(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette) I've been reading all of the blog articles about splogging and content theft over the last couple of months with great interest. As a "newbie" blogger I was surprised to discover that I too had been splogged. In response I did my due diligence. I contacted the sploggers, sometimes several times, and asked for my material to be removed from their sites. Most of the time my material was removed, but it was a frustrating, time consuming process.
One thing I've noticed on the various splog sites--the sploggers conveniently leave out my name and blog address from the splogged portion of my blog. I've also noticed they include about a paragraph of my content in their splog. I decided to try a little experiment. For the last month or so I've included a copyright notice at the beginning of every post, "(Copyright (c) 2010 Cynthia Shenette)." I figured if the sploggers were picking up the first paragraph of my post then they'd pick up the copyright statement as well. It's kind of a pain, and I think it disrupts the flow of my writing, but if it helps deter content theft then I feel it's a worthwhile means to an end.
Since I've started my experiment I've noticed that I don't seem to show up on sploggers' sites as much. My name might show up, but my content doesn't. I once noticed a splogger chopped off the word "copyright," but did include "2010 Cynthia Shenette." At least my name appeared in the post which is better than nothing. My guess is they have some kind of program that eliminates posts with the word "copyright" in the content.
I've been doing this for about a month and have noticed a difference. The other night I asked my husband, a web architect, about this. I asked him if my idea could be working or was it just my imagination. My husband, who is more than happy to tell me when something is in my imagination, said some sploggers may have a filter that eliminates content with the word "copyright" in a post. I also contacted Thomas MacEntee from GeneaBloggers for his opinion. He seconded my husband's opinion that my theory might actually work and not be just bunk and hooey. Thomas suggested I post about my experiment. I would love for other bloggers to try my idea and report back with your results.
Together we can fight splog!
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5 comments:
Neat idea. I am a faithful reader, and have to admit, I did not notice the copyright at the first of the post, so, even tho I missed it, the up side is that it did not distract me either. But, it if is distracting the sploggers, snicker, that is a WAHHOOO thing.
Carol - Thanks for your comment, and thanks for also being a faithful reader. I'm glad you haven't found the copyright notice distracting. I tried to make the type smaller and in a different font, so that it's there but separate from the main post. You're right, if it is working, WAHHOOO! Give it a try and tell me what you think.
What an excellent idea! I'm going to have to try that. I can see why it would work too, makes much more sense to embed the copyright notice at the start rather than as an afterthought at the end of a post.
I never noticed your copyright notice until you pointed it out. It's definitely not distracting. I may give this a try too. Thanks for sharing your experience, Cynthia!
Leah - Let me know how it works for you. My guess is that my technique doesn't work one hundred percent of the time, but if it works part of the time it's an improvement.
Jasia - I'm glad you didn't notice the copyright statement either. I tried to "fool the eye," so to speak, by changing the font and the size of the print. I'm glad that seems to work. If you try my technique and works for you, report back. I'll write a follow-up post to my experiment.
Thanks for your comments ladies!
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