Discussions
End Of An Era - Stumble Group Will Be Shut Down Forever
Posted by PetLvr • 7/11/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: closing down, hart, petlvr, stumbleupon, violating tos
Dear Fellow Blog Catalog / Stumble Group Users ...
cc: Blog Catalog - Stumble Group
cc: Blog Catalog - General Forum
On November 28, 2008 Chris (aka crkian) left me in charge of the stumbleupon group. Between then and December 12, 2008 I reviewed the group, and offered suggestions in taking that group to a new level. I warned everybody about how bad the group has gone, with its "stumble me and I'll stumble you" attitude and threads, and took a serious effort in trying to develop ways we could help each other and leverage the 4,500 group membership figures. I offered my analysis of what was the problem and suggested ways to improve the weight of our stumbles - starting off with the elimination of these daily stumble request threads, and creating resources and exercises to help each other - with stumbleupon in a social environment.
It seemed at the time that a good handful of concerned group members like my approach but the majority of you wanted to continue the foolish daily requests, and ignored all my warnings and never read any of the resources or followed any of the exercises. I walked away from here on December 12, 2008 and stayed away until mid-January 2009, when someone asked me if I took down all of my exercises and posts! And, no - I did not. Someone either hacked into BlogCatalog or something and deleted every thread and post I did in there. Not just "comment removed by community or admin" .. they were gone. So be it - and so was I.
Now it's July 2009 and I know why Chris (aka crkian) walked away from this group. It was too risky and probably affected his own social status in the Stumbleupon community!
Right from the start of 2007 when this group was created .. Chris (aka crkian) placed on the front page of the SU group ...
Stumble sites you like not just ones that someone asks you to stumble.
If I keep getting a bad name I will remove this group and close my stumble account.
* Founded: September 2007
* Membership: Open
* Members: 4602
Well .. on Friday July 10, 2009 .. I received this email from Stumbleupon:
Your StumbleUpon account privileges have been restricted and the account is under review.
When I enquired to WHY I was under review and my account privileges have been restricted .. I received this reply:
Your account has been suspended for a violation of our TOS, which may be viewed here:
www.stumbleupon.com/terms/
A list of the most common reasons for an account being suspended may be found here:
www.stumbleupon.com/help/What_caused_my_account_to_be_suspended/
I have reviewed the account in question and must advise you that the suspension will remain in
force indefinitely.
You may find it useful to share a link to our Terms in this group - www.blogcatalog.com/group/stumble/ - since other members may also find themselves in breach of our Terms, and their accounts subject to suspension.
YES: My account is under indefinite suspension - because I am the 'leader' of your Stumbleupon Group.
PLEASE READ THIS DIRECTLY FROM STUMBLEUPON:
The blogcatalog.com forum, of which you are identified as the "owner" is actively encouraging practices which are in breach of our Terms.
You may wish to communicate this fact to the members of the group, and advise them that accounts in breach of our Terms are subject to termination, and that sites which are promoted by "incentive" ("you thumb mine, I'll thumb yours") are also liable to exclusion from our service.
We will be actively monitoring the blogcatalog.com group and its activities, and acting upon further breaches of our Terms.
It may well be that not all of the participants in this StumbleUpon group realise that their activities are in breach of the SU Terms, but such actions which are in breach of the SU Terms are likely to result in suspension of their own accounts, and removal of their sites from the SU service completely, and forever.
Further, as stumbleupon has asked me to pass along to you all ...
I'd also offer, as gentle advice, that promoting your own site on your StumbleUpon account requires a delicate balance - post too many of "your own" pages, and you are likely to gain a less positive reaction that you might have hoped for. Our members are very discerning, and their tolerance of things "spammy" is very low.
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Listen .. enough is enough.
I am giving you this public notice that at 6am Monday July 13, 2009 CST I am deleting this group once and for all - and forever. If you want .. you have time to go make a list of your friends (or - rather - a list of friends you DON'T WANT because they are breaching SU T.O.S. and you will get banned). When I wake up Monday Morning the group will be deleted by me.
This group has served its purpose, and is placing all of its members at risk ... it's time to move on. Read the T.O.S. links above. Be a good Stumbler. Join their community and participate in the forums. You can get traffic. But, it won't be because you asked for it and only because you stumbled someone else's site to get a stumble. If your site has good content, people will find it. Stumbleupon can help your traffic. IT won't help if you are blacklisted from their site and your domain and/or blog is also banned.
If you are on my SU friends list, you probably already realized I have been "pending review" and I hope you were as shocked as I was, because I don't believe I violated any stumbleupon's Terms of Service. However - this group violates it immensely, and my name is on the top page and it's gotta go.
HART aka PetLvr
User Comments
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Good for you. I personally think that the personal blogs group should be deleted entirely as it functions only to link drop, follow me and I'll follow you back.-
I don't even go to the blog catalog groups anymore actually .. I'm too busy doing stuff on my own, or having too much fun out here in the general forum
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@stillthinking
Erm ... have you checked out the Adsense groups?
If you do you will know why I asked. -
*groans*
I just checked it out. It's a forum for spammers. That group should be deleted entirely too as it is violation of Google TOS. -
wow .. I just checked that group too! unbelievable.
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I believe there's more than one. Every once in a while I click the button & join those groups. Then I post my stuff on what the contracts they entered state, as well as, what the TOS and the policies state, and then I report all the threads, and lastly, I click the button to leave the group.
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@Hart
- I'm s sorry this happened to you.
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thanks tt - too late now. The reality is, that this will be better for everybody - because everybody is at risk - they are making a list .. checking it twice - seeing who is naughty or nice .. // and all that!
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when's he coming to town?
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So will they restore you as good as new once that is deleted?-
not necessarily. But, I hope they reconsider.
Everybody on that list is at risk - by association - it doesn't matter what you do anymore. You are at risk of getting flagged, and banned yourself. It's their site. it's their terms. People are abusing their site and terms here at BC .. we are members of BC - it's all like dominoes. -
- SIGH ... Although I'm not a meber of the stumbleupon group I've been worried about that trend you mention and the consequential domino effect, when I view other groups like the adsense ones.
The disrespect for the BC community guidelines and the TOS and even the law as it pertains to defamation the=at we recently witnessed in several General Discussion threads is likewise concerning. -
You should bring this up to admin. Admin should be monitoring groups and disbanding any threads or groups that violate TOS.
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@stillthinking
It does seem like we have reached a point now where Admin will either have to monitor groups or choose to eliminate them altogether. -
@stillthinking .. I've dropped the websmaster[at]BC an email, but never heard any reply yet. I was more interested in finding out why 100% of my posts in that discussion group was deleted from existence, including my exercise and warnings - and wonder if they were hacked.
I would expect more intervention on these general threads, than in the groups and wouldn't put that onus on them as a watchdog for any group (unless community rules and intervenes)
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Groan. At least I promoted someone not me there. Bangs head. You are just administrator though...-
- I hope Hart does get reinstated. He's not a rule violator. He's always been a straight shooter.
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PetLvr (and Crkian),
I find this bully-boy tactic by Stumbleupon to be reprehensible. You are an easy target, so they picked on you. Thanks for your hard work over the months.
Unfortunately, there are informal networks of people who send out IMs when they want their client's page to be stumbled. I suspect that most of them are not aware of the ideals or TOS behind SU as many would be lowly employees of SEO companies.
SU could watch for patterns of stumbles arriving within minutes of each other, stumbles with a particular referrer and silently ignore these.
Since this page will disappear tomorrow, I'll blog and tweet it.-
Thanks trainem knowledge is power. I look forward to your blog posts and tweets .. I'm sure they will be RT worthy
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Blogged: www.netmagellan.com/stumbleupon-leans-on-blogcatalog-group-administrator-55...
I have removed my SU add-on for Firefox although I had fewer than 100 favourites. Time to move on. -
Stumbled
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(the irony - i didn't stumble that)
I like the SU toolbar. If you set your admin profile with your interests, you can actually stumbleupon interesting content that you probably, by default, will like! I've always like the random surfing like that. I even have a random surfing script on my PetLvr.com/blog/ site (click the left Empire Logo = btw look at the URL that works for everybody)
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*scratches bald head* I have stumbleupon too and this is bad news.I see about the domino effect you are talking about . -
This is highly unfortunate...Perhaps you should be pro-active and shut down the twitter group before you get banned from twitter...-
- Perhaps you should be pro-active and shut down the twitter group before you get banned from twitter...
IMHO twitter and stumbleupon comparisons are apple to orange comparisons but maybe I'm missing something. Also I note that twitter is crawling with bots and that that's how some people are getting hundreds of new followers every day. This is the link to the twitter TOS twitter.com/tos
Why do you say that please? Could you please expand on what you think could result in banning from twitter? -
Do you think the twitter group is at risk gerryPlanetEarth for me? I haven't been there either - but, last time I looked - it was more to keep the follow me/follow you off of the general discussion board. That's a bit different than a RT me and I'll RT you. I will take a look though .. thanks.
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I think Gerry is being a shit...
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Oh well at least crpitt didn't say I was full of shit...
Being banned from stumbleupon is a serious loss for a stumbler of Petlvr's stature and credibility or for anyone who respects and uses stumbleupon...
Stumbleupon is an important resource but twitter is currently the most important internet resource...
Looking at this on a risk vs benefit basis :
What is the benefit of being the founder and moderator of the blogcatalog twitter group ?
Absolutely nothing...
What are the risks of remaining the founder and moderator of the blogcatalog twitter group ?
You could be blamed for the improper conduct of the group and be banned from twitter as this has already happened to you at stumbleupon...
It would also help your reapplication to stumbleupon if you deleted the blogcatalog twtter group you are moderating... -
- As there are no rules at twitter that I am aware of aside ftom the TOS, which I posted the link to above I don't see any risk to petlvr. If wither you or he does perceive some risk I would like to know what it it is please.
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tt.. I'm sure gerryPlanetEarth is just looking out for my best interests There can always be risk when a few have their own agenda intermingling with the many.
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@petlvr
I scoured the place looking for possible twitter risks and all I could find was snippets about what folks were having for lunch. While I was there I spent a 1/2 hour deleting the new bots that became my "pseudo followers" overnight.
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Everything has a Life Cycle. Last night I dreamed I died for the second time in a few days. If I had a choice between keeping a group and keeping my tanned body, although the choice is hard, I'd definitely get rid of the StumbleUpons group.
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- Yes and he's already made that decision. The group will be gone on July 13th. That's what he says in the OP.
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I think stumble should have started doing that long time ago, and twitter is becoming spammy too. It's unfortunate but the larger the internet the more junk and the more people want to promote their junk. -
@petlvr
- I'm wondering if you sent out a notification email to the members of the group.
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I can definitely say with 100% conviction that I DID tick the box that says "Announce discussion to group members via e-mail" during the creation of this thread.
If it never got through - this is a BlogCatalog flaw - and perhaps, that might explain why they never responded to my webmaster[at]blogcatalog[dot]com email ... Maybe their email is down?
I wish they would confirm that. Are they m.i.a.?
(I haven't received any email notifications from them either)
//// added ///
Or, maybe it's because there are a lots of members, it all has to go in some queue or bounce the packets around the 'net a few times before it gets delivered?
But - bottom line, tomorrow morning it will be deleted regardless. I gave the weekend notice as a courtesy to people who aren't spamming. Already, the 4602 membership has shrunken down to 4587 since this morning - some already know they are being watched and the regular offenders already come here all the time and probably read this thread too (at least, that's why I double posted it here in general as well) -
@petlvr
- I've dropped the websmaster[at]BC an email, but never heard any reply yet. I was more interested in finding out why 100% of my posts in that discussion group was deleted from existence, including my exercise and warnings - and wonder if they were hacked.
Hmmm ... I wonder why Admin didn't get back to you about all your posts in that discussion group were deleted. It's also weird that you haven't received any email notifications from them either. But the fact that the group membership is shrinking must mean that some are aware. It's down to 4568 members now. -
Perhaps Hart should send a tweet to @blogcatalog?
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- Although I could be wrong, I believe that may not be effective as I think that "blogcatalog" username is simply used to autopost the most active discussions on the forum here to twitter.
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We do monitor the twitter account. Don't know why he didn't get a response if he sent an email. The guys are usually good about that. -
when's the last time you sent an email to our contact form Jaybetee? (and it worked?)
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Well, I can see that the group membership is down to 4585.
I'm wondering if Admin got back to you yet. -
Hart, I am also sorry this happened to you--and I don't blame you at all for shutting it down. No good deed goes unpunished, eh? -
Yes, I too am sorry this happened to you. And I can completely understand why you would shut down. My heart goes out to you. -
*poof* // She's gone now.
THE STUMBLE GROUP IS NO MORE.
Thanks. -
You are doing the right thing, I'm sure. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours is a basic bloggers interpretation of SU and Digg. Both sites have little left to offer as far as I'm concerned. -
News from Stumbleupon:
We are noting with interest the reaction to the closure of the blogcatalog group, for example: www.netmagellan.com/stumbleupon-leans-on-blogcatalog-group-administrator-55...
I trust that we can count on you to set the record straight that we did not require the deletion of the blogcatalog group and neither are "the SU accounts of about 4,592 people are under review and possible suspension".
I guess I should set the record straight .....
1) It's true - SU did not force me or tell me to delete the group, however I say they are happy it is gone, and the implication is that they would have kept the indefinite ban against my user name as long as I was admin - regardless of any "official" position. The thing is - it's all wrong, and being abused anyway - and as an alternative to removing myself from the group - i feel I am protecting other valued SU users in keeping up their good standing. I believe as a community here - it's good riddance to that group once and for all!
2) as for the 'the SU accounts of about 4,592 people are under review and possible suspension' .. from SU representative themselves .. // No. They are not watching everybody! But, if you are abusing their service and violating their TOS .. I'd stop if I were you. They are cleaning up house.
... and on that note...
Under the circumstances, I am happy to lift your suspension, Hart
See you around the SU Toolbar -
Under the circumstances, I am happy to lift your suspension, Hart
- Yay! Thanks for posting this good news. Kudos to stumbleupon for recognizing the terrible position you were placed in, and reactivating your account.
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I missed all of the drama, but I'm happy to hear that you've been reinstated. Good for you! -
thanks tt and legs
(and everybody for their well wishes and support of this matter) -
Groovy, Hart! I think you probably did the right thing.
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Hart,
I am happy that your account with SU has been reinstated. As for the Stumble group, it had just became a spamming group. I haven't been active in the group since earlier in the year when you were doing the informative posts about using SU and providing other useful and legal uses of the site.
I recently left the group as no one was trying to use the exercises, tools, or really any of your valuable ideas concerning SU that you had shared with the group. I'm sorry that your reputation may have been harmed by the group. You didn't ask to become the admin of the group and all you really tried to do was teach others about the uses and other valuable ways of benefiting from StumbleUpon. Again, I very happy it all worked out for you and closing the group was the best thing.-
thanks! At least, for proving that I wasn't making things up!
I really did try to help and (I thought) add some value to the group at the time, with a few exercises and resources and warnings. I wish I had copies of those emails for my own reference and bookmarks. I presumed I never received the broadcasts being the sender and all that.
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