Hoot! Short of a “Kick Me” sign on your back, nothing quite says “I know nothing about the Internet” and assures that you will be soundly mocked online like an anti-deep linking policy. Apparently the folks behind Athens 2004, the offical site for the current Olympics, still use AOL or have only read about the Internet in airline magazines.
This is so 1996. These kinds of policies are laughably uninforcable — there has never been any legal precedent set in this regard — and they miss the critical point of the a web site: you want people to visit it, and other web sites that call attention to specific valuable content on your site (e.g., bloggers) are doing you a favor.
Just for giggles, here are some of their ridonkulous requirements for linking to pages of their site:
- “Use the term ATHENS 2004 only, and no other term as the text referent” (emphasis theirs; presumably that excludes terms such as fart or bring back the days of olive-oil slathered naked Oympic athletes!)
- “[You should] not associate the link with any image, esp. the ATHENS 2004 Emblem” (as shown above left; don’t do that)
- “Send a request letter to the Internet Department…” (How about you send a letter to my butt instead?)
If you want to tap blogs to help drive more traffic to you site, read this policy statement and then do the opposite. (Oh, and don’t use frames. Frames suck for bloggers trying to link to you. In fact, frames just suck, and have done so for many years.)
Silly linking policy another PR flop for Athens 20
The people who dreamed up the Athens 2004 linking policy have become the laughing stock of the entire internet, to the extent that the topic is no 3 at Daypop’s Top 40 list of the most popular (or in this case ridiculed) topics on the net.
Trackback by Media Culpa — August 19, 2004 @ 1:16 am
Athens Internet Team Unencumbered by the Thought Process
In the mood for a good rant today, how about reading from everyone who’s taken a piss on the retards that put together the absolutely moronic Athens 2004 Olympics Hyperlink Policy (opps, just broke a rule right there, sorry ’bout that). No need to beat…
Trackback by Dana's Blog - Internet Marketing and Sales Technology Ideas From the Trenches — August 19, 2004 @ 2:06 pm
Athens Internet Team Unencumbered by the Thought Process
In the mood for a good rant today, how about reading from everyone who’s taken a piss on the retards that put together the absolutely moronic Athens 2004 Olympics Hyperlink Policy (opps, just broke one right there, sorry ’bout that). No need to beat a …
Trackback by Dana's Blog - Internet Marketing and Sales Technology Ideas From the Trenches — August 19, 2004 @ 2:08 pm
Athens Internet Team Unencumbered by the Thought Process
In the mood for a good rant today? How about reading from everyone who’s already taken a piss on the retards that put together the absolutely moronic Athens 2004 Olympics Hyperlink Policy (opps, just broke a rule right there, sorry ’bout that). No need…
Trackback by Dana's Blog - Internet Marketing and Sales Technology Ideas From the Trenches — August 19, 2004 @ 2:11 pm
Athens 2004 Link Policy
Trackback by Elliott C. Back, Cornell Student — August 19, 2004 @ 4:23 pm
IOC Stifles Their OWN Brand
Adrants and Wired magazine have a wonderful, but ultimately disappointing, story of how a company can stifle it’s brand with the greatest of ease. The company in this case is the IOC and their handling of the Athens 2004 Games.
Trackback by CCUCEO — August 25, 2004 @ 2:47 pm
IOC Stifles Their OWN Brand
Adrants and Wired magazine have a wonderful, but ultimately disappointing, story of how a company can stifle it’s brand with the greatest of ease. The company in this case is the IOC and their handling of the Athens 2004 Games.
Trackback by CCUCEO — August 25, 2004 @ 2:48 pm
What the IOC SHOULD do…next time.
Now that we (adrants, Wired and myself) and a host of others have bashed the IOC for steps that ultimately undermine their own brand, let me offer a solution for the Winter Games in 2006. It’s probably too late to
Trackback by CCUCEO — August 25, 2004 @ 2:52 pm