TechF*cked

Just a week after the Digg clone script company, Pligg, announced it was up for sale, VideoSift, which claims claimed to be the biggest website currently not currently using Pligg’s software, informed Pligg by email that it has developed its own software and would not longer need Pliggs services. Ouch.

Here is the aforementioned email:

Pligg is a good general CMS, but there were a few considerations for moving off:

We started VideoSift shortly after Pligg was ported from the Spanish language Digg clone Meneame.net written by a talented Spanish coder, Ricardo Galli. ( http://meneame.net/) Pligg has gone through a lot of revisions and changes since then - and we haven’t moved with them.

About 2 months ago, there was a serious security breach at VideoSift (and other Pligg based sites) that compromised part of our DB. The breach was based on a simple hack that would have been found by analyzing the Pligg source. Although the Pligg community was quick to respond and patch the problem- This pushed us farther down the road to closed source.

And lastly, although we were well on our way to writing our new software, we have some misgivings about the pending sale of Pligg. Pligg is licensed under the Aferro GPL which is pretty strict about the re-sell of code.

The new VideoSift has been rebuilt from the ground up to work well around video aggregation. Our community loves it, and we can’t wait to launch it this Friday.

Thanks and cheers,

Brian Houston
VideoSift
Sydney, Australia

Terrible news for the Pligg sale. Despite some obvious weakness, like the security glitch a few months back, Pligg is a great script, and I wish the developers well in their endeavors  in selling.