Investigating Forum Post Lifting On PhysicsForums

[MATLABdude]

I was Googling to find some old posts of mine, and I came across a 'forum' that seems to have lifted portions of PhysicsForums verbatim! (Pictures, usernames, you name it)
http://edu.aaaaaaaa.com/others/79338.html

*mod edit, looking into this. look at my post #16 below*

I wonder what happens when you hit reply?

In other news, why?! Page views? Content? Archiving?

EDIT: Maybe somebody just got around to it?
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=492398

 

[JaredJames]

Wow, they've stolen PF.

 

[rhody]

MATLABDude,

Consider it a complement... at the very least the person should have asked permission first...

Rhody...

 

[JaredJames]

A compliment?

In what way is content farming and stealing click through / results from the site a compliment?

It's strictly not allowed as per that other thread.

 

[JaredJames]

It's also not the whole thread. There are big chunks missing.

Nothing happens when you reply, it just appears on their site.

 

[cobalt124]

I see there are two anonymous PF user postings there about content stealing. Maybe we should all pile in and complain. Definitely not on.

 

[rhody]

I see there are two anonymous PF user postings there about content stealing. Maybe we should all pile in and complain. Definitely not on.

cobalt,

Sounds like a plan... At the very least, it will send him/her the perpetraitor a message that that kind of behavior is bad juju.

Rhody...

 

[JaredJames]

Uh, yeah, I wouldn't know which of us was spamming their forum...

 

[JaredJames]

I emailed the webmaster questioning what was going on and why they were taking threads from PF, subtly pointing out it is content farming and a report to Google could kill their search results, just received a response:

We will delete the PF contents in 1-2 days.

We just thought we can provide the better experience of reading and discussing on our site - for example you can watch the youtube directly in-page if there is a link to youtube in the post content, you don't need to register first to post and reply, etc..

But yes, it is content farming. We are sorry about this.

 

[cobalt124]

Lets get 'em anyway. All pile in! All pile in!

 

[rhody]

I emailed the webmaster questioning what was going on and why they were taking threads from PF, subtly pointing out it is content farming and a report to Google could kill their search results, just received a response:

Thanks Jared,

No need to dogpile then, your approach was the correct one, although... it would have been fun to torment them, just a bit.

Rhody...

 

[Borek]

Lets get 'em anyway. All pile in! All pile in!

Go to the site.

Look for any AdSense ad.

Click on the Ads by Google link (not ads itself, but specifically black link Ads by Google).

Scroll down to "Report a policy violation regarding the site or ads you just saw"

Select "the website".

Report as you wish. "The site violates AdSense program policies in other ways" seems the best.

 

[Borg]

This does not appear to be an isolated incident with them:

http://edu.aaaaaaa.com/math-science/" (many of our user names)
One that I actually checked.
http://edu.aaaaaaa.com/math-science/53359.html"
Other names listed in that section include, CaptainQuasar, Saladsamurai, Astronuc, ZapperZ, chroot, and... Greg Bernhardt! (http://edu.aaaaaaa.com/math-science/53305.html" ).

*mod edit, looking into this. look at my post #16 below*

 

[Borek]

Yes, that's the whole site. Well, perhaps not entire post database, but at least a large part.

I wonder if they have a local copy, or if they fetch the data in the real time. We have to wait for Greg to check.

 

[JaredJames]

Yes, that's the whole site. Well, perhaps not entire post database, but at least a large part.

I wonder if they have a local copy, or if they fetch the data in the real time. We have to wait for Greg to check.

Their thread copies are incomplete.

If you compare the OP link to the original you will notice a lot of posts missing.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Go to the site.

Look for any AdSense ad.

Click on the Ads by Google link (not ads itself, but specifically black link Ads by Google).

Scroll down to "Report a policy violation regarding the site or ads you just saw"

Select "the website".

Report as you wish. "The site violates AdSense program policies in other ways" seems the best.

Thanks all! Great find! I will do what I can, but in the meantime take Borek's advice and report the website to google. Hopefully they will be dropped from adsense and maybe even the general web index. I edited out the URLs so they don't get traffic or pagerank from us. Replace [DOT] this url for the real url to report edu[DOT]englj[DOT]com

The link to report spam to google is
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=enThanks JaredJames for your willingness to approach the owner and hopefully resolve the problem!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have received a response from the owner as well that he will stop the ripping and remove the content.

 

[Borek]

Still, reporting won't hurt. Even if it will just mean Google will close the AdSense account, that's the least they deserve.

 

[rhody]

Still, reporting won't hurt. Even if it will just mean Google will close the AdSense account, that's the least they deserve.

Greg, Borek,

What is their current Google rank right now, as compared to PF's, I just want a frame of reference for comparison. Just for giggles this morning after reading this thread for the first time, I extracted a few key phrases from my brain plasticity thread and low and behold, the google search returned the thread in the first 10 or 15 responses, quite impressive I must say, for PF that is. There are many imitator's it appears, but only one original, and that is us. I found no other sites content farming my post however.

Rhody...

 

[JaredJames]

If you check the site now, it is down and they have the following message displayed:

We are under a maintenance. We have to censor some contents which should not be displayed here. Sorry for this inconvenience.