Adventures in Ethics and Science

New York Articles ‘collects’ content from another (sic) sites, sells ads, clogs cyberspace.

Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel on June 15, 2007
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As you might guess, my site is one of the sources of content. If you’re reading this post at New York Articles (or at “Articles”, whose tagline is even more grammatically incorrect) rather than at my actual site, you are partaking of a suboptimal experience.

I’m not going to give you the URL for the lesser, because there is no value-added to speak of, unless you count the pennies that come in to the leech that grabs the RSS and sells the Google Ads.*

Does such a site do anything to improve an already crowded blogosphere? Does anyone treat a sloppy feed aggregating site of this sort as a regular destination (or really, as anything but an accidental destination)?

Pathetic.

There has to be a less slimy way to make money off the internets, don’t you think?

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*I guess when you have ‘bots taking care of the ad sales, anyone can buy them. Ah, the modern world!

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Comments

  1. #1 Alan Kellogg
    June 15, 2007

    Coturnix over at Blog Around the Clock had a few things to say about this. Not happy was he.

    Though in this matter you and he are (sort of) allied with Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. It is true that Charles has a rotten temper and takes positions contrary to many of yours. At the same time he is a determined man (created his own, private blogging platform because he refused to trust anybody else’s), and he hates thieves.

    I mean hates them. Not a easy going dislike, a full blown exterminate the family line back to the oldest generation starting from the youngest hates them. Oh, and their friends too.

    Now he can put on a pretty good hate if you disagree with him, but stealing from him really boils his blood. If NYA is stealing his stuff you can bet he’s going to be complaining to the idiot’s ISP, and getting results.

    If other big timers such as Townhall and Daily Kos are getting ripped off too expect to see a major blogospheric kerfluffle. You’ve got common cause with some major players in the field, and bloggers protect their own.

    If you ever get upset about it think about the kids and remember, they’re much too young for it to even register. ‘Sides, there are more important things like bugs, slime molds, and kittens to play with. :)

  2. #2 Janet D. Stemwedel
    June 15, 2007

    Well, RSS = Really Simple Syndication — the feed is there for people to use.

    So, to paraphrase an old movie, we’re not talking about legalities, we’re talking about ethics. It doesn’t seem quite right to do zip on the content-creation (or even content-recruiting) front and then profit.

    However, it’s not keeping me up at nights. I have much bigger battles to fight.

  3. #3 Lab Lemming
    June 18, 2007

    “There has to be a less slimy way to make money off the internets, don’t you think?”

    Didn’t you once comment that you actually block the sciblog ads that the rest of us have to put up with? That ain’t exactly high minded.

    AS far as I can see, http://nyarticles.com/ provide the excellent service of cutting all the seed crapola out of your excellent posts and reformatting them in a more pleasing, simpler page.

    Now excuse me, I need to redo my bookmarks…

  4. #4 Janet D. Stemwedel
    June 18, 2007

    Firefox’ll let *anyone* block ads. Try it, it’s fun!

  5. #5 Rich Reynolds
    June 18, 2007

    Janet (et alii):

    Scum who steal material, and that’s what happens at NYA, should be “liquidated” (in a civilized way of course).

    The scourge of blogging lies in the fact that bloggers fill up their spaces with stuff from others as they can’t produce enough schlock on their own. And then they add insult to injury by getting Google-revenues with their “ads.”

    Legitimate blogs and web-sites point readers to recommended or worthwhile sites, without compromising the material at the sites pointed to.

    A critical comment or encomium is okay, but to take the material, and worse, by editing it or abusing the spelling and/or grammar is egregious in many ways.

    But what can one do when we live in a society where ethical behavior is not sacrosanct and the internet is home to pirates and scalawags who once could only harm others in their immediate vicinity?

    RR

  6. #6 Mr. Gunn
    December 7, 2007

    FYI – the nyarticles.com site is now serving up popups from a .tr domain, so I would highly advise against visiting that site without adequate popup and virus protection.