Pat Justwebsites -Naughty!

[patmcluk]

And I WILL manually change his links to dofollow............

[bingoparadise]

And I WILL manually change his links to dofollow............

Thank you Pat, as far as I'm concerned if the link is unaltered when taken from Articlesbase.com (in this case left as DOFOLLOW) and the bio/resource box is legible the credit is given and this is wrapped up and forgotten, mistake corrected.

I'll let you know what the answer is from Articlesbase.com regarding their terms and the modules functions.

I appreciate that you did not know that the module made the links 'nofollow'.

I hope that you can see why I used the word 'stealing'. I genuinely,overlooked the bio, as did the person who alerted me and probably all your visitors who didn't check the source code... Since the bio was practically invisble, certainly illegible, I called the situation as I saw it and the word 'stealing' is what came to mind.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, even if reducing the text size does technically meet the terms, it's still a loophole that avoids giving full credit to the author and gives the impression that the copied article belongs to the site, given that the viewer can't read the text which states otherwise. This really isn't a tactic I'd expect reputable people with approved portals on here to use. Thats just my view.. - It may be 'common practice' with 'autoblogs' but it's not good practice.

Anyway, really thank you very much for agreeing to sort this out.
I hope we can have better interactions in the future.
Good Evening!
Tom

[bingoparadise]

Thanks Pat I think this is what Tom was looking for. Now hug and make up lol.

greek39

Yeah, the credit where credit is due, a legible resource box/bio and the maintaining of a DOFOLLOW link.

Spot on! I'm confident Pat will do this.
-T

[patmcluk]

It is done mate.

But please remember that we could have sorted this out amicably AND in private!

Anyway I will certainly be interested in the answer you receive from ArticlesBase, as I will be demanding an apology and a refund from the software maker if they have violated the T&Cs........

[bingoparadise]

Ok.
Unfortunately in the past private emails have had no effect in similar cases with other people, they've just been a waste of time, thats why unless it's something I consider really minor (part of an article, hotlinked image etc) I tend to go public for max effect with minimum time wasted. I don't like spending time on situations like this.

Anyway, I am satisfied that the situation HAS BEEN. I don't hold a grudge!

Thank you and Good luck with your sites! I'll be in touch with the response from ArticlesBase.

Tom

[universal4]

The problem I have with this is that you fixed this for Tom, but what about all the articles you pulled from articlebase that all the other authors wrote?

Sorry, but I am sure many others are thinking the same thing...

Rick
Universal4

[patmcluk]

Hi Rick, As I explained this is all done automatically by the Autoblog program. I personally have done nothing to any articles.

In fact I even contribute articles myself to Articlesbase for syndication....

[universal4]

Sorry,

But to place blame solely on the software does not relieve the responsilbility of the fact that some of the articles on your website have come from articlebase with a specified set of terms that were not followed.

Rick
Universal4

[ck8795]

Sorry,

But to place blame solely on the software does not relieve the responsilbility of the fact that some of the articles on your website have come from articlebase with a specified set of terms that were not followed.

Rick
Universal4

Exactly! Pat if the software is at fault you shouldn't be using it. I'm pretty certain if the shoe was on the other foot - you'd be a little peeved that you weren't getting the credit you deserve.

If you can change Tom's links + bio - then you should go and change everyone's links + bio - Period. Anything but and it's shady.

[patmcluk]

Tom has written to ArticlesBase about the T&Cs and I have written to AutoBlog, when we both get answers we will be having further discussions. I admit to being at fault in that I didn't realise that the biobox was also made into NoFollow links. If they have breaking the T&C's then I will be asking for my money back.

I assure that I was under the impression from the makers that it was all above board and if this is confirmed by both parties, then I for one will be removing Autoblog from my sites and of course I will never submit another article to ArticlesBase, and I would suggest the same to Tom and anyone else.

[Betpartners]

Pat i KNOW you are one of the most ethical guys out there mate and i also KNOW you would have done the right thing whether this was public or done (correctly) privately.

Hopefully your full name will be removed at some point from this thread and the GPWA will look in to making some form of rules against posting full names as title threads that google will pick up, especially when almost no attempt has been made to resolve it privately.

For the record Pat is a very good friend of mine and if he is viewed as being unethical in any manner then so am i.

Also for the record my comments are in support of Pat and not in anyway aimed at comments made by Rick or Kaus, personally think they are being fair in their comments and i think Pat is being fair in his response.

But i want it known that i trust Pat without hesitation and stand by him and his motivation and intentions 100%.

[universal4]

Betpartners, good point about the thread title and I will edit it as soon as I post this post.

One thing I am surprised is that Pat never realized that the bio box was unreadable by humans....or if he did realize it that he thought that was ok...

Rick
Universal4

[Betpartners]

Hey Rick,

Thanks for the edit mate.

I cant answer for Pat and he is doing a good enough job answering for himself anyway, i just wanted to jump in and declare my support and trust in Pat and his motives.

The rights and wrongs of all this will be resolved here, Pat is decent guy and he will resolve this i am sure, i dont know the background, the software involved or any of this really but i know Pat personally for many years now and know the sort of person he is and if mistakes have been made he will be as upset as anyone else.

There are enough people out there that cheat and steal there way to better life, Pat is simply not one of them and i just felt that needed to be said in this thread, that was all.

There are many many webmasters on here , yourself included Rick who's word i trust and if you said to me that this guy is decent and would not do anything wrong on purpose then i would take that into consideration, Pat is fairly new on here and i just wanted people to know that he is a good man.

Now that does not mean that he cannot be pulled to pieces, none of us should ever be immune to that, but by me standing up for Pat and nailing my reputation, for whats that worth, to Pats chest then maybe some of the readers of this thread will take it that this is not someone that is a scammer or cheat etc.

Pat, like you Rick, me and anyone on here when we do wrong deserve to be pulled up about it, but we can do that knowing that the person we re critisizing and putting on the spot is a good person.

We all make mistakes and if Pat has made mistakes he will own up to them, put it right and learn from them.

Long winded response as usual but i think anyone reading this understands were i am coming from.

[universal4]

Good points mate,

But we have to stop pushing so much blame to the software because the software doesn't own the site.....the software is not the human that is ultimately responsible for the content posted...

Rick
Universal4

[Betpartners]

Good points mate,

But we have to stop pushing so much blame to the software because the software doesn't own the site.....the software is not the human that is ultimately responsible for the content posted...

Rick
Universal4

I agree, we all have to take responsibility for our own actions and the maintenance of all our sites,

Pat knows this and i have no doubts whatsoever he will act accordingly.

We all make mistakes from time to time, its how we respond to those mistakes that defines us more often than not.

Only recently i upset a fellow webmaster, honest mistake, i apologised, put it right and he ended up doing more business with me, he knew i never intended to do anything wrong, a mindless mistake i made, nothing more nothing less, i was lucky it was done in private though

Point being is that by the conclusion of all this i am confident everyone will be satisfied with everyone involved and their respective responses and actions.

[bingoparadise]

As I mentioned Pat has resolved the situation with me to a standard that I am perfectly happy with.
I did promise in an earlier post to publish the response from Articlesbase on this thread. So to honour that here it is:

From: ArticlesBase Support <support@articlesbase.com>
Date: Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Contact Us - Admin notification
To: "admin@bingoparadise.co.uk" <admin@bingoparadise.co.uk>


Hello,

It is against our Tos.You should contact him and ask him to remove it.

You can also place a complaint on the page if there are Google Ads there.

Unfortunately, we are unable to remove any content that is not on our website.

Best regards,

Adrianna Miller

ArticlesBase Support

www.ArticlesBase.com

Join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/articlesbase

Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/articlesbase

Check out or Blog blog.articlesbase.com




On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 5:30 PM, Tom Waite <admin@bingoparadise.co.uk> wrote:
Name: Tom Waite Email: admin@bingoparadise.co.uk Website: http://www.bingoparadise.co.uk Company: Department: content URL: http://www.bingoparadise.co.uk Message: Hello. I would really appreciate an answer to this question. We are having problems because someone with a site related to ours is using a third party module for Wordpress which essentially pulls articles in full from your site. This would not be a problem, but this module changes the size of the bio so it is not legible and furthermore it adds rel="nofollow" to the links in the bio. I believe this is against Articlesbase.com terms and conditions. As per: 'Any links provided by the author - all these links must remain intact and not altered in any way.'' Please confirm whether I am correct. Thank you in advance. Tom Waite

I am certain Pat will be able to reach an outcome which satisfies all.

Thanks
-Tom

[universal4]

That's great that Pat took care of this one issue....

...and I commend Pat for doing so in an immediate and professional manner....

...is that the only article this software went and got?

Rick
Universal4

[patmcluk]

Hi Tom, thanks for that. I am awaiting the response from Autoblog with interest.
In the meantime I am currently in the process of changing all my blogs to show the biobox at 100% size. I don't know how to get the program to make the links dofollow automatically, but that will be part of my discussion with autoblog. Its a shame your answer from articlesbase didn't specify exactly which actions were against their T&Cs, as I would have more ammunition, but as agreed I will get back to you as soon as I get a reply from Autoblog
Regards

[bingoparadise]

Ok cool.
I'll write back to her and ask her which exact actions of the Wordpress module do not comply with the T&C's specifically. I'll send you a PM when I get the answer.

I Hope you're well.
Tom

[Simmo!]

Only recently i upset a fellow webmaster, honest mistake, i apologised, put it right and...

Er. No you didn't Martin. I can still see that offensive avatar from where I'm sitting