...that pisses me off about MySpace. Hot linking! I have been meaning to post about this, then I saw 3Ts post and have to agree.
Why do those boneheads think it is OK to steal my bandwidth? I have my hotlink protection on, so they never actually get an image to display. However, every time some under-supervised, over-hormoned teenager clicks on one of their friends' pages, my server has to deal with the request. Considering how many of these jerks there are on MySpace, that is a lot of traffic.
And it ticks me off!
I understand it is a good resource for new music. I just don't have the patience to wade through the cesspool to find a new band I might like.
UPDATE: As of 11/20, my test image is still the number one result on Google....
Generally most of those folks don't know enough about internet protocol to know it's rude, it always reminds me of Geocities of modern times. Except I could figure out how to use Geocities.
I actually get more music these days from the podsafe music network than myspace, with the exception of one friend who is on it, who will tell me about bands that hit the mainstream 5 years later, she just has a knack for finding them early.
Posted by: Thomas at November 16, 2006 08:42 AMAnd it's never-ending. You get two "My-Spacers" to remove it, or download the image, and two more pop up! I just find it hard to believe that they have absolutely no clue how this works...
I've come to the realization it's a battle I need to try and ignore. Except when they use my photographs that I have personally taken. (Then it's WAR) ;-)
Posted by: 3rdtimesacharm( 3T ) at November 16, 2006 09:32 AMI've actually gone to investigate the source a couple of times, and I find the same person doing it over and over. Don't they see that the first two they tried didn't work? Why do it yet again?
And, how are they finding my pics? I have tried to stop the image indexing robots that I know of; Google, AltaVista... What is it that MySpacers are using, because I will put up a brick wall to stop that stupid robot for sure.
Posted by: Vox at November 16, 2006 09:54 AMI just went and double checked Google and they were still bringing up my pics! I went through their site till I found what they require to remove your images from their index. I imagine Rachel has already fixed you up on that front, 3T, but if not the info is here. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35308
Posted by: Vox at November 16, 2006 10:11 AMMaybe a no spiders command at the directory might help? Just a thought....
I am enough of a geek to know what that means, probably not enough of one to make it happen ;-)
Posted by: Thomas at November 16, 2006 10:16 AMI had the exclusions set to include my image directories, but wanted to allow indexing of the rest of my site. Unfortunately, Googlebot & Googlebot image require slightly more specific language, apparently. We'll see if the new robots.txt file works. I think they crawl at least weekly, so I will check it later and see.
I'm less grumpy about it this morning. Amazing what a bit of NyQuil and a good night's sleep can do for you.
Posted by: Vox at November 16, 2006 10:23 AMNyQuil is cask conditioned ale for the beer intolerant. A good nights sleep helps all.
Posted by: Thomas at November 16, 2006 10:54 AM