Thursday, October 30, 2008

Blog Carnival dot com SUCKS




I've mentioned my My Love-Hate Relationship with Blog Carnival before. In fact, here's a listing of all the times I've posted something about how much BlogCarnival.com blows:
  • Rants -- August 20 Edition: Blog Carnival Blows -- I said then, in summary, "So here's your first Rant: I hate Blog Carnival. They simply suck. I don't know how else to say it. They blow monkey ass."
  • Rants -- July 6 Independence Weekend Edition  -- saying then, "There weren't a lot of submissions and BlogCarnival let me down again."
  • Rants -- May 4, 2008 -- I said, "This week's edition was all hosed up because the Blog Carnival site went down for untold hours. No explanation. No apology. I guess I got what I paid for (it's free)."
  • Kids and Money -- May 2, 2008 -- saying at the time, "I don't know about you, but temporary in computer terms usually means a couple of hours. It's been at least 8 hours now...and counting."
So that's a short bit of history for you on my experience with BC. I will tell you that I love the concept, and when it works, it's fabulous. But those accounts up there? They are just a few. Many times, I didn't write about the site being down. I just sucked it up and waited. It's over now.

The best part about it all is that there's really no way to contact the site's keepers. When their "database is unavailable" their whole business seems to cease to function. The ONLY thing that "works" (used loosely) is their home page, which redirects to the "Our database is temporarily unavailable" message page.

I don't know of any alternatives, but you can bet I'll be looking...starting NOW.

So, F$%k them. If I have to stop running these carnivals, I will. I apologize to you, the folks that send in the AWESOME Rants here (and the Kids & Money posts at my companion site). You make it all worthwhile and I'll try to find another way. I mean, it's more inconvenient for you, not me. When you have something really bugging you and you want to RANT about it, you want to submit a post, but you can't.

But I'm not dealing with these guys anymore. Just not worth the headache.

So, if you have any suggestions, please let me know. I appreciate it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding your opinion that blogcarnival.com sucks: I totally agree.

What about if you just ran the carnival as follows.

1. Create a post with a title like "Rant Carnival."
2. We leave comments consisting of links to our rants.
3. In a future post you organize the links from most to least favorite. Naturally my link will be at the top.

billspaced said...

Ian, great idea! I might just do that. And, of course, your post would be at the top!

Thanks for the suggestion!!!

Kristen said...

I found BC through your site actually. I signed up, but never made any use out of it. It's a great concept, but poorly executed. Lots of the carnivals listed are years old. Now that I've read your rant, I'm glad I didn't waste much time on BC.

This is what I tried to post earlier tonight when your comments were broken. I guess next you'll be ranting about Blogger? :)

billspaced said...

@Kristen Yes, next rant may be about Blogger. Love the platform, I know it's not WordPress, but once in a while it goes all kooky. Thanks for your persistence.

While BC is crappy, it seems to be the only thing out there. Are there any programmers out there who want to make a difference? I think you might even be able to make money with the concept. Just design it right and execute. How hard could that be?

Kristen said...

Funny that you should ask. I am a programmer. Making something like BC would take a small team though... but I agree it could be a worthwhile project.

billspaced said...

@kristen, well I think you have been challenged :)

Web site, database, programming. Want to make a difference and make some money doing it? I think there's a market here. Especially since the ONLY player in the game is so lame!