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Does anyone seriously think these folks don't know about robots.txt? Folks, it's clearly a form of institutionalized trolling. Various of the folks involved a

by Hoff 17y ago

Does anyone seriously think these folks don't know about robots.txt? Folks, it's clearly a form of institutionalized trolling. Various of the folks involved are clearly piling onto the best troll since, well, since the marketeers of some movie managed to get their 2012 troll onto HN. Like spam, trolling is now a business model. Please don't feed the trolls.

va_coder 17y ago
Do I think the guy on that podium who gave the speech may not know about robots.txt? Yes
leviathant 17y ago
While I agree that they know about robots.txt and are trolling, these are not your average trolls. They are able to get serious traction because they control a lot of the more traditional venues for information, it's a little more important to call them out. While a bunch of people at HN saying "robots.txt, duh" will not directly communicate the idea to said CEO, perhaps at some point someone doing research on the topic will go searching for information on the topic. The more counter-FUD we put out there, the better.
- Hoff 17y ago
  These folks +know+ about robots.txt stuff. If not directly, then because some staffer and most any sycophant in range has already pointed to it. The folks have almost certainly explicitly told the staffers involved not to enable robots.txt, too. (If they truly were fools, they've have already enabled the robots block.) The point is to trigger the response to the troll, and the hope that the CEO will be able leverage the response to better their own business position. Some trolls deliberately stick typos or errors in their posts. Some folks show their naughty bits. Some make outrageous statements. The point is not the tech. The point is not the truth. The point is the the schtick, and the profit potential. This is the basis of modern media. It's an effective form of attention-seeking spam. This doesn't mean I don't think Google should just "accidentally" drop one or two of these organizations from the search indexes. "You're not listed? Whoops. We thought you wanted out of the Google indexes. Our bad." But that'd be both juvenile, and would serve only to get the regulatory folks and legal teams involved all spooled up.
  - microtherion 17y ago
    The point is to trigger the response to the troll, and the hope that the CEO will be able leverage the response to better their own business position. Some trolls deliberately stick typos or errors in their posts. Some folks show their naughty bits. Some make outrageous statements. I've always felt that News Corp was the journalistic equivalent of Mr. goatse.

by Hoff 17y ago

va_coder 17y ago

Do I think the guy on that podium who gave the speech may not know about robots.txt? Yes

leviathant 17y ago

While I agree that they know about robots.txt and are trolling, these are not your average trolls. They are able to get serious traction because they control a lot of the more traditional venues for information, it's a little more important to call them out. While a bunch of people at HN saying "robots.txt, duh" will not directly communicate the idea to said CEO, perhaps at some point someone doing research on the topic will go searching for information on the topic. The more counter-FUD we put out there, the better.

Hoff 17y ago
These folks +know+ about robots.txt stuff. If not directly, then because some staffer and most any sycophant in range has already pointed to it. The folks have almost certainly explicitly told the staffers involved not to enable robots.txt, too. (If they truly were fools, they've have already enabled the robots block.) The point is to trigger the response to the troll, and the hope that the CEO will be able leverage the response to better their own business position. Some trolls deliberately stick typos or errors in their posts. Some folks show their naughty bits. Some make outrageous statements. The point is not the tech. The point is not the truth. The point is the the schtick, and the profit potential. This is the basis of modern media. It's an effective form of attention-seeking spam. This doesn't mean I don't think Google should just "accidentally" drop one or two of these organizations from the search indexes. "You're not listed? Whoops. We thought you wanted out of the Google indexes. Our bad." But that'd be both juvenile, and would serve only to get the regulatory folks and legal teams involved all spooled up.
- microtherion 17y ago
  The point is to trigger the response to the troll, and the hope that the CEO will be able leverage the response to better their own business position. Some trolls deliberately stick typos or errors in their posts. Some folks show their naughty bits. Some make outrageous statements. I've always felt that News Corp was the journalistic equivalent of Mr. goatse.