One Day Blog Silence Linkbaiting
written by John Chow
Using the shooting at Virginia Tech as linkbait is extremely bad taste but that is exactly what OneDayBlogSilence.com has done. Today, the Blogsphere is to hold a one-day blog silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech. They are asking all bloggers to not make any posts. Instead, they want you to display this button.
All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.
So far, 268 blogs has fallen for the linkbait, enough to rank the 11 day old site 13,548 on Technorati. It also made the Digg front page.
Because there is no advertising on the site, some will say OneDayBlogSilence.com is trying to do a good thing and not profit from a shocking event. However, you don’t need advertising on a site to profit from it.
A webhosting outfit in Berlin owns the site. In a few weeks, everyone will forget about the site but the links and Google rankings will still be there and can be 301 redirected to the webhosting site that set it all up.
As you can guess, I am not taking part in this one day of blog silence. I can see taking a moment of silence, but a full day? The Internet stops of no one. The shooting at Virginia Tech is a terrible event. To use it as linkbait is beyond evil.
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(15 votes, average: 3.13 out of 5)
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I didn’t fall for the nutty idea either and blogged today about the NAACP’s funeral for the N word.
I didn’t participate either. So many blogs only update sporadically that I doubt not posting for one day would even be noticed.
It would be so much more meaningful to write about your feelings regarding the shootings than to say nothing at all.
yeh, even i feel the same that its better to write about your feelings. Or say fix a date,and write about how you feel sorry for what happened all bloggers on same a fixed date. I guess that would be more meaningful.
ditto
$ = opportunity
Agree 100%
I do NOT agree with people trying to gain from an others loss. That’s beyond evil.
If you want to see true evil, how about Fred Phelps and his church picketing the funerals for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre with signs that say “Thank God for Virginia Tech” and “God Hates Fags”. Google that one if you don’t believe me.
Let’s put things into perspective here. Creating a website to profit from a tragedy is despicable, but hardly evil.
I’m with you on that. It might be scummy, but it’s hardly evil.
If that’s the case, I’m sorry I participated. Nevertheless I believe in “innocent until proven guilty”
What happened to the site earlier today John? Unreachable because of too much traffic?
You are right, you did trying to do something good, but I think John is right, if they could have ever think to do things well done, they could have given the graphics so you can download and put them in your blog, they they are asking a link back.
Anyway as you said, they are also “Innocent until proven guilty”
you hit the nail right on the head. they included their URL in the banner, and posted their html code for a back link. so even if you didn’t include the html, you still see their url. they didn’t have to do this to promote one day of silence.
the funny thing is, when it’s proven guilty, there might be another flood of visitors to the site…
I was wondering as well. someone recently posted stories about john’s site got hacked, so i thought that’s what happened…
it’s taken placed quite a few times now,john
Don’t be sorry, Bob; you did it with good intentions nonetheless. If someone had to be sorry, it should be the people who showed irreverence during such bereaved circumstances.
You don’t need to say sorry for participating! I’m glad that there are people out there that try to do something, even though these people are trying to profit from this tragic event.
John,
You are brave enough to say something about it … so I’ll stand behind you … I did not participate in the event because I felt the same way!
Cheers!
Darin
I did not know about that, and off course blogged today, but if they are doing in good faith it is OK, if they are planning to get something out of this, you are completely right it is beyond evil.
But this is what we all see in this world, the princes Diana died lot’s of people earned money on that, I am sure when the tsunami in the pacific, the videos were sold at good prices, to CNN and NBC and etc.
I cant´t find the benefit, doesn´t seems like the one moment of silence in the football?
it’s kinda same
Bah, I just blew it all off because I thought it was a silly idea. It just seemed like something to do just for something to do. Much the same as all the Facebook groups on the topic.
Excellent find though John. That’s some excellent research to find out the real motives behind all of this.
Silence blogs? WTF is this all about?
How about a boycott of the network that had the materials mailed to them but then sat on the stuff because they didn’t want anyone to know they had the inside scoop on the story?
I’d sooner support a day of major media silence than blogger silence.
I’d support that 100%.
I did wonder the same thing when I wrote Blog Silence Badge Code…Will you add it to your website?
But then my Spirit was turning to it last night and I thought, Yeah, I’ll put up the post.
I prayed that any good intentions I had would be blest…and all others burned in the fire.
Two Blogs and Counting today! I just felt that it should have been a day where all bloggers voice their opinions on a particular topic instead of keeping them shut.
You are right, maybe ask everybody to write a post about it, with no back links, to nobody could have been better.
That would certainly have been a far more poignant act.
great idea, maybe we should all write something about gun control, and those who are against it
Im not really a fan of internet silences. I dont mind a few minute silence in an office or public building/church as it is a nice time to contemplate on events that have happened… but if I participated on the web in this one day blog silence then Id just do something else and it wouldnt really be a day of quietness :S
Amen to that John. Couldn’t have put it better myself, I was just to lazy to do the research. The whole thing just seemed a silly idea to begin with.
This is the first I’ve heard of it. If they are really using this as linkbait it is beyond evil… it’s just sick.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. When I saw it, I was skeptical, but I get the feeling that it is a “nice” idea at heart. Who knows what they’ll do with it in the future.
DesignDiner.Com
The thing is that this would have had no legs if there hadn’t been so many people to take the bait on such a preposterous idea. They gave the people exactly what they wanted, a way to contribute without needing to actually do anything. That’s why it was so appealing.
There’s no doubt that they’re using it as linkbait. If they weren’t, they would have said, “Please save the image and upload it to your own hosting account.”
With so many blogs following the linkbait, it was certainly a good idea (whether evil or not).
i agree with you. at least the idea itself won’t hurt anyone. the true evil are those against gun control…..
Oh c’on. there are loads of terrorist shootouts in Indian administered kashmir, and also other parts of india by islamic terrorists.. I think i need to use this ”ONE DAY BLOG SILENCE” idea everytime something happens..
john taught all ofus to be evil
That is crazy John…I knew nothing about that…I thought your site was hacked though I tried to contact you!
You know, if the image wasn’t an active link.. I would probably have thought their intentions were good and participated. But what’s the point to linking back to their page if the intention is truly just to remember the victims of the shooting? It is an unfortunate truth that for the remainder of time people will take advantage of the misfortune of others.
God bless the Hokies
I think this could just be a way to expand the concept. People like to click on stuff, rather than have to type in the address.
DesignDiner.Com
That’s certainly a glass is half full view of the situation, but given the details that John has dug up, I think the glass is half empty in this particular situation.
Ditto on the page being down… what was up with that John?
$
I think the Net Business Blog wrote something about the shootings and profiting from a tragedy. There was some blog that was dedicated to giving VT news. It had ads on it. The thing that made it seem better was that he said all money would be given away(forget to where). But who knows if the person actually did.
You’re thinking of:
http://www.netbusinessblog.com/2007/04/17/monetizing-a-tragedy/
Which is a response to:
http://www.earnersblog.com/capatilising-on-va-tech-shootings/
I was under the impression that you were just supposed to post the image and not post content and comments with that particular post. I am still bloggin today, I just simply put a title, an image and no content with that particular silence post. It seemed like a kind thing to do and a way to connect with fellow bloggers. Respect and love not greed and envy.
ya thats some bullshit…they will make money on that soon enough…
ya thats some bullshit…they will make money on that soon enough….
I didn’t participate because the badge says it all. To me that little graphic says:
ONE DAY BLOG SILENCE DOT COM GO HERE NOW K? YEA GO HERE NOW!
… oh yea and in remembrance of the VA tragedy
BUT GO TO ONEDAYBLOGSILENCE DOT COM OKAY?!
[...] (4/30): I’ve removed the OneDayBlogSilence banner because I’ve just read John Chow’s post on their link baiting scheme, and I agree with him. I guess I didn’t think that a company would ever use this type of [...]
Talk about tasteless. It’s one thing to discuss it in a thought provoking manner, it’s another to exploit it. RIP to the victims.
It’s so pointless to have a ‘blog’ day of silence. What is the purpose of it? To ’shut down’ the blogosphere so people will know what happened in Virgina?
People already know about everywhere. The best thing to help our future is to talk about it and figure out solutions to our violent spiral.
that’s beyond evil. never thought of it like that before….
Yeah I saw this at another blog and kinda thought it was a bit “wrong”… but didnt think about it again until I saw it here.
I saw it on probably ten different blogs today. I figured that it was a play to get links, but didn’t think to write about it. I definitely didn’t figure out that it was a web hosting company in Berlin. That’s why I’m not John Chow!
John Chow no longer evil!
We need to have a day of silence for all the pandas John has killed with rocks!
I would suggest