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The Persuader
My personal blog, started in 2006. No paid or guest posts, no link sales.
Posts tagged ‘Disqus’
14.07.2022
I’m going to have to write off what Disqus owes us. No response to this thread, and no response to a DM I sent at their request.
I assume it’s a bit like Amazon, where they just ignore you regardless of what you’ve actually earned.
I think the rule is if it’s a big US tech firm, they’re going to BS youâespecially when it comes to money.
Maybe it’s time to threaten them as I did with Twitter?
Tags: 2022, advertising, Big Tech, deception, Disqus, ethics, USA Posted in business, internet, marketing, technology, USA | No Comments »
08.07.2022

Years ago, we removed the Facebook widgets from Lucireâs pages. Last year, there were Instagramâs and Twitterâs turns, after each of those platforms locked us out (though later we regained access, and in Twitterâs case we issued a veiled threat to their lawyers). Last night, it was Disqusâs turn as we removed the commenting gadget from the Lucire site.
Obviously, not having Disqusâs trackers was a big plus, and speeding up page-load times, but there were two other major considerations: readers seldom comment these days (fashion is less divisive than politics), and, we have no idea where the money for all the Disqus advertising is.
I seem to recall that we were nearing their US$100 payment threshold, and I had in mind that once we hit it, Iâd take the ads off. They were pretty ugly anyway.
Logging in yesterday, I was surprised to see Disqus claimed we had earned a little over US$3 now, while there is no record of any payment to us in the last year. Disqus also has nowhere on its site detailing payments made. Nor has it any feedback forms for non-subscribers (though you could argue that we have âpaidâ them in terms of the space their ads took up on the Lucire website all these years). I posted a question on their forumâthe best I could do there. Seventeen hours later, no answers.
Right after that, we removed the Disqus gadget on all of Lucireâs static (HTML) pages, and switched off the Disqus plug-in on the WordPress (news) part of the site for posts going forward. No pay, no stay. I also removed the default comment boxes for the last 100 stories, though I might still change my mind and reinstitute them. If I do, theyâll be native ones, not anything to do with a plug-in that slows things down.
All those years, adding plug-ins that were once far more innocent; as each one became part of the surveillance economy, the detriments began to outweigh the benefits. Whatâs interesting to me is, other than the Facebook widget, their removal came after they prompted us with something dodgy, not because we suddenly had concerns about their tracking. Till I started investigating, I didnât even realize how bad the problem was, though with hindsight of course I should have known, given how Iâve banged on about Facebook and Google. Part of me thought wishfully about Twitter, and as for our Instagram gadget, it was being run through another service (which might have been worse since it meant another company knowing stuff), and back when Instagram was a thing, I thought our readers would enjoy it.
Iâm not consistent as Autocadeâs Disqus forms are still up (at least on desktop), but they donât have the dreaded Disqus ads, and readers actually comment there. But I will have a look for a good alternativeâand I wonât be touching any of those Disqus settings as I donât wish for the ugly ads to be introduced.
Tags: 2022, advertising, Disqus, finance, JY&A Media, Lucire, privacy, publishing, surveillance, surveillance capitalism Posted in business, internet, media, publishing, technology | No Comments »
18.12.2020
Either something is interfering with Mediawiki or Iâve reached the limit with the software after 4,300-odd entries on Autocade. Which is highly unlikely as the same software runs Wikipedia.
For the first time ever I noticed this in the footer:

This is how a page with no views looks. Once it nets a few views, a count appears (â1 viewâ). Except for the first time in 12 years, this page, which has been viewed multiple timesâincluding by me as I reloaded it to see if I could get the count startedâwill not show a count.
This is only happening, as far as I can tell, on the newest page, though the counts on other pages have stayed static despite reloads (including leaving the page and returning).
The statisticsâ page on Autocade doesnât always update when I reload pages, either, which makes me wonder if the count to the next million is going to be accurate.
Anyone else come across this error?
Itâs funny that software that has run for 12 years one way decides not to do so any more, without any change in the back end.
I have noticed, however, that Disqus is doing some odd things, with the âAlso on Autocadeâ box showing âView sourceâ links that the general public is not permitted to see. Which means itâs following me. Is that altering how the pages behave? Itâs the first time that thatâs happened, too.
And something is making sure the ads donât show up, and itâs not me, since I never use an ad blocker, and Privacy Badger is turned off on my own sites. The browser has updated, but I’ve checked and the in-built ad blocker is switched off.
Tags: 2020, advertising, Autocade, Disqus, JY&A Media, Mediawiki, publishing, software Posted in internet, New Zealand, publishing, technology | No Comments »
14.09.2019
I know someone else has come across this before, since there’s a page on it here.
The very same thing has begun happening on Autocade, whenever the Facebook link is clicked. I’d love to blame Facebook, but I don’t believe it’s them.
I’ve contacted Sovrn (formerly Viglinks) as the discussion board participants identify them, but ShopStyle may know as it’s their API being used.
Here’s what I asked ShopStyle tonight, but if anyone has an idea, I’d love to hear it.
I do not know your company, but the Facebook link on one of my sites (http://autocade.net) is being altered to https://api.shopstyle.com/action/apiVisitRetailer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fautocade.net&pid=uid7424-7742368-93&pdata=k0jgi6bfn30122110msza whenever someone clicks on it, and they wind up at https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/deals/?ref=affiliate_external&referral_story_type=daily_deals_rakuten.
When I go into the source code on our server, the link is correct. The change is happening elsewhere, and I canât figure out where. From the link and UID Iâve given you, are you able to tell? We do run ads and a Disqus plug-in on our site, as well as a Po.st sharer, if these help narrow down the possibilities.
Iâm sure youâd want to kill the account of whomever is misusing ShopStyleâs APIs to earn referrals.
Here’s the page I wind up on when I click the link. It has no useful content.

I’ll report back if I discover more, as there may be a dodgy ad network out there, or Disqus or Po.st aren’t as honest as they used to be. Disqus is clunky anyway, and once we reach a certain payment threshold, we may remove it from all our sites. Autocade was the one place where comments were really good, so it’ll be a shame to lose it.
PS.: After looking through the inspector, it appears to be Disqus, using Viglinks. One has to turn off affiliate links in the Disqus set-up.
P.PS.: Both ShopStyle and Sovrn were really helpfulâShopStyle’s Rasheka even went so far as to include screenshots and links.
Tags: 2010s, 2019, affiliate programmes, Autocade, Disqus, ethics, Facebook, JY&A Media, publishing, Shopstyle, Sovrn Posted in business, internet, publishing, technology, USA | No Comments »
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