Decaflon Thread: Glenn Scam

Glenn Scam

Chris24 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:22:26

I really don't blame Glenn for the "PR Stunt", after all, he was just helping Indie Mac Devs. I mean, yeah, it might have gotten his site hits because of it, but he wasn't the one submitting it or anything. He, like the other sites were supporting the Indie Mac Devs. I do find it wrong to lie and say that the site was ACTUALLY hacked and it ISN'T a PR stunt, but I think comments getting a little out of hand on the "hacked" sites.

Oh, and I would have supported Mac Indie Devs too, but I wouldn't have lied in comments saying it "Is not a PR Stunt, and the site is actually hacked." ... I would have just ignored the commenter.

Glenn Scam

jang — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:12:35

I am not a media temple customer (and probably never will be). I learned it might be a prank from a friend who saw the another 9rules post.

Glenn Scam

Article19 — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:51:08

MT have spoken up but only on the customer forum. They had nothing to do with it and we're mighty pissed off about it when they found out.

Glenn Scam

jang — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:42:34

I probably should be careful here because I know 9rules is hosted on Media Temple. Nevertheless, I think it was unfortunate that they didn't publicly dismiss this as a prank when they investigated the defacing of glennwolsey.com. The insinuation from glennwolsey.com and macapper.com was that wordpress was to blame.

In my spare time, I have participated in the development and support of b2, wordpress, and gallery. I do not believe that any of us with experience developing online software are naive enough to believe our code is un-susceptible to some form of a hack. That being said, we all do our best and within the OS community we spend a considerable amount of time checking, debugging and validating code before releasing it to the user community. Much of this is done in our free time for no monetary gain. The fact that the macheist, applematters, macapper, and glennwolsey people have the audacity to publicly disrespect our hard work in the name of profit is upsetting to me. It makes me question why I bother.

To summarize from rixstep:

Glenn Scam

Ozone42 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:21:23

I don't think Glenn should be the focus of the anger here. MacHeist seems to be the people to point at.

I could've told you they're shifty already. Several people I know including myself participated in the first round and never received anything.

Glenn Scam

David — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:53:56

From Glenn's site:

The idea wasn’t to pump up my traffic, gain readers, or gain exposure for my site. It was in full support of the base idea behind MacHeist - helping indie developers.

Considering that both the hacking and the following post made it to the front page of digg, it seems he was just lucky to get all that traffic.

It does show a serious lack of judgment, but Glenn's actions to rectify the situation will show more about his character than making the mistake in the first place I believe. That's assuming he does do something to rectify the situation... keeping radio silence won't help him at all.

To me, the time to rectify the situation was when MT called him on it. That was the time to come out and say, I'm part of something that I'm not proud of. In that case, he'd have been the first to admit it and that would take courage. Being the last, suggests little more than damage control.

I think EngineHosting handled this much better than MT.

Glenn Scam

weisheng — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:11:59

Yeah, as for the idea of the "hack" itself, it seems pretty daft and juvenile to me. I never really noticed it though as I didn't read Glenn's site until after the whole thing so doesn't really bother me. I'm never sure about Phill Ryu and his schemes, he tends to come up with stuff that's full of hype but delivers very little.

Glenn Scam

Rich — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:53:59

I couldn't really care less about most of this nonsense — though I care a little about MacApper, since they have paid writers (myself being one, sort of*), and not a single one of them was informed.

What I don't understand is how, exactly, it promoted MacHeist. Not a single one of the "hacks" mentioned MacHeist. Presumably, they all planned to post a "LOL GOTCHA! Go give MacHeist money!" post at a set date, but how is that better advertisment than just saying "Hey, MacHeist is at it again! Go help them increase their ludicrous profit margin and rip off developers!" (or something less biased, more likely)?

Despite all this, they'll still make loads of money, most of which they'll keep for themselves, and no one will care in a few weeks. Bit of a waste of time, really. All they've achieved is a few hurt reputations (and that would have happened whether they'd been "exposed" or not).

The fact that none of the big Apple blogs were part of it — Daring Fireball, TUAW, etc. — tells its own story.

* I recently became a contributor, but hadn't actually written anything yet. Which is how I know none of their writers were informed.

Glenn Scam

weisheng — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:40:01

Well I just posted a comment on his post -

Well I have to say it was a daft idea but some of the criticism has been way too harsh, especially on those who played along to help MacHeist. I’m not familiar with MH and having just read Josh Gruber’s post, I guess there are those who don’t think too highly of it. But the guys who played along probably only had good intentions in trying to help publicise it. I think those who have a right to be royally pissed are the hosting companies and CMS makers, whose reputations are on the line, as well as those who host commercial sites with them, who were misled into thinking their sites were at risk.

Other than those two groups, I don’t see why regular readers have to get their panties up in a bunch. It’s not as if the New York Times just played an April Fool’s joke by telling everyone a nuclear bomb had gone off in NY. At its heart, this is still a personal blog and Glenn’s a young guy, you can’t possibly expect “journalistic professionalism” from it. If you did, then you’re a fool.

He did make a huge mistake, as did all the other participants in this silly promotion, but he’s been man enough to own up and apologise now. I think we all know how hard it is to stand down and admit one’s mistakes, not to mention in front of an entire readership of thousands. If you’re just a reader who gets his feed from your RSS reader, I don’t see how this whole charade has monumentally changed your life. Cut the guy some slack man.

I don't get why some people get so angry over this if they're not directly involved. He's made a mistake and apologised, yet some still throw vitriol in his direction. It's not as if they've been monumentally affected in real life. They have a right to be annoyed but I don't think they have a right to be this abusive. Well I guess that's life and the school of hard knocks for Glenn. The Internet really has made some people so narcissistic that they think the world revolves around their opinion and the fact that they unsubscribing from a feed. Go figure.

Glenn Scam

Mike — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:45:19

And right after I posted my comment, he posted his big apology.

Glenn Scam

Mike — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:44:12

Okay well after educating myself more on the issue and reading all there is to be read, I have formulated the following opinion which is more of a personal opinion than a "9rules opinion" so take it however you want.

I think that their intentions weren't malicious when they first thought up the PR stunt, and although they do make good money on MacHeist, their contests also highlight quality Mac software. I can see them thinking about this as a marketing ploy for MacHeist, but at the same time justifying it to themselves by saying that it will raise awareness for smaller Mac software developers through increased traffic to MacHeist.

So they executed the stunt and it was just that..... a stunt..... up until they started making bad decisions about it and taking it further than it should have been taken. I don't know the specifics about Glenn contacting (mt) and wasting technical resources fighting an exploit that doesn't exist, but that was a poor decision on his part and through getting to know Glenn because of 9rules I'm going to assume he's disappointed in himself right now and is trying to figure out a positive way to move forward with the situation. I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger and this will be one of his mistakes, just like a lot of you probably made bad decisions years ago as well.

What Glenn needs to do now is eat some bigtime crow and post a public apology on his site, something I did over a year ago after a not-too-dissimilar lapse in judgement. People make mistakes and the only way to atone is to man up and take responsibility for when you do the wrong things. If Glenn posted a heartfelt apology on his site I guarantee he'd get 3 dozen comments from people who appreciated it and were anxious to move on.

@picom:

"Claiming to have had a modern version of WP hacked on a media temple host is irresponsible and suggests a serious lack of judgment. Failing to admit that you did wrong suggests a lack of honesty."

It does show a serious lack of judgment, but Glenn's actions to rectify the situation will show more about his character than making the mistake in the first place I believe. That's assuming he does do something to rectify the situation... keeping radio silence won't help him at all.

@dhollister:

"But once you're ruining the reputations of companies that keep your website running and start inciting needless fear amongst the people, I believe you've crossed a line."

Agreed, it was a bonehead move. Apart from rectifying things with his readers he also needs to repair reputations with (mt) and the WordPress community. However he decides to do that is up to him, but burning important bridges will just leave you stranded, so it needs to be done.

Glenn Scam

isdereks — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:20:16

Wait what..? PR stunt? Purported hacking? Apple fanboism? Heh. And who says Glen gets hosting for free at Media Temple? Who do I have to talk to about that ;)

* I'm just now catching up with what's going on. I thought it was a little strange to get all sorts of links forwarded to my cellphone from people on AIM *

Glenn Scam

David — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:55:29

Also confirmed by macheist as well. There's at least one p/t code monkey who's annoyed.

I agree with the above. This was a seriously ill-conceived prank that wasted a lot of people's time. Personally, I think Media Temple should have pulled the plug on Glenn's site when they learned of it.

Glenn Scam

dhollister — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:36:14

It's unraveling quite nicely, now.

The only people who have not yet admitted their involvement are Phill and Glenn themselves.

Glenn Scam

cavemonkey50 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:17:24

I host more than 10 sites at Media Temple, and when this first broke, I was worried that any exploits on their services would affect me as well. I know that many, many people called in worrying about the same thing -- are their sites just as vulnerable? How had a hacker broken through their servers in under a day?

I agree completely with this. Knowing that Glenn ran the latest version of WordPress and was on a Media Temple server, I panicked. I spent a few hours that night trying to figure out how he was hacked, because I was just as 'vulnerable' as him.

I obviously didn't find anything out, tried contacting Glenn to figure out how he was hacked and he just ignored me. I didn't bother contacting Media Temple because I know they weren't the source of the problem; it had to be something Glenn was running.

Now finding out this was a scam just makes me angry. In the real world this is the equivalence of Glenn staging a robbery, calling the police, and going on the local news only to later reveal this was some ploy for a local radio station. There would be consequences in the real would, and there should be consequences online as well.

You just don't mess around with hacking online. While this may all be in good fun, in reality people are getting worked up over this. I hope Malcor quits while he's ahead. Anyone else who agrees to being hacked will look stupid and just show all they care about is the money.

Glenn Scam

dhollister — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:41:04

The reason I have been upset about this is the following:

1) Glenn Wolsey didn't just try to pull off a silent PR stunt, or even further, warn his host. Rather, he called Media Temple and reported the hack, even though it was fake. Flat-out lied, and from what I have been told by sources at Media Temple, they spent time and money scrambling to figure out what happened to his site. They had meetings, spent time tinkering around, because they, too, were lied to.

2) Glenn Wolsey gets free hosting from Media Temple. They sponsor him. He repays them by lying to them.

3) I host more than 10 sites at Media Temple, and when this first broke, I was worried that any exploits on their services would affect me as well. I know that many, many people called in worrying about the same thing -- are their sites just as vulnerable? How had a hacker broken through their servers in under a day?

I could care less about a dishonest PR stunt -- that's just apart of being in this business, and if done right it can be a lot of fun and work well. But once you're ruining the reputations of companies that keep your website running and start inciting needless fear amongst the people, I believe you've crossed a line.

Glenn Scam

Tyme — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:54:47

@picom - It's okay but thanks :)

Glenn Scam

picom — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:53:13

That should have been "I have a lot of respect for the guys & gals of 9r"...

Glenn Scam

Tyme — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:40:30

With all due respect (and I have a lot of respect for you guys at 9r) I think this is about honesty, trust and quality.

Thanks for the kind words and I'm sure you can appreciate us wanting to talk to Glenn (which we haven't done) prior to passing judgment. Mike and I were talking on Skype when we became aware of this from an Scrivs sent (Mike responded while we were on Skype). We had no idea this was going on.

We definitely aren't going to have a knee-jerk reaction. After thoroughly investigating the issue we'll deal with it in our own way if we decide action needs to be taken.

Glenn Scam

picom — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:34:48

The title of the note didn't read "Apple, it read "Glenn Scam". I'm not sure it is your business to tell me what I should and should not read.

"Apple" would be the community, "Glenn Scam" is the title. You are quite welcome to disagree with me or even see this as trivial. But, as I see it, you attempted to derail this note with your initial reply before a discussion could even begin. I'm really not interested in whether you consider this to be relevant or interesting. I honestly could care less about global disasters, poverty, sexism, racism and Christmas shopping.

Glenn Scam

alexsuraci — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:46:24

I'm one year older than him and I still think it was idiotic and immature. It doesn't matter if you're a kid, if you do something on this tier of stupidity, being 15 shouldn't be an excuse to get off scott free. Now, if there were a purpose for this other than to apparently increase traffic to the sites, I'd be less irritated. MacHeist, whatever, at least it does something for people other than the ones deliberately fooling their fans.

Glenn Scam

cooper — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:15:15

The title of the note didn't read "Apple, it read "Glenn Scam". I'm not sure it is your business to tell me what I should and should not read. If I agreed with you than my opinion would be valid I suppose.

He is a kid.

I'm not sure why a bunch of adults are all steamed up about a prank pulled by someone barely out of short pants.

Glenn Scam

picom — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:01:45

How sad for them.

@cooper

If you are not interested in Apple news then why reply to this note?

@mike

With all due respect (and I have a lot of respect for you guys at 9r) I think this is about honesty, trust and quality. I read 9rules notes and blogs because I generally trust the people behind the words. Claiming to have had a modern version of WP hacked on a media temple host is irresponsible and suggests a serious lack of judgment. Failing to admit that you did wrong suggests a lack of honesty. Sorry, but the jig is up.

Glenn Scam

cooper — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:27:53

How sad for them.

Glenn Scam

Mike — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:33:50

We haven't talked to Glenn personally but I agree with Cooper in that the whole situation was blown out of proportion. If we find out any more information we'll pass along but I don't see this as being a real big problem overall.

Glenn Scam

Rich — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:13:38

Please we have global disasters, poverty, sexism, racism and Christmas shopping to do. This is not the end of the world or ever significant in the scheme of things.

Get over it.

Some people couldn't care less about sexism, racism, and Christmas shopping. More, even, do care about terrible PR stunts, hacking, and Apple.

Get over it.

Glenn Scam

cooper — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:07:39

Please we have global disasters, poverty, sexism, racism and Christmas shopping to do. This is not the end of the world or ever significant in the scheme of things.

Get over it.

Glenn Scam

Ozone42 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 03:21:07

I don't really get it. What's the scam? His site wasn't really hacked?

So.... what? How does that affect any of us, or his content?

If I put up a big thing about how i got hacked, would that affect my archives? Sure maybe you would think twice if I said something sensational from here on out, but it doesn't really change anything does it?

Even if it hadn't been exposed as a scam... what was the scam? What was being hacked going to convince you to do that you wouldn't have otherwise?

I think scam is a strong term. I'd label it as a publicity stunt.

Glenn Scam

picom — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 02:56:39

For anyone that doesn't already know, one of the Apple sites endorsed by 9rules is run by a paid shyster. As confirmed by AppleMatters, Paul @ Expression Engine and dhollister the malcor hacks were a paid scam. Seems like it was only a few months ago that everyone @ 9rules was supporting Glenn... anyone here still feel like supporting him now? I, for one, vote he be told to take down the leaf.