First Request for Link Removal in Plato on-line

Media Bias – Associated Press Favors John McCain? (Photo credit: DavidErickson)

Actually, that was a spoofing attempt at Plato on-line
My mistake was that I replied before probing my suspicions. And Mark Turner confirmed my suspicions by his comment:

Looks like you got the same automated email requesting you remove sketchy links from your blog. You can safely ignore it.
Read more at my blog: http://www.markturner.net/2013/05/07/dear-william-fat-chance/

Here is the spoof message:

Hello,

My name is Ryan, and I am writing to you today on behalf of my employer, AccreditedOnlineColleges.org. We’ve been keeping a close eye on the goings on of other websites since the advent of the new Webmaster Standards. We want to make sure we’re doing everything in our power to stay up to date and relevant. Looking around the web, as it were, we’re beginning to fear that, perhaps, we’re not doing everything correctly. We’ve studied the guidelines rather closely, and we do see where we might have missed the marks.

For instance, many of the links we provided as resources have over optimized anchor text. Some might argue that it doesn’t matter what term is used for our links, but we don’t want to be accused of selling links to anyone. So, in an effort to keep ahead of the line, I was hoping I could prevail upon you to remove the links found on pochp.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/freeware-users-more-demanding.

My request doesn’t reflect the quality of pochp.wordpress.com. We are the ones who made mistakes and practiced bad linking when we were new. That means that we are losing good links, but I am not saying that your site is bad or low quality.

Thank you so much in advance of this favor. Please email me if you have any questions, and if you can help.

Warm regards,
Ryan Greene
ryan.greene@accreditedonlinecolleges.org
————-

Noticed that my name wasn’t mentioned at salutation? That is the first sign of malicious emails. The great trick was all the links in the message were legit.

AP guidelines tell reporters to tweet with caution
‘The AP is fine-tuning its social media guidelines for reporters, specifically on how to exercise caution while tweeting. Given the confusion and misinformation that spread around the Boston Marathon bombing story, not to mention its recent Twitter hacking, the news service wants its reporters to exercise extreme caution, saying “Staffers are advised to avoid spreading unconfirmed rumors through tweets and posts.” More:

‘Today, we’re releasing the latest version of our social media guidelines for AP employees, and a key update is a new set of guidance on how (and whether) to use social networks to get information and amateur content from people who are in danger, or who have suffered a significant personal loss…’
niemanlab

Philographics and Social Revolution
Explaining Complicated Philosophies With Gorgeously Simple Postcards

‘Try to explain any philosophical “ism” to your friend or colleague. Unless you’re both scholars, you probably can’t do so easily. London-based graphic designer Genís Carreras wants to make it easier for us to talk philosophy, so he’s removing words all together and replacing them with pictures in his postcard and book project Philographics…’
see designs