April 27, 2004

Bastards...

I've just been smacked with my first primitive form of RSS spam. To be sure, unlike e-mail spam, it doesn't just discover you and attack: I willfully signed up for this one (several months ago). But here's the thing. Check out:

Moreover's Webmaster Tips RSS Feed

At the moment, the very first item is an ad for a product called "SpinSite." It has an amazingly ridiculous url. Note the code that looks something like "bhngbonjbhngbgnobmnhzcxerarorb." Now refresh the page. Neat, huh? So every time an aggregator hits it, it has a unique url. Depending on how your aggregator's coded, it'll show up as new and unread every time you refresh the feed (I imagine most aggregators suffer this problem). Simple, but effective...and incredibly lame.

Bastards!! Now I have to make a determination over whether the information contained within is enough for me to deal with the ads, and the aggravation of what I perceive to be a violation of principle. Nope, fuck 'em: I'm hitting "Unsubscribe."

(If this is something common that I've just never stumbled across before, I apologize for wasting your time. But it's a new one on me. Bastards.)

Bastards!! You hear me, bastards?! BASTARDS!!!

Posted by Chris at April 27, 2004 04:28 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Wow, that's just fscking wrong. At least with this form of spam, you know where it is coming from, more like a banner ad or a pop-up than an email spam.

We should make a list of sites we run into who do this, call it the "Fucktard List"

Posted by: Nabil at April 27, 2004 06:53 PM

yeah I get that kind of shit in my mailbox. *grumble* you can't put a filter on it because it constantly changes. I'm getting to the point where I'm just going to disable that account. so if you have anything going to guntzta@emu.edu send it to guntzta@hotmail.com :)

Posted by: Tim at April 28, 2004 12:05 PM

I guess I've not talked webdev in too long. WTF pray tell is the definition of an "aggregator"?

TIA for the enlightenment!

Posted by: Cheftones at April 30, 2004 07:40 PM

An aggregator automatically checks and parses your RSS (Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication) feeds, and keeps track of which items you've read. If you're not familiar with RSS, it's a simple XML file that details site updates...particularly useful for news sites and blogs, but you can see how a commerce site might use it to detail new products, etc.

It's an amazingly simple way to keep up with massive amounts of information spread across sites. Good good stuff :)

It's supposed to be spam-free, since you don't really have an address to give out...but because the url of this one keeps changing, and the url is the unique identifier, you keep getting the item, over and over. It's weak...moreover has done it to another feed I subscribed to. Lame shit.

Posted by: Chris at May 1, 2004 09:07 AM
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