Closed account: DIGG + Mags

Why Oh Why you do this, I do not know.
Remember Elliot Back? You hijacked his files.. you have done the same to me.

You are now sufficiently rude and unproffesional to simply ignore my emails. Thus now it is threats, and this is the only medium through which I could give you a 'last chance' as such, not that you deserve it.

I have sent Elliot an email, and I have been talking to a friend who works at VNUNET, as in the company that produces the UKs two most widely read computer magazines Computer Active, and Web User. They have a section in their magazine where they essentially sort out rogue companies (like dreamhost), and they will publish, and fight for my situation. As if dreamhost needs more bad publicity...

Thus I kindly request as you did in Elliots case, you simply zip up my files and email me a download link. Then I will be out of your hair.

Its ridiculous that you havnt already gone to this tiny effort to prevent backlash/hatred of your company.

If this is not sorted soon, I will go ahead AND I will humiliate dreamhost on all the forums I am an active member of.

Thanks
Tom

Sounds like somebody didn't back up their stuff! shocked

Elliot's situation is "old news" - some sites have no business trying to operate on a shared server (the comments on Elliot's site point this out pretty effectively).

In reply to:
Thus now it is threats, and this is the only medium through which I could give you a 'last chance' as such, not that you deserve it.

Heh .. Good luck with that. You might want to take a look at this previous post to see how far that tactic is likely to get you:

In reply to:
"The one thing I tolerate even less than spamming and misrepresentation are baseless and unsupported threats of legal action, "going public", or "hurting our bottom line". We don't respond well to threats."

I think you would probably have better luck showing some patience and asking nicely for some help, rather than threatening and posturing, but hey.. whatever you think will work best for you is what you should do. wink

Oh yeah, and BTW, it's always a good idea to keep back up copies of things you place on others' servers; you never know when you might need them and by keeping your own back-ups, you will never find yourself in this type of a situation in the future. Good luck!

--rlparker

I'm guessing from your rant that your account has been terminated for a Terms of Service violation. If that is the case, you will need to deal with DreamHost's support team, because this is a customer-to-customer forum.

-- si-blog --

My account was cancelled for a TOS violation, yes. IMO An unfair one, but Hey Ho that is life. I argued my point, but at this moment in time my files are more imprtant to me.

I have shown patience it has been weeks of repeated, polite emails. No response.

My threats are not baseless threats, and nor are they threats as such. I want to resolve this amicably. Dreamhost do not (so it seems).

As regards backups I appreciate that, and in retrospect I should have backed up. My thinking was however dreamhost promise backups, and I havnt done anything wrong, so I feel I am entitled to my backup.

I will forward this to Jeff. I have tried emails with no success.

In reply to:
My threats are not baseless threats, and nor are they threats as such.

Right. From your previous post: "Thus now it is threats...". Okay.

In reply to:
I want to resolve this amicably. Dreamhost do not (so it seems).

Actually, it seems to me that DreamHost likely considers the matter resolved. Your continued desire to access the files that were stored in your closed account doesn't in any way obligate DreamHost to facilitate your request. After this nonsense on the forum, I'd certainly be done dealing with you - though DreamHost is generally *much more easygoing* than I would be. wink

If any of the TOS issue(s) for which your account was closed involved copyright infringement issues (and I have no idea if that is, or is not, the case), you should realize that DreamHost cannot legally "distribute" those files even if such distribution is to just "return them" to you.

In reply to:
My thinking was however dreamhost promise backups, and I havnt done anything wrong, so I feel I am entitled to my backup.

I can appreciate your "feelilngs" on the matter, but the fact that you feel the way you do about it does not supersede the Terms Of Service. The TOS makes it pretty clear that not only does DreamHost not "promise backups" of any kind, but also makes it clear that they have *no* liability for your inability to retrieve files from DreamHost.

I realize you now understand you should have backed up your files ...

In my experience, DreamHost has sometimes "helped out" in situations like yours (at least to the degree you have shared the details of your situation), but you should realize that, depending upon the nature of the TOS violation, they may *not* be *able* to help you. They *won't* make available to you files that appear to be infringing on copyrights or appear to be in some other way illegal.

--rlparker

Thanks again for the reply.

Firstly just to explain why I got my account closed. I was spamming from my hosting account unintentionally. I was led to believe (and am still unsure) that the domain whois database was opt-in, and thus I was allowed to send emails to domain owners. Apparently not.
I may have made a mistake, and I appreciate that DH may feel obliged to close my account.

Based on this however my files are all custom code, for my personal website as well as friends sites, and company, partners websites. There are hundreds of hours of code on there, which I need.

With regards to me posting here, I only have because I have no other way of communicating with dreamhost.

Where should I proceed from here?
With regards to my 'threats', perhaps I misphrased. I need my scripts. I dont plan to, or want to threaten anyone. Rather I am hopin a backup can be supplied and this can all be settled.
Thanks

In reply to:
With regards to me posting here, I only have because I have no other way of communicating with dreamhost.

Well, hopefully your posting here the way you did won't result in you having "burned your last bridge" with DreamHost and result in them being unwilling to deal with you further (though you have to realize that it *could* have had that effect).

You can always contact DreamHost via their contact form or, since there was a TOS violation involved, by emailing abuse@dreamhost.com. If you do that, I'd suggest "dialing it back" a bit, and explaining it as rationally and as dispassionately as you did in this last post. That will likely get you a more favorable response than anything that can be perceived as posturing or threatening. wink

You might also consider that, since there was a TOS violation involved, the "first line" tech support folks are most likely not handling your issue any further; it's likely being handled by the "abuse" folks. There are fewer of these "abuse" guys/gals than there are "tech support" folks, so what you see as your emails being "ignored" may only be that you are back in the queue. wink

In my experience, "calm and patient", "apologetic and polite", and "friendly" are the best ways to approach such frustrating situations. "Aggressive" and/or "threatening" are only likely to result in you being "actively ignored".

I'd focus on encouraging them to want to help you rather than having them perceive you as a "continuing problem". wink

--rlparker

Thanks for the opinion, I have taken your suggestion and contacted them. Lets see what happens.

Perhaps I have attitude problems/problems expressing myself, but I wasnt trying to come across the way I apparently did..

Just to kick a guy when he's down... Using the WHOIS database for UCE really ticks me off. It's opt-in only in the sense that one doesn't *have* to register a domain, but then you don't get to play with the big boys (and girls). The WHOIS database *requires* domain owners to provide valid information.

That being said, all my WHOIS queries come back with a TERMS OF USE that prohibits the use of it for spamming. I don't want to hear from people who have crap to offer me just because I have a domain. That's why I now use DreamHost's proxy registration. Saves me endless grief.

-Scott

In reply to:
Just to kick a guy when he's down...

I'd like a piece of that action too. I detest spammers. They rank somewhere between pond life and trolls with sock puppets.

-- si-blog --

In reply to:
I detest spammers. They rank somewhere between pond life and trolls with sock puppets.

Okay, that just begs the question: In your view, which is the lower life-form, the "pond life" or the "trolls with sock puppets"? smile

--rlparker

In reply to:
which is the lower life-form, the "pond life" or the "trolls with sock puppets"?

I think I can safely leave that to your active imagination wink

-- si-blog --

I dislike spammers too.
I however didnt/dont think what I was doing can be classed as spam. Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

No reply from support yet...

In reply to:
Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

If you were trawling through the WHOIS database and sending emails to domain owners, which is what you said you were doing above, then you are a spammer. There is no grey area in this.

-- si-blog --

In reply to:
I however didnt/dont think what I was doing can be classed as spam. Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

I got the part where you said you harvested email addresses off WHOIS because you were led to believe that it was ok and you (snicker) *believed* it! Then you started sending UCE to those addresses. What hat you wearing, or what color the mail was doesn't really matter.

-Scott

Ok,

E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...
If someone owns a car, and you go up and say how much is that, even if they dont want to sell it, that doesnt make you a stalker, scammer, spammer etc

What you guys are saying is if you get an offer you dont like it is spam, if you get an offer you like it is OK. Thats ridiculous.

In reply to:
E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...

Spam is unsolicited email of any kind.

I don't care if you are selling me something I want or giving me a free Lear Jet and a vacation in Bermuda. If I didn't specifically ask for you to contact me, you are spamming me. It is no different from the junk mail or sales calls in this respect. It doesn't matter if you send 1 email or 1 billion emails. It doesn't matter if you do it with an automated system or one-at-a-time through Gmail. It is still spam.

And "I thought it was okay" isn't good enough. Being ignorant is no defense.

-- si-blog --

So you didn't want to buy any of my one-of-a-kind Viagra? Damn frown

In reply to:
E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...

Er...ah ... actually that *is* "classic" spamming. wink

..if you didn't realize it before, then you no doubt realize it now, so maybe something good will result from all of this; hopefully you'll refrain from such actions in the future.

--rlparker

Something just clicked. Is this guy offering to buy people's domain names? That certainly adds a twist to the saga.

-Scott

Well, he kinda "implied" that, but he didn't come right out and say it. He said what he did was "send each an email making an offer," but he didn't say what the "offer" was or what it was for.

His next sentence where he discusses offering to buy someone's car sure makes it look like he was offering to buy the domains, but from what he described himself doing, he could have just as easily been "making an offer" to SEO-ify their sites, offering off-shore development, etc. (I get a *lot* of those). wink

--rlparker

http://www.dreamhost.com/spam.html

"Spam is a common slang term referring to the sending of unsolicited email, instant messaging, or other communication to a large group of people at once. Variations on this practice include off topic (and usually promotional) messages on bulletin boards, guestbooks, Usenet newsgroups, or chat rooms."

I was trying to buy domains, I never tried to hide that.
As mentioned even if I was ignorant before, I will learn from it, and not do it again.

Please can this thread be maintained a a medium through which those who can, be allowed to help me.

Maybe I was spamming, I am not any more. I made a mistake.

No reply recieved yet.

Now I wonder how it got traced back to his DreamHost account as a Spam violation. If it was done through Gmail, how did DreamHost come into play?

-Scott

In reply to:
Now I wonder how it got traced back to his DreamHost account as a Spam violation. If it was done through Gmail, how did DreamHost come into play?

Maybe a link, or reference, in the email to a DreamHosted site? Just a thought...

--rlparker

In reply to:
Now I wonder how it got traced back to his DreamHost account as a Spam violation. If it was done through Gmail, how did DreamHost come into play?

When's the last time you heard someone come here about an account cancellation because of a TOS violation... and tell the whole story? laugh

My wild guess: Link spam disguised as a buy offer, thinking Dreamhost would be stupid enough to let it slide. I get a bunch of that crap.

Based on some of the garbage I get, here are a few example of how to get canned without using your DH account:

Example 1...

Hi,

My site, www.example.com, buys domains. Checkout our site if you're interested in selling.

Thanks,

Spammer

Example 2, which is really pathetic:

Hi,

Nice domain. Would you like to sell it? If so, how much?

Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

Joe Spammer

WIN A FREE IPOD! www.example.com/free-ipod.html
Need Ringtones? www.example.com/ringtones.html
Viagra? www.example.com/viagra.html
Refinance your home: www.example.com/mortgage-spam.html
Make money online! www.example.com/get-rich-by-spamming.html

In any case, a domain buying offer sent from Gmail doesn't need to contain web site links.

Here's one more example, which is basically like signing a spam confession:

Hi,

I'm spamming you from my gmail account to see if you want to sell your domain. Email me at spammer@MyDreamhostHostedDomain.com with a price.

Have a nice day,

Spammer

A lot of the WHOIS spammers have no intentions of buying domains. I guess they think that if they throw out a low-ball offer that no one would accept, that somehow it's not spam, even though there was never an intention to buy.

Dear Google,

I will buy Google.com for $5.

Thanks
Joe Spammer
[insert spammed links here]

That's spam. wink

I'm going to hop onto Gmail right away:

I'd like to purchase your ftc.gov domain name. Please enter your personal information at http://www.seilerisnotaspammerhonesttruth.com/MaxSavingsAtDH

That's the trouble with spam that mentions your domain. It ticks people off when it's not your fault. I got plenty of rude mails from people who thought our brick-and-mortar corporation was spamming simply because someone included a link to our website.

-Scott

In reply to:
That's the trouble with spam that mentions your domain. It ticks people off when it's not your fault. I got plenty of rude mails from people who thought our brick-and-mortar corporation was spamming simply because someone included a link to our website.

Yes indeed, that is very frustrating to have to deal with. Fortunately, in many of those instances it is pretty easy to prove that there is no association between the sender of the mail and your corporation ... at least one can hope! wink

--rlparker

Not to mention, the person messing with you is often too stupid to realize how much free traffic/money he's sending you.

People spam because it works... there are way too many idiots out there that will click on/buy anything that shows up in their inbox. Same goes for telemarketing.

The ones that do that usually have the same mentality as the ones that think everyone will hate you if they link to you using something negative in the anchor text... rather than realizing it's still a link to your site.

If it's a reputable company or well-established site, there shouldn't be a problem clearing it up with the host. It's not exactly a new trick that no one's seen before.

Consider the fact that domains are extremely valuable assets..

Perhaps, maybe there is a slight chance I wanted to buy good domains for relatively cheap.

There is no hidden evil in this, I was not advertising, trying to get links, I was trying to give people money for their domains.

Someone stated the person in question rarely gives the facts. I have given the facts, you can choose to believe them. What I would say is until YOU know the facts, dont make judgements, and pretend you know what I have done.

In reality my only wrong doing is a misunderstanding of the whois database, and of DH TOS. I have acknowledged those two facts, and am now trying to sort this amicably.

Thanks

You need to sort this out with Dreamhost, not the customers of Dreamhost.

All we can do (apparently) is dissect your life and tell you that you're a waste of good bandwidth. I'd recommend continuing to see if Dreamhost can help you - although it's not likely as DH has a strong habit of deleting EVERYTHING when a customer is terminated (to avoid legal issues).

But I would instantly quit trying to defend yourself here. Maybe four people care (and not in a way you like) and the rest of us are tired of hearing the bitching and threats.

You're probably a nice guy, but this isn't the right place to debate that right now.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for discount.

Just FYI dude, but there's only one fact that actually means anything in all of this: You spammed.
Intentionally or not is not really what's being discussed here, just the fact that you were spamming and didn't provide us with information, which indeed now is clearly relative, to your situation. As wholly suggests - just let it go.. here at least. No one here can do anything good or bad for you.

Good luck with getting your account back either way wink

In reply to:
What I would say is until YOU know the facts, dont make judgements, and pretend you know what I have done.

Here's a fact:

If you send this email from gmail...

Hi,
I'd like to buy your domain.
Thanks,
Me

... there is nothing there that connects you to Dreamhost. You're leaving something out.

If you mentioned a website, you were spamming. Same goes for emailing from Gmail, telling them to contact you at your Dreamhost email account--especially if the domain name does the advertising.

Example:

Hi,

I'd like to buy your domain. Email me at bestdeals@We-pay-big-bucks-for-domains.com.

Thanks,
Me

So what are we missing? Where is the connection to your Dreamhost account?

You can mail death threats from your Gmail account and it will have no effect on your Dreamhost account... unless you somehow link the two together.

In reply to:
In reality my only wrong doing is a misunderstanding of the whois database, and of DH TOS. I have acknowledged those two facts, and am now trying to sort this amicably.

Uhh... didn't your "only wrong doing" pretty much cover everything you did? That's like killing someone and saying, "my only wrong doing was killing that person." tongue

I also have a hard time believing that WHOIS harvesters don't know they're spamming.

In any case, the first post surely killed any chance of Dreamhost cooperating in any way... as seen in the thread that was linked to where Jeff addressed threats.

Besides, you're not making them look bad. You're making yourself look bad for being a spammer that's not even smart enough to keep backups. laugh

See?

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for discount.

Like I have posted many a time, I wasnt emailing through gmail, rather a script. Thus in the headers it says sent from myusername@host.dreamhost.com, thats how it is related to dreamhost fyi.

Anyway I will take your advice and continue this discussion with the dreamhost support, and nowhere else. Please mods close this thread.

DING! Truth comes out...

In reply to:
I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.

In reply to:
I wasnt emailing through gmail, rather a script.

Off with his head.

-Scott

And you didn't see how harvesting info and emailing all those people with a script was spamming? You've got to be kidding.

Personally, I think I'd rather live with the shame of being a spammer, than play dumb to that extreme with the hopes of scamming a host into giving me access to files.

In reply to:
Please mods close this thread.

They already closed what needed to be closed... another spammer's account. tongue

Closed account: DIGG + Mags