Plagiarisers, We Hates Them...

It's weird, this plagiarising business. I've got one chap who even decided to make a blog consisting entirely of my posts, all without acknowledgments or link backs (not that I allow this sort of behaviour, even if he'd asked).

Since there are no acknowledgements or link backs, how do I find out in the first place? Some of my posts contain self-referencing links to other parts of my blogs, and that particular genius copied lock, stock and frigging barrel. This includes the product links to Play-Asia. So if anyone buys from his side, I get money (which is a good thing, but I don't like plagiarisers).

Anyways, I gotten to know the chap's Advertlets' User ID. Now lets see what Josh Lim and co can do for me...

Advertlets - "We Admit" - No Apology in the E-mail?

It tickles me pink to see people blogging about the Advertlets, but not having remove the damned code from their own blogs. Despite flushing my DNS and clearing my cache, I'm still seeing the redirected page, albeit a slightly differennt one with a new expiry date set to 2010.

I'm actually expecting a letter of apology in my mailbox, rather than something written on that Internet-forsaken site known as advertlets.com. Why post up an apology on a site that is still half past six after this domain name fiasco? I can see the post on ping.sg, but I can't read it in full, since the damn site still redirects.

The problem was still there, affecting other blogs even early this morning! I know this since I got one blog owner who came complaining that his site got hijacked.

From what I can see from ping.sg, the apology is robotic and monotonous. "We admit". I'm sure most people don't mind some grovelling, since it was a major screw-up, and a ridiculous one at that.

Forcing us to read about your apology through a blog aggregrator, only to go to read more bout it on a site that is still not working? Please la. You don't need a PR person to tell you that e-mailling would be a better way to handle this. Unless of course the e-mail server is down too. :)

Advertlets.com Post Domain Expiry - Find Something Interesting

I was checking out some of my archive posts on my blog when something weird happened. I clicked on the link on the main page, had a glimpse of my archive article before being FORWARDED to Advertlets' page. Not only was this a "hairan-bin-ajaib" moment, there was something wrong with the Advertlets' page. Here's a sample:


Here's a screenshot after I entered advertlets.com into my browser's address bar:


I had this conversation with Cincauhangus of undebug.org, and this is not the first time some crazy thing happened when it comes to Advertlets' domain name:

tokyo Nights says:
advertlets domain name expired
CincauHangus ∞ says:
again?
CincauHangus ∞ says:
hahah
tokyo Nights says:
u saw rite?
CincauHangus ∞ says:
yea
CincauHangus ∞ says:
beli beli

Anyways, I'm removing all Advertlets code. I had one running at the bottom of the page. I suggest everyone else who is running their ads to do so too. Otherwise, your blog might be showing something else. Can claim lost of revenue/readership?

I Has Nuffnang Cheque, But It Is Wet!

No thanks to Mr. Postman yesterday who left a portion of the Nuffnang letter out of the mailbox and thus exposed to the elements. Pardon the lolcat-like language in the title.

In any case yesterday was also a milestone for my Advertlets account as it surpassed the big five-o. I'm not really happy as even though some of my best traffic occurred during the period I had Advertlets on, the earnings were..inconsistent. I would probably be switching back to Nuffnang once I cash out, but wait a minute, Advertlet's cashout minimum is RM 100? Bummer.

Nuffnang, you gotta wait awhile. I like those Guinness ads. Stout's my favourite, umm, beverage.

Advertlets - More than a month on

Is it me or have you noticed that your Advertlets earnings have become rather anemic in recent times and their server is getting a little slow.

I've started using Advertlets, after dropping Nuffnang around in October and I must say that the initial amount of money coming in was really impressive. A month plus later, the flow has become a trickle, and now I'm even got 5 cents a day compared to the more than RM 1 rate that I enjoyed. Is this because of the Ad Display System Upgrade?

Anyways, I really like Nuffnang's new interface. It looks so yummy that if it was made out of chocolate, I couldn't help but to take a bite. If it weren't for the constant blue man and CPC ads that are irrelevant to my readers, I would put Nuffnang back immediately. I don't have much traffic, around 180 hits a day, but I do have good PR (4), can gimme some nice campaigns?

Do you know what Advertlet's "blue man" is? It's that kid holding up the envelope with cash (it's a cartoon drawing) with the tag line, It's time to earn more with your blog. I seriously cringe everytime that ad becomes the primary ad of the day on my blog, meaning the ad is there most of the time I visit my blog in a particular day. It's like an indicator that I'm gonna get 20 cents..again.

Anyways, there's still no Captcha on both local ad-providers. I know of one friend who had a blast spamming the registration process of both providers. Don't look at me, I don't know PHP. For Nuffnang, it's a bit of a bummer as they could have gone a little further putting in Captcha (how hard can that be) with their new yummy interface.

Sure, developers from both sides can argue that users have to go through a verification process, but you still have to put the user data somewhere, for a certain period of time. In the case of Nuffnang, it's 7 days. 7 days is more than enough for a determined spammer to fill your database (and your transaction log) with junk.

Definately got room for improvement for these two ad-providers and it's nice to see upgrades. By the way, I like innit. That's a nice touch.

Advertlets Round Three: A Flaw With A Spam/Hack/Bot Friendly Disposition

"Go search la. Google" That was the response I get when I asked my friend whether he was kidding after he revealed that my blog ranked third for the search phrase "Advertlets Sucks".

It does sound abit sucky, considering that they are the only local ad provider on my blog at the moment. According to Josh Lim, the previous problems with Advertlets (the login bugs) highlighted in this blog have been dealt with.

However, here am I again bringing ANOTHER bug, this time a much simpler one but no less embarassing bug. Did you know that you can actually register with Advertlets with an invalid email address? You can key in a string of garbage WITHOUT the domain name or @ and still register succesfully.

Normally, any programmer with some common sense would add in a regular expression check to make sure that the e-mail address entered is a well-formed one. And also, any tester with some common sense would make it a habit to actually test the system on whether it checks on badly formed e-mail addresses.

This flaw, coupled with a lack of Captcha, means that it really is an open invitation for anyone with half a brain to create bots to spam Advertlets' registration process. Coincidentally, Nuffnang doesn't employ Captcha as well.. so go figure on the possibilities.

Why am I writting this? Some people might say, don't sweat the small stuff but with taglines such as "Asia's First Blog Advertising Community" and "Asia's Better Blog Advertising Network" (honestly, I think these are borderlining on hyperbole) along with "pioneer" status, it's the small stuff that gets noticed the most.

I believe I'm not the only one asking the following questions and there are other harder questions being asked as well.

Where's the e-mail validation? No Captcha? What about a HTTPS login? When are you going to release your software and DROP the beta moniker? Where are my ads? Why do my bands go up and down and why do they differ in value over a period of time despite being the same band?

More on the beta moniker. I noticed as well that despite claiming that they are in a beta stage Nuffnang includes a "NO WARRANTY" clause in its Advertisers' T&C but leaves out mentioning the BETA part. This is the opposite of the Publishers' T&C whereby in addition to a "No Warranty" clause, there is a Limitations of Liability clause with mention of the program being in BETA stage. Do Nuffnang's advertisers know what they are getting into?

Advertlets has the word beta plastered to its logo, like some sort of badge of pride, they even have version numbers added to it. Almost similar to Nuffnang, I don't see Advertlets stating that "this software is in beta stage, we are still testing it (and you are helping as well) and not a commercial release, use at your own risk but do report the bugs back to us and if it screws up, you are screwed and there's nothing you can do about it..but we'll fix the bugs..kthxbai" prominently... that is what the term beta software is, in a nutshell.

I don't see why is it so hard not to come up with a BETA software agreement or T&C. It's like calling a spade..a spade.

Note: Someone actually suggested that Josh Lim should pay me a fee for testing out Advertlets, or at least contribute to my Xbox 360 fund. I don't mind the latter but I would prefer the money well spent on better testing teams as they are indispensable. This piece of advice goes to BOTH of our local ad providers.

Buy, Buy, Buy..Thanks Timothy, Josh

I'm impressed so far on how the bosses of the Big 2 local blog advertising communities have re-acted to my post. Timothy Tiah used the comments box to say his piece while Josh Lim sent me an e-mail, which I've yet to reply (sorry Josh, was abit busy). I'd admit it would have been akward if the two decided to talk in the comments box.

In any case, I wish the BOTH of you all the best and hopefully the "cake" is big enough for both of you to have your piece. You guys might throw about large numbers (and maybe, think the world of them), but honestly for a small time blogger like me, I don't think I've benefitted enough to warrant an addition to my side bar...yet.

Back to games. I would probably get some free time to play Zelda on the Nintendo DS. I've been rather busy the past few days to pick up the game and after getting rid of Archaic Sealed Heat (which threatened to release histamine into my blood stream and trigger an RPG allergic reaction), amongst other things, I shouldn't have a problem doing so.

Here are the Top 10 best selling Nintendo DS games on Play-Asia:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
2. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
3. Jump Ultimate Stars
4. Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten
5. Oshare Majo Love and Berry DS Collection
6. Taiko no Tatsujin
7. Ouendan 2
8. Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
   
9. Nodame Cantabile
10. Ouendan
    

Site is Up, But Still Good For Some Laughs

While I doubt that the guys behind Nuffnang would kick a competitor (Adverlets) when the competitor is temporary down and out for the count, I certainly can't help but blog about it after being informed by Aaron (undebug.org) via MSN.

A: *Sends file (screenshot of adverlets site down, with quite an embarassing error message)
A: Open and see
J: Oh *censored*
J: LOL
J: It's still suspended!!!
A: LOL
A: hahaha
J: wats wrong with them wor?
A: duno
J: hahaha
A: http://undebug.org/omgwtfbbq/advertletscom-domain-suspended/
A: hahahahahahaa
J: ahahahha
J: eh
J: look at that adverlets poll on your blog
A: wat poll wor
A: lol
J: AHAHAHAHHAHH
J: that... is a good one

Anyways, the site is up again. Plenty fast, I must say. But there's a minor problem re-occuring though. Read my archived post about it. It's just about the same thing.

Hey Advertlets!..By the way it's comparison, not comparision!

I specifically remember that Advertlets did some changes to their homepage and changed the comparison chart to that of a competitive comparison "report". I checked the site earlier, and the "comparision" chart link is back on the front page, note spelling error, but the actual comparison chart page is gone, resulting in a 404 error.

While looking at the following pretty pictures, read about my blog entry on that infamous comparison chart, here.

Ok, so the link is back, but do take note of the spelling error. Comparision, instead of comparison, just in case you didn't notice.

But clicking on it will lead you to an error page....

But if you miss the competitive comparison "report", and you absolutely must read it, don't worry. Click on the nice looking Benefits tab.

And on the left, you'll see the link. Click it and ta-da!

*Note to Advertlets, do fix it.

*Note to Nuffnang, despite this act of altruism, this site is still Nuffnang exclusive, when it comes to local ads.

This is NOT a Nuffnang VS Advertlets Comparison Chart

I was telling a friend earlier this morning that on a personal point of view (read: personal), I find that Advertlets' comparison chart to be a bit childish, and mean-spirited. I've only seen Josh Lim once, during a presentation for one of Microsoft's events and he seems like a nice chap, but this is certainly not a very, well, nice way to present things to people, or to do business.

The problems described in the TenthofMarch blog (here, here) potray a rushed product which would have failed any decent usability test, and the comments do make for a decent read. Honestly, companies, especially fledging ones, shouldn't hide behind the BETA software moniker as an excuse to cover up software bugs and yes, this is a software developer talking from a user's/consumer's point of view.

I'm in favour of closed beta tests, and even if you chose to make your beta software public, be forthcoming with the bugs and be courteous to those who actually find them in the first place. The point where you decided to let your beta software out the door, is the same time where you let your ego die.

A simple: "I'm sorry, I'll go about and fix it. Thank you for your efforts, please help us to better ourselves to service you better", so on and so forth, makes for better PR than the comments in the previously mentioned blog, some of them being very caustic.

Having worked in the CRM/Timeshare industry for several years, the thought of actually comparing SalesForce's or SugarCRM's (both are competitors) logos to that of my company's product has never crossed my mind, nor does it sound like fun. So please, grow up.