IB hotlinking my site

[Lucas]

This thread has gone from entertaining to pathetic.

That's usually what happens when everyone gets excited and also wants to be 'be in it' for the fun, sigh. Everyone needs to be a sensation here.

 

[CTXMedia]

You UK guys really get your panties twisted over fair use, don't you?

It was a funny prank - stop worrying yourselves with legal ramifications. There are none.

(Meant in a funny, jabbing way. Not in a mean way. Wasn't sure how it would be taken after I re-read it.)

My post wasn't concerned with legalities; the OP took the moral high ground of "pranking" the other party for taking his smilies and bandwidth without permission (great trick, I've done it myself, as have many others).

However, I just felt that he lost some of that ground by then taking XenForo's name/brand without permission (especially with such a poor choice of wording [IMHO of course ])!

I understand people are pissed off with IB. I realise XF could be so much more without the overheads of fighting the lawsuit. But what gives the OP the right to use XF's name? To create a seemingly XF sponsored defacement of an Internet Brands web site? Did anyone stop to think how that would reflect on the XenForo company and team? Does it look very professional? Was this action supported by the XenForo principles?

Perhaps other people don't see it the same way I do, I don't know, but I'd rather see people be supportive of XenForo by helping answer pre-sales questions, give other customers support, and talk positively about it in their sites and blogs - than take-up-arms against IB on XF's behalf (that's really the job of the XF company).

I realise it was a prank and intended as a bit of fun - I just didn't find the choice of device a particularly suitable one.

 

[Shelley]

My post wasn't concerned with legalities; the OP took the moral high ground of "pranking" the other party for taking his smilies and bandwidth without permission (great trick, I've done it myself, as have many others).

However, I just felt that he lost some of that ground by then taking XenForo's name/brand without permission (especially with such a poor choice of wording [IMHO of course ])!

I understand people are pissed off with IB. I realise XF could be so much more without the overheads of fighting the lawsuit. But what gives the OP the right to use XF's name? To create a seemingly XF sponsored defacement of an Internet Brands web site? Did anyone stop to think how that would reflect on the XenForo company and team? Does it look very professional? Was this action supported by the XenForo principles?

Perhaps other people don't see it the same way I do, I don't know, but I'd rather see people be supportive of XenForo by helping answer pre-sales questions, give other customers support, and talk positively about it in their sites and blogs - than take-up-arms against IB on XF's behalf (that's really the job of the XF company).

I realise it was a prank and intended as a bit of fun - I just didn't find the choice of device a particularly suitable one.

Agreed. it had nothing to do with XF, and makes this forum the product a mockery which is a damn shame.

 

[Lisa]

My post wasn't concerned with legalities; the OP took the moral high ground of "pranking" the other party for taking his smilies and bandwidth without permission (great trick, I've done it myself, as have many others).

However, I just felt that he lost some of that ground by then taking XenForo's name/brand without permission (especially with such a poor choice of wording [IMHO of course ])!

I understand people are pissed off with IB. I realise XF could be so much more without the overheads of fighting the lawsuit. But what gives the OP the right to use XF's name? To create a seemingly XF sponsored defacement of an Internet Brands web site? Did anyone stop to think how that would reflect on the XenForo company and team? Does it look very professional? Was this action supported by the XenForo principles?

Perhaps other people don't see it the same way I do, I don't know, but I'd rather see people be supportive of XenForo by helping answer pre-sales questions, give other customers support, and talk positively about it in their sites and blogs - than take-up-arms against IB on XF's behalf (that's really the job of the XF company).

I realise it was a prank and intended as a bit of fun - I just didn't find the choice of device a particularly suitable one.

Agreed. it had nothing to do with XF, and makes this forum the product a mockery which is a damn shame.

This is basically what I was trying to say when I commented earlier - while I understand the "why" behind what he did, I don't think the "how"was really appropriate.

 

[Cal]

My post wasn't concerned with legalities; the OP took the moral high ground of "pranking" the other party for taking his smilies and bandwidth without permission (great trick, I've done it myself, as have many others).

However, I just felt that he lost some of that ground by then taking XenForo's name/brand without permission (especially with such a poor choice of wording [IMHO of course ])!

I understand people are pissed off with IB. I realise XF could be so much more without the overheads of fighting the lawsuit. But what gives the OP the right to use XF's name? To create a seemingly XF sponsored defacement of an Internet Brands web site? Did anyone stop to think how that would reflect on the XenForo company and team? Does it look very professional? Was this action supported by the XenForo principles?

Perhaps other people don't see it the same way I do, I don't know, but I'd rather see people be supportive of XenForo by helping answer pre-sales questions, give other customers support, and talk positively about it in their sites and blogs - than take-up-arms against IB on XF's behalf (that's really the job of the XF company).

I realise it was a prank and intended as a bit of fun - I just didn't find the choice of device a particularly suitable one.

Some of you are taking this way too far. They stole his images. Who cares what he did to them. The point is he got his revenge the way he wanted to. They set themselves up so I have no pity for the IB site. I find it lucky that he did what he did....he could have replaced everything with really big porn images like I would have done.

 

[steven s]

Some of you are taking this way too far. They stole his images. Who cares what he did to them. The point is he got his revenge the way he wanted to. They set themselves up so I have no pity for the IB site. I find it lucky that he did what he did....he could have replaced everything with really big porn images like I would have done.

Would it have been such a major issue if it was a phpBB site? Would it have been worth trolling on their forum too?

Move on folks.

 

[Cal]

Site A is hot linking site B....it is always worth trolling site A. Leave the names out, who cares, yeah it would have been worth it if it was phpbb (or smf, burning board, vanilla, VB, etc, etc, etc, etc!).

 

[Russ]

As Mike and Brogan would say:

"This thread has run it's course" CLOSED

 

[steven s]

Site A is hot linking site B....it is always worth trolling site A. Leave the names out, who cares, yeah it would have been worth it if it was phpbb (or smf, burning board, vanilla, VB, etc, etc, etc, etc!).

You really think so?
It's only because it's an IB site that anyone cared.

As Mike and Brogan would say:

"This thread has run it's course" CLOSED

Hard to tell which bashing threads are allowed and which aren't.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I believe the original issue still stands, being an IB owned site is pulling images from a Xenforo customer installation.

That is still an issue, regardless how you look at it. It also still directly connects IB maliciously attempting to affect a Xenforo customer, thus Xenforo software, regardless whether the smilies are Xenforo default or not... the software is still Xenforo, thus it doesn't look good for IB to be connected in such a manner.

 

[Joeychgo]

Come on Anthony, I remember you to be a much more reasonable and intelligent person. What happened to you?

IB likely had no knowlege of the hotlinking. They have no reason to steal bandwidth from a small forum owner. How would they be maliciously affecting a Xenforo customer? Give me a break. I said it before.. My guess is the original owner linked to those smiles because he liked them, and IB bought the site and didnt check the smile links. That is something I could see myself doing as well. Its also something that could have likely been cleared up with 1 single email to IB.

Its comments like yours, along with stupid pranks like this, that make Xenforo look like a software community of immature and spoiled little kids. THAT kind of thing negatively affects the credibility of Xenforo software around the web.

 

[Forsaken]

Come on Anthony, I remember you to be a much more reasonable and intelligent person. What happened to you?

IB likely had no knowlege of the hotlinking. They have no reason to steal bandwidth from a small forum owner. How would they be maliciously affecting a Xenforo customer? Give me a break. I said it before.. My guess is the original owner linked to those smiles because he liked them, and IB bought the site and didnt check the smile links. That is something I could see myself doing as well. Its also something that could have likely been cleared up with 1 single email to IB.

Its comments like yours, along with stupid pranks like this, that make Xenforo look like a software community of immature and spoiled little kids. THAT kind of thing negatively affects the credibility of Xenforo software around the web.

While I agree an email would have been a better action, I don't necessarily see anything wrong with the prank, but more with the content of the prank. They shouldn't have 'involved' XenForo in the situation, and should have kept it limited to CAD/IB being thieves.

And how does this thread negatively impact the XenForo software? There is a single post stating off-topic posts were split off by Slavik, the only person directly related to XenForo other than as a customer. If anything it would only negatively impact the credibility of the community, but even then most people would ignore the thread as they can see the reasons for the action, even if it was carried out too far. The unnecessary trolling afterwards was done by individuals as well, so again I don't see how it affects the community all that much, and more their reputations.

 

[Lawrence]

IB likely had no knowlege of the hotlinking...

If I'm into purchasing sites, I would be doing my research on the site first. IB obviously did not. Wouldn't something like this be one of the first checks on your list? I mean really, there is no excuse, they own the site that was hot-linking. What makes it worse, smilie URL's are right there in the Admin CP, and they couldn't take a moment to check the URL's before, or after the purchase? If they did check they obviously did not care, and if they did not take the time to check URL's... what does that say about the company?

Anyway's IB owns a site that was stealing bandwidth from another site for a while, which just happens to be a XenForo powered site. So which is it: they knew and didn't care, or they didn't know because they could not figure out vB's Admin CP to do those basic checks? And for a company that buys forums and owns vB, the latter should raise a big red flag.

 

[Pereira]

If you take a look at the admin usernames (most of which have IB in their name) plus the date of their posts, (provided they didn't change their usernames) you would realise that they have owned the site for at least over one year.

I don't necessarily agree with the course of action the poster took myself because I personally would have written to the owner and then would have taken legal action, if necessary.

Also, since when does the actions of one, represent the whole community? Bizarre.

 

[Joeychgo]

Sure.... IB, a billion dollar corporation, needs to steal smilie bandwidth for 1 site from some other obscure small site.

Are you guys REALLY this unrealistic?

Oh, and lawrence... I've bought a number of sites.. Never checked that. I was too worried about the many other things going on like site upgrades, befriending members, stuff like that. It's a relatively obscure setting you dont think to check because the vast majority of site owners dont hotlink to someone elses site. It is very easy to overlook.

Come on people... Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. If that's all you have to attack IB with then Xenforo is really in trouble.

Of course, I could point out that at least IB remembers to renew their domain names on time...

 

[Adam Howard]

This is an interesting community..... Damned if you support XenForo, damned if you don't.

I support XenForo and I regret nothing.

 

[Forsaken]

Of course, I could point out that at least IB remembers to renew their domain names on time...

And I can point out all the known issues Namecheap has had with alerts and auto-renew recently. Nearly losing some of my more valuable domains due to them not sending out email alerts (I own over 300 domains, so 'remembering to renew them' isn't exactly possible) has made me look into moving away to another registrar. Auto-renew isn't something you'd expect to fail. Did it suck, sure. Was it incompetence or part of some vast conspiracy of XenForo failing? Not at all.

It was also pointed out that IB and IPB both rely on auto-renew as well .

 

[Pereira]

You would have to be fairly ignorant not to know your site was linking someone elses images, especially with so many admins and moderators, for what appears to be at least over one year.

Also I don't see how this is anyone attacking IB. The site they happen to own was loading images from another site for the benefit of their own. This is the first time I've ever heard such a thing, especially with smilies. Quite embarrassing stuff really.

 

[Adam Howard]

And I can point out all the known issues Namecheap has had with alerts and auto-renew recently. Nearly losing some of my more valuable domains due to them not sending out email alerts (I own over 300 domains, so 'remembering to renew them' isn't exactly possible) has made me look into moving away to another registrar. Auto-renew isn't something you'd expect to fail. Did it suck, sure. Was it incompetence or part of some vast conspiracy of XenForo failing? Not at all.

It was also pointed out that IB and IPB both rely on auto-renew as well .

I can confirm this as well.

NameCheap has the habit of either

A) Not auto renewing

OR

B) Not sending you a notice to tell you that you need to renew (assuming you don't use auto renew).

 

[0xym0r0n]

This post made my day. HYSTERICAL!