Killing a Scraping Hydra with Toothpicks - Come Get Your Toothpicks!

1. 91

   Kylyssaposted 9 years ago

   OK, so writing on HubPages has become kind of ridiculous through absolutely no fault of HP because there are scraped and spun copies out within days of publishing a new hub, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or thousands.  It is literally impossible to stay ahead of them or even just not fall behind and drown in them trying to file DMCA reports, that is, if you'd like to do anything else like write, maintain personal hygiene, or do other work.
   
   The DMCA is not very long but if you multiply anything by 100,000 it gets to be mighty darned difficult to fill in all those bleeping boxes.  Also, the DMCA report doesn't always work on spun content because it can be difficult to prove the content is spun to someone who doesn't actually look at the page.
   
   The DMCA report is like a floppy, paper sword when it comes to fighting the Scraper Spinner Hydra of Internet Jackassery.
   
   So I've been outfitted with two very fine toothpicks by my friends.  I've strapped them into Chrome and I'm going out to do battle with the Hydra.  Please, get a pair for yourself and join me in glorious battle!
   
   Toothpick #1: Mr. Pointy Junior Junior
   
   A friend directed me to the Google Scraper Report which is much faster to fill out as it has fewer steps and fewer blanks.  It works sort of like the DMCA report but you can fill it out even if you come across scraped stuff that isn't yours.  I love that feature because I almost always find other people's content on scrapers' sites, too.  It also frequently works to get stolen content taken down when a DMCA report is rejected. 
   
   Here's Mr. Pointy JJ-
   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Pw1KVO … Y/viewform
   
   Toothpick #2: Stabby McSting
   
   Another friend directed me to the Google app to report Webspam and it's even faster to fill out and only requires three fields to be filled in.  You plug in the evil URL, the search term that brings up the offending dirty little... um, the spinner's page, and finally, a box that briefly describes what's wrong with the URL.   
   
   Here's Stabby McSting-
   https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta … bojhnfiepj
   
   #scraping
   #spinning
   #spam
   #spork

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2. 63

   Erin Mellorposted 9 years ago

   I'm mad as hell as I'm no gonna take it any more.  I've been using Stabby McSting to poke the scraper monsters' toes today.  It may not make a whole lot of difference to the world, but I found it quite therapeutic.

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   1. 91

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I've been poking away all day now.  It might not do much but it is easy and and more satisfying than it maybe should be.
      
      Maybe cutting off heads is the wrong approach to killing a Hydra?  Perhaps the beasts will slowly bleed to death if we keep on pricking away at them?
      
      Thank you for joining the good fight!

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3. 95

   Dolores Monetposted 9 years ago

   I don't even know what scraping is. When I wrote it in the search bar, 'what is article scraping' I came up with lots of businesses who will do it for you automatically. How about that! Something you are not supposed to do and it comes up at the top of the search page. How are we to get rid of this stuff when the people we complain to, officially, place the offenders at the top of the search page. I've been writing on here for some time and still can't figure out what goes on out there in the crazy world of internet copycats etc.

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   1. 89

      Stacie Lposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's like "they" are speaking out of both sides of their mouth...so to speak. The internet is up for grabs, to the highest bidder. Small fries like us don't stand a chance.

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