Added -- I finally read it at SEF. It's nothing more than a spammeister's power fantasy. The ODP the "Gatekeeper of the Undernet, ... Interworld," whatever, "Abandon all hope all ye who want to enter here", blocking new spammers wanting to be editors right and left, "serotonin rushes", the smell of burnt e-businesses in the morning, ... celebrity status: are there actually people that think that way? Is that actually _thinking_?
Funny thing is, I took a break from proofing Jonathan Swift's pamphlets at Project Gutenberg to read this. And ... it's a pretty feeble parody. Not a pun, not an iron, not a literary allusion ("serotonin rush" probably comes off of morning TV, hmmph, I think THAT author was on Valium instead), not an analogy (beyond that "celebrity" simile: _I_ define a celebrity as "someone who's famous for achieving high name recognition"), not a single word you couldn't have learned from Dan Rather, not a single interjected phrase ... you call that a post?
But it is, in its own way, a fascinating look at the vacant space on the inside of the skull (I won't call it a "mind", I won't!) of a typical affiliate spammer. The envious or ambitious emphasis on power and prestige (no interest in accomplishment at all!). The greedy emphasis on money ... the fond belief that people actually send money to PayPal accounts of other people who don't provide any good or service. The emphasis on deceit ... defrauding social welfare programs under false pretences, to be able to defraud consumers under false pretences. The ambitious emphasis on "order" (that is, control": I've probably praised the virtues of randomness and freedom (as Siamese-twin virtues) so many times you all are ready to join the SS in reaction.) Would you believe anything anyone who admitted being that kind of liar said about himself?
And in any case the contrafacts are obvious enough: the ODP isn't and has never been a gatekeeper to anything, and that's a good thing. Wholesale corruption simply wouldn't create something like the ODP. Google is using ODP descriptions as snippets now -- that's a new thing. As for the other search engines -- who really knows how they use the ODP? But that bit about spammers sending money to PayPal accounts in gratitude -- now THAT'S what I call incredible.
Well, back to Jonathan Swift -- my employer has an internet policy that in my judgment precludes visiting random sites, so I moderate this forum and proofread at Project Gutenberg. (My manager knows what I do in slack times; I'm an IT professional with a brain, so physical disabilities aren't all that debilitating.) Maybe on my next proofing break I'll work on a "Modest Proposal for Getting Some Social Good out of Affiliate Spammers." Swift's proposal wouldn't work, I fear, and would be too painless to be socially acceptable in any case.
