Obama Conspiracy Theories goes non-commercial

The “Recommended Books” widget was an experiment. The Amazon.com ad was chosen as an attractive way to call attention to books that I thought would be of interest to readers here. The purpose wasn’t to make money, and it didn’t.

I have removed the widget and replaced it with a simple list of books (with non-royalty links to Amazon.com) for these reasons:

  1. Having affiliate links on the site creates licensing issues for some of the tools I use that are free for non-commercial sites, but pay for commercial sites.
  2. I believe that the widget makes the pages load slower.
  3. I never liked animation on web pages that weren’t specifically designed that way. I found the books widget distracting and out of character with the rest of the site.
  4. The site is now, as it was originally intended, a pure volunteer, non-profit exercise of my right to free speech. There is no conflict of interest.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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22 Responses to Obama Conspiracy Theories goes non-commercial

  1. Paper says:

    Did you mean the opposite?

    “Having affiliate links on the site creates licensing issues for some of the tools I use that are free for commercial sites, but pay for non-commercial sites.”

  2. Thrifty says:

    It’s a good move. I didn’t like that widget with the animation. It always annoyed me when that “Obama Out of Office Countdown Calendar” showed up. I was really bothered by the calendar’s presumptuousness.

  3. Paper, thanks for the correction.

  4. Scientist says:

    Doc, for some reason, the last day or so, when I go to the site, I get a message regarding scripts that are slowing the browser. Could this be related to the change you made? I do not get the message when navigating within the site, except when I click on “Home” at the top of the page.

  5. Arthur says:

    I get the same message.

    Scientist: Doc, for some reason, the last day or so, when I go to the site, I get a message regarding scripts that are slowing the browser. Could this be related to the change you made? I do not get the message when navigating within the site, except when I click on “Home” at the top of the page.

  6. What browser are you using? I’ve never seen the message.

    I would think it unlikely to be related to the book widget change because the former book widget was a script, but the new list is just HTML. So if anything, the change removed scripting. Also the book recommendations are the same on every page.

    My best guess is that the issue is being caused by one of the embedded content items (a Scribd document and a YouTube video) that currently appear on the home page. Usually I put Scribd following a “Continue Reading” article break so you don’t see them on the home page. I did an article differently this time.

    I’ve changed the Voeltz dismissal article with a break so that the document is on the Continue Reading link. See if that helps.

    Scientist: Doc, for some reason, the last day or so, when I go to the site, I get a message regarding scripts that are slowing the browser. Could this be related to the change you made? I do not get the message when navigating within the site, except when I click on “Home” at the top of the page.

  7. Keith says:

    I’ve gotten a few database errors the last few days. I’ve attributed it to the storms on the east coast, or that maybe I was hitting you during update or maintenance or something.

    I’ve got my Firefox showing video again. If anybody is having trouble watching video using Firefox, its because the current Adobe Flash Firefox Plugin release is having compatibility problems with Real Player. There is a setting you can turn off in Real that will workaround the issue while Adobe tries to work it out. It takes a bit of digging on the Flash sight to find the bug report, but it is there. If you need it and can’t find it let me know and I’ll try to remember what the steps are.

  8. sfjeff says:

    I have been getting the message too, but I think always on pages with Scribd, so that is the likely culprit- pretty much stops everything for a few minutes

  9. Scientist says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I’ve changed the Voeltz dismissal article with a break so that the document is on the Continue Reading link. See if that helps.

    Problem appears solved. Now can you make the birthers go away?

  10. Dave B. says:

    Doc, I did my best for you. The Zombies are going to miss you.

  11. roald says:

    Delete this if it is too far off topic. I had the same problem with Flash Player as Keith after my last FireFox upgrade.

    The RealPlayer steps are:
    – RealPlayer (upper left corner pull-down)
    – Preferences
    – Download and Recording
    – Uncheck Enable Web Download & Recording for these installed browsers

    I don’t know if was necessary, but I removed and re-installed Flash Player after making this change. The install failed a few times, but eventually worked. This may be because plugin-container.exe had not shut down first.

  12. Foggy says:

    Hey Doc, I ran across this in a post by Aristotle the Hun.

    Proof That the Congressional Research Service is not “non-partisan”

    It’s a meticulously researched anonymous screed that says the CRS has been pro-immigrant since 2002! Jack Maskell unmasked! :mrgreen:

    It’s fairly clear from that and the unsigned, amateurish “Legal Brief” from the same Scribd user that “mivo68” is Mike Voeltz, the plaintiff in Klayman’s case before Judge Terry Lewis in FL.

    Also, your smilies page is gone.

    Also, the Myrtle Beach OBOTs Meetup is scheduled for Oct. 5 – 7, but come on the 3rd so we can watch the first presidential debate together!

  13. Scientist says:

    Foggy: It’s a meticulously researched anonymous screed that says the CRS has been pro-immigrant since 2002! Jack Maskell unmasked!

    The CRS darn well SHOULD be “pro-immigrant”. 75% of the patents from top US universities are from work done by immigrants http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-immigrant-patents-20120626,0,4186387.story. This number seems quite in line with my personal experience in biotech patents.

    Being “pro-immigrant” means you want that work done here, not overseas. It means being pro-US leadership in technology and pro-US jobs. It means, very simply, being pro-America.

  14. Thrifty says:

    Scientist, don’t be silly. Everyone knows that only white people can contribute to society. All them foreigners are just here to take our jobs and our welfare. Oh yeah, and I’m not racist.

  15. Majority Will says:

    Scientist: The CRS darn well SHOULD be “pro-immigrant”.75% of the patents from top US universities are from work done by immigrantshttp://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-immigrant-patents-20120626,0,4186387.story.This number seems quite in line with my personal experience in biotech patents.

    Being “pro-immigrant” means you want that work done here, not overseas.It means being pro-US leadership in technology and pro-US jobs.It means, very simply, being pro-America.

    Yeah, but they still look different and they all have funny sounding names.

  16. Foggy says:

    Humph. Well, I tried twice this morning. False alarm, my specialty. 😳

  17. Scientist says:

    Thrifty: Scientist, don’t be silly. Everyone knows that only white people can contribute to society. All them foreigners are just here to take our jobs and our welfare. Oh yeah, and I’m not racist.

    Some of those immigrants are white, like Google founder Sergei Brin or E-Bay founder Pierre Omidyar.

    And of course, among the first arrests under Alabama’s immigration law were a German Mercedes exec and a Japanese Honda exec, which led to embarassed apologies from state officials.

  18. JPotter says:

    Can anyone supply any xenophobic comments from the Founders? It’s even to find racist commentary regarding natives and slaves … and all sorts of political invective … but anti-immigrant? I can’t recall reading any. Trying to picture them being concerned about foreigners taking their jobs or land …. it isn’t working too well. 😉

  19. Thrifty says:

    No, but I can probably make up some fake ones if you want. Anything can be accepted uncritically if you use the right concept nouns (like freedom and liberty) and put it in the mouth of the right Founding Father. Or, to quote Thomas Jefferson “When the voice of The People on the Internet becomes too flooded with voices of the liberals, freedom will be lost and tyranny will win.”

    JPotter:
    Can anyone supply any xenophobic comments from the Founders? It’s even to find racist commentary regarding natives and slaves … and all sorts of political invective … but anti-immigrant? I can’t recall reading any. Trying to picture them being concerned about foreigners taking their jobs or land …. it isn’t working too well.

  20. Rickey says:

    JPotter:
    Can anyone supply any xenophobic comments from the Founders? It’s even to find racist commentary regarding natives and slaves … and all sorts of political invective … but anti-immigrant? I can’t recall reading any. Trying to picture them being concerned about foreigners taking their jobs or land …. it isn’t working too well.

    Of course, if it hadn’t been for the contributions of foreigners it is unlikely that the colonists would have won the American Revolution. Among them:

    Lafayette (France)
    John Paul Jones (Scotland)
    Baron von Steuben (Prussia)
    Casimir Pulaski (Poland)
    Johann de Kalb (Germany)
    Tadeusz Kościuszko (Poland)

    Not to mention the entire French Navy, which played a vital role is forcing Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown.

  21. Lupin says:

    Rickey: Not to mention the entire French Navy, which played a vital role is forcing Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown.

    I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that we mostly wanted to p*ss off our ancestral enemy, the British. (Which was then hated more than our other ancestral enemy, the Germans.) 🙂

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