Well, this is interesting...

"Xyl0c41n3" (i-am-xyl0c41n3) 07/17/2017 at 12:09 • Filed to: OppositePageViews, Oppositelock

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The sidebar on all the front pages links to an Oppo post. I first saw it on Jez, then hopped over to Jalopnik, and yup. It’s there, too. So... have the sub-blogs gone back to being unpaid content farms again? That’s kinda a dick move.

HammerheadFistpunch > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:11

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I noticed that too. Methinks its more glitch than intentional.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:11

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I wouldn’t mind that coming back, shared oppo posts to Jalopnik are how I found the place. It helps us gain members.

random001 > HammerheadFistpunch 07/17/2017 at 12:12

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Viva la Oppositelock!

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch 07/17/2017 at 12:13

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Probably has to do with the pageviews. It’s got 65K... though, that number was probably helped by it being in the sidebar. I didn’t click on it when it was posted last week, so I have no clue which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:15

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It is a glitch in the matrix I bet, otherwise it is actually a great piece of writing.

HammerheadFistpunch > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:16

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When I saw it, it had 12k, so most of those views are new. Though I’ve learned to take the page view counter with a grain of salt. My Land Cruiser story that was shared a while ago would fluctuate wildly from 100k plus to 60k and back again for no reason. Maybe there is a “popular stories” algorithm thats to blame here where it simply picks stories for the sidebar based on view rate, and oppo just got caught up in it. Who knows...its kinja.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:17

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Personally I’m perfectly fine with the sub-blogs being content farms. Sizeable servers for things like in-house image hosting cost a reasonable amount to keep running. If there’s something you can point to when an accountant asks ‘why do we still have this?’ then that’s all fine by me :)

Xyl0c41n3 > HammerheadFistpunch 07/17/2017 at 12:17

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All hail Lord Kinja!

WilliamsSW > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:18

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Aha! I commented early on that post, and have been scratching my head as to why I’m being bombarded with comments 3 days later - many from people in the greys.

notsomethingstructural > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:20

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its based on click rate. why that particular post had such a high click rate is anyone’s guess. but now that it’s over there...

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:20

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To be fair, they pay the bills to keep the lights on in the sub-blogs, so taking something once in a while isn’t really asking a lot. As long as the credit goes where it needs to go I’m OK with it.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:20

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I wondered why I was suddenly getting so much hate for liking the Golf R over the RS in the comments there. I thought it had been FP-ed, but it wasn’t there when I looked and I was confused how something on Oppo could garner 190+ comments.

Fucking Kinja...

Dusty Ventures > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:22

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It’s Kinja doing Kinja things

duurtlang > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 07/17/2017 at 12:26

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Fully agreed, I wanted to post the same thing. It helps to create a new influx of readers. This place has seen a decrease of posts (gut feeling not backed up by stats) so I wouldn’t mind seeing more people. Especially if they’re past their teens.

I see way more advantages than disadvantages.

Xyl0c41n3 > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 07/17/2017 at 12:30

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I get that. And trust me, I’m a fan of free stuff, so getting to use kinja for free is awesome! But, I don’t like how many writers the collective GMG sites used without compensating them back in the “good old days.”

Hell, they didn’t even pay their bonafide staff sometimes . Take now-former Jezebel editor-in-chief, Emma Carmichael (her last day was Friday). In her goodbye piece, she wrote this:

After a string of aggressive emails and a shaky interview ... I was offered unpaid, largely unsupervised night shifts at Deadspin . I accepted, of course, and also accepted a (paid) job at the New York City Parks Department to subsidize my volunteer writing job.

(Emphasis mine).

That’s kinda sorta bullshit. Yes, it’s awesome she eventually became a paid staffer, but at the beginning she had the official staff title, real responsibility, and no paycheck.

If they treated their staff that way, you can be sure they treated their legitimately contracted freelancers worse, and their non-contracted sub-blog contributers from Oppo, O-Deck, TAY and GT even worse.

Urambo Tauro > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:36

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I’m not sure if Kinja generates those links, or if it’s done manually. Either way, Kinja’s terms of use post states that any content published on Kinja can be shared across the sites without requiring explicit permission by the content’s author.

Xyl0c41n3 > Urambo Tauro 07/17/2017 at 12:39

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I know what Kinja’s TOU are. I’ve read and written about them before.

Xyl0c41n3 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 07/17/2017 at 12:41

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I’ve been getting a lot of response to a Jez post from like a year or two ago. Haven’t seen it pop up anywhere yet, so I have no idea why the sudden influx of new stars. But... kinja gonna kinja, I guess.

Xyl0c41n3 > Dusty Ventures 07/17/2017 at 12:42

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There is no wizard behind the curtain.

Dusty Ventures > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:47

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No. Seriously. It’s Kinja.

Urambo Tauro > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:49

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Ah, ok I couldn’t remember who it was that brought it up before. At any rate, the TOU are kind of easy to forget, and critical parts of it are easy to overlook.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:50

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It’s recommended content based on your viewing habits. Clear your cache and cookies and see if it’s still there.

jimz > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:54

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So that’s why someone saw it and pointed out it’s practically the same thing Bark M. wrote for TTAC.

Chariotoflove > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:55

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I’m of two minds about the whole compensation thing. On the one hand, you’re absolutely right in that it’s dickish to use someone’s work for your commercial site but not pay them. On the other hand, many folks don’t want to be paid writers, but are thrilled at the compliment that FP elevation brings. It also sometimes helps people who want to break into journalism build a portfolio and grow an audience. I wonder if there could be an intermediate policy where the editor wanting to use a poster’s writing would have to ask permission first and be required to offer some small nominal compensation or favor in return, something that wouldn’t be large or complicated enough to make editors not want to consider it.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 07/17/2017 at 12:57

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...and you know quite a bit about using the in-house image hosting servers, eh? wink wink

Dusty Ventures > Xyl0c41n3 07/17/2017 at 12:59

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They also didn’t get any revenue from sharing Oppo/non-family blog posts though (not directly at least). Since there’s no advertising on Oppo the only way an Oppo post shared to Jalopnik could make GMG any money at all was if someone was attracted to the site purely for the Oppo post, then stayed and clicked some main page articles.

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > Chariotoflove 07/17/2017 at 13:13

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Maybe they could do it like YouTube were you can get signed up to get paid. (For people like Clavey and the right foot down guys) but it’s just free for most of us.

Chariotoflove > DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time 07/17/2017 at 13:15

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Yeah, maybe something like that. The guys that want to get paid are more likely going to put more effort on a regular basis anyway.

Xyl0c41n3 > Dusty Ventures 07/17/2017 at 13:23

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Exactly.

SpeedSix > duurtlang 07/17/2017 at 13:55

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Several years ago, I saw too many posts by people in their teens, and shitposts in general, so I stopped visiting Oppo at all most months.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > duurtlang 07/17/2017 at 14:24

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Yeah some fresh perspectives around here wouldn’t be a bad thing.

duurtlang > SpeedSix 07/17/2017 at 15:06

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That is true. While I like inclusiveness the shitposting will drive people away. I think we need some quality content with the occasional bullshit to loosen things up, but not the other way around.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 07/18/2017 at 03:40

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I’m rather cheeky and use it for all my image hosting ;)