Disqust
I just discovered that Disqus started running adverts on my blog without permission. It's probably been going on for a little while and I should have paid more attention, sorry.
By 'without permission' I mean that I'm sure I clicked though and didn't read a terms of service document that said they could do what the fuck they like to my site. And reading other accounts of this issue I'm sure I filed without reading the email they sent out that mentioned this new 'feature' in passing. So in a legal sense they probably had all the permission they needed. In a moral sense they're switch-and-bait scum of the highest order.
They should have made this feature opt-in and then sent out an email explaining it in detail. Some sites don't want to run ads. You could have non-commercial Creative Commons content on a site that is suddenly a commercial concern.
It's a free service and at some point they need to make money, fine. If this had been presented as an option I might have considered it. If they wanted to charge for the service I'd probably have paid for it.
Instead I've disabled Disqus and hastily hacked in Facebook Comments which should be coming online as I write this post.
A side effect of this is that all the existing comments are currently unavailable. I have an archive and will try to get them resurrected soon.
(Since writing this post I have also ditched Facebook comments and now have a fully home grown solution that I moderate by hand.)
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(Published to the Fediverse as: Disqust #marketing #disqus #comments #facebook Disqus sneak in ads and so I rip out Discuss in favor of Facebook Comments and eventually my own system. )
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