Is Digg Evil or Just Incompetent?
Back in the wild west days of last summer when scripting was the in thing at Digg, my company released a couple of free Greasemonkey scripts that helped people with their Digging activities. A lot of people, including some famous ones, used it. We used these to funnel people into the paid versions of software on our site. Life was good.
Then the Great Digg Purge of 2008 came down and literally 1,000s of people were banned for using scripts. Google [banned by Digg] and you'll see a lot of people complaining about it. Needless to say, it put a bit of a dent in our business model. We've recovered, but it was a tough few months. The story is at Digg is on a Banning Rampage if you're interested.
Also needless to say, my account http://digg.com/users/ltdraper got banned along with the 1,000s. Click that link and you'll see the famous oops screen. That account used to have some really powerful friends.
Now for the interesting part. About a month ago I started getting emails like this on the email address that was connected to that account:
Now that's interesting because my account no longer exists. At first I almost clicked that link to see who had friended me.
But then I considered that perhaps Digg was being crafty. They may have suspected that I had changed my IP address and had a new account on their system that they wanted to track down. What better way to catch me than to send an email with a link for me to click so they could spot the new IP address?
I've asked around to a few other Digg power users with new accounts, and they've started seeing the same thing.
So is this just a glitch in Digg's software and they're inadvertently sending me spam? Yes, it's spam because by banning me they terminated our agreement and no longer have permission to send me email. It's UCE through and through.
Or are they being crafty and evil and trying to roll up these "phoenix" accounts?
Then the Great Digg Purge of 2008 came down and literally 1,000s of people were banned for using scripts. Google [banned by Digg] and you'll see a lot of people complaining about it. Needless to say, it put a bit of a dent in our business model. We've recovered, but it was a tough few months. The story is at Digg is on a Banning Rampage if you're interested.
Also needless to say, my account http://digg.com/users/ltdraper got banned along with the 1,000s. Click that link and you'll see the famous oops screen. That account used to have some really powerful friends.
Now for the interesting part. About a month ago I started getting emails like this on the email address that was connected to that account:
|
Hey there! Sean Graham is your latest fan. He became your fan because he likes what you are up to on Digg and wants to see what you think is interesting. You can either leave him as a fan or add him to your own list of friends. Check out his profile here: http://digg.com/users/tbsmediallc?OTC-em-fn1 Cheers, The Digg Crew |
Now that's interesting because my account no longer exists. At first I almost clicked that link to see who had friended me.
But then I considered that perhaps Digg was being crafty. They may have suspected that I had changed my IP address and had a new account on their system that they wanted to track down. What better way to catch me than to send an email with a link for me to click so they could spot the new IP address?
I've asked around to a few other Digg power users with new accounts, and they've started seeing the same thing.
So is this just a glitch in Digg's software and they're inadvertently sending me spam? Yes, it's spam because by banning me they terminated our agreement and no longer have permission to send me email. It's UCE through and through.
Or are they being crafty and evil and trying to roll up these "phoenix" accounts?
Nothing to see here, move along...
Nothing to see here, move along...
Nothing to see here, move along...
Ben Ramsey....AKA MobileEyeGuy
Eyewear Blog http://mobileeyeguy.blogspot.com/
Save on Eyewear...We still sell glass lenses!
www.MobileEyeGuy.biz
Nothing to see here, move along...
Ben Ramsey....AKA MobileEyeGuy
Eyewear Blog http://mobileeyeguy.blogspot.com/
Save on Eyewear...We still sell glass lenses!
www.MobileEyeGuy.biz
Nothing to see here, move along...