John Bates
Charlie Callahan
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Greg
- Nasty Nick boogies at the BNP AGM. He can move, he can move, he can really move/From his head right down to his black bovver boots.
A couple of days ago, a research session on the interwebs led me to the BNP website – it was relevant, I don’t hang out there* – and I was rather surprised to notice their commenting system is running on the Intense Debate platform. After mulling it over for a few minutes, it occurred to me that ID may not be aware of this, so I sent them an email:
“Hi, I wondered if you were aware that your commenting platform is being used on this site http://bnp.org.uk ? The BNP is a far right organisation which propagates hatred against ethnic minorities, gay people and women.”
Today I got a response from a chap called Michael:
“We provide a free software and we don’t discriminate against people/websites that uses our software even if means that IntenseDebate is being used on websites that don’t share our same views.”
And that’s fair enough. I don’t expect everyone to share my views either. To give an example: I’m a Liverpool fan, but I accept that some people will insist on supporting Man United, no matter how ludicrous I find the idea. I’ve come to terms with that. OK, that’s a facetious point but I hope you get my drift. That wasn’t really why I asked if they knew though, it was more out of a sense of astonishment.
The thing is, Intense Debate is owned by Automattic, who also own WordPress – the special magic that makes this blog so fabulous. Well, WP is fabulous, at the moment, the blog less so. Yes, I’ve been tweaking again. Sorry.
Back to the post – this discovery was both disturbing, and a little upsetting. It means I now have something in common with the BNP. I bet if I’d checked – I couldn’t stay any longer, it smelt funny, and I could see strange, shapeless creatures moving in the corners – they’re probably using WP too. Joy. I’m delighted. </sarcasm>
The only upside I can see to this is, were I ever to have the misfortune to be trapped in a lift with Nick Griffin, we would at least have something to talk about. We could share plugin suggestions, swap anecdotes about those scary times when a back-up doesn’t go according to plan.
The downsides are numerous. For a start, who wants to think they could find something to talk to Nick Griffin about?! Also, WordPress, Intense Debate and Automattic are now a little diminished to me, tarnished by an involuntary association with people like this. They’ve gone the way of Gandhi, David Bowie, David Beckham and Carol Vorderman**; joined a list entitled ‘Heroes I Can No Longer Believe In’. The Stranglers were right 
* If I did it would be to heckle, but I already do quite enough of that on the Daily Mail website – I know it’s wrong, it’s just so much fun.
** Until last week’s Question Time, I was so impressed by her mathematical ability, I know it’s just adding up, but I’m not very good at that, so I find it impressive when others are. But, then Carol had to go and spoil it by alerting us to the fact she is completely barmy.
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Michael Wood
/ March 10, 2010The thing is, dear Kate, the BNP website aids the development of Intense Debate (ID) because of the amount of users we have.
You’re not the first to attempt to sabotage our web operation, and you won’t be the last.
I have decided to award you an ‘Epic Fail’ medal.
Congratulations.
John Bates
/ March 10, 2010Twitter: vextasy
Nice post. That’s an interesting dilemma (and one that I share too). It seems likely to me, thinking about the “Six Degrees of Separation” idea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation), that if we look hard enough we could find ourselves much less than six steps away from almost anything. And then we’d have to stop using all of the tools that we’ve grown accustomed to. So I think you did the right thing. At least you brought it to their attention.
BTW – What did Bowie do?
John Bates´s last blog ..Affordable Safe Backup
Kate
/ March 10, 2010Michael: Umm, precisely how did I “attempt to sabotage” your “web operation”? Just re-read, and nope, can’t see any attempts to sabotage anything. I wrote a mildly facetious post expressing my surprise at a new discovery, that’s all. I’ll leave the sabotage up to people like Nick Eriksen
Kate
/ March 10, 2010John: Like the 6 degrees analogy! Very apt. That is the line I take, it’s impossible to remove ourselves from everything we dislike – look at some of the stuff on Facebook! If you were overtly sensitive you’d never be able to use it.
Bowie – this is going to sound silly, but, I saw him being interviewed and apparently he’d found God in that annoyingly fervent manner seen in many converts. That was rather perplexing coming from him, but, a week later, I discovered he charged people to speak to him on his website. That just seemed hypocritical in light of his new-found religion. I still listen to his music, just feel a little disappointed every time.
John Bates
/ March 10, 2010Twitter: vextasy
Regarding Bowie, I should never have asked. Like you, I didn’t want to know that. Oh well. I’ll assume he was having a bad week. I’ll put it down to lack of sleep or something. People say the strangest things when they’re overly tired.
Kate
/ March 10, 2010John: It’s best to. I’ve noticed that about overly tired people too lol
Kim Ayres
/ March 10, 2010But I’m sure both you and Nick eat bread, or enjoy a cup of tea, or maybe even clip your toenails in bed. There are all sorts of things we have in common.
In fact, it is noticing the things we share, rather than concentrating on the differences that makes us more caring as humans.
Mind you, I did think my contempt for Tony Blair couldn’t sink any lower until I found out about him charging people to have their photo taken with him…
Kim Ayres´s last blog ..Are you scared of your face?
Fiona Bianchi
/ March 10, 2010I think you have a point Kate, and because the BNP use all of the following they are all now also tarnished in my eyes: Microsoft Windows, HTML, cat5 cable, BT, Tesco/Asda/etc, petrol, the Houses of Parliament, oyster cards, tarmac, oxygen, and last but by no means least, electrons.
Sorry, the list got a bit random after a while!
Kate
/ March 10, 2010Kim: You had to go and spoil bread for me lol
He charged people to have their photo taken with him?! That’s just gobsmackingly arrogant! Were people willing to pay?
Kate
/ March 10, 2010Fiona: lol I’ve heard they also eat cheese and drink beer, but I’m hoping that’s just a spiteful rumour
Kate
/ March 10, 2010Fiona: I like your new site! Just going to add you to the blogroll
Lord Matt
/ March 10, 2010Twitter: lordmatt
I see they are as pleasant as ever. On a side note how did Carol V prove to be balmy and is she as odd as me?
Kate
/ March 10, 2010Oh yes lol
Didn’t you see QT? Carol turned out to be a more glamorous version of Ann Widdecombe; she’s very angry and hates everyone, apparently. She is as odd as you, but in a really, really bad way. You, of course are odd in a good way
Greg
/ March 11, 2010Kate, I love your blog in far too many ways to go into at this time of night!
Kate
/ March 11, 2010Greg: Yay! Thank you
The feeling is, of course, mutual.
Vlad
/ March 11, 2010Twitter: VladZablotskyy
I am not familiar with UK politics, however Mr. Wood, I also would like to know how did Kate exactly attempt to sabotage your website???
Kate is that why you stopped using Intensedebate?
Vlad´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
Kate
/ March 11, 2010Vlad: lol I was quite flattered, his faith in my abilities far exceeds what I am actually capable of. I felt a bit like a one-women unit of some kind of cyber special forces division.
I switched from ID to Disqus because at the time that had more features. I’ve had to switch WP comments back on though; a couple of readers were having a problem with Disqus not loading. It’s a shame, I rather liked the extra tools
Michael Wood
/ March 11, 2010@Vlad, It’s not my website. I’m just part of the web team.
I assume that Kate hoped Intense Debate would somehow stop us using their software if they became aware that the party was using it. I can see no other reason for informing them?
Perhaps she was bored.
Luckily, most US software vendors couldn’t care less.
There are certain advantages when you’re the No.1 UK political party website.
Kate
/ March 11, 2010Michael: Well now you see what happens if you make assumptions. As I stated in the post, I asked ID because initially, I was surprised – it was a bit like discovering a genteel, maiden aunt had a stack of Playboy magazines secreted in her wardrobe – and secondly, I thought it was a good illustration of the way certain associations can colour our opinion of certain people or things, which I planned to blog about. The fact that you can not comprehend any motivation other than a wish to sabotage you, says a lot about the way you think, and very little about what I actually wrote.
I can assure I have absolutely no plans to sabotage your web site, along with the Daily Mail and BBC’s HYS, you are far too good a source of material to lose. It would be like a chip shop owner, trying to abolish potatoes. Really.
Vlad
/ March 11, 2010Twitter: VladZablotskyy
@Michale Wood,
Alright then. As a part of your the BPN team you have made the first impression with me. Do you care yo know what it is?
I hope you realize how unintelligent you sound accusing Kate of sabotaging “your website operations”.
Vlad´s last undefined ..Response cached until Fri 12 @ 14:03 GMT (Refreshes in 22.49 Hours)
Vlad
/ March 11, 2010Twitter: VladZablotskyy
Kate, I have been your route. I used Intense Debate, Disqus and decided to go back to WordPress default comments
Vlad´s last undefined ..Response cached until Fri 12 @ 14:03 GMT (Refreshes in 22.36 Hours)
Kate
/ March 11, 2010Vlad: It’s a shame isn’t it. The external services offer so much, ‘straight out of the box’, but at the same time, some people do seem to have problems with them, and if that means they can’t comment then it defeats the object of having them.
Also, I’ve seen a few people saying they don’t like to use them, because they aren’t sure how secure their details are with the third party. I think they are safe, but once again, it’s best to take note of such concerns amongst readers.
Anyhoo, I’m slowly trying to replicate the Disqus experience with WP plugins – wish me luck lol
Michael Wood
/ March 11, 2010@Vlad, thanks for that pleasant response.
@Kate, my assumption was based on experience. The lengths that certain groups will go to ‘shut us up’ is not widely known. In the last 12 months we have received three Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, this is illegal and very expensive.
IF it wasn’t your intention to see our use of ID terminated, then I retract the above assumption.
Thanks.
Kate
/ March 11, 2010Michael: I accept your retraction in the spirit it was meant.
I strongly disagree with your views, but I don’t think you should be silenced. I can see why you might have thought that, but it’s really not a thing I would do. That’s the thing about us left-wing liberty freaks, we tolerate a range of views, but reserve the right to continue the fine British tradition of mocking anyone who sets themselves up to rule over us.