Comments on: Scumbaggery and Skullduggery

By: Doug Kaye

Doug Kaye — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t mind a little bit of “vote for me” stuff — label me guilty — but to encourage stuffing the box by voting more than once or now to vote *against* anyone, clearly devalues the concept. Based on the press coverage and being one of the first to play, Chris has the opportunity to resurect Podcast Alley as an objective service, but he’ll have to act soon to avoid the site turning into nothing more than a spam attractor.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Here is a new PodcastAlley low, someone asking people to vote against another show.

By: The One True Dan Tripp

The One True Dan Tripp — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

That’s among the most ass things I’ve ever heard. It’s nothing less than completely disgusting.

By: Bob Goyetche

Bob Goyetche — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

There are more examples of this kind of thing.. How does a snowmobiling show go from zero to #7 in a few weeks? Let's not mention the whole soft-drink sponsor thingie..

You can never tell which site will become the hub of a new movement, but just by sheer numbers, podcastalley is (soon to be was?) the defacto authority. The growing displeasure from many podcasters towards this site though means it may be on the downward trend, and the community will adopt a new home.. It'll be interesting to see where the traffic ends up.

Too bad for podcastalley, they were *that* close..

By: James Slusher

James Slusher — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

It was not to long ago that everyone was remarking how easy-going and accepting the podcasting community was. But like all things, when the sphere of influence grows, it starts to cover more people and a certain percentage of people are assholes. It was only a matter of time before the free market forces brought assholes into play. Ironic, no?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Evil Genius Chronicles – Scumbaggery and Skullduggery good job of investigative reporting dave – totally agree w/ the take and proposed call to action… so pls read dave’s above post, and then go to podcast alley and do the right

By: James Slusher

James Slusher — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I just listened to the FTL show for a bit and, well, they suck. You know all the things about the interaction on G’day World between Nick and Cam that make it so enjoyable? They don’t have that. Interesting topics? Nope. Charisma? None. They do say things like, “I thought this was a free country”. It is. That’s why I could turn their shit off.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Bob, Sledhead had an existing forum of folks they could rally to vote for them, just like FTL. That’s one thing and in neither case do I have a problem with mobilizing pre-existing groups of people. When their strategy involves mobilizing those groups to vote down other shows, that’s when it crosses the line to me.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Mike (Dunn), I’m not actually doing any investigation. Mike (Geoghegan) sent me the links and I blogged about them. In fact, I think someone else sent the links to him. Perhaps they should be called “Deep Fingers.”

By: drew

drew — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

thanks a lot dave for bringing this up. i’ve been aware of their shenanigans for a while, but we’ve intentionally not even mentioned the alley for months now, so that others may have a chance at getting into the top ten. but what these guys are doing is just plain desperate. are they even really a podcast? and the whole idea that #1 at podcastalley is #1 in the world is just silly.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

You wrote:

"I thought libertarians were devout worshippers of the invisible hand of market forces. I guess that only goes until a little market manipulation is strategically advantageous."

Sheesh, Dave. Could you make a more sweeping generalization? Like many other people, I don't like what they're suggesting. And until today, I had never voted on Podcast Alley. However, the FTL guys inspired me to go and vote in the opposite manner from what they wanted. I understand it pisses you off, and that you want to write about it in a way that expresses that, but is it really necessary to make blanket statements about a large group based upon the actions of a very few people?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I've opined on both the podcasters Yahoo Group and on the podcast alley forum about how flawed the Podcast Alley ranking system is. You can see my posts here and

--*Rob

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

And here ...sorry HTML code must have gotten messed up.

--*Rob

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Brandon,

You are right, that was a pretty broad swipe in the language but really it was at those guys. They are the ones acting crazy, so I'm not trying to impugn anyone but them. I'm not actually that versed in Libertarian doctrine so I can't really analyze whether this is or is not consistent with it. It's turdly, no matter what.

Rob,

I'm a little amazed that PA doesn't already have a vote expiring scheme. That only seems reasonable to me - a vote drops out after X days, whether that is 10 as you suggest or 30 or 60. As it stands now, if you organize a campaign and get up to the top you will be there a long time, possibly forever, even if you stop doing the show. That hardly seems sporting.

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

“knuckleheads show up and puke in the punchbowl” – ahhhh, now there’s an image

“deep fingers” was good too – anyway, here’s hoping the word gets out to stop the madness…

By: Douglasd Welch

Douglasd Welch — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Anyone who has ever been involved in a high school election (er…popularity constest) had to see this coming. Same source, same result. Yeech!

By: Chris McIntyre

Chris McIntyre — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

I am amazed by what people will do to get ranked on the PodcastAlley.com website and it has always been a problem. When the site first started, Dawn & Drew pretended to have sex to get their rank higher, but they never dropped to the level that some of these folks are of purposely voting down their competition.

I am looking for any suggestions as to what I can to make my services better. I require Email Addresses, Limit IP addresses, Limit votes to 24 hours and many other little things. The problem is, that the votes are legitimate (good and bad votes) and that means the system is working...technically.

Suggestions? Send them to info |at| podcastalley |.com|

By: Georgia

Georgia — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Just the sort of unsavory practices one would expect to find going on in an alley. . . .

By: Georgia

Georgia — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Just the sort of unsavory practices one would expect to find going on in an alley. . . .

By: FTL_Ian

FTL_Ian — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

Despite what you whiners say, if you actually read my post you would have noted that I specifically said this:

"If you've listened to their show and don't like it, go ahead and vote them one star. "

Note that I only encouraged those who have listened and didn't like their show to vote one star, and I did not say vote more than once. There's hardly a conspiracy here.

Ian