Tim Brien said:
How I miss the real ventilators, at least they could keep on topic.
Feel free to join them 
Ralph
Ralph Berg said:
Tim Brien said:
How I miss the real ventilators, at least they could keep on topic.
Feel free to join them
Ralph
Amen to thatā¦
Me, I am going to stick around for a while yet. With all this cabin fever going on you guys are making too many cakes and sandwiches, so the more to share the better for your waistlines as a few of you could get out and runaround with your trains occasionally instead of munching on popcorn and cakes all the time.
I survived a few rounds with the real ventilators so a few amateurs like you guys are just chicken feed.
Tim,
It was a matter of somehow getting to Page 10; not an easy task given the subject of the thread. 
BTW we have a member over on the RhB/Swiss Trains forum who used to work at VS - back when they had about 100 sites. More than 1000 now?? 
PS How dare you mention chicken feed? Rooster will be all over you.
HJ,
at least one good thing that has come out of this thread is an attempt, however meagre, for some of the popcorn munchers to get past that 140 character limit. They are trying but then quoting another memberās post count is not included when it comes to character counting.
They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks but they are trying, between bouts of cakes and popcorns. After this thread a few will need a good cardiac workout to shed the calories.
Tim Brien said:
Me, I am going to stick around for a while yet. With all this cabin fever going on you guys are making too many cakes and sandwiches, so the more to share the better for your waistlines as a few of you could get out and runaround with your trains occasionally instead of munching on popcorn and cakes all the time.
I survived a few rounds with the real ventilators so a few amateurs like you guys are just chicken feed.
No cabin fever here.
I actually work outdoors for a living to get my exerciseā¦rather than run my yap for exercise as some do
Stick around if you wish. Weāre quite used to you posting ad nauseam on every controversial topic that comes aboutā¦while remaining silent on 99% of the other subjects covered here.
Ralph
You go Ralph
Ui, ui, touchy, touchy. 
Hey, you, .chicken.err, henā¦rooster or whatever the heck your name isā¦more popcornā¦
And Fred wants a bheerā¦
Tim Brien said:
How I miss the real ventilators, at least they could keep on topic.
Yeah. Latest batch tries to derail all sorts of threadsā¦chickens, popped cornā¦and then complain because the threrad is derailed.
Curmudgeon mcneely said:
Tim Brien said:
How I miss the real ventilators, at least they could keep on topic.
Yeah. Latest batch tries to derail all sorts of threadsā¦chickens, popped cornā¦and then complain because the threrad is derailed.
I only see one complaint about the thread being derailed.
Time for a musical interlude.
Ralph
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B57H8AxkszY[/youtube]
Thanks Ralph For the intermission.
How come the bar wasnāt open at intermission ?
Iām having a Guinness bheer right now. Cheers yāall TOF in Oregon
Fred Mills said:
How come the bar wasnāt open at intermission ?
Itās a Union thing ā¦second Saturday of the month
Edit: To factor in leap year into that equation
My apologies for trying to get this thread back in context, however, it is related to a dog forum thus many of the teaparty people might, just might take notice. One forum attempted to cover their rights when Vertiscope took over their forum. There is page after page of members making a declaration forbidding Vertiscope using their photographs and postings prior the buy out.
Just do a Google search of Vertiscope and the link is on the first result page. I tried to link the site but it would not open in my link.
Tim, the language in the Terms of Service the dog forum people are āprotestingā is virtually identical to the Terms of Service currently on MLS (which still bears the 2009 copyright), with the exception that MLSās Terms of Service is explicit in stating MLS does not own the content. On the dog siteās terms of service, individual ownership is implied, but not explicitly stated. The dog site says you grant them a non exclusive license to reproduce the content you provide. A ānon exclusive licenseā means you retain ownership of the content, but are allowing them to use it as outlined in the contract. The ānon exclusiveā part means youāre free to share that content with whomever else you desire, in whatever format you desire to do so.
(Andārecallāthis is supported by VSās statements as quoted a number of pages back in this discussion. The poster owns the content, and can publish it as they see fit.)
Itās similar language to a number of publishing contracts Iāve signed either as author or publisher. Thereās nothing underhanded going on. Itās simply about protecting your right as publisher to publish that which youāve said youāre going to publish.
And so what if they have license to use your posts. From a practical standpoint, what are they going to do with it? I searched their web site, and found nothing related to compilations of forum posts for sale, no calendars of posted photos, nothing. Theyāve been at this game for quite a while. If they havenāt figured out how to monetize the content posted to their forums yet, theyāre not likely going to. Itās far too labor intensive to have someone cruise the forums and compile cool āhow-toā articles or similar stuff. The return on investment simply isnāt there.
Iām not reading anything that concerns me as to ownership of content. I make my train money writing articles, so if there was so much as a chance VS would keep me from doing that, Iād be the first one out the door. Iām just not seeing it.
Later,
K
Kevin,
if they do not profit by the content of the forum as in postings, then there is a huge market in compiling names, addresses, email contacts, etc., which are a valuable asset to onsell to third parties. With over 1000 forums owned then that is a lot of personal data to onsell to their advertisers.
Our local government council compiles personal data taken from rates notices to sell to purchasers such as real estate agents who wish to target certain streets, suburbs. The data specificially allows the agents to target a certain address in an area that they wish to sell a home or asertain those nearby who may be thinking of selling. Rather than random letterbox drops they are able to personally target potential clients. We did not consent to our personal data being onsold. Data could also be onsold to any business that wanted direct access to a customer rather than by random advertising brochure letterbox drops.
Joe Crocker, how life was derailed. Thanks, Ralph
Tim wrote: "if they do not profit by the content of the forum as in postings, then there is a huge market in compiling names, addresses, email contacts, etc., which are a valuable asset to onsell to third parties. "
Thatās an entirely different ball of wax than ownership of content that weāve been discussing for 11 pages now. (Okay, minus the popcorn references, maybe about 4).
Sure, thereās money to be made in compiling demographics of your users. Thatās no different from Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. For that matter, itās no different than pretty much any mainstream media company or retail business that keeps (and sells) their customersā demographic and purchasing information. Itās all part and partial of selling eyeballs to advertisers. (And thatās the name of the game.)
What Iām not seeing is any reason to expect my spam filter to be kicked into overdrive solely as a result of VS buying a forum of which Iām a member. If VS wants to crawl over my forum posts to see if they can target advertising to me, thatās their business. I post the stuff to a publicly viewable forum, so I have no expectation of privacy. Thereās probably 3rd-party bots pouring over this forum looking for trends even without Bobās knowledge or consent. Againāitās public, itās on the internet, you canāt stop it.
That VS owns a bunch of web sites and uses that to their commercial advantage isnāt a bad thing. Theyāre in business to make money off of the forums they purchase, and compiling demographic information is how they do that. Iāve got similar analytics on my own blog in terms of who visits it, when, etc. that I could use to commercial advantage if I wanted to monetize the site. The data is out there and easy to use. Iām sure Bob uses it to various extents in running this site.
If itās out there in cyberspace, someoneās eventually gonna find it and try to profit off of it. I canāt stop it any more than I can stop the grocery store from selling my buying habits to the cat food companies, or the county clerkās office selling my real estate tax records to real estate data miners. Itās all legal. Itās the āinformation age,ā and weāre stuck living in it.
Later,
K