TinyPortal

Development => Block Codes => Topic started by: Freddy on March 25, 2010, 03:13:34 PM

Title: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on March 25, 2010, 03:13:34 PM
A thread for discussion of the Dilbert Daily Cartoon (http://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?topic=32155) block....
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: IchBin on March 25, 2010, 03:14:09 PM
Nice. I have the widget on my igoogle page. :) Some of these are hilarious.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on March 25, 2010, 03:25:38 PM
Yeah I like these too.  We used to have a daily cartoon called Toy Trunk Railroad, by they stopped updating it and we had the same one for about three months !  I think a lot of people like Dilbert though and the humour could fit well in a lot of sites.

The widgets are nice, but for my site I felt they didn't fit in right.

Glad you like it :)
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on March 25, 2010, 03:42:13 PM
Thanks Freddy... your code works great!  O0

Bottom of page:
http://www.ourfamilyforum.org/FamilyForum/index.php?action=forum
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on March 25, 2010, 03:44:03 PM
Cool :)

I actually just updated the code to something slightly more streamline if you want to grab it again.  You wont notice any difference - I think people call that micro-optimising or something !

Edit : updated again because I found it was interfering with my other RSS feeds on the same page - only of note if you use multiple RSS readers using the same code.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: ZarPrime on March 25, 2010, 06:48:12 PM
Very Nice Block freddy. O0

ZarPrime
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on March 25, 2010, 06:52:01 PM
Thank you Zar  :)
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: lurkalot on April 22, 2010, 10:14:14 PM
Another nice snippet Freddy.  O0

By the way, to quote you on the,

Quote
SMF/TP versions tested: SMF 1.1.11 + TP v1.0.5 beta 1; SMF 2.0 RC2 + TP v1.0 beta5

I've just tested it on my site, running SMF 1.1.11, TP 0.9.8 and it works nicely.   (Bottom of page, link in sig)  Just in case anyone (like me) is still running 0.9.8 ;)

Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on April 23, 2010, 01:26:26 PM
Thanks Lurkalot, I will add that to the details  :)
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: lurkalot on May 20, 2010, 11:08:45 PM
This has been working really well up to now.  But for some reason the cartoon has just stopped displaying.

Just me? or is there something wrong with the feeds?  :smiley6600:
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 02:02:26 AM
It's still working OK on my page.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on May 21, 2010, 06:20:27 AM
YOU NEED TO BE CAREFULL WHAT CONTENT YOU PUT ON YOUR WEBSITES

eg: to use the dilbert cartoons you really need to purchace a licence
see this link for more info read
http://thedilbertstore.com/pages/about_licensing
to licence go here
http://thedilbertstore.com/comic_strips?licensing=true

I'd hate to see people being suied for content provided by one of the blocks available on TP

Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: lurkalot on May 21, 2010, 09:43:02 AM
BlueSteel, thanks for that info.   

Although my block has suddenly started working again, I'd better switch it off. ;)
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on May 21, 2010, 11:21:41 AM
Hmm, possibly best to remove this block then.  What does everyone else think ?

When I made it I noticed they were saying they had the best widgets for displaying daily cartoons, implying there were others, but they did not seem to be complaining about those third party widgets.

BTW, If you click on the cartoon it takes you to their page and you can embed it in a web page anyway.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 12:28:12 PM
Using the block code may(?) be OK because as Freddy mentions on the Dilbert page you are able to grab the embedding code through link they provide. This can be done without registering or paying, so on first look my thinking is that it's OK to use, but we should investigate further.

EDIT: Been looking around on the Dilbert site and finding that the daily cartoon is offered up for reuse in several different ways, including FeedBurner.
http://feeds.dilbert.com/DilbertDailyStrip
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on May 21, 2010, 01:17:57 PM
it gets me questioning.. why then do they ask for a liencing fee based on hits if you can have it up for free.. just seems counter to their licencing. thats why i mentioned it.. i think it'll take someone to write tyo them to get a firm answer to cover those who decide to use it.

this block could be used to get other info too.. (if i understand it ) from similar sources. one should always check things out though before placing 3rd party stuff on your web pages. its a good rule to practice and doesn't hurt to ask before adding it ;)

Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: IchBin on May 21, 2010, 02:43:05 PM
That's the dilbert store you're looking at for licensing. I'd look at the dilbert site instead, as I'm sure the copyright is different.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on May 21, 2010, 03:16:52 PM
Thats where the block isd getting the comic from .. those url's .. i click on the comic of the sample generated comic and thats where it takes me.

on the licencing page you select to be usedeon a web site and select X number of unique hits and it comes up with a price..

So naturally i think its the comic as what else would you want to put on your website.

Go there and have a look and see what i mean.

All i'm saying is its always best to make sure before you add third party content on your sites .. or you could end up in trouble .. i could be totaly wrong about this cartoon (I hope i am).. I was going to put it on my site but then i saw about the licence
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on May 21, 2010, 03:28:58 PM
When I click on the cartoon it takes me to the widget page as intended.  :-\
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on May 21, 2010, 04:04:02 PM
sorry i think we are talking about different links..

i'm talking about the one on the blocks page
http://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?topic=32155

Oh and and you can See it in action here... which takes you to http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php

then when you click on the cartoon on that page it takes you to
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-05-21/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DilbertDailyStrip+%28Dilbert+Daily+Strip%29

under the strip on that page it then hase the link to get a licence
http://thedilbertstore.com/comic_strips/2010/05/21/products?utm_source=dilbert.com&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=License%2BThis%20Strip&refcode=DB1020#licensing-header

and then there a link to the actual licence info

What are strip re-use rights? http://thedilbertstore.com/pages/about_licensing
Restrictions on Customer Use http://thedilbertstore.com/pages/licensing_restrictions

This is why i've said what i've said.. not to stir up trouble or anything.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 04:20:29 PM
BlueSteel, there's nothing wrong with bringing up the question because if it turns out that we shouldn't be running the strip then we need to know that.  :)

Because of all the feeds that they offer with no signup or payment I'm going to say that it has to be OK to run the strip.

The RSS page has it all listed, strip, blogs, etc... and all you have to do is grab their code/link.
http://dilbert.com/rss/

Meanwhile... I'm trying to reach someone at their 800 number for clarification, or if that fails I'll send them an email to ask about this issue.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on May 21, 2010, 04:37:07 PM
Thanks Ken, I did think about ringing them but it would cost me a small fortune.

I tend to wonder why they bother supplying a free RSS if they wouldn't want people to use it.

But yes I agree, there is nothing wrong with you bringing attention to this BlueSteel and I am glad you did  8)
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 04:49:13 PM
Here's where my research stands at the moment:

On the 800 number I reached Gary, he's a service rep for Resolution Inc., which is "an independent e-commerce company with an exclusive license to sell items on the official online Dilbert store."

After talking to him for a few minutes it became clear that this question was all news to him and he left the line to talk to his boss, who was in the dark as well. Turns out a different department handles the website, so they (Resolution, Inc.) had no idea that the daily cartoon was freely available in several different ways including RSS... and so they had no answer as to the correct status of our block code feeds.

At this point they are going to start an internal dialog to see what to do about the situation and will let me know something within a couple of weeks.

Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on May 21, 2010, 05:10:03 PM
Wow, it's hard to believe they are selling stuff without knowing that they are also giving it away too  :o

Thanks for that Ken  O0

It pays to be sure, because apparently the Dilbert site is one of the top 10,000 visited websites on the net.  Forget where I read that.  So they could have a lot of clout !
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 05:12:01 PM
Welcome.
I'm hoping they say we can keep the feeds, but we'll just have to wait and see how it works out.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Lesmond on May 21, 2010, 05:24:49 PM
Most that run this block on there site are none profit, and run the sites for friends and family, so that may or may not make a difference IMO!
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on May 21, 2010, 06:02:59 PM
Quote from: Lesmondâ„¢ on May 21, 2010, 05:24:49 PM
Most that run this block on there site are none profit, and run the sites for friends and family, so that may or may not make a difference IMO!

Hopefully it will Les.
I used the FamilyForum as an example of the kind of site that would maybe use the feeds and they will be looking at it during their discussions.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: ZarPrime on May 21, 2010, 10:20:58 PM
Well, though I do believe that it was good to check on it, if they decide that everyone who is using these feeds will need to license them, they are definitely going to tick off a lot of people at this point should they decide to enforce it.  Besides the feeds, their website has literally invited millions of people to use their widgets on all manner of sites like Facebook, Wordpress, Blogs, etc., along with a bunch of other different types of sites.  In fact, their widgets work fine in a TP html/javascript block as well and use by TP users would just be a small tip of the iceberg.  One of their widgets, as I said, works in a block (Scroll to the bottom on on my test site ~ http://talesofthehavenexpanse.com/smf2test/index.php)

While I haven't read their full terms of use (http://dilbert.com/terms/) on their site because it's so long and involved, I got the idea that licensing in their mind had to do with stuff like how many mugs were imprinted with a particular strip and passed out at a company's annual convention, and stuff like that.  I think if they decide to change things up now for individual strips that are generally shown once on a website, they are definitely going to have their hands full.

ZarPrime
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on May 22, 2010, 03:47:14 AM
lol.. thats what i found confusing too.. and why i posted that warning .. its not just dilbert bat other stuff too.. (nothing pops to mind at the moment .. but a lots of web sites now are charging to access their content for use on other sites eg: java appelet games , chat clients, some rss feeds, { some are free to public but id you want to use them on your web site then you have to pay etc.. } . )  A lot more of this type of licencing will be apearing as time goes on as they are reselling their content. that other sites like to to improve the attractions to use their site as opposed to going to the original site for that content.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on June 13, 2010, 01:05:25 PM
[Update]

We are now starting into the 4th week waiting for the Dilbert folks to get back with an answer on the license question and I've not heard anything at all from them. And, my Dilbert feed still works just fine.  :coolsmiley:
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on June 13, 2010, 01:29:54 PM
I was wondering about that the other day.  Mine's working fine too.  :-X
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on June 13, 2010, 03:28:25 PM
Just as a guess... they likely think it's better to not say anything and let the issue fade away.
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Blue Steel on June 15, 2010, 02:05:22 AM
or lure in lots on unsuspecting webmasters with misleading web pages so that they can trhen take them to court.. lol ..
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Ken. on June 15, 2010, 03:12:20 AM
They would be wasting their time trying to get any money from me.  :2funny:
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: Freddy on June 15, 2010, 09:11:38 AM
Ditto  ;D
Title: Re: [Discussion] Dilbert Daily Cartoon
Post by: VladTepes on March 31, 2017, 12:59:25 PM
This block doesn't appear to work any more.

Is it fixable? Is this relevant?  http://www.anites.com/2015/01/dilbert-rss.html

No biggie if it can't be fixed, and Scott Adams is just being an arse.