Storage Auctions

The Storage Locker => The Lounge => Topic started by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 08:26:54 AM

Title: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 08:26:54 AM
I came across this fake storage auction forum storageunitforums.com/ because they had stolen some of my content and removed my URL's.

They pull a lot of content from Yahoo answers then modify it by removing credits and creating user accounts in the authors name. This is a really shady website with no original content.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: MovieMan on July 31, 2011, 08:55:42 AM
This is a really shady website with no original content.

Check out reply #7 in the following thread of 7/15/2011:

storageunitforums.com/storage-unit-finds/302-if-you-find-large-sum-money-storage-unit-do-you-have-report.html

Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 09:19:09 AM
Yep, that's what I'm talking about. The content was stolen from this forum. The whole site is a giant copyright violation. I notified the Yahoo copyright department, but I'm sure it will take months before anyone reads the email. There is a way to report this kind of activity to Google and have his site penalized where it doesn't appear in the search results.

It just pisses me off when I write an original article, someone steals it and then the article appears on their site higher in the search results.

It's going to suck for him when the Feds come knocking on his door one day.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Bandit on July 31, 2011, 09:23:48 AM
  I found that site the same day I found this one , but wasn't overly impressed .
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 10:39:58 AM
Yeah, I sent the guy an email asking him to either remove my articles or put my URL back in them and he blocked my ISP.

Yahoo has a program that allows webmasters to use their content as long as they don't manipulate it and they give credit to the original authors. This guy is just abusing the program.

I'm a webmaster for 3 different blogs and if I used someone's content (with their permission), I would be more than happy to give them a dofollow link let alone a nofollow link, which is all that he is required to do. Hell, if someone just makes a relevant comment on one of my blogs I give them a dofollow link. It's not a big deal to give others credit for their work.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: jrossjr79 on July 31, 2011, 12:04:10 PM
Damn thats foul.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: monkeybusiness on July 31, 2011, 05:25:52 PM
Unreal at least they could be more creative.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Drew on July 31, 2011, 08:39:11 PM
That's shady. There is only 1 real storage auction forum around!! ;D
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Bandit on July 31, 2011, 09:30:24 PM
That's shady. There is only 1 real storage auction forum around!! ;D

  Do You have a link to it ?     ::)  ROF CGU                                                          Senior text code                                     ( Rolling On Floor Can't Get Up )
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 09:41:53 PM
That was actually pretty funny.

Will you be performing here all week? :P
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Drew on July 31, 2011, 09:44:59 PM
Haha :o
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: jrossjr79 on July 31, 2011, 10:05:12 PM
 ::)
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Bandit on July 31, 2011, 10:30:42 PM
Haha :o

  Drew
  There are quite a few forums out there now , and this one has them all beat hands down . 
 To answer another question that came up  ( I hide My answers in random post so they can't be found easy LOL )   on  a certain TV show that will remain nameless , the " Actors " were bragging that they  are paid $ 2500 a show ( definitely overpaid ).IMO
Bandit
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: jrossjr79 on July 31, 2011, 10:44:06 PM
  Drew
  There are quite a few forums out there now , and this one has them all beat hands down . 
 To answer another question that came up  ( I hide My answers in random post so they can't be found easy LOL )   on  a certain TV show that will remain nameless , the " Actors " were bragging that they  are paid $ 2500 a show ( definitely overpaid ).IMO
Bandit

Must be nice, get paid 2500 per show, travel the country for free, then make it look like you really know about something in the Auction business.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: RichardL on July 31, 2011, 10:45:07 PM
Hi everyone,
That forum belongs to me, one of many websites I own. It's a startup site with no real activity. I usually let them sit for a while before promoting and marketing them to start gaining real activity. Yes the content is scraped from Yahoo! Answers. No, it's not illegal, it follows the Yahoo! API TOS. As far as stripping links, the API only serves the questions and answers, but doesn't serve the source (which is were people would place links). They are never pulled, so are not stripped. Travis did contact me and I did add links to the signatures fake member names of post he originated as a courtesy.

These types of techniques are common, although unethical, it's not illegal.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: jrossjr79 on July 31, 2011, 10:53:13 PM
Regardless, I do not think you made ANY friends here by doing that. :\
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: MovieMan on July 31, 2011, 11:08:34 PM
Travis did contact me and I did add links to the signatures fake member names of post he originated as a courtesy.

That was nice of you !

These types of techniques are common, although unethical, it's not illegal.

Only unethical...in that case it's all right !
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 11:20:35 PM
Okay, where do I begin.

1. Did you have Drew's permission to use several posts from this forum? Answer - No

2. The reason that Yahoo answers has a source box is because some of the answers would be considered plagiarism if the original source wasn't included. It's just like removing the author's name from a book.

3. From what I can tell, you have just deleted some of my responses. I have yet to see a single hyperlink replaced.
Would it kill you to actually insert the no follow link? If you had just used the links in the first place, you and I wouldn't even be having this conversation right now.

I work really hard at developing original content for my blog, you should do the same for yours.
Google rewards original content by the way. It also penalizes sites that have too much copied content.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on July 31, 2011, 11:22:38 PM
Only unethical...in that case it's all right !

LOL ;)


How did you find this post anyway? Were you searching this forum for more content to steal?
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: RichardL on August 01, 2011, 12:44:45 AM
I didn't scrape anything from this forum, only Yahoo! Answers. Once I get a certain amount of content, I turn it off, which I did about 2 weeks ago.

Oh the way I found this thread is on my traffic statistics. I saw the incoming traffic from the links on this thread.  :D

Some of the responses were deleted initially, but the ones that remained, I did add your links.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Travis on August 01, 2011, 07:00:42 AM
Well, if you didn't pull anything from this forum, that means that someone else pulled content from this forum to use in Yahoo Answers. That is precisely why you must leave the source link in place... to avoid copyright issues.
Title: Re: Fake Clone Forum - Stealing content from other websites.
Post by: Drew on August 01, 2011, 10:04:56 AM
Lol