Sphinn - Closing Down the Blog.. (DaveN goes all Calcanis)

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Closing Down the Blog.. (DaveN goes all Calcanis)

Went Hot: September 18, 2008 - 12:19 pm
Posted By: DazzlinDonna 290 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk)
Category: Blogging

David Naylor does the Calcanis dance, saying "I Quit!", but of course he then mentions he'll be back later. His frustration with whatever Google glitch / penalty / error / ban is affecting his blog's indexing has prompted him to throw in the towel. Should he be so impatient? Weigh in.

24 Comments

Who Desphunn This (0)

Comments

from rhcerff 290 days ago #

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Link bait?

from DazzlinDonna 290 days ago #

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Maybe...

from MikeDammann 290 days ago #

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If you let Google make you quit, then maybe you should quit or not have been blogging in the first place. If you love blogging, just do it. Doesn't matter if you have 300 readers or 10k readers a day. If you have something to say, you will eventually do well. If you don't, you will crumble, regardless of the quick start Google may provide you with,.

from JohnHGohde 290 days ago # - show/hide this comment

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How can you be an authority on SEM, yet not have a clue about WordPress? Everybody with a WordPress blog after all is facing the same problems.

from PPCblogger 290 days ago #

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Not sure I get why people are sphinning this.

from DazzlinDonna 290 days ago #

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You don't consider this to be search-related news? A prominent search blogger has issues with getting indexed in Google, and therefore throws in the towel...how is that not sphinn-worthy? Don't get me wrong - it's not life or death for search folks to read, but i just wonder if maybe we aren't going too far in deciding what's worthy of sphinn and what isn't.

Still, if I inappropriately sphunn this, i won't complain if it's taken down. And btw, i'm not trying to be antagonistic here either...i'm legitimately curious about your comment, PPCblogger. I walked away from Sphinn for a few months recently, and I've only just returned, so perhaps I've missed some nuances about what is appropriate and what isn't anymore. Enlighten me.

from DaveN 290 days ago #

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nope not link bait,, just so pissed off ... but I promise I will be testing a theory..

from DazzlinDonna 290 days ago #

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looking forward to seeing theory test results...

from onreact 290 days ago #

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Donna, do not let people nag you down.

Calacanis messes up and then runs away. "Pull a Calacanis" is capitilazing on prejudice and ignorance. "Going out like Calacanis" is failing and making a big fuss about it to make it look less bad.

Calacanis failed at Netscape, he failed at search conferences, then he failed with blogging. Soon he'll fail with his "Web 3.0" directory. We'll see what stunt he'll do then to cover it.

So do not take Calacanis as your role model. Stopping to blog for a while or blogging every few weeks is perfectly natural, but telling everybody you quit is a big mistake. You lose your audience. Btw. my blog has 85% non-Google traffic and I'm perfectly happy with it. In the SEO 2.0 era you don't Google!

from DaveN 290 days ago #

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I know why It's banned .. just need to work out what to do next i guess the Blog on davidnaylor may never come back and we just turn it into a news feed system, with me add the odd comment to our writes POV,

from IncrediBILL 290 days ago #

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Too funny as I was laughed at for locking down my sites years ago for SEO purposes and more.

Now it's come full circle and the big SEOs are finally admitting what many webmasters already knew. that it's a big problem.

Problem with tools like the FireWall Script is it's based on rules to eliminate things, the blacklisting method, which means it's easy to adapt around the rules. Whitelisting is still the best way to go along with software that monitors and adapts to online behavior without waiting for someone to make up a rule. By the time the rules are created the damage is already done to your site so having a software sentinel is always best.

However, what they have is better than nothing.

Good luck with it!

from wheel 290 days ago # - show/hide this comment

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With respect to DaveN, this is the kind of post that really shouldn't be sitting on the front page. It's not SEO news or information, it's personal. Folks that care about DaveN closing his blog can read about it on his blog. Nobody else cares.

If there was information that we all need to see, it should get a post here. But this isn't information, it's gossip. daveN closing his blog is as informational to the rest of us as the news that my blog is closed would do for him.

Of course, it's pretty clear that I'm wrong and that in fact enquirer type news is what goes around here. So have at it.

from DaveN 290 days ago #

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what gossip about some fucking hackers adding cloaked links to you site and google banning you for that

from SEOAly 290 days ago #

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I believe this is Sphinn-worthy...hence my having Sphunn it. I believe Google banning a well-known blogger as a result of hacking is a story we would all, or should all, be interested in learning more about. Google has appointed themselves the Internet police...and I think we should all be made aware when issues such as this occur. If it can happen to DaveN, it could easily happen to one of our client's sites...

from DazzlinDonna 289 days ago #

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so wait, this is because the blog was hacked? hell, that happens every day. fix the problem and you're back in - in a day or so. why get all bent out of shape about it? unless of course, i'm not understanding the depths of the problem, but if all this is just because the site got hacked, it seems like it's an overly dramatic reaction.

oh, and for the ones who think it shouldn't be front page, fine. i give. i think i'll just go back into my sphinn-less world. it was peaceful the last couple of months when i wasn't dealing with the bs here.

from DazzlinDonna 289 days ago #

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btw, just read the update on the blog, and realize you only over-reacted, dave, because u were unaware. fair enough. but now that u know, i can tell you that it happens a lot, and getting back in easy. just clean it up, and it's all good.

from MikeDammann 289 days ago #

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I Sphunn it because it shows how much Google can decide who is in and who is out.

from PPCblogger 289 days ago #

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Hi Donna, my only point was, to do a little bit of research before a blog post like that.

Not having a go at you specifically or anyone really. A simple site command in big G would bring up the prob.

Cheers.

from wheel 289 days ago #

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If the post was focused on indexing problems and there was some technical information about what's going on and some steps that had been taken, then this would have been front page news because it would be informative.

A cursory glance of the original post shows that instead it's focused on the frustration of the blog owner and that they're quitting blogging. As has been noted, that news is best suited for the blog, not sphinn.

Of course the fact that this did rocket to the top of sphinn shows the level of posting that folks find acceptable here, and brings into question as always who's spinning what, and on what basis.

Sphinn would do well to implement a TOS that includes something that the post must either be really noteworthy on it's own or be informative, and get rid of the gossip level posts that still inundate the front page here.

from iBrian 289 days ago #

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DaveN is probably the most technically brilliant SEO in the UK - so anyone who thinks this post isn't worth communicating I can only put down to sheer ignorance of industry giants.

I predicted some time ago we would see more hacking of sites for SEO purposes, and it's really accelerated this year. Wordpress has been a super-target for hackers recently, so if even DaveN's having issues with it, that says a lot about the state of affairs.

Anyone here thinks that's not potential newsworthy discussion is welcome to take up the conversation with Russian hackers after their own site gets taken out.

from wheel 289 days ago #

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Oh bullshit brian. Expressing one's opinion doesn't make one ignorant. What's ignorant is trying to portray that post as some sort of technical miracle. It was a rant, nothing else. Nobody's saying DaveN doesn't post great posts worth noting. Folks are suggesting that this sure wasn't one of them. If you had even read the original post, there wasn't any mention of russian hackers. I don't think there was even any mention of scrapers. Whatever, it wasn't focussed on whatever you think you read into it. If the post actually HAD been about whatever the hell you're talking about, then folks here would be reading it with interest.

from wheel 289 days ago #

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As for Ibrian's comments about people's opinions being ignorant, my rebuttal of his opinion doesn't meet the rigourous standards of this site so you'll have to use your imagination.

from iBrian 289 days ago #

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wheel, I don't know if you've noticed but there's a massive amount of Wordpress hacking going on at present.

Sometimes links are quietly inserted into the template, other times the htaccess is rewritten so that referrals from search engines to your Wordpress site are instead redirected to an affiliate site, often via a Russian IP or .ru site.

Considering DaveN's standing in the community, and his reputation for technical problem solving, the fact that he's having issues here I would considering worthy of attention and discussion.

Also, did you read his post? This is not a "Dave stops blogging!" thread - it's about Wordpress hacking, another method, and how it can badly impact sites.

If you have any commercial sites built on Wordpress, or clients running WP blogs, you can be sure this will be an issue you'll need to look at.

from MikeDammann 288 days ago #

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When are wordpress and Google going to work together to do more to help secure the platform? This is a huge problem for both. With that many WP blogs, it's a free for all to manipulate the SERPs.