I Move to Amend Oppositelock's Handbook

"saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars" (saabstory)
07/21/2014 at 19:18 • Filed to: None

Recently, there have been more and more external blogs promoting their posts on Oppo. I feel like making a post that is only a link to an external blog posting that you have an affiliation with that is not just "reader" is wrong. In other words, I don't think you should be allowed to promote non-Oppo articles you were paid to write or promote on Oppo.

Now, if a regular user makes a post that is a copy/pasted version of an article they wrote on a different site, I think that's fine. But when it's something like this, it's a different story:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I cry foul.

Oppositelock has a set of guidelines and rules that have served us very well. The revised handbook can be found !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

But there is not a mention of external blog posts. I think there should be. These posts fly in the face of the Oppositelock spirit. The spirit that keeps this such a wonderful promotion-and-advertisement-free refuge for all those who enjoy putting the pedal to the floor and kicking the ass out. For those who care as much about the journey as the destination. Can we all try and keep Oppo pure? Is there a way to amend the rules to eliminate this kind of post?

DISCUSSION (34)

Leadbull > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:26

Reddit has similar rules against self promotion — I think that's good, and definitely something we should consider implementing.

That being said, Speedmonkey has been here for a long time, and he posts a lot of great stuff.

Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:26

Some of front page authors right now have come this way. Doug came in through promoting his book. Tavarish came through promoting his website. So I doubt they will be going away anytime soon.

Crocket Bernet > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:27

Amen brother.

djmt1 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:28

I disagree strongly.

If people believe their posts are of interest to the Oppo community then post away.

Just saw your post on Speedmonkey's post and it turns out you are breaking rule 1. DON'T BE A DICK.

Sir_Stig: and toxic masculinity ruins the party again. > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
07/21/2014 at 19:39

Yeah but I feel like it's okay if the whole story shows up here, it IS pretty lame to just post a picture and a sentence that looks like a full article and then make you leave the website.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > djmt1
07/21/2014 at 19:46

Haha, not really though. I think that the article itself was very interesting. If Speedmonkey had copied his article into the editor it would be fine, but linking is not cool. I apologize and will remove that comment if it is against the rules, but I think everyone has broken that rule a lot.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis
07/21/2014 at 19:50

Yes, but Doug made full posts, rather than just links. If he had just made links, I would be against that as well. Tavarish is the same in that respect as Doug. If you claim to not see the difference between their posts and the posts I'm talking about, you are not understanding the issue.

djmt1 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:53

Seriously, your defence is that everyone else is doing it.

Personally I am in favour of plugging. The internet is a crowded place and it is hard to gain an audience, so should do all you can within reason to drive traffic. External links aren't spammy and of all the misleading posts on Oppo, these kind of posts are the least of our problems and at least there is the opportunity for a good read in the end.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Leadbull
07/21/2014 at 19:56

Agreed for sure. Speedmonkey is awesome, no question, but that post was not awesome. The article was interesting and intriguing, and while I disagree with his position, I appreciate the opinion. That said, Kinja is very kind to copy/paste posting, so there's no reason not to rather than gathering page hits.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Crocket Bernet
07/21/2014 at 19:57

Thanks for the support, some people are really against this for some reason...

Gamecat235 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 19:58

We've been working on this: http://gamecat235.kinja.com/pre-implementa…

It's still in draft format, and doesn't aim to discourage this entirely, but to curb the sharing repeatedly. But it is going to happen, and for a number of reasons, I wouldn't want to do away with it entirely. Just have some suggestions for how to approach it. I don't see a reason to discern between kinja shares and external shares. I see both of them potentially having the same impact / weight.

ETA: re Speedmonkey's posts... As long as he follows the same rules that others sharing to Oppo have to follow. I don't see an issue... it's of interest, and the site is one worth visiting. I don't want Oppo to be adrift in spam, but SM has been a contributing author for years.

signintoburnerlol > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:00

If it wasn't for plugging, i doubt Jalopnik it self would even be here...

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > djmt1
07/21/2014 at 20:00

I can see that whole symbiotic side of the coin, but most other user-content sites have rules against this. In my experience, there have been very few posts that I would call misleading, and none of them are as annoying and manipulative as this type. It wouldn't be the end of the world for a change to not happen, but it would make Oppo a bit more enjoyable.

And on the petty side of the conversation, I wasn't try to make a defense! I tried to remove that comment because I did break a rule and I feel bad, but Kinja was not cooperating. I was just saying that every user has been a dick (cough cough).

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > signintoburnerlol
07/21/2014 at 20:01

Could you expand on this?

I ask purely out of curiosity, as this post refers only to Oppositelock, which is not Jalopnik.

signintoburnerlol > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:04

Jalopnik articles get thrown all over car forums, a lot of viewers are from threads of those said car forums. The internet is a continuous thread of sharing, one places gets linked, then gets linked to another, from someone who saw at that first location, so on and so on. If you cut that thread, you'll just be losing unique visitors and future content.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Gamecat235
07/21/2014 at 20:04

Okay, this satisfies me. This is a suitable solution, although I would like to have it be a little more strict, as the Oppo guidelines are not set in stone and enforcement is nigh-impossible. If there was some suggestion of not just posting a link to your article and rather copy/pasting it would be nice. Kinja will even include your pictures when you do that and it makes Oppo a more fluent experience.

Gamecat235 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:08

One of the nice things about Oppo is generally speaking (~99.9% of the time) we give some direction and oppo mostly self moderates. People love the community and want to see it continue and stay largely how it is and has been.

This one is touchy because people put a lot of work into it. But we don't want it to be spam. So we're trying to find a balance. If you have feedback, please provide it.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > signintoburnerlol
07/21/2014 at 20:10

Yes, those sites that are getting free promotion on Oppo will lose unique visitors. This is okay by me. They aren't losing much, and Oppo doesn't lose any traffic because why would anyone share an Oppositelock post that is a single url rather than just the url?

djmt1 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:10

Well to be blunt, Oppo doesn't have to be other websites. Plus I'm glad this is how you decided to debate on this issue as opposed to angry replies, so good work on that.

The question you should be asking though is, why? Are people posting purely for hits and profit, do they see Oppo as free promotion, are they just lazy but want to share their view among the community or is it simply a case of avoiding copyright infringement. Either way we need an official debate on this because quite a few people share your view as well as oppose.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Gamecat235
07/21/2014 at 20:10

Straight to the authors of the posts or to a moderator somehow?

Gamecat235 > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:13

To the moderators preferably. If you, or anyone else have concerns, direct em to comment on the draft I linked to earlier and myself and a few of the moderators will listen and respond accordingly. To be honest, the reason this hasn't been published yet is because we are still modifying it a bit to incorporate some feedback we have already received. You can also respond to the handbook itself or send an email to oppomoderator@gmail.com (which myself and a couple of other moderators maintain).

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:26

Or those of us that operate our own blog, if its car related, this can be a key forum to be heard.

It Sounds like you're mad for no reason. And it appears you're a dick to other people. Soooooooooooo, be quiet.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/21/2014 at 20:28

Okay, so that was mean.

But also, I'm not mad. I'm merely saying I wish that people wouldn't do something. If nothing changes, that's fine because it's really not a big deal. I apologize for whatever actions towards others were dickish.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/21/2014 at 20:30

And I'm glad that I've gotten another perspective on this issue. I did not realize that this was a key forum for these people. I'd still appreciate it if there weren't single url posts, but I can see why a blog-owner might need Oppo hits. Do you have a blog? If so, would you be able to tell me what percentage of your hits and revenue come from Oppositelock traffic?

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:41

I do have a blog. I'm EIC of Here's The Thing: An Enthusiast's Perspective on The Automotive Industry. When I was still using my old dashboard on Blogger, I was getting 65-75% of my traffic from Oppo.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/21/2014 at 20:43

Oh, wow! That's substantial. I can see why this is an important thing to allow then. I like your posts, I've read them before and enjoyed them a lot. I had no idea that that much traffic could be derived from Oppo.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/21/2014 at 20:51

Thanks for your patronage and readership! And I never did huge numbers, but I was consistent, and most of it was because of posting on Oppo and developing a bit of a following here.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
07/21/2014 at 20:51

Right, that's kinda what I assumed.

pauljones > Gamecat235
07/21/2014 at 20:57

Thanks for handling this one.

Money Hustard > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/22/2014 at 07:47

I've had two posts shared to Jalopnik's front page in the past few weeks. Both link to an article on a blog I write for. I don't see the issue here, at all. I did some writing about cars I wanted to share with you guys, what's wrong with that?

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/what-made-the-…

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/collector-car-…

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Money Hustard
07/22/2014 at 07:59

I think that your posting is different from the type I have been getting frustrated with. You're including other content in your posts rather than just sticking a URL in there. It's really just the feeling I think. Kinda like porn and that government guy. I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

Tom McParland > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/22/2014 at 18:34

As an Oppo moderator I have personally invited folks that run their own car content blogs to join Oppo because they were looking to engage in a great community that would really have a discussion in either comments here or back on the original page.

I blogged on my own many years ago and I stopped. Why? Because no one visited my page...no readers, no motivation. I came here found a community, honed my skills, and developed an audience. This community kept me motivated, gave me feedback, asked great questions that spurred more posts. Granted the majority of my content was original here, but that was my choice because I did not want to deal with too many platforms. But it was because of Oppo that I now am writing for Jalopnik. I realize that is not the purpose of this place, but it is a side effect of the massive readership we have.

As long as our visitors are adding to the content and conversation and not detracting from it, they are welcome.

saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars > Tom McParland
07/22/2014 at 18:46

That is a fine thing. I just think that a single-URL articles are not adding to the conversation or content in the way best for Oppo.

Tom McParland > saabstory | fixes bikes, breaks cars
07/22/2014 at 19:24

I usually encourage them to either do a full post (and many of them do) or do an intro paragraph with a link back (because some of their agreements with the other blog is that they cannot duplicate content other areas). But in the scheme of things, this place really isn't about "content" it is an off-topic forum for people to post really whatever they like. That may be a full-fledged article, a meme, a picture, or just a link...or something as simple as "I drank this beer today!" and all of that is welcome.