Rachel trolled you, you idiot. Anyone can access the wayback machine at archive.org and see that there has never been a single banner on trolltalk in all the time I've administered it (since May, 2007).
I fund trolltalk out of my pocket. I have never asked for, or received, even a penny for it. Right now, one subdomain (http://starmedia.trolltalk.com) is being used to expose the frauds and confidence games of Alex Cholella and his starmedia.ca and 770star.com businesses. Again, not a penny of revenue will ever be generated from that, even though whistleblowing can result in a lot of legal expenses - but I think it's worth the risk to expose a fraud, and to show others that we really need to stand up against this sort of crap,or we become part of the problem through our silence.
It's because I don't accept revenue in any shape or form for the domain that I was able to hold firm when the hosting company yanked the site for two days while we debated whether http://starmedia.trolltalk.com/ was citizen journalism or not. It's to their credit that they agreed that it is, and access to the site was restored. Score one for all the people on slashdot who offered to mirror it, and my restraint in not making a big deal out of it by exploiting the Streisand Effect. If I were generating revenue from it, you can be darned sure that I would have submitted the suspension as a story about censorship of citizen reporting, rather than saying "Great, we've resolved that, no harm, no foul, let's move on".
In the future, part of trolltalk will be used for promoting "l'Art de la troll" - "The art of trolling", as webmistressrachel wants, and as a discussion forum for how white-hat trolling is a skill that is needed today to counter misogynist asshats like you (and how this has always been the case, we just didn't call it that in times past).
White-hat trolling is educational, informative, insightful, and gets past all the bafflegab that people have erected to ignore reality, making them respond on a gut level, and exposing their prejudices and illogic. When someone like gmhowell says he occasionally trolls, it's not necessarily a bad thing - especially when the target is either you or me (he admits he does it to me anonymously on occasion to keep me honest, and I have no problems with that:-)
You, on the other hand, are a fool, and so SO easily played that you're like the Titanic - you serve as an example of what NOT to do. And you keep giving others, including me, opportunities to prove it when we have a few spare moments. The simple fact is that if you had been using modern ad-blockers instead of a hosts file, you would have been able to see immediately that there are no ads on ANY of my personal domains. The only ads I have ever run were banners for open-source projects - for example, firefox when they were doing their big push, or openoffice before the Oracle debacle.
Oh, right - giving free advertising for free open-source projects licensed under the GPL makes me greedy... I think it would be a good thing if everyone were at least as "greedy" as me.
Moron! Rachel's going to get a real kick out of how she completely p0wned you, even after warning you many times that she was trolling you.
Answer it yes, or no. We know you do adbanners already,
You're such a liar, APK. I have NEVER done a single ad banner on trolltalk, as anyone can verify with the wayback machine. The answer is no, I have never accepted a single paid add on ANY of my domains - the ONLY ads I have ever run on any of my personal domains were for other open-source projects. Then again, you've already said that you think that giving away source code under the GPL somehow makes me greedy... how does that work?
Rachel completely trolled you - you thought you didn't see ads because of your stupid hosts file, when in fact there were none to begin with.
She p0wned you, dickhead. The worst part was she TOLD you, over and over, that she was trolling you, and you still fell for it. No wonder everyone thinks APK is an idiot - it's because you keep giving us so much proof that you're nothing but a fat stupid dope.
She trolled you, using your own stupid dependency on your stupid hosts file. If you had been using adblock plus (or any other MODERN solution) , you could have temporarily disabled ad-blocking on the site, and you would have seen that there were no ads.
As bugs bunny would say, "Alexander Peter Kowalski, the hosts file guy? What a maroon!" Oops, make that "What an obese maroon!"
Programming has become a commodity, much like operating systems and software.
As such, I expect demand, on a per-capita basis, to slide, as the low end (for example, the web monkey) is completely supplanted by tools anyone can use to make a web site, and the middle sees increasing pressure due to the excess capacity after all those "monkey jobs", whether web or whatever, go bye-bye.
Just as you don't need any programming skills to set up and run a web site now, in the future you won't need any programming skills to make all sorts of other content, such as animated videos and games (see http://www.xtranormal.com/ as an example for video animations)
Already answered - there has never been any paid adverts on trolltalk.com.
Webmistress Rachel trolled you, and you, being the idiot you are, fell for it rather than check out the site.
Why not make life easy for yourself, and put slashdot in your stupid APK HOSTS FILE, and make the internet safe from idiots like yourself, who couldn't buy a clue if they were free?
Or you can explain how giving away my own GPL'd code makes me "greedy", like you accused me of being elsewhere.
How does it feel setting yourself up as the fool yet again? YHBT. Suck it up, fat boy (yes, APK is obese. He claims to have grown several inches in his 30's so that he's not overweight any more, but unless he spent a couple of years on the space station, that's just another fat lie).
Care to point out any time in history when trolltalk.com ran even one paid advertisement?
Hint - you can pick from these three: never, null, and zero.
You still haven't explained how people giving away their GPL'd code is greedy (which is the accusation you made elsewhere, that by doing so on trolltalk I'm a greedy advertiser - webmistress Rachel completely trolled you on that, and you took the bait:-).
YHBT. Again! Sucker! Why don't you just stick slashdot in your precious hosts file and make the Interwebs safer for yourself?
Look at the timestamps, apk. You're the one stalking me, not the other way around. Always has been, always will be. You're obsessed with me, and yet, I hardly ever notice you, because unlike you, I'm not stuck in some fantasy past.
Now go cry to mama, because you even suck at trolling.
And please explain how giving away gpl code is greedy. Don't duck the issue, you useless turd.
... it's designed to attract the types of students who are disinterested in, or don't have the mind-set for, "real programming".
That worked out real well for all those colleges that churn out useless web monkeys - but not so well for the unemployable students going around with their "Certificate as a Webmaster's Assistant".
What next - "Programming by Powerpoint"? Oh wait...
What the heck, I have 5 minutes to waste, and he really does need his monthly kick in the head from me. He wants my attention so bad that he literally posts a hundred or more times, in the hope that I'll reply, so why not? After all, if he wants to troll himself so badly, who am I to stop it.
So, APK, please tell everyone how giving away GPL software that I wrote, on a site that has never carried any form of commercial advertising, makes me a greedy advertiser.
Maybe you can do a better job than you did when you failed in defending your precious hosts file crap.
Come on, stupid cyber-stalker. Tell everyone how everyone writing and giving away GPL software is greedy.
So, please explain to everyone how giving away GPL'd software from a site that has never carried any ads (no adwords, no banners, etc) makes me a greedy advertiser.
BTW - I'm not libeling you when I call you a useless idiot - it's simply the truth. Why not pull your head out of your rectum for a while and experience reality as something other than an ass-klingon?
Maybe when I'm finished with Starmedia, I should give you the same treatment... nah, you and your stupid hosts file are too much of a joke for anyone to take seriously. Go HOSTS yourself.
This troll post is a public service from the "Keep APK off the streets and barking at the moon" consortium. Feel free to contribute.
Every once in a while, I'll yank his chain, and I've gotten him so paranoid that he now accuses almost any AC poster as being mine. He's totally obsessed with me, and it's funny, because it just makes it all the more apparent that he's not all there.
Like his accusing me of greed for giving away code that I wrote and license under the GPL. Funny definition of greed, as in "funny == sicko".
I've been ignoring him for a while, but I guess it's time to do my share of keeping him busy and off the streets by giving him a random kick in the head (though in his paranoid world I've supposedly replied to him dozens or even hundreds of times in the past weeks, when in reality, I was too busy doing an expose on starmedia to even notice him).
Managers don't require knowledge, they are supposed to manage people that do have the knowledge.
That's total bullsh*t. You can't manage what you don't understand. That's like people who claim that they can do a job because, while they don't know something, they know where they can find the information. This "lack of any depth requirement" is one reason most managers don't merit respect, neither from the people they manage, nor the people who are above them.
No. Their ethics may conflict with yours and nothing can be said about their intelligence.
On the topic of ethics, they are more than just "ethically challenged" - they're hypocrites and crooks. Hypocrites, because they are saying "do as I say, not as I do" with respect to software licensing, and crooks because they are selling other people's work as if it were their own and without their permission (if you don't agree to the terms of the GPL, you cannot redistribute).
Intellectually challenged? They're wasting money on a lost cause. Not smart...:-)
The world does not not agree on the name of any number beyond million, the Americans call it billion, the Europeans milliard and so forth.
Soon you'll be able to take out one of those "nots", because the Americans have figured out that if they change the definition of a billion to the European one, it chops 3 places off the national debt.
but have you ever tried to create an economic system that rivals the western central banks? It's fucking hard.
It's easy to create a system of exchange that completely bypasses the banks. Every kid who ever went to school has done this dozens of times - they call it "trading", but the real name is barter. From "I'll trade you my dessert for yours" to "I'll trade you sex for an A on your assignment."
Far superior to the banks, since there are no "rent-seeking" overhead costs, no 3rd-party intervention or records, no taxable income, no reporting requirements, each party sets the value, and is in fact a market-maker, unlike the casino known as the stock market, and there is no inflation or deflation between a fiat currency and the hard assets.
Bitcoin has no claim on future resources - the generation of the chain of authorization has already taken out as much as the bitcoin is worth in "real world resources", and is a debt, with no corresponding future asset backing it up.
"**Additionally it is the only way a debtor can, via the courts, compel a creditor to settle a debt (money as legal tender)."
Actually no, the courts can also, at the creditors' request, compel a debtor to specific performance of the obligation, or seize and take possession of assets, or in the case of criminal debtors (those who owe a debt to society arising from their criminal actions) order community service, none of which involves an exchange of legal tender.
National fiat currencies ARE backed by hard assets - the productivity and national resources of the nation issuing them. In theory, the nation can sell resources, labour, etc., in return for redeeming the fiat currency. Bitcoins, on the other hand, have no "claim" on assets. They're useless.
Bitcoin was worse than most fiat currencies, since it wasn't even backed by anything physical - not even a piece of paper.
It also was a poor "store" of value, since transfers between users required extra energy input to extend the hash values - the typical bitcoin cost more to get to its current "value state" than the value it (theoretically) represented. It's probably the least "green" "currency" on the planet.
The bitcoin "fans" out there - this is only the beginning. You ignored all the warnings, now BITE ME!
Events taking place on the surface of the sun should not be described as "morning." It's always noon on the sun. Duh.
Since the sun is below the visible horizon at every location on the sun's surface, it's always midnight on the sun. Double-duh!
(it's counter-intuitive, but if you look up the definition of "horizon", it's true)
USA: We will land on Mars
Russia: We will land on Venus
Newfies: We be landin' on the SUN, boys!
Everyone: Isn't it too hot?
Newfies: Nah, what d'ye think we be, stupid? Be be doin' it at night, when it's cooler!
After all, many of them are just fake accounts to help generate credits for facebook games.
And then you have to add the multiple shill accounts that companies like my former employer, starmedia created and used in what must be one of the lamer attempts to create "buzz".
Throw in the bot accounts, that you can get to "follow you" for under a penny a piece in bulk (search for "buy facebook fans" - another of their scummy practices that I had to laugh at)
Last, we have the "real dummy" accounts - you know, the ones that are used to post all sorts of inanities, and the reason why most facebook posts are never seen by human eyes.
I'm optimistic that they'll do the right thing. They're making noises that they WANT to... which is at least a step in the right direction... but only time will tell.
After all, the longer this drags on, the worse they look... after all, if they're going to suspend MY account for reporting on illegal activities, the least they can do is also suspend the account that is actually doing the illegal stuff I reported on.
They should be encouraging people who blow the whistle on illegal activities on their servers, not stepping on them. If I wanted that, I'd get hosting in China, not Poutineville, Kanuckistan.
Whoa... I'm not hiding "my american flag" - I'm Canadian - in fact, iWeb is located in another part of the city. The problem with Canadian laws is that we have ZERO protection for whistle-blowers. None, nada, zip, aucune, "a rien tabernak", if you want to use the local vernacular.
They're not too happy with me at the moment, since they've obviously botched this. If they had bothered to look, they would have found out that one of the sites I was complaining about (770star.com - the one that starmedia promoted via an illegal contest) is hosted on one of their smart servers.
Or they could have asked me first. I would have been happy to share the details I was saving for a future follow-up article. Like how I was the former employee who set up the server, and who quit a week before the illegal contest, after both I and a co-worker pointed out how it was illegal.
However... there may be hope
iWeb has acknowledged that those portions that were legitimate news written by a former employee exposing a former employers' activities are legitimate material. So I've asked them to specify anything that was posted that was NOT related to either Alex Cholella's way of running starmedia.ca and 770star.com, or exposing government and public institutions going along with, to cite one example, abuse of job-training funds.
We'll see what their response is, but the scales have been tilted against honesty and ethical conduct for years. Look at how open source has been continually pilloried as "hacker malware", and the proliferation of SLAPP suits.
You have a very good point. Unfortunately, in today's legal climate, it's hard to find someone who:
a. has personal knowledge of the issues or events,
b. is ready to stick their neck out, and
c. won't panic under pressure.
You'd be amazed at how many people fail the last one. The least bit of pressure, and they cave in.
Lets look at the immediate facts.
1. I reported that 770star.com had been used by starmedia communications to, among other things, run an illegal lottery or prize draw.
2. Alex Cholella, the owner of starmedia, screams at iWeb
3. iWeb suspends my hosting account.
Most people would have agreed immediately to remove the "offending material." I won't. 770star.com is hosted by iWeb on one of their smart servers, and they need to buy a clue, that my reporting this guy's behaviour is helping them keep their servers clean.
OrgName: iWeb Technologies Inc.
OrgId: GIT-20
Address: 20, place du Commerce
City: Montreal
StateProv: QC
PostalCode: H3E-1Z6
Country: CA
RegDate: 2003-11-06
Updated: 2008-09-08
Comment: http://www.iweb.com/
Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/GIT-20
For now, I'm assuming that nobody bothered to check that they themselves were hosting some of the illegal activities. If they restore my hosting account, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If they don't, then you can draw your own conclusions.
Most people wouldn't have even have bothered trying to expose the scammer, because they're afraid of getting a SLAPP suit. It's not easy being a whistle-blower.
Thanks - I'm currently working on it, but first I'm giving them a chance to do the right thing and buy a clue.
Here's their current response
"Specific activities that are prohibited include, but are not limited to :
"- Threatening harm to persons or property or otherwise harassing behavior."
For your information, this is sure that we have no problem that you
report, for example, some actions that you consider as newsworthy of a
company that you were a former employee
I'm in the process of writing the email pointing out that everything I wrote was about his business activities - none of it touched on his personal life.
Maybe it's a coincidence that, now that they know that one of their servers was used to promote an illegal lottery (while I posted about the illegal lottery, I kept out the fact that it was on another iWeb server), they're having second thoughts, especially since I've let them know that I'm reposting elsewhere, along with an explanation as to why it's necessary.
I expect to have a submission ready in the next 24 to 48 hours. Again, thanks for your up-vote:-)
If you REALLY want to laugh, I'm the one who set up the server at iWeb that Cholella is now using to run one of his scams - 770star.com. He's got logos of companies implying that they're sponsors, and he also used it to run an illegal lottery right after I quit, to promote 770star.com.
The tin-foil-hat brigade might think that iWeb suspended my account because i reported how one of their servers was used for illegal activities.t.
iWeb suspends trolltalk.com, I post it in my journal on slashdot... seems to me that all they did was make themselves look stupid and give people a reason NOT to use them.
Slashdot Mirror
I fund trolltalk out of my pocket. I have never asked for, or received, even a penny for it. Right now, one subdomain (http://starmedia.trolltalk.com) is being used to expose the frauds and confidence games of Alex Cholella and his starmedia.ca and 770star.com businesses. Again, not a penny of revenue will ever be generated from that, even though whistleblowing can result in a lot of legal expenses - but I think it's worth the risk to expose a fraud, and to show others that we really need to stand up against this sort of crap,or we become part of the problem through our silence.
It's because I don't accept revenue in any shape or form for the domain that I was able to hold firm when the hosting company yanked the site for two days while we debated whether http://starmedia.trolltalk.com/ was citizen journalism or not. It's to their credit that they agreed that it is, and access to the site was restored. Score one for all the people on slashdot who offered to mirror it, and my restraint in not making a big deal out of it by exploiting the Streisand Effect. If I were generating revenue from it, you can be darned sure that I would have submitted the suspension as a story about censorship of citizen reporting, rather than saying "Great, we've resolved that, no harm, no foul, let's move on".
In the future, part of trolltalk will be used for promoting "l'Art de la troll" - "The art of trolling", as webmistressrachel wants, and as a discussion forum for how white-hat trolling is a skill that is needed today to counter misogynist asshats like you (and how this has always been the case, we just didn't call it that in times past).
White-hat trolling is educational, informative, insightful, and gets past all the bafflegab that people have erected to ignore reality, making them respond on a gut level, and exposing their prejudices and illogic. When someone like gmhowell says he occasionally trolls, it's not necessarily a bad thing - especially when the target is either you or me (he admits he does it to me anonymously on occasion to keep me honest, and I have no problems with that :-)
You, on the other hand, are a fool, and so SO easily played that you're like the Titanic - you serve as an example of what NOT to do. And you keep giving others, including me, opportunities to prove it when we have a few spare moments. The simple fact is that if you had been using modern ad-blockers instead of a hosts file, you would have been able to see immediately that there are no ads on ANY of my personal domains. The only ads I have ever run were banners for open-source projects - for example, firefox when they were doing their big push, or openoffice before the Oracle debacle.
Oh, right - giving free advertising for free open-source projects licensed under the GPL makes me greedy ... I think it would be a good thing if everyone were at least as "greedy" as me.
Moron! Rachel's going to get a real kick out of how she completely p0wned you, even after warning you many times that she was trolling you.
You're such a liar, APK. I have NEVER done a single ad banner on trolltalk, as anyone can verify with the wayback machine. The answer is no, I have never accepted a single paid add on ANY of my domains - the ONLY ads I have ever run on any of my personal domains were for other open-source projects. Then again, you've already said that you think that giving away source code under the GPL somehow makes me greedy ... how does that work?
Rachel completely trolled you - you thought you didn't see ads because of your stupid hosts file, when in fact there were none to begin with.
She p0wned you, dickhead. The worst part was she TOLD you, over and over, that she was trolling you, and you still fell for it. No wonder everyone thinks APK is an idiot - it's because you keep giving us so much proof that you're nothing but a fat stupid dope.
She trolled you, using your own stupid dependency on your stupid hosts file. If you had been using adblock plus (or any other MODERN solution) , you could have temporarily disabled ad-blocking on the site, and you would have seen that there were no ads.
As bugs bunny would say, "Alexander Peter Kowalski, the hosts file guy? What a maroon!" Oops, make that "What an obese maroon!"
Programming has become a commodity, much like operating systems and software.
As such, I expect demand, on a per-capita basis, to slide, as the low end (for example, the web monkey) is completely supplanted by tools anyone can use to make a web site, and the middle sees increasing pressure due to the excess capacity after all those "monkey jobs", whether web or whatever, go bye-bye.
Just as you don't need any programming skills to set up and run a web site now, in the future you won't need any programming skills to make all sorts of other content, such as animated videos and games (see http://www.xtranormal.com/ as an example for video animations)
Webmistress Rachel trolled you, and you, being the idiot you are, fell for it rather than check out the site.
Why not make life easy for yourself, and put slashdot in your stupid APK HOSTS FILE, and make the internet safe from idiots like yourself, who couldn't buy a clue if they were free?
Or you can explain how giving away my own GPL'd code makes me "greedy", like you accused me of being elsewhere.
How does it feel setting yourself up as the fool yet again? YHBT. Suck it up, fat boy (yes, APK is obese. He claims to have grown several inches in his 30's so that he's not overweight any more, but unless he spent a couple of years on the space station, that's just another fat lie).
Care to point out any time in history when trolltalk.com ran even one paid advertisement?
Hint - you can pick from these three: never, null, and zero.
You still haven't explained how people giving away their GPL'd code is greedy (which is the accusation you made elsewhere, that by doing so on trolltalk I'm a greedy advertiser - webmistress Rachel completely trolled you on that, and you took the bait :-).
YHBT. Again! Sucker! Why don't you just stick slashdot in your precious hosts file and make the Interwebs safer for yourself?
Look at the timestamps, apk. You're the one stalking me, not the other way around. Always has been, always will be. You're obsessed with me, and yet, I hardly ever notice you, because unlike you, I'm not stuck in some fantasy past.
Now go cry to mama, because you even suck at trolling.
And please explain how giving away gpl code is greedy. Don't duck the issue, you useless turd.
... it's designed to attract the types of students who are disinterested in, or don't have the mind-set for, "real programming".
That worked out real well for all those colleges that churn out useless web monkeys - but not so well for the unemployable students going around with their "Certificate as a Webmaster's Assistant".
What next - "Programming by Powerpoint"? Oh wait ...
Poor APK.
What the heck, I have 5 minutes to waste, and he really does need his monthly kick in the head from me. He wants my attention so bad that he literally posts a hundred or more times, in the hope that I'll reply, so why not? After all, if he wants to troll himself so badly, who am I to stop it.
So, APK, please tell everyone how giving away GPL software that I wrote, on a site that has never carried any form of commercial advertising, makes me a greedy advertiser.
Maybe you can do a better job than you did when you failed in defending your precious hosts file crap.
Come on, stupid cyber-stalker. Tell everyone how everyone writing and giving away GPL software is greedy.
YHBT. YFI - Again!
Never lets reality get in the way!
So, please explain to everyone how giving away GPL'd software from a site that has never carried any ads (no adwords, no banners, etc) makes me a greedy advertiser.
BTW - I'm not libeling you when I call you a useless idiot - it's simply the truth. Why not pull your head out of your rectum for a while and experience reality as something other than an ass-klingon?
Maybe when I'm finished with Starmedia, I should give you the same treatment ... nah, you and your stupid hosts file are too much of a joke for anyone to take seriously. Go HOSTS yourself.
This troll post is a public service from the "Keep APK off the streets and barking at the moon" consortium. Feel free to contribute.
Every once in a while, I'll yank his chain, and I've gotten him so paranoid that he now accuses almost any AC poster as being mine. He's totally obsessed with me, and it's funny, because it just makes it all the more apparent that he's not all there.
Like his accusing me of greed for giving away code that I wrote and license under the GPL. Funny definition of greed, as in "funny == sicko".
I've been ignoring him for a while, but I guess it's time to do my share of keeping him busy and off the streets by giving him a random kick in the head (though in his paranoid world I've supposedly replied to him dozens or even hundreds of times in the past weeks, when in reality, I was too busy doing an expose on starmedia to even notice him).
Real users always have few terminals open as root.
I've used sudo once in my life - and that was on someone else's crapuntu box - "sudo sh."
Silly rabbit, sudo is for kids.
On the topic of ethics, they are more than just "ethically challenged" - they're hypocrites and crooks. Hypocrites, because they are saying "do as I say, not as I do" with respect to software licensing, and crooks because they are selling other people's work as if it were their own and without their permission (if you don't agree to the terms of the GPL, you cannot redistribute).
Intellectually challenged? They're wasting money on a lost cause. Not smart ... :-)
Soon you'll be able to take out one of those "nots", because the Americans have figured out that if they change the definition of a billion to the European one, it chops 3 places off the national debt.
From your link:
It's easy to create a system of exchange that completely bypasses the banks. Every kid who ever went to school has done this dozens of times - they call it "trading", but the real name is barter. From "I'll trade you my dessert for yours" to "I'll trade you sex for an A on your assignment."
Far superior to the banks, since there are no "rent-seeking" overhead costs, no 3rd-party intervention or records, no taxable income, no reporting requirements, each party sets the value, and is in fact a market-maker, unlike the casino known as the stock market, and there is no inflation or deflation between a fiat currency and the hard assets.
"**Additionally it is the only way a debtor can, via the courts, compel a creditor to settle a debt (money as legal tender)."
Actually no, the courts can also, at the creditors' request, compel a debtor to specific performance of the obligation, or seize and take possession of assets, or in the case of criminal debtors (those who owe a debt to society arising from their criminal actions) order community service, none of which involves an exchange of legal tender.
Just a thought :-)
National fiat currencies ARE backed by hard assets - the productivity and national resources of the nation issuing them. In theory, the nation can sell resources, labour, etc., in return for redeeming the fiat currency. Bitcoins, on the other hand, have no "claim" on assets. They're useless.
It also was a poor "store" of value, since transfers between users required extra energy input to extend the hash values - the typical bitcoin cost more to get to its current "value state" than the value it (theoretically) represented. It's probably the least "green" "currency" on the planet.
The bitcoin "fans" out there - this is only the beginning. You ignored all the warnings, now BITE ME!
Since the sun is below the visible horizon at every location on the sun's surface, it's always midnight on the sun. Double-duh!
(it's counter-intuitive, but if you look up the definition of "horizon", it's true)
USA: We will land on Mars
Russia: We will land on Venus
Newfies: We be landin' on the SUN, boys!
Everyone: Isn't it too hot?
Newfies: Nah, what d'ye think we be, stupid? Be be doin' it at night, when it's cooler!
After all, many of them are just fake accounts to help generate credits for facebook games.
And then you have to add the multiple shill accounts that companies like my former employer, starmedia created and used in what must be one of the lamer attempts to create "buzz".
Throw in the bot accounts, that you can get to "follow you" for under a penny a piece in bulk (search for "buy facebook fans" - another of their scummy practices that I had to laugh at)
Last, we have the "real dummy" accounts - you know, the ones that are used to post all sorts of inanities, and the reason why most facebook posts are never seen by human eyes.
Thanks for the support :-)
I'm optimistic that they'll do the right thing. They're making noises that they WANT to ... which is at least a step in the right direction ... but only time will tell.
After all, the longer this drags on, the worse they look ... after all, if they're going to suspend MY account for reporting on illegal activities, the least they can do is also suspend the account that is actually doing the illegal stuff I reported on.
They should be encouraging people who blow the whistle on illegal activities on their servers, not stepping on them. If I wanted that, I'd get hosting in China, not Poutineville, Kanuckistan.
Whoa ... I'm not hiding "my american flag" - I'm Canadian - in fact, iWeb is located in another part of the city. The problem with Canadian laws is that we have ZERO protection for whistle-blowers. None, nada, zip, aucune, "a rien tabernak", if you want to use the local vernacular.
They're not too happy with me at the moment, since they've obviously botched this. If they had bothered to look, they would have found out that one of the sites I was complaining about (770star.com - the one that starmedia promoted via an illegal contest) is hosted on one of their smart servers.
Or they could have asked me first. I would have been happy to share the details I was saving for a future follow-up article. Like how I was the former employee who set up the server, and who quit a week before the illegal contest, after both I and a co-worker pointed out how it was illegal.
However ... there may be hope
iWeb has acknowledged that those portions that were legitimate news written by a former employee exposing a former employers' activities are legitimate material. So I've asked them to specify anything that was posted that was NOT related to either Alex Cholella's way of running starmedia.ca and 770star.com, or exposing government and public institutions going along with, to cite one example, abuse of job-training funds.
We'll see what their response is, but the scales have been tilted against honesty and ethical conduct for years. Look at how open source has been continually pilloried as "hacker malware", and the proliferation of SLAPP suits.
You have a very good point. Unfortunately, in today's legal climate, it's hard to find someone who:
a. has personal knowledge of the issues or events,
b. is ready to stick their neck out, and
c. won't panic under pressure.
You'd be amazed at how many people fail the last one. The least bit of pressure, and they cave in.
Lets look at the immediate facts.
1. I reported that 770star.com had been used by starmedia communications to, among other things, run an illegal lottery or prize draw.
2. Alex Cholella, the owner of starmedia, screams at iWeb
3. iWeb suspends my hosting account.
Most people would have agreed immediately to remove the "offending material." I won't. 770star.com is hosted by iWeb on one of their smart servers, and they need to buy a clue, that my reporting this guy's behaviour is helping them keep their servers clean.
For now, I'm assuming that nobody bothered to check that they themselves were hosting some of the illegal activities. If they restore my hosting account, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If they don't, then you can draw your own conclusions.
Most people wouldn't have even have bothered trying to expose the scammer, because they're afraid of getting a SLAPP suit. It's not easy being a whistle-blower.
Here's their current response
I'm in the process of writing the email pointing out that everything I wrote was about his business activities - none of it touched on his personal life.
Maybe it's a coincidence that, now that they know that one of their servers was used to promote an illegal lottery (while I posted about the illegal lottery, I kept out the fact that it was on another iWeb server), they're having second thoughts, especially since I've let them know that I'm reposting elsewhere, along with an explanation as to why it's necessary.
I expect to have a submission ready in the next 24 to 48 hours. Again, thanks for your up-vote :-)
If you REALLY want to laugh, I'm the one who set up the server at iWeb that Cholella is now using to run one of his scams - 770star.com. He's got logos of companies implying that they're sponsors, and he also used it to run an illegal lottery right after I quit, to promote 770star.com.
The tin-foil-hat brigade might think that iWeb suspended my account because i reported how one of their servers was used for illegal activities.t.
iWeb suspends trolltalk.com, I post it in my journal on slashdot ... seems to me that all they did was make themselves look stupid and give people a reason NOT to use them.