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  • LOL: We’re Apparently a Scrapper Site

    There’s been lots of lulz following my reply to Media140 a couple of weeks back, but the best came from one person who claims that The Inquisitr is a scrapper site who copies and pastes content that isn’t our own.

    Let me say up front that roughly 20-30% of our content (sometimes less) is most definitely copied and pasted.

    But here’s the fact that is left off that allegation: we pay for that.

    That is, we pay to syndicate content from AllHeadlineNews and Bang Showbiz.

    Just like a standard newspaper pays to syndicate content from AAP, AFP, AP, Reuters or others.

    Far from an issue that apparently calls The Inquisitr into some sort of doubt, those deals actually represent our maturity as an online news source, in that we happily pay to compliment our original content…just like Newspapers do.

    Going forward, I also won’t rule out that we won’t sign more of these sorts of deals: it’s not as if they replace what we do in house (which drives most of the traffic), as opposed to compliment it (and particularly help us achieve most days 24/7 content.)

    Naturally we’d love to bring on new writers, but likewise money is like a rollercoaster of late (not helped by the GFC): we have never booked a loss since December last year, but likewise some months are spectacular vs others.

    The positive note is that going into December that November is on track to be our best month $ wise on record, be it not the best traffic month. Half time of year, half focus (particularly on tech.)

    If some doubt me, ask our suppliers, or see our long standing text on the copyright page here

  • Nichenet Turns 10

    Roughly 10 years ago (the exact date I don’t recall, except that I’m sure it was 99) I registered my first business name: Nichenet.

    Two business name registrations later and Nichenet became Nichenet Pty Ltd in around late 2006-2007.

    The name came about when I was asked to pitch for the design of a website. I couldn’t pitch as an individual, so I had to come up with a company name. I didn’t win the contract, although we were shortlisted.

    I’m not overly superstitious, but I know of two superstitions: one is that horses with 7 letters in their name have a higher strike rate in Australian racing…it’s why so many horse names have 7 letters. The other one was that in China, 8 is considered lucky.

    The latter won because nichenet has 8 letters.

    It’s a name that I still don’t own the .com for, but none the less one that I’ve been happy to stick by over the years, because most of what I’ve done has been niche….hence the name

    Time flies fast when you’re having fun, and I would never have thought in 99 that 10 years later that Nichenet would be the company behind a fairly successful blog and that I’ve been working online exclusively for nearly 5 years.

    So far,so good.

  • Rudd-erless while Oil Spilled

    Those who know me know that I’m no tree hugging hippie…sorry greenie, but there are things you do, and things you don’t do.

    Like let oil spill into the Timor Sea for 2 months before plugging the hole.

    Where was Rudd during this time? Surely if the inept operators couldn’t have fixed it with X number of days, the army, navy and anything else we could have thrown at the problem should have been called on to fix it.

    Still, with his poll numbers heading south, the image of Sri Lankan boat people covered in oil might make for some interesting imagery 🙂

  • Did I mention I like the New Technorati?

    And not only because they’re selling more of our ads at late 🙂

    Technorati Top 100: 50-75.
    Top 100 Blogs - 51 to 75 - Technorati

  • Test

    just a quick test to see if we’re working

  • Declan’s first movie: Space Alien Attack

    My iPhone 3GS combined with a 7 year old boy = this. Declan did it without prompting either…the only thing I had to do was combine 3 clips and add a small overlay intro.

  • Inquisitr case study on Problogger

    Duncan Riley of The Inquisitr Shares a Popular Post Case Study

    The questions were set, so the responses to fit the questions.

    None the less, doing a Q & A like that forces you to think about what you did right and wrong. I actually enjoy it, and some might actually find value in what we’ve revealed.

  • Blue moon and praise for Conroy

    Epic Win: Australian Government to force wholesale separation of Telstra

    This is so much win. It’s win x 1000.

    I don’t believe I’ve been more excited about a Government decision for a very long time.

    Did I say win already?

    Previous notes

    January 2009

    Structural separation, as I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve always argued is the only solution. Telstra retail and wholesale must be split for the common good. If we have the capacity to provide 100mbps connections in capital cities now, it SHOULD BE PROVIDED NOW, not in a year or two when Telstra decides to use it to undermine the competition.

    June 2006

    February 2008

    Solution: structural separation of Telstra. Tax breaks to those offering true high speed internet access. Consider making internet access a tax deduction (which I think in part the Government is already doing)

    March 2007

    If Labor came out and promised this tomorrow (and dropped their ISP level censorship policy) I might even go a spend a couple of hours handing out for them at the polling booth come election day, and that from a 12 year member of the Liberal Party and former Liberal staffer. Here?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s hoping, certainly the ALP is making all the right noises for the IT vote.

  • XXXIV

  • Hong Kong Best Food Box Hill: white people not welcome

    hong kong best food

    The suburb we moved to just over a month ago borders Box Hill, the center of the Chinese community in Melbourne. Box Hill is our local shopping center, and its 3 minutes in the car. I love it: parts of it remind me of Hong Kong: a magically fascinating range of shops you don’t get other places, a big food market selling anything and everything, and a ton of interesting Chinese restaurants.

    Since we moved here we’ve been slowly visiting different restaurants…well, and one we’ve been to before and loved: Indochine, a Vietnamese restaurant that offers great food, happy and quick service, at really cheap prices.

    Friday night we decided to try Hong Kong Best Food. A sure sign of a good Chinese restaurant is that it’s always full with Chinese people, and this fit the bill.

    We had to wait 5 minutes for a table, which was fine, and were seated at around 6:50pm. That’s when the fun began.

    The first thing we were asked is whether we wanted chopsticks or not. It’s an odd question given every other Asian restaurant I’ve been to just gives you the chopsticks and if you want a fork you ask for it. We thought nothing of the question then, and it seems innocent enough by itself (despite the fact it presumes we couldn’t use chopsticks)… until what happen next.

    So we order and then wait….and wait…and wait. We watch people enter the restaurant, order, and get their food with a wait no longer than 5 minutes, often quicker. People who entered Hong Kong Best Food Box Hill at 7:15pm had eaten and left before we had our food, which finally arrived just after 7:30pm. It probably goes without saying at this point that those entering the restaurant were exclusively Chinese, and we were the only white people in the place.

    The food wasn’t good, indeed had we not wanted to make a scene, we could have sent at least one dish back, because the meat was undercooked…which is even more interesting given how long we waited for it.

    We paid the bill and left.

    My wife, who would normally be the last person in this world to note racism like this said to me that we’d been racially profiled, and that the service was intentional so that we wouldn’t return again. I have to say I 100% agree.

    So my Hong Kong Best Food Box Hill Review: probably a great place to dine, as long as you’re not white.

    I’ll be investigating the racial discrimination laws this week to see if there is any way to complain as well. I don’t support racism from white people on others, but likewise I don’t support it happening in reverse either, and there can be no other explanation for our treatment by Hong Kong Best Food Box Hill.