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UtterlyBoring.com is produced by Jake Ortman (e-mail, resume), a 30-year-old dad, percussionist, freelance Web designer, consultant and jack-of-all-trades computer geek, living in Bend, Oregon. He created this so that his expensive journalism and technology degree isn't getting totally wasted. In addition to editing this site in his free time, he is the IT Director and Ad Designer at both Sunray and Discover Sunriver. He has LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook profiles if you're trying to stalk him.
Opinions and comments on this site are the opinions of the author, not the author's employer, family, friends or pets. This site is powered by Movable Type and is hosted by orty.com. Internet connection provided by Bend BroadBand. Since December 1st, 2002, there have been 5269 entries. Visitors to this blog have posted 16539 comments. If you're reading this, you have too much time on your hands. |
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It'll Be A While Before I Link To Bend.comAs we all know, the quality of the content on Bend.com has pretty much gone downhill since Barney left. They went from the leading source of breaking news in the area to nothing but a press release dumping service. And while I looked there a great deal in the past for news, I rarely visit them anymore, as what gets posted is rarely news and when it is actually newsworthy, it's a straight press release dump from the source, with no additional editing or reporting. I'd rather get the full story from other local media outlets, thank you. Not only that, but Spencer Dahl, Bend.com's president/CEO/owner/whatever seems to like to pick fights and instead of using appropriate channels he picks an entry of mine that's nearly two months old and posts a comment about how my pagerank is zero -- like I didn't already frickin' know that (why do I have this feeling that he may have had something to do with it?). You can read our exchange in the comments here, and feel free to add to the conversation if you feel the need to (or just comment here). Posted by Jake on 01/28/06 @ 09:49 PM
Posted in Local, Sad | 18 Comments | Permalink Submit to digg, del.icio.us, reddit, or stumbleupon 18 CommentsSpencer Dahl said on 01/29/06 @ 11:11 AM:I guess since you brought this out to your front page I'll explain to your readers why and when I posted to your blog... I was watching Z21 yesterday when I notice them plugging their website so I checked it out. The page is a big improvement and it looks great. I did notice it looked surprising similar to Bend.com. I really don't spend much time reading people's personal blogs but knowing how you critiqued the redesign of Bend.com last year I brought up your page and did I search. I found a post with a few comments. I was disappointed when reading your post to see that your keen journalist eye didn't notice the similarities of the two sites. After reading about the Z21 website I followed another link from my search...It took me to your post about your traffic problems. That's when I read your claim, and how the people at BendBroadband believed it, because "they're no dummies." That's when I decided to check your Google Page Rank. I wasn't surprised when I saw your rank was zero... most personal blogs receive 0 or 1. When I checked your page rank I had no idea that you are blackballed by Google. I thought they reserved that for only outrageously criminal websites. So I posted bend.com, bendbulletin.com, and your page rank to your blog. I assumed it to be the "appropriate channel" since it appeared along with your claim. Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 11:20 AM: Does this guy NOT have a life? I love what Snarky wrote. Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 11:40 AM: OH yea and KTVZ's site looks nothing like Bend.com 1998 design. Good job, Barney! Jake said on 01/29/06 @ 11:43 AM: I'll just take a few bits of this, as I really don't have time to sit here and debate you more on this: I did notice it looked surprising similar to Bend.com. Um...Huh? Other than the fact that you both post news content, that you both have navigation, and use the color blue, I would hardly call it suprisingly similar. Most news site follow the same basic layout -- major headlines at the top, more headlines nearby, subheads below, ad above the fold, etc... . Did you expect the headlines to be at the bottom of the page? How else were they supposed to changes things? My keen journalist eye also noticed the similarities KTVZ had to CNN and some other major news outlets. There's really hardly too many original designs out there for online news, and they all follow a similar formula. most personal blogs receive 0 or 1. That couldn't be further from the truth. Google, for one reason or another, has always favored blogs very well. A couple of local blogs' pagerank: -Something Always: PR 5 -Chuggnutt.com: PR 5. -Simone's Old URL (which hasn't been updated since August): PR 4 -Emerald Bay Photo Blog: PR 4 -Monkey in a Box: PR -High Desert Skeptic: PR 5 -Kerry Oneal: PR 4 -Grumpy Forester: PR 5 Pretty much EVERYbody at BendBlogs (PR4) has a page rank of 3 or higher (most are 4 or higher, even if they haven't been updated for months). And I don't mind you commenting on my site at all, Spencer, but if you were trying to gloat about your super high pagerank (which my site equaled before it got blacklisted), you've got your own site for that. Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 11:49 AM: What the hell is PR 5 mean? Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 11:49 AM: I meant, what the hell does PR 5 mean? Jake said on 01/29/06 @ 11:56 AM: PR = Google Page Rank. Higher is generally better. Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 11:59 AM: so 5 is good? Jake said on 01/29/06 @ 12:03 PM: Yes, 5 is fairly decent. Mrs. H said on 01/29/06 @ 12:03 PM: Sweeet. That one girl said on 01/29/06 @ 02:28 PM: I stopped on bend. com afer Barney left. It was no longer my soure for NEW news. Even my MOM... (66 yrs old) stopped wasting her time going there. There's simply NO NEW NEWS. Sheeesh. Sandy said on 01/30/06 @ 11:14 PM: Mrs. H, it's okay, those of us who HAVE a life don't give a rat's buttocks about PR. ;) We visit what we visit because we can think for ourselves and figure out what is truly GOOD and what is not. :-P Brad said on 01/31/06 @ 10:08 AM: Oh, I recall the days of my youth when another member of the bendblogs and I would cause trouble for Mr. Dahl and his bendnet. As I recall the unnamed other and I created a false account under the name of Xavier A. Wolf and caused him problems until he blocked the account. I didn't have a good image of him then, and I was like 14 at the time. Unsuprising then that he is still projecting a self-important image. Nameless One said on 01/31/06 @ 10:34 AM: Whats the story with the Bend.com forums being down? And whats the story with Mr. Dahl being completely unable to manage those forums while they were up? Nameless One said on 01/31/06 @ 10:39 AM: Oh and Spencer, if you knew anything about the latest trends in ad networks, you would know that you would be making fat bank if you had been participating in the Yahoo Publisher Network beta over the past few months. I would estimate that Bend.com could easily make over 1000 a day from YPN. With that kind of cash, maybe you could take the other 10 crap ads off the page. If Spencer is paying attention to this, I'll bet that we see Yahoo ads on the page in the near future. Of course, it might end up being too late to benefit from Yahoos massive beta payouts. Jake said on 01/31/06 @ 10:41 AM: That's assuming he was invited to the beta -- I was, but haven't implemented their ad code (but might if you say it's killer). Nameless One said on 01/31/06 @ 10:44 AM: You get an invite after you sign up. Its not exactly "invitation only". Any qualtiy US site can get in. meeero said on 04/05/07 @ 04:04 PM: a high pagerank does not mean that the site is good too... Post a comment |
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