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Does anyone have any idea why a blog like this would be set up to steal every single post of mine the minute they go up?
topicspin.com/
The blog doesn't allow comments and doesn't have an email address, so I can't ask them.
I guess I don't get the point of stealing all of my content. Is there any way to stop them? (Prolly not, but I thought I'd ask.)
*sigh*
The original content is here: http://marykaysucks.wordpress.com
That page is down. Did you report it to their ISP or something? They were probably spammers of some kind, looking to leech off searches for you or suchlike.
You know that link is no good. Are you sure you put the right link?Did it have a lot of advertising on it? Sometimes these 'sploggs' are only out to make money, and are too lazy to even write their own posts. Sad really.
Just curious was it a wordpress blog? Wondering why you started this thread 35 minutes ago, and already the site cannot be reached by your link.
You might want to check out this link. http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/one-year-anniversary-review-bloggers-rights-and-the-risks-of-blogging/
The site is still there. The link I use is this and it is valid:
topicspin.com/
I never thought of reporting it to the ISP.
No, it is not filled with advertising which is why I wondering why they're stealing my posts. They're stealing posts from other blogs too. And it seems automated since they steal each post as soon as I put it up.
I tried the link to and it also did not work for me.:(
It's a funny link. It has no "www" before it. Just type in topicspin-dot-net in your browser and see if you can get it.
Here is a link to a specific post that they took, if this helps:
topicspin.com/2006/09/17/what-do-princess-leia-and-allison-lamarr-have-in-common/
I also can't get the link to work.
1st you post .com then you say .net which is it? I tried both of them though and even tried adding the www part nothing comes up.
This is what happened on my last search search.yahoo.com/search?&p=topicspin.com&fr=ieas-dns
You may still be seeing it because you have not deleted cookies.Obviously it is not online now.
I did a web search. Check this out and find the name behind the sick and twisted game
dluzion - account closed
Name: A.Rafiq
Location: Wisconsin - Cheese county
Trader Rating: (26)
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 473
"lol took 30 seconds to make this and getting awesome traffic.
topicspin.com"
http://www.namepros.com/marketing-techniques/229848-30-second-site-getting-awesome-traffic.html
WARNING: AVOID ALL TEMPTATION TO DIALOGUE WITH ANYONE ON THIS SITE
Looked at that page also and the link does not work there.Must have closed the site down.
Niethr of the links she provided work now and if you take a close look at what I posted you will see why "account closed".
Yes, I see his account is closed at namepros.com. Are you trying to state that Topicspin.com is hosted by namepros.com? If that is what you are stating(although i do not see anywhere in your previous post where you mentioned this) then that ist would explain the site not being up.If,however, you do not in fact know that topicspin.com is hosted by namepros.com. then his account being closed at Namepros.com is irrelevant to the closing of topicspin.com.
I do not see how the closing of one account effects the other unless both are hosted by the same site.
AXE
Okay, the site was up last night and now it is not. So I understand that he was stealing posts to generate traffic and would later put up ads. Is there a way to stop this from happening in the future?
I don't think so, but at least someone somewhere shut him down. I don't think your reputation is going to be impacted, nor your blog, so that's good.
People go to great lengths to prevent their words from getting into the hands of people who'd misuse them, but most of the methods reduce readability for the normal user. Imagine putting up a blog that was all PDFs...people have tried it. And noooooooobody reads them.
Unless you mark your blog as private, wordpress.com publishes RSS feeds which make it easy for anyone to grab and republish your content. Since you can't shut these off without shutting search engines out as well (and they are in any case useful for genuine readers) there's little you can do to prevent this; all you can do is complain to the hosts of the splog and hope they shut it down.
Maybe you could search Scoble's site, http://www.scobleizer.wordpress.com. I'm dead certain he'll have dealt with this issue many times. Hang on, I remember now; he had this issue just last month! So you don't have to go far in the archives. It's in there.
Thanks everyone for your responses. I deeply appreciate it!
Using a brand name in your blog's name is... I dunno, spambait?
I've had sites sporadically harvesting my site for their rss feeds, usually the site has minimal advertising, and appears not to be doing anything but accumulating hits.
I did a domain check, and topicspin is "whois guard protected", but it's hosted out of San Farancisco by an outfit that only hosts 7 sites.
It also tracks for alexa I believe, which puts it on MY personal S list.
[stuff deleted -drmike]
You need to take that up with the host of topicspin. Staff here at Wp.com has no control over anything like that.
You will note that topicspin.com is not currently online. (I think that's been said a couple of times.)
Breaking links in this thread by the way. Linking to a spammer is not a good idea.
http://restaurant-review.unix-fu.org
Has anyone found their content on this horrible site? They've just lifted entire reviews off my blog, photos and all, and now it looks like I write for them. Has anyone got any ideas on how to stop people like this? I've been blog-scraped before, but this is the worst example.
@foodieguide
See this thread, second page where after a blogger requested they remove the material they had scraped off their site, they did: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=18838&page=2&replies=34 seems like all you have to do is confront them on the issue.
Thanks so much for this! I've followed the thread and done everything as suggested - emailed them directly, and reported them to Google via Adsense and via Webmaster Tools (Report Spam section). I really hope it works! Your help's much appreciated...
You're very welcome and I hope the outcome is a happy one.
Just to let you know, this is what I received in response to my email to abuseatprohosteddotnet! At least it was quickly resolved, but am still fuming...
'Helen,
I had written a rather long response to your e-mail, however decided not to send it. RSS is what is made available for syndication. It’s not illegal by any means, and that’s what the technology’s purpose is meant for. Credit was given to your site, and the link you claim does not work, does in fact work. “This Blog” is simply anchor text. Clicking it, as I have seen for myself does lead to your original post. To sum this up, I’m a very easy person to work with. If someone contacts me asking me to remove their posts from a hosted blog, it’s simply removed. Regardless of the fact of whether or not RSS is indeed in existence for this sole purpose of syndication. I’ll have these posts removed out of respect to your wishes. You might want to consider putting up a copyright notice on your blog hosted at WordPress. If this should happen in the future, please feel free to contact me and I’ll get the matter taken care of immediately.
Kindest regards,
Kris'
The scrapper appears to have even blogged about you.
Making an RSS feed available is no more giving away copyright than printing books is. That you make your blog available to read does not mean you authorize theft. That's simply, straight-up, a lie.
The site at _____.unix-fu.org is now back up and scraping and stealing blog posts from dozens of wordpress blogs on his various scraper sites. I contacted his newest host server at [email redacted] att: Brad, and they responded appropriately.
Do not attempt to contact the unix-fu guy, instead, it is helpful to contact his latest host, MojoHost. I'm sure if they receive enough complaints, the unix-fu guy will get booted from this host, too.
Another good option is to contact Google Adsense at http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html#notification to report this site.
By the way, the unix-fu.org contention about RSS feeds is frankly specious, not even worth my time to counter back.
This topic has been closed to new replies.
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