it’s pretty late now, and I haven’t written already today, so I suppose it’s about time. I feel disjointed in my life, but I don’t really feel like writing about that now. I could also write about the cats (Pico kept bringing “mr. spidey” over while we were watching a movie, wanting desperately to be played with), but I’m not much for that, either. tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll have a photo of my new CD shelf, once it’s built, but it’s not done now.
I’m really sincerely tempted to comment on the whole WordPress search-engine-gaming foofurah…I’m so far outside of any “community” that almost certainly no one will care what I have to say, but I kinda want to say it anyway!
Okay, so here’s my take. Matt (WTF is his last name, anyway?) is an apparently nice young man who is the leader of the WordPress project. He took money from an outfit and/or individual to host articles specifically designed to draw search engine traffic, to make money for them. To complete the linkage for the project, he added a set of hidden links to the WordPress home page; the technique is used by both those seeking to draw disproportionate search engine traffic, and by those using high-end CSS design methods. That’s the summary of the situation.
Some people are willing to pile on for the sake of piling on. Others are willing to defend Matt to the death.
Me? I think he did something insanely stupid. I think he knew it, too…why else hide the links? But he wanted to try it, for whatever reasons, and…
eh. I like what Shelley’s been saying about it, even if it has been radically misinterpreted, so go read her stuff.
I’m going to keep using WordPress, for all the reasons that I’ve been using it all along, and which have nothing to do with whether Matt is a nice guy. (I am sort of with the guy (in Shelley’s comments?) who said he was reconsidering the link to wordpress.org, though. I don’t like feeling used that way.)
here’s the other thing that bothers me: WordPress, and wordpress.org, aren’t just Matt, but all of the other developers, who have, one gathers, been pretty supportive. but one also gathers that they weren’t aware of this beforehand. that doesn’t seem right somehow, not that I can quite articulate how yet.
but this is turning out to be similar to pretty much everyother attempt I’ve made to pontificate on issues that float about this little world o’ mine…not too good. [sigh]