Comments on: Did Laura hack Blogrolling.com?

Did Laura hack Blogrolling.com?

jill — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 07:51:30 -0800

Blogrolls around the globe now all point to Laura's blog. Laura doesn't sound like your stereotypical evil hacker to me, but something sure went wrong at Blogrolling.com. Anyone know what? Laura's blog seems to have gone down what with all the hits it must be getting, but you can still read Google's cache of it.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:06:26 -0800

I hate it when I don't understand an FPP.

By: ginz

ginz — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:12:09 -0800

Perhaps someone can point out what is the pointing is about.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:12:15 -0800

Blogrolling.com is an online service that allows users to maintain their list of favorite links (which is popular with many bloggers) online. Somehow, apparently, the service's database got corrupted and this one entry appears on all blogrolling's users' lists. Which is bad.

By: signal

signal — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:13:34 -0800

Umm, ok. Wow?

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:14:23 -0800

The question is to the poster, though, how do you know this is happening--none of your links explain it.

By: brownpau

brownpau — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:14:26 -0800

The net effect is like a blogroll-distributed DDoS attack. (Or in this case, BRDoS, eh?)

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:14:43 -0800

I understand it. Wish I didn't. Basically, if you've a blog, you can keep your links to other blogs at blogrolling.com. Using a small chunk o' Javascript, those links can be displayed on your site and can be edited at anytime. Many of blogrolling's users -- like me -- found our lists replaced with multiple links to the blog of a seemingly nice person named Laura. And there you have it.

By: ginz

ginz — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:15:05 -0800

So I would need another blogroller's blog to see it?

By: SealWyf

SealWyf — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:15:27 -0800

Doesn't seem to be true anymore. In fact, the Blogrolling database seems to be thoroughly hosed. Their "top" link, boingboing, has (as of 30 seconds ago) only two linkers.

By: BigPicnic

BigPicnic — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:15:59 -0800

It's annoying, thats for sure. Has BR released a statement? Specifically, are the normal link lists going to return, or will users have to rebuild them manually? I concur with the author that reading this Laura's site makes me think it's exceedingly unlikely that it's intentional some act of hers.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:20:39 -0800

I just deleted my blogroll and started over.

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:28:01 -0800

My theory: Courting in the Internet Age "Morgan Web will you marry me?"

By: BigPicnic

BigPicnic — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:30:28 -0800

The general ennui that prevades her site makes me feel sorry for her, and I hope all this attention doesn't prove diasterous.

By: pmurray63

pmurray63 — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:34:48 -0800

It seems to be fixed now where I encountered it, at J.D. Lasica's New Media Musings.

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:38:06 -0800

fixed

By: staggernation

staggernation — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:40:30 -0800

Think of Laura. But laugh, don't cry. I know she'd want it that way.

By: dewelch

dewelch — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:40:35 -0800

This note from Jason is on Blogrolling.com... "Monday, November 17, 2003 Blogrolling has been the victim off a malicious hack in the past 9 hours. The blogroll links have been restored from an offsite backup from Saturday. I'm tracing the cause off this now and the site may go offline at some point today while I make changes and collect evidence. All new links since Saturday afternoon have unfortunately been lost due to this. I'll post more here as I know it."

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:46:58 -0800

Well played, staggernation.... well played.

By: Mbarron2896

Mbarron2896 — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:51:53 -0800

The original blog is back up. Sounds like people aren't being very nice.

By: Orange Goblin

Orange Goblin — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:05:28 -0800

I've never seen the point in sites like Blogroll. Just spend 0.3 seconds learning how to make links in HTML, and keep it updated yourself, on your own page.

By: tittergrrl

tittergrrl — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:07:19 -0800

People have underestimated Laura's power for too long. Now they will pay.. THEY WILL ALL PAY! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Revolution Laura.. NOW!

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:13:59 -0800

Now that I understand it , I'm more confused than ever. Thank you jpoulas.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:27:54 -0800

I've never seen the point in sites like Blogroll. OG, it may seem like blogrolling is as simple as a list of links, but the one cool thing the service does it tie into various update services like weblogs.com, so you can get your list sorted by last updated (so you can just keep reloading your own page and reading the top 2 or 3 links to see new posts from your friends). Also, they've got xml importing and exporting which allows you to say, copy your blogroll into an RSS reader easily.

By: briank

briank — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 09:39:03 -0800

Not to self-link, but the person responsible is someone I know and she has commented about the whole incindent to my post on my own blog

By: jennak

jennak — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:34:53 -0800

Just FYI briank -- self-links are allowed in the comments of a MeFi thread, if it's relevent and furthers the discussion. It's in the MeFi posting guidlines ("note").

By: tiamat

tiamat — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:49:45 -0800

The encrypted post was easier to understand than this was.

By: briank

briank — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:52:39 -0800

jennak -- yes, I know, thanks, I was just being polite about it.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 10:54:03 -0800

I don't know how to be popular. I don't think I can keep everyone entertained. You know what? I'm not going to try..... L. Hey, the laissez-faire popularity system seems to work.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:41:32 -0800

A similar thing is happening to my site. I note new URLs in my referer logs and check 'em out for reciprocal links. Well, what they're linking is mysitename.com:2082 (trying not to self link) which opens up my config panel of all things, without requiring a username or password. These blogs that that addy is popping up on are all hosted on the same server are strangely void of any pertinent info, especially contact info. I'm thinking it's some kind of data/IP mining for comment spam, but I've no idea.

By: prescribed life

prescribed life — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:51:10 -0800

i love it when i actually understand a FPP

By: drezdn

drezdn — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 20:58:49 -0800

A similar thing is happening to my site. I note new URLs in my referer logs and check 'em out for reciprocal links. Well, what they're linking is mysitename.com:2082 (trying not to self link) I noticed that in my logs today too, is there any way to stop it/protect the config panel?