DreamHost Sites Of The Month

Every Month since Nov. '98 DreamHost has had a vote on the best website hosted by them. The contest is called "DreamHost Site Of The Month" or DHSOTM. A good place to see example sites, or you can start voting and learn about DHSOTM at DHSOTM Challenge.

Booost DreamHost Referrals!Edited by askapache on 05/31/07 10:33 PM (server time).

is it your website ?

Hey, once in "promotion" was only marginally spamish...posting it here, not so marginal. Did you even read the TOS or the entry page at discussion.dreamhost.com?

--rlparker

You should just out-right say it's your website, instead of this kind of shameless promotion that makes you look like a spammer to the rest of us.

Quite frankly, GTFO.

Oh sorry, I'm just letting people know about DHSOTM as a resource, and why not try to get people to use the DHSOTM voting system? Yes I read the entry page, where is the TOS?

Booost DreamHost Referrals!

My username is askapache, my signature is askapache, the link is askapache. Yes its mine :)

Booost DreamHost Referrals!

I wouldn't mind that at all, but linking directly to your own page on it is a bit spam-advertising. If you linked to the DH page on it and maybe *then* added a link to your site about it, I don't think I'd personally mind it as much. Or at least I wouldn't see so much as advertising, as showing an example of a DHSOTM-potential site

Do you know that we have an official one http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/DHSOTM

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Oh sorry, I'm just letting people know about DHSOTM as a resource, and why not try to get people to use the DHSOTM voting system?

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Tha's completely disingenuous! You can "let people know" about DHSOTM just fine without linking them to *your* site to "learn more about DHSOTM"

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Yes I read the entry page, where is the TOS?

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THe DreamHost TOS is located here, and their Anti-Spam policy is here. The anti-spam policy states, in relevant part:

"Predominately promotional messages must not be posted to bulletin boards, discussion forums, guestbooks, Usenet newsgroups, or any other similar service unless the operator of that service explicitly allows such messages."

That, plus the discussion entry page, should make the issue pretty clear.

--rlparker

Cool thanks for the heads up everyone! I edited the post to point to the wiki page, and I'm discussing with dreamhost whether the type of "vote for this site now" link is allowed. Yes that was a little disingenuous, only my stuff isn't spammy so I thought, why not? ;)

Booost DreamHost Referrals!

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you can start voting and learn about DHSOTM at DHSOTM Challenge.

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Did you even read that line? You are implying that users can "start voting" on *your* site (which, I guess is true if they want to click another link from your site, to place their vote), and that is misleading.

You vote From this page on the DreamHost Control Panel; your post is *still* designed *solely* to drive traffic to (through?) your site.

--rlparker

Edited by rlparker on 05/31/07 11:40 PM (server time).

Whether it's here, or the wiki, you really do come off as a link-spamming lowlife.

Here's a free tip (I'll write it here, instead of on my site, then post 50 links to it): If you have something to contribute, just do it. That means type it out. Not put 3 lines up on your site, then flood the forum and wiki with links to it.

Geez... the wiki seriously needs some de-spamming, since you seem to be making your own personal link dump.

I'm only helping them by "promoting" my blog articles about them anyways, whats the deal? Why would anyone from DreamHost want to lose the positive publicity? Who cares this is a wast of time.

Booost DreamHost Referrals!

Do you just not understand anything that anyone says to you?

They're relevant to you because you're promoting your site. You throw up a page then look for places to spam it.

The wiki is not a directory.

The forum is not a directory.

Which part of those sentences is too hard for you to understand?

C o n t r i b u t e.

That doesn't mean contribute to your own site, then leave a trail of link spam where ever you go.

It's always fun to pop in here and see nothing's changed.

BTW, Thanks for double posting; it helps draw attention to important stuff, stirs up the self-righteous crowd, and gives them something to rally around and shout about.

There's a few posters who dominate this forum, and the wiki, and they'll be more than happy to force you to be just like them, if they can.

http://blog.dreamhosters.com/2007/04/18/dreamhost-discussion-forum-6-years-today/

rlparker: blah blah blah, TOS, spam, definitions, disclaimers, blah blah blah... nobody writes as much as me!

seiler: If you don't agree with me, then you're stupid, stupid. I'm gonna rip your stuff outta the wiki now, man, and I've got lots of spare time....

scjessey: I question your motives. Mine are the same, but that's different because my mom said. Only I can spam the wikis...

others: just posting a comment for my sig.

Play their game. Pretend to care what they say, and do what *you* want. They'll slam you for a bit, while you're in their sights, but they're a short sighted mob. Thanks for some of your askapache stuff, and thanks for feeding my Adblocker.

Welcome to the "gigantic hordes of unwashed."

Jeez! Would you say that Mother Teresa did her good works just to get into heaven?

People have many motivations for helping others. Some have a mix of altruism and personal benefit.

Personally, I try not to analyze people's motivations (though I must confess that I do!). I just try to look at the outcome of their actions and weigh the benefits against the costs.

rlparker, seiler, and scjessey may be the most prolific posters for any reason whatsoever and I don't care. It could be their public service sentence for insider trading for all I care. (though I'd be pretty interested in that story!) What matters is that they provide the most help for people who come to the forums with problems - even though they're the same problems over and over and over again. BTW, this is not a knock of anyone else, I am only picking these three out for their service because they've been targeted.

And speaking directly of their attempt to keep the boards clean: I applaud them for this. Sure, you might say its because my vision for what these boards should be matches theirs, but isn't that the point? This board has become a community and though we respect each other's individual points of view and style, I think we should have the chance to discuss our preferences for lawn upkeep, house painting, yard decorations and hygiene.

BTW, is this a dupe thread? Or is the other one the dupe? Or am I the dope?

Ob On-Topic: What's the benefit to being DHSOTM? I thought it was an award that you'd win if your site was actually fun and useful? Or has this become like political elections where the only way to win is to engineer a victory? Has winning become the goal rather than just being a great site?

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Ob On-Topic: What's the benefit to being DHSOTM? I thought it was an award that you'd win if your site was actually fun and useful? Or has this become like political elections where the only way to win is to engineer a victory? Has winning become the goal rather than just being a great site?

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I thought it was a bit of a mix. You get a reward of course, but you also get some publicity as the DHSOTM sites are almost always (if not always?) mentioned in the Newsletter. Once, or rather *if*, I ever get my site completely finished I'll probably submit mine as well. Mostly for the publicity as I'm not a big fan of spamming my site everywhere. Having it in my sig is already pushing 'spam-ish' to me.

I'll also agree with you - I believe rlparker, scjessy and other such users are just trying to keep the forums clean. As a moderator/administrator for several forums in the past, I can lament on the difficulty in maintaining a "just" and "clean" environment, especially when dealing with varied nationalities and age groups it becomes difficult to moderate in a justified manner. I've noticed the DH staff themselves are pretty laissez-faire in their handling of the forums, so they must feel fairly confident in the community's ability to moderate themselves - not to mention the fact they've made scjessy and rlparker wiki admins, which shows further trust and confidence in those individuals' abilities to moderate between right and wrong.
Let's also not forget that anonymous2 typically only comes here to troll almost any topic that scjessy or rlparker specifically post in - especially in such topics as this one.
Any rational person seeking a sympathetic approach from others will not stoop to justifying their personal attacks against others.

Welcome back, Bob! (or Ardco, or JohnGalt, or BobS, or 0_0, or which ever puppet's handle you wish to be called at *this* point in time) - it's always good to have your cheery outlook on life in a thread!

In spite of your protestation, we know you love these forums as much as we do!

--rlparker

Robert Jr., Apparently you can take the person out of the military intelligence (oxymoron), but you can't take the military intelligence out of the person.

http://rlparker.com/about.htm

"Er... no.".

>> I think we should have the chance to discuss our preferences for lawn upkeep, house painting, yard decorations and hygiene.

And we do. Much of the clutter comes from responding to and discussing double posts and the fine grey line between helpful subtle promotion versus spam promotion...

>> BTW, is this a dupe thread? Or is the other one the dupe? Or am I the dope?

Yes, yes, and maybe.

> DH staff themselves are pretty laissez-faire

If only the anointed gremlins of wikidom would be similar... As self-serving as askapache's links in the wiki were, some of them were helpful and will be missed. Fortunately, they're still high in Google.

> Let's also not forget that anonymous2 typically only comes here to troll almost any topic that scjessy or rlparker specifically post in -

Oh youngster of few and faulty observation skills, :-) I'll agree it's frequently impossible to post a response prior to them... but:

Last 25 posts

http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=82210 (False)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_programming&Number=81683 (Arguably False or True)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=81591 (Arguably False or True)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=curious&Number=81452 (True, but the bloody immigrant showed disrespect for the person who holds the Office of President)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=81447 (False)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=curious&Number=81391 (Arguably False or True)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=curious&Number=81115 (False)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=80932 (Arguably False or True)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_beginners&Number=80939 (False)
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=forum_troubleshooting&Number=80914 (False)

So, of my last 10 posts (excluding this thread), your claim is clearly false 50% of the time, arguably false 40% of the time, and clearly true only 10%. I'm sure you see it differently.

> Any rational person seeking a sympathetic approach from others will not stoop to justifying their personal attacks against others.

No offense intended, but that whooshed over my head like a term paper deadline.

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No offense intended, but that whooshed over my head like a term paper deadline.

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lol. Basically it just means you shouldn't be attacking scjessy and rlparker themselves and rather address *why* you think they are wrong or give an alternative approach to the situation and don't even bother commenting on whatever they said. From what I've seen, often times you'll take things to the level of personal-attacks by specifically targeting them either in something completely unrelated to the thread/article but directed at their character instead of the contents of their post, or you directly attack what they've said in the thread without actually adding anything to the thread itself. Not saying they don't do the same back of course, but it would appear this sort of "bickering" (as I see it) has been going on for some time, and I haven't honestly seen it happen until you've posted a reply to one of them.
Anyways - such behavior is almost always quite unproductive and most people, assuming you're trying to persuade them to you're side, won't even bother to read the rest of the thread. So I'd suggest trying out a different approach in replying to them for a while and see if it at least generates a better response than the usual bickering between yourselves. Unless of course that's your intent? In which case I won't even bother reading such thread any more.

And I certainly wasn't trying to imply that you don't make other, productive posts. Perhaps I should have re-phrased, and said that I only ever see you post in threads of scjessy's or rlparker's that involve them "moderating" (criticizing?) someone else's thread(s)/post(s).

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As self-serving as askapache's links in the wiki were, some of them were helpful and will be missed. Fortunately, they're still high in Google.

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I certainly agree. I noticed some of them were quite useful/informative, but it's a shame he took things to the next level of.. errr.. "spamming" his site here.

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scjessey: I question your motives. Mine are the same, but that's different because my mom said. Only I can spam the wikis...

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"Er... no.".

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This is my first post in this thread, and yet I find that you have referred to me in a negative manner (usually classified as a personal attack) twice already. Even loose associations of single-celled organisms trying desperately to organize into structures of awareness will be aware that what you are doing is called trolling. You may present all the evidence you wish to justify your actions, but anyone inhabiting this forum for more than a few months will be familiar with your modus operandi by now - you only come out to play when you want to provoke a reaction.

I suppose I'm guilty of feeding the troll again. Perhaps I post in the forlorn hope that you will realize how much you are embarrassing yourself and return to your little dwelling beneath the mountain. I know that it will be (another) exercise in futility, but being such an emotional chap I find it is impossible to do the right thing and just ignore you. Why? Because you have insulted me, you have insulted my friends, and you have insulted the intelligence of everyone who comes to this resource looking for a little bit of guidance or reassurance. Please go away.

Multi-posting happens often enough here that the Welcome page and TOS are clearly not as clear as JRS (Jessey Rlparker Seiler) say. When it's for a good or interesting cause, we don't need to make such a big deal about it. Who knows how many people give up on the wiki and forum because of this sort of reception and reaction.

It's ok to disagree with JRS, IMO, and I do. Their word is not gospel, especially here. They don't seem to agree.

When people disagree with JRS, JRS get irate and call names. Everything I said is fact-based (with a perhaps too subtle reference to Jessey previously saying something about what his mom used to tell him). I could've used more polite description than "blah, blah," but Rlparker doesn't show me any more respect, ever since he became so obsessed with puppets; he apparently thinks calling me a puppeteer is somehow more insulting than calling Jessey an atheist, Seiler a name-caller, or an orange a fruit. It's a technically incorrect use of the term, as he knows, since I endeavor not to use multiple user names in the pejorative sense of the term, but apparently that's the best he's got.

Jessey doesn't even have enough vision to see this DHSOTM thread/discussion in full context of both threads. He's done the same things as askapache (self-promotional-linking), here and in wikipedia, but that was different, because he says.

Who's afraid of tricky links anyway - Caveat clicktor. And you can add a comment. And there's a "remove my vote" option. I voted. You should too! warning for link-or-brain-challenged: may require login, may enter a vote

Please also go here to "vote down" the competition. Only if you are so-inclined anyway, or if you don't mind being so encouraged.

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Who knows how many people give up on the wiki and forum because of this sort of reception and reaction.

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Hopefully, all of the targeted ones. Other than you, I haven't seen anyone come down on who I didn't think deserved it.

I don't really want to come down as partisan here, but IMHO as an avid reader of the forum, I see rlparker, seiler, and scjessey jump through hoops to help people with questions here on the forums, even those whose accounts have been shut down due to negligence (BTW, I don't mean that judgmentally. I'm somewhat negligent myself about some of my sites).

anonymous2, I've seen you post some helpful stuff recently too! I've seen the murmuring and rolling of eyes from some about your return, but I kept an open mind and figured there were just some unfortunate incidents in the past that were... in the past.

As just one voter, I would ask that you not discourage those three from keeping this board safe. Not all of us are as savvy as you are about tricky links. Besides, I expect a board that we come to for hosting help to be relatively free of disingenuous links.

(cross-posting this to all relevant threads... because I can)

FYI -

Spamming this forum or the wiki with clearly misleading promotional links in order to drive traffic to your own site is prohibited.

I will have to look into the "vote for me" and referral tricks you are talking about, but if you are intentionally misleading or misrepresenting yourself to those you wish to have click on those links you risk violating our Terms of Service and/or Rewards policy.

In other words: Unless you wish to have your DHSOTM and Rewards privileges taken away, do not engage in this sort of trickery.

Anyhow, I'm closing this thread.


- Jeff @ DreamHost
- DH Discussion Forum Admin