

WhatsDownToday.com is a scam - screeley
http://blog.embed.ly/post/47456918600/verelos-public-shaming

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junto
To me that looks like a mistake by the Verelo programmer, in interpreting the
"over limit" response from your API as being "down". To term that a "scam" is
an equally misleading. I don't believe it is fair that you cast aspersions
without proof. "Publicly shaming" you is a wild accusation.

If I had put such a service together, I can imagine that I would search for a
public API method that I could call, and if I received a response I would
assume that the API was up, and vice-versa. The developer has mistakenly
interpreted an error response code in the context of a user over access limits
as an entire API failure. An automated script keeps running and gives
incorrect results. That's an oversight and not a scam.

I think you would have been better to try to get an explanation from Verelo
before publicly shaming them. They might have worked with you to correct the
problem.

By the looks of the <http://whatsdown.verelo.com/> website, the vast majority
of the sites appear to have valid uptimes. Yours is the primary exception.
That suggests to me that this truly was an oversight, otherwise they would
have been trying to extort other services in the same way.

Contact Verelo, and ask them for an explanation. If the explanation is valid
and they correct the error, then I think they deserve a public apology from
yourself.

On a side note, it might be useful for all public APIs to offer a standard
/status call, which returns a standard response. In that way, services like
these, which do have some value, could operate in a standard way without
upsetting the API owner.

