Anonymous
Post 05/11/2020 14:55     Subject: Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jeff, if you weren't running DCUM for a living, what type of work would you like to be doing?


My last regular job was doing computer network security. That was fun so I guess I wouldn't mind doing that. But there are a lot of things I would like to do. I liked traveling a lot in previous jobs, though travel is not all that fun these days.


Just be wary of that as a "fallback". As someone who works in the field, it is now changing very rapidly. If you are more than about 2 years out of the field, there is a LOT to relearn and learn. There are a ton of new tools, standards, protocols and procedures. The industry has changed a ton in the last 2 years and is virtually unrecognizable from the field from 5 years ago.

However, people who have been in the industry do tend to learn/relearn much faster, understand the lingo and in general can adapt their old skills to new procedures and standards, so it is definitely far faster to return to the field. But just bear that in mind.
Anonymous
Post 05/10/2020 20:38     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:When did DCUM begin?

When you founded it, did you intend for this to a full-time job, or did it just evolve?


In 2002, our friend Sharon Winick started arranging get-togethers for new moms. Our son was born about the same time as Sharon's daughter so Maria was included in the meet-ups. As the meet-ups got larger, they were organizing them through email and that was getting problematic as the number of people grew. I was managing mailing lists (listservs) for a few companies then and had all the hardware and software necessary to run them. So, I suggested starting a mailing list instead of relying on the "to" and "cc" fields of email. Maria and Sharon were moderating it and then people started using it for all sorts of parenting topics and it grew well beyond its original purpose. I wasn't really involved for a while but as the list grew, Sharon was too busy to stay involved and I started helping Maria. We created a website but it was only to help subscribe to the mailing list.

Then, "nanny posts" -- nanny search and nanny available -- posts started taking over the mailing list and it was making it hard to find non-nanny posts. We decided to offload them to a forum on the website. In addition to the nanny search forums, we created a General Discussion forum. One day, we noticed that forum had a lot of traffic. Based on what we saw in that forum, we created a few more. Then they gained traction and it became clear that web discussion would be popular. Therefore, in 2007 I completely redid the forums to its current format. I was still working full-time and doing DCUM on the side. We had started running web ads without much expectations but after a few years we noticed significant year-to-year revenue growths. First Maria quit her job to work on DCUM full time. Revenue growth was so predictable that at some point I decided that I would be able to quit my job in three years. That's exactly what happened. Three years after that I quit and have being working on DCUM full time since then.

Other than that three-year time period, nothing was ever really planed with DCUM and we never expected it to grow like it has.


My daughter was born in 2004 and I remember how much I looked forward to getting the email of the "daily digest"... the highlight of most newborn days in fact.

The first drama I remember seeing on here was a question as to whether infant girls should have their ears pierced? Well, most responded that some cultures pierce ears young or that it's really a personal choice...

and then, it happened...

someone said that it looked "trashy & slutty" on a baby and she'd undoubtedly end up on the pole one day.

Well.
That was also the first time I remember seeing everyone band together collectively as one to give that person their come-to-jesus moment.
I've been hooked since day 1.
Anonymous
Post 05/10/2020 18:11     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:Just a postscript to the Kane discussion because I got curious about this. The original Kane thread, the one about him divorcing on air, is still the most viewed thread on DCUM.

Part 2 of that thread is the 9th most viewed thread. Part 3 is the 11th most viewed thread. The current Kane thread is the 14th most viewed and will likely rise since it is still active. Part 4 of the original Kane thread is the 22nd most viewed and the thread about Kane getting arrested is the 26th most viewed. I can't imagine how much revenue has been generated due to those threads but it may well be responsible for our kids college funds.


Good grief.
Anonymous
Post 05/10/2020 18:09     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote:Just a postscript to the Kane discussion because I got curious about this. The original Kane thread, the one about him divorcing on air, is still the most viewed thread on DCUM.

Part 2 of that thread is the 9th most viewed thread. Part 3 is the 11th most viewed thread. The current Kane thread is the 14th most viewed and will likely rise since it is still active. Part 4 of the original Kane thread is the 22nd most viewed and the thread about Kane getting arrested is the 26th most viewed. I can't imagine how much revenue has been generated due to those threads but it may well be responsible for our kids college funds.


This is absolutely fascinating! I wonder if it’s the fact that since people listen to him everyday it feels as if they are part of our circle.
I’m curious about Dannie emailing you. Did she ask you to delete threads/info and if so did you?


Someone posted personal information about Danni's family. Along with the personal data, there was some false information. I removed the original post before I even heard from her. However, someone quoted the post and I didn't notice. She contacted me to ask me to remove that post. She has never asked that a post about her be removed.

All of this is so interesting! Thanks so much for doing this AMA Jeff!
jsteele
Post 05/10/2020 14:29     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote:Just a postscript to the Kane discussion because I got curious about this. The original Kane thread, the one about him divorcing on air, is still the most viewed thread on DCUM.

Part 2 of that thread is the 9th most viewed thread. Part 3 is the 11th most viewed thread. The current Kane thread is the 14th most viewed and will likely rise since it is still active. Part 4 of the original Kane thread is the 22nd most viewed and the thread about Kane getting arrested is the 26th most viewed. I can't imagine how much revenue has been generated due to those threads but it may well be responsible for our kids college funds.


This is absolutely fascinating! I wonder if it’s the fact that since people listen to him everyday it feels as if they are part of our circle.
I’m curious about Dannie emailing you. Did she ask you to delete threads/info and if so did you?


Someone posted personal information about Danni's family. Along with the personal data, there was some false information. I removed the original post before I even heard from her. However, someone quoted the post and I didn't notice. She contacted me to ask me to remove that post. She has never asked that a post about her be removed.

Anonymous
Post 05/10/2020 13:30     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:Just a postscript to the Kane discussion because I got curious about this. The original Kane thread, the one about him divorcing on air, is still the most viewed thread on DCUM.

Part 2 of that thread is the 9th most viewed thread. Part 3 is the 11th most viewed thread. The current Kane thread is the 14th most viewed and will likely rise since it is still active. Part 4 of the original Kane thread is the 22nd most viewed and the thread about Kane getting arrested is the 26th most viewed. I can't imagine how much revenue has been generated due to those threads but it may well be responsible for our kids college funds.


This is absolutely fascinating! I wonder if it’s the fact that since people listen to him everyday it feels as if they are part of our circle.
I’m curious about Dannie emailing you. Did she ask you to delete threads/info and if so did you?
jsteele
Post 05/10/2020 08:45     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Just a postscript to the Kane discussion because I got curious about this. The original Kane thread, the one about him divorcing on air, is still the most viewed thread on DCUM.

Part 2 of that thread is the 9th most viewed thread. Part 3 is the 11th most viewed thread. The current Kane thread is the 14th most viewed and will likely rise since it is still active. Part 4 of the original Kane thread is the 22nd most viewed and the thread about Kane getting arrested is the 26th most viewed. I can't imagine how much revenue has been generated due to those threads but it may well be responsible for our kids college funds.
jsteele
Post 05/10/2020 08:35     Subject: Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Anonymous wrote:Are you still doing an AMA? This is so interesting! I’m just curious at what your thoughts are on the Kane thread. I’m surprised at how popular that thread is. I mean I listened to Kane and followed the drama with danni but it’s never talked about in my circles. I am surprised by the amount of posters who are so invested in that thread. Do you think any of the people from the show or related to the show or Danni post on that thread?


I am still happy to answer questions. I have sort of a funny story about the original Kane thread. Running DCUM hardly ever requires leaving the house. Just about everything can be done from home. But one morning I had a very rare meeting with a potential advertiser. So I took my iPad which has cellular data capabilities to the meeting in order to demonstrate the website (this advertiser didn't know anything about DCUM). When I started showing the site, it ran very slowly. This was very unusual because the site had been running reasonably quick most of the time. I blamed this on the iPad having a slow connection and I was very embarrassed about it. When I got home, I found that things were still slow. I started troubleshooting and saw a huge load on the servers. While I was checking things, I kept noticing a thread about someone named "Kane" jumping to the top of "Recent Topics". I had never heard of Kane and had no idea who he was. The thread didn't seem important to me so I ignored it and kept trying to figure out was what causing the site to run so slow.

I can't remember now if someone brought my attention to how fast the Kane thread was growing, I noticed on my own, or I found it by going through the logs. But, eventually it became clear that this thread that I had been ignoring was actually getting a lot of traffic. When I checked the logs for that thread, it was clear that we were being overwhelmed by traffic to it. The thread was 25 pages long in just a couple of hours. It would eventually get 1,127,606 views before I locked it. Of course there have been multiple Kane threads since then.

I have still never listened to the Kane Show or any of the other drive time shows that get discussed here. It's just not my thing. The idea of being that invested in radio personalities is very alien to me and I really can't relate. The obsessiveness with which some of the posters follow every detail of these people is really strange. I would say that it is unhealthy but it probably keeps those posters out of even worse trouble.

I haven't been in contact with anyone from the Kane show except Danni. People from a couple of other radio shows have been in touch, mostly to complain about posts about them. There was one show named after three women that I am pretty sure one of them posted here. I don't know if anyone from the Kane show posts or not. Danni has emailed a few times and I have found her to be very nice. I've never heard her on the radio or seen her on TV. But at least on email she is very reasonable and I don't understand the constant criticism of her.
Anonymous
Post 05/09/2020 23:39     Subject: Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Are you still doing an AMA? This is so interesting! I’m just curious at what your thoughts are on the Kane thread. I’m surprised at how popular that thread is. I mean I listened to Kane and followed the drama with danni but it’s never talked about in my circles. I am surprised by the amount of posters who are so invested in that thread. Do you think any of the people from the show or related to the show or Danni post on that thread?
jsteele
Post 05/09/2020 22:42     Subject: Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Anonymous wrote:
Ooh, I love Sharon Kay Penman! Didn’t realize her new book was out already. How is it??


Frankly, it's not her best. It's a little slow. It concentrates heavily on the personalities of the elites in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. There are a lot of people, many of whom have similar names. So it gets difficult to keep track of who is who.
Anonymous
Post 05/09/2020 22:18     Subject: Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jeff - softball question.

What is your educational background? College? Major? Grad school?

(I ask because I really like your writing style - clear and concise and I have a theory...)


Community college -- Associate's degree in arts.

University of Illinois -- Bachelor's degree, major in political science and minor in history.

Georgetown University -- Master of Arts in Arab Studies.

The computer stuff is all self-taught.

Thanks, Jeff! My theory was that you have a liberal arts background. You don’t write like an engineer. 😉

Another pet theory and prove me wrong; you were/are a voracious reader?

Trying not to fan girl out here.

What do you read?


I have always enjoyed reading and read a lot. These days I read a lot of historical novels. I am currently reading "The Land Beyond the Sea" by Sharon Kay Penman.


Ooh, I love Sharon Kay Penman! Didn’t realize her new book was out already. How is it??
jsteele
Post 05/09/2020 20:27     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote: In other words, you want no accountability at all. You can't possibly be naive enough to expect that any website offering that would be commercially viable.


That's just the point -- I would not mind paying (anonymous paypal/bitcoin) to access the site while being able to post in a truly anonymous way (VPN and privacy badgers allowed).
Here you are just selling our IP address to some companies. This is what you mean, I assume, by "commercially viable".
Could we, at least, know the companies or what type data do you sell in addition to the IP? (time of posting? subject? content?).

I bet 90% of the people on this site do not realize that this is how you make your profit...

Nice site though -- full of valuable information.

But probably last time here for me -- at least from a private IP (yes, even that of my employer as you noticed

Thanks for the AMA!


I am not selling your IP address. A site with absolutely no accountability would be overrun with spam and troll posts. As such, no advertisers would ever allow their ads on the site. The number of posters willing to pay a regular fee to use the site is likely very low and, at any rate, the spam and trolls would make the site unusable. You clearly are as naive as you appeared.

The only way we make money is by running ads. Just like the vast majority of websites, we use display advertising, most of which is provided by networks with which we partner. Because those networks have ads here, they have access to your IP address and the ability to place cookies on your device. That is fully disclosed in our FAQs and Privacy Policy.
Anonymous
Post 05/09/2020 20:16     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote: In other words, you want no accountability at all. You can't possibly be naive enough to expect that any website offering that would be commercially viable.


That's just the point -- I would not mind paying (anonymous paypal/bitcoin) to access the site while being able to post in a truly anonymous way (VPN and privacy badgers allowed).
Here you are just selling our IP address to some companies. This is what you mean, I assume, by "commercially viable".
Could we, at least, know the companies or what type data do you sell in addition to the IP? (time of posting? subject? content?).

I bet 90% of the people on this site do not realize that this is how you make your profit...

Nice site though -- full of valuable information.

But probably last time here for me -- at least from a private IP (yes, even that of my employer as you noticed

Thanks for the AMA!
jsteele
Post 05/09/2020 19:37     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

Why can't I access DCUM when running on with a TOR browser or coming in with VPNExpress...??



Because those are sources of lots of troublemakers.


Maybe troublemakers or just maybe people who want real privacy (not just something that says "anonymous" on the screen
You are saying that this is anonymous but you know very well that most of us are posting from static VPN so in fact not so anonymous. (you can -- and I bet you will -- look up the location of my IP -- I am right now on a VPN so you won't get my real address

I can understand TOR (maybe) but why VPNExpress??
What does it matter to you that I am coming with VPNExpress which prevent privacy breaches - Firefox Privacy badger also does not work on this site which is telling me that you are selling a LOT of information

Maybe I should stat a thread on WHY you don't really allow for no tracking

Doing an AMA? The question is "What do you do with the data you collect?"


You may be using a VPN, but that VPN uses your employer's IP address which clearly identifies your employer. As is clear in the FAQs published on this site, we log the IP address and user agent of all users on the site. I am pretty sure that every website does that. I think just about everyone knows that I block some IP addresses. VPNs are an easy way to get around such a block. More importantly, VPNs and proxy servers are frequently used by spammers.

It appears that you would like a user experience which does not require login but also does not allow for even the most rudimentary tracking. In other words, you want no accountability at all. You can't possibly be naive enough to expect that any website offering that would be commercially viable.
Anonymous
Post 05/09/2020 19:25     Subject: Re:Jeff, would you consider doing an AMA?
jsteele wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Jeff,

Why can't I access DCUM when running on with a TOR browser or coming in with VPNExpress...??



Because those are sources of lots of troublemakers.


Maybe troublemakers or just maybe people who want real privacy (not just something that says "anonymous" on the screen
You are saying that this is anonymous but you know very well that most of us are posting from static VPN so in fact not so anonymous. (you can -- and I bet you will -- look up the location of my IP -- I am right now on a VPN so you won't get my real address

I can understand TOR (maybe) but why VPNExpress??
What does it matter to you that I am coming with VPNExpress which prevent privacy breaches - Firefox Privacy badger also does not work on this site which is telling me that you are selling a LOT of information

Maybe I should stat a thread on WHY you don't really allow for no tracking

Doing an AMA? The question is "What do you do with the data you collect?"