The Politics Thread 2021

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Botman
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Botman »

It's utterly absurd
The fact this has bipartisan support across the ALP and Greens is absolutely staggering to me

Lord help the next poor soul who tells me ALP's messaging problem is down to biased media, because that's clearly not considered a problem whatsoever by anyone in power on the left of politics if this is being supported.
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gangrenous
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The Politics Thread 2021

Post by gangrenous »

This is a long game fellas, let me explain:
1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Australians start making better choices in politicians in their new found world free of fake news.
5. Better politicians repeal the law.

Only problem I see is that then the loop starts again as the law is repealed and Facebook brings back news. Ah well, nothings perfect
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Botman »

gangrenous wrote: February 18, 2021, 7:51 pm This is a long game fellas, let me explain:
1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Australians start making better choices in politicians in their new found world free of fake news.
5. Better politicians repeal the law.

Only problem I see is that then the loop starts again as the law is repealed and Facebook brings back news. Ah well, nothings perfect Image
Let me fix that for you

1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Those news sources are almost exclusively traditional "old" media sources such as TV, AM radio and Print media, which are largely dominated by Murdoch
5. Australians continue to elect idiots, and Murdoch wins.
Last edited by Botman on February 18, 2021, 8:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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gangrenous
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by gangrenous »

you didn’t have to tell it like it is Marge!
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greeneyed
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Let’s also be honest... in that Facebook and Google have managed to become highly dominant in their new markets. You break that up with good competition policy. Anti Trust laws are contentious, but they have them in the US. Some of their business practices are awful.

But that’s an entirely different issue to this new arrangement being proposed in Australia. These rules can’t last in isolation from other countries’ action. It is futile and poor public policy to boot... and appears to be driven by acceding to News Limited... for some reason.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Botman »

gangrenous wrote: February 18, 2021, 8:01 pm Image you didn’t have to tell it like it is Marge!
EMU farm? You're crazy Gangers!
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-TW-
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by -TW- »

greeneyed wrote:You have a mandatory code where there is some significant market imperfection being caused by a major imbalance of bargaining power. There is no major imbalance of bargaining power between Facebook and News Limited. Sure, you could argue there is an imbalance of power between "big tech" and regional media companies and small business media.

But what are the markets concerned and the services being exchanged? What is the market imperfection? The markets are being poorly defined here, and I can't see the market imperfection involved in this particular issue. What is happening is the emergence of new markets, facilitated by technological change.

One market is “old media” companies selling news stories to customers. They are under intense competition from new media supply of information, on social media platforms, for free. There’s an issue there as to whether copyright is adequately protected... but that’s not being debated here.

What the old media news media is doing, is promoting their digital product (which they now charge for), and advertise for free on Facebook. Facebook do not compel any of those companies to do so. There isn’t even a market transaction.

Forcing Facebook to give the old news media companies money so the companies can advertise their product for free makes no economic sense. Sure Facebook sells advertising itself for placements on its platform, but they are free to do that... and the old news media companies are free to participate in the Facebook platform or not. They do so, knowing that Facebook itself advertises and raises revenue on the back of any content generated by users. All Facebook users know it. What News Limited is asking for, makes as much sense as me asking Facebook for money for posting birthday messages and family pictures on their platform.

Facebook is operating in a distinct market to the market in which the old news media organisations are operating. Facebook is in the business of operating a social media platform, allowing for users to share all sorts of information... and they advertise to generate profits. The old news media is selling access to their service of reports and journalism... and they charge for access and also advertise. A new service and market has emerged with new technology. That is impacting the business model and structure of the old media companies. But that's actually opening up new services... and that's a good thing.

It is the same with streaming services challenging the old FTA and pay TV networks. On line sales and department stores.

Search engines are a bit different... as they share information published on the internet, without the owners of the web site explicitly choosing to. But the market for search engines is different to the market for "news". The search engine market allows people to find things on the web for free... and they do profit from it, by selling advertising around it. Google "takes" a news headline and the first line of the content (maybe less). If the concern is that too much is shared, that's a copyright issue. At present, copyright laws allow much more to be shared than what is shared via the search engine... and the media companies themselves regularly reproduce more content from their competitors than that.

There is not much case, apart from generating good will, for Google to pay for "news content", as limited as it is (a link to a story behind a pay wall). The news media companies (along with most other companies selling their product on the net) have no doubt spent a lot of effort making sure that their website content features highly in seach engine results. The idea that old news media companies should be paid by search engines makes about as much sense as film studios being paid for previews of their movies... or musicians being paid for links to their videos on YouTube... or plumbers being paid for tips on their sites on how to change a washer.

Facebook has done itself no favours today by blocking government departments providing services and community organisations. But this should be seen for what it is... a grab for money from News Limited, and somehow they have convinced a government to intervene on their behalf. As I understand it, the code is also only going to benefit big media businesses. Sadly, few people seem to be pointing out the basic economics... and all the old media companies are doing is pushing their self interest.
Basically what I thought when I heard this

Facebook gets little to no benefit out of sites sharing content, they get no ad revenue and the site's get free advertising of their stories which majority (fairly) make you pay for anyway.

I think Facebook is well within its merits to tell the govt to get ****, least google gains something out of their end of the bargain with ad revenues

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

I think Facebook clearly generates decent revenue from the posting from Australian media sites. But the huge tantrum thrown by the Australian media today, when Facebook shut down links to their sites, showed who gets the major benefit. If the Australian news media believed that it was not beneficial for them, they'd have voluntarily closed down their Facebook pages.
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BJ
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by BJ »

I can’t believe you guys are on Facebook’s side. And I certainly can never be accused of being on the side of News Limited and Murdoch.

Facebook and Google are making many hundreds of millions of dollars dollars in Australia and off Australian’s and off of Australian companies and paying only a couple of million in taxes for the use of other people’s content. The paperboy who used to deliver the paper didn’t take 90% of what you paid to have the news delivered to you.

The GH don’t publish whole media stories or steal other writers work. I wish the tech companies followed the lead of this great league site.

Facebook and Google are using the stories written by other journalists to sell their own advertising.

I’m not saying that the governments proposed legislation is correct, but someone has to stand up to the ever powerful tech companies who are raking in billions of tax free dollars and enabling the kind of false news and false journalism that the US in particular has been struggling with for the last few years.

The tech companies have killed off many regional and small newspapers and journalists, if no one hits the brakes a bit, the only journalism we’ll be getting is a Phil Rothfield and Steve Bannon NRL comment Twitter account. (Actually still might be better than Danny Weidler).

The Government has placed limits on television ownership and news media ownership for fifty years, it’s about time we put some similar regulation around the tech media giants for the overall good of the country and the citizens who should be able to rely on an open and balanced feed of news and information. Not just sensationalised and likely false information that is designed to generate the most clicks and the most revenue for tech companies.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

Botman wrote:
gangrenous wrote: February 18, 2021, 7:51 pm This is a long game fellas, let me explain:
1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Australians start making better choices in politicians in their new found world free of fake news.
5. Better politicians repeal the law.

Only problem I see is that then the loop starts again as the law is repealed and Facebook brings back news. Ah well, nothings perfect Image
Let me fix that for you

1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Those news sources are almost exclusively traditional "old" media sources such as TV, AM radio and Print media, which are largely dominated by Murdoch
5. Australians continue to elect idiots, and Murdoch wins.
Let me fix it for both of you

1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. While Australians start actively seeking out news sources, they stumble across TheGH while searching for “News Raiders”
4. Those new GH members are blown away with the content, see GE as the new messiah, and look to Botman to be the hero this nation needs
5. Sales of Bubble Bath foam and Strawmen go through the roof
6. The country ushers in a new era of political experts they can trust
Feel free to call me RickyRicky StickStick if you like. I will also accept Super Fui, King Brad, Kid Dynamite, Chocolate-Thunda... or Brad.

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

greeneyed wrote:Let’s also be honest... in that Facebook and Google have managed to become highly dominant in their new markets. You break that up with good competition policy. Anti Trust laws are contentious, but they have them in the US. Some of their business practices are awful.

But that’s an entirely different issue to this new arrangement being proposed in Australia. These rules can’t last in isolation from other countries’ action. It is futile and poor public policy to boot... and appears to be driven by acceding to News Limited... for some reason.
The next phase is going to be interesting. It’s in no ones interest to back down from this.

Facebook backs down > Precedent is set, and other countries will be coming at them with similar legislation

Govt backs down > Legislation was a flop, ScoMo will need to get more advice from Jenny on how to fix this
Feel free to call me RickyRicky StickStick if you like. I will also accept Super Fui, King Brad, Kid Dynamite, Chocolate-Thunda... or Brad.

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

But BJ... Facebook and Google don’t publish whole articles or steal other writer’s work, certainly not now (Google used to give free access to one or two articles a day, behind pay walls, free. That doesn’t happen any more.) They give links to the work. In the case of Facebook, the links are published on that platform by the news media companies that own them... it’s free advertising for the news media.

Tax policy is a different issue entirely and requires a different policy response (which has been pursued already). That requires measures to require “big tech” to pay tax to government on the business they conduct in Australia.

This new law is essentially about forcing Facebook and Google to pay money to news media organisations. In the case of Facebook, content that the news media organisations post themselves, voluntarily.

Controlling false news is another issue again... and that requires a different government response again, if Facebook and Google don’t fix it themselves (regulation to force them to remove false news).

I understand that Facebook and Google aren’t popular, they have a lot of poor business practices... but in this case, they’re not at fault, IMO.

It is difficult to disentangle the policy problems, it is complex... but properly identifying the actual problems is critical to development of the right policy responses.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Postman Pat »

It’s absolutely bonkers to expect FB to pay media outlets, to post on FB’s platform, with all there subscribers, FB doesn’t need Australian Media.
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BJ
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by BJ »

Greeneyed. As I said in my first post and I agree with you that I’m not sure the Governments policy or approach is right.

But my news and information I get through Facebook and Google certainly doesn’t match your views on what they do or don’t do. Maybe there’s web settings I need to change?

Facebook is giving me full articles and information from mostly free but also from paywall sites with their own Facebook based advertising. Google and Chrome are often filling half my computer screen with their own advertising panels whilst the Canberra Times or News.com fits on the remaining screenspace. So I’m paying for the Canberra Times subscription but I’m seeing Google adverts.

As for the tax issues, I know it’s separate to this, but it’s crazy these tech companies pay so little tax.

As for regional news, you should talk to some of the ex employees who correlate their decline directly with web companies providing their news and taking their advertising revenue and print sales revenue.

Anyone who thinks these tech companies shouldn’t be regulated like Television, Newspapers, Advertisers, Banks, Financial advisors, Superannuation companies, etc etc etc is allowing the tech companies to slowly take over a big chunk of our world and controlling our information for their own financial gain.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

If you’re paying for a Canberra Times subscription, any ads that run on that site via Google Adsense are generating advertising dollars for The Canberra Times... they explicitly choose to run them or not. They can also run their own ads, or via another ad service, in addition. It’s the same with news.com.au. That’s a free news site run by News Limited, but they’re fully in control of all the advertising that appears and receive the revenue.

This dispute, as I understand it, was about simple links to news sites and the small exerpts from stories: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/ ... journalism

They actually agreed a deal recently... but I have to say it sounds more like a bit of political compromise: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53176945
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Botman »

Fuifui Bradbrad wrote: February 18, 2021, 10:23 pm
Botman wrote:
gangrenous wrote: February 18, 2021, 7:51 pm This is a long game fellas, let me explain:
1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Australians start making better choices in politicians in their new found world free of fake news.
5. Better politicians repeal the law.

Only problem I see is that then the loop starts again as the law is repealed and Facebook brings back news. Ah well, nothings perfect Image
Let me fix that for you

1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. Australians only actively seek out news sources, no stumbling across dumb **** selected to perfectly appeal to their vices and biases.
4. Those news sources are almost exclusively traditional "old" media sources such as TV, AM radio and Print media, which are largely dominated by Murdoch
5. Australians continue to elect idiots, and Murdoch wins.
Let me fix it for both of you

1. Facebook strips news.
2. Australia stops getting all their political news and commentary via Facebook.
3. While Australians start actively seeking out news sources, they stumble across TheGH while searching for “News Raiders”
4. Those new GH members are blown away with the content, see GE as the new messiah, and look to Botman to be the hero this nation needs
5. Sales of Bubble Bath foam and Strawmen go through the roof
6. The country ushers in a new era of political experts they can trust
LFG Boy! :woot: :woot:
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BJ
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The Politics Thread 2021

Post by BJ »

greeneyed said: “If you’re paying for a Canberra Times subscription, any ads that run on that site via Google Adsense are generating advertising dollars for The Canberra Times...”

What percentage of the advertising revenue do you think Google are keeping from those Adsense dollars on the Canberra Times website?

Google are running a Mafia racket where they control the landscape and skim off tax free dollars from other peoples hard work.
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-TW-
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by -TW- »

They're not specifically targeting media though, it's literally every website that allows the Adsense bot.

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greeneyed
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

BJ wrote: February 19, 2021, 8:00 am greeneyed said: “If you’re paying for a Canberra Times subscription, any ads that run on that site via Google Adsense are generating advertising dollars for The Canberra Times...”

What percentage of the advertising revenue do you think Google are keeping from those Adsense dollars on the Canberra Times website?

Google are running a Mafia racket where they control the landscape and skim off tax free dollars from other peoples hard work.
I'm not sure... but that isn't the issue at dispute between Google and News Corporation, as I understand it. Media companies don't have to run Google Adsense ad placements... it's a commercial choice. They could run their own ad department or use another ad serving service instead. (The Adsense bots are something different again... that is technology that tracks what a person has looked at on line, so as to match their interests to the Google Adsense ads they display for that person.)

What News Corporation has been demanding is that they be paid every time a link to one of their stories is shown in response to a Google search. Google runs shopping and other links that make them money when someone makes a search on Google. News Limited seems to think they should be getting some of that Google revenue.

I agree that Google has been inappropriately minimising tax on their activities in Australia. But that requires a tax policy response by government... it doesn't require a code that forces Google to pay media companies money for showing links to their stories (which the media companies then charge people for).
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by -TW- »

I'm quite happy without all the clickbait **** articles on my news feed from some random website I've never heard of

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greeneyed
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Interesting to see Kevin Rudd just now in the Senate inquiry on media diversity in Australia... his chief concern ha been the near print monopoly of News Limited. Made the point about Facebook’s dominant, near monopoly position in new media. But also pointed out the irony of the code being introduced is actually designed to help another old media monopoly.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

Advertising dollars require ads.

It amazes me that so many people put up with ads everywhere, I've been running an ad-blocker for years. Gotta give credit to the technologically-illiterate, if not for them I'd probably have to pay for some of these free services.

Soaking up all the malware and ED ads so that I don't have to. Godspeed luddites, godspeed. *salute*
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-TW-
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by -TW- »

Some sites won't work if you run an adblocker now

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

They're few and far between depending on the blocker, and you can always turn blocking off for specific sites - the vast majority continue to tick along as expected.

For the committed, there's usually something you can do if you care enough. I've taken it to the point before of identifying and blocking a single specific cookie (of many) on a site.

There's of course a point where I just couldn't be bothered, but for next to no effort you can place 99% of the Internet in a glorious advertising desert.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Sterlk wrote: February 19, 2021, 5:28 pm They're few and far between depending on the blocker, and you can always turn blocking off for specific sites - the vast majority continue to tick along as expected.

For the committed, there's usually something you can do if you care enough. I've taken it to the point before of identifying and blocking a single specific cookie (of many) on a site.

There's of course a point where I just couldn't be bothered, but for next to no effort you can place 99% of the Internet in a glorious advertising desert.
So we now look forward to your donation to help run the site. 😉
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by FuiFui BradBrad »

Sterlk wrote:Advertising dollars require ads.

It amazes me that so many people put up with ads everywhere, I've been running an ad-blocker for years. Gotta give credit to the technologically-illiterate, if not for them I'd probably have to pay for some of these free services.

Soaking up all the malware and ED ads so that I don't have to. Godspeed luddites, godspeed. *salute*
Is this post an ad for ad blockers?
Feel free to call me RickyRicky StickStick if you like. I will also accept Super Fui, King Brad, Kid Dynamite, Chocolate-Thunda... or Brad.

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by -TW- »

Fuifui Bradbrad wrote:
Sterlk wrote:Advertising dollars require ads.

It amazes me that so many people put up with ads everywhere, I've been running an ad-blocker for years. Gotta give credit to the technologically-illiterate, if not for them I'd probably have to pay for some of these free services.

Soaking up all the malware and ED ads so that I don't have to. Godspeed luddites, godspeed. *salute*
Is this post an ad for ad blockers?
Cash for comment

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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

Since we're topic-adjacent thanks to GE, I'd be curious to know how much the GH actually costs to run, and what its hosting requirements are.

I'm guessing... $329 p.a. (+/- $10 p/m if I either under or overestimated its requirements).

I think you're getting ripped off as far as these things go, but I am both mildly amused and impressed that the GH is hosted <1km from Canberra Stadium. :lol:
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Sterlk wrote: February 19, 2021, 9:32 pm Since we're topic-adjacent thanks to GE, I'd be curious to know how much the GH actually costs to run, and what its hosting requirements are.

I'm guessing... $329 p.a. (+/- $10 p/m if I either under or overestimated its requirements).

I think you're getting ripped off as far as these things go, but I am both mildly amused and impressed that the GH is hosted <1km from Canberra Stadium. :lol:
You could organise a dodgy hosting arrangement I guess, but we don’t. We deal with a reputable company based in Canberra, Go Hosting, and they’re a very good company. If we have a problem, they’re contactable rapidly, 7/24, and we have very little down time. Trouble free, great service, highly secure, high reliability. It is in stark contrast to the previous hosts. Of course you might not be accurately assessing our site traffic either.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

I know, and the website lives at 19 Battye St. Bruce - I'm confident of that, if not certain. In some ways, the Internet is very transparent.

By all accounts GoHosting is good, though getting whacked close to $100 a year for an SSL cert is highway robbery (if you didn't BYO) - especially so when it's likely >25% of your total costs. Those things are free, most places - including from Australian hosting companies.
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by greeneyed »

The website does not live at 19 Battye St, Bruce, sorry. But it’s good to think people think so. It’s a good story. I’m sure you can find cut price deals Sterlk. But we find you get what you pay for. And we have a stable, secure, professional site, with virtually no down time... and very high support standards. You might not want that for whatever you do, but we do. BTW, I suspect you’re seriously underestimating our site traffic, by a large margin.
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The Politics Thread 2021

Post by The Nickman »

greeneyed wrote:
Sterlk wrote: February 19, 2021, 5:28 pm They're few and far between depending on the blocker, and you can always turn blocking off for specific sites - the vast majority continue to tick along as expected.

For the committed, there's usually something you can do if you care enough. I've taken it to the point before of identifying and blocking a single specific cookie (of many) on a site.

There's of course a point where I just couldn't be bothered, but for next to no effort you can place 99% of the Internet in a glorious advertising desert.
So we now look forward to your donation to help run the site. Image
I heard a rumour that when people donate money to the site it gets rudely given back to them ;)
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by gangrenous »

Turns out GE doesn’t accept the payment I was offering...
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

greeneyed wrote: February 19, 2021, 10:10 pm The website does not live at 19 Battye St, Bruce, sorry. But it’s good to think people think so. It’s a good story. I’m sure you can find cut price deals Sterlk. But we find you get what you pay for. And we have a stable, secure, professional site, with virtually no down time... and very high support standards. You might not want that for whatever you do, but we do. BTW, I suspect you’re seriously underestimating our site traffic, by a large margin.
I'll admit there's a bit of guesswork involved in pinning down the specific location, though when the site IP geolocates to Belconnen (erroneously, perhaps), there aren't too many options. Best guess being NEXTDC C1 (which is that Bruce address), though they're not the only one.

I could be off-base, it's impossible to be certain, but with comments like "it's good to think people think so" it's quite clear you want to keep those cards close to the chest - would you say the same thing if I got it right? I think there's a good chance you would. Also a good chance that GoHosting doesn't even disclose specific data centres to its customers. People are funny about that sort of thing, despite the fact these facilities are locked up to the nines.

If you're happy with GoHosting, that's perfectly fine - though you are the one who brought up the GH's costs. ;)

It doesn't have to be a 'cut price deal' to be better; I suspect if you looked at a premium local alternative like SiteGround it would compare quite favourably.
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Sterlk
David Furner
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Re: The Politics Thread 2021

Post by Sterlk »

Aha! I didn't notice their office was in Hume. Why would you register your domain to a PO BOX in Belconnen that's nowhere near your actual office?

Fair enough, you got me. It's probably CDC.
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