Posting With Hidden Intent
August 24th, 2004 • Rants, Technology
I’m generally not one to complain about the behavior of others, but in this instance I think a quick post is warranted. “Nathan” from Synop posted a comment in my post about RSS readers and specifically about FeedDemon. Looking at the logs and the fact that I don’t know “Nathan”, it seems like he probably found my posting through a search on an RSS search engine. Obviously he was looking to spread news about his product, Sauce Reader, when people were talking about competitive products. I don’t generally have a problem with this except for the fact that “Nathan” doesn’t mention his affiliation in his comment. I also take issue with this comment since it is in my blog and not a “common good” and hey, I make the rules here. If you’re going to post a comment, post something meaningful and non-commercial. If it is commercial and meaningful, make sure you mark it as such.
That is all.
P.S. I deleted “Nathan”’s original comment from the site because I don’t want people here wandering there and supporting this kind of behavior. If you want to find his product, you’ll have to use a search engine the old fashioned way.
One Response (Add Your Comment)
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Nathan August 25, 2004at 5:53 pm
I’m sorry you felt that my comment didn’t make my affiliation with Sauce Reader clear. My email address shows I’m from Synop and I listed my personal website as being that of the product.
Since you were recommending a free alternative for your readers it seemed meaningful to mention another free for personal use alternative they may not have seen. Sorry for any inconvenience this caused.
Cheers, Nathan
Sanjay’s comment: I’ve deleted the URL off this comment because I don’t want search engine referral points to go to this product. I still disagree with trolling for blog entries on a specific subject just to put in two cents about your product. Blogs have generally evolved into community information/discussion sites (although this one probably only has three readers it’s still a community of sorts) and having commercial pitches interjected into them by non-regular participants isn’t doing the best service to the community. Again, all of this is in my opinion. But this is my site so my opinion counts more here.