I just got a competitor

[Blue]

If you have a successful forum you are going to have many people try many different ways to profit from what you have built.

 

[TNCclubman]

what you have is definitely not called a competitor. Its a squatter/copier. Go register on his site and put a link to yours in the sig. Then make a post saying cool site.

Also make sure his website link on your site isnt linking. Google will give him a high ranking cause you link to him.

 

[DBA]

what you have is definitely not called a competitor. Its a squatter/copier. Go register on his site and put a link to yours in the sig. Then make a post saying cool site.

Also make sure his website link on your site isnt linking. Google will give him a high ranking cause you link to him.

All links (unless posted by staff) are ref=nofollow.

 

[MagnusB]

Would you mind sharing your site?

I'd rather not, especially since I have vented some of my frustration in this thread.

If you have a successful forum you are going to have many people try many different ways to profit from what you have built.

It is not a hyper successful forum, I have my challenges. Compared to most here, we are relatively small, and unactive. I do have an awesome moderator, though, so I have that going for me.

what you have is definitely not called a competitor. Its a squatter/copier. Go register on his site and put a link to yours in the sig. Then make a post saying cool site.

Also make sure his website link on your site isnt linking. Google will give him a high ranking cause you link to him.

I won't. I am linking intermediately through his other website, but I am not going to let that bother me, as that is a part of the "service" we offer. I won't spam his site, IMO, that is just poor taste, and will most likely come back to haunt me. I am mostly hoping he just got an idea, went with it and didn't think everything properly through.

 

[dtmcl]

We had/have this problem too, the guy registered a domain almost identical apart from him removing one letter and he then went on to copying our content, forum descriptions and some parts of our design. I contacted him on several occasions but he was not really willing to work with me on the situation. He removed the stolen content but the other stuff still remains.

He put his site up for sale on flippa after our most recent encounter and as far as I know the highest bid was $4,000. I just hope the new owner will be more willing to remove the stolen stuff from the site.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, just carry on what your doing and concentrate on keeping your forum one step ahead

 

[DRE]

Sad fact of reality is that these people who go around stealing people's content are like the Bill Gate's of the 70s, before they got rich. smh

No Mercy man, just ban him.

 

[MagnusB]

Still, that little red guy, jumping up and down on my shoulder

As far as I can see, he has not stolen anything from me, except my slogan. Given that the domain is pretty much the same, I am not so happy with it. I am not sure what I can do with it, cause I am unsure what IP laws covers slogans. Over here, it isn't copyrightable, you have to trademark slogans, which I didn't even think about cause it is so expensive.

 

[DRE]

Still, that little red guy, jumping up and down on my shoulder

As far as I can see, he has not stolen anything from me, except my slogan. Given that the domain is pretty much the same, I am not so happy with it. I am not sure what I can do with it, cause I am unsure what IP laws covers slogans. Over here, it isn't copyrightable, you have to trademark slogans, which I didn't even think about cause it is so expensive.

That's because I'm the voice of righteousness. Righteous anger is a just thing. It's your right and duty to yourself, which your instinct told you what to do.

But you over-thought the situation, second-guessed yourself in an attempt to be logical and crippled your reputation by seeming too soft.

So now he's thinking 'Okay, hmm what else can I get away with?'

 

[MagnusB]

I am actually hoping he will hotlink some resources from my site, so I can replace them with more "interesting" replacements....

 

[0xym0r0n]

Discouraged users list!
lol I registered the .us version of my competitors site but I did so in a no compete mind. I had no idea that my site would've grown to what it has. We actually become two different niches under the same game.
BUT if he's using your slogan... perhaps he's joking around?

 

[0xym0r0n]

You could also perma ban him/ip ban. I mean if he's stealing crap from your site. Might as well put a stop to it now.

 

[Gabby]

Mag- Don't go soft on them.. kick some ars. I don't believe in going wussy on these pukes. Do want ever you can to ruin their site and reputation. Send a cease and desist to the host and so on.... God, these type of jackwagons get my blood boiling.


Want me to take care of him? lol

 

[DRE]

Mag- Don't go soft on them.. kick some ars. I don't believe in going wussy on these pukes. Do want ever you can to ruin their site and reputation. Send a cease and desist to the host and so on.... God, this type of jackwagons get my blood boiling.


Want me to take care of him? lol

Now he has 'two devils' jumping on his shoulder! Hi-fives*

 

[kprojects]

I'd definitely use the bad word script to change his url to yours, then make sure he's not PMing/recruiting your users for his site...

Then, continue providing good content because that's how your site got to where it is now - and why someone else wants some of the glory. He'll fall behind and his site will look stale, then he'll close it.

(and put a "The Original" stamp on your logo)

 

[Gabby]

Eh, all this tech stuff you can do to whomever is doing this, isn't as satisfying as physically finding them-wherever they are. I don't play when it comes to this nonsense. You know, we don't spend hours and hours doing this crap from some puke(s) to do this stuff. There are companies that will track down the perps and go after them and their assets. If they own a home, you can after their homeownerer's insurance policy in most cases. If it is a minor living on parent's roof, you can go after the parents.

And it is even worse if your site/forum was lucrative and provided a means of income-then commerce laws come into play.

 

[DRE]

Eh, all this tech stuff you can do to whomever is doing this, isn't as satisfying as physically finding them-wherever they are. I don't play when it comes to this nonsense. You know, we don't spend hours and hours doing this crap from some puke(s) to do this stuff. There are companies that will track down the perps and go after them and their assets. If they own a home, you can after their homeownerer's insurance policy in most cases. If it is a minor living on parent's roof, you can go after the parents.

Internet = Serious Business.

 

[Gabby]

Also Mag, I forgot one thing. If it becomes obvious that your reputation was altered or hurt as a result of these pukes, than these same companies I'm referring to above can and will go after them and any assests they or their parents have-that is in the U.S. and U.K. I can't remember any more international info.

I had a very serious incident in which someone created a facebook page about me which was extremely slanderous and could have ruined my NPO, but by the grace of god I found out about these compaines and what they can do that we can't by ourselves. I guess for security reasons, they don't advertise on the web very much. We were an inch away from going after the perps homeowners insurance until Facebook caved after three cease and desist notices. Had facebook not caved, they would have gone after both facebook and the perp. It was a friggen nightmare. I was ready to physically hurt someone. LOL

 

[MagnusB]

I have no intention on going after him, though he does not use whois privacy on the domain, so his telephone number and address is visible for all to see. I have looked through 99% of the content he has on his site, and I am very sure he has not copied me at any point, mostly because of all the spelling errors that really grinds my teeth. The only thing I want him to do is to stop using my slogan, especially since he is using the same domain as me.

As I have no income off the site, and I am doing it mostly because I enjoy it, I won't make a fuzz out of it. In fact, I started out taking over after a guy who just gave up after under a year (I was an admin at his site), and I contacted him and he graciously redirected his domain (301) to mine, so I got a ton of free advertising that way.

 

[dojo]

Shady, kinda know who you're talking about.

I'd not allow links to this guy's site. Just cause he took 'my' domain name and tagline. don't make it easier on someone who's stealing from you.

 

[we_are_borg]

You can ask a lawyer those are much more fun running of with slogan is copyright and using the same domain name and same concept is also a violation. Just look for a lawyer and ask if you have a case you can win with not that high cost, you can even look up the org rules about using naming Google uses it many times a year to get domains back like Gooogle or Googe etc etc etc, there are also other companies that protect there assets like that.