Why Oh Why you do this, I do not know.
Remember Elliot Back? You hijacked his files.. you have done the same to me.

You are now sufficiently rude and unproffesional to simply ignore my emails. Thus now it is threats, and this is the only medium through which I could give you a 'last chance' as such, not that you deserve it.

I have sent Elliot an email, and I have been talking to a friend who works at VNUNET, as in the company that produces the UKs two most widely read computer magazines Computer Active, and Web User. They have a section in their magazine where they essentially sort out rogue companies (like dreamhost), and they will publish, and fight for my situation. As if dreamhost needs more bad publicity...

Thus I kindly request as you did in Elliots case, you simply zip up my files and email me a download link. Then I will be out of your hair.

Its ridiculous that you havnt already gone to this tiny effort to prevent backlash/hatred of your company.

If this is not sorted soon, I will go ahead AND I will humiliate dreamhost on all the forums I am an active member of.

Thanks
Tom

Sounds like somebody didn't back up their stuff!

Elliot's situation is "old news" - some sites have no business trying to operate on a shared server (the comments on Elliot's site point this out pretty effectively).

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Thus now it is threats, and this is the only medium through which I could give you a 'last chance' as such, not that you deserve it.

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Heh .. Good luck with that. You might want to take a look at this previous post to see how far that tactic is likely to get you:

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"The one thing I tolerate even less than spamming and misrepresentation are baseless and unsupported threats of legal action, "going public", or "hurting our bottom line". We don't respond well to threats."

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I think you would probably have better luck showing some patience and asking nicely for some help, rather than threatening and posturing, but hey.. whatever you think will work best for you is what you should do.

Oh yeah, and BTW, it's always a good idea to keep back up copies of things you place on others' servers; you never know when you might need them and by keeping your own back-ups, you will never find yourself in this type of a situation in the future. Good luck!

--rlparker

I'm guessing from your rant that your account has been terminated for a Terms of Service violation. If that is the case, you will need to deal with DreamHost's support team, because this is a customer-to-customer forum.

-- si-blog --
Max discount on any plan with promocode SCJESSEYTOTAL

My account was cancelled for a TOS violation, yes. IMO An unfair one, but Hey Ho that is life. I argued my point, but at this moment in time my files are more imprtant to me.

I have shown patience it has been weeks of repeated, polite emails. No response.

My threats are not baseless threats, and nor are they threats as such. I want to resolve this amicably. Dreamhost do not (so it seems).

As regards backups I appreciate that, and in retrospect I should have backed up. My thinking was however dreamhost promise backups, and I havnt done anything wrong, so I feel I am entitled to my backup.

I will forward this to Jeff. I have tried emails with no success.

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My threats are not baseless threats, and nor are they threats as such.

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Right. From your previous post: "Thus now it is threats...". Okay.

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I want to resolve this amicably. Dreamhost do not (so it seems).

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Actually, it seems to me that DreamHost likely considers the matter resolved. Your continued desire to access the files that were stored in your closed account doesn't in any way obligate DreamHost to facilitate your request. After this nonsense on the forum, I'd certainly be done dealing with you - though DreamHost is generally *much more easygoing* than I would be.

If any of the TOS issue(s) for which your account was closed involved copyright infringement issues (and I have no idea if that is, or is not, the case), you should realize that DreamHost cannot legally "distribute" those files even if such distribution is to just "return them" to you.

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My thinking was however dreamhost promise backups, and I havnt done anything wrong, so I feel I am entitled to my backup.

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I can appreciate your "feelilngs" on the matter, but the fact that you feel the way you do about it does not supersede the Terms Of Service. The TOS makes it pretty clear that not only does DreamHost not "promise backups" of any kind, but also makes it clear that they have *no* liability for your inability to retrieve files from DreamHost.

I realize you now understand you should have backed up your files ...

In my experience, DreamHost has sometimes "helped out" in situations like yours (at least to the degree you have shared the details of your situation), but you should realize that, depending upon the nature of the TOS violation, they may *not* be *able* to help you. They *won't* make available to you files that appear to be infringing on copyrights or appear to be in some other way illegal.

--rlparker

Thanks again for the reply.

Firstly just to explain why I got my account closed. I was spamming from my hosting account unintentionally. I was led to believe (and am still unsure) that the domain whois database was opt-in, and thus I was allowed to send emails to domain owners. Apparently not.
I may have made a mistake, and I appreciate that DH may feel obliged to close my account.

Based on this however my files are all custom code, for my personal website as well as friends sites, and company, partners websites. There are hundreds of hours of code on there, which I need.

With regards to me posting here, I only have because I have no other way of communicating with dreamhost.

Where should I proceed from here?
With regards to my 'threats', perhaps I misphrased. I need my scripts. I dont plan to, or want to threaten anyone. Rather I am hopin a backup can be supplied and this can all be settled.
Thanks

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With regards to me posting here, I only have because I have no other way of communicating with dreamhost.

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Well, hopefully your posting here the way you did won't result in you having "burned your last bridge" with DreamHost and result in them being unwilling to deal with you further (though you have to realize that it *could* have had that effect).

You can always contact DreamHost via their contact form or, since there was a TOS violation involved, by emailing abuse@dreamhost.com. If you do that, I'd suggest "dialing it back" a bit, and explaining it as rationally and as dispassionately as you did in this last post. That will likely get you a more favorable response than anything that can be perceived as posturing or threatening.

You might also consider that, since there was a TOS violation involved, the "first line" tech support folks are most likely not handling your issue any further; it's likely being handled by the "abuse" folks. There are fewer of these "abuse" guys/gals than there are "tech support" folks, so what you see as your emails being "ignored" may only be that you are back in the queue.

In my experience, "calm and patient", "apologetic and polite", and "friendly" are the best ways to approach such frustrating situations. "Aggressive" and/or "threatening" are only likely to result in you being "actively ignored".

I'd focus on encouraging them to want to help you rather than having them perceive you as a "continuing problem".

--rlparker

Thanks for the opinion, I have taken your suggestion and contacted them. Lets see what happens.

Perhaps I have attitude problems/problems expressing myself, but I wasnt trying to come across the way I apparently did..

Just to kick a guy when he's down... Using the WHOIS database for UCE really ticks me off. It's opt-in only in the sense that one doesn't *have* to register a domain, but then you don't get to play with the big boys (and girls). The WHOIS database *requires* domain owners to provide valid information.

That being said, all my WHOIS queries come back with a TERMS OF USE that prohibits the use of it for spamming. I don't want to hear from people who have crap to offer me just because I have a domain. That's why I now use DreamHost's proxy registration. Saves me endless grief.

-Scott

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Just to kick a guy when he's down...

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I'd like a piece of that action too. I detest spammers. They rank somewhere between pond life and trolls with sock puppets.

-- si-blog --
Max discount on any plan with promocode SCJESSEYTOTAL

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I detest spammers. They rank somewhere between pond life and trolls with sock puppets.

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Okay, that just begs the question: In your view, which is the lower life-form, the "pond life" or the "trolls with sock puppets"?

--rlparker

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which is the lower life-form, the "pond life" or the "trolls with sock puppets"?

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I think I can safely leave that to your active imagination

-- si-blog --
Max discount on any plan with promocode SCJESSEYTOTAL

I dislike spammers too.
I however didnt/dont think what I was doing can be classed as spam. Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

No reply from support yet...

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Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

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If you were trawling through the WHOIS database and sending emails to domain owners, which is what you said you were doing above, then you are a spammer. There is no grey area in this.

-- si-blog --
Max discount on any plan with promocode SCJESSEYTOTAL

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I however didnt/dont think what I was doing can be classed as spam. Dont attack me when you dont know the exact/full story.

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I got the part where you said you harvested email addresses off WHOIS because you were led to believe that it was ok and you (snicker) *believed* it! Then you started sending UCE to those addresses. What hat you wearing, or what color the mail was doesn't really matter.

-Scott

Ok,

E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...
If someone owns a car, and you go up and say how much is that, even if they dont want to sell it, that doesnt make you a stalker, scammer, spammer etc

What you guys are saying is if you get an offer you dont like it is spam, if you get an offer you like it is OK. Thats ridiculous.

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E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...

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Spam is unsolicited email of any kind.

I don't care if you are selling me something I want or giving me a free Lear Jet and a vacation in Bermuda. If I didn't specifically ask for you to contact me, you are spamming me. It is no different from the junk mail or sales calls in this respect. It doesn't matter if you send 1 email or 1 billion emails. It doesn't matter if you do it with an automated system or one-at-a-time through Gmail. It is still spam.

And "I thought it was okay" isn't good enough. Being ignorant is no defense.

-- si-blog --
Max discount on any plan with promocode SCJESSEYTOTAL

So you didn't want to buy any of my one-of-a-kind Viagra? Damn

--------------------------
Chips N Cheese - Custom PHP installs and the like!

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E.G.1 I go and do a whois search of 100 domains. I get the email, logon to gmal and send each an email making an offer.
That is not spamming...

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Er...ah ... actually that *is* "classic" spamming.

..if you didn't realize it before, then you no doubt realize it now, so maybe something good will result from all of this; hopefully you'll refrain from such actions in the future.

--rlparker

Something just clicked. Is this guy offering to buy people's domain names? That certainly adds a twist to the saga.

-Scott