Comments on: Wordpress 0/10 in Google after adsense campaign

By: Dale Wolf

Dale Wolf — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 19:16:15 +0000

You gotta love the power of the blogosphere.
It forces transparency into business. You can stay outside the community and not communicate. We all know where that will leave a business. Or you communicate. If you communicate, the one rule that now exists is transparent honesty. Break it — no matter what your intentions — and you will be discovered and embarrased. Or put out of business.
The soul of every company is open for viewing.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:05:37 +0000

Matt Mullenweg has posted “A Response to the Noise” on this topic.
In the comments, Matt responds with “I take full responsibilty for how it was implemented. It was wrong, and it wasn’t thought through.”
How refreshing.
Now, to see how they handle the rest of the crisis (many of them don’t see it as one, boy are they missing the boat) and then see how they prepare for future fiascos.
As WordPress grows, things like this are inevitable. I hope they get to work.

By: Opinionshapers

Opinionshapers — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 22:05:43 +0000

Wordpress Spam “Scandal” - The Run Down

If you haven’t heard about the news flying around amongst bloggers and the web community of the WordPress “scandal” here is your introduction to the situation. In Part Two of this piece, I try to address the players and specifically…

By: Michael G. Cohen

Michael G. Cohen — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 21:36:17 +0000

I have to side with Matt on this one. Though there were plenty of things he could have and should have done differently, he is a tech guy who now needs to realize he is running a business with a dedicated and easily aggitated community. Those who are the greatest evangelists of your products can also lead to its quickest demise.
I also have a sincere problem with the difference in numbers between what Matt claims (1000+ articles) and HotNacho which claims 168,000. Its not like splitting the difference brings the two much closer.
I have actually managed to turn this little “scandal�? into a three part series on my blog. Part I is up, with Parts II and III later today.

By: BillFrench

BillFrench — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 16:52:20 +0000

I can’t believe they would do this.

Actually, I believe Matt was duped and didn’t fully understand the [potential] consequences of his actions.

Unfortunately, the world continues to think “traditional SEO” when dealing with blogs and content in general. This is a bad habit to get into and why I believe the SEO industry is at risk (as it should be). Traditional SEO thought is an arms race that can never be won by either side until one side is bankrupt. If I were betting on which side will cave first, it’s the SEO consultants - their days are numbered for two reasons; i) there’s too much at stake for search engines and users, and ii) information objects are continually growing smaller and emerging as XML content (e.g., it’s easier to see search distortion patterns).

In a sense, the lethal combination of Wordpress’ poor judgment and Hot Nacho’s business model, created a [temporary] condition that transformed Google from a fairly useful information discovery system into a just another pile of ten billion pages.

Google (and other search solutions companies) will simply not allow this and they have a slight (but ever-growing) advantage in the search-gaming arms race.

In my view, the only future remaining in the SEO “game” is to create valuable, highly focused content. Companies like Expansion Plus and SEO-PR are in the SEO market but they have recognized how important it is to transform their businesses and Internet strategies to better guide their clients.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 14:14:27 +0000

Ouch!
I want to say, “I can’t believe they would do this.” However, I know better.
It is quite easy to say, “This is not being handled well.” Apparently, ‘podz’ - a support moderator - actually closed the “WordPress Banned from Google?” post in WordPress support where this topic was being discussed. Not a bright move, which I’m sure he now regrets. A new thread was immediately started. That one is closed now, too. Very foolish way to deal with this.
Watching the threads there now, like WordPress Banned from Google?, The Google thing - not discussed here?! [CLOSED], and this somewhat strange explanation in a WordPress Support post by Matt - before the story broke (2005-03-24) - is not helping. Matt is in Europe right now and that is being given as his reason for not responding. Another ‘not bright’ move.
It is painfully obvious that they have never considered crisis planning, contingencies, etc.
I’ve tried to get two opensource CMS groups to better consider their PR/Marketing plans. But, this certainly is one more example of their naivete. Often, these volunteer opensource communities do not listen to ‘non-developers’. Anyone else experienced this?
Now, the fear is that WordPress powered blogs will suffer. I wonder if this will occur, either intentionally or because of some changes Google might make to their treatment of WordPress links. Doesn’t seem likely, but - you never know.
My favorite opensource blog platform is taking a much deserved pounding. Wonder how long it will go on?