My issues with /.

So about three weeks ago, I suddenly was getting a “BANNED!” message when I tried to load Slashdot at home.

The message told me to email “banned [at] slashdot [dot] org” with my IP address as the subject, and they’d tell me why I was banned.

I did this.

Got no reply.

Week or so later, emailed again. No reply. Finally sent another email yesterday, as well as one to Rob Malda, the admin/creator, and this was the dialogue (my emails in italics; Robs in normal face):

_Rob,

I know that I should go through channels. But I’ve sent several emails

over the past couple weeks inquiring about my IP address being

“banned” from Slashdot, and have received no reply.

I included my IP as the subject, as requested. No reply.

I would never mess with your site, dude! Hell, I even contributed with

PayPal. I’d appreciate at least the respect of a reply (when your

BANNED! page implies that).

Thanks!

*sigh*

Go through channels.
If you are gonna sidestep channels, you have to at least tell me

your IP.

Rob,

I *did* go through channels. The emails I sent were all to “banned [at] slashdot [dot] org” with my IP address as the subject.

The IP address is 12.247.59.172.

I would not have emailed you directly if I had received any response at all from my emails through proper channels.

I *did* go through channels. The emails I sent were all to

“banned [at] slashdot [dot] org” with my IP address as the subject.

Well, in all fairness, we’re all really busy, what with the *war* and

all, so I’d appreciate a little understanding and patience.

The IP address is 12.247.59.172.

This IP was banned for exceeding out terms of service for RSS page

loaders. You were loading thousands of RSS pages. Our policy is once

every 30 minutes.

During times of intense traffic, we ban programs that ignore our rules

to allow real readers to load pages instead of robots.

I would not have emailed you directly if I had received any response

at all from my emails through proper channels.

Of course not. You are very polite :)

_Rob,

Right. The war. That’s the same excuse they’ve given me at work for why my desktop hasn’t been imaged yet (Terror Alert Orange. I’m not kidding.)

I’m wondering if it was the Konfabulator (or whatever that silly OS X widget app was called) that was doing that. Rest assured that I’m no longer running it.

Thanks!

You’re famous. I checked with Sam, and it turns out he *has* replied

to you… several times. Your gravytrain email bounces back anything

that he sends. So in other words, you’ve wasted his time several

times, and wasted my time too! Awesome! We love that!

Anyway, we’ve been laughing at you for weeks. He’s bounced back 3-4

messages from you, and our whole office laughs at how retarded you are

for emailing someone angrily demanding help, only to bounce their

replies. We started laughing at you *weeks* ago. So thanks for the

laughs.

I’m wondering if it was the Konfabulator (or whatever that silly OS X

widget app was called) that was doing that. Rest assured that I’m no

longer running it.

Could be. But I kinda doubt it- Konfabulator was hitting us a LOT more

than 2k times. I’m going to unban you, but be careful. 2nd bans are

pretty much permanent.

- *Now, the part that amuses me is that

Rob was able to email me at the gravytrainfilms.com email address, but not “Sam”. Which leads me to believe that Sam is the fucked up one (our mail server bounces from open-relays and known spam hosts). I inquired to Rob about this, but received no reply.