just provide who it's with and a date so we can look it up. I for one would not bury my head, with what has blatently come out durring wiki leaks, I'd be extremely unsuprised if snopes or just about anyone colluded with the DNC. All it would take is a link to the interview done on some page that has an ounce of credibility.

    4. Re:Did not admit to fake news... by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      Please post a link to the interview, shit-for-brains.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  20. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's an example: http://www.snopes.com/orlando-shooter-was-democrat/

    Yeah, he was a Democrat. But you can't say he was a Democrat, you have to also say that a person's political affiliation could have changed, and we don't know what was in his heart, and-and... OBVIOUSLY THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE GOOD GUYS, SO HE WASN'T A TRUE DEMOCRAT, OKAY???

    Snopes doesn't have a political agenda, nosirree!

  21. They deserve it by mrbonefish · · Score: 1

    I know for a fact that Johnny Carson had a woman (not that clown Gabor, but another with a white dress) on that asked him, "Do you want to pet my p@ssy?". The segment was broadcast on a tribute to the man like 20+ years ago, but it happened. Snopes stated that it wasn't true. Good riddance. http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/...

    1. Re:They deserve it by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Raquel Welch...first you'll have to move that damn cat.

      The 'up the butt' answer was also actually given on the Newlywed Game.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:They deserve it by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      The 'up the butt' answer was also actually given on the Newlywed Game.

      The ACTUAL scene that was re-found relatively recently (last 10 years?) differs greatly from the way the story is told.

    3. Re:They deserve it by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      I know for a fact that Johnny Carson had a woman (not that clown Gabor, but another with a white dress) on that asked him, "Do you want to pet my p@ssy?". The segment was broadcast on a tribute to the man like 20+ years ago, but it happened.

      Until you can provide evidence, I'll believe a site that provides citations over your "know for a fact".

      The reply saying Raquel Welch is debunked in the original article too, since the woman involved differs between many storytellers.

  22. Before you donate... by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's worth understanding that there are, as always, two sides to the story. You can get a sense of the side of the "vendor" (otherwise known as 50% shareholder) by reading this.

  23. Re:Snopes has morphed into political hackery by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Indeed, facts have a well-known liberal bias which only seems to become more pronounced over time! Those fact-checking sites don't even acknowledge alternative facts! Luckily there's conservapedia and infowars to bring some balance to the situation.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  24. Divorce Fallout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Fallout from Barbara and David Mikkelson's divorce (the Bardav company) - Proper Media who bought Barbara Mikkelson's 50% share vs David Mikkelson's other 50%. Proper Media alleges David misused funds from Snopes to pay for the divorce and honeymoon with new wife/Snopes employee Elyssa Young. Proper media also claims one of its shareholders - Vincent Green - secretly conspired to help David get control of Snopes. David says he terminated Proper Media's contract fair and square.

    So basically...sounds like a story that needs fact checking...

    https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/24/snopes-seeks-crowdfunding-in-ownership-battle/
    https://www.poynter.org/2017/snopes-is-locked-in-a-legal-battle-for-control-of-its-website/465615/
    https://www.courthousenews.com/fact-checker-snopes-owners-accused-corporate-subterfuge/

  25. Re: After the couple admitted to fake news... by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    This couple you refer to, would that be the Koch brothers?

  26. Re:Good Riddance by parkinglot777 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's an example: http://www.snopes.com/orlando-shooter-was-democrat/

    Yeah, he was a Democrat. But you can't say he was a Democrat, you have to also say that a person's political affiliation could have changed, and we don't know what was in his heart, and-and... OBVIOUSLY THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE GOOD GUYS, SO HE WASN'T A TRUE DEMOCRAT, OKAY???

    Ok, here is the content at the top of the link you gave...

    In 2006 Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen registered to vote as a Democrat, but his recent political leanings are unknown.

    And if you scroll down further, it has "claim" and the rating is mixture (not either true or false). So what are you trying to show here???

  27. Re:And Nothing of Value Was Lost... by XXongo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Snopes is way overrated. Relying on Snopes as an authority for fact checking news is foolhardy.

    I think you're missing the point. You don't use Snopes to fact check the news-- there are sites like factcheck and politifact for that. You use Snopes for debunking those god-damned "memes" that fly around like mosquitoes, like (the front page on Snopes today) the photo of a whale in a Venice canal, or don't buy Kelloggs Bran flakes because they contain dried ground-up cow dung, or that Donald Trump married Madonna in a secret ceremony in Utah.

    Snopes often provides few, if any, additional details beyond what has already been published elsewhere.

    Most of these idiotic internet rumors aren't debunked elsewhere.

    Difficult to effectively fact-check CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, etc without field reporters to gather details on the ground and various quality sources. Simply regurgitating and comparing what other news sources have published, alone, isn't much of a fact-check.

    This isn't the site to fact-check CNN or the NY Times. This is a site that debunks idiot email "memes" showing me a civil-war era photograph of soldiers that shot a pterodactyl.

  28. Citation needed by XXongo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why pretend that the couple that runs it didn't admit to a bias and to intentionally lying?

    I'm not pretending anything. You are asserting a fact. I want a source for that fact.

    Since you don't seem to be able to come up with a source, I assume you don't have one, and you're making it up.

    If you do show a source, I'll look at it.

  29. Did I miss the news? by Orgasmatron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did I miss some big news? When did snopes go back to being a fact checking site?

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
    1. Re:Did I miss the news? by gravewax · · Score: 1

      did I miss something? when was snopes ever a fact checking site?

    2. Re:Did I miss the news? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      when was snopes ever a fact checking site?

      When google and facebook(I believe WAPO as well) told you it was. And that in and of itself is enough reason to know that there's going to be some heavy biases involved.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Did I miss the news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Never heard of snopes. Checked it out - not very entertaining... just another "blog" ... the internet is fucking dumb nowadays. Let the ISPs have it, let's build a new one. This one is fucked.

  30. Re:Good Riddance by XXongo · · Score: 1
    I'm not sure what part of that you are having problems with. The site says:

    Claim: Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was a Democrat.
    Rating: Mixture
    WHAT'S TRUE: Omar Mateen registered to vote as a Democrat in the state of Florida back in 2006.
    WHAT'S UNDETERMINED: His U.S. political affiliation (if any) at the time of the shooting is unknown.

    Seems a reasonable summary of the facts to me. The guy registered to vote as a Democrat ten years ago, we don't know what his political affiliation if any is now.

    I suppose you're objection is that this is tagged as "mixture." Since the very third line of the article specifically states that he was registered to vote as a Democrat in 2006, they don't seem to trying to hide this. I just want the facts.

  31. Sketchy track record, not involving politics by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They have an article debunking the myth that Marilyn Monroe had six toes. As part of the evidence against this, they wrote:

    One doesn’t simply get up and start trotting around after having a toe removed — the missing digit affects one’s balance, and it takes some time to adjust to the change and “relearn” how to walk.

    The problem is that isn't true. My wife is a podiatrist who amputates toes routinely as part of her job. I discussed this with her and she said that the whole "relearning to walk" thing is in itself a myth, and that even people who have their big toes removed generally do just fine in no time. Try it yourself: walk across the floor with your big toe pulled upward so it doesn't hit the ground. Easy, right? And that's the big toe; a vestigial extra-pinky toe hanging off the side would contribute almost nothing to balance or your gait.

    I wrote them with this information. They replied, quite defensively, that I was wrong and that she did not have six toes. Uh, yeah, I totally agree! I still think they should have removed the invalid evidence that contradicts expert testimony. If you're proving that "1 + 1 = 2 because cats have wings", and I tell you cats don't actually have wings, it doesn't invalidate your premise but it does suggest that you'd want to update your proof.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    1. Re:Sketchy track record, not involving politics by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Only if they have six of 'em.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re:Sketchy track record, not involving politics by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      I don't claim that I've proven Snopes to be wrong. I even agreed with their conclusion in the case I mentioned. But it does make me wonder how much other feedback they've ignored over the years, and it gave me the strong impression of "we're never wrong"-ism. When they write about other subjects where I can't turn to an expert sitting next to me at dinner to check their conclusions, did someone try to correct their facts on those subjects, too? I don't know. At least Wikipedia gives you a history of edits if you're interested in digging into them.

      Side note: I don't know if Snopes has a political bias. They might, or it could be that they ignore factually incorrect "different opinions". They wouldn't have to be flaming liberals to say "the Earth is more than 6,000 years old". Either way, I want to make it clear: I have no intention of weighing in on their politics. I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  32. Re:Good Riddance by Junta · · Score: 1

    In that particular article, I think it was more a response for claims at the time that he was a Bernie person and hated Trump. Those more specific speculations were not supported by any evidence beyond a 10 year old voter registration record.

    So yes, the claim that he 'was a democrat' is true, the leap to infer very specific things about the election cycle of the time was not justified.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  33. Re:Good Riddance by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Pretty sure being a Registered Democrat makes a person a Democrat. In fact, pretty sure that it is the only thing that makes a person a Democrat.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  34. Asking for a citation is "nonsense"? by XXongo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Citation needed. Not an assertion, a citation: who said exactly what and when, and show me a link.

    Why do you people keep spewing that nonsense?

    I'm not sure what "nonsense" you're referring to. I asked for a citation, telling me who said what, and asking for a link. Asking for a citation is "nonsense"?

    They admitted to it in an interview. They admitted to it.

    Yes: that is exactly what I asked for a citation for. Who "admitted it"? What interview? When? Where was it published?

    Show me a link.

    1. Re: Asking for a citation is "nonsense"? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      In current discourse, asking for a citation is frowned upon. It is not limited to one set of political ideologies. No, I am not sure when the rhetoric changed. No, I don't know how to fix it.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  35. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 2, Informative

    They clearly make their case here. The first thing stated was "He was a registered democrat in 2006" then says, that he haddn't voted since then,

    Whoa, whoa, stop with the lying. The article says they don't know whether he voted since then. It doesn't say he "haddn't"[sic] voted since then. The article was using various weasel words to soften the blow of revealing that Omar was a registered Democrat, full stop.

  36. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 1, Troll

    Because the Democrats are good and truth is good. So if a claim about a Democrat is bad, even if it's not a falsehood there must be a little bit mixed in there somewhere. I think the Snopes thought process goes something like that, for this extremely low quality spin piece.

  37. 1 of 5 Proper Media employees gave David control by KWTm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That link, is a complaint from Proper Media to the courts, saying that:

    - at first, Snopes.com was owned by David and Barbara Mikkelson
    - the two divorced, and Barbara held on to her 50% of the company
    - then she effectively sold her 50% to Proper Media, a company
    - but technically she couldn't do that, because Snopes.com had to be owned only by people, not by companies
    - so, she sold it to 5 people who owned/ran/were Proper Media company. These 5 people pinky-promised that it would be just like Proper Media itself held the shares.
    - so then, it was 50% David Mikkelson, 50% Proper Media
    - but then one of the Proper Media people by the name of Green conspired with / got seduced by David Mikkelson, and went over to the dark side! (cue dramatic music)
    - now, with David's 50% plus a little bit more from Green who quit Proper Media and is now in David's employ, David controls more than 50%!
    - that's not fair!! Green *promised* that he was holding the shares for Proper Media!

    Personally, I'm not sure that Proper Media has a case. If there was a legal requirement that shares couldn't be sold to a company, only people, then there was a reason for this, exactly so that individuals could make decisions and not have to act like a coordinated legal entity. If Proper Media says that Green "should have" done such and such ... well, that's going to be hard to argue. So, legally, I think David Mikkelson has better standing.

    --
    404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
    [GPG key in journal]
  38. Re:Good Riddance by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    Yes, the world divides nicely into two, the good, the bad, the left, the right, the democrats, the republicans, and so on.

    And no, there's no hidden meaning in that sentence (cause the world doesn't actually divide that way).

  39. Re:Good Riddance by dmiller1984 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Pretty sure being a Registered Democrat makes a person a Democrat. In fact, pretty sure that it is the only thing that makes a person a Democrat.

    I'm a registered Democrat, but that's because my state automatically registers you for a party when you vote in the primaries. Since I voted in the Democratic primaries this last time around I'm now registered as a Dem, but I've been registered as a Republican before when I've voted in the Republican primaries. Point being, I think Snopes was right about the fact that being registered to a particular party doesn't mean you are really an adherent to that party.

  40. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 2

    Swinging a little bit, but a couple more upvotes and I might get the coveted "(Score:5, Troll)", in this case, for triggering some snowflakes by giving the plain truth: the man was a registered Democrat, and Snopes chose to spin and obfuscate that simple fact. What made him a registered Democrat wasn't the state of his mind at the exact instant he committed the murders, nor was it whether he voted for any Republicans in elections since 2006. It was the fact that he (you know) "registered" as a (you know) "Democrat".

    When Omar's father showed up on national television standing directly behind Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally, a bunch more Democrats got triggered. (For the slow of wit, I'm NOT saying that the Democratic party consists of bad people or terrorists, but I am alleging that many of them don't trust people to handle plain facts without spin.)

  41. Re:Good Riddance by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

    Pretty sure being a Registered Democrat makes a person a Democrat.

    So Trump is a democrat? Yay, we won!

  42. Re:After the couple admitted to fake news... by jedidiah · · Score: 1

    Their BS response to Cruz getting his PPO canceled (along with every other private insurance customer in the state of Texas).

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  43. Didn't this finish Hayes? by benro03 · · Score: 1

    They were based near me and I recall the divorce of the owner, Dennis Hayes, led to the breakup of the company.

    --
    I am Homer of Borg, resistance is - Ooo Donuts!
  44. They are actually not equal anymore by aepervius · · Score: 1

    From reading the complaint, since the shares could not be sold to a corp, they were given to idnividuals at the LLC under the agreement they would be holding it for the LLC (whether that is really clean and ethical is another question). But one of them "green" was convinced by the 50% owner to side with him, what proper LLC in their complaint see as conspiracy. If it is true and legal, then he HAS more than 50% under control and therefore proper media llc cannot force anymore those holding more than 50% to do anything whatsoever. Now I am neither a lawyer nor i play one on TV so I have no idea who is on the good side/bad side or even if there is one, but it does not seem as easy as a 50/50 share holder dispute.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  45. Re:After the couple admitted to fake news... by rjstanford · · Score: 2

    And no less than Vint Cerf came to his defense and agreed that he was fundamental in getting it the attention and funding that it deserved.

    --
    You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
  46. Re:Good Riddance by rjstanford · · Score: 5, Informative

    The claim that Snopes was supposed to judge was whether the man was a registered Democrat, not if he had voted recently, and not if he committed the crime in the name of the Democratic party.

    Well, by the standards you claimed, voter registration in 2006, President Donald J. Trump is also a registered Democrat.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    They admitted he was a registered Democrat, then lied and said "His U.S. political affiliation (if any) at the time of the shooting is unknown."

    This is called BIAS.

    They told the exact truth, led with it in fact, and then pointed out that it was 10 years out of date and could easily have changed. This is called responsible reporting.

    --
    You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
  47. Re: How quickly people forget... by rdelsambuco · · Score: 1

    W. T. F. am I supposed to believe!?!? AHGHGHGGGHHH!

    --
    I comment occasionally so that I can mod others -1 overrated or -1 offtopic.
  48. any back doors with http://message.snopes.com/ by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    any back doors with doing SQL injection on http://message.snopes.com/?

  49. Re:And Nothing of Value Was Lost... by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

    You don't use Snopes to fact check the news-- there are sites like factcheck and politifact for that. You use Snopes for debunking those god-damned "memes" that fly around like mosquitoes, like (the front page on Snopes today) the photo of a whale in a Venice canal, or don't buy Kelloggs Bran flakes because they contain dried ground-up cow dung, or that Donald Trump married Madonna in a secret ceremony in Utah.

    This. Snopes is invaluable for a quick "That is not true" link for that kind of stuff.

    For political stuff... it's a maybe. If they debunk some slanderous rumor about a conservative or Republican, that's pretty definitive. Slanderous rumors about liberals or Democrats... maybe still useful; read the article carefully and check their sources. I've found that though they have a bias, they aren't liars. (At least, I haven't caught them in a lie.)

    Example I recall from way back when -- there was some utterly idiotic rumor that Ashcroft was terrified of calico cats because he thought they were minions of the Devil or some such. At first, Snopes marked that one "unconfirmed", though they did report that Ashcroft laughed out loud when asked about it. A week or so later, it had been improved to "False".

    I very strongly suspect a rumor of similar stupidity about a Democrat would have been stamped "False" from the very beginning.

  50. Solved the problem by daveywest · · Score: 1

    I just use Adblock and no one gets the ad revenue.

  51. What The Fuck? by hduff · · Score: 1

    This Slashdot discussion now seems to be plumbing the depths of the Devil's rectum to argue Clinton versus Trump.

    WTF? What is wrong with you people?

    --
    "I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
  52. Re:Good Riddance by John.Banister · · Score: 1
    I think they could have gone a long way towards seeming unbiased by putting a little research into their words:

    Certainly some correlation between voter registration and party membership exists

    This is the sort of information on which political parties must have done a lot of research. If they had a ballpark number for the 10 years out continued party membership of people who register Democrat at age 19, then they could give a guess at odds on whether he was still a Democrat, and instantly the article appears less biased. With one piece of data, "unknown" in the summary sounds too much like "nothing is known" instead of "it's old data." And, a big paragraph of explanation with no new data comes across as someone trying to justify a bias. I'm not saying that they were trying to justify a bias, just that this writing gives that impression.

  53. Re: Good Riddance by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Good. Now quit bitching.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  54. Oddest yet by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    I always go to Robtex.com to check on a site (maintain my hosts file) at this time there is nothing about snopes.com, other sites register just fine.

    Don't register to this site, it's a social site.

    1. Re:Oddest yet by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      I always go to Robtex.com to check on a site (maintain my hosts file) at this time there is nothing about snopes.com, other sites register just fine.

      Don't register to this site, it's a social site.

      It came back about 5 mins later - my bad. But the first time I've ever gotten a "nothing on this site"

  55. Re: Good Riddance by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Bullshit.

    They hated it long before Trump ran for office.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  56. Re:Good Riddance by epine · · Score: 2

    If your wife tells me you drove off to work an hour ago, and your commute is half an hour, it is reasonable to assume you actually are at work.

    The thing is, you sign up as a Republican, and on the way to work, the company who employs you suddenly turns into Trump University, and then one day, like Morning Joe, you announce to the public: "you know what, I'm just not into working for Trump University even though I'm going to continue to be a Conservative".

    Now, it is true that a blind partisan Democrat can be assumed to still be a Democrat ten years later (even if they did nominate loathsome Hilary), but do we really know the guy ticked off "blind" and "partisan" and "until death do us part" on his original Democrat Vow of Perpetual Allegiance?

    I'm sure there are many Obama Democrats who signed up because of Obama, and then checked out of politics during the last election cycle when the Dems nominated a previously-owned, pant-suited, Wall St toady (if they hadn't already checked out halfway through Obama's first term, when he proved to be a colossal disappointment in standing up to the financial sector).

    Furthermore, we have strong evidence of the great Democrat check-out in the form of Trump's ghastly victory. We're not even sure he could have won this election running against a ham sandwich, although he did win this election running against "crooked" Hillary. Even though Trump personally thinks Hillary is infinitely worse than a ham sandwich, he still finds time to brag about his victory as a meaningful achievement.

    Hillary: high bar or low bar? Pick one.

    For myself, the most effective thing I could do politically would be to register with my regional party on the right (I'm not American) so I could help nip against the darling single-issue candidates of the Christian Right in the bud at the nomination stage. This affiliation wouldn't be too hard for me to pull off, because I actually believe in the good half of Libertarianism—compassionate Libertarian wouldn't even be that far from the truth (though my opportunities to fully align myself are thin on the ground).

    Then I would be, by American standards, a registered Republican. I'd be happy enough and it would all go swimmingly until Scaramucci shows up, and only then, I would totally blow my cover.

    Anthony Scaramucci in 2010: Wall Street feels like a 'pinata'

    There are hapless Greenpeacers on the left who say equally ridiculous things (splitting desk with head ridiculous), but they're into Volvos and macrame and other mostly harmless things, whereas Scaramucci is a spoiled child of privilege, and I just can't stand fucktards who defend their ridiculous views by pointing at their bank accounts—in a disgusting show-boat of glitzy ad hominem argument (the good half of Libertarianism believes that all men are created equal, the bad half of Libertarianism believes that all dollars are created equal; a die-hard Conservative is someone who conveniently neglects the difference when ideology hits the ballot box).

    People are complex.

    America's hidden philosophy — 18 July 2017

    Rational choice theory therefore had to be elevated from an empirical theory covering certain empirical contexts into a normative theory of the proper operation of the human mind itself. It had to become a universal philosophy. Only then could it justify the US' self-assumed global mission of bringing free elections and free markets to the entire world.

    I didn't like this article much, but it did make one or two good points. Rational choice theory has long aligned itself with reductive analysis.

    All that was needed was to t

  57. Title is totally wrong, not helped by spin by Afty0r · · Score: 1

    My girlfriend asked me about this earlier. I read an article and a PDF of the complaint (in court, against Mikkelson) and the best summary I could come up with was this:

    1] He owned the company (Company A, which owns Snopes) 50/50 with his wife
    2] They divorced badly, she sold her shares to Company B
    3] Company A was founded such that a COMPANY cannot hold shares in it for smallprint legal reasons. So the 5 owners of company each INDIVIDUALLY got some shares of Company A
    4] Company B has been doing a lot of the running of the Snopes.com website and controlled some aspects of it (this is unclear)
    5] He (Mikkelson) has recently been courting one of the 5 owners of Company B to come over to his "side" so that he controls more than 50 per cent of Company (controls, not owns) and can do what he wants
    6] The other four owners of Company B are angry, as the 5th guy appears to have defected. They claim variously that Mikkelson has used company funds to pay for personal stuff, that the 5th guy was legally bound, via an agreement, not to act against the interests of the other 4 guys, and that Mikkelson has done something wrong in enticing him to move to the "other side".

    Mikkelson is now appealing on GoFundMe for money... so he can fight for ownership of the company and defend himself from the lawsuit brought by Company B.

    And people are throwing money at him, a quarter of a million dollars in just 9 hours.

    I don't know who is right, who is wrong, and what claims from the PDF are factual or not, but the general feel of the GoFundMe page is slimy. He is not raising funds to pay off some debt that Snopes owes (like Wikipedia), he is instead RAISING MONEY SO HE CAN FIGHT FOR OWNERSHIP OF THE BUSINESS THAT PAYS HIS SALARY. And if wins, the rest of the money is pure profit, which he could then pay himself with.

    PDF of complaint:
    http://www.poynter.org/wp-cont...

  58. Re: How quickly people forget... by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

    I would check The Onion for the truth.

  59. Re:Good Riddance by dywolf · · Score: 1

    and my grandmother was a life long registered republican who never voted for one in her life.
    so what?

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  60. Re:Good Riddance by sideslash · · Score: 1

    Maybe it's just that one side of the political spectrum decided that they couldn't be proper fascists if there were facts, and have been fighting against the very concept of objective truth ever since?

    You know, things like

    I've associated "fake news" with the D side of the aisle for the most part this past election cycle -- you know, like the whole Russia conspiracy theory? A conspiracy theory very much like birtherism with the Obama presidency.

    "wars make peace"

    Well, some do. At least, fighting a defensive war can achieve peace if you win.

    and "cutting taxes increases revenue collected"

    This was the whole reason I replied. You aren't familiar with the Laffer Curve? You think that if government raises taxes, then no other variables in the system change, and money just magically shows up at the IRS?

    and "giving people health insurance makes them sicker"

    That's a pretty skewed misrepresentation. How about enacting a sick and unworkable health insurance law decreases the quality of American healthcare?

    and "letting everyone eligible vote corrupts democracy"

    Eligible to vote? You mean people who can show ID? Not sure where you're going with this. Maybe you're one of those people who think black people are too stupid, incompetent, or destitute to carry a voter ID? I'm told there are actually "liberals" today who believe that repugnant nonsense. Certainly not liberals in the classic sense, more like cynical, hyper political hacks who are afraid that illegal aliens who vote Democrat might actually get charged with felonies(?).

    and "scientists are lying, the world isn't getting warmer"?

    Sorry, not that simple, and unfortunately, the nuances seem over your head, my fine AC.

  61. Re: Good Riddance by dywolf · · Score: 1
    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  62. Re: Fake News Site. Sad. by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    *you're *faggot

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  63. Re:Good Riddance by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... folks who find it a beautiful think ...

    You need to think about think *thing.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  64. Errors and omissions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Might want to read this too, as it has a lot more background on the case and lawsuit.

    1. Re: Errors and omissions by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      No. In the case of marriage, if you can find someone to buy the other half, sell her ASAP.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  65. Re:Good Riddance by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    No.

    A person can be registered as a Democrat and never vote.

    That makes their party of choice, "which ever party wins."

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  66. If snopes is who you depend on by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    You need to find an alternate source. Never get your information from one source. They are left leaning, just as some sites are right leaning.

  67. Re: How quickly people forget... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    The logical fallacy that is all the rage these days is:

    https://yourlogicalfallacyis.c...

    So shit sources like Mercola, Naturalnews, foodbabe, nutritionfacts.org, Dr. Oz, greenpeace, and the whole organic movement, are making a shit ton of money by being in the business of peddling unadulterated bullshit.

  68. Re:Snopes has morphed into political hackery by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Yes, a small bunch of liberals. So what? Does a handful of nutballs on the left help you sleep better in the presence of pervasive, mainstream reality-denial on the right?

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  69. Re:Good Riddance by pinkocommie · · Score: 1

    Another one. Islam had slavery just like all the other Abrahamic religions but they're quoting apologists denying it instead of actually I don't know looking up the sources and history books? www.snopes.com/indiana-muslims-muhammads-deeds/

  70. Re:Good Riddance by quantaman · · Score: 1

    Here's an example: http://www.snopes.com/orlando-shooter-was-democrat/

    Yeah, he was a Democrat. But you can't say he was a Democrat, you have to also say that a person's political affiliation could have changed, and we don't know what was in his heart, and-and... OBVIOUSLY THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE GOOD GUYS, SO HE WASN'T A TRUE DEMOCRAT, OKAY???

    Ok, here is the content at the top of the link you gave...

    In 2006 Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen registered to vote as a Democrat, but his recent political leanings are unknown.

    And if you scroll down further, it has "claim" and the rating is mixture (not either true or false). So what are you trying to show here???

    If you pro-actively tell me someone is a Democrat I'm assuming that they actively identify as a member of the Democratic party.

    If your only evidence is a 10 year old voter registration I'd assume you're full of it.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  71. Re: How quickly people forget... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I heard the Onion closed up shop. They couldn't compete with Trump

  72. Re:Good Riddance by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    So.. you're saying that no Democrats crossed over to Republican primaries to try to spoil the Republican field and no Republicans did the same on the Democrat side last year?

    Do you never wonder how we keep getting crappy candidates?

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  73. Snopes is preferred by idiots only by daftdada · · Score: 1

    what a joke, snopes

  74. Snopes deserved it by Khyber · · Score: 1

    That's what you get for going with a Turkish company and not buying American. Turkey's known for human rights violations, you think they're going to give a fuck about anything else while they can get money from you?

    Snopes better fact-check its fucking self.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  75. Re:Good Riddance by is+as+us+Infinite · · Score: 2

    Fundamentally, what it comes down to is that these people have a vested interest in hiding from the truth and since Snopes is a site that is interested in unbiased, actual truth they will do anything to smear that site. End of story.

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur. . . . . . . .
  76. Re:Good Riddance by Calydor · · Score: 1

    The data was ten years out of date.

    Ten years ago we thought the idea of a global surveillance network was conspiracy theorist territory - then Snowden happened. Things change a lot in ten years.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  77. Re: How quickly people forget... by michelcolman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Someone posted a linkbelow with both sides of the story. If I understood correctly, his ex-wife sold her 50% of the company to that very "outside vendor" so they are really co-owners now. He is being accused of gross mismanagement, possibly because he felt it was still his company and tried to get the money out. (That's just my assumption based on their story which I may have misunderstood, by all means read the linked article)

    Not taking sides here, just pointing out that other opinions exist.

  78. Re: How quickly people forget... by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Mike "The Health Ranger" Adams, aka Cunt Weasel.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  79. editorial control? by gravewax · · Score: 1

    Post links on every page to a new domain, clearly explaining what the hoster is doing to you and place all new content on the new site in the meantime.

  80. Re:After the couple admitted to fake news... by V+for+Vendetta · · Score: 1

    And here's the link to an archived site of what Vint Cerf actually said/wrote

    VP Gore was the first or surely among the first of the members of Congress to become a strong supporter of advanced networking while he served as Senator. As far back as 1986, he was holding hearings on this subject (supercomputing, fiber networks...) and asking about their promise and what could be done to realize them. Bob Kahn, with whom I worked to develop the Internet design in 1973, participated in several hearings held by then-Senator Gore and I recall that Bob introduced the term ``information infrastructure'' in one hearing in 1986. It was clear that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it. As Senator, VP Gore was highly supportive of the research community's efforts to explore new networking capabilities and to extend access to supercomputers by way of NSFNET and its successors, the High Performance Computing and Communication program (which included the National Research and Education Network initiative), and as Vice President, he has been very responsive to recommendations made, for example, by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee that endorsed additional research funding for next generation fundamental research in software and related topics. If you look at the last 30-35 years of network development, you'll find many people who have made major contributions without which the Internet would not be the vibrant, growing and exciting thing it is today. The creation of a new information infrastructure requires the willing efforts of thousands if not millions of participants and we've seen leadership from many quarters, all of it needed, to move the Internet towards increased availability and utility around the world. While it is not accurate to say that VP Gore invented Internet, he has played a powerful role in policy terms that has supported its continued growth and application, for which we should be thankful. We're fortunate to have senior level members of Congress and the Administration who embrace new technology and have the vision to see how it can be put to work for national and global benefit.

  81. Re:And Nothing of Value Was Lost... by houghi · · Score: 1

    Donald Trump married Madonna in a secret ceremony in Utah.

    I did not know that. Thanks for the info. I hope he gets laid and comes to reason.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  82. Re: After the couple admitted to fake news... by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised your keyboard still works with all that drool smothering it.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  83. Re: Good Riddance by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    If true, a much better explanation would be that the Republican party is made up of a bunch of liars and thieves who worship and elect to office lying scumbag thieves. Your assertion that both parties must regularly lie is the projection you are trying and haven't been able to successfully locate. Good job! You finally found it!

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  84. Re: Good Riddance by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    We know it's you Donnie ... doesn't your Twitter account need you to run your tiny fingers across your tiny phone or something?

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  85. Re: Good Riddance by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    But if your "wife" left for work in 2006, it would be stupid to assume she is still at work ... but keep telling yourself "she" is .... I'm sure "she" will come home from "work" soon. Hang in there buddy!

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  86. Re: Good Riddance by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    For the slow of wit? So you openly admit that your posts are aimed at yourself? Nice.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  87. Re: How quickly people forget... by kdn102 · · Score: 2

    I just read a magnesium article on NaturalNews that mentions Magnesium Aspartate as one of the worst sources because: "Glutamic acid and aspartic acid are components of the dangerous artificial sweetener aspartame"

    It's like saying: "Dihydrogen monoxide is a dangerous component of Hydrogen peroxide!"

    Idiots.

  88. Unconfirmed marked unconfirmed by XXongo · · Score: 1

    This. Snopes is invaluable for a quick "That is not true" link for that kind of stuff. For political stuff... it's a maybe. If they debunk some slanderous rumor about a conservative or Republican, that's pretty definitive. Slanderous rumors about liberals or Democrats... maybe still useful; read the article carefully and check their sources. I've found that though they have a bias, they aren't liars. (At least, I haven't caught them in a lie.)

    That's the highest on my list of criteria. I'm more interested that the facts are correct (and getting links to sources). I can form my own opinions once I have facts, but I do want the facts to be accurate.

    Example I recall from way back when -- there was some utterly idiotic rumor that Ashcroft was terrified of calico cats because he thought they were minions of the Devil or some such. At first, Snopes marked that one "unconfirmed", though they did report that Ashcroft laughed out loud when asked about it.

    That's praise in my opinion. If they did not have a definitive source saying that Ashcroft was not afraid of calico cats, nor one showing that the rumor was made up, "unconfirmed" is accurate. Reporting that Ashcroft laughed at the rumor allows me to form my own opinion (that the rumor is absurd and I personally rate it "pants on fire")-- but if they simply stick to the facts, good for them.

    A week or so later, it had been improved to "False".

    Corrected incomplete information with more detailed information: excellent.

    I very strongly suspect a rumor of similar stupidity about a Democrat would have been stamped "False" from the very beginning.

    That seems like speculation. May be true, but it's hard to fault them for something that they didn't do that you speculate that they might have done.

  89. Just the facts, ma'am by XXongo · · Score: 1

    In general I try to not get my news or even my news analysis from comedians, left nor right.

    However, reading the Daily Mail article, the "Louder with Crowder" article, and the Snopes article, the one that has facts in it is: the Snopes article.

    Crowder isn't quite saying that the Snopes article is inaccurate, he is saying he doesn't like the spin (not quite the same thing as saying it's inaccurate) and complaining that in rating the article "mostly false" people won't read the whole article: his exact quote (not what Snopes actually says, but a parody of what he says Snopes says) is "but screw it, you’re not going to read our explanation below". But the "explanation below" is all I care about. I don't care about other people not reading the whole article. I care about whether the facts are accurate.

    So, if what you're saying is "I don't like the spin Snopes puts on the fraction of their articles that deal with politics, but they do get the actual facts right": well, ok, I can deal with that.

  90. Does it give me facts? by XXongo · · Score: 1

    No, it's obvious bias. All available information point to him being a Democrat, there's not a single piece that says otherwise. Thus, it's dishonest to say "mixed".

    The third line of their article told me that he had registered as a Democrat ten years ago. The very third line.

    They gave me the facts. That's what I care about.

    1. Re:Does it give me facts? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      They buried the facts deep into the article, downplaying them in the headline. And the headline is the only piece most people see.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  91. Are the facts correct? [Re:Good Riddance] by XXongo · · Score: 1

    I think they could have gone a long way towards seeming unbiased by putting a little research into their words:

    I don't care whether they "seem" unbiased. I care whether their facts are correct. They told me that the fact behind the snark was that he had registered to vote as a Democrat ten years ago. That's the factual basis for the internet rumor, and that's what I call "informative."

    The rest of your post seems to say "if they had added some information that they didn't have, it would have been a better article," On that point, I'm "yeah, whatever." I don't even think it would have been a better article; I think it would have turned a straightforward article into a confused article that now uses dubious information from unreliable (political) sources to make some sort of point of unknown use. I just want the facts.

    ... With one piece of data, "unknown" in the summary sounds too much like "nothing is known" instead of "it's old data."

    They told me that it's old data. That is useful information. And since there only is "one piece of data," telling me what that one piece of data is, is also useful.

    And, a big paragraph of explanation with no new data comes across as someone trying to justify a bias. I'm not saying that they were trying to justify a bias, just that this writing gives that impression.

    We care about different things. What I care about is are the facts correct, or not?

    1. Re:Are the facts correct? [Re:Good Riddance] by John.Banister · · Score: 1
      So, when I said they needed more facts that were relevant to the sentences they wrote, your response is:

      On that point, I'm "yeah, whatever."

      and then you write

      We care about different things. What I care about is are the facts correct, or not?

      So, you're indifferent to whether all the relevant data is present, but you really care about facts that are correct. No problem. Have some correct facts.
      Water is wet.
      Copper conducts electricity.
      Lead has a higher specific gravity than aluminum.
      Lead had a higher specific gravity than calcium.
      Compounds containing phosphorous are necessary for metabolism in plants and animals.
      Copper is a better conductor than lead above 8 Kelvin.
      Lead is a better conductor than copper below 7 Kelvin.

  92. Re:Good Riddance by mydn · · Score: 1

    I am a Democrat, but am usually registered as No Party Preference, because the California Democratic Party does not represent Democratic principles. But I am always a Democrat.

  93. Re: How quickly people forget... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    Wait til they find out that you can't live without glutamic acid and aspartic acid, which are in basically everything. Basically the only questionable ingredient in aspartame is phenylalanine, which *may* inhibit weight loss, but because phenylalanine is in oh so many things and is an essential amino acid (meaning your body needs it but can't make its own,) that will need to be looked into further.

    Mercola also attacks aspartame because it will harm people with phenylketonuria, which is an extremely rare condition, and if you have that, aspartame is the least of your problems as the amount of it in aspartame sweetened foods is much lower than i.e. dairy products, meat, soy, etc. Because aspartame is 100 times sweeter than sugar, they use relatively little amounts of it. For example, there's 10 times as much phenylalanine in milk as there is in diet soda.

    There's also 8 times as much aspartic acid and 7 times as much methanol in juice than there is in diet soda. Yet we're supposed to be afraid of it anyways.

  94. you're not going to learn by XXongo · · Score: 1

    The third line of their article told me that he had registered as a Democrat ten years ago. The very third line. They gave me the facts. That's what I care about.

    They buried the facts deep into the article, downplaying them in the headline. And the headline is the only piece most people see.

    Buried the fact in the third line of the article.

    Facts are what I want. If you can't even bother to read to the third line of an article when looking something up (because three lines is "buried deep" in the article), it doesn't matter what the article said, you're not going to learn anything.

  95. What is relevant, and what is not by XXongo · · Score: 1

    So, when I said they needed more facts that were relevant to the sentences they wrote, your response is:

    On that point, I'm "yeah, whatever."

    and then you write

    We care about different things. What I care about is are the facts correct, or not?

    So, you're indifferent to whether all the relevant data is present, but you really care about facts that are correct.

    No. In this particular case, you told me that if they added additional information which they did not have, their article would have been better. I don't expect them to report information that they don't have. I don't even have any reason to believe that information is available at all-- you told me that you speculate that this is a subject "on which political parties must have done a lot of research", but you don't cite any source suggesting that "the political parties" have released this analysis... and even if you had, I don't trust political parties as a source of unbiased information.

    Bottom line, Snopes gave me the relevant fact: they told me upon what information the original claim was based. Everything else is commentary, in which I am uninterested.

    1. Re:What is relevant, and what is not by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      Snopes isn't born with the knowledge they use to make their pronouncements. They do research. Considering the words they wrote, they ought to have done more. At this point, I am totally indifferent as to whether you personally were made happy or not.

  96. So much for the fallacy of American Exceptionalism by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

    I register as an unaffiliated voter, but that makes it impossible to then work to try to get acceptable candidates nominated in the primaries of EITHER of the two major parties. A third party vote virtually ensures that my vote does not count in the Electoral College (which, as we all know, is where the real presidential election is made). So as an unaffiliated voter, I can register with the party I most disagree with in order to try and get a better (worst of two evils) candidate of only one side of any election. This is the result of a "winner-take-all" counting of the electoral vote, which is how most of the states have chosen to count their EC results. From my viewpoint, neither party represents me and my vote in the primaries, where my so-called choices are picked in the presidential elections, even if I try to pick the worst of evils from the only two choices that have a chance at winning in the actual Electoral College count. Either way, my vote does not count for my true political choice. So much for the fallacy of American Exceptionalism.

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    PlaynBass
  97. Re:Good Riddance by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

    Modded +1 in order to preserve my own comments in this discussion.

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    PlaynBass
  98. Re: Good Riddance by PlaynBass · · Score: 1

    Modded -1 Flamebait in order to preserve my own comments in this thread...

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    PlaynBass
  99. What is the whole story? by martinfb · · Score: 1

    It sure would be nice to have access to the 'other' side of this story.

    I value a reputable fact-checking resource, yet it seems uncharacteristic (of snopes.com) that only very general info regarding the issue is offered.
    For example:
    - If a contract term expiry is nearing, why were steps not taken in a timely manner?
    - What is the 'vendor' side of the issue?
    - Do you own the SNOPES.COM domain?
    - What is preventing you from pointing your DNS record to another host, and circumventing that vendor's theft?

    I would gladly donate if I knew more about the issue.

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    Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.