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Thank You Wordpress For Kicking Out PPP blogs!

Wordpress.com has sent cease-and-desist messages to bloggers involved in the PayPerPost scheme. First one down to report, Colleen, the always unrepentant king of PPP, though she doesn’t host her spammy crap on Wordpress.com, others do.

Thank you wordpress for taking a stance against what is a cancer in the blogosphere.

Scoble agrees:

Also, if you want to put lots of ads and things on your blog, why are you using a free service? Pay for a host and put that stuff somewhere else.

The lesson for everybody, though, is that you need to be in full control of what you do online. Maybe Wordpress doesn’t allow you to use PPP, but what if next week they decide to use Adsense on every blog and make money themselves? What if MySpace just takes your page away from you? What if your podcast feed is owned by somebody else? Scary stuff could happen.

The Posties, when not discussing their children’s cold, are going ape-shit over this. It is always interesting, by the way, how these people have absolutely no technical expertise.

Though apparently, PPP is trying to work things out with Wordpress – ten dollars they won’t?

I am going to have lunch with these guys next week to see if we can make this better for you guys. I think it is a bit crazy myself. If I was them I would be offering you an alternative hosting option.

Check your facts before reporting. I don’t host with wordpress.com – I merely shared the email on my blog. My blog is still going strong

Ah – wishful thinking on my part. I guess there is always hope vox.com will kick you out then.

Don’t do PPP on there either – sorry to burst that bubble, but *pop*

Hey, thanks for the free advertising!!

See Colleen, that’s the problem – I see a post of yours on games on you PPP blog and a post on games on you vox blog – and ‘pop’ goes your credibility.

And given that you just started the vox blog, I would guess that one doesn’t qualify for PPP or similar schemes yet. Give it a month or two and then lets see what goes on there.

Denise – I know. That’s the best defense the Posties have been able to muster up. “If you write about us, it is just free advertising.” But then, thankfully, I have also seen posts of people who thought about using PPP and decided not to because they thought they could do better than that and didn’t want to belong at the bottom of the ethical swamp.

For me the question is not whether PPP is a legitimate way to earn money on a blog. I don’t like PPP as a business model, as It doesn’t pay enough to make it worthwhile.

The question for me is how little guys trying to make a few bucks are not allowed any commercial activity, whereas the “private” blog of a corporate startup is allowed to feed as much traffic and pagerank to their place of business as they like.

The same rules should apply to all users of Wordpress.com, and if it is impossible to enforce, they should either change the rules, or not allow external linking.

Andy,

I see your point, but I also see who wordpress doesn’t want its users to be involved in these programs. If I agree with Colleen about one thing, it is to be in control of your own content. On your own domain (and I am not refering to you here, as you have your own domain), you can do as you like.

I wonder if Wordpress really doesn’t enforce its own rules across the board. I know Scoble hosts with them, but has the VIP package and pays. Are there other examples I am not aware of?

Yes, please check your facts. It was mothers talking about taking a nap not a cold. And why do you care? And do you have kids? I am guessing not. Or if you do, I guess you are a better parent than I am. I’ll give you a medal.

These conversations were taken from a forum chat. This is not the only forum I am a member of. This is a conversation I have held elsewhere regarding other parenting topics. It took place in a general forum too. What is so wrong about an exchange of ideas?

Ah yes, it was a nap, but really, why so angry? I was just pointing out that Posties (with that cute name and all), have this community going that draws people in and lets them forget about the ethical problems with the way they are making money and having conversations about everyday things. Of course, on your forum, that was considered to be an angry and nasty comment. That part, I can’t help, but I guess I should not have written it, because it sidetracked the conversation from the real problem.

And while I am on a role, at least my “Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings” are mine, and not written because I am sponsored by a Florida Real Estate company, or sombeody hawking used Cisco routers, or a producer of flashlights.

Oh, and by the way, if you write something in a public forum, you can’t complain if somebody sees it.

I am not complaining that you saw it. I am complaining because it has nothing to do with the point you are trying to make.

You are entitled to your opinion such I am mine. However, I do not go around calling you names.

Walk a mile in my shoes. I do PPP because I have thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay (yes, I have health insurance and half way decent insurance too). If you wouldn’t mind paying these for me, I’ll quit PPP just for you.

I do not find this to be an ethical dilemna for me. I do not want bill collectors at my door. I live in a world that you do what you have to do to make ends meet (as long as it is legal).

I just reread your post. You didn’t call us names, but you do imply that we are scum of the earth.

Now you are smart enough to figure out which of my posts are PPP (and the Florida Real Estate company isn’t). Why do you not expect the same of my readers?

blm, I am sorry to hear you are in such financial troubles and it does explain why you use PPP. I was not trying to attack you (or your children for that matter) personally.

I think it is fair to say though that a lot of Posties are not the most technical people. In a way, I almost see PPP using folks in your situation to make a buck and forcing you into unethical behavior. If I were you, I would look into ReviewMe, as at least they have a disclosure rule and don’t influence your review.

That doesn’t change my mind thatPPP is an unethical business in my , but it explains why you want to use it and it is your good right to use it – nobody can prevent you from doing that.

As for the Florida Real Estate post, it seemed like a PPP post to me. I wouldn’t have recognized it as any different from the Cisco routers post, with its three links to the same company etc. Maybe indeed I am not smart enough to figure this out.

But whenever you write something – and it is not disclosed as PPP, I don’t know if I can fully trust you or not. That, to me, is the most troubling aspect of using PPP. You lose all your credibility and as a blogger, that’s all you got.

Your readers, by the way, would probably find you through a search engine and go to a specific post, so they wouldn’t know the context of your site, and they probably wouldn’t see the small little link to a disclosure policy at the bottom of the sidebar under the heading “Links.”

Thank you for your nice reply. (And that is not sarcasm either).

I can say that a lot of us feel like we have been personally attacked from people who do not agree with PPP. We have been compared to drug dealers, scum of the earth, etc. When you drag our kids into it, well that’s war and that’s why I came across as angry. Since you have been trolling in our forums, you should have noticed that we have created a nice community separate from PPP over there.

If you come across my site from a search engine, well wouldn’t you take it with a grain of salt anyway. You don’t know me. I know when I go to Amazon.com or any sites like that I read the reviews of the product I am looking for. Actually, I have a perfect example. I am looking for a tray for my mom for Xmas. My sister has one and loves it. We found it on Target’s website. The review for it was bad. However, who am I going to believe – my sister or some stranger? I guess it is all about an informed decision. To be honest, I don’t care if you trust me. You don’t know me, I don’t know you. Anything that I would see on your blog I would take with a grain of salt too.

I have never said I own something I don’t. I just say to check this out and do what you want with it. I was doing that long before PPP and not getting paid for it.

As regular readers of mine have told me, they can tell what is PPP. I have not had one complaint. Heck, I’ve actually had emails thanking me for directing them to a cool site. One I did for PPP and the other wasn’t PPP.

I did sign up for Review Me and have yet to hear anything from them. Sorry that my reply is so long. I hope I answered all your points.

blm, fair enough.

I would still hope you would strife to make people trust you, which in the end would make your site far more valuable, I think, but I see you point of view, even if I don’t agree with it.

That said, please accept my apologies.

Thank you. I do accept.

I do see your point of view even though I do not agree with it also. I enjoyed the exchange that did not result in us having to call each other names to make our points.