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What Pete Cashmore offers to do is stop using Alexa toolbar. Honestly, I never do and even never did. When I need some stats, I go to Alexa website or Compete.com (which in my opinion is better, by the way).
And if Alexa actually provided us with relevant information, I would have thought twice about using the toolbar to contribute to its knowledge base. But my husband always says that the only thing that Alexa shows is temperature in your toilet bowl And I somehow started to view it this way. Alexa is simply a standard for web stats, not the best solution, simply the best-known one. And it started to behave caddishly and I don’t like it.
Besides, we used Statsaholic in our very own companies directory (http://www.profy.com/index/) and we were a bit damaged because of Alexa’s boycott because we had to develop our very own widget to show Alexa graphs for the websites in the directory. And I somehow think that if Cashmore used Alexa on Mashable, he would not be so categorical in his plea to boycott Alexa.

Not only that, but Cashmore only presents the Statsaholic side of the story, and not Alexa’s.

I am not so sure about the Mashable usage of Alexa Svetlana. Cashmore is heavily supported by MySpace and hammers them on the head regularly. Besides, I think he can use any widget available to approximate a million page views

As for the Alexa story Cyndy, I apologize for not including more data and links, as it was about 3:00 AM when I finished this. As far as I am concerned I never trusted Web statistics any way and would not trust Alexa or any of the big players with a potato gun.

There are a dozen links on the TechCrunch and ZDNet articles if you follow through. Alexa compliments them, steals their ideas and then sues them into oblivion. That is the long and short of it for me.

Heavily supported does not mean sponsored, I think. And correct me if I’m wrong but I somehow believe that I used to see Compete.com banner on Mashable for several months.
And hammering MySpace on the head is what everyone does because the system is so far from perfect, I am talking here about actual use of this or that product or widget and I am totally sure that if Cashmore used Statsaholic on his website for some purpose, he would at least first develop another widget for himself and only then start talking of a boycott.

I was just using MySpace as an example of my perceived impression of Cashmore’s objectivity. I suspect that if Alexa got emails from half of their users asking about this even, then there would be some accounting to be had.

From a rather Machiavellian point of view, any blogger who did not go along with this wave could be considered either above reproach (in the event that they refused a boycott on principle) or out of their mind given the political ramifications and relative power affecting change like this would place in their hands.

In a very real sense, the boycott and support there of, would empower bloggers (some more than others) with the authority of a grand jury (or the international equivalent). So, bloggers in support of “forcing” issues would obviously benefit the most, while “fence riders” would enjoy the secondary effects of any empowerment.

I think we can look at bloggers like Cashmore and yes You as representatives of a segment of Web 2.0. That is not an unreasonable tenant in the discourse of implications and what ifs. As for what “used to be”, I used to drive 100 mph everywhere I went, but choose not to do that any more. Am I a speeder?

Phil, you are as idealist as usually and I simply adore this in you
But I really would not want to be on any grand jury (or the international equivalent) and I really would not want to support any kind of boycott declared by Cashmore (and as far as I understand his latest politics it is all out of his own wish to create some commotion around Mashable - same as Arrington does in all the scandals he is involved in). Even if I wanted to support this boycott, I would not have been able to do it myself as I don’t actually use Alexa toolbar myself. As for the blog, by boycotting Alexa we would have deteriorated the service we provide to both our readers and web 2.0 startups in our Companies Directory, and I definitely would not want to do it.
Anyway another thing is that I was contacted by Ron Hornbaker himself when he saw us removing Statsaholic (when it was first blocked) and installed our custom-made widget for statistics to receive charts directly from Alexa. He contacted me to let me know that Statsaholic was back to normal but as you can see it did not last long. So personally I really feel he is a great enthusiast and he deserves the best possible judgment in court and I can say that if anything needed of Profy, I will be absolutely happy to support him with whatever coverage or action he asks for but I just would not want to support some kind of boycott just for the sake of the boycott itself. But I will be very willing to, say, put a banner for Statsaholic on Profy to support it.
Also I think a better way to support Statsaholic would be starting a poll on a widely-popular polling website and then present the results (say, the number of votes in support of Statsaholic) to the court. If I had any way to present such results to the court myself, I would have been the first one to create such a poll and drive traffic to it through any and all bookmarking tools I use (and through Profy itself). But I do not think I will be able to participate in this court session thus I would not start such an activity myself. But if I get to know of any volunteer who does and who really can present the results of such a poll in form of a petition to the court, I will be the first to put a VERY-VERY large banner on Profy asking our readers to participate and tell what they actually think.
But those people reading Mashable are such a tiny part of all those users of Alexa toolbar that uninstalling the toolbar by them definitely won’t harm Alexa or its data
significantly. And I am strong believer that support should be shown in a way it can really help - and help the person (or idea) you support, not your own image.

Well, I surrender. Of course you are right about my idealism, Cashmore, the grand jury and most of the rest of the stuff. I have developed a new philosophy based to a large degree on my Internet wanderings.

Since there are really only two factions on the Internet, smart people who cannot agree on the slightest tid bit unless there is some strategy or profit in it, and the mice who run around clueless to anything but something shiny in the sand only a few feet away; I have decided to run as “Supreme Warlord and Ultimate Commander of Web 2.0″.

I have decided that given my kind nature combined with hot temperament that I would be the perfect Web Czar. If this were to happen then the mice would be protected from thinking too much and anyone disagreeing too much would be exiled to myspace for some term until they could seek favor again.

Since I agree with the most altruistic factions on this digital play school, there would only be open source stuff and few advertisements, while the rude crude and socially unacceptable would obviously be gathered in one happy little corner.

I like the banner idea, so you get to stay on the side where the Sound of Music plays all day. Cashmore is a less known entity for me so he may have to submit his case before the crown. BTW, will you please help me pick out an appropriate Warlord hat? )

One really good thing everyone could look forward to if I am elected is that Digg would have one of those pop ups that asks if you are over 14. That way, everyone older there would be forced to pursue more grown up activities. LOL

Please tell me your thoughts.