Disqus - Latest Comments for PurpleCar

Re: Bye-Bye, Amazon: Why I Won’t Write Reviews For You Again

PurpleCar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:06:56 -0000

Peter, thanks for your thoughtful response.

Amazon does, in fact, sell your reviews. This is a different system than affiliate selling.

Amazon charges sites to access their catalog. Along with the catalog, they include some reviews. I'm not privvy to the formula (or what coders call "algorithms") that choose which reviews get packaged along with the catalog, but be assured that the user reviews are offered as a part of that catalog. Amazon would sell less catalog rentals if people stopped writing free reviews for them. The reviews are what set them apart from other ISBN/product code catalogs.

This really comes down to how one views the internet and how to use it. Reviews are work. Getting the "freebies" of which you speak is now a forbidden practice, as per new FTC "guidelines."

I'm not in it for free books. I can get my books from the library or buy them myself. The amount of "freebies" of stuff I don't even want or have space for doesn't compensate me for the work of reviews. You obviously don't have the same opinion about that, and that's cool. Lots of people enjoy seeing their name in the Amazon review areas, even if their reviews end up on the back pages. The thrill of that for me faded a long time ago.

-PC

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Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

PurpleCar — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:27:41 -0000

MIke: I KNOW! Back in 2008! Isn't that a shame that this Adam Slaney hoax on Facebook is still making the rounds?

I don't watch my blog stats, but whenever I pass my Wordpress Dashboard, this post is always at the top. It's gotten, literally, thousands of views. I keep adding the new names that get put on the spam email, so people can just search on the name and find out it's hoax. Snopes is wonderful, but they can't keep adding every new name that comes down the pike. If you see any new names in the hoax, please come back to purplecar.net and let me know, or find me on facebook as facebook.com/christinecavalier/

And don't worry too much about your friends. Everyone is in a learning stage right now. It's only been 10 years or so of widespread internet access, and it's a scary place. There is very little regulation, protection or education about it. Try to have some patience with the end users. (Of course, I say this, but I rip my hair out over their inane behaviors on a weekly basis.)

Thanks for checking in!

Peace!
-PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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Re: New Post for Troy!

PurpleCar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:50:06 -0000

Thanks Hailey! You're right, troops need mail and support, no matter what our politics are.

Re: Quick Review: The Fattening of America by Finklestein & Zuckerman

Mike_S_Htown — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:45:14 -0000

Yep, I did hear about Superfreakonomics. But, I'm cheap -- so, I'll either wait for the library to get it or borrow your copy... :-)

Re: Quick Review: The Fattening of America by Finklestein & Zuckerman

PurpleCar — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:36:34 -0000

OH! and I've seen SuperSizeMe. Awesome.

Peace!
-PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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Re: Quick Review: The Fattening of America by Finklestein & Zuckerman

PurpleCar — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:36:31 -0000

Yes I think that's on my list. There is a superfreakonomics now too.

Peace!
-PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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Re: Bye-Bye, Amazon: Why I Won’t Write Reviews For You Again

PurpleCar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:22:17 -0000

No problem Mike! You know me (literally!). I'm a font of information. Or copied and pasted emails, which pretty much constitute "information" nowadays.

Thanks for stopping in!

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Re: Bye-Bye, Amazon: Why I Won’t Write Reviews For You Again

PurpleCar — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:14:02 -0000

Thomas, thanks so much!

Firstly, good work on the Amazon TOS. I was hoping someone like you would find the exact paragraph in all that muck. My gratitude!

Secondly, thanks for clarifying "fair use." Will think about revising my post to cut out the unofficial use of it. Can't do that right at this moment but I will look at it soon. (Not a big fan of major editing after posting, so I may just publish an "Update" of your useful information.) Again, my thanks.

Thirdly, yes, you're correct, Amazon can still publish my work even though I deleted it, but deleting it is my little form of protest. Also, it's my hope that their huge infrastructure will re-claim the dinky white (disk) space and truly delete the work, or at least remove it from the freely-referenced content. I'm not privvy to their infrastructure design, but I know as a former sys admin that it's possible that my deleting the work may keep it from being distributed again.

Re: Bye-Bye, Amazon: Why I Won’t Write Reviews For You Again

PurpleCar — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:49:04 -0000

Sending them an invoice would just be an experiment, and ending up being an experiment in futility I'm sure. But if my review is still up on newandusedbooks.com without credit in 3 business days, I will send them an invoice.

This is a legal hole, I think. Amazon says they own the content and can sell it (I'm assuming), so newandusedbooks.com will refer me to that policy. Still, it doesn't seem that newandusedbooks have set up protection from this. I'm not a barister or a lawyer, so I don't know. It would be interesting to find out. The point of contention is that they removed the links. Amazon lets you have a link in exchange for the review, but they let their affiliates remove those links. That seems unfair.

I may call up my intellectual property lawyer friend about this.

Re: Automatic Direct Messages on Twitter

iquanyin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:22:24 -0000

well, this is way late because i finally rememberd i could check disqus replies. you were right, pass change solved it.

Re: Effective Immediately- No More Auto-Follow

PurpleCar — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:03:25 -0000

Thanks, Chris! I made the same decision a few months ago. It's a shame. But it is easier to click on every name in my @ replies (mentions) list to make sure I'm following back than it is to sort through all of the spam/spammers. Good luck. -PC

Re: Teaching for the Future - wearethedigitalkids: somethingchanged: “Clay...

newmediator — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:32:52 -0000

If I can quote my favorite podcast "Ask Mr. Biggs": "Talk like PEOPLE!!"

Re: Teaching for the Future - wearethedigitalkids: somethingchanged: “Clay...

PurpleCar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:46:16 -0000

Why can't this Clay Shirky write like this? He is perfectly understandable in this video, unlike his book "Here Comes Everybody," where he used overwrought, pedantic and esoteric language (yes I used haughty words to describe Clay's haughty words, the irony isn't lost on me). I really actually like Clay Shirky, I think he's smart. But I wish he would write for a more general audience; now his writing just comes across as elitist.

Anyway: I like how he is approaching the emotional impact of false media and connections. Thanks for posting!

Re: The Use of U

PurpleCar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:54:35 -0000

w00t! I'm a big fan of moving the language forward at a bit of a faster pace than normally (which is about the speed of a turtle with a bad cold).

Re: Disqus lost my comment

PurpleCar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:50:46 -0000

This is the first dropped comment I've run into myself, but I have no way of knowing who else may have run into it here. I also have a hard time with the spam filter. I send an email to delete the spam, but it remains on my blog's admin page and I have to manually delete it there.

*sigh*

Thanks for telling me that, I think if Marina Martin, internetz queen, ditched disqus, maybe I should too. -PC

Re: Comma Controversy

PurpleCar — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:36:31 -0000

Thanks for commenting!

I think we should note that the commas separating address parts are for paragraphs only. I had a little contention with the 3rd grade curriculum this year, as they were teaching the old convention for snail mail addressing. I sent a link to the Post Office website to the teacher. No punctuation and all caps are preferred by the Post Office now. Personally I find that adding the 4 digit code onto the end of the Zip Code helps speed delivery too.

Yes I know I didn't put a comma after the first word of the last sentence or the first word of this one.

If I wanted more dramatic effect, I would've placed the commas there.

I'd say tell him to read whatever he writes out loud. That is an old novelist's technique and it truly does help with style and flow.

By the way, when did we have the same English teacher? Who are we talking about? Miss Martin? Sister-what's-her-name?

-PC

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Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

PurpleCar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:33:44 -0000

Sarah,

There isn't any hacking risk to accepting a friend request on Facebook. You can accept any requests you like. Accepting friend requests from the people listed in this note (or any new ones that come along) won't do any harm, to you or your computer. It's just not how hacking works. A hacker needs your password, for any site that has password protection on the internet (like Facebook). Even friends on Facebook don't get to view your password, nor could they hack their way to it just because of the friend connection.

Believe me, if there were a way to hack friend connections, the hackers would have already done it by now. How would Facebook survive if they didn't code this basic security into the platform? These types of emails are just hogswash, meant as a joke or denial-of-service attack on others. They also spread TRULY unnecessary fear. So yes, friend Adam Slaney and the others. They'll be able to see everything you haven't marked private, but they will never be able to navigate to your password, let alone a totally different email account on totally different servers with totally different companies (The whole "warning" is ridiculous).

-PC

Re: Adam Slaney Facebook Warning: Real or DoS attack?

sister-woman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:15:05 -0000

Here we are a ywear later, and I've had avout a half dozen Facebook frineds send it to me, I finally posted this to my page toget them all to chill! :)

Re: We the Tweeple

PurpleCar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:20:40 -0000

I LOVE that link, all of those charts and graphs! (you know I love me the statistics!) I'll have to look up Sysomos more often.

Re: Getting a blogging job – five tips – Problogger

tojosan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:31:58 -0000

I believe you about the jobs being offered. That's a frequently heard complaint. Perhaps his assumption is the truly bad writers/bloggers won't bother?

Re: Getting a blogging job – five tips – Problogger

PurpleCar — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:28:48 -0000

Thanks for sharing. I think he's deluding himself and us about the blogging jobs on craigslist and other sites. Firstly, many of them are scams, Secondly, many of them and other blogging jobs are offered at slave-labor rates, not at all worth the effort and risk of harming your reputation when the news leaks that you will blog for pennies.

So, it kind of enrages me, actually, that he would put out this kind of "advice." It isn't good advice for writers who live in the real world. It's for lay people who want to see their name somewhere and they would do it for free.

Re: Facebook.com/username

PurpleCar — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:17:35 -0000

UPDATE: My friend Bill Cammack talked about this over on his awesome blog. As is usually the case, we tend to clarify our points in comments better than we do if we just post on our own. Go over and read his post (it's short). Here's my comment over there. It goes into a bit more of my thought process on why I chose my real name instead of my username on Facebook:

"Hey man, I posted on this too. I was wondering about this myself. Facebook.com/christine.cavalier is my vanity URL but I almost took /purplecar. My reasoning was this: every other web app I take the "username" purplecar and "real name" christine cavalier. Why should facebook be different? But then I thought about the search behaviors of people on Facebook.

People search Facebook in a unique manner, compared to other sites. They search for people, mostly, by just name, forgoing drilling down into networks or groups until after their initial search has turned up fruitless (yet abundant) search results. (We all are acutely aware of the search problems on Facebook).

Also, I considered the population. On sites like Jaiku, we are all social media industry people. These techie types know how to search on username AND then real name. More and more "normal" people are coming on Facebook, especially our schoolmates. How will they search for me? By my name.

It's possible that once "normal" people become familiar with the vanity URL, they won't search Facebook for a friend. Instead they will first try their luck on typing in facebook.com/christinecavalier (the dot is irrelevant, both christinecavalier and christine.cavalier will work).

So, there's my long explanation on how I came to break my standard username-first policy for social media sites. I treated Facebook as the unique exception (and crappy search engine) that it is.

-PC"

What did you guys choose, and why? Let me know here. Thanks!

Re: Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.

PurpleCar — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:11:37 -0000

Michelle,

Exactly. Thanks for commenting! Come back and link me to your post when you are done.

I forgot to add the child-marriage aspect. My friend pointed out that the "imprinting" on babies thing is basically a child-marriage arrangement. We've all seen spin-offs of the Mormon church do this very thing, probably due to a fundamental belief in fate and pre-ordained couplings. With Jacob imprinting on Nessie and his other friend imprinting on the two year old girl, it supports that very fate-controlled life, especially for girls. Yuck.

I totally agree that Bella and Edward are pathetic. It was quite annoying.

-PC

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Re: To Friend or Not To Friend the Ex.

monkeychick — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:23:25 -0000

LOL. Thanks for the advice. Must have been a lonely evening thing because now I'm fine, not thinking of him and really wanted to smack myself in the head for even being curious about it. I don't want to get involved with the whole "baby daddy" thing, not me!! LOL

I'm pretty happy, ready to move this weekend and start my life over. Nothing wrong with having fun in the meantime!!

Thanks again. :)

Re: To Friend or Not To Friend the Ex.

PurpleCar — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:27:08 -0000

Hi Monkey Chick!

Well, first let me say Congratulations on starting your new life. Divorce can be a beginning, too.

I usually keep my advice to online etiquette and computing issues, as I'm not a counselor, but I felt compelled to answer you.

I think you should treat this man as only a little more than a stranger. He's involved with a woman who is about to have his child. You do *not* want to get in the middle of that. Honestly, the guy sounds like he is looking for any way out of the
ridiculous yet serious situation his irresponsible behavior has gotten
him into. Don't give him that excuse.

Ask yourself if it is really this man that you want or is it the comforting idea that you *do* have good taste in men. By getting back together with an ex, it's as if you are proving to yourself that you had it right but just got off the path somehow. After divorce, that crushing sense of failure can put false hope in unhealthy places. Keep your FB and MySpace relations strictly to girlfriends and family for a while. Update daily so your friends can comment with their support.

Find yourself a good counselor. Your insurance company will have counseling practices that they work with, or ask a friend for a suggestion. Do not make any major moves with anyone, especially not an ex, until you are absolutely sure you are doing the right thing. You aren't a failure. You *will* find a man worthy of the person you're growing into. Give yourself some time to grow into that older, wiser, more confident and more beautiful person.

Come back in 9-12 months to let me know how it is going, OK? Good luck!

-PC

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