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Welcome back, allow me to explain
Jun 26 2009 13:39 | 46 Comments
Hello all and welcome back to MichaelFlux.com. As you guys may have noticed the site has been down for the last 11 days or so this site has been dead as dead can be. If you've been following me on either Twitter or Facebook, you've already seen the 140 character long version of this story. Now that the site is back up, allow me to give you the whole thing.
This story began on the 10th of June when I have posted a number of screenshots of Apple's upcoming 'Snow Leopard' operating system. Within hours that post was picked up by every single major Apple-related website, including AppleInsider, MacRumors, TUAW, MacDailyNews, MacNN, and many others.
All that traffic nearly briefly brought down the site, which at the time was hosted on GoDaddy's horrible servers. But thanks to the quick thinking of the guys over in the Habari Project's IRC channel, I managed to keep the site up.
For the next few days I continued posting more things about Snow Leopard, answering people's questions about it and so on.
On the 13th of June I have gotten a message from a gentleman by the name of 'David John Sepanik', who demanded that I, and I quote, "immediately remove all Snow Leopard-related material from your website".
Now, this 'demand' if you want to call it that, would have been credible, and I probably would comply if it came via email, preferably digitally signed and if it would state specifically what is it that he wanted removed. However, it came via Facebook of all things.
Seriously, if you're going to insist on sending such general template shit to me, at least send it via email. When you send it via Facebook, it becomes about as credible as if you were to send it to me via Twitter in the form of "hai lol, pl0x take yer shit down yo, kthkx bai!".
Anyways, moving on, in the very same letter this gentleman has also said, and again I quote, "feel free to contact me if you any questions or concerns". Naturally, before doing anything rash, I decided to take up his offer and and ask him why the hell he contacted me via Facebook of all things and have specifically said that as soon as he answers that question I will take down what he is requesting.
I replied to him on the same day and patiently waited for an answer. I waited and waited for days, a reply never came. I then sent him another email, waited some more, and was once again ignored by this troll.
Oh well, must have been some douche just wasting my time. I spend a few hours preparing another another article to post, I write up all the text, upload all the images to Flickr, I then go to this site to post everything and I'm greeted with a '403: Permission Denied error'. What the fuck?
All of the sudden, the access to all of my files is blocked via HTTP, FTP, GoDaddy's website, I can't access the SQL database and so on, seriously, what the fuck is going on? Why haven't I got any notices from anyone? Finally, about 4 or 5 hours after the site went down I get an email from GoDaddy stating that someone made a copyright claim concerning some content on my website, and they were forced to take it down. Ok, why the hell did you dickheads not contact me before taking all my shit down?! Oh and also I must add, it wasn't just michaelflux.com that went down, but also another 4 of my domains, which just happen to be registered under the same account.
Within minutes, I reply to them, politely asking what the fuck happened, why the fuck is all of my content down, by what douche's authority and why in hell hasn't anyone contacted me to verify the legitimacy of the copyright claim. After 5-6 hours of waiting, I finally get a reply stating that "because of the DMCA" they are "forced" to instantly take down anything about which there is a complaint.
Lets now pause for a second so I can explain what this "DMCA" is. The DMCA is the so called "Digital Millennium Copyright Act", which was brought into law back in 1998. It is, if you don't know, at the center of 99% of all bullshit copyright claims. Ever had your videos taken down on YouTube because "you had copyrighted music in it"? ...Even if that music was just playing somewhere in the background and you had no control over it - well, DMCA is responsible for all of that. Well, actually it would be more correct to say that the DMCA is used by retarded companies (primarily those in the music and movie industries) to justify all the ways in which they insist on raping the consumers.
Lets just go over how the system works...
- Step 1: Find a target.
- Step 2: Make up a bullshit demand.
- Step 3: In the demand make sure you mention a number of scary words such as 'copyright' and 'DMCA'.
- Step 4: Email the demand to the target's website host.
- Step 5: Laugh your ass off while the target's website goes down and he doesn't know wtf happen.
- Step 6: ??????
- Step 7: Profit!
But anyways, back to the story... About 16 hours after replying to GoDaddy's email, finally I got an email back from them claiming that it was this very same gentleman, the one who contacted me initially, that demanded that my site was taken down because I had "Snow Leopard related material on it."
In the same email they have also told me that if I want my site back up, I need to either a) remove the offending content or b) I need to file a counter-claim etc etc bla bla, long story short they need almost everything about me minus maybe the SSN plus a ton of other misc writing explaining what, why, where, and how they fucked up.
Isn't it funny how the person who's accusing you can just write 2 sentences and GoDaddy will instantly jump on it, whereas the person who's being accused has to write a book about how he did nothing wrong?
To that email, I reply with a question, "How do I delete the content in question if I can't access the content", to which they reply, with the same "take down the content before your site can be put back up" template. To which I again reply with a question and ask to speak to a human instead of a trolling automaton, to which they... you guessed it! - reply with the same freaking template!
To that I reply just by copying and pasting my previous email, to which they reply with the same copypasta! In total I had to read that template at least half a dozen times before I finally stumbled upon something that resembled a human and which spoke English. Oh and note, there is a 12-24 hour delay between all the emails I'm mentioning - that is to say if not for them wasting so much time, all of this matter could have been resolved in 15 minutes, instead it took a week.
Also, GoDaddy, it would fucking help if you replied to all of the damn emails I'm sending you, preferably without half of them getting lost and me never getting a reply!
Once I stumbled upon this humanoid-like creature, he finally explained to me that if I "promised" to take down the content in question, I could have access to the said content. Of course within seconds of getting that email, I replied and said that, I would remove the content in question as soon as I regained access to my website.
I waited for over 24 hours, and finally I got a reply. No, it wasn't a reply saying 'congrats, now you can have access to your shit', no, instead it was an email saying that in the email I had to "identify the material in question" right in the promise to take down the material in question.
Ok... Lets try it again, "I promise to remove all Snow Leopard related material as soon as I regain access to my files." That should be enough. Shouldn't it? Fuck no and fuck you dear customer! Take a wild fucking guess what I got in reply to that? The same damn "take down your content before you regain access to your site" template. Seriously, what the hell?!?!?!
Lets try this AGAIN you damn retards, what the fuck went wrong please tell me? No more than 12 hours have past until I finally got a reply... "Unfortunately your previous email did not include a statement under penalty of perjury." - Eh?! WTF?
Lets now try this for the 20th damn time!!! Give me one of those damn fucking templates that you love so much, where I can just plug my name in and click send. Another day of waiting... I finally get a reply!
For your reference an example of a complete copyright removal statement is listed below.
I, John Doe, under penalty of perjury, will remove the offending content at [insert full resolving URL] promptly after the reactivation of my services. /John Doe/ John Doe (Please accept the above as an electronic signature.)
Jolly fucking ho! Could you not just send me that shit a week ago instead of wasting my damn time? Fine, I replace 'John Doe' with my name, insert 'http://www.michaelflux.com', click send. Yay! No more than 48 hours pass and I finally have access to my site!
Another 5 minutes pass, and all my content, have been moved to a new host. Awesome!
1625 words down, the story is finally over. Never again will I do any sort of business with GoDaddy. Never again will I buy anything from them. Never again will I trust a single bit of data to those fuckers.
Now, with that all said, please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to attack or bash GoDaddy's employees, I'm more than positive that if I met them in a different situation, most of them would be quite pleasant people to deal with, but in this specific case, all of them as a whole and when mixed with GoDaddy's retarded policies... well, you've just read my story.
Also if anyone thinks that this is some isolated incident, its not. This isn't the first shitty experience I had with GoDaddy. About 6 month ago the retards cancelled every single one of my domains that I had register though them, for no reason, and without notifying me. Then I had to waste yet another week trying to get a template from them which I could fill out which said that "yes, I do want my damn domains back that you lost for no reason at all".
In a month or two, I was going to move to a different host anyways, since GoDaddy's servers were so horrendously slow, but all this shit just accelerated the move. By the way, if anyone cares, I was paying for their most expensive hosting plan! Honestly, GoDaddy is the epitome of horrid customer support. It feels like their whole customer support department consists of one person working during his lunch break. Anyways, out with the old, in with the new!
My new host is a nice small company called 'Versus Technologies'. I worked with these guys for many years now and never have heard from any of their customers of any issues. If there are any problems they're all taken care of while the customer's website is still up and never in the history of the company have any files been taken down because if idiotic copyright claims. Really, after years if working with VS Tech, I can't say enough good things about them, they're absolutely excellent in every regard and if anyone is looking for a new host, VS is at the top of my list of recommendations.
Also I again would like to thank all the awesome Habari developers from the Habari Project IRC channel for not only helping me keep the site up while it was running on GoDaddy's pathetic hardware, but also for all the other assistance they've provided over the last 3.5 month that I've been using Habari.
Finally I would like to thank all of you, the readers, for sticking with me though the times. Ultimately, if not for all of you, this site probably wouldn't even exist, so thanks a lot guys!
miklb
Glad to see you back up and running. I've not been a fan of Go Daddy, and reading this will certainly motivate me to finally move all of my domain registrations away from them, as I've been meaning to do anyway.
And if I might ask, where'd you find the subscribe to comments plugin? I didn't think there was a working version for Habari.
Final question: moon sugar?
Michael Flux
@miklb, Are you talking about the 'receive email notification' thing? If so, its actually a part of wayne's 'Threaded Comment' plugin.
And err, yeah, forgot to change it for the final version of the theme - will think of something more witty later ^_^;
Alain Meyer
Good thing it's up and running despite the ordeal. Luckily, I never got involved with GoDaddy.
I commend you on the new layout, too. It's a good improvement on the old site.
Tibul
Great to see you back and I'll be sure to avoid GoDaddy like the plague ^^
Tim
Mistake #1 was to use Godaddy for anything but domain management (which is all automated and cant really fuck up... for the most part)
Mistake #2 was the fashion in which this article deteriorated. Your writing was fine and captivating throughout the first half, but lost credibility and intrigue when you decided to be visibly irate and rushed in your writing. You resorted to rough and brash words, as well as the over use of interrobang. There are much wiser and more understanding ways to show emotion in your writing, and much more powerful ways of expressing anger.
Let me preface mistake 3 by saying that I love the new design, I only wish that, as text being the focus of the site, you think more heavily about its role, and the necessity for the use of proper and thought writing.
Mistake #3 is, as I have told you, your text column is too wide. I was initially uninterested in reading it, as proven by research showing distraction if the brain cannot reach the end of the line within a certain brief amount of time.
James
@Tim, Nice one. In three paragraphs you managed to make yourself sound like a dick. Don't slam the door on your way out.
Tim
@James, I love you too James.
I do regret using the word "mistake", and realize that wording these as suggestions would be much wiser.
Smithy
@Tim, well true that Michael seems to vent a bit but after an 11 day long ordeal like that I'm sure most people would react the same way.
Tim
@Smithy, true, true. I would be equally angered and disheartened by Godaddy. I would personally however reserve those emotions in my writing and be more professional in my appearance. The one who "cries and complains" is the one who loses respect of his peers. I am not trying to imply that Michael's attitude was entirely unnecessary, but merely trying to impress that his energy could have been spent trying to convince his readers of a boycott or similar spreading of information about Godaddy's practices.
Matthew
@Tim, Maybe this site isn't targeted towards people with ADD. Also, the primary focus of this website seems to be the photos, not the text. The text merely accents the images.
Finally, if you're going to criticize the Michael for his writing you should proofread your comments before submitting.
Tim
@Matthew, a very fine point, and one that I realized soon after writing my comment.
My opinion (and you can leave it as just that, an opinion) is that Michael should switch to a smaller column for the articles, but let the images pop out beyond the column. This technique has been growing in popularity on the web and I quite like its approach. It solves the problem of having readable text columns while still facilitating large images.
Michael Flux
@Tim, I am quite curious about point #3...
First of all, let me say that you're absolutely correct in saying that wider columns make content a lot harder to read, I'm not arguing with that and I will obviously work on improving the usability of the site as time goes on.
However, please take a look at www.readotw.com. Of The Week is your site, is it not? Reason I'm curious about the third point you made, is because while you pointed it out on this site, at the same time you have made the exact same "mistake" on your own website. Plus in addition to the wide text columns, you insisted on using full justification for the article text, which in turn, is extremely hard to read.
Would you not agree that dividing the article text into two columns would make it infinitely more readable, even if you keep the justification. But anyways now, with that said, to your credit, the design of both 'Of The Week' and 'Neutyp' websites is most excellent and I love both of them. :)
Tim
@Michael Flux, thank you for your kind words about Neutyp and OTW! I really appreciate it. If you are at all interested, OTW will be relaunching and will continue on track with new content each week. We apologize for the delay.
You point out that OTW has the same problem of wide text columns.
OTW is 680px wide, at a 15px font size.
Your site is 760px wide at 13px font size.
80px and a larger font size can make a lot of difference. Your site has roughly 26 words per line, OTW is roughly 19.
I really need to find the article I read that had a very clear outline of widths and font sizes that work the best, and the research to show the likelihood of readers to become disinterested if they cant take that "mental break" after a certain number of words.
In regards to multiple columns and justification of text, yes yes, we played with several dozen different variations of the site, and landed on the current version as mixture of our aesthetic likes, and readability.
Did you personally have a problem with the text? I have spoken with several dozen readers who have all highly appreciated our text layout.
Smithy
Aoch, what a horrible story, sorry to hear you had that kind of trouble. >_
What is most shocking of it is that the company you purchase service from and are a customer of treated you rather poorly and unfairly based on a really flaky claim, no doubt by some troll in no way associated to Apple (who probably adore the good publicity they got from your articles).
Michael Flux
@Smithy, Well, the troll in question, if you believe his name on Facebook, is a legitimate figure who works for OMM (which is the company which handles most of Apple's legal troubles).
See http://omm.com/davidsepanik/
It's not that I'm doubting the legitimacy of the demand... But just the way the demand was made, and the fact that this douche completely ignored every single one of my emails...
Well, thats what makes him a trolling douche.
Optic
Dam, I've never read or even heard customer support as bad as this. The support level is so low, it makes me wonder how much lower they can really go.
Good riddance is over like forever.
Michael Flux
@Optic, Well, I guess they can always just close down the customer support center completely :p
Panther
File a counter-claim on Facebook against this shithead and start on him a trek worse than the one you journeyed upon.
Michael Flux
@Panther, Why Facebook? Its not as if they had anything to do with it. That's like blaming Twitter because someone didn't like what you said :/
Ragnar
Wow, dude, this was one hell of a story... seriously messed up stuff happened, it seems. But the good thing is that you made it - now you have your new design working at last and all is good.
BTW - as I have said - I totally love that new design and I totally love the OP ads you have there...
Much love, dude, very much. Please keep updating us readers and fellow otakus with great shit, please do :D
Ah, it really way an amazing story, laughed my ass off - tho I can only imagine what you must have felt :D
Joe
So, I take it you would recommend Habari over Wordpress? Might give a try.
Sounds like a horrible experience btw
Michael Flux
@Joe, I wouldn't really say I recommend it over Wordpress, but I personally prefer it. Wordpress just feels a bit too bloated.
To be perfectly honest with you, I think that at this moment, for the average user WP would probably be better, simply because of how many people use it and the sheer amount of themes and plugins already available.
However the people who make their own themes and plugins, I think will enjoy Habari quite a bit.
If anything, you may as well download it and play around with it for a bit - not like you have to kill your existing site to do it. :)
Oh and plus as I said in the post, the main developers, and all the other users are extremely helpful. something one can't really say about the WordPress community, generally speaking.
Aaron T.
What a ridiculous, yet interesting story.
Sounds like you went through Hell and back again.
julio
glad ur back!
Michael Flux
@julio, Glad to be back, and glad to see you're still around too! Welcome back Julio, I'll start making the posts with the Japanese photos in a few days :)
julio
@Michael Flux, ty!
Jamaipanese
aaah another story about the retards at Godaddy.
Earlier this year all my sites were taken offline after I was accused of "fraud". No notice, no correspondence nothing just all my sites taken offline without my knowledge or investigation. turns out it was just a minor paypal glitch.
As an international customer customer service is even harder to deal with them.
Santa
Glad to know you're up and running again. That's bull shit that it took so long, and the whole facebook deal, well that guy just sounds like an idiot. Can't wait to see the new posts to come. ^_^
k
So you didn't find out who it was?
Michael Flux
@k, What do you mean? Did I ever find who the troll in question was? Well, if one is to believe what he said his name was, he is David Sepanik of OMM - (OMM being the company who handles most of Apple's legal matters). However until the replies to all of my emails, he's little more then a troll :)
Prometheus
Sick life man. Glad it is back up. You should actually write more :P U is g00t @ tha writingz!!!! I loled a lot!
Michael Flux
@Prometheus, Heh, glad you enjoyed it :p
yonasu
First off, I'm glad your site is back up and I love your new design!
Secondly, while I do agree on Tim's first point of only using GoDaddy for domain management, I disagree on the other two. Writing in a more professional fashion is of course not bad, but it's these kind of stories that keep me away. I think that showing emotion like this makes it more interesting and powerful.
As for "mistake #3", I really do not agree. I don't think the column is too wide, in fact, I find this layout to be much nicer on my eyes than "Real Beauty of the Week".
Anyways, I hope you'll be happy with Versus. If this happens to me, I'll move my site there too^^
Coco the Bean
OOOHH damn, this was a bigger mess than I thought x_x Glad your site is up and running once again
sanguinerose
Glad you're back up.
KonstantinMiller
You know so many interesting infomation. You might be very wise. I like such people. Don't top writing.
lightningsabre
Ahoy! Sorry for the delay in the comments... I've been backed up a lot on the blogroll =/ I did read this before when you first posted it, just didn't comment til now. I'm working on a new system to do blogrolls.
Sucks to hear about this. I can't believe some random guy (not sure if he is that random) just gets on GoDaddy's case and takes you down like that >_ Doesn't help that GoDaddy doesn't seem to know or care about your problems either...
So this David Sepanik never got back to you ever again? I guess communication is not a part of their training...
Glad to see you back though ^_^ And I added you to my newly created Twitter acct. ;)
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