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Is anyone copying your posts?

David A. Goldfarb

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There seems to be a new kind of scam going on, where a new member copies the posts of a trusted member and reposts the same content in their own name.

They might find an old thread and steal a post from page 3 and hope that by page 12, the original poster of that content won't be following the thread anymore, and no one else will notice. Presumably they are doing this to increase their post count or to appear as a trusted user themselves for some nefarious purpose.

Fortunately people do notice, so if you see any of this activity, please report it by clicking the little black triangle with the exclamation point in the box to the left of the post in question.
 

cliveh

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Why would this be a problem?
 

BrianShaw

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[cut]There seems to be a new kind of scam going on, where a new member copies the posts of a trusted member and reposts the same content in their own name.

They might find an old thread and steal a post from page 3 and hope that by page 12, the original poster of that content won't be following the thread anymore, and no one else will notice. Presumably they are doing this to increase their post count or to appear as a trusted user themselves for some nefarious purpose.

Fortunately people do notice, so if you see any of this activity, please report it by clicking the little black triangle with the exclamation point in the box to the left of the post in question.[/cut]

[paste] +1 [/paste]


(I never would have thought of that scheme... but what a great way to sound intelligent... thanks David, you make me sound really smart... and I just got 1 more post to the all-important post count!)
 
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David A. Goldfarb

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cliveh said:
Why would this be a problem?
Click to expand...

For instance, you need a certain number of posts to be able to post a link or an image without it passing through moderation. If you can increase your post count quickly by posting seemingly innocuous content, you don't have to wait so long to post spam, and your spam is likely to remain on the system longer before being removed.

On APUG it shouldn't be an issue for the classifieds, because we require a paid subscription, but on other sites, there's a minimum post requirement to post in the For Sale section, and I suspect this might just be a pattern that operators of this scam may apply to various forums, whether it's relevant or not.

And then there's just the matter of stolen content. When the original poster notices that someone else is cutting and pasting their posts, they may find it a bit suspect.
 

MattKing

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I wonder how many of Umut's posts have been copied?
 

Vaughn

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BrianShaw said:
plagiarism, for one thing.
Click to expand...

Which is one of the reasons why I reported it. If someone wants to quote me and the go "+1", that is fine. But what freaked me out was that the poser poster also created a screen name that sounded very close to mine. That really got me to report it!
 

BrianShaw

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Wow... seriously, Vaughn. I didn't see that but understood what David was talking about. It would freak me out too... and I'd be really p'doffed.
 

ic-racer

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David A. Goldfarb

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Yeah, we notice when the quote markers don't quite work and fix it when we can, but this is more obvious and deliberate, once you see the pattern.
 

Vaughn

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The poster had Viet Nam as the location and the name was spelled Phaghan or something close to that -- posts have already been taken down...very quick work by David!

Two of my posts were cut/pasted with no other additions/comments. "Phaghan" had posted only four posts -- two others were copied in the same manner as mine...original author unknown.
 

Sean

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Hopefully just a drive by from a couple spammers..
 

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Someone has been doing this for years!
They filled my gallery with terrible photographs ( if you can call them that ),
and attributed the biggest load of malarkey to my user name. Not to mention,
the bozo masquerading as me doesn't know how to use a period or a capital letter.

I haven't been to this site in 11+ years or posted anything for that matter, THIS is my first post.

Sean and David: I hope you can look into this.
Joe
 

Vaughn

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Well, that explains a lot...or does it?
 

Bill Burk

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That is pretty funny jnanian...

I noticed the copy-paste posts and thought they were mighty odd. Thought it was someone just trying to fit in and get a few nice replies.
 
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David A. Goldfarb

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My secret theory has always been that jnanian made one photograph back around 1978--perhaps a scene of three people smiling at the beach with other people a bit out of focus in the background, some cabanas, umbrellas, hot dog vendors and guys dragging coolers selling cold beer--and he's been printing miniscule fragments of this one negative ever since, so that the elements are unrecognizable.
 

BrianShaw

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There should be a separate forum that is specifically dedicated to picking on jnanian. Seems like a favorite sport lately.
 
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David A. Goldfarb

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All in good humor, of course.
 

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Thanks Brian, I appreciate your post. If I wasn't laughing I'd be drowning my sorrows wrist deep in kodak fixer ( or from what I understand that guy "jnanian" uses some sort of coffee - noll )




Maybe, but I only photograph caribou in Canada's "north country" . That other guy posts some pretty weird stuff, I only post colour landscapes, and wildlife photographs, and when I get a chance baby portraits, I love their toothless grin.

Joe
 
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Ektagraphic

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This is odd! Sounds like somebody out there has a lot of time on their hands! Why don't they just take that time and go shoot some film....
 

pdeeh

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jnanian you mean?

But more to the point, the copying of odd fragements of threads by "new users" is almost certainly done by software robots; there are endless variations, and sometimes the fragments are from entirely different forums, or from blogs, and as David has already explained they are done to build "credibility". Sometimes you'll find these oddly generic posts that appear inoffensively bland but actually contain an "invisible" one-pixel image hosted on another site, which harvests "visits" for the purpose of revenue collection ... and so on.

They appear on almost every forum, whether it's cameras or fruitbats or cars or puters, and the scale of it is such that the chances of it being humans doing the "work" is slim to vanishing.
 

analoguey

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Some people steal others thoughts n jokes to pass themselves of as intelligent (too many such on Twitter, facebook), others forum posts.
Not quite new, just enabled a lot more on tge internet -and ever present 'asocial media'.

We better catch that jnanian impersonator though - especially cos he's been making these God-awful claims that having the best gear doesnt mean getting the best snaps...

Sent from Tap-a-talk
 
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