Like written on the Best travel pictures in the world blog, i made a "secret" test on 8th and 9th February 2009 to see who is gaming EntreCard's Dropping System.For this test i had to remove the EntreCard widget to see if some members still are able to appear in my Inbox. I'm sorry if i caused a lot of members problems as many of you tried to search for the EntreCard-widget several times a day (it was for the best means of us).
To my shocking surprise it wasn't just a handful of members who fake drops in our inbox, it has been more than 65 members who never visit your blog.
They just use a Ghost dropper list or a program that is dropping only on the yellow drop box. With this method you can finish dropping 300 blogs in less than 15 minutes.
I decided now to show off these FAKE members who didn't physically visit your web site, so that you can decide by yourself if you still want to support them or if you dump them (no more dropping on them) to show them that WE DON'T ACCEPT CHEATERS IN ENTRECARD.
Several hours ago EntreCard deleted the Best travel pictures in the world blog from their system. But after 3 1/2 hours i got the blog reinstated and you can drop again on the Best travel pictures in the world blog!
EntreCard even wants to look now into the matter of Ghost drop lists and how to change the code, so that we members get REAL VISITORS and not FAKE DROPS IN OUR INBOX!
One list which i suspect has played the malicious part for so many fake drops, has been deleted after i told EntreCard about it and they suspended the account of this person (or warned her that it will get suspended if she doesn't remove this list).
Here have been the members who scam us regularly in EntreCard, like you can see there are a lot of TOP Droppers who actually never come to your blog but a lot of you give them even a FREE LINK each month.
UPDATE:
The Responses of the accused members have been published in the comment section a choice can be seen on Responses of the Ghost Droppers.
For the members who didn't believe me!
This is my single Dropbox of this blog which could be used everywhere to cheat on me!
EntreCard made this kind of cheating after this experiment NOW UNAVAILABLE!
So there is no more reason to display the picture of these members who used this system!
Read my apology for the falsely accused EntreCard Ghost droppers
Martin ur back LOL! Oh no.... I see many of them in my Inbox almost on a daily basis.... :( I am just wondering how you can drop on another blog without the widget... :( And 15 minutes to finish 300???? WOW!
ReplyDeleteAnd this is a mighty long list I gotta say!
ReplyDeletethanks Martin for this..yeah!havent seen yer widget the past days..and wasnt able to drop, now i know sthe fake droppers..thanks so much!!very much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteWalking Newspaper
Pinoy Medical Doctor
The Latest Buzzzz
Aside from SFI, all the rest drop on me on a regular basis... :(
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm and I've been buying ads on some of the blogs here too....
ReplyDeleteYou are truly a hardcore Entrecarder Martin.
ReplyDeleteI recognize a few of the blogs you have listed and some really surprised me, because it never occurred to me that they cheat drops..
anyway, I guess for some people cheating is better than actually having to drop 300 cards everyday because they are busy with their offline life..
There was a time in my life that I used this said cheat system myself, when I was very busy and wanted to reach the 300 goal per day. I only drop on about 200 blogs, which consisted some of my best friends online and regular droppers, then I'd cheat to reach the 300 goal.. :D hehe but I stopped doing that when I was told by a friend that I could get suspended for that.. :D
worst thing is that some of the listed above are on adgi oso..grrrrrrrrrr....
ReplyDeleteI can say with certainty that Leomars blog, who is a member of our Blogging for Fun group, does visit my blog, and leaves comments. I know there is a program out there that allows you to do exactly what you describe, not sure how they will stop it but it would be nice. Some of these I have already stopped dropping on, but thanks for the others.
ReplyDeleteWow.. that's shocking. I never knew that dropping on blogs without the widget is even possible!
ReplyDelete@Mariuca:
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a "too long" list. I never expected that so many members abuse the EntreCard system in a selfish way to get themselves MORE PAGEVIEWS and earnings in their ad network programs or for paid blog posts. And additionally they get more popularity points/ECs in EntreCard.
i'm shocked beyond words and truly disappointed :(
ReplyDeleteLOL I have ur page here open while dropping now, need to cross-reference which are the fakers from what's on my list, ain't easy grrr... already dropped on several of them..can't remember all!
ReplyDeleteoh gosh! :( thanks Martin! my top droppers are on that list :( i even share some ECs to them :(
ReplyDelete@GAGAY:
ReplyDeleteYes, some members are in Adgitize, too. I just don't click them anymore, very simple.
No more trust in them.
Wow, just wow. I see these blogs every day in my inbox. Hopefully Entrecard deals with them soon.
ReplyDelete@Melissa:
ReplyDeleteYes, i'm in the Blogging for Fun group, too. So i know that Leomar usually visits blogs. But my other blog is not in the group. So it could be he just drops on the important blogs and gets the rest of the ECs with other methods.
I can't do anything than publishing the members who managed to drop in my Inbox without visible EC-widget.
You can see the comments from other members since 8th February that they couldn't find the EC-Widget on the "Best travel pictures in the world" blog.
Martin, I thank you for your time and effort in putting this out there to see who is behind all this. Just about all of them have dropped on my blog at one time or another. Like some of the others, I had no idea this was possible. I have no patience for these types of people. I'll make sure to reference this blog today when I start dropping again.
ReplyDeleteThanks again buddy!
@Ane:
ReplyDeleteIt's not really obvious to track if these (new) members drop really on your blog or from another blog who provided such a Ghost dropper list or if they made themselves such a list or use another manual or automatic program.
I just recognized that i never dropped on 50 of these members in the past.
I think that from today on, me and many other members will receive much less drops because one of these pages are shut down. I see already only 3 of the members who dropped on me today.
@Just my 2 Cents:
ReplyDeleteWill publish my correspondence with EntreCard on the Travel picture blog tomorrow.
EntreCard has been very quick in reinstating my blog and with NO questioning or impolite reactions because of this test.
Was really a great experience today!
Martin, I can say for the record that the woman at Mom's Place and Tanner's World do visit my blogs. I've been friends for a long-time with both of them, and the author at Mom's Place has frequently commented on my blogs. Also, the author of Tanner's World lives in the same area as me, and has left comments on my shoutbox plenty of times in the past. I won't rule out the possibility of them visiting their friends and dropping on the rest using that dropping method you're talking about though. I don't know at all. I can't speak for the rest of those listed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should contact the two authors privately about this.
Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing the information above !
ReplyDeleteHad been very busy recently & now surfing & visiting again !
JH
http://www.photojournalist-tgh.tv
hhhmmmmmmm...Amazing how I found this and myself on your blog while dropping cards on your site....for the LAST TIME.
ReplyDelete@David Funk:
ReplyDelete@I am Harriet:
I know that Mom's Place and her other blog "itravel" dropped on my blogs, too. Itravel won in my contest from November 2009.
But i have to look at the facts at the moment, they dropped without the existing widget on the travel blog and i guess hundred of members can tell them that there was NO WIDGET in these two days on the travel picture blog.
I see what u mean David, and I think that's true. I guess it's kinda hard to know who are the real droppers now, aside from the regular ones who I know for sure drops and comments.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin for this posts I'm sure other bloggers will do list down their priority blogs to drop. Right now I'm doing my new list of bloggers to drop on an easier thing that won't hung up your pc so I'll consider this lists. Also could you provide me that long list? Thanks
ReplyDeleteJust an observation: No wonder a lot of Entrecard Users (not the cheaters) are being pull down of their popularity rating.
Again thanks Cornyman.
I'm very mad!!!
ReplyDeleteI went to the extra effort of Googling your blog and opening it from Google's cache, because I didn't see your widget.
I then clicked on your widget from the cached page. I do that for any blog I regularly visit if the site is down or I can't find the widget.
And this is what I get in return!!!
I expect a public apology.. VERY public!
Wow - I drop on most of them too. This is a shocker.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see your travel blog back - I was wondering what was up with it.
Thanks for the info!
Holy Crap. I've been a very bad dropper as of late as I found myself dropping more than posting. I wondered how these seeminly "busy" bloggers kept up with dropping and figured they had hired someone or had their kids doing it. I never knew there was a program to do it for you. Stupid me.
ReplyDeleteErm... I use a cached browser? It caches sites and only updates when there is an update? You can use Google's cache to do the same thing. Hence anyone with any sense knows how to do you a favour when your site is sluggish and still manage to drop. Still this sort of slander is the last straw - to be honest many of us have invested years in dropping and I for one see this as a good time to leave for good.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a member of Entrecard but I have friends who have been. Have you heard of a browser cache??? Where is this amazing software that cheats Entrecard anyway? Sounds like a traffic exchange to me...
ReplyDeleteAllow me to present a slightly different perspective. While I have little tolerance for cheaters or people trying to game the system, you seem to be making an assumption that may or may not be true.
ReplyDeleteJust because you are receiving a message from EntreCard that certain people have dropped cards on you when you have not had a widget that they could drop on, does not necessarily mean that the people whose cards have shown up are cheating. There could easily be a bug in EntreCard’s software which misreports when a card is dropped or even who has dropped the card.
To the extent that people are cheating, they should stop, and hopefully EntreCard will find who they are and penalize them. However, any way you look at it, it seems as if the bigger problem is with EntreCard reporting drops that should not happen. First and foremost, EntreCard needs to fix this problem. If it is people cheating, then the fix will prevent additional cheating. If it is some other bug, than it is just important that it get fixed.
Way to go Martin! Very disappointing news, as most of them are daily droppers on my blog too. AND worse, I have been wasting my valuable time returning the drops on their blogs. It makes sense though, why many of these are top droppers in my monthly post, but never bother to comment or thank me...BECAUSE they're not reading my effen blog! Now my blood is beginning to boil... I think Entrecard should ban them, I don't have any sympathy for cheaters. You my friend, are now and forever... ec007 ;)
ReplyDelete@aldon:
ReplyDeleteFor sure several of the mentioned members cheat the system - at the moment i can say most of them.
Why do i know this?
I didn't get less drops from more than these mentioned members throughout the day.
The question is if i'm allowed to show how easy it would be to build a cheating website like the one who had to delete today the quick drop pages (i call them Ghost dropper).
The second point is - i wrote (most of it in red color) on the second day that i removed the EntreCard and 63 members managed to drop on a blog without widget and nearly the same members dropped on the next day again; shouldn't they have read it and recognized that if they drop, they might get into trouble?
There is no real bug, you can try it with your own blog if you can drop the card without that you are on your blog. It's EntreCard's fault to program the widget in this form that everyone could abuse it.
@John:
ReplyDeleteThese have been my thoughts, too, before i started the experiment. There are more than 40 members on which i never dropped my card but they within my Top Droppers.
For me it was a sign not to reciprocate on most of them and they still dropped daily.
Perhaps they just wanted to get the additional link love to build more one-way links to get a better PR?
Most of these members will drop in 12 hours then i will know more what they have to say...
It's just cannot believe that so many of them are cheating. So disappointed as i visit back their blog which they actually appear in my drop box but not visiting my blog. I think we should report to Adgitize and Entrecard authorities to ban their account. Let's teach them a lesson!!
ReplyDeleteSome of these are regular droppers on my photo blog, English Wilderness. It would be interesting to hear what they have to say for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also reported a couple of the cheat websites and Entrecard assured me they'd be dealt with.
I'm still receiving drops 6 days after removing the widget on Make Nothing Online. That's even after putting a NO-CACHE meta directive temporarily in the header.
Strange how they deleted your blog two days after you removed the widget yet other blogs are still there months after the website disappeared. I've reported quite a few for no widget or website no longer exists, but they still haven't been removed!
aha! so this answers my bewilderment when my site expired for three days and i still got drops on those days! imagine my confusion, was i imagining things? or entrecard is glitchy?
ReplyDeletethey need some spanking. tsk tsk tsk tsk... bad bad children of entrecard...
Most of my droppers are in the list. OMG! Been dropping for nothing.
ReplyDeleteTHanks for the info.
If this is true then fight back by adding them to Block Site. Block Site is a firefox extension where you can add sites you wish to block. I use this plugin to block EC sites/blogs with annoying pop-ups, music, etc. I guess I will be adding the ones listed here now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this ...I see a lot of them in my inbox. And I'd been wondering that there is one of them who has 13 blogs and can drop on my blog with her widgets consecutively in a row.I will bookmark this post of yours as my reference.
ReplyDeletenow i know these are the scariest ghost roaming around hunted ec house.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post. I request Entrecard to have this matter investigated. I'll e-mail Cindy on this today.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, if what you alleged is true, then there's no point staying with Entrecard and dropping cards -- as all efforts and traffic are useless, crap, and even non-existent.
The end does not justify the means.
Well, I think you're not seeing things the way they are. In fact,I visit your blog every day at least once, but sometimes 5 or more times.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because I adgitize too.
So I think you're making mistakes.
Maybe I should start spending whole days commenting, so you can see I'm at the blogs.
Well, I;ve been face at entrecard with so many things the past years, this can be adeed, I guess.
Very interesting. I saw that your widget was gone and wondered what was up. I too, have reported a lot of sites for NO WIDGET and that information is totally ignored. You get caught after 2 days? Incredible. I hope EC does something to close this loophole, because as long as there is one, people will find it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been as hardcore of a dropper as you and some others, and some of those sites I already avoid, but I think I'll give them all a wide berth for a while.
Thanks.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the exposure.
I wonder... Do you miss my visits for adgetize on your blog too?
Ttttt
I was out of town the dates listed and when I travel I outsource my drops. I only drop on those who drop on me and will speak with those individuals who I outsource my dropping to while I'm gone. I visit each site regularily, comment if I can (lately I can't much due to travel and medical issues so I do suck there) and buy ads on those sites as well. It takes me 9 hours to drop on my these sites throughout the day either using the snaplinks multiple web browser opener or the EC toolbar if I didn't get enough drops using my favorites list, who are people who drop or have dropped on me while I write, email and social network so I am taking this accusation very seriously. I appreciate the information and will be sure to look into it.
ReplyDeleteWow what a funny post, I see one of my cards on your list, and here I am commenting. I also see at least four cards of other members who comment on one of my blogs. And, I see quite a few cards from members who also use Blog Catalog, I know they use Blog Catalog because their avatars show on my BC widget after they have visited one of my blogs.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking of leaving EC because the bounce rate from members who actually do visit one of my blogs only to drop a card and then leave, is far more harmful to my blogs ranking than someone who uses a "ghost dropper list." This post might be the straw that broke the camels back, so congratulations to you on suceedding at something might be in order.
Me again, sorry but I am upset that my card appears on your fake droppers list. I follow a few members who have been quick to jump on your bandwagon through the Google friend connect widget, wich I will remove myself from now. Those that I regularly visit like The English Wildernes, I wont anymore. I am very sorry that I spent so much time on this blog the other day reading your posts about increasing blog traffic.
ReplyDeleteI am using my url/name in my comments so people can see that members on the cards above do visit EC sites, see who is making comments on my blogs for yourself.
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see you have taken some step to identify those scumbags but I am sad to see my blog is in this list. I am a dedicated dropper drops 300 cards a day and concentrating only one blog in Entrecard now.
I don't believe your reading is true, because personally I am not a ghost dropper and I am in the list. Plus, I got some good suggestion for you to detect this ghost droppers.
1. Entrecard Reset Time
Entrecard resets their dropped number at 1.05PM (GMT+8). Those who drops before 1.05PM or after 1.05PM where your widget might still be on your blog will show their drop in Feb 9 or Feb 8. You can find me on Feb 8 "Ghost Dropper" but not in Feb 9. If I am a Ghost Dropper, I would appear in both Feb 8 and Feb 9.
2. Get longer Period
I suggest you to run this test for longer period, like 3 or 5 days and take the middle days like 2nd day in 3 days experiment or 2nd to 4th day in 5 days experiment day. Remove this widget for 3 to 5 days to get accurate reading on those "Ghost Dropper".
I am not sure whether this is possible, maybe you can run this experiment longer period again to find out who is exactly or is it possible to make ghost dropping.
Hi, I'm one of the people/bloggers you're so angry at. I have been an Entrecard member for over a year, and have struggled to "drop" while doing a daily post on my blog (and I DO post something every day). It's ironic that it was hard to find time to WRITE, and I was spending 45 minutes dropping like a freaking zombie. I don't see how the dropping mechanism that Yijien devised is that different from the Entrecard toolbar -- at least in terms of actually READING anything on the blog. Most people just look for the badge and move on. It is certainly no different than having your kids do the dropping (which one of your commenters mentioned). I have a list of Entrecard blogs that I enjoy and visit (my interest is pets and horses), but let's face it none of us read blogs all day. The fact is, it's not realistic to think that we would all normally visit 300 blogs a day out of casual interest. Unlike a lot of you, my blog isn't for-profit -- I don't accept paid ads at all and I make no money. This is a "hobby" for me. Unless you stop and read every single blog you drop on (300 a day!) I think your anger is a little misplaced.
ReplyDeleteIn my previous comment above, I stated that I'll request Entrecard to have this matter investigated and I'll e-mail Cindy today.
ReplyDeleteBut I have second thoughts. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news to Entrecard. In olden times the bearer (messenger) of bad news is the one shot, and not the author of bad news.
So, it is best for Entrecard to find this out. It's their fault that they closed their Forums. Users could have posted this serious matter on their Forums.
Hi Martin, yes it's true, i found this blog a week ago. I tried it and i even ask the owner of the blog how can i see or visit the owner of the blog but i didn't get any reply so what i did is to try dropping but i see to it that after dropping if i saw their blogs thru adgitize, that's the time i left a message that i drop to their blogs, so that means, i am not a ghost. well, sometimes, i didn't left a comment but i was there in their blogs like your blogs too. Thanks anyway for alarming me this. I am not guilty of this because i know i am not a ghost dropper.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day Martin
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteI m another one who is quite taken back with the number that 'cheat' the system. I drop on at least 40 of those listed reguarly.
Like other comments, it is for Entrecard to take action on this. I kow how hard it is with time, the most valuable asset in blogging, but to become dishonest is certainly not in the spirit of Entrecard's projection.
Thank you for the effort, you really are Entrecard's Guardian Angel!
Fond Regards
Martin
Did you check the IP addresses?
ReplyDeleteI make no secret I use the frames hack to quickly zoom through the drops and then load the sites seperately so I don't need to scroll down to click the drop button. That way I can scan through the blogs and see if there are any new updates without having to scroll all the way to find the small drop button.
By the way, some blogger like to put ads very close to the drop button so I have previously clicked on the wrong button before.
Have you considered the use of seperate frames to be efficient? Have you checked on the IPs to see if we drop by to view your blog in person?
Maybe you would like to check it out and see? I use work as well as home PCs to drop and view and would be happy to provide my IPs.
WOW - what a sad world we live in :(
ReplyDeleteI would be insanely mad if I made 300 drops a day - and had a top droppers list. I make 150 a day and THAT takes more of my time then I can actually afford. I drop on favourites then go through my inbox like an idiot apparently and "reciprocate" on a lot of these.
Sad to say, since a few of these are real favourites ( the junk drawer - really?) I think they should be banned immediately.
I feel some link love (via trackbacks)coming your way (and a week's worth of coffee)I hope everyone reads about this.
Cheers :)
I am glad you found this......
ReplyDeletethanks for this information, I see some in my inbox daily. They are my top dropper even, now I know who i will visit...
ReplyDeletethanks for this information, some of them are in my inbox daily, and they are my top dropper even.. OMG! Now i know who will i visit..
ReplyDeleteI always visit them too
thanks again
This is definitely shocking. They were all my regular droppers and can't get over thinking over this matter last night. I may post a similar article on this in one of my blogs and linked it here so that the readers will have a better understanding.
ReplyDeleteWas this matter already reported to Entrecard? I was hoping Eli already did this yesterday.
Seek No More
I agree with this, Entercard should repair their system from such glitch to avoid many cheaters.
ReplyDeletewow! almost all of them drop in my inbox daily.
ReplyDeleteoh well, thanks for sharing this info martin.
That's exactly the reason why I really could not find your EC widget and I was wondering what happened. I am surprised! You exactly did it for the greater good! What a very brave post! Shocking revelation! I salute you Martin!
ReplyDeleteWith your test, you only caught "some of them" who happened to possibly save your blog as part of their drop list. But how about the others that are still out there? My blog receives more than 300 drops everyday. That would mean I could have received more drops from these cheaters? Grrrr... Whew! I happened to notice that two of the blogs that are listed here already removed their widgets, huh! Shame on them! They are not worth my time!
Thanks a lot for your courage and boldness to expose this!
Do we still have hope from Entrecard? :(
@T from Guitarbench right?
ReplyDeleteI have seen you listed on almost EVERY top droppers list I have come across and you know what is funny? Idon't recall seeing a comment til now? Not even thanks for the link in the top droppers posts? maybe you have but I don't recall.
"I use the frames hack to quickly zoom through the drops and then load the sites seperately so I don't need to scroll down to click the drop button"
Oh Come on! IF and that's a big IF this really reflects what you do I have a few questions for you....
Do you feel this method of non-dropping is in the spirit of entrecard? Do you feel your time is more valuable than everyone else's? Do you think everyone else's efforts to market their websites should be something for you to take advantage of, and exploit for your own benefit?
Sadly thanks to you and your mates, I think we'll see a steep decline in top droppers lists. Well done!
I agree with junezach - I think there must be many many more...
I was surprised to see some of the blogs that you have shown. Hopefully, EC will be able to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Some of the blogs you mention, I regularly read and some of them are fine blogs. NY Renovator, Behind the Bit, the Junk Drawer are all quality content blogs. If they are using an automated drop program to get EC credits, I guess it doesn't really matter to me.
ReplyDeleteI see most of those you listed daily in my box and I've dropped on them, so what puzzles me (because I'm not very techy), how do you know they are cheaters. I'm not understanding what you're saying. If I go to their blogs and drop they're widget is there; right? So how does anyone drop on anyone who doesn't have a widget?
ReplyDeleteI'm really not understanding. Next question is how do we block the cheaters so we don't spend time dropping on them?
I have a dropping widget on the bottom of my page from Traders page. Though he now has made a new one. Mine is a bit outdated. As I click on them and find they don't have a widget I've been deleting their url from the widget's list.
Thanks for your time, and your experiement. I wish I understood. Why was the travel blog reinstated after your asking that it be if it was one on the cheaters list?
Sandy
Thank you! What a great experiment. And I'll support the not dropping on them, either. I can't stand people who scam the system. If you want the traffic, you should put in the time and be honest.
ReplyDeleteJennie
I have to tell you, many of these sites are my regulars!! Wow!
ReplyDeleteAnd it does peeve me off, because I bust my ass daily dropping the full 300 on a slow as hell comp, (which will be fixed in a couple weeks), and spending a good amount of time doing it, too.
15 minutes to drop 300? That should be listed as an internet crime!! lol! I WISH! I won't bore you with how long it takes me to drop honestly for two of my blogs now, but I am glad that you exposed these people.
So not fair!!!
Thank you cornyman, your lynch mob tactics give me the shudders ... impetus for me to leave EC to those like you ... and enjoy my time, heavenly time, that is now free!!!!
ReplyDelete"It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." -Mark Twain
P.S. Nimnt ein BAD!! Bald pronto!!!
Martin, et al.,
ReplyDeletePerhaps I've been doing to much legal blogging of late, but I would be very careful about calling people cheaters if it can't be proven that they are cheating.
Is it possible to cheat at EntreCard? I suspect that based on what I've seen of how the widget operates it is probably fairly easy to cheat.
Have people dropped on your site when you didn't have a widget up? I'll take your word for it.
Have people dropped on your site without reading what you've written? I'd bet dollars to donuts they have. I think it is fairly common that people drop on sites without reading them. I know that many of the sites I drop on, I barely scan. (But I do try to at least scan what is there).
However, as others have noted, there are ways of reading that may not note highlighted stuff. People turn off flash, images, CSS all to make the site load faster.
None of this, however proves they are cheating and making statements about someone online that you can't prove can leave you open to legal issues.
What I do believe we can say is that the number of drops we receive, who is in our inbox or our top dropper list, may not tell us much of anything about who is really reading and interacting with our website.
I've explored this a bit more in a post about the alleged cheaters and looking at Google Analytics. I'd love to hear comments on that post.
Cheating at EntreCard and Finding Real Top Droppers
I posted your link on my page, and I've already been called some bad names! I have two responses from people so far saying they were not cheating. In the interest of being "fair and balanced", I posted their pages too.
ReplyDeleteWow - very interesting. Glad you posted this. I was one of those hundreds who searched your blog page for the widgit. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Martin!
*gasp* I dropped on you again! I'm actually guessing I shouldn't anymore, but hey, if you pop up in the ec toolbar, I drop.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the excellent ivestigative journalism Martin! I had no idea you could game the system like that. About half of these drop on me regularly, I am shocked at some of them liked the sited and blogged group of sites.
ReplyDeleteThis is quite a shock! Most of them are my frequent droppers and one even complained my blog crashes everytime she do the drops so what she's doing is "drop and run. "
ReplyDeleteI am still absorbing this very hard allegations. I won't be casting a stone to anyone. It's hard to judge people when we really don't know who's at fault.
There is no great system that can't be beaten. This should be closely looked into by the EC system. If these fake droppers truly exists, why do we hurdle to drop 300 cards a day for one drop? That's crap! It would be da*n useless investing much time and effort. It's Entecard's job to protect their members and ensure that we get maximum satisfaction with their service. If not, there isn't any use patronizing the system.
With this incident, I still believe in the power of commenting. Nothing beats the traditional form of making one's presence warmly felt.
I see your current advertiser is (gasp!) one of the blogs you've listed.
ReplyDeleteI see no reason to stop dropping on the blogs I've had relationships with for over a year. They comment on me, I comment on them. They are obviously visiting to drop.
I'm not sure you've applied a good scientific method to your testing. But don't worry, I'll still come by and drop on you and read your posts. And continue earning money for you by advertising with Adgitize.
ok lets see.. not all of them are just using a ghost drop or cheating... I saw some of them droping back at me and commenting in my blog maybe you can experiment and see also if their comments are just bots...
ReplyDeleteJulie welcome back from your time away what a terrible coincidence you walked into!
ReplyDelete".. It takes me 9 hours to drop"
I wonder how many people who have consistently seen all 3 of your blogs in their in box can say they have seen them in stunning proximity to each other?
I have wondered about this.
If anyone of these people listed steps up and says - "my bad I was taking the easy option to get things going on my blog, etc" I will support them 100% but the crap excuses are worse than the alleged (is that ok?) fake drops.
Thank you Martin for removing my card from your list, it earns you a lot of respect in my eyes, but if I was wrongly there, then there must be others who are wrongly there as well. Please post Entrecards reply to this subject which they have on their blog.
ReplyDeleteOh man. I never ever knew that we can cheat entrecard tooo. Really disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI have to thank you for having the courage to post this. Considering the fact that some of the blogs you have listed are very popular, you have obviously run some risk.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I'm not surprised this has happened. I've accidentally middle-clicked on Entrecard drop links and seen that you can get a page with only the drop button, and I don't feel compelled to use it. It would seem to me that some of these blogs may only be as popular as they are because of ghost dropping.
Now, I can understand why people drop and run. There is plenty of content on Entrecard that is out of my realm of interest, and my blog is part of an odd niche so I can excuse people if they don't stop to read about the latest flight simulation read. I can also understand when people get mad about blogs that have way too many scripts or too many posts showing up on the first page. The entire "it only takes x minutes to drop 300" argument really doesn't work out when a page has 30 posts showing up and the author has buried the widget at the bottom.
I'm glad that someone is trying to address this because it probably causes credit inflation and makes it hard for the "little guy" to get to the top. That said, I absolutely DO NOT think that we should go after blog owners. There could be false positives in your list and other factors at play here. We need to try to stop the disease, not simply cover up the symptoms.
oh my, this is disappointing.
ReplyDeletethanks anyway for sharing your fact finding experiment.
Thanks great report, well done.
ReplyDeleteEven if the forum in Entrecard closed, I can still see the connection between its members are close and tight in this conversation. Thank you for removing me from the bad list, I am a dedicated dropper and loyal member in Entrecard for more than 18 months now. This is the true spirit of Entrecard members I have seen a year ago.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to run multiple experiment before accusing some hardworking bloggers as fake droppers. Maybe, you should remove drop widget for at least a week and check on similar drops that you receive each day and create a list of fake droppers. I assume, there are many bloggers out there that not supposed to be in you list above.
I am pleased to see ATNIZ dropped off the list, she has been a regular dropper and advertiser at my site/s and it is good to know she does not fall under the GD list. Thanks for the update Martin! :)
ReplyDeleteyeah! i can't extend my trust to them now..i am not clicking them on adgi anymore..grrrr to those GD on adgi!!!
ReplyDeletegracias Martin!
I still think that some of those accused that complain the loudest may still be guilty. I heard that some claim that the cached versions are still clickable . . . hmmm maybe!
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that I have become a fairly close friend with Katherine of The Queen Speaks, and she rarely drops on me because of not having time to. So, I would be absolutely shocked if she really is ghost-dropping, and if she isn't, I hope she rips you a new one for listing her as one. If she is, please accept my apologies for thinking the worst about you.
ReplyDeleteHey, you know as I'm reading the comments from this post and your next post, plus the post of Aldon, and the one at Business Sphere, and Cindy (of Entrecard) says; that it's possible to drop through a cached browser, I think there are some people who really drop and visit your blog or anyone's blog.
ReplyDeleteI use the system of the cached browser because some sites take so long to load. And while we all know here in Entrecard community that we just drop-and-run most of the time, we cannot wait for a blog to load up just to drop because we're pressed with time. But my method is like this; I based it on my inbox where I could see who dropped on my blog and those are the blogs that I drop reciprocally. If I don't see your widget on my inbox, then I won't drop. I don't have that Entrecard 300 drop list in 3 minutes or in 10 minutes. But as I go and click a blog widget-dropper from my inbox, I open a new tab to type in the first few title of the blog as seen in most blog-widgets. For example, I clicked BusinessSphere widget from my inbox, and while waiting for that to load, I open a new tab and type in the first few letters of your blog title which is "corny--" and the browser will bring up your whole URL and I will click on it.
So I go back to BusinessSphere blog and drop, then go to the other tab with your blog page on it, and drop, then I click another widget from my inbox again and on the other tab, I click the title of the next widget I see on my inbox.
I guess that's how some bloggers do it and as Cindy said, if it's from a cached browser, the widget still pops up, but then that does not mean , they did not visit your blog. They were visiting your blog, though it's from a cached browser , and that counts as traffic . Every page opened in your blog no matter what method it is, is traffic. If I use cached -browsing, it still counts traffic and that I do visit your blog because I did it manually by browsing on cache. Otherwise, if I am a robot, then probably that's "robot-dropping" or if I have some kind of system that remotely browses your blogpage even away from the computer, then that's "ghost-dropping."
Good thing, I did not drop in your blog when your widget was not there, because I might be accused of a ghost -dropper. Because my method of dropping is a combination of widget-from-inbox, and cached-browser dropping, I don't think that's cheating. I based it from my inbox because I only drop on those who dropped me. If you don't drop at my blog, and I don't see you in my inbox, I won't also go to your blog to drop....except for my friends' blogs and my favorite blogs which I always visit regularly.
I think that's why some bloggers were furious of this alleged ghost-dropping because they used cached-browsing.
But the widgets that you showed in this post---about 13 or 15 of them belongs to one author---Frelia something. She drops on my blog with all her 13 to 15 widgets consecutively in a row. And that is why I think some of the blogs you posted here ---are really ghost-droppers.
Plus I don't think I cheat because I spend a total of 2 to 5 hrs. just dropping 300 drops manually through both widget clicking from inbox and cached browsing.And when I visit a blog through cached browsing, I am there visiting, giving traffic, and dropping....so I think you should consider me as not a ghost but "alive."
ReplyDeleteshoooot - didnt know I should be one of the ghost visitors to get my entrecard pic FOR FREE on your site....
ReplyDeleteWish I knew that before...!!
It is kind of funny, I had time off work and actually did what Larry did and -- going by my drop inbox -- return drops. I also comment and write tons of recommendations, too. I can't say I've seen that from you, Corn.
ReplyDeleteYou sure jump to conclusions, but miss another point. You must have had your site listed on some of these "ghost sites." It would make no sense that someone else would do that for you. It seems to me you are just clammering for attention.
Unlike you, I don't blog for money. I am amazed I found the comment button amongst the ads here. :)
Like Larry, I also demand an apology! You are calling out lots of people based on one theory. You have not consider the others. Shame.
Whoa! A lot of the pictures here are dropping on my widget aswell! Damn cheaters!
ReplyDeleteFULL DISCLOSURE: I BUILT ONE OF THOSE "GHOST DROPPING TOOLS" YOU DECRY AND I AM UNAPOLIGETIC .
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I'd like to thank you for making all the time I spent hand coding my tool for naught. I put a shitload of time and effort into building that tool. I designed my tool with the idea of giving more than I received. I took each banner of the blogs I hand selected, hosted them on my server and linked to each blog. What that means is every time my blog got spidered by a Googlebot, so too, did each blog on my list.
So yeah, myself and the hundred or so others that were using my tool were "ghostdropping" but those blogs on my list were getting free advertising, a link back and spidered every time I made a post and the only thing I asked in return was an EC drop.
You must be starved for attention or something because that's basically all you've done. ALL FORMS OF TRAFFIC EXCHANGES, ENTRECARD INCLUDED, HAVE HIGH BOUNCE RATES, ITS THE NATURE OF THE BEAST.
The fact is, dropping and running is actually worse for your blog than "ghosting". When someone drops and runs, they increase your bounce rate and that's not a good thing, Martin.
I am a proud blogger who had his fellow entrecarder best interests at heart when I built my tool. Not everyone can drop 300 EC the regular way every day. People do have a life outside EC. Absolutely no one in Entrecard who drops 300 EC every day actually reads every blog anyway and anyone who says they do is simply not being truthful.
No, you did this more to draw attention to yourself than anything else and your "holier than thou" attitude does nothing but make everyone's bounce rate just that much higher.
I visit your blog no more.
Sincerely,
Mike
P.S. I see this blog is in a bucket. You are aware to be in a bucket is to encourage "dropping and running", don't you? After all, the main selling point to using the bucket system is being able to drop 120 EC in 11 minutes.
ReplyDeleteNot only was your experiment pointless, you're a hypocrite too.
Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Mike
Oh now I know why some of them doesn't drop me back. I'm not in their lists lol
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin, of those lovely friends, I have at least 10 in the drop list, I banned?, I must give other options? I do not know, is a jack ass to other people their behavior, it is not fair
ReplyDeleteRobyn, not possible. I have all 3 on the drop down and I drop one site at a time, that's why it takes so long. Seems like people just want to get nasty. The worst I've been doing is dropping and running, where before my operation in June I was commenting. I've been a terrible commenter lately and now have to have another operation on the 9th but figure the month recovery will allow for me to catch up on all that.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Believe what you want or not. I'm fairly sure I can find someone who actually understands what you guys are talking about (I don't quite get all this ghost stuff) and have them look at how indididuals are actually conducting these experiments to see if they are accurate, legit and valid. I almost see this as a way for someone to start some drama and get some extra page views. If you don't trust me, don't drop on me. Simple as that. I'm still dropping on this site as long as it shows up in the ec bar.
Martin, that problem has been around for a very long time, and Graham never wanted to pay attention or believe that it could be true; all he was concerned about was numbers. The new admin does seem to be listening a bit better, but they still have their doubts. What I don't understand is, why doesn't someone like Phirate or an admin perform the same test, and then they'll see for themselves and stop doubting the legions of members who are experiencing "ghost" droppers.
ReplyDeleteSeems EntreCard is dead? Not a bang, just a whimper. With so many users, you'd think it could have been sold and not just left dead.
ReplyDelete