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MyBlogLog and Spam-a-lot.

February 20, 2007 by: UKStevieB

Apparently the weekend was a good time for spammers, they hit-up MyBlogLog users big time with an exploit in their set up. According to the MyBlogLog Blog:
Saturday evening, a member discovered an exploit where you could send someone a request to join their community as a co-author and then automatically approve the request. In other words, someone (dare I call them a jackass) could force you to be a co-author of their community. I have no idea why they would do this, other than a negligible bump in marketing, but who ever said jackasses made sense?
They are introducing several new security features to try and keep things under conrol in future:
  1. We're going to post an official Terms of Service (ToS) and hold people accountable.
  2. By default, you now see only message from your own contacts.
  3. We will include the text of the comment and associated controls (delete,reply, etc) in the alert email.
  4. We will limit users to only five requests for co-authors a day.
  5. We will limit users to join 15 communities and add 15 contacts during any day.
  6. After the first five are complete, we will set up a comment approval system.
Up until now I had resisted joining up with MyBlogLog, but seeing how well they seem to of responded to this situation has convinced me to try them out for a while. In case you aren't too sure what MyBlogLog is, here is what they have to say on their "About" page:
About MyBlogLog You probably know a ton about your favorite bloggers - what they think about the subjects they write about, maybe some of their work and life history... you may even know what toothpaste they use. But how much do you know about all the other people who read their blogs? And how much do they know about you? For all this talk of a global conversation throughout the blogosphere, there's a lot to be desired. It's a two-tiered system, with bloggers talking amongst each other and the majority of the readers looking on from the fringes. You may get to call out something from the sidelines by leaving a comment, but things could be so much better. For everyone. MyBlogLog is launching this new Communities service to empower authors and readers to operate at the same level. For the first time, everyone who reads a web site or blog can learn about and engage with one another, and in the process take the conversation to a whole new level. Readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. See what else they're reading. Check out their MySpace and Friendster profiles and view their Flickr photostreams. Authors can learn more about their readers individually and as a group. What do they like and what are they ignoring? What are they reading elsewhere on the Web? MyBlogLog enables you to take advantage of your existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part.
You have probably seen their widget around, it's on quite a few blogs these days. MyBlogLogAs it seems to be more and more prevalent I thought I would give it a try, see how it works out for a small blog like this one and see if it helps build some relationships around the Blogosphere. I was very impressed with the founders reactions and the sense of community they have. The plan they have put forward may be a little "stop-gap" for now, but they are prepared to listen to their users and fine tune it as things go on. In the near future I will add their widget to my side bar, perhaps giving me a chance to find out a little more about some of the people who drop by. Are you a MyBlogLog user? How have you found their service? What benefits are you gaining?

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