medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> I too am becoming increasingly disenchanted by the Academia.edu product.
> In recent months it has begun spamming me with commercial ads targeted
> directly to me based on my shopping around elsewhere on the web for
> certain specific products (running shoes, travel destinations, etc).
> Evidently,
> they are in a shameless commercial relationship with other for-profit
> enterprises from which they earn revenue based on their users’ on-line
> shopping behaviors. Many users will find this exploitative and
> experience, as I do, a certain sense of privacy violation. Others will be
> indifferent or like many people I know, actually find the ads and discount
> coupons useful.
It's in association with Google, which tracks you remorselessly. You could
try a web browser and a search engine that don't track, for example
Firefox and DuckDuckGo. You could even use TOR for anonymity.
>
> Moreover, Academia.edu continues to pester me with their offers of
> fee-based premium features. It would be nice to be able to decline these
> offers, once and for all, rather than have them in my face every time I
> log into the site.
I don't find that a problem - delete in my inbox without reading.
>
> As they continue to develop and expand their for-profit business model I
> shall have to decide at what point their product crosses the threshold
> between the currently symbiotic and the foreseeable parasitic.
>
> I would like to see more on this forum about other alternatives available
> out there. Is there something else worth considering?
Worth considering is the issue. There is another option, but the question
is whether it has any traction. I suspect that it doesn't. As for
uploading on one's own web page, that's how I started, but you don't have
the scale or traction. I'm reserving my position whether to revert to
that option. I don't normally deal with anything which is not OpenSource,
but have felt compelled to use Academia.edu for its critical mass.
--
http://www.historicalresources.myzen.co.uk (research and pedagogy)
I use Lilo web search: no tracking and social good (Firefox add-on)
This machine runs on liquid Linux
Often coming to you via TOR (The Onion Router)
De Havilland Fellow, University of Hertfordshire
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