

Craigslist Unclogs Yahoo Pipes - archon810
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/16/craigslist-yahoo-pipes/

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munctional
There's a few users currently abusing my company's site via Yahoo Pipes (in
the form of a few hundred thousand malformed requests per week). We're a
decently-ranked startup (top 2k alexa) and the requests don't really hurt us,
but they're screwing with our error reporting and stats.

It's possible to "block" them by looking for a special HTTP header and
conditionally matching their Yahoo Pipes user ID, but it'd be nice if the
Pipes team actually took abuse seriously. They essentially told us they
couldn't do anything when we submitted an abuse complaint. :(

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jeremymims
I'm glad craigslist appears to have done the right thing in this situation.
However, it stands as a warning to all startups relying on someone else's data
(especially craigslist). Don't be obvious and don't tell Craig Newmark how
you're getting your data.

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ews
Since it looks like you didn't make the effort to check the facts by yourself:
<http://blog.craigslist.org/2009/12/pipes-faucets/> . Again, Craig Newmark had
absolutely nothing to do with the decision of blocking Yahoo pipes.

~~~
jeremymims
That's what they posted on their blog. What led to them noticing was Romy
telling Craig they were using Pipes to gather information the day before. I
hardly think it was a coincidence. It may not have been malicious and it may
be the case that people were really using way too much bandwidth. I have no
idea. But communication in these situations is paramount.

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joe_the_user
The thing is, Craigslist's model is not out to screw people. Craiglist is in
no way an abusive monopoly. It's exactly the opposite. It is abusing
monopolies, murdering monopolies, sending monopolies to their graves, almost
literally. It's million dollar site that has destroyed multi- _billion_ dollar
industries.

Yes, craigslist makes it hard to create a craigslist mashup. But craigslist
exactly as it is, no modification, is accessible to nearly everyone for
nothing and to everyone for nearly nothing. It makes perfect sense to guard
that situation jealously.

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jzawodn
I'm not sure I'd characterize it as "guard that situation jealously." There's
no jealousy involved.

~~~
raghus
I think he meant _zealously_

