Desktop Nexus Blog

Desktop Nexus was recently named one of the Best Sites on the Web by BBC News. Kate Russell was the reporter kind enough to review our site in a segment called Webscape: “The BBC’s flagship technology programme”.

Here is a link to the BBC Webscape article and video clip: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8259330.stm
Skip to 2:45 in the video to see the part about Desktop Nexus!

A number of users over the past 24 hours have reported issues uploading wallpapers to Desktop Nexus. We have recently experienced a massive increase in uploads per day, and our server cluster is having a difficult time scaling to meet the demand. I’ve just spent the past few hours on the phone with our datacenter, and we’re now in the process of a full-system overhaul and hardware upgrade, which will probably complete early next week. Until then there may be intermittent glitches and bugs appearing due to resource allocation and capacity problems. We are very sorry for all this, and hope to have it completely resolved as quickly as possible. The upside is when our new servers go online, Desktop Nexus should be quicker than ever, and have the ability to scale far beyond the current traffic and upload capacity, leaving only blue skies ahead. We’ll update you with more information as it’s available.

We just rolled out some changes to the core Desktop Nexus codebase to update the Wallpaper Violation Reporting/Flagging system.

We’ve experienced incredible growth over the past few months, and with the hundreds of new wallpapers being uploaded everyday, a solid reporting system is required to ensure the quality of the site is maintained. To try out the new system, visit any wallpaper on the site, and click the “Report This Wallpaper” tab.

For more details on what is different in the new system and how to use it, check out the announcement post we made in the forum.

Today Desktop Nexus announced the acquisition of the popular online community, PokeChat.org. PokeChat is a forum where gamers can interact about the Pokemon series, asking questions, posting trivia, etc. Desktop Nexus has migrated the PokeChat community into our own Pokemon Forum.

There’s an official letter to the PokeChat members available at http://www.pokechat.org.

So far the response is great! We look forward to seeing these new members (over 500) mesh with our community over the next few weeks and months.

Welcome to Desktop Nexus!

Desktop Nexus just dropped below the 6k mark on Alexa to 5,951. Our growth line is incredible:

Currently Desktop Nexus is helping around 100,000 people find high-quality computer backgrounds every single day. The site is also serving roughly 1 million page views / day.

We are truly lucky to have such a great community here at DN, and we just want to thank you all for your devotion.

I’m sure a number of you remember our run-in with Toyota a few months back. Well in the past few weeks we’ve hit another gray area with a different company regarding DMCA.

On Desktop Nexus, we respond to each and every DMCA Takedown Notice with prompt attention and expedience, and we usually end up removing about 3-4 wallpapers per week. We’ve even gone as far as developing an image blacklisting system to prevent copyrighted wallpapers from being reuploaded after they’re taken down for DMCA violations.

On April 13th 2009, we received formal notice requesting the removal of a Monster Energy Drink wallpaper, sent to us by Continental Enterprises representing Hansen Beverage Company. I’ve included the full email conversation after the break. It was a little vague, not specifically citing that they were requesting the deletion under DMCA. I was curious if this was another large corporation scare tactic, so I sent them a response, asking for clarification on what precise actions they’d like me to take.

I never got a response, and a few more weeks went by. On April 30th 2009, we received a “Second Correspondence”, which claimed they had not gotten any response from me, and boldly stated:

If you do not take immediate steps to resolve this issue, [Hansen Beverage Company] will be forced to take more aggressive action to protect their intellectual property rights.

which I took to be a threat of potential legal action. They also requested three additional wallpapers be deleted as well. Reviewing their previous correspondence, I made the decision to go ahead and remove the wallpapers, as the incident is very gray and I do want to keep Desktop Nexus on the legal side of the fence. Plus we can’t exactly afford a lawsuit right now, heh.

But then a week later, I unexpectedly received a reply to the email I sent back on April 13th requesting clarification. It simply said:

Thank you for your email. In response to your question, we would like you to understand we are asserting a trademark claim, not a copyright claim. Therefore, we cannot allow you to use the Hansen/Monster Energy trademarks.

They are asserting a trademark claim? They also said very clearly this was not a copyright claim. I suddenly regretted deleting those wallpapers, because I have a feeling what they’re doing is illegal. I did a little research on Continental Enterprises and turned up a number of horror stories involving their operation. To quote tabberone.com:

In our opinion, Continental Enterprises qualifies as the personification of a Trademark Extortionist. This Indianapolis-based company has taken trademark extortion to a new level.

They even went as far as filing a trademark infringement lawsuit against Tippman Sports a few days ago.

Desktop Nexus has over 600 new wallpapers being uploaded every day, making it impractical for us to manually moderate all the uploads. For this reason, sites like ours are protected under DMCA law, which requires us to take down content that violates copyrights in the event the copyright holder (or authorized agent) contacts us and makes a formal request. No problem. This however, is not a copyright issue. Continental Enterprises clearly stated they were not making a copyright claim. So I ask, does DMCA cover trademark issues as well, or are they trying to bully a smaller company into yielding to their whims? Did they have legal grounds to request we remove the wallpapers, and if so, did they approach it in a proper, legal way? Do we have any recourse in a situation like this? I want to remain legal in all of our actions of course, however I also feel large companies who abuse the legal system should be called out and have their ways exposed.

What do you guys think? (continue reading…)

Hi everyone!

We’re very proud to announce the launch of the brand new Desktop Nexus community discussion forums! It is located at http://www.desktopnexus.com/forum/, or by clicking the “Forum” link in the black navigation bar at the top of all pages. We built these forums to allow everyone on DN to get to know each other on a more personal level, interacting in a medium more unified than comments or private messages. (continue reading…)

Just a heads up to everyone who’s seen a few of their wallpapers disappear over the past few days… we just concluded a large-scale purge of wallpapers which have been flagged/reported as risque or racey over the past month or so.

We’re in active talks to bring a few new advertising networks on-board, and one in particular has very strict requirements on the content their ads will be shown beside. We’ve always labeled Desktop Nexus as a family-friendly site, but over the past few months that line has blurred and more wallpapers have been uploaded that push that line. Some wallpapers being taken down in this mass-purge may not seem so bad, but we’re playing it safe, as it’s advertisers like this who make it possible for us to pay the bills and keep Desktop Nexus online.

We apologize if you were one of the members who had wallpapers removed, but we appreciate your understanding. As always, if anyone sees any wallpapers they feel are inappropriate for a “family-friendly” environment, please use the “Report This Wallpaper” tab under each wallpaper’s preview image.

We sincerely do appreciate your time and dedication invested into Desktop Nexus, and we look forward to helping you find that perfect background for many years to come.

We’ve just released a facelift for the wallpaper downloading system. It is now much cleaner with nicer graphics and a more streamlined flow.

The changes are not radical, but if you visit any wallpaper on the site and click the Download Now button, you’ll see the new look-and-feel.

Let us know what you think!

I was just alerted to our traffic stats on Compete.com, and while the numbers are way off (we’re actually getting about 50,000 visitors per DAY), the growth line is definitely going the right direction.  We’ve experienced fantastic expansion over the past few months, and we have very ambitious plans for expanding our site in early 2009.  Stay tuned.