(no subject)

[kingandy]

Huh.

Well I guess you've made it when people start stealing your comic.

Note to self, add URL and thievery message to strip template...

Comments

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

i don't get that site

[kingandy]

I think the idea is that you can select all the comics you read regularly, and read them all on one page instead of checking the individual sites. (Link was slightly off, fixed now.)

I'm in two minds - from one point of view I'm pleased they think it's good enough to offer as a regular read (I'd guess at least one person who uses the site reads it and has suggested it). On the other hand ... a bit sneaky and underhanded.

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

oh i seeeee. it was lame because i'd only selected one.

well i'd be flattered. but would think the person should have asked you first.

[kingandy]

The entire comic is a link to the site.

Not that size is important.

[kingandy]

I didn't say it wasn't work talking about. I do love a nice bit of trivia.

[jacob-xiii.livejournal.com]

Is there not some internet convention thingy where it mentions you should never link to something 'within' some other web site, only to the front page of a site? And also that it's kinda basic etiquette to ask first?

Still, it is a form of flattery.

[kingandy]

I've never felt the need to ask permission to link somebody; the point of the interweb is to be read (the real reason to email somebody and ask permission to link is to let them know that you've linked them and fish for a link back). Directly referencing an image from the site itself is distinctly bad etiquette, but in this case it's only people who would have been reading the comic anyway^[1], and it could very well increase readership overall.

So, yeah, ambivalent.

[1] As opposed to, say, simply slapping somebody else's comic on your website, so that everybody who visits your website drains their bandwidth.

[masati.livejournal.com]

Do you have access to the VirtualHost or .htaccess files for that site (or non-apache equivilent if they're that way inclined)? If so I might be able to work out some directives that'll not let people with an incorrect referrer feild view the comic (or possibly to see another image instead; that might be a bit more tricky).

It could conceivably stop people with browsers set not to provide referrer information from viewing it; we could possibly work out a percentage if you have access to the raw specialschool.spiderforest.com logs.

Alternatively, a bit of PHP or similar to the same effect (if you have that level of access) could be used.

If you don't have this level of access I could help you set up a site that did.

Of course there's nothing stopping this site (or similar) from getting round this in several easy-to-manage ways; downloading the comic validly and then hosting it themselves until it changes would be one mechansm.

[kingandy]

I don't have access to any of that stuff, but I know a man who does (the SpiderForest webmaster). It depends on how concerned he is about it. TBH I thought he'd already clamped down on non-internal image requests, I had to go elsewhere to host the comic's banner.

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Can I claim some sort of cool-geek points by mentioning that I actually SAW that strip being drawn?

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

Where exactly are Cool Geek Points redeemed? But I saw it too so it's not that um, special.

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I was sat NEXT to the artist, you were merely in the same room ;P

Cool geek points are redeemed in the prescence of other geeks.