http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130123/17195321772/announcing-our-new-sky-is-rising-report.shtml#c1026 Sat, 26 Jan 2013 09:29:30 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130123/17195321772/announcing-our-new-sky-is-rising-report.shtml#c1026
I wood recommend laying out pages like that with the same structure in the future.

Either way, awesome to see. Keep it up!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121130/14214321189/supreme-court-will-finally-say-if-genes-are-patentable.shtml#c423 Sun, 2 Dec 2012 10:15:44 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121130/14214321189/supreme-court-will-finally-say-if-genes-are-patentable.shtml#c423 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121130/03343521182/united-airlines-sues-passenger-complaint-site-untied.shtml#c342 Sun, 2 Dec 2012 10:09:30 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121130/03343521182/united-airlines-sues-passenger-complaint-site-untied.shtml#c342
I'm more curious why this was filed in canada. Are you based north of the border?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17045721161/bradley-manning-hearing-shows-military-bosses-more-concerned-about-media-attention-than-mannings-conditions.shtml#c1064 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:35:29 PST http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121127/17045721161/bradley-manning-hearing-shows-military-bosses-more-concerned-about-media-attention-than-mannings-conditions.shtml#c1064 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120923/19142720473/unfortunate-kickstarters-overaggressive-reaction-to-dmca-notices.shtml#c297 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:35:24 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120923/19142720473/unfortunate-kickstarters-overaggressive-reaction-to-dmca-notices.shtml#c297
You need to chill out a few notches.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/12283720407/rethinking-higher-education-is-important-ny-times-analysis-is-lacking.shtml#c95 Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:03:46 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120917/12283720407/rethinking-higher-education-is-important-ny-times-analysis-is-lacking.shtml#c95 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120903/19185920260/libraries-go-direct-to-indie-authors-rather-than-deal-with-big-publisher-ebook-limits.shtml#c895 Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:56:14 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120903/19185920260/libraries-go-direct-to-indie-authors-rather-than-deal-with-big-publisher-ebook-limits.shtml#c895
Consider that there are roughly 80 million students in the USA. If you can convince just 1% of those students to pick up your book and try to read it, you've just had 800,000 reads. If just 1% of those readers actually _liked_ your book, you've just picked up 8,000 new fans. If they buy 1 book each, you just made $24,000.

If your books are good, you'll find more fans buying more books, making you more money. If your books are terrible, maybe you only make $5-10 thousand, and that's ok, because you didn't spend that much time on it, or it's just a side hobby.

Think bigger.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120828/00082920174/congressional-research-service-takes-question-patent-trolls.shtml#c52 Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:27:28 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120828/00082920174/congressional-research-service-takes-question-patent-trolls.shtml#c52
Current system makes it most profitable to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. We need to change the incentive structure.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120726/19493919850/if-government-needs-to-step-to-help-your-business-model-you-shouldnt-be-business.shtml#c909 Thu, 2 Aug 2012 07:38:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120726/19493919850/if-government-needs-to-step-to-help-your-business-model-you-shouldnt-be-business.shtml#c909 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120719/10124819761/google-to-help-take-mexican-drug-cartels.shtml#c858 Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:07:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120719/10124819761/google-to-help-take-mexican-drug-cartels.shtml#c858 http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120709/11412719631/south-korea-gives-mobile-operators-permission-to-ignore-net-neutrality-surcharging-blocking-voip-services.shtml#c131 Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:37:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120709/11412719631/south-korea-gives-mobile-operators-permission-to-ignore-net-neutrality-surcharging-blocking-voip-services.shtml#c131 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120710/17490519654/how-not-to-build-21st-century-trade-agreement-secret.shtml#c171 Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:50:44 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120710/17490519654/how-not-to-build-21st-century-trade-agreement-secret.shtml#c171 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120710/03053019638/excerpt-rob-reids-year-zero-plus-chance-to-win-book.shtml#c399 Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:23:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120710/03053019638/excerpt-rob-reids-year-zero-plus-chance-to-win-book.shtml#c399
However, I will be secretely witholding the full copyright (a la Righthaven Pseudo-transfer) and my intergalactic heirs will sue every specias in the universe in 500 years. This will be possible thanks to the next 20 copyright term extensions, each for an additional 20 years, based on the Titan convention and the Ceres agreement.

YOU'LL ALL PAY!! (Me... lots of money. Space money.)]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120706/04332719602/poll-shows-only-9-uk-public-think-richard-odwyer-should-be-extradited.shtml#c914 Fri, 6 Jul 2012 15:10:34 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120706/04332719602/poll-shows-only-9-uk-public-think-richard-odwyer-should-be-extradited.shtml#c914
Does the statement "You can download movies and tv at no cost from the pirate bay .se" also set off alarms in your imaginary world? Because that's functionally equivalent to a hyperlink, just less convenient.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120503/07231418763/pirate-bay-block-initiates-streisand-cascade-drives-record-traffic.shtml#c492 Fri, 4 May 2012 08:22:33 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120503/07231418763/pirate-bay-block-initiates-streisand-cascade-drives-record-traffic.shtml#c492 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120425/00115218642/how-rumblefish-ended-up-claiming-copyright-song-uploaded-band-who-actually-held-copyright.shtml#c437 Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:38:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120425/00115218642/how-rumblefish-ended-up-claiming-copyright-song-uploaded-band-who-actually-held-copyright.shtml#c437 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c514 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:01:57 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c514 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c160 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:14:14 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c160
I would think a company could choose to offer discounts to customers it feels promote it games well. Much like sending out vouchers to good customers, or denying business to jerks, that is not "discriminatory" in the negative rights-based sense.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c157 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:58:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c157 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c115 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:44:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/13454718591/valve-tries-to-charge-people-based-how-likable-they-are-trolls-pay-full-price.shtml#c115
I say make them pay with effort and time, using Captchas or something similar. The more annoying a user is considered by the community, the more captchas they must complete before posting. The most unwelcome posters could still submit, but would have to answer 5 or 10 captchas. They need to really want to post that annoying message.

This could run off the stats of the Insightful/Funny/Report buttons, or add new buttons for general positive/negative contribution.

Track by user account, if logged in. If not logged in, track by IP and/or cookie and/or browser fingerprint. If blocking cookies, javascript and anonymizing via TOR or similar, a default low-value treatment should be applied.

While I recognize that there are posters anonymizing themselves via these means (proactive hiding beyond simply posting as AC) are doing so for legitimate reasons, I suspect that the overwhelming majority of such posters are troll-ish in nature.

Anyone like the idea of slowing down the trolls and annoying ACs, or is it too exclusionary? I would like to explicitly state that no one should be prevented from posting, only annoyed as they annoy us.]]>