Splogged

When I first began blogging, I was told by some of my friends that, as in every pursuit, there would be good days and bad days—mostly because there are good people and bad people.

I remember thinking, “How can I have bad days? I’m doing three things I love: writing, gardening, and photography.”

Well, Tuesday was a bad day. I was splogged.

What is that you ask?

Blog theft.

It’s when someone steals your original stories and photos and puts them on their own site, so that Google will pay them for visitors who see Google’s ads while perusing your content.

So if Google pays the thief for visitors to your work, it’s stealing from you.

When I found this out, I was incredulous. Someone had the audacity to just steal my blog. That’s right, it wasn’t just one. It was at least eight of my most recent posts along with my photos. Who would do that?

Thank goodness Genie from The inadvertent Gardener let me know about it.
Thank you Genie. I had mentioned her blog in the last post I’d written and her web host had alerted her.

I went to the offending site and just sat there dazed as I looked at page after page of my writing and photos being used on some one else’s site. My stomach was in knots. There were even pictures of me and my kids. What kind of slime ball would do this?

I did the first thing anyone would, I called my husband and said, “Someone’s stolen my whole website whaaaaa!” My husband has been working 12-hour days lately, which means I have been working 14-hour days because we have two kids. So my husband came up from his office and we both sat on our bed. First we sent a message to TypePad, then to my friend Elise from Simply Recipes who, like I said before, is my mentor and who knows more about blogging than anyone I know.

My husband took my laptop from me and started to type fast and furiously. He then got on Google’s website and then back on the thief’s website and back and forth for about an hour. Elise and my husband left nasty comments on Mr. Creepo’s site. We also discovered more stolen material from three other websites. We contacted the owners of those websites and they left comments for Mr. Creepo, telling him to take their copyrighted material off his website.

Somehow, while my husband was on my computer, I had managed to find this thief and come face to face with him. I was so mad at him that I slugged him right the in the ol’ kisser. And all of a sudden I heard this noise. It was like a lawn mower or a dull chain saw sawing through wet newspaper and I opened my eyes.

There, face down in front of me was my husband. His hands were still poised on the laptop’s keyboard, his head resting between them on my comforter, his nose sort of bent to the left and the most amazing noise was coming out of it.

I nudged him, he woke just enough to close the computer and roll over.

When my husband and I woke up in the morning the nightmare was over. Mr. Creepo had taken all my stolen posts and photo’s off his website. He had also taken the other stolen garden blog material off.

I was happy that it was over but I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t actually punched the thief in the face.

More about what to do when you get splogged in up coming posts.

Comments

[Carol]

That's terrible and I'm glad you stopped them. There is something/someone stealing content from my blog and several others, but I can't figure it out because when I try to go to the website I get an 404 not found message. I notice it on Technorati and have sent them a message to see if they can help. Still waiting to hear back.

I guess its a hazard of the Internet!

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

[Kalyn]

Unfortunately it's a sad fact of life that people try to steal your content if you have a good blog. Sorry it happened to you but I'm glad you got the jerks to take your stuff off. And how decidedly creepy to steal pictures of someone's kids and post them. I know it's all automated, but still. Definately low budget. (And I do agree about Elise. She knows more about blogging than anyone I know too!)

[Annie in Austin]

Yes, Chigiy - Carol and I and LaGringa and a bunch of others have been repeatedly stolen, too. We wrote a bunch of posts about it [mine was on March 8th] but we were all on Blogspot - I kind of thought Typepad was immune. Sorry the pig-people hit you, too.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[farmingfriends]

Hi Chigiy,
I am so sorry to hear this. All your hard work just taken and used by someone else is terrible and the photos too. I am glad that you have stopped them.
Sara from farmingfriends

[kate]

Oh that just stinks... I am amazed that people think they can get away with this. (It does make you wonder how often people do get away with it though.)

I remember reading about Annie's thief back in March. At least you were able to catch the thief and get your writing removed from his blog. Punching him in the face would have been most satisfying.

[chigiy]

Carol, Kalyn, Annie, Sara and Kate,

Thank you for your kind thoughts and support. One of the reasons the pig man took my content off his site so fast was because we have such a tight knit garden blogging community. Genie let me know and My husband and I found other people's stolen content and we all got together and went after him. It's good to know that we all look after each other.

[Heather's Garden]

Wow that's creepy. I would feel so violated. Wait, I just found some site through technorati that had excerpted my post, ugh. That's horrible! I left a comment telling them to remove it immediately.

[chigiy]

Heather,
I did feel violated.
It was horrible.
I go through most of my life surrounded by wonderful people. And then you get slapped in the face by the harsh reality that there are creeps out there.

[Annie in Austin]

Chigiy, it was a surreal experience to see a fake blog displaying not only my garden stories, but the posts I wrote complaining about my blog being stolen!

Annie

[Jacqueline]

Wow -- that's so incredibly obnoxious. I feel terrible for all you talented, creative bloggers to whom this sort of thing has happened.

Down with content-thieving creeps!

Wouldn't it be great if we could taser them through their dirty old keyboards?

[bs]

wow, that's terrible! i'm so sorry to hear that, but i'm glad you dealt with it with such grace... vengeful dreams are the best revenge. and effective too apparently!

[Denise nesbitt]

I often wondered why people "splogged" and now I understand...money! It is usually at the root of such wrongdoings! So glad you sorted it out though.

[Ottawta Gardener]

That sucks and it is the first time I have heard of it. Thankfully, my blog isn't valuable enough to be splogged.

That person suxs!!

[vero]

I'm sorry to read what happened to you. Must have been a weird experience. I hope he won't do that again.
Hugs

[chigiy]

Annie,
That really happened? That is truly surreal, not to mention icky.

Jacqueline,
Tasering would be quite satisfying.

bs,
Thanks for the support.

Denise,
Yes, money the root of all evil, was the reason. The more articles you have the more hits off the internet you get:(

Ottawata Gardener,
I didn't think my blog was valuable either. I hadn't even considered that someone would steal from it.
You have a wonderful blog and I don't want to scare you but it is definitely worth stealing.

Vero,
Thank you for your kind thoughts.

[Kylee]

Grrrrrrrr....... I just don't get how anyone can think splogging is worth it. I have no idea if anyone has stolen my work, although I do check with Copyscape on occasion.

Sorry this happened to you!

[chigiy]

Kylee,
My friend Elise (simply recipes) says to expect to get splogged once a month. Icky.
What is Copyscape? Is this something I should know about?

[paree]

Sploggers are spluckers, enough said.

[chigiy]

Paree,
I agree.

[Small Garden Ideas]

I have many garden stories that I don't know which story I would write about in my blog. I like gardening though, it really helps me relieve the stress I feel from work.