How Stupid is BlogRush?

You may remember my problem trying to be removed from the BlogRush system. It was in fact screwed up. It began on 9/22/2007, when I did my own research and review of the BlogRush system...And was completely unimpressed. After reading the terms of use very carefully an realizing they in fact had phrases indicating they could in fact use my content in terms that I do not wish to see happen...

By submitting Content to Income.com for inclusion in our Service, you grant Income.com a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of promoting your blog. If you delete Content, Income.com will use reasonable efforts to remove it from the Service, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

So continued my ordeal to get removed from this potentially content thieving system. I became especially pissed off in this process, after receiving threatening emails from BlogRush for not displaying their widget....Even though I had ALREADY asked to be removed.

Yes, I have been receiving a few referral page views from a BlogRush url...But I didn't think much of it....Until today. I assumed it was some sort of linked referral from a blog using the widget. The address resolves to an empty page.

s1.blogrush.com / referral (last visit 10/6).

Have a look at the email BlogRush sent me. So clearly BlogRush will do whatever the hell they want. If you are a BlogRush member and your blog got dumped, you might be upset. Apparently even though I do not wish to participate, and have jumped though hoops to be withdrawn from the program, this blog was accepted......Unless the email is BOGUS...Link bait? A PLOY?

-----Original Message-----
From: BlogRush [mailto:system@blogrush.com]
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 3:03 AM
To: Melanie Prough
Subject: Special News For You

An Important BlogRush News Update...
- Congratulations!
- 10,000+ Blogs Removed From BlogRush
- Phase 2 Being Deployed
- Busy Week Ahead!
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Congratulations!
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You are receiving this update because your blog has passed our strict Quality Guidelines and criteria -- we believe you have a high-quality blog and we are happy you're a member of our network!
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10,000+ Blogs Removed From BlogRush
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We've just completed a massive SWEEP of our entire network. We've
removed over *10,000* blogs (Yes, ten thousand) that did not meet our new Quality Guidelines. We have done a huge "quality control audit" of our network and have reviewed all the blogs one-at-a-time. We will continue to review each NEW blog that is ever submitted to our network. You will notice the HUGE DIFFERENCE in the quality of blogs that now appear in your widget. This major *sweep* of our network will also increase the click-rates across the entire network and you will start to receive more traffic. But we're only getting started. We've got LOTS of amazing improvements in the works to help you get more daily traffic from
our network.
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Phase 2 Being Deployed
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We're in the process of rolling out our massive "Phase 2" upgrade to BlogRush. In the next few days you'll see an all-new Dashboard, advanced statistics reporting, and much, much more. We're introducing tons of new sub-categories to help with content relevance (which will increase click-rates and traffic). We're also introducing a "Thin Widget" option. Many of our members cannot use the standard widget because it's too wide for their blog.This new widget format will solve this issue.
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Busy Week Ahead!
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We have a busy week ahead as we will start rolling out all these fantastic changes. Thanks so much for your patience! We will continue to work very hard to help drive more quality, targeted DAILY TRAFFIC to your blog.
Best
Regards,
John Reese,
Founder of BlogRush

So, returning the favor...In BlogRush likeness...I have sent BlogRush a very strong email in return. For any that are interested, the email address is support@blogrush.com. I certainly don't care what they want to do, or how they run their site...But if I want to be excluded, then I have the damn right. I will not party to a pyramid system of traffic building, whose founder signs threatening emails, writes clauses to retain and license my content for itself, and whose members cannot leave of their own free will.

Peace and SEO

Melanie Prough
"Baby"


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