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News aggregator site Voat announced their intention to "stop using Google Analytics service, effective immediately." The replacement will be the GPL'd platform Piwik, which will be installed "when time permits," and will be hosted by Voat themselves. The announcement is getting a warm reception; as of 02:22 UTC on December 12, there are over 1100 upvotes for the newspost.
Google Analytics has been notorious for being disrespectful of privacy, from surreptitious geolocation, to downright creepy knee-jerk reconfiguration of website ads to the last visited e-commerce venue, in a desperate attempt to lure window shoppers to a purchase. Despite the existence of a browser add-on released by Google in 2010, those in the know have recommended alternative countermeasures not involving installing Google software, such as a hosts file entry, or installing NoScript to block execution of Javascript from unauthorized websites. However, Voat's approach seems to be a step further: taking ownership of the analytics data itself, and cutting off Google's attempts to monetize the otherwise private data stream between the website and the users it serves.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday December 12 2015, @07:30AM
It matters little what Voat does, since it is after all an abbreviation for violating a goat, as renegade defectors from reddit are wont to do. Defectors from Reddit? Is this not like refugees from the lowest depths of hell? Where could they possibly got that was not worse? Unless it involved Moar Goats! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/1/2/1266860/-You-Have-GOAT-to-See-This [dailykos.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:02AM
DailyKOS? What does KOS even stand for? Something to do with liberal echo chambers? My google-foo isn't giving any definitive answers this morning.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=KOS [urbandictionary.com]
This is kind of interesting - do they have ties to Sharpie?
http://truth-about-kos.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:27AM
Hmm, to whom did you run away? Could it have been goats? If you do not like a citation, provide one of your own. KOS is actually short for Markos, which you will recognize, being "merican Naval dude of a certain age, as the proprietor of a very large whorehouse/country/collaborator with the Japanese occupation, Ferdinand. I often wonder, when I wonder such things, could Runaway and Eth just be two different versions of the same person? Or if generationally different, father and son? Is there something about being in the Navy that turns men into such poor examples of humanity? "In the Navy!" You know, Navy brass actually considered using Village People's song for recruiting, which reminds me to bring up Chelsea Manning. "Hey, Sailor, new in town?" Back off, Runaway, or I will say "Chelsea Manning" again.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:35AM
Ha, makes me think aristarchus and runaway are accounts to play off eachother :P
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:43AM
You are on to us? Oh, fiddlesticks! On the other hand, you should look into the origins of voat. These are people who justifiably were censored on Reddit, and went off to establish their own little paradise of hate and idiocy. That is why we should love them so.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:49AM
Seems like you should separate your criticism. Stepping away from GA I see as a good thing, so perhaps that should not be mixed with opinions of a separate matter...
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:56AM
Totally agree. No dispute about that. But that was not my point at all? Even with Runaway backing me up on the downlow from the otherside, I still fail to be clear? Oy, vey! BTW, like your point about the "hate" business. But I tend to look at it more as humor. Vicious, no-holds-barred, truth-telling humor, but that is the only way to fight stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @02:20PM
> Vicious, no-holds-barred, truth-telling humor, but that is the only way to fight stupid.
I can't tell if you are serious or intentionally doing a parody because that's exactly what the people who left reddit for voat think too.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 15 2015, @06:33AM
Vicious, no-holds-barred, truth-telling humor, but that is the only way to fight stupid.
I can't tell if you are serious or intentionally doing a parody because that's exactly what the people who left reddit for voat think too.
Not exactly. Those who left reddit over this were the Anti-Social Injustice Warriors of Sad Puppy-dom and Gamergatism, with a liberal dose of KKK racism (you know, thugs, Urban youth, black on black, and other cracker shit). They are well lost. Well and good lost. Only thing is, we have some of those right here in River City!!!
You know who they are. They do not expect us. They do not know they are racists. When we take them up their ideological assholes, they will have no idea what happened. We are SJWs, we are armed, if you are against us, you have been warned.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:33AM
As a community we on Soylent need to tone down some of the hate. I know the world sucks, and there is a HUGE pile of shit just about everywhere we look, but keep in mind that it is the result of a small minority of sociopaths taking control and shoveling us all into the same barrel of crap. The justified anger everyone is feeling spills out so easily, but it has the opposite intended effect because the majority of people reading our words are decent folk just as angry as us. The anger generally causes more rifts between us, and makes the sociopaths laugh and laugh as their shenanigans upset so many people. Reddit is an awesome idea that has been co-opted for advertising and propaganda (look at this crazy thing happening with a product label as the most prominent feature); an alternative that eschews the catch-all violations of google should be a good thing... but to be fair I know next to nothing about voat
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gravis on Saturday December 12 2015, @11:12AM
As a community we on Soylent need to tone down some of the hate.
fuck that, you douchebag. ;P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @10:03PM
yeah i still dont know what voat is. I guess from the context its reddit with a v. and an oat.
I dont use reddit so I guess I am not sure what the deal is.
--
I took a look and... it seems like a graphical reader for old usenet or something, but filled with people unlike what I recall from usenet. I dont think i'll go back.
if they use google analytics there, all the more reason to not return.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday December 13 2015, @12:50AM
Perhaps. But those sociopaths exist, and are in control of powerful organizations. So systems that enable them need to be redesigned.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:56PM
Renegade defectors from reddit! Hooboy what lamers.
BTW Beta sucks.