Die vier Damen von der Linde haben sich fein gemacht fuer den Tanz am Samstag abend ... wer fuehrt sie aus??
I noticed the increase in search results where a particular keyword would return (often top) results from "blogs". But when going there the first times, I realized it was nothing but sites which just pulled piles of RSS feeds matching my search query, and that highly likely non of the content published was the property of the person maintaining that site I was on.
Scraping and content theft is one reason why I have disabled the option to RSS this blog here, and it is the reason why I am not fond of offering feeds support at all. Yes, feeds are a handy and really economic thing, but weighing other people's comfort against my own advantage...I must say I am not fully convinced.
Now this topic (finally, I shall say) came up on the Etsy forums, and there was some good advice on how to kick scapers, too. The advice posted is originally to be found at Business Blog Consulting and at Advanced Business Blogging.
Scraping of Vox blogs content:
If you are concerned about scraping here on Vox, I guess taking the "subscribe" button off your blog would help a lot. You'd do this by going to My Vox -> Design -> Customize your Sidebar, and in the floating window that pops up uncheck "subscribe module" and save.
I would think that reporting any scraping to Vox (with proof, say, a screenshot) should be helpful, though I have not checked whether there are comments or public announcements by the Vox management yet.
Scraping at websites that you have more control over:
Here is a Wiki article on Web scraping. If you are running your own website at your own (virtual) server, then the tips under "Technical Measures to Stop Bots" could be useful for you. Let me tell you that a lot of smaller bots are not well-behaved and ignore robots.txt. Screening your server logfiles can be a cumbersome thing, but if you dedicate about ten minutes every other day and from the first moment that you run content on your website, you really have good chances in keeping the criminals out and generate a nice ban list.
Lastly, aside from all of the above, a search engine is only as strict with laws and rules as it deems necessary, it seems: mention at threadwatch.org and Google's own instructions for webmasters.
My colleague-in-blogging nchenga at chiperoni (or, chiperoni) found "Common Pitfalls of Building Social Web Applications and How to Avoid Them" . This alone is a good read, but it also links to another good read, "How to say I'm sorry".
Seems like those who'd need such reads the most never really find them...
Etsy now has a new Street Team: the European Street Team has just been founded, and the official corner for us on Etsy will be here.
The group is actually growing day by day, as we're busy getting the word out and catching people's attention. We even have a blog, which you can find here. Please add us to your blogroll today!
The goal is to spread the word about Etsy (remember, the place on the internet for selling and buying handmade goods) all over Europe - not only in regards to buyers, but also to get more Europeans to sell their handmade goods on Etsy (which, in turn, will bring in their customers, and so on...).
The advantage of Street Team work is clearly that people often prefer first-hand reports from members themselves, not from any marketing department or public relations rep somewhere out there. Members often have a different approach when explaining what they are part of, and their way of explaining sometimes is easier and, let's face it, more enthusiastic.
Up til now, there are fifteen nations represented in the European Street Team (you can look them up on the sidebar of the blog), and the list is still growing.
That's how I like a Sunday (too) - friendly weather and beautiful finds at the antique market. More, please!
I thought I would write a quick headsup for some of the cellphone charms in my shop that are expiring before the end of this week.
If you are still looking for a sweet little charm for your cellphone (or pouch!), or for a summer gift for someone, these might be what you're looking for!
p.b. all the items in my shop come to you gift wrapped and ready for giving.
Ze Katz went outside for the first time some weeks ago. And of course discovered the tiny shrub of catnip planted into the garden bed. Not only did he sally into the bed and started munching on the poor plant, but with his fuzzy big butt he also floored the tiny plants around.
The catnip now resides in a pot of its own, which isn't of course any safer for the catnip, but for the flower beds in general ...
I got to make a treasury list again (the treasury system is currently being reworked and improved, so there are even more lists for more people). This list captures the good things in summer in a garden. Everyone should have and know how to tend one! The list features (from top left through to bottom right):
lauracrow | lebouton | BirdNerd
takae | sherrijackson | daskaninchen
mikka | johnwgolden | AliciaBock
I think I've laughed so loud, I entertained the whole neighbourhood...
(this one is pointless to translate, unless one knows about the whole Nachman thing...)
