No more stumble exchanges, or there will be consequences.

So here's the deal, I've spent the last couple of months, probably 200+ hours, building a database of all the DP users that are "gaming" the StumbleUpon system here on DP.

In this database is:

-Links to, screenshots, saved pages, and searchable pdf's of all the exchange threads here on DP up until today.

-The SU account that is linked to the DP user, as well as it's aliases, email accounts, digg accounts, photobucket, myspace, adult friend finder, forums, etc.

-Every site that is being promoted and every site connected to the user in question.

-The full whois information for said promoted sites.

-All the personally identifiable information I could glean from a public records search of the people associated with the registrars of the sites in question. Including, but not limited to, full names, addresses, and phone numbers.

-Any adsense, ypn, amazon, widgetbucks, affiliate id, etc. found on those pages.

-Any and all violations of TOS for any of the contractual agreements you've entered in association with those pages.


What I'm prepared to do with this data:

-Open a website dedicated to exposing stumble exchanges. Full disclosure of all personal details.

-Send the database to StumbleUpon. While I have no idea if they will decide to remove any of the sites and stumblers, they will certainly have to consider it when faced with so much damning evidence (nearly 10,000 sites and growing larger every day).

-Create a list of stumble spam sites for Ad Block+

-Create a firefox plugin. (This is already in alpha, soon to be beta stage. It will block or flag your site as stumble spam. The original plugin was designed to let users filter duplicate content, which is the #1 complaint that stumblers have with the SU service, it still includes this functionality, I will just be adding to it the ability to filter out stumble spam sites based on this database, user feedback and ongoing data collection at known SU exchange sites.)

-Report each and every TOS violation that I come across. This includes domain name violations, which are not only grounds for deletion of a domain name, but may result in criminal charges. There are hundreds of sites in the database that have obviously fake whois contact information, I'm sure I will uncover more as I investigate further. Changing it now may help your case, but when you signed up with false information the damage was done. Oh, and unless you're incorporated or had your name legally changed to your business's name, you must use your real name to register domains.


The implications of the release of this data:

-Your sites/accounts will be inexorably and indefinitely linked to your real name and details.
-You and your sites/accounts will be subjected to the scrutiny of thousands of angry stumblers.
-You and your sites will be permanently branded. Any searches for your name or your sites will return evidence of your wrong doings. Think about future employers/customers/police doing investigations into your internet presence and what they may think of your dishonesty. I wonder what they'll think about you impersonating a hot girl...
-Your sites will be blacklisted from StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.
-You will lose many, many, hours of hard work.
-If you've provided false information for your domain registration you may lose that domain, possibly face criminal charges.



What will prevent me from publishing this database:

-The end of stumble exchanges on the DP website. Period. Ideally a ban on stumble exchanges by the admins of DP, who should have curtailed this scourge of spam long ago.

From the time of this post there will be a 48 hour window for you guys to come to a decision and inform other DP users of this development. During this window and thereafter any new stumble exchanges will be permanently added to the database.

If you decide to end the stumble exchanges I will archive the database and keep all the information contained within unpublished. You get to keep what traffic you are receiving now, but agree not to further the self promotion of your sites.

If the stumble exchanges are not stopped I will begin the publishing process, with a launch date of Feb. 1, 2008.



As I'm not going to debate this with anyone I've taken the liberty of fielding some of the questions/accusations that I'm sure will follow this post . If you have a serious question that avoids being obscene or abusive I'll certainly try to answer it. The obscene/abusive part is important to me, I certainly have a string of obscenities for most of you guys that would make a sailor with tourettes blush, but I'm not going to sink to that level. If this thread turns into free for all to bash me for my decision I will just publish the database with no further discussion.


I'm an admin/mod and I'm just going to delete this post and/or ban you.

Knock yourself out, I won't post this offer again. If I find that this post is gone, or I'm banned from DP I will go ahead with my plans to publish thousands of your users, their personal information, and blacklist their sites. Additionally I will assume that DP not only condones but promotes the TOS violating/spamming activity of it's users, the database and my reporting will reflect this. I hope the admins/mods of this site will afford me the same respect and protection from abusive users as everyone else.

Why are you doing this?

Because what you are doing here is wrong, and you know it's wrong. You are creating the illusion of trust for websites that do not merit it, and no one here does any sort of checking into the legitimacy of the sites being endorsed. I've found sites that promote pharmaceuticals, email/password harvesting proxies, stolen content, cross site scripting exploits, blatant spam and affiliate scams, adware/trojans/viruses and so on. Stumble exchanges are a dishonest and infuriating waste of time, they insult the intelligence of users like myself and create a dangerous hazard for inexperienced web users. This section of DP has become a breeding ground for unscrupulous behavior. Would you put a banner to a viagra/trojan/spam/ site on your homepage? Then why are you leading hundreds of innocent stumblers to them? It's inexcusable and I'm going to hold you accountable for it.


Who are you? Your nobody. There's thousands of us, we'll just bury you if you try to promote this anywhere.

I'm more than willing to wage a one man war, I've the time and the resources, but, I also have a viewpoint that is shared by millions of people. And honestly, I don't have anything to lose. Not to mention a show of force on your part would really seem like an admission of guilt. Do you want to drag DP through the mud in your efforts to silence someone who just wants you guys to stop shamelessly self promoting yourselves and bombarding me with sites that only exist to pad your pockets or serve some puerile desire to be more popular? This would also further my belief that this site is comprised of a bunch of elitist jerks who think internet users are just mindless clicking machines with wallets. Be wary how you react, it may just galvanize an army of SU users against you.


Why are you targeting us? Why not sponsored stumbles?

Why DP? Digital point is a very popular site, and is the one of the biggest contributors to stumble spam on the internet. I also believe that most of the people behind other stumble traffic exchanges at some time or another come here. But I am also targeting ALL stumble exchange sites, DP is just one of the first on a long list. DP is the only site that will receive a warning, other stumble exchanges will be exposed without warning.

Why not sponsored stumbles? Truth in advertising. The little guy in a green shirt shows me that I'm looking at an advertisement. That the site is not popular, it's just "paid for popularity" and I can live with that, as it helps the SU service. Also, I can donate to SU to prevent seeing them. It also holds SU accountable for any "bad" sites, malware, XSS sites etc. How many sponsored stumbles do I see a day? Two maybe three. How many stumble spam sites do I see? Twenty on a good day, fifty or more if you guys have been particularly active. Stumble exchanges artificially create popularity that the participating sites do not deserve and are not regulated. They also unfairly circumnavigate the system that supports SU by unethical means.


I'm just going to keep using stumble exchanges and to hell with the consequences.

That's fine with me. You may want to consult with your peers here at DP first though, they may not feel the same way. You may cause them some serious damage because of your uncaring attitude. I suggest that someone create a poll to get a general consensus (please put a link to it here). I will publish the database if I see any new stumble exchanges that aren't immediately ostracized by the DP community. No joke, don't try to be deceptive, I will find out.


We'll just use another stumble exchange site/private messaging/email etc.

It doesn't matter, I will find you and you will be listed. Stumble exchanges are more obvious than you may realize, if you used SU like a regular user instead of like a shameless spammer you would know this.


Are you going to do anything to prevent spammers/identity thieves from harvesting of my email addresses, phone numbers, and so on?

No.


You're a (insert expletive).

That may very well be, but so are you. Do you really think that what you're doing here makes you any less of a (expletive) than me?


I'm using a domain by proxy, so you can't get my information.

Sorry, but domains by proxy don't provide as much protection as you may think. All it takes is a phone call (usually just an email) and some proof that your site is involved in a spamming campaign (plenty of that) and they will provide your details, which I have already done for several hundred sites. Not to mention, if you have one site that isn't a domain by proxy I've got your info already.


I was promoting a site I designed for someone else/The site linked to me is my employers. Please don't publish these sites.

Sorry, you shouldn't have used such a dishonest and annoying method of promotion.


I'd like to see proof of your claims.

No problem, here's an excerpt of the database. (It's big, about 2.5mb, but not even 5% of the entire list.)
http://i1.uploadem.com/12192007/doyouthinkthisisok.jpg


I'm going to get a lawyer and sue you if you publish information about me.

Good luck with that, libel, a civil matter, is only applicable if one lies. All information is truthful and was obtained from public sources, which was made available by you. But if you want to spend several hundred dollars consulting an attorney that will only tell you what I just said, feel free.


This is blackmail, I'm reporting you to the police.

Again, good luck with that. Blackmail is legally defined as: "Exaction of money from another by threat of exposure of criminal action or of disreputable conduct." You will find that while I am threatening you with exposure of criminal/disreputable conduct, I am in no way extorting money from anyone or trying to make money from any aspect of this foray. It's very unlikely you would even get law enforcement to take this matter seriously, and again, you would be dragging DP into a storm of controversy. This too might be seen as an admission of guilt by the public.


What's your angle? You must be trying to make a buck here.

It must be a genuine surprise to some of you that webmasters use the internet for reasons other than making money and fleecing the public, but it's true. Not only am not trying to make money, I have spent about $1000 dollars on software, webspace, development, bribing members of the DP site to spy out addition data for me, public record searches, long distance phone calls, retaining legal services etc. (Not counting nicotine, caffeine and time spent.)


I'm going to find out who you are and do something to you.

That's fine, here's a map.
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7592/nonuj5.jpg
But seriously, if I receive threats of harm against my person, I will report it to the police, running the risk that in their investigation the authorities will disrupt Digital Point's service attempting to identify the offenders.




I'm afraid that my crazy ex-husband/bill collectors/FBI/mafia etc. is going to find me because of this.

Send me at dpdbremoval--at--gmail.com detailing the nature of your need and I will remove your name from the database. But be aware, I am going to need concrete proof, and I will investigate to the fullest. Be sure to put "REMOVAL" in the subject. If you attempt to deceive me I will make a special effort to smear your name all over the internet. Please do not mess with the above email address, this is a brand new, spam free account, and overloading it with spam, hatemail, etc, may ruin the chances of one of your peers who really needs to be removed from the database. If you really want to send me hatemail you can do so at dphatemail@gmail.com, I will look at it and chuckle.



So I guess that's it, now you must ask yourselves if stumble exchanges are worth all the trouble that I'm about to cause you. Mull it over amongst yourselves and give me a definitive answer. Those of you that know you have something to lose had better start trying to convince your peers to give up stumble exchanges. I hope you don't think badly of me, I'm not a bad guy, I just want DP users to stop ruining StumbleUpon for the rest of us. Nor do I think most of you are bad people, just misguided webmasters who want a quick fix for your shortcomings (Though, I do believe that some of you are absolute scum). Now get out there and make some good content, maybe I'll find it and give it a thumbs up

 

Congrats, I wish I has as much time on my hands as you do

 

Good tactic to get a lot of stumbles when you publish the article, you'll probably make it to the top

I'm sure you never thought of that, though, huh?

 

you need to get yourself a woman

 

Best of luck with your battles.

 

Is this a joke?

if its not you need to get laid

 

definitely.. get laid mate

 

Go and have a wank marathon in ur parents couch in front of the TV
Your probably a 14 year old pissed of with the world

 

Good luck with this. It will be very hard to report every TOS violation of every single violator you come accross.

 

You've got a lot of free time. What a waste, coz you ain't gonna achieve much out of it.

I'd like to really see if such "blackmailing" works. One man (or woman) cannot do much in this free open internet world.

 

LOL, get a life dude.

 

Haha wanker, I remember a few sites that were up for exchange and none of them are on your list.

I feel like i'm being bukkaked with stupid

 

I applaud your one man crusade to clean up the system and challenge dishonesty but there is always one fundamental problem with people with an agenda, pure and absolute hypocrisy. Give me one hour (this isn't an offer, just a fact) to speak to you and I will be able to highlight many many dishonest things that you inadvertently encourage and remain blissfully unaware.

It's great that you would want to see a better world but all forms of business have their dishonest parts. Pretty much anything you ever buy will be feeding that same system to some extent. If you want to clean things up then it should start with your own actions, once they are cleansed then you should start on everyone else. In the meantime, making your opinions known would be far more appropriate than threatening or blackmailing which let's face it, doesn't exactly make you the perfect human being!

 

personally never used stumbles and never will anyone who left negitive feedback here is obviously guilty and hopefully this guy will follow through on this. He may not get the desired effect out of it but doing this shit has always been wrong and well good luck.

 

You need a life

 

I'm surprised these exchanges have affected someone so much as to go to these lengths. I think its time to start learning better SEO methods and more legit marketing means....

 

Good luck with that buddy.

 

dude, who cares. Personally I think that this kind of behavior is INEVITABLE. Stumbleupon is a "social bookmarking site". The word social means that people are going to exchange stumbles. Ofcourse some people are going to use it to promote "viagra" ads etc. but really, what the heck do you care? Don't you think you are causing yourself more stress by taking on a massive project to rid this forum & stumbleupon from posts that you'd prefer not to see? Good luck getting people to care...