Firestorm over at Digital Point

[hulkster]

DP thread lit up like a firecracker as accusions of scraper sites and other nefarious stuff flew back-n-forth. Rather than try to summerize this here, go read the thread - entertaining.

[John Scott]

Sad, instead of learning from him it seems many people would rather destroy him.

[Michael Allison]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Sad, instead of learning from him it seems many people would rather destroy him.

True. But, then again, it looks like a case where a guy who has railed against a certain kind of site and a certain kind of tactic has 300+ sites like that of his own.

An experiment might be a few sites. But, 300+? That's not an experiment. That's what you do after an experiment works, right?

It looks like he got caught with his pants down, then used his mod powers to change a post wherein he denies it having adsense on the sites.

I had a higher opinion of him. But, you never really know about people, do ya?

Maybe I'm all wrong and maybe there is an explanation. But, honestly, if there was one, why wouldn't he post it there? The whole "experiment" thing is absurd. Seriously, you would think he could do better than that, excuse-wise. I bet the checks google sent him weren't experimental.

Anyway, one thing is certain, his reputation is severely damaged and, from all appearances, it should be.

-Michael

[toddieg]

damn. 50 pages ... insane. i think i got the point by page 5.

all you anti-spam vigilantes should view that thread with an open mind. scraper sites exist - that's the truth and reality of the internet today. the ethics behind them is questionable and i won't even go there.

here are the facts:
-scraper sites are LEGAL (there are no laws against creating crap sites with crap content)
-scraper sites work (otherwise why would there be so many of them?)
-google loves them (how do you think google became a multi-billion dollar company? ok, go ahead and start the flaming)

last time i checked 90%+ of google's revenue comes from one source - text ads.

google has absolutely NO problem whatsoever with people creating scraper sites. the only problem they have with them is actually ranking them in their own algorithm. they have figured out the MASTER PLAN.

Google's Master Plan - (putting spammers to work)
A. Create the sandbox & force new sites to buy adwords in order to rank
B. Let spammers earn a healthy cut of the revenue by creating a publisher program (adsense)
C. Find and destroy scraper sites so Google results stay relevant and people don't call foul (and by destroy i mean ban or move to supplemental results)
D. Destroy the competition by exploiting their weakness - their inability to filter out the spam (this also creates less relevant results in MSN / Y! as scraper sites continue to rank.)
E. Capitalize... (don't ban adsense accounts, and continue to let the spammers dominate MSN/Y! serps)

'Do No Evil'!? - do no evil my ass.
until google starts banning adsense PUBLISHER accounts for creating scraper/spam sites their 'master plan' will continue. a personal friend of mine got called out in a forum and members reported his site(s) to adsense (he has around 6000 scraper sites) - guess what google did .... that's right - they did nothing... and why would they? he's making them a boatload of cash.

now ask yourself these questions....

how many spam sites have i seen without adsense ads on them?
who is really contributing to more spam on the internet? Google or the scraper site creators?

you be the judge.

[John Scott]

I gotta agree with one part of that - the assertion that Google is ultimately responsible for all these spam sites. If Adsense didn't exist, most of these sites wouldn't exist.

[Thanol]

Dang. I didn't think that much drama could be unleashed by middle aged men.

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by Thanol

Dang. I didn't think that much drama could be unleashed by middle aged men.

An instant classic that earns you 200 rep points.

[stoner3221]

The Google PPC services are now one of the largest facilitators of poor quality basically spams websites. I see hundreds of them every week submitted through free and paid submission. Many have nothing on the pages but Google ads, others using the title of directory and the rest are just scrapper websites. These sites are even showing up in top search engine results.

[Ferre]

Funny that, how a discussion on one forum can lead to interesting observations about Google's behaviour on another. needless to say I'm glad to be at the another forum.

[BingoBalls]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

If Adsense didn't exist, most of these sites wouldn't exist.

I agree and its up to them to shove them down the ranks.


What a shame to see so many insults on DP - I clicked out after the 3rd page in disgust.

[toddieg]

Originally Posted by BingoBalls

What a shame to see so many insults on DP - I clicked out after the 3rd page in disgust.

i agree - however, in a forum that big there will surely be some bad seeds. i stopped posting over there because it's too overwhelming digging through 10-20-30 page threads all the time.

[BingoBalls]

Originally Posted by toddieg

it's too overwhelming digging through 10-20-30 page threads

Always a problem in this game

[nsusa]

Geez. 53 pages of discussion already. I hope they do not follow web,asterworld with 100+ pages discussions. Nobody can read that.

Christoph