Tonight some colleagues and I went to a book signing by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan as they promote their new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. I’m not even close to a Deadhead but I’m always fascinated by a good case study, so I’m looking forward to reading this book.

While we were there, I asked David to sign my copy of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, which is on the bookshelves of most marketers I know. My copy is rather dogeared as I bought it just as I started my marketing career and made the transition from journalism. After giving my brief introduction and background, he echoed something I’ve thought for a while now — getting laid off from my journalism job was one of the best things that has happened to me, as it brought me into a creative and challenging field that I enjoy, even, er, grok. It was encouraging to hear that from the author whose book calmed my nerves as I got started and confirmed ideas I had from my journalism days that I wasn’t sure would really transfer. Thankfully they have, though I had (and still have) a lot to learn in how Good Marketing Is Done. But then again, who doesn’t?

I’ll post a review of Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead when I complete it. (Might not be terribly soon though, as I also bought the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo :P)

This is what I see every time I log in:

Anyone else notice this?

Sure, it beats 24/7 Bieber, and admittedly I’m not much for sports, but I’m having a hard time believing Boston is still only talking about basketball.

Yes, this is going to be a screed against lousy customer service from both of them.

To be blunt, my server was repeatedly hacked, set up to host malware and become a spam zombie — and I got no help from my service host to improve my server’s security. This is point-by-point rundown of the timeline of the last month, since it’s a laundry list of fail:

• Received email from Bluehost saying my account had been suspended as my server was found hosting malware
• Called customer service, was told probably my password wasn’t strong enough. Probably. Maybe. They’re not sure.
• Changed password to something more secure.
• One week later, received the same email from Bluehost, account suspended.
• Called customer service, was told it was probably something insecure with my php. They can’t tell me what specifically, or how my server keeps getting compromised, but they tell me to fix it “or else.” You know, because I’m a server security expert, and I only decided to pay someone else to take care of my server needs (i.e. Bluehost) for shits and giggles.
• Shooting in the dark, I follow best practice guidelines on how to lock down .htaccess, .ini, .inc files, how to make sure all my directories are properly indexed, how to make sure my set php global variables are as secure as possible. This is all uncharted territory for me, but I follow all the best practice articles I can find and implement their suggestions.
• Two days later, same account suspension email comes from Bluehost. This time my site has been blacklisted because it’s a spam zombie and the spams are pointing to malware hosted on my server yet again.
• I call Bluehost support, they can’t tell me how my site keeps getting compromised but wants me to, somehow, fix it. I’ve done the best I can to keep things secure on my end, but what on earth am I paying them for if they expect me to fix all the security holes on the server they’re providing?
• I tear my hair out in frustration.
• Later that day, email from my domain registrar GoDaddy that my site has been blacklisted as serving spam on URIBL and they are terminating my domain UNLESS I pay a fee of $75 or $200. Otherwise they’ll suspend my account until my URL expires. Essentially, GoDaddy holds my domain for ransom.
• BlueHost emails me not long after that they want me to move to another hosting provider as I’ve now had 3 marks against my account. I have 15 days to move my files off their servers before they delete everything.
• My flight for a week-long vacation in Greece leaves 4 hours later. $%&@!!!

I’ve since moved my files to a new host, Surpasshosting, and transferred my domain to NameCheap. I refused to pay GoDaddy’s fine against my account as the compromised server issues were not my fault — again, what on earth am I paying a hosting provider for if they can’t keep the server secure? As an end user, the entire reason I pay for a hosted server is because I am decidedly not a server security expert.

Adding insult to injury, I work for a computer/network security company, so I hear about these kinds of attacks and security issues every single day. And I know what kinds of easy technologies can prevent such attacks (proactive detection, anyone?)

For years I’d had my site hosted with BlueHost with no issues. Lots of WordPress users have their sites on BlueHost because they have easy WordPress installations (though WP is easy to setup regardless). Of course, my site hadn’t been hacked in those years, either. It’s a roulette game — but when your number’s up and you’re hacked, good luck.

You get what you pay for, that I’ve learned. With BlueHost and GoDaddy as cheap as they are, it’s no wonder that instead of providing any basic customer support around security issues, they’re happier to cut you lose or fine you. So I’ve taken my dollars elsewhere, thanks very much. Good riddance to both those services.

]]> http://www.mvarmazis.com/me-n-my-bear/feed/ 0 http://www.mvarmazis.com/new-yarns-and-boye-needles/ http://www.mvarmazis.com/new-yarns-and-boye-needles/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:15:06 +0000 Maria Varmazis http://mvarmazis.com/?p=115

As with yesterday, newest posts are at the top.

Check out these two feeds:
My flickr account (photos)
My twitter (tiny tweets)

[@4:11pm] I’m home from ROFLcon — have to head out with the family for Orthodox Easter celebrations now. Had to miss out on some of the final panels (tweets on the ROFLcon feed are telling me perhaps I didn’t miss much) but I’m already looking forward to next year. I’ll post more about my overall thoughts on the conference in a later post. Have a lot to digest from the past two days before I can get some cogent thoughts together.

[@2:26pm] Whoa, Timbaland ripping off OCremix isn’t getting any coverage? If true, how is no one picking up on this story?

MSM and radio and talk shows read Fark for material. Apparently show networks can’t attribute Fark for material because of union and network contracting rules — legal ramifications. Hat-tips just don’t happen in MSM, says Curtis. He’s explaining how many TV news networks quote each other when stories breaks. This isn’t news to me, but a lot of audience members seem shocked. Old media ethos is exact opposite of how sites like Fark and Reddit work, kind of incomprehensible about how the two will mesh more and more.

“The Internet” = Fark.com

[@2:11pm] We have now successfully RickRolled the panel.

Alexis of Reddit: “So many buzzy PR things happen organically and it frustrates the hell out of them. ”

Another question — are trolls necessary?
DJPretzel: “They are necessary to deal with the marketers that come to the site. If you’re real it will come through, if you’re fake you’ll get trolled–there’s no way to pull one over the audience.”
Matt of Metafilter: “Marketing comes off as fake.”
Fark summary of comments: “People submitting content, great. Marketers, fuck ‘em.” Oooo.

Corollary: Old media being fooled by stupid stories/marketing, Drew Curtis not sure why old media is always getting drawn in by these fake stories all the time. I’m not either! (Mooninites anyone?)

[@1:56] Fark’s Drew Curtis on what Fark is: “Everybody else is stupid but I’m smart.”

Anil Dash deserves a lot of props and shoutouts, he’s doing a fantastic job of moderating this panel.

Comments on how Reddit and the Reddit community is changing, has changed. From geeky LISP-related news to political memes (Ron Paul) etc. Fark and Reddit commenting on their community–even the gripers–they’re really happy with the communities. OCRemix wants to see more diversity of games remixed, I can’t argue with them there (I go for the FF and Chrono Trigger remixes mainly but other games I like are barely touched by remixers). “Don’t always go for the lowest common denominator in terms of what you want to see featured.”

Current top comments on the backchan interactive are the first few lyrics from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
That’s right, ROFLcon’s RickRolling Fark, Metafilter, Reddit and OCRemix. It has all come full circle.

[@1:47pm] Starting the “Incubating the Mindvirus” panel on memes– OCRemix, Fark, metafilter, reddit. This might be my last activity of the day — it’s Eastern Orthodox Easter tomorrow and I need to be with my family this evening.

Randall Munroe, creator of XKCD, is here. He says thanks to the referrals from Reddit he’s on there all the time. Figures, ’cause XKCD is on Reddit all the time. Cozy.

More twitter-reddit hybrid comment posting on a projection. Top posts right now: “Trolls: are they an essential part of the community?” and “Do you think the Internet is less interesting now that you’re all in here?”

Reddit gave a shoutout to Yahztee (Zero Punctuation game reviewer), says Yahztee should be here next year. I couldn’t agree more! Yahztee’s fast-paced potty-mouthed game reviews are painfully funny, and his homegrown reviews have basically dwarfed all the professional game reviewers out there from word-of-mouth alone.

[@1:15pm] We got locked out of an event room but there are a few ROFLconners inside. I’m twittering one of them, asking them to open the door (since they can’t hear us knocking) when they see the tweet. This is really bizarre, even for a geek like me!

[@1:01pm] TripAdvisor provided 225 boxes of free pizza (I asked an employee, that’s how I got this number). I think we ate about half of the food, I wonder what they’ll do with the ~100 boxes of untouched pizza? [I'm overhearing talk of Salvation Army and Pine Street Inn.]

Earlier, Anonymous (4chan) showed up toting pizza. Cries of “Anonymous delivers!” rang out.

Had a group photo outside of all the attendees. It’s a beautiful sunny day for it, can’t wait to see the pics.

Another one of those “Only at ROFLcon” moments — Tron guy, the Firefox and Cheez (CEO of Icanhascheezburger.com) all chatting together:

BTW, looks like there’s a Tron guy documentary in the works. He’s trailed by a sound and video guy at all times. Fascinating.

Earlier, the FireFox and Ollie the Owl (TripAdvisor’s mascot) duked it out:

… but they reconciled, all in the name of OMGfreepizza:

Going to get a seat now for the Stuff White People Like blog panel. I talked to the blog creater earlier, he’s a really nice guy and I’m interested to hear more of what he has to say on his blog’s very, very sudden and huge popularity.

[@11:59am] Fans are kind of asking for dirty Homestarrunner — Homestarrunner porn? Have Homestar say things he oughtn’t? Bros Chaps reply: “Corner me in the john.” Um, no thanks.

Lunchtime. Free pizza (oh, it really is like college again). The Firefox and the Owl will have a smackdown. Hmmm.

[@11:51] Brothers Chaps affirms they did indeed visit Disney and met with a producer there, he wanted to collaborate with HSR. Apparently nothing came of it (conclusively) but they found it very flattering that Disney folks liked their work.

Panel voted unanimously: The internet is awesome.
Great.
Glad we cleared that up.

The Firefox asked the panel about adding features for accessibility and open standards on their websites?
…Panel replies they don’t really get what open source is.
Moderator: “This is like a panel of people who only visit the internet.”

[@11:46] Someone asked the inevitable “How does Strongbad type with boxing gloves on?”
Strong Bad: “I’m gonna murder whoever put that question up.”

[@11:41pm] Neely: “I’m waiting for the day when someone tells me this thing is all over…but I have secrets” — OK, it must be obvious I am a huge Brad Neely fan. If he’s got other things up his sleeves, I can’t wait to see it!

Brothers Chaps: Someone actually thought the whole HSR joke was that Homestar has Down Syndrome?!?! What the heck?

[@11:34pm] Brad Neely–”Flash to me is a guy in a red suit that runs around”–talking about processes and tools used in production. HSR still uses Flash 5. Wow!

[@11:15am] Here I am again at the MIT campus in a sea of geeks and laptops. I didn’t get back from the ROFLconcert at the Middle East Upstairs (in Central) last night until 2:30am, so as you can imagine I’m pretty tired. In my exhaustion this morning, I forgot my camera at home! So it’s all cell phone photos today. Sorry!

Still the main focus fo the day are the excellent panels going on today.

Right now I’m (a half-hour late) to the Making It Big panel. Big names here–Brothers Chaps of Homestar Runner, Brad Neely of SuperDeluxe.com (Babycakes, Professor Brothers), Burnie Burns of Red vs Blue and some of the staff of Cyanide and Happiness.

The discussion has moved from what “selling out” is, to freedom of expression on the internet versus self- or imposed-censorship on other media, to the processes they go through to create their popular content.

Applause for Homestarrunner.com never running ads on their site for the eight years they’ve been going.

Q: “Can you talk about not having ads on your site?”–moderator
A: “There’s nothing to talk about, ads are the worst thing about the internet”–Bros Chaps

Brothers Chaps apparently work out of a “inspriringly depressing shopping center.”

There’s a room-wide twitter-like channel going on. Comments are up-down voted ala Reddit and the entire screen is projected behind the panelists so they can see what the most popular comments and questions are. This is a fantastic idea.