26 replies to this topic

[Faken]

So let me get this straight... We send out thousands of hits to sites via their tutorial links (Some sites have over a half million hits from us or more...), plus we have an affiliate program, topsites, SOTW, POTW and MANY ways of helping you get traffic, yet some people need to cheat on Topsites?! Come on guys... for those of you running legit programs (99.9% of you) thanks! For those of you going through the trouble of cheating the system, you WILL be caught and when you are, your site is banned for life.

It's really not worth it fellas.

To those of you that report cheating, my thanks, and I encourage you to continue doing so in the future - it's a HUGE help for us.

Thanks again all and you cheaters need to get a life.

Faken

[rc69]

By cheating, do you mean adding more then 1 site with the same url, or something else? Because i used to have a link in my sig that was the topsites link... If that's cheating, please say so.

p.s. that link was only in the sig on this forum.

[Faken]

rc69, on Jun 13 2005, 01:24 PM, said:

By cheating, do you mean adding more then 1 site with the same url, or something else? Because i used to have a link in my sig that was the topsites link... If that's cheating, please say so.

p.s. that link was only in the sig on this forum.

That can be cheating... let me put it this way:

Let's say you run a site called www.hellothere.com and in your topsites stats, it says you have brought in 60 hits to P2L. I will then open up my apache logs and see how many incoming hits I have from any pages listed under the hellothere.com domain. If the number that comes up is not 60 or more, you're gone.

Faken

[Tubby]

So how is it possible to make it appear as though more hits have come in then they have...

(Sorry if its dumb, and a really obvious answer)

[FFX]

isnt it based on unique hits ?

[johno]

Lets say you have a link in your profile. You make it go to your site, which would then redirect to P2L. That would in essence make it look like it came from your site. (and theres no way to spot that)

[TMZHosting LLC]

Yes its easy to track because if u hold the mouse on the sig or picture it will show the link and u will know if its topsites

[Donna]

johno, on Jun 13 2005, 06:32 PM, said:

Lets say you have a link in your profile.  You make it go to your site, which would then redirect to P2L.  That would in essence make it look like it came from your site.  (and theres no way to spot that)

We do check and remove links like that from your sigs and profiles.

And yes they are easy to spot especially when your being redirected.

[Lexxer]

I thought I might have been starting to bug you Faken But I just can't stand people who think they can get away with cheating their 'in' hits. Thanks for adressing it publicly.

[Faken]

No worries Lexxer - I wish people would report stuff more often instead of letting it just sit there and stew.

Faken

[bluestriker]

So what do you mean? If you see the same IP in your apache logs clicking on the link to the topsites, or what? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[dEcade]

It's nice to see you cracking down on them because it isn't fair to everyone else.

dEcade

[djones]

I agree its sad. I know a guy that runs a popular site that uses a bank of AOL modems to get him ahead of a topsite list anytime he feels threatened. If anyone feels that threatened about the integrity of thier site, it's time to find something else to do with your spare time...like supporting your favorite site and write some tutorials.

[Vouksh]

indeed, I've had to remove several sites from my own affiliates because of this same thing. no incoming hits :s or they take my button down

[InFnit]

I don't see the problem.....people are still sent to P2L whether it's from the site or not.....

[Faken]

InFnit, on Jun 13 2005, 11:21 PM, said:

I don't see the problem.....people are still sent to P2L whether it's from the site or not.....

The problem is that on the main sections of the site, we reward top affiliates by giving them a weekly permanent link. Cheating isn't really fair to those that try to drive legitamite traffic to us.

And when people cheat, it is generally the same person generating the counts, not individuals visiting our site.

Faken

[Unreal]

yeap cheating topsites pure sucks..

[TMZHosting LLC]

i always check the links before i put them on my site its just not fair

[syntex]

Ahh Now i get it,\
Low Lifes seriously need to gt a life like Faken said