M3’s logo stands for engagement.
Some of you were concerned yesterday over an email you got from me entitled “Unsubscribed from The M3 Blog”. It was not a hoax.
Since I already know some of the people who were legitimately subscribed did not receive the email, the contents were:
If you are getting this message, it is a miracle! This will be the last one from this subscription service because it was sold to someone who is more interested in harvesting information than handling outgoing mail.
To that end, I am canning this plug in the moment I hit send. On M3, you will find a button to resubscribe, if you so desire. Otherwise, you are unsubscribed as of this email. 🙁
See you at M3
In fact, I was, as I always am, true to my word. When I pressed send, I deleted the plugin and all of its data, which included your email addresses. The Office is clear, I do not collect email addresses or personal information for any purpose because if you are interested in buying something from me, you will proceed at your leisure to a website which carries my goods.
The only email addresses I have are the ones which are held in the SIB’s email address book (hosted by Google) which captures all addresses *I* have ever sent email. Again, unless I have contacted you, I do not have your email address. Additionally, if you would like me to add you to the subscription list, you will still get an email which asks you if some bot put your email address into the box in some scam attempt. Ignoring that email is just as good as never having put the email in in the first place.
Why, oh why?
During my hiatus, more than 3,500 bots registered for M3. The first day I posted, more than 8,000 emails went out simulanteously notifying people I had posted. This got me on the spankies list for Google (my email handler), who does not like people to send that much email when they normally only send around 1,100 organic emails and 3,400 subscription emails per day.
I could have recovered from this with a little trimming of the bots and a pointed (read screaming) email to the developer of the subscription software. There was something more nefarious under foot.
Also during my absence, two mass attacks were made to the developer. His software was compromised, and an attacker was able to reverse engineer his software. This sort of thing happens everyday with OpenSource software. It is the entire point of having software which is for the benefit of mankind.
The bad guy used the reverse engineered software to harvest the addresses of the users of the software and to spam with our (read my) email address. Fortunately, Google shut down the proxy mail which I was obviously not sending; however, they kept me on the spankies list for the massive amounts of email going through M3’s proxy as a result of the huge number of fake emails registered at M3.
Now What?
I decided to serve up a bit of justice. The fake registrations were not the problem of my software developer. They are a loophole created by WordPress to allow people to come to sites built with WP software and bypass the email subscription services owners have chosen. WP says it is to protect their clientele. In fact, it is a way to hoard email addresses.
Since I am not collecting email addresses in the first place, I do not care who has the email addresses. Yesterday, I sharpened my horns and hooves and gave WordPress exactly what they wanted. Subscription now goes through them. They are party to the 2,800 emails I have yet to delete. (My carpal tunnel quit after I deleted the first 2,500… 20 at a time.) They are also party to the 60 new ones since 1800 last night and the routine 80+ I get per day.
Sadly, more than 85% of those registrations are junk. Most are dead emails from spammers looking to make some gibberish comment with a link to a knock off site or some such other nefarious place M3 would never associate. Now that I am posting again, the spam is picking back up, which is good news for the Friday Follies. It may well make a return after its long hiatus.
Up to You!
So, if you are up for sticking with M3 after all these years, drop your email in that annoying little box to the left and when the email comes to the box you indicated, press the confirm button. I hear tell you can make it tell you once a week or day or never when posts go live. The days of me posting three times a day are long gone, so you will not have to worry about me spamming you as I once did.
If you could punish a spammer, what would you do?
PS Go look at the fractals from yesterday!!
Hashtags: #spam #whohatesspammers
Thank you for sharing The M3 Blog with hashtags.
Tess
/ July 10, 2014Sigh. What a headache for you. Glad you’re up and running again.
Tess recently posted..100-Word Challenge for Grown-ups – Week #140
Red
/ July 10, 2014Fotunately for me, this one was not a matter of M3 getting the axe like it was the last time. That make me scream to people all around the globe in a number of languages, some of which I am very very rusty. *giggles*
Prenin
/ July 10, 2014Remind me not to annoy you!!! 🙂
Love and huge hugs my friend!!! 🙂
Prenin.
Prenin recently posted..Wednesday – Quiet Day.
Red
/ July 10, 2014Pren!!! So very glad to see you back! I was hoping my message would get through to you 🙂 {HUGZ}
gigoid
/ July 10, 2014Red,
❓
It’s not a hoax? Gosh, and I was SO happy all that time I thought it was… Oh, wait, that’s right…. I didn’t. Sorry, wrong tape…
Actually, I figured, (correctly, as it turned out…) it was you, because of the message saying you were deleting it all. Of all the people I know, you are one of the few I know who, like myself, is NOT afraid of the delete button…. so, within a few moments, I had gone to your site, using a bookmark I’ve had for a couple years now, and simply re-registered….
Otherwise, I wouldn’t know when you post, as I don’t get any notification on your posts in my WP notifications; never have…. and, you don’t show up in my Reader, on those rare occasions I can sit long enough to go there….
Don’t know why, or why I can’t see my WP controls at the top of your blog site… S’okay, I’d never use them there, anyway; I’m usually too busy ranting, er, commenting on your post….
To answer your question for today, if I could punish a spammer, I’d tie them up in front of millions of people, naked, and make them listen to Abba’s “Dancing Queen” until they were dislocating their joints trying to get away. Then, we could put them in a large room, with a large number of irritable spam victims, who just sent their life savings to Nigeria…. Their sentence should include having to work 20 hour days at a mini-mart, and no access to any electronics, for sure….
What, am I a nice person? Who cares?….
Glad it wasn’t a Real Hoax….
Ned,
aka, gigoid, the dubious
😎
Or, just shoot them, & be done with it, either way works for me….
gigoid recently posted..From this perspective, it’s clear the vicar was nude….
Red
/ July 10, 2014I probably delete at least half as much as I put in/on/up. It is in my nature to remove the parts which do not function as they were intended.
I truly think they should have no electronic cash register whilst at the convenience store with their victims who are all looking for the specialty parts which did not come in the “super low price of $99” outfit they bought.
My idea which goes with your last one is far less kind, far more time consuming and infinitely more entertaining. *evil grins*
Blessed be, Brother.
xxx
Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain's Wife
/ July 10, 2014Poor you! Anyway, I’m happy to have re-subscribed.
Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain's Wife
/ July 10, 2014oops, i think i accidentally sent one response. sorry!
Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain’s Wife recently posted..Surfing Safari with Princess Rosebud
Red
/ July 10, 2014LOL I am sure it will be fine 🙂
Mike W
/ July 10, 2014I’m still wondering if it was evil of me to redirect those non-stop hack attempts to a certain spy agency admin page.
How to punish spammers? Oh I have ideas.
Red
/ July 10, 2014I would have loved to have done that. My biggest issue was the majority of what I had was bogus. Had I found but one viable of the bunch, you can bet it would have gone to a bureaucratic loop to rival the Warren investigation.
Binky
/ July 10, 2014I would take away their SPAM, forever!
Binky recently posted..Fraz The Incredible
Red
/ July 10, 2014If you would develop a machine which would turn spam into SPAM, you would make enough money to fund your space adventures in just a few days.
Binky
/ July 11, 2014That’s a good idea. I should work on a spam transmorgifier.
Binky recently posted..Fraz The Incredible
RLB Hartmann
/ July 11, 2014LuciBuck here and accounted for. Wish I had your stamina, Red. Horns and hooves….I love that; felt that way many a time.
Red
/ July 11, 2014Glad to see you 🙂
El Guapo
/ July 10, 2014I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier.
El Guapo recently posted..A head is an awful place to live.
Red
/ July 11, 2014For years, I have operated under that mistaken illusion as well. Great to see you, Guap.
Novroz
/ July 11, 2014Thanks for the explanation…i was wondering about that. I have resubscribed 🙂
Glad to see you back 🙂
Novroz recently posted..Choose Your President Wisely!
Red
/ July 11, 2014Glad you made it 🙂 xxx
Valentine Logar
/ July 11, 2014Ah well, things are so ridiculous sometimes. We jump through hoops and they make them smaller. So we toss the rings.
All signed up and ready to rock and roll once again.
Valentine Logar recently posted..Someone You Should Know: The Grand Diva Scarlet.