

Fake holidays are the new infographics - jgarmon
http://blog.backupify.com/2013/03/26/saint-backup-day-a-community-holiday-that-falls-the-day-after-reddits-holiday-that-i-cannot-mention-due-to-trademark/

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e1ven
More often that I'd like, I've seen people get too deep into their projects,
and forget that things are supposed to be fun.

They start trying to coerce their project into a business, and it not only
looks sad, but destroys what they loved in the process.

I certainly understand the temptation, but I hope I maintain the wisdom to
know where the line should be.

~~~
JonnieCache
If you don't extract maximum value from your assets, someone else will.

~~~
chubas7
This changes the moment you realize your 'assets' have free will, a capacity
to discern, and really strong opinions

~~~
JonnieCache
Then it's your fault for not acting to neutralize those risks.

~~~
e1ven
I have a website, Robohash.org, that's embedded in websites around the world.
It gets millions (!) of loads every week.

Should I be falling over myself, trying to find a way to monetize it, or
should I enjoy that people are using it, and smile when I see one?

Most of us already have good jobs, our bills are (mostly) paid, and we're not
in danger of going hungry.

Startups are great, and I encourage people to start one when there's something
with a real revenue model, but don't try to force your fun little quirky
project into being something it's not.

Try to force a quirky fun project into being a revenue producing startup, is
like charging you friends to watch your Garage band play. I understand the
motivation, but it's kinda sad.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
just to clarify - robohash is a image made up from discrete robot parts (ears,
nose, etc) and assembled according to say every 8 bytes in a SHA1 hash?

So its essentially SSH-fingerprint-art, but waaaaay cooler.

Do not monetize it - the world will come back around and reward you one day.

~~~
e1ven
That is exactly how it works. It's fun!

And I think that's exactly the right attitude ;) It's not something I need to
make money on, it's just something cool to have added to the world. (It's OSS,
too!)

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esperluette
I like the idea of Saint Backup Day much better than world backup day ... but
why not make it Jan 3, though, the feast day of St. Genevieve, the actual
patron saint of disasters? Also in early January most people are in a "let's
get organized" mood, anyway.

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Kartificial
I guess I missed the news that explains the link to infographics in the title.
Can somebody explain where this title comes from?

~~~
Evbn
Infographics are a classic SEO black hat scam, where an infographic with
random factoids and idiot-enticing charts/graphics is circulated to generate
link juice for a site with an unrelated business purpose.

The poster is just saying that Holidays are the new black hat marketing
technique.

~~~
gabemart
I don't think that creating content people want to consume in an effort to get
them to link to your site qualifies as black hat SEO.

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trotsky
_Descriptive terms immediately describe the goods, or some important
characteristic of the goods. Trademark law does not protect descriptive terms
unless achieve "secondary meaning" in the minds of consumers. That is,
trademark rights accrue when the public comes to associate the descriptive
term with a particular company rather than the product in general._

[...]

 _Failure to "police" a mark by stopping infringing uses can result in the
loss of protection._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_trademark_law#De...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_trademark_law#Descriptive)

Two sponsors on the website, yet numerous parties issuing press releases:

[https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=world%20back...](https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=world%20backup%20day#q=world+backup+day&hl=en&source=univ&tbm=nws&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=cwlTUd6yDO3j4AOpuoGwCA&ved=0CEAQqAI&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44342787,d.dmg&fp=6b5b7d932ecc93ee&biw=1386&bih=806)

~~~
ignostic
We don't know how many emails or C&Ds they've sent.

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ignostic
> _take down any unauthorized reference to World Backup Day, it’s trademarks_

> _it's trademarks_

I try not to harass people on HN and Reddit with grammar, but I do expect
better from a legal document.

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Dirlewanger
These are the people that have never had an iota of power in their real lives.

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Evbn
Besides misspelling "its", the lawyer-impersonators at WBD Legal spammed the
WBD phrase several times without even saying that it is trademarked.

Good for Bfy, to displace WBD trolls, unless they set up a fake
controversially to make them selves look put upon (cynical because Fake
Controversies are a classic marketing technique, older than Fake Holiday and
Infographic)

