August 22, 2007 at 11:14 pm · Filed under allsux, digg, Links
So some of you might have noticed I’ve been fairly involved with Digg.com recently, and a surprising number of my recent submissions have hit the front page. Here is a run-down of these recent top hits that span a big spectrum in terms of topics. Each has had between 35K and 70K visitors. Enjoy!
The first of these was fairly contentious (and perhaps poorly phrased), and was buried right upon hitting the front page. It concerned a Digg feature that would help both Diggers and site owners, but the headline was phrased in such a way that Diggers thought it was an attack on Digg. Oh well!
The next post did extremely well, and concerned unusually legal street art – something entertaining and rather broadly interesting and appealing. An apparently misleading article (which I didn’t know at the time) about iPhones wearing out in a few months made number three. A nice post on website design simplicity unfortunatly crashed the target site. People did, in fact, rally behind my call-to-action to save a cool website from a negative change.
Surpringly (to me at least) a fairly entertaining picture collection of tree porn was buried shortly after becoming popular. A nice abandonment photo set on a newer blog did quite well – probably in part because the pictures were original and the story personal. Some Diggers didn’t read the headline on this article, and were disappointed – but it delivered exactly what the headline said: a brilliantly simple and cheap guerilla marketing strategy.
Consider this the link list to end all linklists – a meta-list of the best link lists I’ve found on the web! Bookmark this page for future reference, or simply click through to the next big thing. The web is endless! Enjoy!
(10) A classic favorite, Fark is undoubtedly the best source on the web for strange, weird and funny news. This is a site full of sarcasm and stupid puns, be warned!
 (9) At SeeHere expect to see something like what you’re seeing, well, here! In short: the links are short but sweet, and there are nicely categorized/grouped sites.
(7) Ebaumsworld has always been a scandalous site, surrounded by controversy over stolen content, but at the end of the day they still show users wacky videos and fascinating links.
(6) Everyone knows Digg.com, right? Well, if you don’t, it’s probably the biggest social news site on the web – but it varies from offbeat news to too much tech. Just so you know what you’re getting into!
(5) OK, so, I don’t even know what language this site is in (.hr? anyone?), but they keep linking to me, so I figure they get an honorable foriegn language site mention.
(4) Even though the content is a bit immature and/or scandalous, I suppose it wouldn’t be fair to compile a list of popular linkdumps without mentioning LinkDump.com
(3) WebUrbanist has a great category for cool images of all kinds which is worth checking back in on every few days – not updated constantly, but quality is better than quality, right?
(2) Never forget the good old WallStreetFighter, who posts top 10 lists all the time – and old ones can always be found in his archives at any time!
(1) You guessed it – All Sux dot Com is the best site on the web for awesome link lists. This was in NO way biased by the fact that you are currently on All Sux dot Com …
August 19, 2007 at 4:03 pm · Filed under allsux, WTF
Having been stalked and read up on it a bit, I thought I might as well share with some readers what the basics are in terms of a stalking. Two things I learned that surprised me: (1) I actually thought I was being stalked before I was (legally speaking) and (2) stalking comes with much heavier penalties than I would have guessed.
(1) “Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim’s immediate family; and still others require only that the alleged stalker’s course of conduct constitute an implied threat. While some conduct involving annoying or menacing behavior might fall short of illegal stalking, such behavior may be a prelude to stalking and violence and should be treated seriously.” Wikipedia
I had thought that stalking just referred to general harassment, etc… never realized a threat of violence was needed. Only recently (the last week or so) did my stalker actually start implying violence (threatening “real world consequence” and indefinite outcomes like “or else”)
(2) “Federal law provides a number of important tools that are available to combat cyberstalking. Under 18 U.S.C. 875(c), it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, to transmit any communication in interstate or foreign commerce containing a threat to injure the person of another.” USDOJ.gov
Now I have to say that really got my attention. Five years in jail and up to a quarter-million dollars in fines? That’s a pretty harsh penalty, but then again, stalking can be harsh too. So, if you’re being stalked: know your rights and know what the legal boundaries are (look them up yourself, I’m not a lawyer!). Anyway, I would think that sane stalker (is there such a thing?) would see information like this and back off, but I suppose you never know!
OK, so having a digital stalker is getting really really strange. I was confused at first, but then I read that this is a fairly common stalker trick: he has tried to turn the tables and accuse me of stalking him. I’m a little perplexed about how responding to someone’s harassing emails and writing posts without naming them could be construed as stalking, particularly given his own far more intrusive activities.
He has continued to post about me – naming me by (fortunately my fake) name and naming my website – while the few times I have posted about him I did so anonymously. He has contacted people I know, have worked for, am acquainted with, and so on – while I have only contacted him and one other blogger (who was repeating his misinformation). I have asked him to stop writing about me, to me and to people I know repeatedly – but he persists. Perhaps most revealing: this all started because he was violating the law and I notified him about it.
So, OK, maybe I’m nuts but, it seems pretty clear who is stalking who here.
Anywho, this will be the last post abot the stalker directly anyway. So glad Allsux.com is bizarre enough to pick up a creepy fan following. To all you stalkers, though, don’t forget: I am both related to and friends with lawyers … get extra-creepy on me at your own risk ;)
I’ve been a little lazy about updating, so instead of quickly trying to compile some great links or random images I let YouTube do the work for me. Enjoy!
August 17, 2007 at 3:36 am · Filed under allsux, blogging
It’s been too long since I gave out some link love, and sorry long-time blogger buds but I’m going to stick to new blood on this one! Here are some newer bloggers (or at least newer to me!) who I think you should take some time and check out:
You absolutely must see this blog with ghostly images of abandoned places and narrative subtitles – it is a bit like watching a movie the way the images tell the story. The site is brand new but sure to gain some momentum fast.
This cool blogger is looking for some folks for a digital artistic collaboration – strictly non-profit good-for-the-soul stuff, and make no mistake: she has creativity to burn (maybe I can get her to redesign this craptastic blog for me someday).
Joe over at Arsenal Marketing is working hard at things, and I expect that (with some link-love from yours truly!) he’ll be in good shape for his first PR update. I’m not a big fan of blogs-about-blogging-and-money in general but he seems like a standup guy- and nice blog redesign Joe!
Spintega is an old pal o mine, well, online anyway, and he just got a website sort of up and running. He’s a real whiz at design and whipped up that page design in a few short minutes.
Romlet isn’t a blog or blogger or anything like that, but a brand new blog widget for boasting and boosting popularity. It’s kind of like the MyBlogLog widgets, a FeedBurner stats counter, and other stuff all rolled into one. If you have a blog – you need a Romlet (mine’s right over there! ->)
There’s someone else I’m supposed to give some link love too but I can’t find his URL for the life of me – I swear he has a disallow->Google in his index.php because I can’t find him anywhere on the interwebs. So if you’re out there, and mad because I’m not giving you link love, lemme know!
OK, so it’s been quite a few weeks and I’ve been spread pretty thin on the blogosphere. I want to know what you want to read, because honestly, I’m not sure exactly why thousands of people read this blog every single day! I’ll give you some options, and if you’re feeling bold, leave a comment with your name as a link to your website. If you’re not feeling bold, just leave an anonymous response. If you’re feeling lazy – as apparently many of my readers are – just twiddle your thumbs and laugh at me for even requesting feedback!
1) More Top Ten or Whatever Link Lists: Those seem to do pretty well overall – lots of people click the links, leave comments, etc… I suppose I should take that as a sign to keep making them!
2) More Random Images and Videos: These are also fairly successful – high comment ratio and fairly light reading if you just like skimming the interwebs for random weird stuff.
3) The Latest News on my Internet Stalker: Well, the guy won’t leave me alone, I figure there may be a few people who think it’s funny when I rant about this fact, but I’m probably wrong.
4) How I Keep Getting Posts to the Digg Front Page: That’s strangely right folks, somehow 4 of the last 6 articles I’ve submitted have hit the Digg front page. I have apparently figured out how to be a pro-Digger of sorts, and am happy to share my experience with others if people want to read about it.
5) Why Articles on Sites I Develop Keep Getting Dugg: 4 of he last 5 articles on the other blog I write for and develp have hit the front page, whether or not I submitted them – each getting 50,000 or more hits as a result, as well as secondary PR and traffic from incoming links. Want to know why?
6) Rants, Raves and Scandals: This site was founded primarily as a place to vent about random injustices on the web, from sites that rip people off to others that ban people without cause. Do you miss the good old days where I pushed the limits of the interwebs and then bashed sites when they bit back?
7) I Could Care Less What You Write: Yes, apparently there are some readers who hang on to this craptastic site no matter what it spews. Why is that? I’ll never know. Maybe it has to do with the entertaining randomness of it all, or perhaps there is truth and honesty in raw trains of thought.
Well, OK, to be fair, I should have just started ignoring his emails – but they were just too funny! Backstory for those just tuning in: some guy stole some content off a site I write for, pasted it word-for-word and image-for-image on his own site, then turned (in my opinion) psychotically beligerent when I asked him politely to remove the illegally copied content from his site, and directed him to relevant copyright laws.
Now he is threatening to call the police for harassment, his lawyer for defamation, and the FBI for threatening him. He also wants to contact my hosting provider to get this site suspended and Google to delete the (for-spam-use-only) email address I gave him to conact me at. For all I know he plans to call my mother and explain to her that I’ve been a very bad boy.
Anyway, I’ve made an executive decision to stop contacting him. Eventually he started to annoy me to the point where I started to use excessive strong language – which I took to mean his apparent psychosis was rubbing off on me. Also, his last letter included a vague by somewhat disturbing threat that could be interpreted to mean I might end up as another blood-spattered patch on the pavement and front-pager of a local news story.
So, this is probably the last I will write of my internet stalker. It’s been entertaining at times, strange at others, but it just goes to show you: some people really really need to get out more.
UPDATE: he has reported me to GMail and forwarded his complaint :)
UPDATE: he is writing to various sites I have submitted content to and ranting and raving about me. It’s pretty funny, cuz he’s calling me an internet stalker, saying I’m harassing/threatening him and such, but he’s the one contacting everyone he can think of to trash me lolz. I feel like I’m back in 8th grade :(
OK, so I have found some great links, but I think that sharing them all alongside this link would be unfair to this link. This link is, in fact, an amazing link. OK, I’ll admit it, my high opinion of this link is probably colored by the fact that I just moved to a cheaper apartment surrounded by crackheads and crack dealers. No, not kidding.
Make no mistake, I have no real problem with them – they laugh and play out in front, dealing crack and causing no real harm except some occassional pee on the stoop. To be honest, the crachheads/dealers are pretty entertaining all in all. Perhaps that’s why I found this link so incredibly, gut-wrenchingly, hilariously entertaining. Here it is.
Enjoy that? Well, you can always find more at the Best of Craigslist. No, this isn’t a sponsored post, Craigslist is free you @#$%ing idiot!
