Tag Archives: Internet

Epic LinkedIn.com Fails

by in Random Rants and tagged , , , , | Permalink

DS

A picture paints a thousand words, apparently. So just look at these classic profiles on the business network LinkedIn.com and wonder how it is that these people thought that it could ever be a good idea to portray themselves to potential business contacts in such unusual ways, leaving you ultimately lost for words to express your feelings.

Step forward Mr Scott, the self-proclaimed ‘Founder Potential’, whatever that means. His role ‘is to advise, laugh, argue with people’. His first job was being Mickey Mouse for Walt Disney. Who are we to disagree? FAIL!

Continue reading →

Revenge Of The Ex-Employees

by in Newsworthy and tagged , , , | Permalink

hmv-tweetsLast week saw the rather amusing consequence of a poorly run company, that fails to evolve in an ever-changing market, fall into the hands of administrators who, whilst sharpening their hatchets to make the necessary job cuts, failed to notice that disgruntled employees had vented their fury via the medium of Twitter.

Of course, I am referring to the music and games retailer HMV; a company that in its wisdom presumably decided that digital downloads were a passing fad and that large high street stores made good business sense. They did well to last as long as 2013.

The tweets that quickly went viral and were picked up by the media can be seen on the left. They were of course deleted once management became aware of the bad publicity. But the damage was already done.

Much more funny than these tweets is something that I stumbled upon recently. Continue reading →

Going Viral

by in That's Life! and tagged , , | Permalink

viralThis month I experienced my first viral experience. But don’t worry, I haven’t been exposed to sickly toddlers or infested air conditioning. I have in fact witnessed a sudden surge in the popularity of This Little Thing Called Life, attributed to search traffic directed to my Life Changing Decisions post. And I’m talking about a jump from 100 or so daily views to a whopping 5,861 views over two days.

Whilst this may seem like a welcome boost and a testament to impressive ‘organic’ search marketing, I wonder if all is what it seems? Whilst I am delighted that most of my older posts continue to attract readers via natural search traffic, such sudden spikes for no obvious reason, do seem rather odd. Especially when they come via an image search term!

How many of these impressions were simple click on-click off users who didn’t read more than a line or two? Alas, I fear that most of them were. Continue reading →

Natalya The Stripper (part 2)

by in Spam Fighting and tagged , , | Permalink

Peek-a-boo!

The second installment of emails from Natalya the online scammer and my online alias of Duke Marmaduke. This won’t really make much sense if you haven’t read part one, so read it here before reading part two.

from: hotgirl5x@yahoo.com
to: stewiewordpress
11 April

Hello my lovely Duke!!!!!

I’m happy to receive a letter from you! I miss your letters and your words. And if it happens that i don’t find any new letters from you, i open your previous letters and read them again. So can you, write to me so often as you can? Just take a minute and write me a line or two. Continue reading →

Natalya The Stripper (part 1)

by in Spam Fighting and tagged , , | Permalink

Natalya, looking sweet and lovely

Ever wondered how long it would take for an internet dating scammer to get to the the request for money, and how they would fashion a believable story? I have. So after one such email made it through our ‘tough’ security at work and straight into my inbox [!], I assumed the identity of a reserved English Duke to find out. Some emails are edited as they were longer than a snake on a bungee jump.

from: hotgirl5x@yahoo.com
to: stewiewordpress
28 March

Howdy, i am Natalya and i want to talk with you! I found your e-mail thru a dating site so i thought, why don’t i give it a try ;)  I want to to find a good buddy, a man, maybe a lover.

yep, i used to talk about love and erotic themes straightly Continue reading →

Brick By Name, Brick By Brain?

by in Newsworthy and tagged , , , , , | Permalink

The unwitting star of the internet this week is the “award-winning” TV producer, writer and journalist Samantha Brick who has managed to alienate almost everyone with her articles on her experiences as a “pretty” woman with “a pleasing smile”.

Her first article for The Mail describes how she regularly has bottles of bubbly sent to her table in restaurants from strangers, whilst other men have presented her with flowers, paid for her taxi fare or bestowed other gifts upon her. And the reason why? Her “lovely looks”.

But all is not well. It seems that other women are envious of her good looks and hold over men. She’s been dropped by friends who are worried that their husbands fancy the idea of cementing a sexual liaison with Brick. And her attractiveness has also caused her to be overlooked for promotion at work. But, worse of all, she has never been asked to be a bridesmaid by her friends. Oh, the horror! Continue reading →