There are many 'StumbleUpon love-ins' around the web. So yesterday I thought it would be cool to post one specifically for Entrecard members where they list their SU account and EC blog.

This morning, I wake up to find that my account and several of those who commented have had their accounts frozen by StumbleUpon.

I emailed their support as to why, but I think it is pretty obvious that the one thing we all have in common was this love-in.

I wonder why exactly they targeted my blog. A far better way to go would be to target Probloggers list of 300+ SU members or the many others who have hundreds.

I fully apologize to those of you who were banned because of the article. Even if the article isn't the direct cause, your accounts were obviously found because of it.

I would like to repay each of you somehow.

Sorry to hear about that.

I've always said before specially to those who do SU exchanges to never post your username in the open. They'll find it and will get you ban from the system.

Just create a new one! :)

so crooked -the complete antithesis of community. I guess that's to be expected from a web 1.0 multinational congolmerate

I have a little bit of a different perspective on this. Too much garbage is getting stumbled, dugg, buzzed due to these "love-in" groups. Everybody thinks that everything they post is stumble, dugg, buzz, etc... worthy. At one time you could go to these sites an see exceptional writing/posts. Now mostly garbage sadly.

Well that is the thing, the post doesn't say anything about exchanging votes, only friends. That isn't against their TOS.

Even if it was about exchanging votes (in a weird way), why my blog? There are hundreds of forums out there specifically for exchanging votes. Why not ban them?

Anyway, I have done some wrong with my account, but it is awfully suspicious that I and other get banned only after my post. They can have my account all they want, but why my visitors? :

EDIT: Monkey, what does that have to do with my post? It says nothing about exchanging votes, only adding Entrecard members to their friends. A love-in has nothing to do with trying to game SU or stumbling everyones posts. Oh, and thinks for saying my content is garbage because I held a love-in. Much love!

I'll reply to your edit: I didn't say your content was garbage, just that the majority of stumbles submitted are.

And are you trying to say the "love-in" isn't a group to stumble one another's posts?

Edit: My guess is that someone turned you in to get banned this quickly. I'm not sure how active they are on banning sites as they used to be. At one time they were very aggressive on banning people they found exchanging stumbles as favors.

Edit: If you're creating a group of "like minded" people what exactly is that? Those who are like minded to stumble back as favors? (I know what you mean with that point though.) But what's going to happen is simple stumble exchanges I'll bet. Whether you're willing to see, or admit to that, is probably not going to happen though.

No, it isn't. A love-in is to create a 'group' of like minded people. Even StumbleUpon has groups in their forums which they actively promote.

I think SU is very sensitive about SPAM. Maybe one member of a SPAM Group saw the post and thought that the intent is to get enough friends to meet the requirements of SU/Digg exchanges like Udon, Piqq and others. Then reported the post to SU and SU decided to just ban everyone in there. By the way, this is just a maybe! ^^

^Well that is probably the case. The problem with that though, as I mentioned before, is that other larger blogs have done the exact same thing. However, they were never banned. Whereas me, the little guy, has been along with the others associated with the post.

I agree that a lot of garbage is getting stumbled, but banning people and sites for good is NOT the answer.

Oh, I must also mention that impNERD.com wasn't banned from SU. So if it was specifically the post in question, wouldn't the domain itself be banned?

Could it be because of the association with Entrecard? If that is the case, this is even more ridiculous than what I thought.

BTW, what is the real reason why Entrecard is banned from SU anyway? Is it because of the SU exchanges in the forum or did Graham piss someone off over there?

Either way, it is pretty stupid to take it out on the members of a large community.

I was banned as well, And think it is horse crap.

I was not banned, weird.. Did they see the post and banned before I commented?

Oblog, I deleted your comment in moderation along with several others.

I just submitted an article to the EC blog which includes more information on what has happened.

Hopefully it gets published soon.

Oh! That explains things..

Argh they are really hunting things like this.

I haven't got any response from then regarding the banning of entrecard.com.

I guess they are on a war path.

They have a grudge against EC for whatever reason. The SU exchanges in the forum is only a cover, as will be whatever reason they give for banning these members accounts.

There are far larger fish to fry than the EC forums and small time bloggers.

What is it, Blogging-ads dude works for SU now?

I wonder if the marketing cow got a ban as well.

That is where it came from. I found out this morning my account was frozen but didn't know exactly what caused it, could have been forums or su messages. I've been doing those things for months. I can't believe I sign up for something that looked so innocent a day or two ago and that is what brings me down. Wow!

Now that I know where it came from, what really bothers me, is as Imperd says, nowhere was discussed exchanges. His whole post, and what we signed on for, was to be SU friends.

Now I feel I can fight more effectively if this is all they have on me.

The freeze is only on my account as an individual. My blog is fine.

Yeah, the bans are on members only. Anyway, I take full responsibility. Don't blame Entrecard or Graham or yourself for joining the list.

Hopefully the blog post will explain everything better.

"Quote: What is it, Blogging-ads dude works for SU now?"

He works for SU? I remember him being tagged as a spammer in SU: SP@M Free Group discussion.

By the way, check that group. They have massive lists of members they report to SU. Even AndyBeal's SU account is under review. I saw it there!

^It isn't listed there.

ImpNerd or blogging-ads?

I searched for ImpNerd but didn't find it. Must be a direct report to SU if it was indeed the cause of the bannings. Too bad some people got affected. :(

My SU account or anyone else who responded to the post.

Again, impNERD.com wasn't banned. It is still able to be stumbled/viewed/thumbed/etc. Only the members accounts are banned.

Also, it was a joke about Blogging-Ads, since he scammed EC and got banned.

Well. I didn't reply because they have never got my SU to work. The toolbar doesn't work with Camino and I don't even think it works with Mac. I'm doing a bit of close scrutiny with all of my blogs. Digg, Stumble and the rest may be good but bring very little as far as traffic given the space those buttons are using up that could be giving more information to my readers. I'm also re-evaluating the use of some of the ad space so that will be out the door as well. Oh and that stupid little doggie (aka spottt) is downright history. He's cute but not all that cute.

I'm curious though since SU is banning and a lot of ECers joined both Digg and Buzz I'm wondering if they will start banning as well :(

Just received a reply from SU. Basically just a generic BS reply saying about stumble exchanges and promoting websites.

One answer could be that since I asked for them to place their blog URL there that it is considered 'promoting a business'. Although, that is pooh, because it was only to see if they were really members of EC.

Heres Walter's reply:

> StumbleUpon does not allow personal accounts to be > used for the purposes of incentivization or > promoting sites. This would be considered a breach > of our Terms. The practice of encouraging or > inviting other stumblers to rate/review sites in > exchange for reciprocal reviews/ratings, monetary, > or any other form of reward is strictly forbidden. > > The practice of actively soliciting a rating or > review for a site is also forbidden. > Accounts participating in such practices will be > deleted and banned, and the related sites deleted > and banned from the system. When this behavior is > brought to our attention, a site administrator > will suspend the accounts associated with the > banned activity. > > These policies help us preserve the quality of > content on StumbleUpon -- because our site was > founded to help individuals share and discover > quality Web sites, we take these policies quite > seriously. > > I hope this addresses your questions -- if you'd > like information about advertising on StumbleUpon, > please visit this page:

lol, I'm gonna go stumble it right now... and, to stay within TOS, I am not asking anyone to stumble mine...

After reading that post, it is most definitely the love-in. The problem with that is, if other love-ins have been unbanned for doing the exact same thing, why are the members being banned?

BTW nevermind on the article Graham... I'll post something about it on my blog probably. I have a few things I want to say there anyway.

Just as an update, after the original message I posted we had some emails back and forth... Anyway, I basically asked if everyone could be unbanned except myself. From my understanding the other member's are only technically suspended, whereas mine is banned.

He didn't respond and probably won't, but it was worth a shot.

So this is technically dead.

Again, I'm sorry to everyone who was banned.

Actually ProBlogger was banned by SU for a few hours because of his love-in. It shows what happens when someone big gets banned vs someone who is small. ProBlogger was big enough to raise hell and SU restored his account.

^Yeah, the deleted comments were links to sites which talked about it.

Join or Not Join? I was going to join stumbleUpon today. After reading this post I will wait and do more research.

StumbleUpon is a nice service and has a lot of uses for bloggers. I wrote a guest post last week stating how it can be used in other ways. Anyway, as long as you don't get caught it is good. People stumble their own blogs all the time. We were only caught because some anal visitor reported my blog for 'promoting a business by using stumbleupon'.

i was in the comments of the problogger love-in for stumbleupon users. Now my account has been frozen. wonderful.