# Stealing from the SDMB? Metatus.com **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2002, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000 "2002-08-28T22:08:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/181 "2002-09-09T14:18:28Z")
Way to give them more posts and pageviews, you rebels. You’ll surely teach them to leave the SDMB alone and stop their spam at this rate. \ ---
**Author:** ![Tinpo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/50afbb/32.png) [@Tinpo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinpo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/182 "2002-09-10T02:27:39Z")
bad business practice ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/183 "2002-09-10T18:06:13Z")
I registered my SDMB username on Metatus so that it won’t be appropriated by someone else. I have no intention of ever going back to that place. I signed up for a new throwaway Hotmail account for my registration. Just for the hell of it, I logged into that Hotmail account today. In the last five days it has received over 70 pieces of spam. They are definitely an email mining operation. Haj ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/184 "2002-09-10T18:19:13Z")
I can’t get to the site now. Maybe the legal beagles did something? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/185 "2002-09-10T21:17:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I registered my SDMB username on Metatus so that it won’t be appropriated by someone else. I have no intention of ever going back to that place. I signed up for a new throwaway Hotmail account for my registration. Just for the hell of it, I logged into that Hotmail account today. In the last five days it has received over 70 pieces of spam. They are definitely an email mining operation. > > Haj I think that is just Hotmail. I registered there to see what was in the hidden forum with a throwaway yahoo account and it hasn’t received any spam. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/186 "2002-09-11T11:27:01Z")
Someone from there is monitoring here. My posts as “Isolde’s Man!” are gone… and continue to disappear. Even though I didn’t pull a “Spammers!” attack. However, I can still post as “Guest”. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/187 "2002-09-12T01:46:16Z")
I wonder how much their workload has increased, trying to check each and every message for clues that they are thieves. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/188 "2002-09-20T22:05:00Z")
I noticed that for the past 3 or 4 days [metatus.com](http://metatus.com) has been unreachable for me. Am I the only one? Have they been shut down? ---
**Author:** ![poohpah\_chalupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/91b2a8/32.png) [@poohpah\_chalupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poohpah_chalupa)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/189 "2002-09-21T00:11:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Joey G \* > **I noticed that for the past 3 or 4 days [metatus.com](http://metatus.com) has been unreachable for me.** We shut down for a few days, _they_ shut down for a few days…man, don’t these people do **anything** original? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2002, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/190 "2002-09-21T00:29:23Z")
Metatus is gone (as far as I can see), but something strange happened… I did join up at Metatus, primarily to prevent anyone stealing my (internationally renowned) identity, I also posted once or twice (carefully avoiding making any reference to the SDMB) (they banned me almost immediately for an innocent aside that mentioned their content filter changed ‘spam’ to ‘enlighten’). Yesterday I got a message saying that the thread I was watching at [HiCow.com](http://HiCow.com) had received an update, but _I had never signed up at HiCow_ - it looks to be a very similar site to Metatus, both in terms of membership and quality of content. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000/191 "2002-09-22T15:25:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by poohpah chalupa \* > \*\* > We shut down for a few days, _they_ shut down for a few days…man, don’t these people do **anything** original? > 😃 \*\* Whew! I thought maybe I shut down and didn’t realize it…glad to be back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-from-the-sdmb-metatus-com/126000.md?page=9)