SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

Bloggers spend a lot of time coming up with ideas, authoring posts and contributing to the discussions that occur after publishing. Understandably, they are often disappointed to find their original content copied onto other blogs sans attribution or links. Their hard work and intellectual property has been ripped off by some random person attempting to make money from the advertising on their own site. Content theft can be hard to track, control or manage.

Finding Out I’d Been Jacked

This has actually happened to me many times. Each time I’ve found it was by pure coincidence. The latest incident was discovered yesterday. While checking my Google Analytics, I noticed that one of the popular keywords used was “Derek Onstott.” I decided to search for the keywords on Google to see if my post was visible in the results page. My blog was number 7 on Google for that keyword. I glance at the 8th result and what did I find? The first two lines in that description were a carbon copy of my own content.

What attracted my attention was that the URL to this blog was not mine. It was directed to Inter Alia. I open the link and realize that this individual scraped my post about the restaurant owner who threatened a Yelp reviewer. He did not even credit the scraped content to me. I found no link or mention of the original author of this specific post.

In the interest of comparing the content, the Yelp image in the scraped blog post was removed.

The Community Gets Out Their Pitchforks and Torches

I shared my frustrations with Joe Fowler. Within minutes, he wrote two comments on that blog encouraging the blogger to remove the post immediately. I later found that Joe launched a massive campaign against this blogger on my behalf. I looked at the comments and noticed 15 of them from the community. The following morning, he submitted the scraper’s info to Mixx and Digg encouraging the community to comment and flag the site. The comments that followed were extremely supportive.

This should be a lesson to all those who scrape content. Although there are bloggers who don’t have a strong community supporting them, some will report content thieves to the appropriate outlets. There are other bloggers who have a significant following. The mantra for those people is: “you mess with me, you mess with the community.” They will rally together and turn against content thieves. Although the scraper’s blog might get traffic, it won’t be the good kind. The community will work on blocking the site, writing evil comments, and getting scrapers banned in every social network in which they are active. In short, it is best to stick to original content.

Should you come across a compelling post written by someone else, and you simply must post on your own blog, you can do so while avoiding the content theft scenario. Credit the source through a link and an intro saying “This was written by <Name> on <Blog>.” It is also easy to e-mail the original content creator and let them know you enjoyed their post. You can request that you republish their post on your blog. Of course, you would need to include that you will add a link to their blog and credit them.

How to Protect Yourself

Great resources about what to do when someone steals your content:

10 Ways to Fight Content Thieves

Take it Back! 100 Tips to Defeat Content Thieves

What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content

In the comments section, please share your worst experiences with scraping and how you dealt with the situation.

Thanks to 2 Create a Website Blog and Honest_Ape for the images.

On social news and bookmarking sites, users have a variety of motivations for voting the way they do. Their voting and commenting behavior often reflects their personality and their relationship with the site and other users. As time has gone on, I’ve observed that people tend to fall, roughly, in specific behavioral “buckets” as they relate with their voting behavior. Below are five of the most popular habits and attitudes that I have found users to have during my experiences in social media.

These users will vote up the stories they enjoy and vote down the ones they don’t. It is nothing personal; it has to do with their perception of the story. They don’t feel the need to validate their voting choices. It also doesn’t involve the relationship you share online. It only has to do with the content you submitted. These people are straight shooters and simply don’t have time for games and explanations.

These users will upmod a story they don’t necessary agree with philosophically. Although they deem the post as weak on many fronts, they will vote it up regardless. Essentially, these voters are the type who will never say “no” to you. They will support you even when you mess up big time. These users will share their opinion as to why they don’t agree. Regardless of their opinion of the story, they think your submission story should be seen by the community.

These users will downmod a submission because they don’t philosophically agree with it. As aforementioned, the social media space includes people from different background and belief systems. When they are gathered in one space, they will often disagree on the premise of a story. These users in particular will express their thoughts through their voting behavior. These users will share their opinion by voting down a story they don’t agree with. If a submitter asks into why that particular user downmodded a story, they will explain it to them. However, they don’t want their decisions questioned or get reprimanded for downmodding. These voters don’t hold anything against the user for submitting that post.

These users will not vote on a story they don’t like or agree with. They don’t want to have an impact on the total number of votes you get in the end. At the same time, they don’t believe your story is worthy of being popular. These users will engage you in a discussion about the article you submitted by commenting. Although they rarely attack you personally, they do address the issues they have with the article.

There are users who will downmod a submission because it is inaccurate or considered as spam. If the story is not in conformity with facts, these users will often share an article showing the correct facts. These users aren’t blind voters, and will give their opinion based on their interpretation of the story. It is very apparent that they are invested in the growth of the site, and will not accept any submission that compromises the integrity of the community. Based on that, they will often comment stating their opinion regarding why the story is bias or untrue.

Thanks to Tanner Hobin for the images.

While checking my twitter feed, I noticed an update by a friend* that really concerned me. She had received an angry call from Derek Onstott, Beso Mexican Grill & Cantina’s owner, about an unfavorable Yelp review she authored. According to this Yelp user, her review discussed everything she witnessed and heard in the restaurant. During her visit, Onstott disclosed to her that he funded his establishment using money obtained from illegal activities. An even worse observance was when a police officer came to the restaurant to serve Onslott with a warrant. The Yelp User also mentioned the sub par service and food in her review. After a quick search, it was evident that this isn’t the first time Onslott and Beso have received negative reviews.

Once Onstott discovered the review, he contacted the Yelper. He threatened to harm her and file a lawsuit if she did not immediately remove her review. She removed her initial review and replaced it with the following:

1 star rating

I am re-writing this b/c i had a post about this place, then the owner called going off on me b/c he was pissed at the review I gave him. Someone obviously saw this and told the owner. But remember this is a social site/forum.

I am giving you opinions on what I experienced. Food - so so, same with drinks. Owner should trust his staff to help out and not do all the work. I would suggest a little bit more positive feedback towards the staff, and they would want to do a better job instead of walking on pins and needles all day. In short badly run place…. There are a lot of details I will leave out.

She had to remove this review as well due to an angry voice mail (transcribed below) Onstott left her. She has notified Yelp of the threats.

Onstott does not appear to be familiar with the concept of user-generated content. Social media encourages users to share their experiences online. Based on his verbal threats, Onstott doesn’t realize that his attempt to censor this Yelp user has prompted a conversation online that will only prove to be detrimental to his business. Reputation management isn’t coercing patrons to change their opinion; it is implementing the recommendations that they offered. It is thanking the users for sharing their opinion and letting them know they will at least be taken into consideration. Above all, this owner needs a lesson in the basics of customer service.

My initial reaction was to tweet this occurrence with fellow users. Needless to say, they were outraged by Onstott’s behavior. Idofluk created a poll based on this situation and asked the Twitter community what this Yelper should do. The options were: Ignore the owner, contact yelp to complain, write a worse review, erase her initial review, and other. Within a few hours of the poll being posted on pollsb.com, there were 219 views and 53 votes.

The Twitter community also provided me with their own questions for my friend. Below are those questions and her answers.

How did the owner find your phone number, etc? Did you record any calls or will you record any future calls to/from this owner? Asked by: MixMastaKooz

Derek and I share mutual friends, so he was able to obtain my phone number through one of them. I did not record any of the calls, but I saved on of the voice mails he left me. Apparently, he didn’t discover the Yelp review himself. A friend mentioned it to him and linked him to my review. Here is the transcribed version of the voice mail he left me:

“Hi Rebecca this is Derek. I am calling in one last attempt to have you remove your review, and I spoke to my attorney about the first review you posted. I printed it out. That is defamation of character my attorney and will slap a lawsuit on you if the review is not gone in 24hrs. You never dined here. You don’t have receipt from here. You drank here, no service, no food… I will sue you. Your review has nothing to do with my restaurant… Trust me I will spend $10k in lawyers to win a $100k from you. I will drag your name through the mud, I fucking mean it. I will drag your fucking name through the mud. This is my livelihood. You drag my name through the mud I will drag yours. And mess up your life and job. ”

I did dine at his restaurant. He invited me to his restaurant as a guest. He gave me food and drinks. So he is correct - I don’t have a receipt.

Given this situation, do you feel you will become reluctant when leaving any future online reviews? Asked by Sonnygill

No, I believe it is important to share my opinion and experiences. People use review sites to determine which businesses to patronize. Reviews help people make final decisions on where to go and what to buy. These sites empower people and enable them to make well-thought out decisions.

Will this experience keep you from writing any more honest reviews online or will you continue to voice your opinion? Asked by shaxxon

All my reviews have been completely honest, may they be positive or negative. Although this is the first time I have had experienced such a horrible experience, it will not hinder me from being honest.

Do you think this is related to the medium (UGC) or would this guy have reacted similarly if the review wasn’t online? Asked by melaniephung

A jerk is a jerk is a jerk. This man would have behaved the same way regardless of the medium. He has been involved in many legal problems in the past. His reputation is already very poor in the St. Louis area. If he had contacted me as a concerned business owner, I would have reacted differently.

Given the transparency of social networks, do you wish you had been more anonymous in your profile on elp? Sonnygill and BarbaraKB

My profile didn’t contain any personal information, besides my first name and city. In fact, my avatar is my cat. It isn’t even a personal picture.

Does this discourage you from continuing participation in social media? Asked by martinbowling

No. In fact, I tweeted my frustration right afterwards and agreed to let Reem blog about this.

I’m interested in knowing what the police can do (if anything) in this country (being from AU). What did they recommend to her? Asked by MadLid

I contacted an officer right after the first phone call. I explained what Yelp was, what happened and who threatened me. The officer was surprised and documented all the information I shared with her. Within two days, I received a call from a local detective. He told me I had two options - report it or leave it alone. He mentioned that if I reported it, I would have to deal with the legal system and go to court. Since I wasn’t interested in going that route, I decided to just step back and leave everything alone. Then, Derek called me a few days after I posted my revised review and left me a horrible voice mail. I contacted the detective again who suggested I remove the review and stop all interaction with him.

This restaurateur was attempting to control his image, and apparently thought threatening a reviewer was the best way to do so. He must not have expected her to share her story on Twitter and receive the support of the online community. The number of people who are now aware of Onstott’s indiscretions has increased significantly. I wonder if he’ll try to call each one of us and dole out individual threats. Many people who aren’t familiar with the social media space don’t realize the power that users have to spread a message to countless others. He didn’t censor her, he empowered her with knowledge. Not only are journalists covering his apparently crazy behavior in local newspapers, now bloggers and twitterers are discussing it online as well. Derek Onstott — Epic Fail!

* My friend wants to remain anonymous at this time.

** Thanks to the Twitter community for their concern and providing me with great questions to ask the Yelp user.

As social media users, we are constantly exposed to a variety of opinions that don’t necessarily align with our own. With so many people from various cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and political affiliations are interacting with each other, it is inevitable that they will clash at some point. I have witnessed a variety of reactions to offensive stories on social media sites. There are users who will turn a blind eye, users who upmod or bury stories, some who offer comments and those who file reports with host sites. Based on that, I decided to evaluate the importance of sharing independent viewpoints and the ethics of managing a social media site.

Before the growth of social media, people got their global news by traditional mediums like the newspaper, television and the radio. However, there is a major shift happening where an increasing number of people are pulling information from the internet exclusively. Social media has effectively democratized information. It allows users to share news and provide input. It is now rare to only receive a one-sided story. And because of this medium, users are more apt to share their perspectives. As in real life, this causes conflict between users with opposing beliefs.

The moment an opinion is shared online, the subject is opened up for the world to respond. Users will receive instantaneous feedback, whether it is for or against their position. They should also be prepared for exposure to stories and comments that are against their beliefs. There is minimal censorship occurring in social media, so tolerance is imperative. If you want to come and play online, be ready for a variety of viewpoints. It is exciting, interesting and above all, educational.

An important question to ask is whether or not the social media site should get involved in a conflict occurring between users. Often, site managers are asked to intervene in a complicated situation where people are arguing about very sensitive subjects like religion and politics. In order to avoid a catastrophic public reaction, it is wise for the site to stay clear of arguments amongst their users. It should show that it respects the viewpoints of both parties. If the managers sway in one direction and show preference to a single user, it will only incite a larger problem. As long as the story does not incite hate or harm, the site should remain neutral. The only role that a social media site should have is banning those who violate their Terms of Service. Obviously, they also have every right to reprimand those who harass and threaten others.

Users need to learn to be socially responsible and open their minds to different points of view. By joining a social news site, you are accepting the fact that you are going to see all kinds of stories. If you don’t agree with them, you have the right to downmod the story and write a comment stating your own viewpoints. The point, after all, is to be heard in a public forum, no matter where you stand.

Thanks to XKCD for the image.