Chances are as you do your internet rounds this morning, you’ve run up against at least one site that is participating in the internet blackout currently going on right now.

If a site that’s participating hasn’t gone completely dark, like Wikipedia, then perhaps it is obscured entirely or in part by a “this site has been blocked by SOPA/PIPA” graphic. Perhaps one of your favorite Facebook pages has gone offline for the day in solidarity. We have remained online to bring you news- which today largely centers around these damaging bills and the havoc they could cause worldwide- but the Inquisitr is one of many smaller sites that struggle with far less dangerous laws in the same vein every day.

Sure, we’re no Wikipedia. Every day, we try to find the hottest stories, pics, videos and gossip across many categories to streamline your web experience. But what any site like the Inquisitr can tell you is that even under the “piracy” laws of today, smaller sites like us are threatened all the time by those who seek to intimidate or otherwise silence web voices.

Sometimes it’s confusion under what constitutes fair use- we’ve had massive media companies who know the law well enough to know they’re wrong threaten suit under information we’ve posted that is legal. And in the past, we have removed things it’s perfectly legal to use because we can’t always go up against a massive entertainment company, movie studio or publisher and keep bringing you fresh content.

Other times it’s the same provisions used because someone doesn’t like what we have to say. And even if we believe strongly in the First Amendment, we don’t always have the ability to defend ourselves against massive legal action. What you need to know is that this happens all the time. Companies already have legal protection against piracy, and SOPA and PIPA do nothing constructive in this regard.

What SOPA and PIPA do do, however, is place a lot of the onus to prove innocence on the accused party. You see where this is going. In a future where SOPA and PIPA has passed, such a great number of the sites you enjoy every day could be removed instantly- blocked from search engines and yanked by their hosts- without due process. Like gossip? Any site that carries any gossip will be a massive target because the powerful people being gossiped about may not like what is being said.

Sites like Reddit? They would be deluged by potential “copyright owners,” or people with an interest in removing content from the web for any reason. Facebook is a “haven” for sharing potentially copyrighted material, and forget uploading a karaoke clip to YouTube. You’d be a felon. And us? We would almost certainly fall prey to an errant copyright claim or other spurious allegation rapidly because there is no disincentive for anyone who disagrees with something we might say. For the Inquisitr and similar sites, simply a mix of content from various sources makes us a massive target.

Look, no one likes the idea of movie-makers out of work or artists deprived of revenue by counterfeited SpongeBob books or figurines. But SOPA and PIPA are not the answer. It’s like burning a city down because a suspected criminal is hiding in a house somewhere in that city. It kills opportunities for many in the pursuit of protecting profits for the few.

If you love the internet- not just the Inquisitr- and you want to protect it, today is the best time to contact your local lawmaker and vociferously oppose SOPA and PIPA. We deserve better, and if these dangerous bills ever pass, how will we even organize to fight them?

If you wish to contact your representative to voice your dissent, go over to Wikipedia. The current site has a one-step way to get all the information you need to make a quick phone call and add to the growing cry to save the internet. Step up before it’s too late!

What SOPA and PIPA Would Do to The Inquisitr is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s done and dusted- the sale of the Inquisitr is complete, and the site has officially changed hands.

It would be incredibly difficult to post about this objectively, as I’ve personally had an eons-long by tech standards working relationship with Duncan, and most of the team have been here for a year or more. To be painfully honest, it was a bit terrifying to watch it play out, and difficult to imagine the Inquisitr without Duncan, and maybe some of me us panicked a little. However, we’ve all spoken to the new (secret!) owner- he’s very cool, he’s got some great ideas and we’re excited.

With everything said and done, Duncan has disclosed some facts and figures about the sale of the site. Final sale price was 10% over the reserve of $300,000, at $330,000. Keeping in with the threes trend, it went for 30x the monthly net after writers’ expenses. Duncan commented:

“Although it was a quick sale and I believe it was less than it was worth, the sale once again proves the viability of new media. The sale worked out at roughly 30x net monthly after writers, which is a good figure in the after market, and compares well to old media sales.”

As many of our readers know, Duncan said the decision to sell the Inquisitr was not an easy one, but he wanted some time away before diving into new ventures. He says:

“I had to sell for private reasons in the end, which werenʼt related to the running of the site (indeed it ran itself) but you get to a point where you need a proper break (one I havenʼt had for seven years,) and the site has gone into good hands at a good price.

“I do believe The Inquistr was worth far more, but the quality of the buyer and the fact that they kept on the writers, who are the real assets of the company (which they have proved time and again) was an important consideration.

“It was a clear cash sale (without conditions and with no clauses for me to stay on) which was the deciding factor in me accepting the offer.

“The Inquisitr has been my heart and soul for three years, and as much as it hurts me to be forced to sell it, I know it goes into good hands.”

At the end of his time off, Duncan says he plans on launching something new in an entirely different niche than the Inquisitr. We can’t wait to see what he’s planning, and I think it’s safe to say everyone here will miss him very much during his mini-retirement. Something tells me he won’t keep a low profile for long.

Duncan dishes on Inquisitr sale, future plans is a post from: The Inquisitr

This one of the hardest, if not worst posts I’ve ever written here at The Inquisitr, but here it comes.

The Inquisitr is for sale on Flippa.com. Details here.

I founded this site on 3 May 2008, some 3 years ago after leaving TechCrunch. Due to personal issues I need a break, and when I say break, I mean a full blown not be on the internet break. The site stats (traffic and revenue) continue to pay my bills, but you get to a point in your life that you know you need proper time off before you ended up committed with head problems, and I’m at that stage now.

Indeed, since I founded the Blog Herald, then co-founded b5media with Darren Rowse and Jeremy Wright (2003-2004) I don’t believe I’ve ever taken serious time off. I need this now, and hence the site is on the market. Part of it is going through a divorce, but there’s more again. My barrister today joked that I should write a book: he’s right

The stats (including income) are available on Flippa.If you’re interested and want more details, you can contact me directly at duncan at nichenet.com.au.

Let me say that I appreciate every one of our readers and even more so our writers, as well as those who have supported the site in the last 3 years. I wish I wasn’t selling it: hell., it all but runs itself and is profitable, but I need some serious time out. For some reference read this post here.

If you’re interested, please contact me,

And again: this site is only as good as it’s readers. I so don’t want to leave you, but I have no choice. I appreciate all of you so very much and I can never, ever thank you enough for you support.

Duncan.

The Inquisitr is for sale is a post from: The Inquisitr

With more and more Android phones being sold every day, offering an iPhone application only doesn’t cut it anymore, so today we’re proud to announce that The Inquisitr Android App is now available in the Android Marketplace.

Our Android application is a step forward from our iPhone application, offering a clearer interface, and offers a variety of features, including the ability to browse by category, search recent stories, make shout outs to other app users, leave app specific comments, favorite stories, and share stories to Twitter and Facebook.

And yes, if you do have an iPhone, we’re hoping to upgrade our iPhone application shortly.

Of course the best thing about The Inquisitr Android application is the price: it’s 100% free

To download, you can visit the Android Zoom listing here, type Inquisitr into the Android Marketplace on your phone, or use the QCode below.

To use a QCdoe:

- Open Your Barcode Scanner app
- Center and scan the QR code below
- Open the browser link (the link will direct you to the Android Marketplace)
- Download The Inquisitr Android Application

The Inquisitr Android Application Now Available For Download is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s my humble honor to address the nation on this fortuitous occasion, that of the passing of the second year of our existence.

On a less serious note, The Inquisitr has this week turned two.

How far we’ve come in that time.

This time last year we’d been profitable for 4 months, although the global financial crisis saw the ad market hemorrhage, so although we were growing, the dollars weren’t.

12 months later the market isn’t what it use to be, but it is certainly on the mend. November and December were gangbusters for us, and after a slow January/ February, we’ve seen a steady increase in revenue combined with our break through of 3 million page views in April for the first time.

My thanks to all the writers who make The Inquisitr what it is, and here’s to another 12 months of growth and greater things.

The hard numbers

5 May 2008 – 5 May 2010

Visits: 29,987,038
Pageviews: 45,273,30

5 May 2009 – 5 May 2010

Visits: 20,823,383
Pageviews: 32,217,680

The Inquisitr Turns Two is a post from: The Inquisitr

After avoiding the inevitable for the last year or two, we’ve today bitten the bullet and launched the official Inquisitr Facebook page.

Along with the latest posts from The Inquisitr, you’ll also get a mix of links from the stories that come up on our radar on a regular basis, but don’t make it to the site.

To join, click here, or use the box in the sidebar.

Any suggestions on what else we should be doing with it are always welcomed…on the Facebook page in particular that is

Join Our New Facebook Page: Kittens Will Love You For It is a post from: The Inquisitr

Regular readers will know that for the last month and a bit, we’ve been in a never ending battle of wills against servers and load times.

Our first major change was implementing Amazon’s S3 service to serve static files from the site. It helped, but in the end we ended up moving to Rackspace Cloud Sites to finally get a grip on the server issues we were having.

Since moving last Monday, the site has mostly purred, and since I’ve been looking for ways to improve load time again. One thing that did surprise me that as much as the files served from Amazon S3 were being served well, there was some latency there, and it wasn’t as quick as I’d hoped for, even if it did help decrease the load on our core hosting setup.

If you know about CDN’s and how to set them up, you should probably stop reading from this point, because the following isn’t going to be a detailed, or perhaps completely accurate technical description.

What is a CDN

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of server locations that deliver your content in multiple locations. Traditionally, if someone visited your site, they’d pull all your locally hosted static files (images, js, css) off your server directly. With a CDN setup, they pull those static files from their closest CDN, so for example if you were in Europe, the static files would be served from a local node of the CDN network. What this means is that your static files are quicker to load because they are served from a closer location, and although you’re still serving some files (php etc) from your original server, the end user gets the page quicker.

Each node in the CDN takes a copy and cache’s that for local traffic. The bigger the CDN network, the quicker load times are for most because there are more closer nodes to serve the static files.

Amazon Cloudfront

The reason we’ve implemented Amazon Cloudfront was one of ease of use: we already had Amazon S3 set up, so it was simply a matter of 5 minutes and bingo: CDN. A number of people have pointed out to me that given the site is on Rackspace, we have access to Rackspace Files, which uses the Limelight CDN network. The Limelight CDN network is superior as a CDN, not only because they have an Australian presence where as Amazon doesn’t, but sheer global presence.

However, the WordPress tools to set up Rackspace Files aren’t as easy to use as those available for Amazon, and we already have files on S3, which cut out the need to transfer a ton of image files across as well. Ultimately Rackspace Files (with Limelight) will offer a better solution, but for now we implement what we can with the tools at hand.

Setup

To setup Amazon Cloudfront with WordPress, you need S3 to begin with: read Using Amazon S3 for image hosting with a WordPress blog. The cool thing about Cloudfront is that it pulls data from pre-existing S3 files, so there’s no transfers required, it’s just a matter of setting things up.

Paul Stamatiou has the best guide for setup here, and I won’t attempt to replicate it all (he has pictures as well). The key points though:

- Go into Amazon Web Services and enable Cloudfront
- Using S3Fox, select the bucket (folder) on S3 you want to add to the CDN, right click, and pick manage distributions
- Add a name for the distro (Amazon Cloudfront), tick the “enable the distribution” box, pick a CName (in our case, turbo.inquisitr.com) and click create distribution
- you then get a resource URL. Using the instructions in our S3 guide (or via your host on how to setup a CName), using the details given, setup a Cname for your URL (turbo.yourname.com) pointing at the Cloudfront URL.

This is where I did it differently. Presuming you’re on S3 and you’ve got something like images.yourname.com for your S3 content, download the CDN Rewrites plugin here and install it. Once that’s setup, you simply need to tell it to redirect any URL from images.yourname.com to turbo.yourname.com (and this presumes you’ve got your files on S3 to start with, if you haven’t, this won’t work.) Select the options as fit, for example images, css, js etc…

Besides some little bugs with a thumbnail plugin we’re using (not related at all to Cloudfront), our page load times have been cut by between 40% and 80% (the former, only when we’re loading a full image to then make the thumbnail.) On one test, Pingomatic went from 8.7 seconds before to 2.9 seconds after…and that’s staggering. I don’t get the full effect in Australia because there’s no local CDN, but even I can see the difference here.

If you’re under load stress, and what to make you site load quicker, a CDN might be right for you.

Amazon Cloudfront CDN with a WordPress Blog is a post from: The Inquisitr

Regular readers would know about the issues we’ve had with servers over September and into October. When I got back from the States at the end of August, the CPU load headed north. I thought I knew what it was, and I stripped some stuff out, stuff that in September at least cost us in terms of Google juice and traffic. My only focus was on the server, and I couldn’t see the light from the trees. It’s like an all consuming sickness, one that slowly chips away at all that is rational and logical, until you do even the most insane things trying to fix it.

It turns out we had an Apache problem. Whether that was WordPress related or not I’m not 100% sure, but likewise as of yesterday the 5th person on oDesk I’ve hired (and the first competent server guy) identified it, be it by his work shots and subsequent research in those shots.

Here’s what I did know: as September progressed, and no matter what cache I put in place, no matter that all but the thumbnails on this site, and a pile of js and css calls are on Amazon S3, the CPU load just got worse and worse. Turns out that once we started, it was always going to get worse, so I’m told. We needed a fresh start, a fresh WordPress install, and more importantly more than a “you’re in charge” from a service ticket for our US$750 a month in server costs.

So partially by default, because after 3 days straight with very little sleep, I accidentally pointed the name servers for The Inquisitr to rackspace when I’d meant to point the nameservers for my personal blog there in a pre-test, we’re now signed up with Rackspace Cloud Sites.

Don’t get me wrong on one front: I’ve been mostly a happy customer of MediaTemple for the life of this site, but the difference between MT and Rackspace is chalk and cheese. We had to upgrade to the MT Nitro dedicated server about 12 months ago after we killed our cloud based VPS, and as anyone who has had a server knows, that means all responsibility falls on to you.

I can roughly get around the basics. At b5media in the early days, I didn’t have much choice until we finally got help. My vi and ssh is rough, but it came flooding back to me. But likewise my 18mths doing a B. Business with a double major in Information Systems and Marketing didn’t mean much (I finally graduated in 2006 at another university in Ecommerce and Marketing), because really when it comes to Linux servers, I don’t know much at all.

Abandoning MediaTemple for Rackspace sounds a bit extreme, but let me explain: the Rackspace Cloud Sites package is core site hosting without server management, which really is my idea of heaven.

So we’re there now, after a few hiccups. The “rock solid support” meant their live support telling me to submit a ticket that takes 24-48 hours to action, even though all I wanted was for them to import into my MySQL database the dump for this site. I’d have done it myself, but there’s no SSH access, and the DB was too big to be handled in phpmyadmin. In the end, using terminal with root access into the original MediaTemple hosted db I exported every table alone, all 34 of them (don’t ask why so many, I don’t know.) The biggest was 5.6 mb…which then caused the big three into phpmyadmin to time out 34 uploads and 3-4 hours later (and this stage, Rackspace could have solved it for me in under 1 minute because the full dump was on the server.) I then manually split the big files up, recalling my rough SQL semester in 97…but I managed to muck that up as well, because in the end some of the db were screwed (we’ll get to how I know that in a minute.)

At this point, I’d managed, after over 4 hours to get the sql db uploaded in full, and the WP install picking it up. Then I got some weird message about nodes. There’s nothing in the Rackspace Knowledge base about this, but online I found a combination of “server issues” and SQL issues. Ran through and repaired each db, still no luck. Hit Rackspace live help, and I got a cut and paste of what it might be with a message that it’s probably a script I’m running…and here’s the best thing, I’m taxing the service, despite the sales page saying they’ll scale it to fit you.

There was however a blue moon tonight, and Robert Scoble was following the drama on Twitter and offered to find some help. This could be the last time for a long time I heap praise on Scoble, but god bless his sole, because he saved me tonight, and I can never be grateful enough.

Kyle Gelato from Rackspace came to help (@kylegato), and fixed the db errors. As of when he did that maybe 4 hours ago as I write this, all was well in the universe, and the site works, name server propagation issue on occasion aside.

The site isn’t 100% perfect, for example every now and then the front page delays loading, and I don’t know why, that and I’m still uploading the archive of images. But that aside, it’s mostly purring. When I wake up in the morning (presuming Steven Hodson doesn’t call me at 4am again to tell that the server is down) all will work, and we’ll be back on track.

It was the best of times, and worst of times. I just hope to god I don’t have to go through it again. I’ve not got that much hair left to be able to repeat the process

I should note though in postscript that I don’t fell ill will to MediaTemple, and I may well downgrade our account to something cheaper and keep it for some minor sites. They’re very well at what they do, but they don’t offer the scaling opportunities a cloud based solution like Rackspace cloud does, and unless you’ve got a tech team to support your server, Rackspace Cloud offers the better package once you get big.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (or why we’re with Rackspace) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Today The Inquisitr expands on its growth path with two new content streams: Inquisitr Wire and a new dedicated Science + Health Channel.

Inquisitr Wire, as the name might suggest is our first foray into the media release space. We get quite a few media releases each day we simply don’t get around to turning into a post, but likewise ones we’d like to share none the less. The Inquisitr Wire content is being kept separate, so if you’re subscribed to any of our current feeds, you’re not about to get inundated with media releases. You can keep up with the Wire via RSS, the category page or via the Inquisitr Wire section on the front page.

Our new Science + Health channel has been in soft launch for several weeks now, but we thought we should get around to officially launching it. The content in the feed combines a range of health and science news from our content partner AHN, with some of the things that interest us, such as most things related to space. Science + Health content is appearing in the main feed, and like all other content streams it also has its own direct feed as well.

If you’re interested in sending media releases or tips to The Inquisitr, follow the contact link in the footer.

Introducing Inquisitr Wire and our new Science + Health Channel is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m proud to announce today that official launch of The Inquisitr iPhone application, now available in the iTunes store for the best price of all: FREE.

The Inquisitr application is a feed reader, pulling on our primary and subject feeds to allow quick and easy reading of the latest headlines from the site. Content is rendered in full, so you don’t have to click back to the site to read a full post. Clicked links are rendered within the app, so it’s easy to head back to the original post, and you can refresh the application at any time.

As this is our first version, and as a direct result of the lead time required, there are a few things the application doesn’t offer yet. Our new Science and Health section isn’t available in this version, nor is inline commenting due to the recent introduction of JS-Kit on site (although you can click back to the site to view/ add comments.) We’d hope to add both in future versions.

Part of developing an app was to offer an easier way to read the site on an iPhone or iPod Touch, but I wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t an interest in seeing how the development and application submission process worked. Outsourcing the development was a very positive experience, and surprisingly affordable. The first test version of the app was delivered in one week, with tweaks following over the second week.

We eventually submitted it to Apple at the beginning of September, and it took a bit over two weeks to get approved…but only after nearly two weeks of getting Apple to approve my developer account. Apple had an issue with our company name: I submitted it as Nichenet, and they insisted it had to be displayed as Nichenet Pty Ltd (the full company name.) I pointed out that Apple in Australia has a full company name of Apple Computer Australia Pty Ltd and they weren’t showing the Pty Ltd part (Pty Ltd is an Australian designation for the type of company) but they wouldn’t play.

You can download The Inquisitr iPhone app here

Want The Inquisitr on your iPhone? There’s an app for that is a post from: The Inquisitr

Over two posts Wednesday evening (Australian Eastern) we covered the raid by Anonymous against the Australian Government. Those posts relied heavily on information publicly available on another site (which was linked to in the first post) about the raid, and included statements of intent from Anonymous itself. The second post was an attempt to live blog the raid by monitoring sites Anonymous are known to frequent, Twitter, and by checking whether any Australian Government sites were slow to load or offline (you know, basic journalism.) Both posts were clearly written under my name, and quotes from the group were clearly marked as such, and in one case in a block quote gray enclosure.

Indeed, I even went as far as saying in the first post

I legally can’t say I’m in favor of what Anonymous is doing here, and I won’t be participating in the raid, however there will be many who support any effort to highlight the Australian Government’s attempt to introduce Chinese style censorship in a country that is suppose to be democratic and free.

Incitement to commit a crime in Australia is illegal, and not only didn’t I endorse the effort, I specifically said I had nothing to do with it.

So how it is then that the News Corp papers in Australia are running stories claiming that among other things that the “hacker” wrote the posts here at The Inquisitr. To quote the article:

A message posted on the Inquisitor website by the hacker, identified as Anonymous, stated that the action was in response to a Federal Government proposal to introduce mandatory internet filtering….

The posting complains that the proposal to introduce internet filtering would block legal content, and take censorship to levels like that seen in China.

It should be noted that the China reference was one that I made, they didn’t actually split the quotes and my commentary, but instead lumped it all as “the hacker” talking.

But it gets better, because then they extensively quote my live blog post as coming from the hacker.

The posting, titled “Anonymous vs the Australian Government”, also gives a blow-by-blow account of the hacker’s progress.

“In two minutes from when I type this, Anonymous is declaring war on the Australian Government over its decision to implement Draconian internet censorship,” the post said.

“Tick tick tick.

“Update: 7pm: and so it begins.

“7:05pm (AEST), Ministers page is slow to load, but still up.

“7:11pm weve confirmed on site (via a source) that the sites due to be attacked have been taken down from the coordination page, possibly before the raid.

“7:18pm pm.gov.au DOWN!

“7:21pm Kevin Rudd’s page is down completely. Strike one to Anonymous.”

News Corporation is fond of attacking new media, with John Hartigan himself having a particular dislike of bloggers and blogging. Yet what we have here is yet another case of even the most basic fact checking not being undertaken, and in the process The Inquisitr, and by extension myself (as the author of the posts referred to in article) being accused of undertaking serious criminal activities, activities which I would note are currently subject to an investigation by the Australian Federal Police.

Despite emailing the editor of News.com.au, The Australian Newspaper, and The Herald Sun, I’ve not had one response. The Editor of the rival newspaper The Age, who ran a similar story, not only immediately responded, but pulled the references to The Inquisitr in less than 30 minutes

How News Corp slandered this site is a post from: The Inquisitr

No, the above image isn’t a mock up, and yes, I do appear to be in a cave, but on a serious note I appeared on CNN this morning (US Pacific) as part of a panel discussing issues with Twitter and Facebook.

Of the three times I was able to speak, its the middle point I’m proud of: debunking this ridiculous notion that teens don’t use Twitter. Obviously it was limited in time, but more on that data in an earlier post here.

The other interesting aspect was the use of Skype to do live broadcast video, something I’ve never seen before, although that’s more of a reflection on the fact that I don’t watch television. As you can see from the video, the audio quality wasn’t great, and I was switched to phone for audio after the first question. The tech pushing the quality improvements behind Skype and similar services is definitely improving, but likewise it struggles in translating to the screen, unless you’ve got a great internet connection. In this case it was the shared WiFi at Gnomedex, which while reliable, isn’t particularly fast.

Enjoy:

Debunking Twitter teen myths one television station at a time is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sadly in May I had to bid a fond farewell to JR Raphael after he finished a 12 month stint writing for The Inquisitr. What I am pleased to note today though is that JR is back, sadly not here at The Inquisitr, but with a new site: eSarcasm.

Billed as “snark 2.0,” eSarcasm opens with “Do you tweet too much? Have you recently added “social media guru” to your resume? Do you believe in a literal interpretation of TechCrunch? Then you will probably hate eSarcasm, a site devoted to mockery of all things tech.”

The site launched earlier this month and is already building some nice momentum, including traffic and comments. The content, as the name suggests, is full of sarcastic win, with posts looking at topics including Adult services after Craigslist, Your Passwords and Your Personality,and CrunchPad to Include ‘AutoRumor’ and ‘AlwaysRight’ Technology.

Naturally we wish JR the best of luck with the site and recommend that it’s worth a visit.

Add eSarcasm to your daily read is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of the most popular self-help management books in recent years has been the somewhat controversial “Four Hour Work Week” from Tim Ferriss.

Everyone in the web industry claims to have read it, but very few have actually implemented any of the strategies in the book. I read it maybe 18 months ago, and to be brutally honest I thought that it the concept of working four hour weeks was insane, and I still do. It might work when you can delegate for a living, but it doesn’t work when your primary job is writing; that mine still is could be argued either way, although I’m happy to say that when I walk away from posting on The Inquisitr for a day (well, mostly, on the worst day last week I posted twice) all hell doesn’t break loose and the site doesn’t fall off a cliff.

All that aside though, Ferriss’ theories about delegating to lessen the load do make sense. I’ve been swamped with email for so long now I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t. As The Inquisitr has grown, so to has the email load. It’s not that I don’t try to filter email; I have maybe 30 rules set up in Gmail that filter out the email I don’t have to directly respond to, but that’s not enough. If you’ve sent an email to me in the last few months and never received a reply, my apologies; at a rough guess most days I might get to maybe 30-50% of it.

Things have to change, and I’m tired of apologizing to people for responding to their emails 7-14 days after they’ve sent them. So today I hired a virtual assistant via oDesk. Melanie starts Wednesday (Australian time), giving me another 24 hours to clean up my inbox for handover, and to write a pile of rules/ instructions for her to follow.

My experience with outsourcing hasn’t been great in the past; I seem to have a bad knack of picking people who promise the world then never deliver, but I’m mildly confident here. Melanie has a number of other clients she does VA work for, some who have had her on the books non-stop since January, and that’s always a positive sign.

I’ll report back in the coming weeks as to how it all goes. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and seek help, and my inbox was long overdue for that assessment.

Can following Tim Ferriss’ theories save you from email? Lets find out is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lawyers representing Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black have today threatened to sue The Inquisitr for a screenshot of perezhilton.com we included in a post.

The shot we ran included one picture from the set of pictures published by Perez Hilton that showed Black having sex with another man. The picture, which constituted approx one third of the screenshot, showed Blacks head, but certainly nothing more or less.

Ironically in the post we discussed the issues surrounding the publication of the pictures, and why we weren’t interested in running them.

Black’s lawyers claimed copyright over the screenshot, claiming that Black owned ultimate copyright over the partial image. We objected on two grounds: the picture was clearly taken by a third party, and the lawyers provided no supporting evidence that copyright was held by Black. Second, as a screen grab from another site, the image as a whole constitute fair use under US copyright law, and fair dealing under Australian copyright law.

Despite filing a counter claim noting the valid objections and asking for a valid response, the lawyers continue to threaten this site and our host Media Temple without providing the evidence requested (and required under the DMCA), using terms such as “You act at your own peril” and “govern yourself accordingly.” I’m not going to play martyr over one image, so we’ve censored the shot by blacking out the bit they were upset about.

I will however this week consider lodging a complaint under Australian law for the coercive and threatening nature of their correspondence. I’ve dealt with DMCA claims in the past, both lodging them and receiving them, and this would have to be the most unprofessional, bullying correspondence I’ve seen yet.

One last thing: when we wrote about Dustin Lance Black I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy given what had been published elsewhere. That is no longer the case. Dustin Lance Black: not that you’ll probably ever read this, but if you do, we’re having a party the day you get hit by a bus. Your legal tactics only prove that you got your just desserts.

PS: Image above is used under CC license from Wikipedia: see here.

Here’s only one part of nearly a dozen emails.

Re: D. Lance Black / Copyright Violations – DMCA Notice

Dear Website Operator:

We are representatives/attorneys for D. Lance Black, and we are writing with respect to our client’s claims arising from violations of his intellectual property rights with regard to copyright infringement, as well as violations of his right of privacy and publicity. Mr. Black holds all rights, title, interest and copyright to the photographic materials, portions of which are posted on your website.

Included herewith is a DMCA Notice of Infringement for the post that appears on your website, which posts, displays and disseminates without authorization a photos (the “Unauthorized Photos”) which violates our client’s copyright. Our client has not authorized nor licensed the use of his copyright in conjunction with the creation, posting, dissemination or exploitation of infringed materials on your website. Accordingly, we request that you immediately remove the unauthorized posting and dissemination of the Unauthorized Photos pursuant to the following DMCA notice.

NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT

I, the undersigned, CERTIFY UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY that I am the owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner of certain intellectual property rights, said owner being named Dustin Lance Black (“IP Owner”). I have a good faith belief that the materials identified hereto are not authorized by the above IP Owner, its agent, or the law and therefore infringe the IP Owner’s rights according to state, federal and/or US law. Please act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the listed material or items claimed to be infringing.

Infringed Work or Right: Copyright Violations
Item/Material – Website/URL Location(s):

http://www.inquisitr.com/26037/dustin-lance-black-photos/

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/dustin-lance-black-trevor-hero-award.jpg

Thank you for your anticipated immediate cooperation and immediate compliance with US Copyright Law.

If you have any questions concerning this matter, I may be contacted at via reply to the listed address or at the above listed address and phone number.

If you fail to comply with this notice and expeditiously remove the infringing content, you will be held liable.

You act at your own peril.

Govern yourself accordingly.

This letter does not constitute a complete or exhaustive statement of all of my client’s rights, claims, contentions or legal theories regarding this matter. Nothing stated herein is intended as, nor should it be deemed to constitute, a waiver or relinquishment of any of my client’s rights or remedies, whether legal or equitable, all of which are hereby expressly reserved. This is a confidential legal notice and may not be published, in whole or in part.

Truthfully,

BARRY DALE JOHNSON
8409 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069
p: 323.822.4813 | f: 323.822.4880 | c: 213.944.8303
bjohnson@id-pr.com

Dustin Lance Black lawyers threaten to sue us despite not running the XXX pics is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apparently the older you get, the quicker time flies. In that regard when we celebrated our 1st birthday May 5, it felt like it was yesterday. This crazy site we started that breaks so many rules when it comes to blogging, a site we managed to grow from 80,000 page views in its second month, to something along the lines of 2.7-2.8 million page views this month (we’re 2.533m as I write this on the 28th) turned 1.

During this time we’ve had six writers in various capacities, and roughly another six again guest posting or in occasional syndication. At our first birthday, there was only one original left: JR Raphael.

We were always fortunate to have JR’s services. I’ve never judged applicants by their resume alone, and always looked at writing style and eye for content, but in JR’s case I saw both. As well as writing for MSNBC, PC World, The Washington Post and Yahoo Tech, he’s also won two Emmy’s. Yeah, if that sounds like an insane resume to you, imagine how I felt. The resume should have frightened me off, but none the less he got the gig.

In the 12 months since, JR has been a solid foundation from which this site grew. He remarkably stood by me during the dark hours, the times where I doubted that what we had started could last, and where the money started to get thin. He has been a friend and confidant, a sounding board and collaborator in refining what we do today, and in the formula we finally worked out. But most of all he’s been a great writer, taking his experience, and adopting it to the style we finally came up with, the style that is to some regards uniquely ours.

I finish though on one even more positive note. While he should have been the one schooling me, I actually taught him well in one respect: he’s leaving to start his own site. That site isn’t live yet, but I’m told it’s a tech comedy site. We’ll let everyone know when it’s live so you can follow him there.

My public thanks to JR for all you have given this site, and me. I probably didn’t think you’d last so long, and I can never be grateful enough that you did.

We have offered the vacant position to a new blogger, who I’m hoping will bring their own style to the site. More on that in the coming days.

Sadly we bid a fond farewell to JR Raphael is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you hadn’t noticed today, The Inquisitr is running a campaign for the Jeopardy iPhone application (a screenshot above for future reference.) It involves the use of a background ad along with a traditional banner placement.

Background advertising (also known as “skinning”) has been a popular form of advertising in the celebrity blogosphere and on some news sites, but they’re otherwise rare outside of those spaces. The idea of such campaigns is to break through the noise on the given site, so the ads can’t be missed. Visually, they aren’t always pretty, but many swear by them as an effective way to reach an audience.

We won’t know the results of the current campaign until tomorrow, but likewise if you can see the background ad now, we’d naturally encourage you to click and visit the sponsor; it also helps that we feel comfortable promoting the application, and we think it’s a great product.

Set up

The problem coming into this campaign was setting it up. Background advertising is offered by a few ad agencies, but isn’t widely available. From what I could find, there was no off the shelf easy to use solution (such as a WP plugin) to implement the background ads either. The only solution was to hard code it, but the fun didn’t stop there.

Because theses ads aren’t overly common, there’s a wide variety of often conflicting advice on how to implement them. No doubt some will say that it’s easy to do X way, but I could find a Y, Z and A, B and C version of how to do it as well. Then it’s finding something that 1: works with a WordPress blog, and 2: is compatible across all browsers. The second point was one of the hardest: in our testing, we’d get these great solutions working, only to find that they failed in cross browser tests.

In the end implemented a combination of CSS (for the image) and a javascript call for the click side. As of last night, this was working in all browsers…until this morning we were notified that it possibly wasn’t working in Google Chrome.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, Chrome is more of a pain in the arse code wise than IE6, well at least for me, because I know most of the IE6 hacks. It does prove a point though: you can never test across browsers enough.

Bugs

We know there’s one bug with the implementation: in some browsers, if you click on whitespace you get the ad as well. From an advertisers perspective, I’d rather have overkill with click areas, then miss some, but for any future campaigns, it’s something we’ll need to fix.

Overall

This form of advertising is going to become more common as advertisers seek to maximize exposure and clicks. We’re grateful to the agency who placed this ad with us, and for being patient as we worked through the issues described above.

If you’re interested in advertising on The Inquisitr, be it a background placement like this, or similar ad spots, drop me a email.

And don’t forget to Play America’s favorite quiz show today! Here’s the official spiel on the app:

This…is…Jeopardy! Put your knowledge to the test in this exciting new game created for the iPhone and iPod touch! Pick a category and dollar amount and answer clues written by Jeopardy writers. Buzz in quickly and answer correctly to watch your earnings rise, then hum along with the classic Final Jeopardy theme music while you respond to the final clue.

Key Features

· Use the touchscreen to write your name on the podium, just like a real contestant on Jeopardy!

· Play in Landscape mode so that you see the contestants and the categories on the same screen

· Includes real sounds from t he game, including the class Final Jeopardy Music!

· Listen to the famous voiceover “This…is…Jeopardy!” from the famous Johnny Gilber when the game starts

· Create your own custom contestant

· Packed with over 1500 clues, enjoy hours of entertainment

Background advertising: the best way to test it is by doing some is a post from: The Inquisitr

On a cold autumn day in the year of our lord 2008, we set forward on a quest to create a site that mixed content in ways far few have done before.

OK, so it actually wasn’t quite that dramatic, but today marks the first birthday for The Inquisitr. The site launched May 5, 2008 (May 6 in Australia) with a mix of content that most people thought was insane, including me. The goal then, as it still is today, was to create a site that offered a “better mix” of tech, odd, entertainment and general news, a sort of newspaper lite model that hopefully delivered a good read.

As I type this post, Google Analytics says we’ve delivered 13,059,144 page views in our first 12 months. The real figure is probably around 13.3 million, as we’re missing about a weeks worth of stats from various periods, but I’m happy with 13 million none the less. Our other vital stats: Alexa 11,341, Technorati: 225, Compete: 3,907, Quantcast: 1,756, Australian Blog index: 2, Australian startup index: 8.

I’ve always preached that it takes six to nine months to establish a blog, although others, such as Jason Calacanis put the figure at two years. For The Inquisitr, the six to nine months proved spot on. The first six months were hard, we burned money without ever making a profit, and at the end of November the finances were getting very tight; notably we remain a completely independent site and have never taken external investment. Things though had started to turn in October, and by November we did our first 1 million page views month. By February, we broke the 2 million mark, and had at long last become cash flow positive.

Going forward we will continue to focus on content. We’ve just put on a third fixed writer and I’ll be exploring ways to build the team so that we can increase our coverage, and continue to offer a better mix.

My thanks to everyone who has helped along the way. To Steven Hodson and JR Raphael, you stuck by me during the dark hours, and I can never express my gratitude enough. To Meieli Sawyer and Minic Rivera, who are no longer with us, at to those who have guest posted or been syndicated (Robert Scoble, Mark Rizzn Hopkins and Eric Berlin are but a few) my thanks for your help. Last and most definitely not least: to you, our readers, who have made this crazy dream possible: we couldn’t have done it without you.

The Inquisitr Turns One is a post from: The Inquisitr

As our first year comes to a close, we’ve loved sharing odd and funny stories with you this year. Here’s a look back at our 10 most popular odd and funny stories for 2008.

10: College Junior Enters NBA Draft. The Catch: He Has No Basketball Playing Experience

Zach Feinstein is the dark horse in this years NBA Draft, the dark horse because he’s managed to register himself despite having no serious basketball playing experience.

9: Darwin Awards 2008

To this day we’ve never been able to confirm the accuracy of this list (and a number of commenters called false) but it makes for good reading.

8: Lois K Feldman: Sex in a toilet at a football game ruined my life

Remember kids: don’t have sex in a toilet at a football game, particularly when your partner is at the game but not the one you are having sex with in the cubicle. That’s a life lesson right there.

7: SNL Jizz in my Pants

What more could one ask for but music and video about a getting horny…and having an accident.

6: Puppy Om Nom Nom Nom

Our only picture post in the Top 10, and it was worthy of the honor.

5: McDonalds sued over nude photograph sharing: Tina Sherman not lovin it

If you think you might lose your phone, best not to have naked pictures on it, or to leave it at a McDonalds.

4: Excuse me – there’s a freeway in my building

In Japan, buildings don’t get in the way of progress.

3: Visanthe Shiancoe’s Vikings Locker Room Exposure

Currently on Fox: full frontal football players.

2: Has Bigfoot been found?

This story gripped America, and even straight laced Web 2.0/ tech blogs sent people to cover the press conference. Not surprisingly, it was a fake.

1: Meet Elizabeth Frisinger: She lost her virginity and accidentally texted her dad

Suggested by one site to be a crafty fake, it was a great tale none the less.

The Inquisitr’s Top Odd + Funny Posts for 2008 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Where will blogging head in the next year? Using my crystal ball here’s my list for 2009.

1. The rise of the uberblogs

This prediction has its own post here. I’m convinced that at the top of the blogosphere this will be THE big trend this year, and we’ll finally see new media challenging old media head on because of it.

2. Increased uptake in Commenting 2.0 services

2008 was really the first year commenting 2.0 services really took off, but they are still have minor market share across the blogosphere. In 2009 people will be looking for better ways of enabling the conversation, and commenting services like Disqus, Sezwho, JS-Kit and IntenseDebate will thrive.

3. Consolidation in Commenting 2.0 services/ acquisitions

The increased interest in commenting 2.0 though will see consolidation in the sector as one or two services win most of the new business. This could mean consolidation as one or more services close, but more likely we’ll see IP buys in the field. Intense Debate has already been acquired by Automattic, so they’re off the list. SixApart will acquire one of these services given any of them would be a perfect fit alongside SixApart products and other SixApart acquisitions. My bet: SixApart will acquire Disqus. Don’t count out Technorati as a possible acquirer either for similar reasons.

4. Facebook to become major blog service player

We’re only now just starting to see the first stage of Facebook Connect services, including the ability to use Facebook accounts to comment on blogs. My prediction is that Facebook integration into blogs will explode in 2009 as more services seek to tap in to Facebook, and as Facebook wants to extend its presence onto blogs. We’ve already seen a Facebook written WordPress plugin (not sure if this has been released yet, but it was leaked at one stage), expect more from Facebook. The key here is that Facebook, facing a slow down in 2009 will want to be everywhere to maximize its exposure and use.

5. The traditional blog layout will decline

We’ve already seen the rise of the magazine layout for blogs; in 2009 the availability of alternate layouts to a traditional blog layout will thrive, and the ability of users to implement these will get easier (WordPress is making a lot of these tasks easier now). We’ll see a lot of variations on the theme, many not really being magazine in style, but we’ll still be calling them that because magazine theme has become a generic term for anything not traditional. For a couple of examples of interesting variations, see Gawker and Huffington Post.

6. Technorati will be acquired

It wouldn’t be a predictions list from me without an entry that suggests Technorati will be acquired. Every year I’ve predicted this I’ve been wrong, but I’m more confident in 2009. Having failed to complete a merger with b5media is 2008, my guess is Technorati’s investors are looking for an out. Having entered the blog advertising field with Technorati Media (disclosure they provide our ads…well some of them) and the acquisition of Ad Engage (now Technorati Engage), Technorati is building revenue streams and becomes more appealing for an exit. My guess: they’ll be acquired by an ad network or metrics company, more likely the first option though.

7. SixApart overhauls MovableType, becomes a player again

SixApart has done some great things this year, and despite my history with the company (and probably even to this day me not being overly popular there) I can say at the close of 2008 that they’re now one of my favorite companies in the space. The release of MovableType as open source opened the community door at SixApart, but the platform still lacks for user friendliness…particularly with templating.

My prediction is that seeing how successful WordPress continues to be, SixApart will release a new version of MovableType, or even a completely new, PHP based blogging platform that will take the good fight to WordPress. SixApart is already working hard in development, having recently released a lifestreaming platform, I’m betting even better is ahead.

8. Widget providers will fall

There has been far too many blog widget providers in the market for far too long, and with 2009 going to be tough for funding, many will fall. No names, because I don’t know the economics of each, but this space most consolidate.

9. Old Media will acquire a record number of blogs

Blogging as a business proposition becomes even more appealing in 2009 due to its low costs and high appeal. Old media is about to face its worst year on record, and those with cash to spare will acquire blogs in an attempt to broaden their business base online.

My guess in tech blogging is that we’ll see at least two A-list blogs/ blog networks acquired. Silicon Alley Insider is top of my list: lean operation, high yield readership even with the economic crisis, and a nice fit in with a newspaper group or TV station. NBC or News Corp for the buy. Mashable and VentureBeat possibles; I like Mashable on the acquisition front because of the broader appeal and higher traffic.

Below the top we’ll see lots of smaller acquisitions, strategic plays where blogs join the bigger entity in a complimentary fashion.

Also don’t rule out advertisers and advertising firms buying in the space either; what better way to place advertising than to own the place you want to advertise.

10. The Inquisitr will become Australia’s largest independent blog by traffic

Actually, it might already be close, hard to tell. News Ltd newspapers will threaten to sue us again, we’ll continue to not link to them, and if I’m really lucky, Fairfax (Australia’s second largest newspaper group) might take a stake, presuming they don’t fold in the mean time. That will give us access to AFP/ AP and Reuters content, and allow us to grow to 10 million page views. About mid year we’ll run topless photos of a celebrity and get blocked by the Australian Government’s Great Firewall of Australia, resulting in a large VPN bill for me to run the site….or we’ll relocate to New Zealand

Blogging Predictions for 2009 is a post from: The Inquisitr