A notice about Empeg Logos

Just a quick FYI for the logo site users. Right now I have 2 logos in the admin queue that won't be approved due to them containing actual phone numebrs. I will not approve any logo that contains an actual phone number or address on the site, due to privacy concerns.

I will not approve any logo that contains an actual phone number or address on the site, due to privacy concerns.

Do the users get any kind of a message back when the logos aren't approved?

Also, the uploading page needs a big fat warning message to this effect.



___________
Tony Fabris

I put one up there with a dummy phone number. (the CRX one...)

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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

I put one up there with a dummy phone number.

If you do this, please have the courtesy to use the "555" fake number format. (I'm not saying that you didn't do it, I'm just saying it to anyone else out there who doesn't know about the 555 thing.)

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Tony Fabris

In reply to:

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Do the users get any kind of a message back when the logos aren't approved?

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Not yet. My admin page has "Approve" or "Delete".

But the messaging is something I want to implement soon, but I have held back on too many new features until I get it all moved into an actual database. Hopefully this weekend will see it there. Because if I don't get it into a database soon, all the new features are going to make that job much harder.

Drakino: thanks for e-mailing me directly about this. I'm glad I could take immediate action.

Tony: I appreciate your thoroughness, however, I am paid well to account daily for other people's stupidity. If some Beavis sees a phone number somewhere and wants to call it, or just thinks one up -- where's the culpability? I just blew 5 minutes of my time adding 5's to a bitmap to somehow be more courteous.

I guess, however, it would be perfectly OK if I called Honda or BMW or Audi and asked them if they could customize their empeg logos for me? Or complain about them? How am I, or any other Beavis, to know that the rest of the logos on the site are not corporately represented without disclaimer otherwise?

And you'll take exception with a randomly chosen telephone number?

If you're going to be thorough, be thorough.

As for courtesy, the submission requirements are visibly laissez-faire, so expect submissions to be as such.

I suppose I could just fill my boots and surf the web for corporate logos, down-scale them to 4-bit images, size them awkwardly into 128x32 without manual retouching and then publish them on the empeg logo site, as long as I had the courtesy to worry about picking an obviously FAKE telephone number?

And to follow up with credit where its due, as I've said to Tony: great utility. It doesn't just work, its user-proof and slick.

Drakino: great service to the empeg community.

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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

Actually, can I remove my 555 version of that bitmap and insert my OWN telephone number?

I'd be happy to talk to any Beavis who was inspired by seeing it on your site.

Actually, I was thinking that to be even MORE courteous, I could put in (123) 456-7890 so that it would be easier for people (yah, that huge CRX-driving, empeg-owning group with North-American-formatted telephone numbers) to customize through cut-and-paste, thereby keeping the same font and black-outlined readability of the numbers despite the poor S/N ratio introduced by my choice of background.

I'll wait for the fine print to see if thats within the bounds of the submission guidelines. Let me know. I think I was required to fill in an e-mail address. It probably maps to me.

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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

And you'll take exception with a randomly chosen telephone number?

Heck, no, I don't really care one way or another. I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind everyone that (in the USA at least), it's standard practice to fake a phone number by putting 555 in for the prefix, since that'll just get you the Directory Assistance operator in every area code (as opposed to bugging Aunt Edna during Oprah).

I forget the singer who wrote the "Jenny 867-5309" song in the 80's, but he managed to piss off at least one person in every area code when that song hit the top 40. Hundreds of people across the country were forced to change their phone numbers because of all the phone calls from folks who "just wanted to see if it was a real phone number".

The only reason Drakino wants to enforce the phone number thing is because some people don't realize there is a potential danger in publishing an address or phone number on the web. Those people might not be making rational choices about what they're posting. A "no personal info" policy isn't about taking exception, it's about protecting those who don't know any better.

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Tony Fabris

Kudos to Drakino for keeping our Aunt Ednas in mind and not pissing her off, especially when she's watching Oprah.

Could I have lied and just said that it was really MY phone number and that I thought it might help me meet empeg-owning chicks? Would anyone have followed up on that if I had?

The 555 thing is clear, thanks, but since we're in the business of serving the Greater Good, lets priorizite and be thorough.

But flogging the who-might-it-piss-off point, are there no concerns about pissing-off the trademark and copyright owners?

I didn't bother to do more with my finished product than rearrange my own telephone number the fastest way possible, by cutting and pasting. In other words, I didn't want to put in any more effort at respecting brands, trademarks, telephone numbers, etc. than the other contributors.

My point is, if its laissez-faire, then so be it. To any lawyer its apparently so. To the hardware geeks, its obviously not, so I'll be consistent with the newly IMPLICIT guidelines and get into the classic narrow focus of my fellow geeks and find a thread to pick obsessively at:

Would, say, a picture of Waterson's "Calvin" urinating on the Ford oval be allowed? (no, it wouldn't render recognizably enough to vex ANY suit) -- I'm sure someone with a gun-rack and empeg out there would LOVE that one. If that DOES get posted, does the notice come out here? NOT on the BBS it was posted on, NOT to the person who posted, etc.? I may not be able to log into empeg.comms.net to find out and my hard work may waste away unenjoyed.

I just want to know. As long as I don't piss off Aunt Edna (call for a good time @ (xxx) 555-xxxx), I can get pretty much anything else approved?

We are fearless of corporate entities, it seems, but Aunt Edna must have a mean-streak a mile wide.

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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

Is this thread a lesson for all - never post to the BBS when stoned?

Rob

We are fearless of corporate entities, it seems, but Aunt Edna must have a mean-streak a mile wide.

This line made me laugh out loud. (And you have a point.)

___________
Tony Fabris

In reply to:

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Drakino: thanks for e-mailing me directly about this. I'm glad I could take immediate action.

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Thats one thing the site dosen't allow me to do very easially, find someones e-mail address. Last time I did it, I had to override file permissions, then put them back when I was done. Besides, there was other logos too that I was talking about, not just yours.

In reply to:

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Tony: I appreciate your thoroughness, however, I am paid well to account daily for other people's stupidity. If some Beavis sees a phone number somewhere and wants to call it, or just thinks one up -- where's the culpability? I just blew 5 minutes of my time adding 5's to a bitmap to somehow be more courteous.

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I just don't feel like the person who has to deal with someone who gets called based off a phone number off that site. I'm not saying anything about this boards users, but that site was on Google and a few other search engines days after being online. (It suprised me how quickly they found it).

This thread has brought up a few points I am going to have to rethink before allowing the site to be used more.

Is it really that tough to make it 555? Why is that so hard in the first place?

This reminds me of a Simpsons episode when Chief Wiggum is conducting a trace and the first 3 numbers are 555 so he cancels mid-trace because it's obviously a fake number

DiGNAN

Is it really that tough to make it 555? Why is that so hard in the first place?

You're kidding me, right? No, of course its not difficult. The entire 128x32 bitmap was not difficult (attached, with what could be my real number, but someone will just have to pull a Beavis to find out)

<eerie parallel>

After an hour-long lecture about Schrödinger's Cat in a senior philosophy course once, a self-styled sorority-Barbie(TM) intellectual puts up her hand and boldly asks, as if it had slipped the professor's mind: "So...like...what happened to the cat?"

After laundering my drawers, I vowed never to be surprised at people's capacity to miss the point ever again.

</eerie parallel>


reminds me of a Simpsons episode when Chief Wiggum is conducting a trace and the first 3 numbers are 555 so he cancels mid-trace because it's obviously a fake number

Yah, I LOVED that one. Even better was discovering some of my friends didn't understand WHY it was funny, even though they know about the "555" convention used in most fictional media.


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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

reminds me of a Simpsons episode when Chief Wiggum is conducting a trace and the first 3 numbers are 555 so he cancels mid-trace because it's obviously a fake number

Yah, I LOVED that one. Even better was discovering some of my friends didn't understand WHY it was funny, even though they know about the "555" convention used in most fictional media.

I hate to have to ask, but why is that funny?

Borislav

I hate to have to ask, but why is that funny?

Because it's a TV show. So first off, any phone number that appears on the show will be a 555 number. But this is a police trace, and Chief Wiggum doesn't know he's on a TV show, and a trace is an absolute way of finding where the person is calling from. The fact that he cancels it after the 555 is funny because it's not a fake number in their world.

That's the best I can explain it. I guess you might have to be there.

DiGNAN

I forget who said it. "Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it, but the thing dies in the process."

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Tony Fabris

"Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it, but the thing dies in the process."

- E.B. White

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MK2 #141, green, 12GB

That's the best I can explain it.

It was good enough, thanks.

Borislav

Any info on when your logo site will be back up , Drakino? I thought I had DL'd the Homer SImpson ones but can't find them. DOH!

Dave Clark
Austin, Texas
12g Amber

If I get enough time tonight I should be able to get the browse section back online. Just a matter of coding a few more database calls correctly in the admin approval page.

The members section will most likely stay down till after this next weeked though, as that involves more work then simply getting the old logos back.