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Well, I suppose that someone may be out to sabbotage their site...but I really think that in nearly all cases, the people that bitch that their site has been submitted to all manner of questionable places...really submitted it themselves.
While I totally believe there are vicious people who would do anything to harm their competitors, if one were to accept what they read in some of these forums, you'd have to believe it's in plague proportion.
Who else thinks that, in most or perhaps even nearly all cases, the people who complain that their site is being linked to from spammy places, are actually responsible for this themselves?
I think that yeah, there's a bit of fibbing.
It's also a bit self centered and overbearing (especially when it's their first post) to go hollering for GoogleGuy to come down from his mountain and give your little site a look.
Just thoughts, that's all.
:)
>people who complain that their site is being linked to from spammy places, are actually responsible for this themselves?
I think it happens both ways. Sometimes sites are linked to without the person's knowledge. I just found one of my sites linked to from about a dozen "directory" pages on a totally worthless, spammed up site - ALL those pages are PR0. If I were new to the game and had only heard a little about bad linking and penalties I could be concerned enough to post and ask if it will hurt me. Trust me - I do not ask for links from bad neighborhoods, as most of us don't. This is not the first time it's happened, either. Malicious and deliberate? Maybe, maybe not.
Actually, one of our board mods once had a site get into trouble for being linked to from those atrocious mass link farms that were so popular a while back, until Google zapped them, which caused people to wake up and smell the coffee. They sure didn't ask for those links, they know better. It's who we link to that's the main concern, but it's still not a good thing to become associated by having them link to us. It's unethical and discourteous.
>I've read countless messages "GoogleGuy, please help! Somebody submitted my site to hundreds of guestbooks; or somebody sumbitted by site to hundreds of link farms...what will happen?"
LOL... you mean drive-by requests for site reviews? We don't do site review - it's in the TOS and the charter. We're not the Google spam report forum either.
Picture this: someone is on page 4 and gets irritated that people on the first page are there because of having a network of sites set up to artificially manipulate and raise Page Rank and get loads of link text with their keywords. Has anyone seen those page rank ranches?
So someone sees it and comes a-running over here with "GoogleGuy, help!" That, my friend, is a sneaky attempt at a snitch - in my humble opinion, of course. It's also possibly a newbie who hasn't wised up to the value of the learning experience they can get from those. Either way, it's against TOS on two counts.
I think some, probably most, are legit, some did it themselves and want a quick "get out of jail card" from the mess they got themselves into, and others are trying to put competitors out. It takes discerning what's what and who's who, but those certainly do have to be watched. Another good reason not to have site reviews and encourage people to be careful, and read and learn.
some did it themselves and want a quick "get out of jail card"
hehe a great way of explaining it.
I do feel sorry, though, for newer webmaster who accidentally trigger Google's wrath, and then have to live with that for months/years to come, even though it's their first offence. Compare that with some webmasters, who spend all day dreaming up new spammy methods, who truly deserve to be banned.
If people are spamming competetors (and I am sure some do it to an extent), imagine the success they might have if they directed that energy towards promoting their own site (i.e., healthy link exchanges, etc.)
:)
C
I was spammed forever for that little mistake, and lord only knows where links to my site might have popped up as a result... certainly not in very many "good neighborhoods," that's for sure.
The site has been moved 2 or 3 times since then, and I no longer have the same email as I did then, and I'm much more careful about those things now. But, I wonder how many of the panicked masses may have made a similar mistake at some point, not realizing it would come back to haunt them through Google's backlink checker?
Live and learn.
So someone sees it and comes a-running over here with "GoogleGuy, help!" That, my friend, is a sneaky attempt at a snitch - in my humble opinion, of course. It's also possibly a newbie who hasn't wised up to the value of the learning experience they can get from those. Either way, it's against TOS on two counts.
I think some, probably most, are legit, some did it themselves and want a quick "get out of jail card" from the mess they got themselves into, and others are trying to put competitors out. It takes discerning what's what and who's who, but those certainly do have to be watched. Another good reason not to have site reviews and encourage people to be careful, and read and learn.
This is why, and especially after seeing the "New way to spam" [webmasterworld.com...] thread, I find the whole clandestine, no URL dropping policy amusing. It almost seems WORSE as people come here with a URL in their profile, post an "innocent" looking message, and hope for something completely opposite of what they let on.
In that thread this guy comes in, first post and posts something like that. I didn't even think to check his profile, but, once I heard he had a URL in his profile, I immediately assumed it was false. Then I saw GG fly off the handle at him, and it makes me wonder if he accomplished his goal.
I guess it is always going to be hard to discuss the topics we discuss in here, while trying to keep the delicate balance needed to keep this place from being overrun by URL dropping spammers, etc.
My apologies, I'm pretty sure I've gone waaaaaaaay off topic here.
In that thread this guy comes in, first post and posts something like that. I didn't even think to check his profile, but, once I heard he had a URL in his profile, I immediately assumed it was false. Then I saw GG fly off the handle at him, and it makes me wonder if he accomplished his goal.
I seem to remember when I signed up here my IP address was listed at the bottom of the screen. I took this to mean they know who I am (sort of). Perhaps GoogleGuy was referring to that when he spoke of the headache WebMonkey would wake up to rather than the listed site. Of course there are ways to mask that as well.
On the other hand perhaps he just slipped a mickey in his drink instead.
Well, I suppose that someone may be out to sabbotage their site...but I really think that in nearly all cases, the people that bitch that their site has been submitted to all manner of questionable places...really submitted it themselves.
I'm one of the "people that bitch(ed)." My URL was submitted to a zillion guestbooks, and I certainly wasn't stupid enough (or shameless enough in my self-promotion) to have done it myself.
Initially, I assumed that the guestbook postingss were done by someone who thought it might screw me up in Google. And that's certainly possible, since not everyone knows that GoogleGuy himself has said that such malicious spamming of guestbooks can't lead to a penalty.
But there's also another possibility: The person who posted my URL in those guestbooks may have been trying to flood me with spam e-mail to multiple addresses at my domain, since the guestbook entries included random fictitious e-mail addresses. (The vandal probably was too stupid to realize that JunkSpy and a few Outlook Rules would block virtually all of that spam. Somebody went to an awful lot of work for nothing. Not only that, but I'm getting referrals from those guestbooks!)
[edited by: NFFC at 11:50 am (utc) on Sep. 17, 2002]
[edit reason] Please see sticky [/edit]
It might have been for nothing, but it wasn't a lot of work. Those that engage in SEO sabotage are extremely automated. Just a couple of mouse clicks before the head off to bed.
