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I'm guessing that this isn't what it looks like, but it looks like the popular LEGO set inventory website Peeron.com might be hosting an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server and a geohashing script based on a webcomic. I feel kind of silly about being guilted into visiting the LEGO shop online through their links now that it looks like they're giving away bandwidth for something like that. Of course, now there's this magic link:
7 comments:
irc.peeron.com is a completely different server than the ones used for Peeron proper. It's used for many thing, among others, hosting some scripts for XKCD.
I guess I'm not sure why it matters though?
It's not particularly important, but it doesn't seem right that they'd be using sponsored links to pay for upkeep of the LEGO site but then giving resources away elsewhere.
I was under the impression that the site's owners needed the money from the links to keep the site's servers running, and finding this out made me doubt that.
Those links DO keep the site running, and like I said, they have nothing to do with irc.peeron.com. Nothing on that server costs Peeron a single penny.
I was just confused by your comment :)
To be clear, are you suggesting that using sponsored links to get income from a site is only justified when that extra income is necessary to keep the site running?
(Also, irc.peeron.com does not in fact host an IRC server. It's just a poorly-chosen name for some things which have tangentially to do with IRC.)
zigdon -
To be honest, I hadn't thought about that, although I know it is relatively easy to set up subdomains using different servers.
Relsqui -
Of course not - you'll notice I run ads here even though this is hosted by Google/Blogger and costs me nothing to run. My general attitude is that it's not my place to say how other people should run their websites (although I do have some opinions on the use of Flash, RSS feeds, and other technologies - but on that front, I'm pretty happy with Peeron).
I would argue that it isn't kosher to encourage people to support the site that way if they don't need the help, but looking over the non-database parts of the site again now, I don't see any "Help support the site" blurbs beyond the PayPal link on the first page.
I'm still not sure what the relationship is between Peeron and XKCD, but I like both and I'm in no rush to pursue it further. I don't know what's with the sudden interest in this post - as far as I can tell, this post has been largely ignored. I don't know if zigdon or Relsqui are involved with Peeron or not, but assuming everything the two of you are saying is accurate, it sounds like an edit to this post explaining that it's an unrelated server might be called for.
In any case, I still stand by and regularly use Peeron and I now have something of a conflict of interest in criticizing the ad practices there (since I'm involved with the exact same affiliate programs).
I think we're all in agreement at this point, but before I go I'll alleviate the confusion: zigdon runs Peeron and I happened to be looking over his shoulder when he came across this post. :) The relationship is only that he's an xkcd fan and works with Randall on stuff sometimes (e.g. http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-signal-attacking-noise-in-chat/).
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