Thoughts on The End

"boredalways" (boredalway666)
11/13/2020 at 22:13 • Filed to: None

The other day, I made a comment on the FP allegeding that something financial maybe driving the death of the user blogs. While I half believe in what I said, I also think 2 other factors maybe viable reasons with one being downright disgusting.

1) Kinja is used globally, and there are no guarantees G/O has the means to financially deal with the rules in other countries, especially EU laws.

2) It dawned on me last night that possibly a Kinja blog could have been used for something extremely illegally. I remembered that Tumblr had a real issue with pedophiles, so much so they “permanently killed”* NSFW content. Of course, it could be slightly less questionable content such as QAnon, racist militias, and/or 8chan/8kun-like content.

Thoughts?

*Possibly reinstated

DISCUSSION (37)

Chariotoflove > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:21

Those are both reasonable. There is no doubt that spammers tried to make commercial contacts by following users. Most of us experienced that if we were around long enough. In the first one, is G/O Media international? I never paid attention.

But it really could be that they simply don’t want the possible liability of hosting content they can’t control. The thing I don’t understand is how is their exposure different than that of any other web hosting company?

Jetstreamer > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:23

Isn’t the whole schtick about a US law changing, with platforms being liable and responsible for what users put on it? And with the US being an very litigious/sue happy part of the world, the simplest fix is to cut off that which makes you liable. I don’t think there is some shady reasoning behind it, just general cover your ass tactics.

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:26

I think money was/is also a huge driver for all the changes that have happened in the past year. The page layouts , slideshows, ad spam on pages, changing of the guard in terms of writers.

boredalways > Chariotoflove
11/13/2020 at 22:38

I don’t think G/O is international. It’s just that anyone from around the world can sign up, comment, and post whatever. As for liability, Section 230 protects websites in the US, but it’s only a US law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230

boredalways > Jetstreamer
11/13/2020 at 22:40

No, that’s what Section 230 is for. It’s a US law, but only a US law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230

Nibby > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:41

Chariotoflove > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:46

Okay. Yeah, I’m clearly not up on the laws. But my understanding is that if they don’t have a business presence in a country then they can’t be held liable under that country’s laws.

boredalways > Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com
11/13/2020 at 22:48

Yeah, that definitely hasn’t helped. But as the internet has shown, there are other ways to profit off of adverts than what they have now — currently stuck with using methods from 5-10 years ago.

Plus it doesn't help that G/O hasn't allowed the Kinja devs to make a modern mobile user platform. Do they think we only access Kinja via a desktop PC?!

boredalways > Nibby
11/13/2020 at 22:49

Weird, there is nothing in your post

spectralveil > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:51

There is a concerted effort to get rid of section 230 right now.

user314 > Jetstreamer
11/13/2020 at 22:51

Eh, the kind of wholesale changes that the Herb fears are only readily possible if Trump wins reelection (and even then I have my doubts). I would be very very surprised to see changes to Section 230 under a Harris/Biden admin.

Honestly, they’ve been trying to axe the side/ person al blogs since back in the Denton era, but the writing staff was able to hold back the pencil-pushers and lawyers. Now that most of the original writers and editors are gone, the stars finally aligned to get us purged.

My bird IS the word > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:53

I think kinja is a sinking ship, and they cant make money on blogs. They don’t advertise on here for some reason. So they are finding an excuse to kill something that the suits don’t want. Most of their publications are considered rags anyway, especially Kotaku.

boredalways > Chariotoflove
11/13/2020 at 22:55

“When in Rome,...”. You just don’t want to think of laws for a c ompany with a global reach as being only based in the laws of their country of origin.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49808208

spectralveil > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 22:55

I apologize for going off topic, but I can’t comment on Jalopnik or Gizmodo at all anymore. I’m not banned or anything, it’s just when I try to comment it shows a generic user icon and “you” instead of my avatar and username. If I try to click publish nothing happens. But oddly enough things work totally normally on Oppo. Anyone have any ideas? This is especially scary because Oppo is being killed and I guess after that I’ll just be a ghost. I miss the glory days of the sites, long before kinja...

Shoop > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:07

Laws for websites are based in the country they are hosted in.

boredalways > My bird IS the word
11/13/2020 at 23:10

When has Kotaku ever been viewed as rags? Money can be made via blog sites. Gawker et al used to be one of them until the obvious happened. The Daily Beast, Politico, Vox, even The Drud ge Report are all still around, making money. Univision was doing alright, but decided to flip. G/O feels like they were only in it to profit off the assets and legacy of Nick Denton's baby, but they don't know what the fuck they are doing.

Chariotoflove > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:12

Interesting article. I guess if you do business in a country, as Google does in Europe, you don’t want to Lisa off their government. But in reference to your original premise, that brings me back to how global G/O Media’s business reach is. Which I admit I still don’t know because I haven’t searched.

boredalways > spectralveil
11/13/2020 at 23:14

No, I’m not having an issue. Best thing to do, and do quickly, is contact the help desk to get it fixed.

https://kinja.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

boredalways > Chariotoflove
11/13/2020 at 23:30

Sorry, maybe I didn’t clearly make my point. I wasn’t suggesting G/O Media had a global reach like Google & Facebook. What I meant was that anyone from around the world could be a user and comment on Kinja. Think of Oppo’s reach — we have Mexico, Canada, UK, France, German, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Japan members at the very least.

So from a logical and very basic standpoint if someone from another country post “ something that isn’t Kosher” on Kinja, there could be multiple legal variables per country that G/O Media’s legal team just doesn’t have the financial means to defend. It could be legal in their country but not ours vice versa, etc.

CB > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:31

That’s not weird, that’s an entirely Nibby move.

boredalways > Shoop
11/13/2020 at 23:36

Web hosting isn't the same as a website. GoDaddy and Cloudfare are web hosting companies.

boredalways > CB
11/13/2020 at 23:38

Yes, it's weird because you can't make a blank post in Kinja.

Chariotoflove > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:38

Yes, that makes sense. My question is, if a company has no business interests in that country, do they care what that country’s regulators think? Those regulators have no leverage against them right? So there would be no need to spend any effort defending against those judgements. They just ignore them. Or am I thinking of this the wrong way? What am I missing?

Blondude > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:40

The rumor is Section 230 is going to be repealed or at least heavily modified though. That’s what they’re anticipating.

boredalways > Nibby
11/13/2020 at 23:49

https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=c652a85d87ce7520&from=native

Just noticed your job request. This is in Su burban Cincinnati

boredalways > Chariotoflove
11/13/2020 at 23:54

I think you’re overthinking this. Also there’s a method to my madness for using the Spongebob gif.

Chariotoflove > boredalways
11/13/2020 at 23:56

Okay, done thinking then!

boredalways > Blondude
11/13/2020 at 23:59

Yes, I know. But with all of the US liabilities that would easily come into immediate play, the law won’t be repealed nor heavily modified. From Silicon Valley to Capital Hill, there’s too much money to be made so whatever they come up with would be a hand slap at best.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Nibby
11/14/2020 at 00:07

You misspelled “”

Kinja'd!!!

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > boredalways
11/14/2020 at 00:33

The whole section 230 thing just doesn’t add up for me. Why is kinja suddenly so exposed and needing to take serious action vs places like Reddit or Facebook or twitter? Are they really anticipating all conversation on the internet be killed off?

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > boredalways
11/14/2020 at 01:14

Server space is expensive and shitposts add up. Legal liability issues are only a tiny part of the actual game.

RPM esq. > boredalways
11/14/2020 at 04:50

I’m a lawyer, and I think the legal liability language is mostly a smokescreen for a much simpler reality: if the owners of this place kill the personal and community blog aspects of Kinja, they can shed an employee or two because those employees’ time is no longer necessary to maintain those parts of Kinja. The legal aspect is similar: they will have a few less headaches to pay a lawyer for half an hour to think about. The fact that we have so many other options to consider migrating to proves that this platform doesn’t really have to go down, but killing it will save some herbs a couple bucks. And a bit like the demise of Deadspin, it’s ultimately going to cost Jalopnik . But that’s fine with the herbs in charge: you can still make a little money ruining beloved media properties as long as you cut costs just a little bit faster than the audience abandons you, as long as you can sell ads against last week’s audience numbers. If you ever wondered what the term “vampire capitalism” meant, wonder no more.

Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com > RPM esq.
11/14/2020 at 07:49

Yes.

I posted last week that if they are actually serious about user generated content being an issue then it would not surprise me if they “Deadspin the comments” across the sites in the near future. I read the farewell on Jalop and they’re keeping them for now. I doubt it’s the main reason.

Someone brought up that Oppo has sort of just been hanging around taking up space now that it’s disconnected from Jalopnik. I also wish Mercedes and LJ909 the best on FP but also find it slightly iniquitous that they get lifted, and 2 weeks later we get the boot. Coincidence? Perhaps.

The turnover of the writing and editing staff the past 365 days on Jalopnik has been insane and they lost (or didn’t renew? ) some solid people . I can only imagine this has partially to do with shoring up coffers.

Coupled with shoving of more and more ads into pages with the changing layouts. I can’t look at FP on my phone, it’s just spammed with ad shite and earlier this year it would crash. Yes, my 4mo old iPhone 11 Pro at the time was browser crashing because of all the shite.

At any rate, Jalopnik did what they could for us and we have a couple solid life boats. The Hyphen may very well overtake Kinja Oppo as a better platform , what’s been done the past week is astonishing. We all love shit posts but with what’s plan ned, some solid writing , and an excellent community; we have the potential to make some serious waves of our own .

Nibby > boredalways
11/14/2020 at 08:35

thanks but i know nothing about dev and programming :P

My bird IS the word > boredalways
11/14/2020 at 08:49

All you have to do is look at their reviews for the new game console generations. Where they was rhetoric about the political climeate while talking about the ps5, or how the journalist has some irrational fear of small holes (in the case of the new xbox ) and that is somehow relevant to anyone.

There are many more examples like this out there, but these are the most recent. Nobody takes them seriously anymore. Blogs may be able to make money, but only if people actually read them.

Stef Schrader > Exage03040 @ opposite-lock.com
11/14/2020 at 22:55

It’s all cheap, obvious traffic-juicing crap from 1998 that doesn’t work anymore, so even though they’re claiming “it’s the money!,” it’s all gonna backfire. Users don’t put up with that stuff, especially here.

The best thing that could happen to this site network would be Jim Spanfeller going the hell back to the nineties where he can rot in Web 1.0 slideshow hell.

Stef Schrader > RPM esq.
11/14/2020 at 22:57

Yeah, I don’t buy the “possible legal changes” excuse one bit. It’s too damn convenient that this nukes the user blogs that frequently point out that Jim Spanfeller is an herb that’s running this joint straight into the ground.