Vol1, Issue#119 Aug 09, 1999

ADLANDS'    DIGEST
                    A Free subscribed Discussion List
                                of 9184 subscribers
                     on web marketing and promotion
                 supported by Adland World's Classifieds
                       at http://www.adlandpro.com
                         Bogdan Fiedur, Publisher
                     mailto: Bogdan@softfornet.com
                         Vol. 1, #119, Aug 09, 1999

      POST AND UNSUBSCRIBE INFO AT BOTTOM

=======================A D L A N D    T I P==========================

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WOULDN'T IT BE SILLY NOT TO SPEND $90 FOR 101 CUSTOMERS??
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NOTICE: IF YOU JOIN TODAY IT IS 100% FREE. THAT'S RIGHT,
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There is a new service called Ad Triangle that 100%
guarantees you will get 101 customers in a short time or
you receive a complete refund. If you sell a product for
just $10, you will bring in $1010 - a profit of over $920!

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??
----------------------
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Topics in this issue:

         Sponsor Message
         Word from Publisher
         Featured Article
        =====================

C o n t i n u i n g   D i s c u s s i o n s (3)
=============================================
1.) Answers to various questions
    ~ JLisa McNoll

2. ) Melody Treece
   ~ Submission tools & more

3.) Quesstion about search engines
~ George Rudenberg

N e w     P o s t s   (2)
==========================
1. ) Linda Caroll
     ~ I would like to offer some free help to all Adlanders.

2.) Cathy Pronier
   ~ Effective Utilizing Samples

Site Review Responses (2)
==========================
1.Terri Robinson
2. Judith Tramayne-Barth

Site Review Requests (0)
===========================

G u e s t   A r t i c l e (1)
================================
Top Theme - "Third Voice"
By Patrick Zell

Joke of the Day
===============

===============================================================

                            A F F I L I A T E    P R O G R A M S !

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

=========================== Word from publisher ========================

Greetings All

Welcome (50) new subscribers who joined list since last mailing.

I hope everybody enjoys summer.
Digest will appear for the rest of August once a week to give you
opportunity to rest. I want you to get ready for September when
business online as well as off line seems to accelerate till middle
of December when again everybody needs some rest.
Why I want you to get ready for September?
Just read featured article.

                                            ----===(*)===-----

Now opportunity for G R A P H I C   D E S I G N E R S

I'm announcing contest on designing of logo for "Success Story of the Year"
which will be used to link to winner of Adland Digest contest. Info below.
If your logo is chosen, link to your site will be placed under logo
indicating Designer Site.
If you are interested, please go here to find out about detials
http://softfornet.com/archives/success2.htm
I will invite all Adland's Digest subscribers to choose the logo.
See here currently designed logos.
http://softfornet.com/archives/success3.htm

                                        ----===(*)===-----

If you think, you have an interesting success story to tell, please send
it to digest as usual and indicate as such.
At the end of 1999 I will create web page and will invite everybody
to vote for the "Success Story Of The Year"
Best voted story will receive one FREE year of advertising
in the form of small button at the bottom of each Adland page.
Adland receives 390,000 page viewings , 60,000 unique
visitors and grows on average 20% each month.

To be eligible for the prize, this story has to be from your own
experience.

See existing success stories here
http://www.softfornet.com/archives and click (Success Stories)

BF.

============= F e a t u r e d   A r t i c l e      ==============
From: Doug Williams <webmaster@howlingwolf.net>
Subject:AdlandPro - A STAND ALONE Program!

Hello everyone,

I just added my commissions together from my AdlandPro Partner site activity for the
month of July, 99

It's AWESOME!   $170.00 in Commissions!

What I fail to understand, reading most comments in the AdlandPro Digest, " IF " many
of you are online to make warm contacts, generate traffic to your site, and to
generate revenue, why are so few of you actively promoting AdlandPro Classifieds?

Personally, I incorporate my AdlandPro sites in all my promotions. For July, 99 my
total time spent actually promoting my AdlandPro Partner sites was less than 5 hours
for the whole month!

The results:
- $170 in FIRST month commissions - ( breaks down to $34 hour for my working time )
- around 400 PRE-QUALIFIED AdlandPro click through visitors to my sites
   ( Banner programs would value these visitors at $1.00 each, that's ADDED VALUE! )
- The Adland Partner Page Program is about 10 weeks old - I've had over 10,200
visitors to my Partner sites
- With at least two of MY banners and 6 hyperlinks on each page, I've certainly had
numerous click-throughs
- Without a doubt this traffic has resulted in dozens of signups in my other programs

AdlandPro - A STAND ALONE Program!

I say this with all confidence.
How many of you are paying for a program EVERY month and have not even received your
1st check from it yet?
With AdlandPro it's FREE to Join!

However, to receive $$$$, you must make some effort, build some exposure.

Doing NO OTHER program could see you earning a career level income within a few years,
that's STAND ALONE in my book. Think about it!
Within the next few years there will be OVER ONE BILLION users on the WWW.
If only 1% are AdlandPro users - that's TEN MILLION people who will be accessing
AdlandPro Partner sites DAILY!

PERSEVERANCE Wins the RACE!
--------------------------------------

Everyone knows the TURTLE is slower than the HARE!

So why did the TURTLE win the race? PERSEVERANCE !

All of my sites are in the TOP 30 of AdlandPro Affiliate sites for August, Overall,
they rank in positions, 3, 19 and 33.
That's out of 3,000+ Affiliates.

There is no secret! It's just PERSEVERANCE!

Guaranteed ClickThru's now has 27,000+ members;
http://www.click-thru.net/referral?ref=100916
That's good for about 1,000+ visitors a month

I submit a Partner URL to 1,500 FFA sites every day with AutoLink Pro FFA Submitter -
2 minutes work!
http://www.howlingwolf.net/AutoLinkpro.html
You can join FREE and find out for yourself

I try to submit my AdlandPro sites here at least once a week,
http://www.howlingwolf.com/
There are numerous free submission site links I've collected over the years, feel free
to use them.
You can end up on over 20,000 links within a couple of hours.

One of my AdlandPro Partner Site:
http://www.wolf-run.net/freeclassifieds.html

Catch the 'MACRO' - the ESSENCE of AdlandPro:
-----------------------------------------------------

Within the next 12 to 18 months, I predict AdlandPro will become multi-lingual. It
will be required to match our growth and to ensure our position as one of the TOP 5
Classified sites on the Internet.

Only one thing can effectively assure you to " MISS the Boat!"

Lack of PERSEVERANCE!

Oh, you're not sure you will remain at your current web site, it's a free web site?

GUESS WHAT! You can change ALL the information on you AdlandPro Account number for a
totally NEW URL, Title, email address, and message! All your downline AdlandPro
affiliates remain with your AdlandPro ID#, you will lose NO ONE!

Please remember to build your own AdlandPro Classified ad to reap the full benefits of
the adlandPro Search option, just type in " free submissions " and you'll see what I
mean. < G >

Did you Know . . . .
Every time someone enters a Search Word/Phrase on your AdlandPro Partner Site, the
very 1st thing that pops up on their monitor is YOUR personal AdlandPro ad!!

Join Bogdan, myself and the few dozen people that see the "Vision of AdlandPro".

Help to launch your AdlandPro Partner site is only an email away.

Wishing you every Cyber Success,
Doug Williams
http://www.3step.com

***************************
Copyright 1999 Doug Williams
***************************

                                             ----===(*)===-----

==========C o n t i n u i n g   D i s c u s s i o n (1.1)=============
From: Lisa McNoll <service@linz1.net>
Subject: Answers to various questions

Hi Bogdan,

First of all, I'm the postgirl sending you and fellow listmates
friendly greetings from my boss, Joseph Jobst, who is
currently staying at a sanatoria recovering from his surgery.

As always, Adlands' Digest #118 is full of requests and
"crying for help", so I'd like to offer my assistance (by all means,
backed on Joseph's experiences and instructions<g>)

1) Re: Thomas Adam's Question about search engines

Although, Jerry Garner's response is correct to some extent,
there is a need for correction and completion.
- some of the SEs are very slow, others are quite quick
ie. InfoSeek & NorthernLight, therefore Jerry's tip wont work
- redirection doesn't necessarily implicit using meta-refresh
(see doorway techniques)
- there is a very new practice used by almost any of the big
SEs ranking .com first followed by .net/org/edu/gov and then
country TLDs
- another new tendency is rejecting typical redirection domains
such as .cc and .to

Thomas, I've tried to visit your site for three times and got
"server not accessable" messages. If an SE's spider wants to
index your site but it's not accessable....
...it would make me thinking.

95% of small businesses fail due to lack of capital.
Most of the people who are moaning about how much it
costs to set up a domain name (lousy $35 a year) or hire
a professional to design their website lack perspective.
Having your own dot.com will exponentially increase
your chances for getting indexed and reaching higher
rankings, provided that you're using proper SE
optimization techniques.

You must have your own domain!

2) Re: Site Review - Jamie McDowell

Having 100 visitors after the very first month is on average except
you've invested thousands of advertising dollars.
Note: Patience and persistency are the fundamental behaviors of
successful netrepreneurs.

My colleague (Frank, our SE "guru") will visit your site to learn
your "lame" product and for checking if your site will be SE "ready".
However, don't pay for "automatic" SE submission services!

But the most important part is - without knowing anything about your
site and product - you must have your own domain too.
Some SEs don't crawl/index third level canonical domain names
like yours.

3) Re: Learning the net language - Pier from Italy

Here are some HTML resources:
http://www.htmlhelp.org
http://www.webteacher.com
http://www.wvdl.com
http://www.december.com
http://www.insideDHTML.com/html/tutor.asp

4) Re: Not Closing the Deal - Cathy Pronier

Cathy, since you've posted the same topic on LED fellow
John Procopio made an insightful statement, which I'd like
bringing to Adland'ers attention --

<snip>
>This is an extremely hot topic right now (and will surely
>continue). And since the average conversion rate is around 2% (and
>that's most likely tabulated from the _big_ sites), this merits
>conversation.
>One of the things the experts say (I don't claim to be this
>person), is that we (as eRetailers) need to offer the potential
>customer support right at that critical moment (i.e., preceding
>checkout). Whether this means having a link to a 'need help with
>your purchase?' button (with live customer support) or simply a
>phone number to close the sale if the user is getting
>jittery. Something... they say is better than just the option to
>'Clear cart contents' or 'Proceed to checkout.'

That's exactly the point where "WebCallback" comes into play.
According to Forrester Research, 67% of all website visitors who
start an order form online never complete it! You've worked too
hard to bring them there only to have them leave with questions
unanswered. By simply adding a WebCallback button to your site,
the customer can easily contact you, allowing you to complete the
sales or customer service process.

Tired of waiting on hold or talking to automated voice mail systems,
the consumer opts NOT to call your 800 number, but clicks on the
WebCallback link, enters his/her phone number and clicks a button.
The link immediately triggers a call to a specific phone number at
your company. Your company representative and your customer are
immediately conferenced together and your staff can effectively close
a sale or answer the visitor's question. The phone calls are placed
within seconds of clicking on the hot link.

Some benefits and features are
- captures impulse buyers
- makes your site friendly and interactive
- allows you to answer questions and close sales
- overcomes reluctance to buy over the web
- is easy to implement (just a few lines of HTML code)
- no software needed, no setup cost, and no charge for activation
More info at <http://linz1.net/callback/>

5) Re: Shopping cart alternative - Vincent Sabatino

Vincent, take a look at <http://linz1.net/vsMivaMerch.html>
stroll around, and if you have any question don't hesitate
contacting me.

6) Re: E-Mail to use with my Outlook - Luigi Marruso

Go to <http://Webcallback.zzn.com> and set-up your
FREE email account, configurable in 16 languages!

Wish all Listmates the most success!

Lisa McNoll

---------------------------------------------------------------
VP Services
josconNetworks Inc <http://linz1.net/>
*Serving Clients Online Since 1994*
web.development*web.design*web.hosting
web.promotion*eCommerce*onlineservices
------------------------------------------------------------------

==========C o n t i n u i n g   D i s c u s s i o n (2.1)=============
From: Melody Treece <melodyt@nafe.com>
Subject: Submission tools & more

Mr. Luigi Marruso <advertising2000@hotmail.com>
Asked about submission tools & more in Issue #118

"I'm looking for addresses of FFA Pages where I can
post my link free to a few hundred different Web
Sites all over the world."

I don't recommend posting at any "Free For All"
link sites, they are usually just used to collect
e-mail addresses for business opportunities. The
exception are niche webpages that offer targeted
links --like game links on a gamers site or crafters
links on a hobby site-- and classifieds that can be
targeted like those found at AdLand.

My rule is, if it is place I would visit anyway,
then it might be a good place for your link.

If you decide that you want to post at all the free
for all link sites you can find, don't waste time
or pay someone to do it for you. There is free
software that is kept very up to date and works
very well. Here are two of my favorites:

Get Found has software that you download onto your
computer that will automating your submission to
over a thousand sites. http://getfound.webcaddy.net/foundload.htm

The monster that started it all is Link-o-Matic
http://www.link-o-matic.com

There are more suggestions for search engine and
linking promotions on my site at:
http://www.success-solution.com/searchengines.html

Mr. Marruso also asked:
"I'm looking for addresses of international
mailing list where members can do know to the
group their own lists"

I think that he is asking if there are any
international lists where the members can get
to know each other and exchange lists. This
might not be right, but there a number of
international and foreign language lists at:
http://www.onelist.com/

Perhaps Mr. Marruso could clarify what topic
of conversation he is interested in discussing
with the members of the list or if he is seeking
to buy international opt-in or targeted lists.

Melody T Vargas

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Resources, tips & solutions for working at home
and home businesses at:
http://www.success-solution.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------

==========C o n t i n u i n g   D i s c u s s i o n (3.1)=============
From: George Rudenberg <gmr@io.com>
Subject: Quesstion about search engines

Bogdan:

I notice that there is some potentially
dangerous advice vis-a-vis the "refresh" meta tag in the redirect url
problem posed by one of your subscribers. There is at least I think it is
Excite that will penalize your listing for the use of the meta refresh. I
have read so much on SE's lately that I cannot remember if it actually
Excite, Infoseek, or Alta Vista that frowns on meta refresh, however, I am
sure that this is not the correct advice to solve the re-direct issue.

George Rudenberg

======================N e w    P o s t i n g (1)========================
From: Linda Caroll <linda@swdomains.com>
Subject: I would like to offer some free help to all Adlanders.

Hello Bogdan and Adlanders:

I would like to start with a kudo to Bogdan for the
efficient manner in which he handled the issue of
the spamming of people that post here. Thank you!

I have noticed an increase in the number of people
requesting site critiques, both in this forum as well as
at my websites. With the massive number of sites
on the net, just having a website doesn't cut it anymore.
A website has to be able to interact and sell the product
or generate a lead, or it fails to bring home the bacon.

Sometimes, websites that are put up to 'sell' end up
doing a better job of kissing their customers goodbye.
If your site does not 'sell' well, knocking yourself out
promoting it is not going to generate the dollars that
promoting a site that's designed to 'sell' would!

I would like to offer some free help to all Adlanders.
If you're not sure if your site is kissing your customers
goodbye, feel welcome to check out our kiss test...
it's FREE!   You can take the kiss test at:
http://www.swdomains.com/facelifts.html

For those of you who have an eccentric sense of humor,
you may also enjoy 'The Dick Test'. You know Dick...
he's the guy that hit the net going full speed sideways,
and forwards every internet hoax to all his 'friends'...
putting all the names in the 'To' field, of course. Dick
built a website, and all I can say is... Don't be a Dick!
Can you pass the Dick Test? Try it out at:
http://www.swdomains.com/TheDickTest.html

Hope you enjoy! Feedback is always welcome...
and appreciated!

Sincerely,
Linda Caroll

------------------------------------------
bringing home the bacon at
http://www.swdomains.com
A Most Excellent Ad-Venture
http://www.timelinepub.com
-------------------------------------------

======================N e w    P o s t i n g (2)========================
From: "Cathy Pronier" <cpronier@flash.net>
Subject: Effective Utilizing Samples

Bonjour List Members,

We would like to begin offering users who visit our Website the option to request free
samples of some of the Yves Rocher beauty products that we are selling. Should we put
some parameters on user's requesting samples or should we just give them to anyone who
wants to request them? The purpose of samples is of course to increase sales. My
concern is that we have quite a few people who visit our site and if everyone who
visits request samples we will go way over budget.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Merci Beaucoup,

Cathy

---------------------------------------------
cpronier@beautenaturelle.com
www.beautenaturelle.com
Bringing you natural beauty products with a French touch of Class.
-----------------------------------------------

===========S i t e   R e v i e w   R e s p o n s e      (1)===============
From: Terri Robinson    <queen3@home.com>
Subject: Re: Site Review BCountry

Hi Bogdan and Adlanders!

Great issue this time, Bogdan!

Jamie wrote:
>>   I hope I am not going to sound like a broken record... but I could
really use
>some imput on my site: http://sites.netscape.net/jamiemcdowell/bcountry

You have a very nice site Jamie! It loaded quickly on my system
here. Your free offer for 10 business cards is fantastic and easy
to find, although from recent things I have read, you might want to
have a form right there for anyone interested in your offer to fill
out and save them the trouble of starting a new email message and
having to type in everything themselves. You might also want the
offer to be in the upper part of the page - make it stand out more.

With a free page you probably don't have access to the cgi bin,
which forms usually require, but you can get a free form that
doesn't require a cgi bin at http://www.freedback.com and don't
have to do anything but add some html to your page.

Another thing that might be affecting your sales is that you are
using a "free" address. While many people say that doesn't have
influence on whether they will buy from someone on the Net, many
others say it makes them think the business is not legitimate.
Having your own domain name is important to show that you are
serious about your business. At just $70 to register, and many
reasonable hosts out there, it is a small price to pay to show
that you are serious and plan to be around for a long time.

You also should go to someplace like http://www.deja.com and find a
discussion group in areas that would be interested in your service
and when you see a question you feel comfortable in answering,
answer and be sure to include a descriptive signature line -
keep it under 5 lines if possible, but make it compelling so
anyone who sees it will want to come visit your site (be sure
it includes your URL and e-mail and a 1-2 line description).
I would use the FREE Business Card Sample for Crafters, for
example.

You will be amazed that many of those posts will make your site
show up as linked on the search engines. Getting known is a
process, it doesn't happen overnight, but you have a great
product that should do very well. Also, you should start a
newsletter - use your tips as a starter for it - and have a
sign-up on the front page of your site as well. Announce it
in places like NEW-LIST, again making your description so
compelling that everyone will want to sign up for it.

And finally, go to the major search engines like Excite, Yahoo,
Alta Vista, Hot Bot and others and enter your site in the
proper category yourself - not thru a submit tool.

Good luck, Jamie!!

The page source is not showing ANY META tag keyword or description.
I would definitely get that fixed right away and be sure you put
FREE as one of the keywords!

Best regards,
Terri Robinson

------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.recruit2hire.com
Phoenix Networking List is a mailing list that announces networking
opportunities, social events and seminars in Phoenix/Metro Arizona
Posting events and subscription to the list is FREE!
Visit http://www.recruit2hire.com/phx-networking.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------

===========S i t e   R e v i e w   R e s p o n s e      (2)===============
>From : Judith Tramayne-Barth <trabar@trabar.com>

A big Thank You!!

A few issues ago, I asked for a site review and help with
locating secure servers for myself and other Artists for
accepting checks and credit cards which didn't cost an
arm and a leg. I am happy to say I received several
responses.

This is to say thank you Adland for posting my request
and a big thank you to Robert Moser, Johnny Rodriques
and especially to Earl Babin from Infinite-Horizon.com.
Mr. Babin went the extra step which makes the Internet
such a wonderful "community". He gave me a good
resource but then went on to explain in detail what I
needed to do to improve my site. I followed his sug-
gestions and I can say quite truthfully, my site is much
better. It meant a lot of work but I am now a very happy
camper. I also shared the resources with over 100
people and I know they will share it with their friends. If
you would like to see the resources, they can be viewed
at http://www.trabar.com by clicking on the newsletter
hyperlink.

Thank you all again.

Judith Tramayne-Barth
Enrich Your Soul,
Delight Your Eyes
and Improve Your Mind
Free Art Lesson & Free Booklets
http://www.trabar.com

============================================================

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===================G u e s t   A r t i c l e (1)=====================
This article is reprint from GLOBAL INTERNET MARKETING NEWS
To subscribe please send blank email to:
< mailto:newsgim@linz1.net?Subject=gim >

Top Theme - "Third Voice"
By Patrick Zell

On May 27, 1999, we became aware that a new and free software
called "Third Voice" had been introduced to the public;
this browser-enhancement allows visitors who install it to
post messages containing links and others types of information
on top of any page of any website.
This radical communications tool has already earned an army
of enemies, because

=>>NO website is immune to this!

Already such sites as The White House, AOL, Microsoft,
Dell Computers, and many more have these "notes" posted on
their pages. Many of these notes contain links to pornographic
sites, vulgar language and links to warez.
(To see a screen capture of posted notes, visit
<http://saynotothirdvoice.com/examples/examples.htm> ).

I see it as an interesting idea but improperly incorporated!

The free browser utility "snaps onto" the side of a browser
window, inviting users to post their views on news, products,
and politics. The comments look and feel like Post-It notes
stuck onto a Web page. If posted as public notes, comments
can be seen - amid highlighted areas of text and footnotes -
by any other user that has installed Third Voice. Readers
can comment on each other's postings, leading to what Third
Voice calls "inline discussions."

Say No to ThirdVoice (SNTV) <http://saynotothirdvoice.com/>
a spontaneous group of website hosts that is fighting Third
Voice to alter or stop distributing the software, consider
them "inline violations."

The postings are rife with familiar forum topics comparable
to those on Usenet newsgroups. "Hands-on personal attention/
especially if you are an intern," reads a note posted at the
official White House site. "This is a great site. Hillary
rocks!" reads another.
At the CNN site: "Milloivige sucks big d**s!"

"Our goal is to stop this software from being distributed
until they can redesign it so [that] you have to ask
permission from a Web site before you can post to it,"
Teddy Pastras, a SNTV member said.
On 7/27/99, for example, notes on AOL's directory site
contained links to a porn site. "If somebody attached such a
note to my site and a visitor is running Third Voice, they
will see that note," Pastras said. "Because most general
surfers are ignorant, they will think I'm supporting
pornography."

Pastras and SNTV say the ability to affix notes is an invasion
of privacy and violation of copyright law, which could be
grounds for future legal action against TV by the group.

Third Voice said the free-speech issues are the same as those
confronting discussion forums everywhere. It's up to the
community of users to police Third Voice, according to
Leo Jolicoeur, the company's vice president, not the sites or
the software company. "We are not violating copyright law
because we're not making a copy," he stated. "We do not
believe we're altering content. The user has the ability to
turn off Third Voice and not see the [notes], and the control
is in the hands of the user."
The company's slogan for the service reads
"Third Voice: It's Free ... Speech."

While Third Voice isn't yet publicizing download numbers -
the software is currently only available for IE 4.0 users -
the company said hundreds of sites have been annotated by
thousands of users.

Meanwhile, a letter-writing campaign by the SNTV group has
targeted a range of government and private organizations from
Attorney General Janet Reno to webmasters at community sites
such as Xoom, GeoCities, Microsoft, Lycos, and AltaVista.
The sites are all taking it very seriously and their legal
departments are looking at it. In Oregon, state senators are
responding to complaints sent to them by SNTV.

Here is an excerpt from SNTV introductory statement:

>Most of you have worked hard to establish your website and
>to maintain a good business site with clients who check back
>often. Do you wish to have these types of postings
>associated with your site?
>
>What about the right to only have displayed through your
>website what you wish to have displayed? Do we not have
>the right as the website owner to determine what our URL is
>being used for? Through the use of this browser-enhancement,
>people are allowed through the use of your URL to hold a
>virtual online discussion forum.
>
>Is there merit in this software?
>Possibly; but not in its present form and not without the
>site owner's consent and/or control over these discussions.
>
>You might ask "what about free speech?"
>No one is inhibiting free speech. We are simply stating that
>the use of our URL to host someone else's idea of free
>speech is an infringement upon our rights.
>
>Who owns the URL?
>That may be a case that will need to be determined by the
>courts but until it is, we contend that the person paying
>for the URL owns it and should have the right to determine
>how it is used.
>
>Another consideration is the amount of flammatory email and
>spam that may be generated because of these postings.
<end of excerpt>

Jonathan Zittrain, executive director of the Berkman Center
for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, said banning
the tool is no solution. "The real answer is going to lie in
balancing accountability and the ability to say things without
being punished for it in a speech environment.
That's going to be a hard task."
"Without a legal precedent, Zittrain said it may be up to a
"bemused judge" to figure out the issue."

In reading various comments about the Third Voice plugin,
I've noticed that one of the most blatant abuses of the Third
Voice plug-in appears to have been overlooked - the possibility
of people placing advertisements on web pages they do not own,
generating advertisement revenues without paying a dime for the
use of host's bandwidth, servers, or name-recognition.

In many cases, this could be an even greater threat to some
sites than having libelous comments attached to the pages,
as many sites depend on the revenue generated from their own
advertisements to pay for their bandwidth and other expenses.
At the very least, a flood of outside advertising would
dilute the effectiveness of the authorized ads on the site,
decreasing the "click-through" rate and dramatically reducing
the funds those advertisements provide.

If you change your own copy of your web site, that's fine,
but when you edit a third party's copy (physically or
virtually) and then make it available for others to see,
that's a violation of Copyright, if I understand things
correctly. The fact that you are changing the way a "copy
looks" doesn't matter - the material still belongs to someone
else, and you have no right to go displaying it to other
people the way you want it displayed.

I understand that people think it's fair to comment on sites,
sure, tell the webmaster.
Or if you really want to say something set your own site up
and write whatever you like.
Posting notes on other people's sites isn't fair, especially
as this software will eventually permeate through the net and
every Win user will have it (plus Macs if they make a port).

If someone wants to say something about a web site, good or
bad, is that not what e-mail is for?
Is this not what UseNet is for? (there are loads of 'flame'
newsgroups out there)

So far of all the 'notes' I have seen, only a small
percentage have been of any real value, most are simply
people whom have nothing good to say about anything at all,
or totally unrelated to anything on the web site to begin
with.

I have no problem with constructive criticism, but this
plugin reminds me of the old days when War-Boards on BBS's
were popular.

Here is a kind of "removing" script placed on SNTV's website:

<SCRIPT>

</SCRIPT>

This script will prevent the 'notes' from being displayed,
you can see the text start to shift as the ThirdVoice plug in
'makes' room for the note markers, then the text will shift
back as the note markers are removed. It does not prevent
someone from attaching a 'note', but it does prevent the note
from being displayed. While this will block the viewing of
'notes' on a web site, a better solution is needed.
A solution that will allow the web site owner the freedom of
choice to decide for himself/herself if they want ThirdVoice
'notes' overlayed on their web site is what is needed.
It also (in its present form) only detects correctly IE 4.0.

More on this script and topic can be found at Jeremy Bowers'
website <http://www.cse.msu.edu/~bowersj2/>

Hint:
(based on the "HelpfulHints" posted on the Third Voice site)

>[Third Voice] 1. We recommend that you do not post notes on
>the main home page of popular web sites as the content of
>these home pages change frequently and your notes will
>become unattached.

=>josconNetworks hint:
Site managers with the expertise can set up a system that
rotates text at regular intervals so that the site is
constantly updating. This will prevent an accumulation of
notes. Much like having a robot go and whitewash the wall
that keeps attracting graffiti. I realize this is additional
work for the webmaster and site developer, but it works.

Finally, while it is true that in the US and in the most
parts of the western hemisphere (bear in mind that the
Internet does NOT end at our borders) you have the right to
speak freely, you do NOT have the right to be heard.
If a particular website says something that you disagree
with, you have every right to start your own website
dedicated to disagreeing with the offender, but you do NOT
have the right to hijack the content of the offender merely
because you wish to criticize them.

These are my very personal thoughts.

Now, lurkers come out of your hole and let's know your
position on this controversial theme.

As always, we love your comments, feedback and questions -
email to <patrick@linz1.net?Subject=64>

Your striving Co-Editor - and publisher by deputy -
Patrick Zell

======================Joke of the Day=====================
Joke provided by
Laurie Delk <delk@columbia.total-web.net>

The Images of Mother :

4 YEARS OF AGE My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE Naturally, Mother doesn't know that either.
16 YEARS OF AGE Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE That old woman? She's way out of date!
35 YEARS OF AGE Well, she might know a little bit about it.
40 YEARS OF AGE Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
60 YEARS OF AGE Wish I could talk it over with Mom once more >>

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