So 'funny" meaning funny in a sad way, Brendon, that you and I would both be junking the MyBlogLog widget within a few hours of each other.

You even gave me a kind link over my use of the tool a week or so back. I mentioned the need to pay attention to whom you associate with to another blogger a few days ago, in reference to another poorly conceived program ... be careful who you let rub up against you I believe were my words to her.

I'm pretty sure you've followed the saga on Shoemoney vis-a-vis his "exposure" of what they termed "private data", yet what he posted was only scrapped from the plain text they litter every user's site with. They summarily banned Shoe, wailed in different blogs how naughty he was (the ancient Romans used to kill the messenger with bad news, didn't they?) and then realized how much egg was on their faces and made a public apology ... but before they made that apology Jeremy, with a hardly more than cursory investigation, using legal "white hat" means found that in addition to dropping your and my and everyone else's id and account numbers around the Net, the MBL tracking code is recording and storing (to what purpose no one knows) the data of who clicks on what ads on the site where the tracking code ... not just the widget but the actual, original MBL tracking code is installed.

Somewhere in the Google terms of service I know they specifically restrictive Google publishers from using third party click trackers which take Google's information to parts unknown, just as the Google ToS restrict you or I from discussing specifics of our Google click throughs and pay off share. MBL is collecting at least part of that restricted information all by itself ... in deep, technical terms I believe this is called bad juju. Sorry i ever let them darken my door.

Good move Brendon. I saw that and was going to give you a call but it was Saturday. Then I forgot about it. Sorry. I think it was an animated GIF and all which drew more attention to it.

The spamming of MyBlogLog is the typical exploitation of a good idea for an individuals own benefit at the ultimate expense of other members and therefore the community service as a whole. There's just no incentive for people not to spam it because they know most people will use it properly and only a small group (10%) of clowns will try to game the system to get a higher proportion of free traffic than they would normally.

If you haven't already you need to read Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Brilliant book that makes you think better with ideas generation to identify what is wrong and fix stuff like this. I've only just bought it and finished it (head is still hurting) but know you'll love it as it is sort of similar to Blink.
Anthony

The only reason I signed up with MyBlogLog was so that I would show up on your website :D

Yea, Shoemoney has had all sorts of fun with them.

I have nothing of REAL use to add to this conversation.

Ahh.. removal likewise. I thought it was a cool little feature, until I realised it was revealing how often I visit your site! Not that visiting your site often is a bad thing, I'm just not so sure I like my movements being so closely monitored and flagged up on your site or anyone elses.

Now I've noticed some ebay auctioneers on my MyBlogLog widget. So.. off it comes.

They've fallen pretty quickly with MyBlogLog.

I saw the things Shoemoney mention - I reckon he's got to be careful.

Being a smart a$$/purposely destructive blogger isn't helping anyone.

Sure, MyBlogLog had issues but detailing how to exploit the service so publically probably isn't the way to go about it.

Brendon

No doubt you're on track with your thoughts, Brendon. It's easy to get "caught up" in a craze and showing off someone's weaknesses in public seldom wins anyone friends ... or the kind of friends one wants to have.

I've learned a few things about myself in the past week or so ... pretty interesting how easy it can be to get upset about a cause and then realize the cause isn't even worth spending time on.

The outcome of Jeremy's little link bait/buzz fest was that he got way up in the Technorati listings, got on Digg's front page several times and further cemented his reputation of snarkiness, but we all (certianly me) have to sit back and wonder .. to what purpose?

Life's a journey and if you do more than just stare out the train window you can indeed learn a thing or two along the way.