Jay Rose Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 WOT (Web of Trust, a website rating service) has given my book's new site a bad rating, because a previous owner of the domain was a spammer*. Please help me. If you belong to WOT, please take a moment to verify that GreatSound.info is clean... then give WOT a new rating. If you don't belong, you can log in to mywot.com with your Facebook or Google ID. No additional user info is taken, though they do verify your email address. It takes about 30 seconds to register. Then you can check any site's reputation for free... and help clean up mine. --- *greatsound.info was marked as spam / possible malware in 2011 and early 2012. The crooks then abandoned the name, but WOT kept the warning. I registered it in late 2013, and went live in early 2014. It doesn't have any spam or malware... just info about my book, downloadable samples, and mp3 and mov tutorial files for readers. The moral? Before you register a site, be aware you're also inheriting any bad reputation anybody else ever earned for the domain name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Jay, it could take you a long time to fix WOT's incorrect data that way but you might try to report the problem here https://www.mywot.com/en/contact and select "Problem with my site's reputation". Otherwise, they are actively and without reason interfering with your right to conduct business. And that ain't cool... or legal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted December 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Laurence, I tried that WOT link first. It's singularly unhelpful. Once you follow it down, it says they won't change ratings even with a change of ownership. And it doesn't provide contact info; just a FAQ. It suggests you ask users on the service to submit new ratings, which is what I did on their forum and here. If you keep looking, you can find their postal address. In Finland. Many of their forum members have .ru TLDs. Yes, they are actively interfering with my business, and probably a lot of other peoples' as well. OTOH, I was alerted to this problem by a reader who thinks WOT is worth using. Their TOS, of course, absolves them of any responsibility for anything. While I can claim that I never agreed to their TOS, it would be a virtually impossible civil court fight to get them to change the rating or compensate me. And being non-US, there's no criminal complaint I could make. So I'll send them a polite snail mail... and not expect an answer. I suspect the best we can do is my original request: If you want to do me a solid, please go to the myWot.com site. Log in with your Facebook or Google ID. And give GreatSound.info a good rating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Norflus Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 I just gave you a good reveiw. It took less than two minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 It sounds more like an extortion scam than a service. You have to provide them something of value -- in this case web traffic -- in order to clear your name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Their web site talks about trust. I do not trust a "service" that is run with the level of irresponsible disregard that Jay has encountered. WOT will NOT receive a "Web Approved" sticker from me, instead they get my WOT-NOT! The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that my previous post hit the nail on the head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacob Gustavsson Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Rated. I hope it helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted December 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 Jack, Jacob... Thanks! I really appreciate it. John... you might be right. Or it might be the service was originally well-intentioned, but its algorithm never allowed for sites to change hands, in which case it's just lousy service rather than dishonesty. I won't use or rely on WOT myself, but since some of my book readers do, I have to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Spaeth Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Another positive rating from me for you, Jay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 +1 from me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted December 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Thanks, Christian and Vasilelos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShubiSnax Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Another good rating from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Reineke Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 As well as me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thanks, Brandon and Rick. The GreatSound.info site now has ten recent positive reviews, vs two very old ones reporting the previous owners. And the result in my rating? As of a few minutes ago, WOT asserts: The site has a poor reputation based on user ratings, and it is not suitable for children. I hope potential readers will look beyond the WOT red traffic light, and actually look at the reviews. There's some useful information at GreatSound.info (along with the expected book promo; Focal Press paid for the registration), as well as links to the free tutorials on my main site. Meanwhile: does anybody know if WOT even has an algorithm? Or do they manually update the ratings 'when they get around to it'? Anybody have any ideas? Or just that I shouldn't try to please everybody... the book is out there, and you can get it if you think it'll be useful to learn about film sound. There is no meaningful contact info on the WOT site, other than a snail address in Finland... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirror Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Did all you guys giving good ratings really read Jay's book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantin Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Did all you guys giving good ratings really read Jay's book? WOT sounds like a book to you? The reviews are for his website only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirror Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Ahh...So they're just rating his website, not his book. Thanks for clearing that up. I'll have to read better next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Rose Posted December 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 They're not even really reviewing the site. Just saying that it appears to be spam-free and there's nothing that would offend kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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