Being scraped isn't always bad

**Learning Newbie** · 03-17-2008, 02:37 PM

http://www.tuxmachines.org/index.php?q=node/25078
http://alexandersarchive.wordpress.c...-like-windows/

I wonder where Tux Machines got that?

They scraped my post pretty quick after it went live, and they sent about 200 people to it. Plus, well, I've never heard of their site, but it seems to be a pretty popular one if a splog post gets enough visitors to send that kind of traffic, so the link is already a good one, in that people have clicked on it. Probably it's also a good SEO link.

Everybody is focused on killing the scrapers, but it turns out they aren't always harmful?

I made the WordPress.com hot posts list in part with their help.

**vangogh** · 03-17-2008, 05:23 PM

I'm pretty sure I've been saying that being scraped isn't that big a deal for quite some time. It's why I usually advise people to always link back to older posts in every new post and always to use absolute URLs. Make the scrapers work for you.

**ADAM Web Design** · 03-17-2008, 06:13 PM

Are you sure they're actual users and not just different bots?

I don't really care what anyone says...I don't want others stealing my content. It's mine. I wrote it. If you want to use it, ask me. If you want to quote passages, that's fine, but don't steal it without asking me. Besides intellectual property theft, it's incredibly disrespectful.

**Learning Newbie** · 03-17-2008, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

Are you sure they're actual users and not just different bots?

No, I'm not sure at all, and that's entirely possible. What I did notice tho is WordPress uses javascript for it's analytics just like Google. Presumably to beat the bots?

The traffic they sent, be it human or bot, seems to be a large part of what pushed me onto the hot topics page, tho, which went and sent a lot more traffic.

**vangogh** · 03-18-2008, 07:54 PM

Adam I understand how you feel about people stealing your content. I don't like it either, but my feeling is it's going to happen whether you like it or not. Instead of expending energy trying to get the content removed, especially when it's not likely to be successful, I'd rather spend the energy finding some benefit in it.

The benefit is the links you can get so why not get them?