Sitepoint forum spams their users with a “news letter” every once in a while. I have been approached by Sitepoint a few times to write articles on their site or for this newsletter. I told them each time that I do not have time for that.
So a few people have pinged me today saying I was featured in their newsletter titled “Popular Blogger a Part of the Problem”
His blog is widely read by those in the web industry, and Jeremy likes to be on the edge in terms of having something to say. But, from what I can see, he’s getting it wrong.
It started in December with a post titled Accusations of Google Funding Terrorism , in what was a clumsy, stupid, and plainly offensive attempt to draw attention to a colleague’s story that tried to link Google Adsense to the funding of terrorism.
Umm ok.. I have already admitted that it was one of the biggest mistakes/regrets of 2006. I make no excuses.
Lately, Shoemoney has been especially critical of MyBlogLog, the recent Yahoo! acquisition that shows who is reading your blog.
Shoemoney went to great lengths to post exploits of this software on his site in what seemed like a mean-spirited attempt to deride the service (sure, there were some legitimate issues that needed to be addressed, but Shoemoney went beyond that, posting detailed instructions on how to exploit the service).
I think readers like an outspoken and controversial writer — after all, it makes life interesting. But when the writer moves from commenting on a problem to actually becoming part of it, he or she has probably gone too far.
By all means, be controversial, be loud, and identify bad software or sites when you see them. But showing others how to exploit a service isn’t doing anybody any favors.
Right… I have no beef with that, other then the fact you are missing 75% of the story…
I worked with MyBlogLog on their security issues privately… then they attacked Andy Beal publicly for something they had already agreed on, so I decided to publicly submit their bugs instead of privatively, they banned me, then later apologized and now we are back where we were and its fine. We have moved on. Try to keep up.
So really where is the problem of my popularity? Is the problem that more people would like to read peoples opinions on blogs rather than your shitty heavily moderated forum? I guess bloggers are a problem… for you. (btw thanks for driving a shitload of traffic here today).
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
Man that is just crazy. Honestly I never post on SP anymore due to over moderation. only thing i think most people go there for anymore is for their site sales/marketplace.
Sounds like this person certainly has it out for you. Could just be that they’re doing their own style of linkbaiting, trying to bring attention on themselves by attacking others.
Sitepoint sucks and has steadily gone downhill for a long time. There are so many better forums.
Sitepoint begs anyone to write for them. They do not pay anything so the quality is shit. There newsletter is just a reason for them to spam ads
I don’t think its a big deal if you are exploiting a sites problems, if anything it will only get their attention faster and get them to fixing it.
I’ll admit I come from the Sitepoint newsletter. I must say that I’ve learned a lot from Sitepoint and it is somewhat discouraging to hear that its held in poor regard by some folks seeing as I feel I’ve learned a lot there. That being said, I’m looking forward to learning and being entertained by your blogging.
“btw thanks for driving a shitload of traffic here today”
That’s what it’s all about!
Sitepoint in my opinion, still is a top forum, though I hate how they persist with those annoying pop-ups. I do like the site sales section, that sounds out of character that they would post something like that in a newsletter.
Sitepoint is a great resource for newbies. You just have to deal with all there popups and crap.
I agree. If you’re too lazy or stubborn to fix major problems that have been brought to your attention, then you’re at fault for when you crash and burn.
F*ck Sitepoint man, bunch of haterz. When they can’t get with the program it becomes a Slam fest…bunch of vultures
They might want to learn a thing or two about checking their facts before sending out a mass email. Oh well, once again it looks like you came out on top, and SP is still stuck trying to make money from their ridiculous pop-ups.
You bit. hehe
I would think so… if they can’t get him to write then talk about him!!
I agree, sitepoint has gone downhill fast but it’s not a TERRIBLE forum like some others.
Some people can’t leave well enough alone…… those 2 issues were resolved…. why base a newsletter about it? I guess there was nothing else to talk about and they thought it would cause a buzz.
the author also wrote “One of my favorite bloggers is a guy called Shoemoney.” I don’t think he has it out for him.
They aren’t worth worrying over, they are certainly going down-hill. Seems like linkbait to me
I feel they did a good job generating interest in their site, especially considering they are now featured on ShoeMoney.
hmmm, 150 new RSS subscribers if pretty decent for a mention
I actually think Digital Point is more moderated then Sitepoint in the sense that they have some sort of Micro-management installed where the moderators seem to take more notice in the small offenses rather then pay attention to issues that should be dealt with in a more serious manner. Don’t get me wrong, I love DP, I just dont think that it’s less moderated then Sitepoint that is clearly more business orientated.
Sitepoint just seems very angry coz’ shoemoney didn’t want to post article there.
This is true…..
Granted they probably were disappointed, but honestly you think they went after him in the newsletter simply because he wouldn’t write them an article? I highly doubt that.
Why worry what shitpoint says, they’re a has-been anyway. You’re the one on the cutting edge so their opinion really doesn’t mean squat to the AM world.
No matter where you go, there is always the haters……
And btw ….” Thanks for sending me the Traffic ” made me smile….No such thing as bad press
Goes to show that any publicity is good publicity.
I agree totally with the newsletter, Shoe, you’ve gone too far!
If you didn’t though, who would?
Thanks for daring to go where angels fear to tread.
SitePoint is a joke and has been for a while. Try to get rid of the spam mail… I dare you. It will only come back in greater force later on..
Some people can’t seem to move on I guess?
Good grief!.. this dude Shoe would probably be happy if SP actually posted a Photoshopped pic of his face with sh*t on it in their e-letter as long as there was a link driving all of you whiners here.
I’ve never heard of this dude Shoe until the evil hatred emobdiment called an e-letter arrived in my email a few minutes ago…now I have… I like what I see here. I will come back…
This process seems perverted somehow… chuckle…
Wow. We should all be so lucky!
I like SP, never heard of you, but because of SP, not only do I know you now, I like your blog more. Thanks SP for sending me to a valuable resource!
No kidding, I’d like a total of 150 RSS readers… hehe.
They had nothing else to write about most likely.
After I completely stopped visiting Sitepoint about 18 months ago, my earnings went from $5/day -> $x,xxx/day
I wouldnt recommend it to anyone that seriously wants to make some bucks online
“I guess bloggers are a problem… for you. (btw thanks for driving a shitload of traffic here today).” nice final words shoe
I kind of figured you’d overreact when I saw that earlier. Kind of sad how you turn what is the opinions of a single newsletter editor into attacking a community of tens of thousands of people. Do you think that Sitepoint has a “shitty heavily moderated forum” because of something you’ve experienced or are you just saying that because you don’t like what one individual, who plays virtually no part in the forum, write in the newsletter?
Traffic
Howdy Shoemoney, I’m the nasty guy who writes the Tribune. Love your work, always have and enjoy the controversial angle you take. You’ve been a breath of fresh air in a pretty staid industry.
Didn’t mention anything about a problem with popularity, and I agree with “…more people would like to read peoples opinions on blogs.”
I did actually say “I think readers like an outspoken and controversial writer — after all, it makes life interesting.”
You’re great at creating/keeping controversy going – nothing wrong with that awareness-creation strategy – this post is another great example of how you do that.
But I’m more than happy to stick with what I said about your Google Terrorism post and the MyBlogLog debacle.
For some commenters: SitePoint edit the newsletter after I write it but have never, ever (from what can remember) changed a story so the articles in the newsletter because it was something I thought was interesting (I’m independent of SitePoint). And they do pay for articles and newsletters.
Cheers.
It sounds like they are drinking some hater-rade. But I totally agree,Sitepoint has been going down hill lately with all the spam they are pushing onto members.
From what I see, you still don’t understand the Google terrorism and MyBlogLog debacle. He has given details into his actions, you just seem to be hanging on his balls, get off already.
sounds like they were just baiting you… guess you won’t be writing any articles for them in the near future
Looks like some of you good folks are misunderstanding the author entirely. Brendon hasn’t been drinking hater-rade: he’s a big fan of ShoeMoney.
He’s just written a blog post (likely in response to this). See here: Case Study Of A Very Savvy PR Strategy.
There’s nothing like some linkbaiting to start the weekend. Personally I prefer the digital point forums. I occasionally visit sitepoint when I’ve got nothing better to do.
I didn’t really understand the point of his article. Was he praising ShoeMoney for being a Public Relations expert or?
Here’s why I respect Shoe: people shit on him all the time, but he stays cool and respectful. It is probably not easy.
I have tried Sitepoint a few times and just couldn’t take it. I’m not sure why, but something about it just seems gay.
At one hand Jeremy has demeand to write article.
On other hand he is problem … {funny}
Yeah I don’t often side with SitePoint, especially lately, but when I read your post Shoe, all I kept wondering was who is the actual person that wrote it. I just don’t see this being a sitepoint beef as much a beef with teh article writer?
I hardly go to SPF anymore because like someone said there are plenty better forums out there. SitePoint has it’s flaws but other than the marketplace sucking… it doesn’t seem to have a moderating issue from what I’ve seen. I think it’s just the “corporate” approach to running their forums that drives people away.
Digitalpoint is great because it’s like the perfect middle ground between SitePoint and WickedFire. The mods are allowed to do their jobs so it’s without coming off as pawns for the corporate admin heirarchy. But on the other hand it’s moderated enough to keep it professional and not look like a summer camp for 15 year old kids with tourettes syndrome. If EarnerForum could get the heavy hitters to participate more it would likely grow as quickly as DP has.
What exactly do you mean by “spam they are pushing”? I never received their newsletter until I subscribed.
This entire thing is hilarious. Brendon was saying that what Shoemoney is doing is working for Shoemoney, because he’s doing something that’s considered controversial. That was ALL that was really said in that newsletter. I get a kick out of people bashing Sitepoint now.
I don’t know, I opted out of their newsletter a number of times, but I still see SitePoint emails in my trash folder. Thank God for filters.
I must say, no matter what the context, publicly disclosing bugs/flaws in such detail is just wrong.
Its not debatable. If you have a problem with it, dont disclose to anyone at all, privately or otherwise. Theres more than just a sense of ethos driving this.
I sniff a little too much pride. You’ve already over estimated the weight/significance of your popularity and had no choice but to admit you were wrong in past endeavours.
Its one thing to say heres a fuckup on the part of company X, describing both its general nature and effect. But to publicly and explicitly disclose the details allowing every script kiddie and halfwit with a console to exascerbate the problem is just wrong.
That said (I had to, I feel quite strongly about these sorts of arguments, juvenile as they are) the gate swings both ways.
If they asked you for your help, and then screwed you because you actually had the goods and they got nervous (I’ve seen it before too many times to count) then I say they deserve to BE nervous.
That all parties made reparation is an excellent outcome.
But again, I disagree with outright exposure. It really doesnt serve anyone (except maybe a blooger looking to drum up a little controversy)..
There always has to be 1 post that rubs me.. now then, back to the good stuff
The just decided to attack you for no reason? That’s pretty low.
It is always nice to have some free traffic. The negtative publicity brings many news vistors that will find how valueable this blog
Thumbs UP
I have to disagree with john loch – I think the way Shoemoney handled this was spot on. Allowing those who write shoddy code to continue to subject the masses to their “craft” is in no one’s interest.
DP is the place to be if you want to make quick $$$
DP is the ebay for webmasters. At something close to what Ebay used to be. Making money on Adsense takes a lot of risk and $$.
DP, all it takes is a good product and a low price.
Sanity check: Preemptive full public disclosure is wrong. I agree with your sentiment, but why increase the scope of the problem to exploitation in the large ?
I just wish these larger companies appreciated the effort some people put in. I mean, if someone came to me and said, hey, your site has flaws, and they’re being exploited thus, the first thing I’d do is buy the guy a beer and ask for his wish list ! – so I do appreciate the bigger picture, just not the idea that someones hand needs to be forced in that way.
Now, on to better things..
Haha, I think that’s why he tagged this story “shit talker”…
That is really rude to do to a popular blogger, If they dont have time that that is all the needs to be said.
It seems like this article had the “Star” (as in newspaper) effect. Any publicity is good publicity. ShoeMoney probably make a load of cash from all the traffic the article brought to his site.
Them sounds like fightin words. Of course you know your name itself now sells.
I had enough of Shitpoint – they can rot to death. They take take and give shit all back. Spam their annoying books. Not rewarding people for writing articles. Damn, even Cracked.com does that!
The latest is removing the do-follow / now no-follow signatures. As if that will stop spammers. Don’t people realise that spammers are outsourced and paid per link – the last thing they will bother checking is DoFollow/NoFollow.
Their switching off the do-follow is a big middle finger to all those ‘good’ people that contributed and helped them become successful for years.
I vented about this here: http://www.arnas.net/blog/2009/03/sitepoint-forums-switched-nofollow/#comment-39 .. It is an inevitable ‘script’ that many end up spitting on the hands that fed them.. Money money – take take = Shitpoint / Shitepoint.