Scraping your feeds - and fighting back!
posted in gtd, how to, impressions, tips, tools, zen |Well, by perusing some wordpress plug-ins from pro-blogger (a must read if you blog) I came across the answer to sites that unscrupulously steal your feeds (also called scraping).
Add a copyright message to your RSS feed! All with this plug-in - Angsuman’s Copyrighter Plugin. Really, I consider this plugin a must-have, especially once you start getting traffic and the “referrers” start coming in the form of “blah had a great post, here’s his content, and a link back. By the way, click on all my ads surrounding his entry to make me money.”
I recognize that feed-scrapers that do have link-backs aren’t necessarily evil- they aren’t phishing or stealing outright they’re just trying to make a quick buck off someone else’s writing spirit and soul. I liken them to pyramid schemes and Ponzi-artists - worthless, taking up bandwidth of the internet that would be better suited to a number of amiable bloggers out there.
Enough for my ranting - to my fellow bloggers fighting the scrapers, copyright your feeds!
As an aside, I’ve got some planned entries coming. Being a full-time father/worker/student/husband takes a toll, and it’s writing that suffers so that none of the others do!
