Dreamhost? Know anyone inside? Help needed urgently + Reward !!

[GUA]

Hey guys,

I made a big mistake. I spammed my fellow domainers from my dreamhost account. It was a genuine mistake, but I appreciate that is not an excuse.
I have learned from my mistake, and I wont do it again. I have also been punished in that my dreamhost account has been closed. All fair and square, and just a bit of background for what follows.

My account has been closed, and they are refusing to provide me with a backup of my files. They are now not even replying to my emails.
I feel I have been punished for my mistake in losing my account, but this is now preventing me from continuing development of my various websites such as domaindairy.com which are used daily by domainers.
I have essentially lost access to hundreds of hours of coding, and that is really painful.

My position now is I need those scripts, so I am not going to let it drop. I am/have been trying to settle this amicably with dreamhost. It really isnt that much effort to zip up my files and allow me to download them. Then I'd be out of their faces. I know this is possible because someone in a similar position recieved this treatment (thanks google).

Based on my current situation of not recieiving replies to my emails, I was curious if anyone knew anyone at dreamhost, that could help me get this sorted, or anyone who had any better suggestions as to how to sort this.

Any help which leads to a resolution will get a significant reward. I want my scripts !

Thanks
Tom

 

[domaingenius]

Hey guys,

I made a big mistake. I spammed my fellow domainers from my dreamhost account. It was a genuine mistake, but I appreciate that is not an excuse.
I have learned from my mistake, and I wont do it again. I have also been punished in that my dreamhost account has been closed. All fair and square, and just a bit of background for what follows.

My account has been closed, and they are refusing to provide me with a backup of my files. They are now not even replying to my emails.
I feel I have been punished for my mistake in losing my account, but this is now preventing me from continuing development of my various websites such as domaindairy.com which are used daily by domainers.
I have essentially lost access to hundreds of hours of coding, and that is really painful.

My position now is I need those scripts, so I am not going to let it drop. I am/have been trying to settle this amicably with dreamhost. It really isnt that much effort to zip up my files and allow me to download them. Then I'd be out of their faces. I know this is possible because someone in a similar position recieved this treatment (thanks google).

Based on my current situation of not recieiving replies to my emails, I was curious if anyone knew anyone at dreamhost, that could help me get this sorted, or anyone who had any better suggestions as to how to sort this.

Any help which leads to a resolution will get a significant reward. I want my scripts !

Thanks
Tom

Hey


I am good at this type of thing. Im in the UK. If I manage to get them for you will you do a website for me (i.e. build one ). ?. If so please PM me your user name at dreamhost and your relevant email addy and will do best.

Regards

DG

 

[steveto]

ugghh,

This does sound painful, but let me ask you this. Is this your first offence? Usually, hosts are lenient on the first mistake, but it does sound kind of harsh to close it and ignore you if this is the first offence of its kind.

As a web host myself, we have told people in the past to take a hike, but that was after 3 strikes..or depending on severity. It's unfortunate for you that I actually do not know anyone in Dreamhost which is unusual because I know just about everyone in the industry. I am sure if I do enough searching I can find someone, but I would have zero clout as I just got their name from someone else. Dreamhost is a big company and TBH, it is a "waste" of time to assign someone the task of going into your account, zipping and sending. They could not be bothered. My company has over 3500 customers and is small in comparison, but the way we do it is charge a service fee. Dreamhost may not give damn about getting a fee either. I am just telling you how web hosts think.

Also, word of advice, what would have happened if their HD crashed or some data loss happened, you would have had no files left. You really need to backup your files and keep a copy elsewhere. I have my own personal servers in 3 different countries with files dating back to '92..(I even have 200 gb files stored on like a few hundred 3.5 inch floppies) I'm paranoid..lol..I don't even use my own computer to check email..I still use PINE! If you don't know what that is..it tells you how ancient I really am.

In all honesty..I give it 30 days before the files are deleted or over -written. If I were you, I would do whatever it is you plan to do like yesterday or go to archive.org and try to retrieve everything you can, though you probably could not save your scripts.

If you want serious hosting advice pm me (I've seen it all), but this time I think you are sol. I don't want to seem harsh, but this was definitely a painful lesson.

just my 2 cents
Steve

 

[GeorgeK]

No sympathy, since I was one of the people you or your colleague spammed, and I provided a warning to you before reporting the spamming to DreamHost.

You or your colleague wrote:

It is not a script, rather I have been emailing those owning names
suitable for our projects. I wont send you any more emails.Sorry for any distress caused.

and then I got even more emails. Blasting bulk emails to 2-letter and 3-letter .com domain owners offering $750 is what it is.

 

[GUA]

George, i appreciate what you are saying, and i will learn from my mistakes. In many respects this experience will do of good as a professional.

steve, i also appreciate your comments and may well contact you after i get this sorted.

dg i would appreciate your help, and will contact you as soon as i am on a pc. I would truly appreciate it george he you could also contact dh.

i appreciate what i did was wrong but at the end of the day many of my scripts help domainess as well.

sorry for the awful formatting etc i am on my phone and will reply / contact all parties in about an hour. Tom

 

[katherine]

...Blasting bulk emails to 2-letter and 3-letter .com domain owners offering $750 is what it is.

I am seeing more and more of this crap :upset:

 

[Theo]

At least offer $1k

 

[whitebark]

Why would you not keep your own backups?

 

[Devil Dog]

At least offer $1k

ya'know? 750 and I'd have reported him also!

 

[NameGuy]

Spam sucks. You got what you deserved.

 

[GUA]

Guys I know I was lowballing, and I know I am in the wrong. I have been punished for that.
Id like to retain/get back any proffessionaly respect I have left.

One of my biggest contributions to the domaining community was my domaindairy.com portfolio management system, which I now dont have access to.

I know I was in the wrong, posting that I am in the wrong isnt going to do anything.

This thread is to signify my appreciation of my wrongdoing, but now to help me get my stuff back and start again.

Thanks
Tom

 

[Cash Is King]

Hey Tom

They should not be holding your code hostage in my opinion. You might want to consult with someone like Berryhill. The first stage of healing is being able to admit you were wrong, take some heat from your peers and then grow from it. This is not nearly as bad as the other frauds going around.

Lessons Learned:

Don't make the same mistake again.

Have a backup for everything you do.
------------------------

I would help you if I could. Good luck anyways.

 

[GUA]

Hey Tom

They should not be holding your code hostage in my opinion. You might want to consult with someone like Berryhill. The first stage of healing is being able to admit you were wrong, take some heat from your peers and then grow from it. This is not nearly as bad as the other frauds going around.

Lessons Learned:

Don't make the same mistake again.

Have a backup for everything you do.
------------------------

I would help you if I could. Good luck anyways.

Appreciated. I did contact John, but didnt recieve a response. Might try again.

Thanks

 

[jberryhill]

http://www.dreamhost.com/tos.html

DreamHost Web Hosting servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service. DreamHost Web Hosting reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the backups/archives at their discretion.

 

[GUA]

http://www.dreamhost.com/tos.html

DreamHost Web Hosting servers are not intended as a data backup or archiving service. DreamHost Web Hosting reserves the right to negotiate additional charges with the Customer and/or the discontinuation of the backups/archives at their discretion.

Thanks for the reply John. Does that essentially mean I am (insert rude word here)?

I wouldnt mind paying a fee to get my code back, although it isnt ideal. As long as it isnt a large fee.

I did quite a bit of research on this, and found one other person Elliot Back who managed to get his files back in a somewhat similar situation.
I think it is a case of putting pressure on. It really cant be that much effort to zip up my files and send a link....

N.B Should I continue this chat here, or through email. At the moment it is going through both

 

[steveto]

I can tell you from hosting exp that the charge..if they agree will be between $25-100 depending. If they charge more than that they're being D****. It's not the effort..it's the fact that they had to get the complaint...clean it from spamhaus..bunch of other users using that same IP calling in and saying "my email is not being received by my friends" (because spamhaus blacklisted it)..it's a huge pain.

Just letting you know what hosts have to go through...
Steve

 

[jberryhill]

Should I continue this chat here, or through email.

Please no email.

I receive more questions in a day than can be answered, and it interferes with my ability to ensure receipt of communications relating to paid work.

I've seen situations like this before, and situations like this have been discussed here before.

It verges on insane to not keep your own copies of your own material. Anything can happen to your webhost.

The terms of service to which you are agreed are unambiguously clear on this point.

What someone may be (a) nicely persuaded to do, and what someone can be (b) legally compelled to do, are often two different things.

It is my experience that the universe of (a) is much larger than (b).

Aim for the large target.

 

[GUA]

Ok ill keep posts to here then. I really appreciate your help/guidance.

I realise now that it is stupid not to keep backups. Not much I can do on that front now.

I have sent numerous polite emails etc, but they simply do not reply. Thus the idea of contacting someone who a member may now personally inside dreamhost would be a great option.

If anyone knows anyone at dreamhost please PM me. As i mentioned there is a reward.

John/Anyone else if you have any ideas as to bhow I can get them to start replying/supply the backup it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tom

 

[domaingenius]

Ok ill keep posts to here then. I really appreciate your help/guidance.

I realise now that it is stupid not to keep backups. Not much I can do on that front now.

I have sent numerous polite emails etc, but they simply do not reply. Thus the idea of contacting someone who a member may now personally inside dreamhost would be a great option.

If anyone knows anyone at dreamhost please PM me. As i mentioned there is a reward.

John/Anyone else if you have any ideas as to bhow I can get them to start replying/supply the backup it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tom

Have you tried telephoning them yet ??

DG

 

[GUA]

They dont have a phone number, as far as I can tell they do 'call-backs' for customers with a certain account type... also I am in the UK.