Scraping Content from Quilting Blogs

Dear readers, forgive me for this odd post, but I have found no other way to address a problem.

It seems a site called Quilt Patterns Pro is posting entire blog posts from my blog without my permission.

Now, I don't mind getting my content out in front of as many interested folks as I can, but I like for those folks to be directed back to my site! That's why I listed my blog with www.quilterblogs.com, a content currator, where they show my blog along with many, many others. But they only show a portion of each post and there's a link to send you to MY blog to read the rest. And you can follow me through Bloglovin' and Feedly too.

I can find no contact info for the site. But I can find adsense ads sprinkled into some of the posts on the site that belong to other bloggers (who appear to have their content scraped as well--- scraped is a euphemism for stealing content. Though so far I find no ads added to my posts. Links to other sites (including occasional affiliate links) that I have put in my posts seem to still be in my posts and working, though I will not click on them from that site to confirm it.

Now, my brain is not entirely reliable sometimes, especially when it comes to what sites I have visited and what series of buttons I have pushed in the past to do some really neat stuff with my blog. But I can't find any way to sign my blog up with this site, even if I wanted to, so I doubt I have volunteered my content in the past.

So, dear reader, if indeed you are reading this post at Quilt Patterns Pro, come on over to my actual blog! Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures (www.freemotionquiltingadventures.blogspot.com) There are a lot of great resources, tips, and videos for free motion quilting and quilting in general. You can even interact in the comments with other readers and with me. That is something this other site hasn't allowed.

And if you enjoy the posts of other bloggers on QPP, you might want to find their actual blog too, as I bet you're missing some of the best features of the real blogs!

And if there's a chance a real person affiliated with QPP and not just a program or bot is looking at this post, please stop posting my content! I'd like to hear from you if I've misunderstood this situation too.

You'll notice that I did not link to QPP's site. I'm not sending them any traffic if I can help it. From time to time, I have found my content used this way (stolen) on some real sketchy websites in an obvious attempt to get traffic to a very spammy, advertising heavy site. Most of the time the language has syntax errors or is foreign or there are other formatting errors. There are always plenty of cues that will tip off a reader that if they are really interested in what I have to say, they should find my real blog.

This one is different. It looks legit. I hate that there might be readers of my posts with whom I have never heard from or been able to answer a question for them. And yes, I'd like to have that relationship and that traffic. It takes a lot of time to keep up this blog and produce the projects and the videos. (Boy do I type slow!) The interaction with readers is my prime motivator, but occasionally I make a little money from the blog and it's a tiny little reward for my efforts.

QPP----come up with your own content or at least learn to currate (if that's how you justify it) correctly!

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads up. Hope you get it sorted out!

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  2. This is the second post dealing with stolen content that I have received today. Lori, at Family Trees May Contain Nuts, has some good suggestions for us to check out to see where our information is being used. Check her blog post of April 3 2014 http://www.familytreesmaycontainnuts.com

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  3. I had a bout with this a couple of years ago. One thing I was advised to do was include links to other bloggers often....it discourages and defeats the scrapers. They want your traffic to put lots of cents into their coffers. Stealing your traffic and work does that.

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    1. I may begin adding a link at the bottom of my posts that say something like, “This post was originally posted at [my blog’s URL] where you can find more great posts, tips and resources”.

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  4. I've never seen this site..must keep an eye on it.

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  5. Ugg. This is insane. I Googled it but didn't seen it. I'd like to be able to check for my blog too.

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  6. It's not right that people do that. Good for you for making it public. I love YOUR blog!!

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  7. Oh. The internet. It's always so hard isn't it.

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    1. Well, at least I’m learning new things all the time, which hopefully will keep senility at bay for a few years after the kids are grown!

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  8. Really interesting Amy, gosh I cant believe the cheek of it; hopefully some bad press will change things? Thank you for the link to Quiltersblogs, that sounds like a good idea!

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    1. Thankfully, some other quilters who are a little more tech savy, were tipped off by my post and notified the blog’s host (GoDaddy) and it looks like the site was shut down!

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    2. Excellent! It's a shame people have so little creativity and so much nerve to steal other's work. I don't have a blog, but as a teacher, I have had my patterns & instructions "borrowed" without permission. At least ask & give credit - we quilters do love to share, but.....

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  9. Amy, I really appreciate your post and I think you found a creative way to get folks linked back to your site. I truly hope that this wasn't intentional by QPP and that they will try to find the source of the problem and send apologies. That was a very informative post. I still don't have a blog. It makes me want to wait a little longer before starting one. I guess I should find a "blogging for dummies" book. LOL I really enjoy your blog and your videos.

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