Your Kak
WASA MATTER YOU?
by the Kakker: 9 Jan 2009
MyADSL Broadband News CC, the corporate entity that is Rudolph Muller's little moneyspinner and which runs Mybroadband, makes most of its money through advertising on the site.
Making money out of web advertising is a pure numbers game. If you are happy existing on bread and milk, any one of many, often dodgy, counting services can be used to count the hits. If you prefer rare, juicy steak accompanied by a rare, Cape vintage, then you have to be able to demonstrate your numbers with independently audited figures.
So far so good, if you are following along with the Kakker's story!
So, let's check out the Mybroadband advertising and numbers - after all, as a potential advertiser we would want to see those numbers! Off to the site we go...
"There are various advertising options on MyBroadband. To find out more about these options and advertising costs, please contact Cara at ads@myadsl.co.za ... Latest Statistics (fully audited by WASA)"
Things are looking good! So off the Kakker goes to check out WASA. First, their "Information Manual" as provided on the WASA site, and what do we find???
"CONTACT PERSON CARA MULLER"
Surely THAT can't be true? Surely Rudolph's little Mybroadband business is not claiming hit counts based on an associated business? Let the Kakker check who owns the domain wasa.co.za...
"2a. registrant : MyBroadband"
"4a. admin : Muller, Rudolph"Well yo fucking ho fucking ho! Mybroadband's "fully audited" hit counts are "audited" by the same people who run Mybroadband! Now the Kakker understands!
No doubt Rudolph would like to tell the Kakker to "shaddupa your face", but luckily the Kakker "gotta no respect".
MYBROADBAND SELLS OUT?
by the Kakker: 21 Nov 2008
What started out as a typical little forum squabble on mybroadband.co.za led to a run of events on that forum that has exposed it as a sell-out. The site has been known for some years as a consumer activism site focused on the dire state of the South African telecoms industry, and it has been highly critical of the Dept. of Communications, the regulator ICASA, and the TELKOM monopoly. Thought by many to be run on a part-time basis, the site has held the moral high ground in fighting the many iniquities of the industry for several years. But now it seems that there is something rotten in the state of Mybroadband.
The site has been growing steadily, and has diversified its sub-forums over the years, opening up discussions on politics, religion, cars, and even cooking. It has consequently attracted many new members, and has become a social site as well as a protest site. Of course, there were also those older members who had been genuine activists and had put themselves at personal financial risk to protest against the likes of TELKOM. Inevitably a clash had to come between the activists and the socials.
When it did come, the reaction of the site owner - "rpm" by nickname, aka Rudolph "Pay me" Muller - and his small team of moderators was surprising. In sudden and brutal actions, the involved old guard members were banned from the site, threads were deleted, and any dissenting voices were silenced within seconds of posting their opinions. Many members did express their surprise at the bannings, but the forum management went into highly effective damage control by claiming that they had been threatened physically and legally by those banned, that there were other mysterious things going on behind the scenes, and that those banned were making every effort to "disrupt" the forum. ( These allegations were denied off-forum by those banned, apart from a request by one of them to remove his photos from the site on threat of legal action, and even this was withdrawn. ) Most of those who had expressed surprise quickly changed their tunes, satisfied by the "explanations", and proceeded to support the forum management by lumping scorn on the few who retained their faith in the integrity of those banned. The forum management then went silent as the social group did their policing work for them, smothering any last embers of protest.
But questions had been asked, especially in relation to the financial aspects of the Close Corporation owning the site, and its member Rudolph Muller. No responses to these questions were forthcoming on the site itself.
Making money from a web site is a numbers business. The more visitors, the more the hits, the more the revenue. The telecoms focus of the site makes it an effective place to reach the technically-savvy market. It turns out that the site owner has been making every effort to drum up the numbers and increase the advertising revenue generated by the site.
He justifies the radical action on the "old guard" on the basis that their "kind of activity typically causes unhappiness amoung (sic) certain members and will even cause some to leave." Numbers mean everything.
Some time back the site started accepting advertising from TELKOM, one of the major targets of its protests, against the wishes of some of the activists. Several times on the forum claims have been made of favouritism and bias on the part of the moderators towards some of the forum sponsors and advertisers, though these have always been denied.
The site recently ran a promotional competition "sponsored" by Wantitall and Ukash. It appears to have been highly successful, and Rudolph Muller has been blowing a trumpet on the Bizcommunity marketing community web site where one-time consumer activism site Mybroadband is now described as a "local online social network".
Now that's OK. Nobody begrudges someone creating an online social networking site for profit.
The problem is that in Mybroadband's case this is not acknowledged, and nothing is done to disillusion those who continue to believe it is a consumer activism site, run with altruistic motives, founded on the efforts of the activists. One of those banned had even created banner adverts for free for the owner. The site logo was created by a member and no mention of payment has been made. The moderators claim not to be paid. But the push for numbers and the push for advertising revenue continue. So who is getting rich out of this goldmine?
As the Sanzini Brothers used to sing: "We're only in it for the money".
( NOTE: This article was written without the knowledge, sanction, or approval of any of those banned. )
Be sure to check out the Snipes! More to come...
