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This blog scrapes HN comments and reposts them on the blog without permission. In the process it serializes the threading and so it's going to destroy the thre
by tel 17y ago
This blog scrapes HN comments and reposts them on the blog without permission.
In the process it serializes the threading and so it's going to destroy the threaded nature of these reposted conversations. In this way it's rebranding the information served here, misrepresenting the attention commenters here give the post, and confusing the outside reader.
I know there's an attempt to smooth these difficulties with the "This comment was originally posted on [[Hacker News]]" line but that leaves me still confused as to the origin and meaning of the comment quoted. I interpret that to mean, ridiculously, that commenters at HN gave their permission explicitly to repost comments on Feint. Actually, it even appears to me that they personally moved it.
This is, of course, very similar to the the controversy AllThingsDigital stirred up a little while ago (http://waxy.org/2009/04/all_things_digital_and_transparency_in_online_journalism/ http://waxy.org/2009/04/all_things_digital_and_transparency_...) but I don't think Feint is really making a large improvement over that situation.
- feint 17y agoits a backtype plugin used by hundreds of blogs
- sfk 17y agoAnd it's equally idiotic on your blog as it is on hundreds of other blogs. What is the point of having the same "content" posted over and over again in a multitude of venues?
- access_denied 17y agoIf the other blogs close down for one reason or other you still have the content on your own blog for your own archive-of-your-life.
- feint 17y agoI agree - i removed the plugin. It worked better when most of the conversation around my content happened on FriendFeed, where the conversation was much more fractured. HN is different and FF is dead so I decided to remove it. Thanks for your feedback
- tel 17y agoLike sfk, I don't think its popularity makes it any more valid, though similarly I also don't mean to single you out. Linking and sharing information is undoubtedly one of the foundations of the internet, but at the same time identity/anonymity is important. Backtype provides an interesting consumer service, but at the same time its plugin is destructive to maintenance of identity. If you're drawing from HN, separate it clearly from the comments left on at your blog and somehow summarize, emulate, or eliminate threads. Otherwise it's damaging to all around.