MySpace Blocks SmugMug

JoeG

Long story short... On my MySpace profile (yes, I know there are those of us that HATE MySpace, but I am a user... Not trying to incite flamewars here) I tried inserting a link to one of my galleries. That link was blocked.

Here's the email I sent to MySpace, and their response:

Hello,

Due to abuse issues originating from sites on hosted on smugmug.com, smugmug.com will not be unblocked. Please consider using a unique domain to display your content and not a free hosting solution to avoid these issues.
If you have additional concerns about links to sites hosted on smugmug.com being disabled on MySpace please contact smugmug.com support.

Thank You
Myspace.com

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Original Message

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From: **EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED
To: accounthelp@support.myspace.com
Subject: Design - Other

08/10/2008 12:02 AM CONTACT REQUEST FORM SUBMITTED
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Subject: Design - Other
Body:

Via my profile, I am trying to insert a link to a offsite
gallery of pictures of my son. The link to the gallery is:

http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Our Family/546465

MySpace converts the link to:

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vdGhlZ2VhcmhhcnRzLnNtdWdtdWcuY29tL091ciUyMEZhbWlseS81NDY0NjU=

When the link is clicked, it directs to a myspace page
saying that the link is blocked:

http://www.myspace.com/Error404msp.aspx

I have never used this link for spam. I have never sent it
out unsolicited.

Could you tell me how I can get this corrected so that I may
link people to these pictures of my son?

Thanks.<o:p></o:p>


The thing is, I have other thumbnails on my profile that display properly. I have links to 2 other galleries that aren't blocked. I have a link to a keyword tag that isn't blocked. So, SmugMug.com, as a whole, is not blocked from MySpace.

Either way, maybe the SM guys have thoughts on this???

Andy

I just added "Smuggy" as my "hero" on my myspace profile:



Try it, here: http://www.myspace.com/moonriverphotography

That's an image served up from SmugMug and the link works fine?

JoeG

I just realized I didn't add my MySpace link:

http://www.myspace.com/joegearhart78

I find it strange, too, Andy. I've got 14 images, from SmugMug, that display correctly on MySpace. I've also got three links that work.

So far, it's only the link to my son's "gallery" that gets blocked. I got around it by linking to his keyword instead, but I wanted to try to avoid that.

JoeG

So, I was goofing around a little bit more. Check this out:

If I enter this link:
http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Our%20Family/546465

MySpace converts it to:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vdGhlZ2VhcmhhcnRzLnNtdWdtdWcuY29tL091ciUyMEZhbWlseS81NDY0NjU=

and blocks it....


NOW... If I enter this link instead:
http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Our Family/546465

MySpace converts it to:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vdGhlZ2VhcmhhcnRzLnNtdWdtdWcuY29tL091ciBGYW1pbHkvNTQ2NDY1

and does NOT block it.

It seems that the %20 (which is simply a "space" character) made MySpace block it. Entering the space in the link instead of the %20, and all is fine.

I guess you can consider this issue closed, albeit a bit strange.

As a recap:

BAD:
http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Our%20Family/546465

GOOD:
http://thegearharts.smugmug.com/Our Family/546465

chuckinsocal

So, MySpace is arbitrarily trashing SmugMug as being the source of abuse when all along the problem was just a technical one?

Just doesn't seem right for them to be doing that.