For some reason SPAMHAUS decides that qhost.info and aaax.info are spammer`s domains and to be mercilessly struggled with. These both domains were registered through GoDaddy.com and their owners decided to use our service for putting zones into operation. It was natural to specify our NS for proper resolving. Which was done.
SPAMHAUS discovers such crying disgrace and writes an abuse to us as well as to Hosting.UA and Akanoc.com. Consequently both hosting companies threat us with shutdown. And we fairly put qhost.info and aaax.info zones into suspend mode and stop resolving them, and above that we close accounts from which these zones were registered.
It seems that conflict is closed, everyone's happy, zones don't resolve, spam is not sended. However, in a month SPAMHAUS discovers that evil was not beaten to the grounds and that domains qhost.info and aaax.info are still using our NS! Instead of writing abuse to GoDaddy.com which is able to correct this situation, SPAMHAUS sends another abuse to Hosting.UA and Akanoc.com. As result we`re simply cut off because of "recurring violation" of some rules or "inobservance" and "non-fulfilment". And nobody was able to clear the situation.
And the NS specified for qhost.info - aaax.info are point to our service still
The typical scenario has following stages: 1. A department operating with spam database receives a complaint against a web-site 2. According to this complaint large blocks of the hoster’s IP adresses are set as blocked. As a result, ALL clients of the hosting-provider face troubles with outgoing e-mails. 3. The hosting provider has no choice but to switch off the server "responsible for the crime"
4. Here comes the showdown: hoster contacts spam-fighters who black-listed his adresses. 5. Hoster clears the skirt of, while his client blamed in spamming is forced to look for a new hoster as its server is shoot down.
Our free service has experienced above-mentioned situation recently. We lost the hosting, our clients got problems with domain access .... We solved the problem by moving to a new hosting for our service. Our examining department thoroughly monitors our clients regarding spam activities and other cyber crimes. Life goes on.
P.S. It should be recognized that modern methods of "struggle against a spam" deal more with struggling consequences and not the sources and reasons. Decisions on sanctions are accepted not always by competent people and bear not constructive but more destructive character. The organization of such activities requires a formation of hosting-providers instead of "the noncommercial organizations" trading bases and a software.
A little incident happened today. We tried to upgrade the traffic distribution server but ran into configuration issues. Newly registered URLs could not be processed properly for a couple of hours. The incident has been resolved.
We receive complaints about several short URLs made by our users. The "report abuse" link at the bottom of the page will help you to block such links ASAP. The abusive links will be blocked instantly, it means right after you click on submit button. However, to avoid a misuse of this tool, you must personify yourself.
And from the other side - a registered user will receive a notification about complaint for his URLs. You may contact our admin about the incident (hey, he does not bite!) and he will review the link ASAP.
This plugin allow to make short URL for the page you are currently browsing with just one click. To create a short URL from the current address just click on FFF.TO button and new short URL will be created and placed in the address box, replacing your current address. It works really cool and honestly, it is one of the simplest user interaction pattern I've ever seen :)
Well, besides all that sweet stuff, it is just a ver.1.0 of the plugin. Leave a comments about how to improve it and what features you would like to see in future versions.
Bookmarklet is a small piece of FFF.TO web-site which allow to make a short URL for any page you browse. To install the bookmarklet, drag this link to your browser as you see in the screencast. Rename it properly, personally i prefer the FFF name. If you know something about graphics design or especially web-development, #FFF means a reduced form of white color's hex-value :)
To create a short URL press on the bookmarklet once again. A small panel will appear in the right corner of the page you are browsing currently. Current URL will be captured by the bookmarklet automatically. You may set the lifetime and tags. Yes, tags, keywords, categories or whatever you call it. Separate them with comma. Now tags are used to form a vanity suffix on a second step (well, see more on this in following post). Press the continue button (take a look at the screencast):
One thing that the screencast do not capture well. To close the bookmarklet click on its link in your bookmark panel or on "close" link in top right corner of the bookmarklet.
Today we have released a number of interesting features - a bookmarklet, a firefox plugin (more in following videos), instant abuse handling and various small improvements under the hood.
And we are working hard to bring a terrific improvements of URL processing server in forthcoming update. Basicly it is a brand new solution with distributed architecture. That allow us to dramatically upgrade the TDS engine and minimize a processing latency.
Looking at competitive URL shortinizing services, we found that mashing up external services may bring a significant advantages to analytics part. Better analytics and tighter integration with community sites - are the keywords of next FFF.TO upgrade.
