Since the suspense is killing her I will answer TIV's question about Robot Blog Harvesters. As best I can determine these are blogs that take words from other sites, add a new header and a fictitious author, link to the original site (therefore it is not theft) and use the completely unoriginal writing to generate ad revenue. You can find out if this is happening to you by looking for sites that link to yours. Most of them are nice people that genuinely like to read what you write. Others are just using your words and in my mind are no better than the Nigerian Scam artists. (And why is such a person considered an artist?)
I have noted this phenomenon once before and posted my gripe on 6/8/07. I tried to complain to Technorati that listed the blog and to Amazon that ran its ads. I don't know if there was a response since my complaint letters were never answered. Otherwise there is really nothing I can do but grin and bear it.
I am spelling out one such site since I do not want to give them credit for the link. I wish I could make them stop using my words but as I said I think I have no recourse that is worth the effort.
http://directab dot cn slash If you substitute the symbols for dot and slash you will find the site that has done this. My stuff was stolen on Saturday the 24th. The site also "blogrolls" other sites that have identical crap on them.
I truly resent my words being misused in this manner! I'm sure you all would feel the same way too if/when it happens to you.
By the way here is another one, same idea, stole words from another post of mine.
http://booksazon dot com slash
Here is another one:
http://bullshitguide dot com slash
You see what I mean. I'd guess if you post very often it has happened to you too.
8 comments:
wow----i did not know this was happening...........thanks for shedding light on this
Yeah, I've noticed these things but didn't really know how to deal with it. They do link back to the original article, hence recognizing the authors. If you're in it for ad revenue I can see how it would be frustrating. I like people to see my site so the link generates me more cred on sites like Technorati. Just my opinion. Thanks for clearing up what's going on.
Chris, I'm not in this for the ad revenue. I don't get any. It is just that I don't like being used. Kind of like if you found out a paper you wrote was being plagiarized by a college kid for a term paper. No money lost but it's the principle.
sometimes they allow comments, that is when I make one if you know what i mean....
sarala: Thanks for this. It really is plagiarizing if they are claiming someone else wrote it yet link back to our sites. But we're such little guys, they know we won't go after them. Bloggers are essentially powerless because our stuff isn't "really" published.
Sarala: I left you a comment but I think it got lost. Thank you for doing this. It's plagiarism, even with the link. They just know they can get away with it because we're the little guys. I'm sure this will get worse before better.
sarala - I noticed on my wordpress stats page that two recent links to one of my posts were used by people to flog products. This has happened to me once before, and when I tried to ask wordpress how to sever these links to my site they were not at all helpful. This P.o's me off! Sure would like to know how to stop this. GEM
OK, I return humbled. A post I wrote today that was meant to be tender and slightly funny got picked up by a harvester called "Gay Porn Stars" (I shan't link to them). As far as I can tell there are no references to gay porn in my post, though I have been away from the club scene for a few years now. This annoys me!
BTW, I by no means intended to imply that you were in it for the money - I don't think I've seen an ad on your site. I think that came out wrong.
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