Disqus - Latest Comments for vincenzof

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

vincenzof — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:25:59 -0000

Mark, that isn't totally impossible, but we're not talking 10k versus 8k or 7k. We're talking 10k versus 400. That's not explainable as anything but number inflation.

Re: I’m Going to Start Tying the Merovingian Knot on My Ties

frankroche — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:06:09 -0000

Hey man, you're right...it's just a twist on a concept...and I love the style of it...I used to wear a tie every day, now it's more tie-dye. Still think the knot is groovy.

Re: I’m Going to Start Tying the Merovingian Knot on My Ties

vincenzof — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:16:04 -0000

I have to say as a simple man who doesn't wear ties all that much, the knot thing really just befuddles me. I know how to tie one knot, and I do it reasonably well. I just can't wrap my head around the whole "this not is better than that knot" thing.

Like I said, I'm a simple man ;-)

Re: Theater of my Mind

vincenzof — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:39:06 -0000

This is a test comment on TOMM.

Re: No-Follow Enabled On WordPress Plugin v2.04

Laibcoms — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:00:42 -0000

Actually, it is an effort nonetheless. From what I've read elsewhere, and I see the logic of the argument, bots are farming sites with comments feature. They'll try it at first and check if there is a no-follow, if it is positive, they mark it and skip it next time. If there is no no-follow, then they'll spread the news around.

That, IMO, will lessen the spammers who are after the no no-follow sites with comments. Addressing the other type of spammers requires another approach. For example, people who were hired to spam, are more challenging to combat than the bot-spammers ;) And these type of spammers are getting more and more ingenious and creative.

My two cents

Re: No-Follow Enabled On WordPress Plugin v2.04

giannii — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:10:02 -0000

Vinny,

This is only a minor update to be followed by a much larger update including new tools/methods to help resolve the current spam issue. The announcement regarding the larger update is going to be released soon and this is why I did not go into detail about it here.

Keep the faith,

Giannii
DISQUS
Community Manager
help@disqus.com

Re: No-Follow Enabled On WordPress Plugin v2.04

danielha — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:04:26 -0000

No one claimed that this was the stopper for SEO spam. We've seen a lot of spammers selling list of sites that don't use nofollow, and this update addresses that.

We've done a lot to address spam from many angles, many of which is not viewable to you as a user. Calling this non-reaction is absolutely untrue.

What's ancillary about evolving the product? Spammers are prolific and persistent; should we sit idle while we wait for their next technique? I personally do not think so. Your last statement is a bit amusing because Disqus tapped into Akismet for some of the filtering (it no longer serves as a complete solution for us either).

Appreciate the thoughts though, Vinny.

Re: No-Follow Enabled On WordPress Plugin v2.04

gregory80 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:38:14 -0000

i agree, this hurts legitimate commenters more than hurting spammers. I'm not ready to ditch disqus yet. But would really like to see better action taken. Can't disqus tie into Akismet?

Also, this latest plugin is only tested to wordpress 2.6.1? I hope this is a typo in the release and disqus means 2.7.1 (the latest)

Finally, wondering if disqus had a chance to fix track backs on wordpress. I spoke to a developer a few times about it and i'm more than happy to help and let disqus use my blog as a test-bed.

thanks!

Re: No-Follow Enabled On WordPress Plugin v2.04

vincenzof — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:51:07 -0000

Sorry, but that's just not good enough. All No Follow does is stop Google and others from following a link during indexing, but it does absolutely nothing to stop the spammers from leaving comments, does nothing to get the "search climbers" off disqus, and does nothing to solve the problem.

It solves the goal, but a spammer doesn't care if No Follow is on or in effect because they're not checking. They won't benefit in the long run, but that won't stop them from spamming the hell out of your blog in the first place.

Secondly, turning on No Follow only hurts legitimate linkers and commenters who give linky love to their posts or to other posts. In other words, the net effect is an ineffective spam stopper that hurts legitimate users who should benefit from followed links.

You guys really need to get your heads on straight and fix the spam issues. So far I see a lot of ancillary stuff and a lot of fixes for things that aren't at the heart of the problem (including Facebook connect? Come on!).

I liked disqus a lot in the time I had it installed (I even would've paid for a premium version if it were offered!), but at the rate you guys are going, I'm quite glad it's gone. Your non-reaction to a huge problem has convinced me that I'm better off keeping control of my comments in my hands on my server with Akismet which, incidentally, is catching the spam that Disqus was letting through.

Re: Regarding The Recent Spam

vincenzof — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:42:59 -0000

The worst part of it is that these comment spammers are using registered "legit" Disqus accounts across multiple blogs and spamming the hell out of Disqus. If I flag a user, and you flag a user and someone else flags a user, then all of their respective comments should be removed as spam pending moderator approval. End of story.

I've removed Disqus until this gets figured out and it really annoys me because there are so many reasons to like it, but I don't want my site plagued with spam, particularly spam that Akismet catches in one second.

Re: Regarding The Recent Spam

vincenzof — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:41:20 -0000

The problem is that a lot of these users are just parading around and hitting multiple sites even with their Disqus logins. What Disqus needs is a way to flag users for review by Disqus this way if someone else catches a spammer, their comments move into the spam queue across the board. This is one benefit made possible by the fact that Disqus is cross-site.

I'm seriously considering moving back to Wordpress' default comments simply because Disqus' comment spam feature is so anemic. It doesn't catch a lot and doesn't allow features you would expect from a networked system.

Re: IT.tv Episode 42: Worth Saving?

vincenzof — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:37:24 -0000

I'm not quite sure what the answer is, but seeing how broken the system here
is it's hard to argue that there's nothing wrong now. Like I say in the
video, I don't know what exactly the answer may be, but what we have right
now just isn't it.

Re: IT.tv Episode 9: Olympic Spirit My Ass

vincenzof — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:37:22 -0000

Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for the recommendation :-)

Re: IT.tv Episode 39: Poor Joe.

vincenzof — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:28:34 -0000

I'm so tired of the racist claims. It's just out of control. No matter
what you say, and no matter how you say it, if you criticize this guy,
you're motivations are boiled down to the fact that he's black and you're
not. I really can't take it anymore. If this is what "new" politics are
like, then I don't want any part of it.
For years, the left has complained that this is what the right did, so, when
given the chance, the first thing they do is exactly the same thing. Not
exactly what I was hoping for.

Re: IT.tv Episode 18: Lions and Tigers and Alpacas (Oh my!)

vincenzof — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:08:13 -0000

if only there was a Jackpot :-) The biggest win was getting two first class seats on the flight home!

Re: IT.tv Episode 7: The Democrat Energy Plan

vincenzof — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:18:23 -0000

The chosen one. Dude, I love it :-)

Re: On Arrington, my final word

vincenzof — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:21:19 -0000

It's called being a decent guy. It's not pathetic, it's the right thing to do. When you're up on people for not showing you the respect you deserve, you don't earn points by slamming them mercilessly.

Re: Insignificant Thoughts.tv Episode 1: The Video Game Video Ban

vincenzof — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:39:05 -0000

This is a test comment on insignificantthoughts.tv

Re: On Loren Feldman's statement about Shel Israel and FastCompany

ontarioemperor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:56:58 -0000

Vinny,

I've only seen one of the deleted comments, which was preserved in Google's cache. As I previously noted, if it were me I would have left the comment up. I'd characterize that one as a constructive comment with a disrespectful tone; there's probably a better way to say "...go away. You're making a fool of yourself."

Then again, there are comments which, although they contain constructive content, cross the line in other ways. I had to delete one of these from my own blog post because, while the comment was constructive, the poster chose a user name that included a derogatory reference to the anatomy of a certain person. No matter what constructive point the person was making, the positive benefit was pretty much wiped out by the penis reference.

And heck, that's just my personal blog. Business blogs have different standards, and apparently FastCompany decided that "go away" was not the professional tone that they wanted to set.

Re: On Loren Feldman's statement about Shel Israel and FastCompany

vincenzof — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:22:46 -0000

I read a lot of those comments before they were deleted. The implication that they were anonymous or "hateful" or personal attacks is simply not true. One of the comments deleted made a very constructive point: Don't make the guest wait 4 minutes while you engage in forced uncomfortable looking banter. That was the entirety of the comment and it was deleted. You guys have every right to delete every single comment for any reason you want, but don't outwardly lie about the content of what you're deleting. Your assertion that it was all personal attacks is simply not true.

And just for the record, Vinny is my real name. I'm Vincent Ferrari. The guy who canceled his AOL account. I'm well-known enough that you can easily verify this is me. I'm not hiding behind anything or obscuring my true identity.

Re: Jake And Amir Dot Com

vincenzof — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:21:22 -0000

"Jake hit her!"

ROFLMAO

Re: Jake And Amir Dot Com

vincenzof — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:35:19 -0000

BRILLIANT. I wanna see it too.

Or do I?

Re: Fred’s Getting an N95 8GB NAM

vincenzof — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:05:42 -0000

He's a cranky whiny pedantic snot.

In short, no.

Re: Twitter: Don’t blame Ruby, blame Scoble

vincenzof — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:27:38 -0000

Not really. Friendfeed doesn't have anywhere near the volume that Twitter does, and doesn't have anywhere near the immediacy twitter users demand. Apples and oranges. I'm not saying Twitter's downtime isn't a problem; it certainly is, but comparing it to friendfeed isn't really fair.

Re: Twitter: Don’t blame Ruby, blame Scoble

simonstudio — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:51:08 -0000

the problem is 3000 friends or more on any network Robert Scoble! What is your real motive? MARKETING! with the kind of following you have, you should be taking on more social responsibility (no not soup kitchens... you should be involved in the social issues between people other then yourself. People are getting harrassed by your so called friends), badmouthing the troops in Iraq? You work PR like a third world nation. When you are in doubt, blame America right? We Won't Be Fooled Again