Disclosure

By Dave Winer on 1/24/07; 2:50:34 PM.

Not sure if this requires disclosure or not, but I decided it's better to disclose than not.  

On Sunday, I added a command to the robots.txt file for scripting.com that tells the TechMeme robot to not read this site. I was told by Gabe Rivera, the author of TechMeme, that this would have the effect I desired. 

I found that when I'd link to an article here that was in its domain, that very quickly that link would appear on TechMeme. Recently, a link to an old article here spawned a link on TechMeme within minutes of its appearance on Scripting News. At the time it was the only item on this site. If a human being were echoing my links so quickly, I'd ask them to stop, if I felt they would respect the request.  

I've been discussing this on and off, privately, with Gabe, for almost a year. I'm a regular reader of TechMeme, and I plan to continue to read it. There is nothing to stop TechMeme from pointing to articles here on Scripting News, but it'll have to find out about the articles from pointers on other sites.  

I've not decided if the ban is permanent or not. I want to try it this way and see what happens. It's a way for me to learn how TechMeme works, and now that you know, for you to learn too. And it gives people more of an incentive to read this site, or subscribe to it, an incentive you may not have felt before, since so many of my links were turning into TechMeme items. Also it may appeared that I was just replaying TechMeme items here. 

I don't want this move to in any way reflect on the Gabe's professionalism or ethics. TechMeme is a marvel, and very useful, and he's a very respected member of the tech blogging community, deservedly so.