Dropped from Google
My site was hacked by evil gambling spammers. I removed the code Google pointed to, and informed Google. I'm still invisible.
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My site was hacked by evil gambling spammers. I removed the code Google pointed to, and informed Google. I'm still invisible.
Lessig Blog by Lawrence Lessig is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Comments (19)
In the words of Nelson, "Ha Ha!"
This happened to me too!
Big pain to get rid of it.
If when you notified Google (using that reconsideration thing, right?) you outlined what happened and what you did to correct it, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. It may take quite some time before your request is actually looked at, just gotta have patience.
Annoying.
I think you can resolve this situation more quickly by joining Google Webmaster Tools and adding your site. You'll get a message from Google in Webmaster telling you about the removal of your site and how to rectify it.
You are plainly visible on Yahoo. That's not too shabby.
Hi, my name is Matt Cutts and I'm the head of the webspam group at Google. It appears that your blog is still hacked to show spam, because I can currently visit some urls on your site and still get redirected to online gambling sites. You've got my email via this comment--do you want to contact me by email and I can provide some examples and give more info?
When this happened to me I fixed it by backing up the blog, doing a fresh WordPress install and then reimporting everything. It's definitely some work, but it was worth it to get everything back working.
Like viruses were the death of Windows, blog hacking/spamming will be the death of WordPress. I spend more time fixing my blogs than I do blogging. It really pisses me off.
Matt Mullenweg, FIX YOUR SOFTWARE!
Spamming/hacking will be the downfall of WordPress... just as viruses are the downfall of Microsoft Windows.
MATT Mullenweg.... PLEASE FIX YOUR SOFTWARE ASAP!!!
Bob, you may not have seen, but WordPress 2.7 came out last night, and it contains easy-update functionality. It's not perfect, but it is a big step forward.
I did not know you, but someone told me about you. And I found you through a google search. So I am satisfied
Actually, I just searched for "lawrence lessig" and lessig.org/blog was the first result.
So you're looking good from here, boss.
Hey Matt,
I know about the WP update, but the problem is WP updates way too often. If you have multiple blogs to maintain with customized themes it can take a good hour to update your blog. Then a new exploit is discovered and you have to update again.
Spamming is so bad with WordPress it's about time to move to a different platform. It's beyond awful.... spend more time fighting spammers and security than creating content. It shouldn't be that way.
Well, I guess this is a ripe opportunity for me or someone else out there to make a new platform.
I'm mega frustrated... and sad :(
Bob, I agree WordPress updates a lot, but the flip side is that it innovates quickly too. This site is actually running Moveable Type, so it's not a WordPress issue. In fact, to me it looks more like the hacks are taking place on the webhost level in this particular instance.
Google results bounce up and down usually after a reindexing delay, upsetting many webmasters. And an argument against having one dominant/monopoly search site. (I did not notice any outrage when Google tried to block Microsoft from buying Yahoo to compete) But I digress.
As of now, I did not see Lessig’s sight when searchering for “Lessig,” “Lawrence Lessig” (without quotes in search) or even Lessig.org.
On the bright side, Lessig’s badly written endorsement of Andrew Keen’s great book (not) has also slipped from the ratings.
One can use a google dance tool such as
http://www.google-dance-tool.com/cgi-bin/gdance.cgi
to search 100 plus results from three google servers.
(If you already visited Lessig’s site, it’s easier to spot as a visited link. Many other sites including Lessig in blog look similar)
You still have problems. A view source of the blog homepage reveals a series of links to a pharma spam site. Div containing the links have an absolute position with left and top margin positioned off page with negative margins.
I'm always surprised by how many people choose to run their own blogging software rather than having a third party run it for them, especially considering the number of security problems that are continuously being found (especially in wordpress).
Lots of sysadmins i know use livejournal, wordpress, or typepad's hosted blog services. These people are the ideal candidates for running their own blog software, yet they use hosted services because they understand how much of a time suck it is to keep the software up to date on their own. Many corporate blogs, such as flickr's, use these services as well.
My advice: Move your blog to typepad.com (run by sixapart, the company that makes your current blogging software). Have blog.lessig.org point to the new blog's address, and have old links redirected appropriately.
Good luck. Spam links suck, but they wouldn't be a problem if our search engines were a bit smarter...
I'm always surprised by how many people choose to run their own blogging software rather than having a third party run it for them, especially considering the number of security problems that are continuously being found (especially in wordpress).
Lots of sysadmins i know use livejournal, wordpress, or typepad's hosted blog services. These people are the ideal candidates for running their own blog software, yet they use hosted services because they understand how much of a time suck it is to keep the software up to date on their own. Many corporate blogs, such as flickr's, use these services as well.
My advice: Move your blog to typepad.com (run by sixapart, the company that makes your current blogging software). Have blog.lessig.org point to the new blog's address, and have old links redirected appropriately.