Would you take part in a grassroots movement to get rid of sidewiki?

22 replies
Hi!
I have registered a domain,which i intend setting up properly over the next couple of days to enable the beginnings of a grassroots type campaign against google.

Please vote in the poll.

I'm serious about this. I am debt,and really should be concentrating on making money. I just can't stop worrying/thinking about it.

I'll be adding a private forum,and it will be invite only. I want to help organise those interested in defeating this.
Possibly might have a public side to the forum.

Reason i'll add a forum is the number of sidewiki threads are growing..its kinda hard keeping track of info and opinions.

I've got some ideas,but would love to strategize with the right people.

With those that join the 'movement' initially..(warriors)..perhaps we can arrange a joint venture to start a competing search engine.

I'm interested in votes and responses.

any strategic responses,please pm me..I don't want google getting an advantage.

Thanks for your vote and support.

PS: wow,my first thread at warriorforum. Never thought it would be on this.
#grassroots #movement #part #rid #sidewiki
  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    No - I have learned to let others fight for their rights and such; I believe my time is spent more profitably elsewhere.

    Will
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by Will Edwards View Post

      No - I have learned to let others fight for their rights and such; I believe my time is spent more profitably elsewhere.

      Will
      This makes me very sad.

      To think you would not do just a couple of things to pitch in - EASY things like sign a petition or do a blog post, things that would take just a few minutes of your time and you could be back to "I believe my time is spent more profitably elsewhere."

      It's not like anyone is being asked to spend every waking hour on a full blown campaign. It is about everyone giving just a little time to help make a difference.



      When one person puts a pebble in a half full glass it does not do much. When enough put a little pebble in, it eventually pushes the water to the top so everyone can have a drink.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    I voted 'no' too. I'll readily speak in opposition to SideWiki at any opportunity and will do what I can to defend my sites against it, but taking my attention away from my existing projects in pursuit of a monumental mission like helping to start a search engine that can compete against Google would be just as damaging to them as SideWiki stands to be. I also feel that starting another search engine in order to take out SideWiki is much like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It's not as if there aren't other competing search engines out there already.

    That being said, I can understand your motives and wish you luck. Signing petitions etc here is not a problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason_V
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    "When you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something."
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    • Profile picture of the author Marty S
      I vote NO as well, but will always be in favor of the concept of grass roots movement.

      In regards to where to spend your time and effort with such realities taking place before us, it's always best to have a Plan B - just in case:

      Google's SideWiki: Don't Say We Didn't Warn You - Advertising Age - DigitalNext
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Diana, I think that is all she is looking for really, just some support.

      I agree that creating a new search engine may be a bit extreme but it could just be something to toss about and think over. Time may be better spent helping push other search engines back to a higher popularity. There are a lot of ideas and things that can be discussed, and there will be those who can do some little things and there may be some who can do more. You just don't know until you toss it out there and see.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          I'm afraid this may sound churlish, dismissive and rude (so why say it? Because I actually care!), but I'll take that petition seriously if and when the grammatical mistake's removed from its title.
          I offered when first posting it that if someone wanted to add to or clean it up a bit I was more than open to it.

          Not rude at all, I threw it together and just got it up to get it going.

          Ok, and just went in and did some quick edits, and can add a little TM later if needed as well.

          LOL, went to join the words side and wiki and wasn't even looking at kill's. Sorry. I do appreciate the knock over the head to wake up.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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            • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              I'm terribly sorry! I genuinely didn't realise you had posted it Jill, otherwise I really wouldn't have commented at all. And probably I shouldn't have. Most embarrassing - please excuse me!
              Ha! do'nt beee sorrie!

              LOL

              It needed to be cleaned up. Probably needs more.
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
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      Originally Posted by Jason_V View Post

      Getting a trademark takes some time. Hard for them to go after sites that are registered before they have the trademark.
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      • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
        There's no need to get rid of it. A simple change will fix all the problems and let everyone involved have what they want:

        What to do about Sidewiki TalkBiz News: The Blog

        Note: There are no ads on that page. I don't think there are any on the whole blog.


        Paul
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        • Profile picture of the author Kay King
          I think there IS a grass roots movement in opposition to Sidewiki and Paul's blog is a good example. One clear sign that google's knows about the opposition is the re-ordering of search results as the "complaints" are no longer appearing on the first couple pages of google. A little manipulation going on, big G?

          To me, a grass roots movement is not "organizing" against something - it's a groundswell of opposition that occurs because so many people don't like what is happening.

          If enough site owners get busy and find ways to circumvent sidewiki and block it from showing when their site is accessed - that will send a bigger message to google than petitions.

          kay
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    Why should I? I have no idea what your beef is and the reason for it.

    Ok, just read up on Sidewiki, which I didn't see mention of in the OP so that's why the confusion. My only reaction is this could be big, and I don't know what to think about it yet.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by redicelander View Post

      Why should I? I have no idea what your beef is and the reason for it.
      I'm going to go to your hotels site and advertise to people on the sidewiki to go to a different place. Everyone with a google tool bar installed will see the messages I leave all over your site.

      Does that help you understand?
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      • Profile picture of the author Marty S
        Originally Posted by avenuegirl View Post

        I'm going to go to your hotels site and advertise to people on the sidewiki to go to a different place. Everyone with a google tool bar installed will see the messages I leave all over your site.

        Does that help you understand?
        Well I suppose that may not be the whole story, but even for myself in keeping an open mind about this thing, I fully expected to see SPAM-like messages on SideWiki. I too, am worried about how Google will handle that aspect.

        As it is so far however, the only truly distasteful SideWiki entries (2 or 3) I have seen have been posted by webmasters (in the style of your response) on their own (or friend's) sites for the purpose of testing and setting an example of what could happen. (Presumably because of the lack of real-life examples.)

        Nothing wrong with preparing for the worst I suppose, and it may very well still get ugly, but you would think SPAMMERS would already be on this thing, and yet - they clearly are not. So enticing someone to join a cause on this basis alone, seems rather ill conceived and wasteful in nature.

        If this petition was refined to the point of it's goal being SideWiki offer webmasters the CHOICE to opt-out I would actually be for it, (even though I feel that too would be a mistake,) it is much more fair than having the website owner seek and install blocking programs with every new SideWiki-like service. (Yes, more are coming!)

        Refine this thing, and you may get some more support.
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  • Profile picture of the author designfuschion
    'bout time i replied to this thread.

    I'll try and keep my responses as short as possible.

    will,
    I don't mean in any way that everyone needs to stop making money while fighting the sidewiki issue.


    The suggestion of a competing SE,was because depending on how things turn out-it might be a good option down the track. If we do band together to initiate change on this,small key steps first. Probably mentioning it in initially post was getting ahead of myself. Petitions probably won't actually do much to change anything in regards to this. I agree with Kay though.

    Problem is,many people will just think 'well i might as well use it'. Usage will reach a critical mass,and there won't be any going back from there.
    The point of a 'grassroots movements' err,the site is mainly to perhaps organise a proper educational type campaign amongst those interested or tactics to build the opposition faster.
    If that makes any sense. 'campaign' and 'tactics' used loosely. I don't mean million dollar compaigns. grassroots=getting back to basics.

    Knowledge is power. In google's case,too much knowledge can lead to too much power...
    knowledge spread to educate,so informed decisions can happen..


    Thanks for heads up on trademark issue. I reg'd stopsidewiki.com - I had come up with sidewiki-is-evil but figured that's slanderous and shows opinion whereas,stopsidewiki is more ..well anyway I'll take it down if and when i have to. I noticed few days after someone has the .org version stopsidewiki. That'll teach me to rush into buying a domain without checking what other extensions are reg'd. If the owner of stopsidewiki.org is on this board and reading this-feel free to pm me and we can work together.

    Marty S mentioned having a plan B.
    I guess the best options is we all keep on doing what we are already doing,and adjust and adapt-worst case scenario.

    oh and sorry for not explaining sidewiki in original post. I didn't realise the 7 page thread on it would get deleted. Therewas some good posts in there explaining the reasons against and for such a tool.

    The reason behind this poll,was to gauge the willingness of those that were against the SW actually supporting a movement for change. From the previously mentioned thread seemed like a large number of people were against it and concerned over many issues.

    The issues that sidewiki has brought up (privacy/webmasters rights to their own web properties etc) won't be resolved if we sit back and just let big corporations dictate to us what they want.

    I'm seriously concerned as to the implications long term for IM'rs.
    People are only looking at the sidewiki problems that concern us in the here and now.

    I'll leave it at that for now and continue this later.

    Thanks for comments everyone.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      What happens when negative Sidewiki comments appear for major manufacturers sites and major commerce sites online? Will those big spenders be exempted from Sidewiki? Or will they move advertising away from google? Will google exempt sites that spend a certain amount on adwords?

      How far will google go to push Sidewiki? Will your rank be hurt if you manage to prevent SW comments from showing? Will Adwords campaigns or adsense accounts be banned if the buyer disables sidewiki? We don't know. A serious drop in Adwords revenue might be the only thing that would get google's attention.

      We are looking at the immediate implications - which are not good. But there may repercussions for google farther down the road. I know if I were running Bing I'd be ramping up the advertising....just as Bing is doing right now.

      kay
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Puddy
    is side wiki a US only thing right now?

    I cant find any reference to it in my google account or on the toolbar, i'm in the UK so it seems only US google accounts can see this thing as far as I can make out

    Robert
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  • Profile picture of the author designfuschion
    I'm not sure myself,as i've never used or ever will use the toolbar.
    Last time i installed a toolbar was circa 2003. It was apart of some software..which i promptly removed..

    anyway..it actually doesn't matter if you have the toolbar or not. Google is making copies of sites and hosting on their own servers with sidewiki comments alongside(ranking the Swiki comments).

    You can view comments without the toolbar.

    Not sure myself if comments can be made without the toolbar.

    If anyone can verify this-i'd appreciate it.
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  • Profile picture of the author la dominatrix
    Who do you know that has taken on Google and won?
    la dominatrix
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    No .. I already have a domain setup with a website, fact is google is going to do what they are going to do. I have plans on blocking all comments period, including blocking comments from url's that spammers copy and try to share.

    It is coming soon and will be the only solution that fully blocks sidewiki comments. This is the best way to fight google, not use their system and block comments from being seen and thus comments will not be used on many websites. You do not use the system then at some point google either drops it or changes it..

    James
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