164
votes

NB The following is a community-generated list of websites that republish Stack Exchange content without attributing it properly. It is no longer being maintained, because the procedure for reporting such sites has changed; see the duplicate for more information.

There are a number of license-violating clones of Stack Exchange sites popping up that use Stack Exchange's CC-wiki data without following our Creative Commons attribution terms. Those terms are linked at the bottom of every Stack Exchange webpage, and are also included as a .txt file in every data dump we produce.

Google now has a form for reporting content copiers that appear above the originals in search results.

Also, you can block unwanted sites from appearing in Google search from the search page itself:

The option to block a site appears when you click a search result and then navigate back to the search results page. Click the "Block" link next to that result to block all pages within the site's entire domain.

This post was created as an attempt to organize information originally posted in this answer. You may also be looking for the post for reporting copycat sites that outrank Stack Exchange in search results.

26
  • 26
    I have never seen the CAPTCHA page as often as I did when I was adding the existing 40 or so answers to this question.
    – Pops
    Commented May 8, 2012 at 20:20
  • 30
    That is because you pasted. Try typing... Like a real person :)
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented May 12, 2012 at 15:20
  • 32
    ...yeeeeahhhh, I prefer the CAPTCHAs.
    – Pops
    Commented May 12, 2012 at 21:17
  • 17
    @JeffAtwood I would put a poison pill question(s) that only those APIs presented so that you could automatically re-scrap via Google and easily find infringing sites. Much like cartographers do on physical maps by putting fake locations or markers to easily spot copies. The thieves would never know what to look for and you could easily make this an automated process.
    – user148287
    Commented Jul 14, 2012 at 6:04
  • 3
    @Jeff is this handled at some level? Can we know which sites were reported and closed?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 8, 2012 at 10:58
  • 8
    @ShaWizDowArd I don't have a handy list of sites that have been dealt with, but we do monitor this thread and contact offenders. This post isn't just a black hole. :)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 22:25
  • It's a bit late for this comment, but if you ever want to check out what one of these sites looked like (if it was later removed), you can use one of the many webcache services online (I use the chrome web cache plugin)
    – AI Generated Response
    Commented Mar 1, 2013 at 9:02
  • Site blocking is currently unavailable through google unless you use Chrome and the Chrome blocking extension. searchengineland.com/google-block-sites-feature-146409
    – gebuh
    Commented Mar 12, 2013 at 18:27
  • I just went through and about 50% of these are gone. I edited some, until I got tired of it. Cleanup please? :)
    – Doorknob
    Commented Apr 6, 2013 at 1:01
  • @PopularDemand: Can you check nerdanswer.com please? I'm not entirely sure whether to classify it as an illegal clone or not.
    – Karan
    Commented Apr 24, 2013 at 23:25
  • @Karan FYI I'm just the user who posted the question, not an official person of any kind.
    – Pops
    Commented Apr 24, 2013 at 23:29
  • @PopularDemand: Thanks, maybe a mod will check it out then if they ever read my previous comment.
    – Karan
    Commented Apr 24, 2013 at 23:57
  • 3
    Is there a reason the original list of offenders was split into countless posts over multiple pages? Giving it its own topic, sure, but splitting into individual answers just makes searching for existing entries a PITA and invites duplicates.
    – Daniel Beck
    Commented May 27, 2013 at 8:49
  • Here's another one I don't think has been reported earlier, with fake author names and as far as I can see no attribution whatsoever: eonlinegratis.com/channel/superuser/
    – Karan
    Commented Jun 8, 2013 at 22:27
  • 2
    @AnnaLear The RNQA site seems to still be going strong; here’s an ELU meta post about them scraping content from ELU. If there is anything more we can do, please let us know and we would be glad to pitch in in any way we can. Thanks.
    – tchrist
    Commented Aug 4, 2013 at 20:14

127 Answers 127

Reset to default
1
2 3 4 5
50
votes

rqna.net, rqgg.net

http://www.rqna.net/qna/sqqsw-determine-nsdate-for-memorial-day-in-a-given-year.html = Determine NSDate for Memorial Day in a given year (SO)

http://www.rqna.net/qna/nyhx-canon-g1-x-custom-color-resets.html = Canon G1 X Custom Color Resets (photo.se)

Update March 22, 2013:
This post was copied from Stackoverflow.com. It mentions the SO author's user ID, but does not say that the content is copied, or provide any link to the original post.

http://www.rqna.net/qna/vnzkq-converting-marshalling-a-vb-6-type-to-structure-in-vb-net.html

As of June 9th, 2013, they appear to still be ripping content from the Stack Exchange network; this question is copied from Arqade with no attribution:

http://www.rqna.net/qna/purwup-where-can-i-find-each-type-of-ultra-rare-cargo.html

They're still copying content as of August 4, 2013. This was copied from Programmers, and they didn't bother to strip out the duplicate notice:

http://www.rqna.net/qna/pyytxk-is-it-poor-programming-practice-to-pass-parameters-as-objects-duplicate.html

The same people run rqgg.net, example: http://www.rqgg.net/topic/pynmq-why-are-the-bridges-of-klingon-ships-so-steamy.html (from Why are the bridges of Klingon ships so steamy?)

Update Aug 9, 2013

An entire copy of the Movies.SE (give or take a few days) is replicated on rqna.net.

It not only copies the question and answer, but seems to make fake 'user accounts' that aggregate the data taken.

Also, http: //www. rqgg.net/ topic/ nzxp-two-photons-transition.html copied this answer from Physics.SE. This was reported here initially.

Copy http://gaming.stackexchange.com content and even "generously" state it's CC-BY-SA. But no link back.

e.g. http://www.rqgg.net/topic/ikyxs-how-to-sort-the-special-offers-list-by-relative-discount.html boldly copies How to sort the special offers list by relative discount?

The username links http://www.rqgg.net/list/Zommuter.html to a list multiple other questions by me, but there doesn't seem to be any way of knowing it's from ArQAde.

This one is a bit different, http://www.rqgg.net/topic/rphzq-starcraft-1-disc-2-isnt-continuing-the-installation.pdf, it was posted as a pdf file instead of html. It is a complete copy of Starcraft 1 disc 2 isn't continuing the installation .

As before, there is no recognition of this being StackExchange content and the usernames link to fake accounts.

15
29
votes

hows.info (also serverfault.hows.info)

  • copies all user pages, questions, etc.
  • no attribution
  • adds ads (inline text links and block ads)
  • uses trademarked images and cdn resources
  • purports to be Stack Overflow (contact page) Ironically even offers SE as a login

Site is pretty egregious, direct copy, user profiles and everything. Only site with 100% user profile copies that I have found. Even uses the favicon.

At first the site wouldn't let me view (said I had reached my maximum or some message along those lines), and I had to delete the cookie on my machine from them in order to access the page. Once I realized it was a copy I stopped browsing because of the malicious nature of the owner.

10
  • 5
    We are keeping an eye on this one and beefing up the blocking on our end.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 15, 2013 at 21:35
  • @AnnaLear What does "beefing up blocking" entail?
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 15:18
  • @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA Blocking more proxies they're using, for one thing.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 15:18
  • @user228379 Nope, shouldn't be protected. That's fixed now.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 16, 2013 at 17:39
  • 2
    @AnnaLear There's now a Server Fault version :o
    – Doorknob
    Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 4:03
  • 1
    How come hows.info is sending me back to Stackoverflow?
    – Louis Hong
    Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 7:45
  • @Louie Wow! It is! Maybe they blocked it and they just gave up and redirected back here, I have no idea :P the server fault one is still there though
    – Doorknob
    Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 7:47
  • @Anna Did you block them? Do you have any idea why they're redirecting back to SO?
    – Doorknob
    Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 7:48
  • @Doorknob No idea.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Aug 1, 2013 at 15:31
  • Okay, now it's giving be HTTP 522s. This is very odd.
    – Doorknob
    Commented Aug 20, 2013 at 3:21
26
votes

bigresource.com

  • Example (http://asp.net.bigresource.com/MVC-3-Razor-Syntax-partial-view-Menu-cshtml-with-full-markup-a9sAFbss8.html) (Original on SO: ASP.NET MVC 3 Razor Syntax question)
  • No attribution
  • No links
  • They mangle the original text (e.g. leave out salutations)
5
  • 1
    That site is actually taken questions from all the popular websites and showing only the question and a link to jump to the main website for answer.
    – Ali Adravi
    Commented Oct 20, 2012 at 15:46
  • @AliAdravi I don't see that link.
    – nanofarad
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 19:16
  • 13
    Interesting that the website in your profile is advancesharp.com, another copycat site... why would you use both that and SO?
    – Pops
    Commented Oct 30, 2012 at 9:47
  • 7
    This one is actually starting to show above SO in certain PHP related searches. Worth blocking *.bigresource.com as it keeps 'getting even bigger'.
    – user50049
    Commented Jan 29, 2013 at 2:01
  • 12
    I really despise that site
    – Chris Laplante
    Commented Apr 28, 2013 at 19:02
22
votes

http://tinyguru.com/

tinyguru.com/serverfault/qid428975.html copies my Server Fault question How to use tscon on Windows7?

EDIT: tinyguru.com's 'questions about English' branch appears to have scraped english.SE wholesale. In other 'questions about X' branches, the Xs all represent X.SE.

Update (Aug 13 2013): Site now links directly to stackoverflow.com and attribution to the site and CC-BY-SA is stated in the page footer. Case closed?

6
  • Also http://www.tinyguru.com/gis/qid29575.html which duplicates gis.stackexchange.com/questions/29575/…
    – mkennedy
    Commented Sep 25, 2012 at 23:42
  • They seem to duplicate almost every Stackexchange site (see http://www.tinyguru.com).
    – Douglas S. Stones
    Commented Nov 4, 2012 at 6:24
  • its changed I think..he he he.
    – user201424
    Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 22:43
  • Douglas isn't it legal to use data when it comply with all required attributes ?
    – user201424
    Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 22:45
  • I find it funny they have superuser in the URL
    – Cole Tobin
    Commented Apr 1, 2013 at 23:34
  • It seems this page is now only linking to SO questions and profiles. Nothing wrong with that I think?
    – doncherry
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 20:16
22
votes

www.advancesharp.com

Example:

Why does $($) crash my page?

is the original; here is the copy:

http://www.advancesharp.com/Questions/7587/why-does-crash-my-page

Beating jQuery addiction: Which jQuery methods are easily translated into pure javascript? original

Copy: http://www.advancesharp.com/Questions/6463/beating-jquery-addiction-which-jquery-methods-are-easily-translated-into-pure-javascript which the owner of the site takes credit for... methinks Felix Kling will not be impressed.

All content from this site appears to be ripped from SO.

This site appears to be owned and operated by this SO user.

More examples:
ORIGINAL: "javascript:void(0);" vs "return false" vs "preventDefault()"
COPY: http://advancesharp.com/Questions/6474/javascriptvoid0-vs-return-false-vs-preventdefault

There's a post about this at the high-Google-ranking copiers question as well.

Edit:

It appears he is keeping tabs on us and removed this questions linked. Here is a quick example of how you can search his "most visited" questions (grab a chunk of code and/or text and google search)

Using JQuery hover with HTML image map

http://www.advancesharp.com/Questions/64/using-jquery-hover-with-html-image-map

The question has been changed slightly. The answer is exact. There are literally hundreds of scraped pieces of content on this site. Too much for it to be cross-post coincidence

Edit:

I Just re-visited him and his 'newest' questions almost all seem legit? However there are still legacy scrapes on his site with names/times/people changed but not intellectual property.

How to check whether a checkbox is checked in jQuery?

and http://www.advancesharp.com/questions/298/how-to-know-checkbox-is-checked-or-not-by-jquery

and

How to redirect to another webpage in JavaScript/jQuery?

http://www.advancesharp.com/questions/221/how-can-i-make-a-redirect-page-in-jquery-javascript

or

What is the most efficient way to deep clone an object in JavaScript?
and

http://www.advancesharp.com/questions/231/what-is-the-most-efficient-way-to-clone-a-javascript-object

Really, after you find a bogus Question/Answer combo just click on the 'user' who posted it. All other content from said user is scraped from SO - and there are MANY of these users all with 2/3 questions / answers - I can't see it being an elaborate way for someone on that site to gain 'rep'

8
  • Erm... all of the URLs given 404 over at that site.
    – nanofarad
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 19:12
  • @ObsessiveSSOℲ it appears he removed those links - as mentioned he is an SO user and may have become privy to the fact we are on to him. I'm sure if you did a little research you could find some more. Did not take me long to find duplicates by searching popular questions on his site on google.
    – rlemon
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 21:18
  • SO question and his question also I have updated my post - need I be more thorough?
    – rlemon
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 21:21
  • I think both I and the community see that the site owner is trying to avoid detection, but is doing so futilely.
    – nanofarad
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 21:31
  • ???
    – Qantas 94 Heavy
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 13:32
  • Yes... It appears so.
    – rlemon
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 16:35
  • I marked this as resolved because I can't find any more SO questions on the site. It seems they've now resorted to just making a large number of fake users (all with fireworks for profile pics) and posting questions and answers about SO-like topics. Regardless, it seems to be original content, so it's no longer our concern.
    – nneonneo
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 8:01
  • Nope. It seems the site went 'underground' until it got down to 0 stars but I visited some links now and they're all up. Interestingly, the answer in the question I re-linked has the following code in it: window.location.replace("http://stackoverflow.com"); Lol. Maybe the admin should put up a filter to block that kind of stuff?
    – rath
    Commented Aug 19, 2013 at 2:12
17
votes

tips4all.net

  • Example: http://tips4all.net/make-xcode-4-stop-auto-staging-with-git.html duplicates Make Xcode 4 stop auto staging with git
  • Author names have been changed and maybe randomized (the question "author" on tips4all does not have the same list of "Questions Asked" as the author on SO).
  • No mention of, nor links to, SO that I can find.
1
  • Just came across this looking for something else.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 21:57
15
votes

solutionoferror.com

They show you a question, and to get the answer, you need to view an offer. You don't need to click on it, there is a "skip" button, but they are hiding other sites behind their offers, so they get money for sending you away from their site.

Working from my previous answer (https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/120770/152620), I googled:

TypeError: unbound method can_move() must be called with O_shape

The first result was Stack Overflow (Python: Display Shape from Tetris Game), but the second was to that site:

http://www.solutionoferror.com/python/python-display-shape-from-tetris-game-77409.asp

Clicking "get complete solution" will bring you to an offer, clicking "skip offer" will then bring you to Stack Overflow.

P.S. I noticed that the questions on that site don't all go to Stack Overflow, they go to lots of different Q&A and forum sites :(

7
  • 1
    stackoverflow.com/q/14105686/785745 was 'translated' to http://www.solutionoferror.com/asp-net/cuda-specific-error-s-111041.asp
    – Kendall Frey
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 12:55
  • @KendallFrey: What the ...? It looks like someone (badly) re-wrote the question and posted it there. Weird.
    – gen_Eric
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 13:24
  • 2
    solutionoferror.com seems to automatically paraphrase questions, compare stackoverflow.com/questions/13886430/… with http://www.solutionoferror.com/java/passing-options-to-chrome-driver-selenium-123869.asp.
    – Rob W
    Commented Jun 9, 2013 at 22:20
  • @RobW: They went through the trouble of making look like it's not stolen >.<
    – gen_Eric
    Commented Jun 9, 2013 at 23:56
  • 1
    Them: http://www.solutionoferror.com/html/sublime-text-2-autocompleting-html-escaped-characters-starting-with-amper-40267.asp SO: stackoverflow.com/questions/11870427/… The site rates high on my malware-o-meter. It asked for a FB login (when you click whitespace) and to install Flash (when you go back).
    – KatieK
    Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 20:52
  • 1
    Another one: http://www.solutionoferror.com/asp-net/portable-class-library-and-net-concurrentdictionary-123158.asp and stackoverflow.com/questions/12202150/… .
    – It'sNotALie.
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 21:24
  • 1
    Still going : http://www.solutionoferror.com/java/change-font-size-at-runtime-with-slider-for-entire-java-swing-application-w-261910.asp vs stackoverflow.com/questions/8004658/…
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Commented Oct 2, 2013 at 19:24
14
votes

*.softuses.com

Robotranslated content from SO used without any attribution.

Example:
http://de.softuses.com/80577 is a copy of removing/adding CALayers for GPU optimization

Updated May 15, 2013:
There are at least three subdomains copying here: http://de.softuses.com/, http://fr.softuses.com/ and http://es.softuses.com/

2
  • Confirmed for fr.softuses.com just found a french post where they auto translate exactly the content of a SO question.
    – ForceMagic
    Commented Aug 29, 2013 at 15:43
  • I find another subdomain ja.softuses.com, it consists of many copies of SO content with robotoranslated to Japanese.
    – Inetgate
    Commented Oct 31, 2013 at 2:57
14
votes

techques.com

  • The scraper also purports to give a link "View original page at" (no further text), but this link goes nowhere. The scraper is presumably availing him/herself of a great deal of Stack Exchange content, a clearinghouse for SE content
  • This scraper site is heavily ad supported
  • Does state at the bottom that the content is licensed under cc-wiki and enumerates some (not all) SE sites involved, but does not link to the original question or the users.

A search for the term "Judaism" on their main site turns up over 600 hits on the subject, many, many of which (in a cursory search) are directly copied from Mi.Yodeya; a search for an active username turns up hundreds of hits, including questions, answers, and comments.

In addition, a search for "English Language & Usage" without the quotes turns up hundreds of hits (many from that SE site); searches for it with the quotes turns up 48; and searches for names with which I am familiar from other SE sites turn up content of those SE users.

The attribution is not only flimsy but actually incorrect. There's a disclaimer at the bottom of the main page (but over at Mi.Yodeya we believe it to be violating the license terms)

The content is from serverfault.com, superuser.com and stackoverflow.com, and is licensed under cc-wiki. Any advice please contact us.

Examples:

6
  • 3
    Confirmed, and I also see this site scraping content from Physics, e.g. this (original). Who knows how many other network sites they are taking from (without any attribution whatsoever).
    – David Z
    Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 1:42
  • 1
    Funny: the copies faithfully reproduce inter-post links back to the originating Stack Exchange site (see for instance my answer on http://www.techques.com/question/5-31514/Why-is-the-%28free%29-neutron-lifetime-so-long? which links back to physics.stackexchange.com/a/31526/520). The person who wrote the scraper is too much of a poser to even get that right. ::sigh:: You just can't get good villians these days.
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Commented Jul 31, 2013 at 6:29
  • They've got stuff from AskUbuntu as well.
    – JKor
    Commented Aug 22, 2013 at 20:48
  • Here's an example from meta.English Language & Usage showing three of the four attribution requirements aren't met. It looks like they're trying to meet them, but it's broken for non-SO content.
    – Hugo
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 11:42
  • I reported content scraped from Theoretical CS as Google ranked it above the original.
    – hardmath
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:51
  • Heh, I didn't realize there were ads, but I guessed there might be... AdBlock Plus is my friend!
    – Colin D Bennett
    Commented Nov 6, 2013 at 16:57
13
votes

www.dektak.com

5
  • Still in business as of October 2012: http://www.www.dektak.com/questions/5479989/how-to-deep-copy-object-in-java
    – Pops
    Commented Oct 16, 2012 at 17:34
  • Also is hotlinking images from sstatic.net.
    – user200153
    Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 2:02
  • Also seems to operate under the domain 117766.cn.
    – Richard Deeming
    Commented Nov 9, 2012 at 19:02
  • 3
    Whois information: han meimei, qinghuayuanlu1198hao 34-343, nanjing, jiangsu 210007, CN; Phone: +1.02557716023; Email: [email protected]
    – Richard Deeming
    Commented Nov 9, 2012 at 19:05
  • I have banned the network these guys appear to be scraping from, we'll see if there is any new content appearing next week.
    – Nick Craver Mod
    Commented Apr 12, 2013 at 2:20
13
votes

happyforlove.com

copies the content of SE sites without any attribution. For example, http://www.happyforlove.com/questions/c_444314/prove-that-in-an-obtuse-triangle-the-orthocentre-is-the-excenter-of-the-orthic-t is a copy of this one on Math SE.

The site has the footer:

Copyright © 2013 www.happyforlove.com - All rights reserved.

(Site first noticed by another user on Math.SE)

1
  • 3
    It's also pulling content from SF, and as far as I can see many other SE sites.
    – Michael Hampton
    Commented Jul 17, 2013 at 21:02
12
votes

http://www.codeinpro.us/

  • Example 1 from SO: (http://t6865.codeinpro.us/q/51502614e8432c04262938ad)
  • Example 2 from SF: (http://www.codeinpro.us/q/5080d39b4f1eba38a4995017)
  • Full text of question, all answers (including marking accepted answer), and all comments
  • No attribution, no links, and no mention of SO, SF, or SE
  • Only reviewed a few questions but everything I looked at is from a SE site.
4
12
votes

qandasys.info

  • No mentioning that this material is from SE
  • No hyperlink to original question
  • No hyperlinks to user names
  • No attribution to authors or Stack Exchange
  • No links back to Stack Exchange
  • No mentioning that the content is licensed under CC BY-SA

After some brief investigation, it appears to pull from other Stack Exchange sites as well.

Examples

3
  • There's a lot of scraping from Arqade happening on this one.
    – fbueckert
    Commented Jun 8, 2013 at 0:25
  • 1
    Scratch that, they're scraping from multiple sites now. I see at least a few questions from Photo.SE, and Sharepoint.SE.
    – fbueckert
    Commented Jun 10, 2013 at 14:23
  • 1
    One of their latest scrapes is completely blatant: http://qandasys.info/how-to-do-organize-papers-urls-and-other-tcs-related-resources/ No attempt at all to reroute URLs.
    – fbueckert
    Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 14:37
11
votes

www.iasptk.com

Example: http://www.iasptk.com/ubuntuwp/tag/11-04/ contains content from many questions and answers. At the time of this writing, the first question on that page is the AU question Iptables proxy host on port.

It goes as far as using the list of site tags and site name as headings/links, but does not indicate Stack Exchange as the source of the content. The four requirements from here are not followed.

It also inappropriately uses the Ubuntu logo.

1
  • 3
    Inappropriate use of the Ubuntu logo should be reported to Canonical as the trademark owner. See askubuntu.com/q/25072/44179
    – ɥʇǝS
    Commented Apr 7, 2013 at 19:57
10
votes

ubuntuask.com

  • Copies from AskUbuntu - No attribution
  • Example:
    http://www.ubuntuask.com/q/answers-how-to-not-become-a-root-user-are-administrators-root-245201.html
    copies
    http://askubuntu.com/questions/245201/how-to-not-become-a-root-user-are-administrators-root
10
votes

qnundrum.com

http://qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=19297 is a copy of a question from AskDifferent. It links to AskDifferent's author page and then gives no answer, just a button "View Full Answer on Apple StackExchange."

No attribution to us.

Note that its Contact page says

If a question of yours was indexed by Qnundrum that you don't want indexed, click here to fill out a take down request form. Submitted questions for takedown that are approved will be removed within 48 hours.

And another http://qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=597718

and on 18 Aug 2013 another qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=814772

2
  • I just found another http://qnundrum.com/answer.php?q=794004 copy of gaming.stackexchange.com/q/126684/47872 . The worst part of these sites which steal content is that they make it difficult to search for real solutions. So frustrating
    – Nil
    Commented Aug 7, 2013 at 2:09
  • 1
    This site continues to lift content from Ask Different - often within hours of questions arriving on the site.
    – bmike
    Commented Aug 24, 2013 at 1:25
8
votes

http://google-seo-help.blogspot.com/

The entire site looks like it was copied, but the real clue was http://google-seo-help.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-can-i-fetch-more-than-1000-google.html, taken verbatim from SO: https://stackoverflow.com/a/3794141/453277

It's quite funny, because in the answer I use my own name repeatedly as sample data. The post is attributed to "Peter".

I can find no indication anywhere of the content's origin. It's not a big site, but it's a blatant ripoff.

enter image description here

8
votes

zzzxo.com

  • Questions and answers appear to have usernames and profile images intact, but no links back to Stack Overflow anywhere.
  • Alleges to be an Amazon Gold Box affiliate.

Examples:

2
  • It appears that they copy everything from here. Not only some popular tags, no, everything. (I found even some of my stuff, does that mean I could send them a DCMA Notice?)
    – Johannes Kuhn
    Commented Jun 1, 2013 at 18:40
  • 1
    I googled my name "Rocket Hazmat" (keep the quotes), and this page was the 7th result. Not just the question and answers, they are also copying user names AND avatars with no links to the source! (Their scraper is pretty crappy, because their page shows that I posted 3 answers. I didn't post any, I just happened to have been the last person to edit 3 of the answers!)
    – gen_Eric
    Commented Jun 13, 2013 at 14:08
8
votes

www.lovevideogame.com

  • Scrapes questions from Gaming/Arqade
  • Displays completely different users for the questions/answer (seem to be non-SE users)
  • No link back to the source
  • Claims copyright:

    COPYRIGHT © 2013 www.lovevideogame.com; user contributions licensed under cc-wiki

Examples

  • On Gaming and on LoveVideoGame: www.lovevideogame.com/q/answers-is-it-possible-to-use-a-different-folder-than-minecraft-100106.html

  • lovevideogame.com/q/answers-starcraft-1-disc-2-isnt-continuing-the-installation-126684.html is a flagrant copy of Starcraft 1 disc 2 isn't continuing the installation . No recognition whatsoever that this is StackExchange material. They even stole the profile pictures along with the usernames.

8
votes

blogosfera.co.uk

  • Looks like it targets SO specifically. The listing pages seem to link to the original sources, but the individual pages don't. No other mention of SO or any other source, the license, or attribution.
  • No attribution
  • No link back

Examples

  • http://www.blogosfera.co.uk/2011/03/php-x86-how-to-get-filesize-of-2gb-file-without-external-program/, original question: PHP x86 How to get filesize of > 2 GB file without external program?

  • http://www.blogosfera.co.uk/2013/08/implement-iqueryable-wrapper-to-translate-result-objects/ Note the lack of links to the original source (here). However, if you go here: http://www.blogosfera.co.uk/category/net-2/, you should be able to find the same post, and the title will take you to the original source (click the date at the bottom to get to the individual post on the system).

1
8
votes

http://nerdanswer.com/

It has scrapes from various SE sites (Super User, Server Fault, Webmasters, …).

They link back to the question (e.g., "View full answer on Pro Webmasters") and the user profile, but …

  • no attribution
  • no mentioning that the content is licensed under CC BY-SA

Examples

  • http://nerdanswer.com/answer.php?q=147786
  • http://nerdanswer.com/answer.php?q=32842
  • http://nerdanswer.com/answer.php?q=351177
2
7
votes

http://46424.com ("IQwen question AND answer")

Example: CSS3 Smooth Cross Browser Grayscale Image Bad Site: http://46424.com/question/90111#.URlBC2fzLfW

On the bad site, clicking most links (including those for OP name) takes you to pop-up hell.

Another example (originally posted by Josh Caswell): http://46424.com/question/458182#.URsgekVZpKM is a copy of Xcode: setTitle not working

No attribution or links back to SO anywhere.

2
7
votes

http://questiontrack.com

Is another screen scraper that doesn't reference SO.

Example

http://questiontrack.com/flask-sqlalchemy-no-such-table-980892.html

straight screen scrap from

Flask-SQLALchemy: No such table

2
6
votes

fatalweb.com

  • Example: fatalweb.com/questions/621876/should-i-upgrade-this-model-to-inheritance is a scrape of should i upgrade this model to inheritance?.
  • No attribution or linkback to Stack Overflow; only mentions OP's username
1
  • 1
    Thanks for the report - these guys haven't improved and seem to have no intention of attributing, so their crawlers are now banned.
    – Nick Craver Mod
    Commented Apr 12, 2013 at 2:37
6
votes

codeblow.com

  • Example: http://codeblow.com/questions/good-ruby-on-rails-free-hosting duplicates https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1055682/good-ruby-on-rails-free-hosting.
  • Does not visually indicate origin, does not link to the original question, does not show any author names, and therefore cannot hyperlink back to the user profile.
  • Says "Code Blow provides to you all the programmers knowledge of all programmers that took time to write answers to every question that you can find here. Feel free to ready and learn from all these informations." - They acknowledge that it took time, but feel that it's OK to steal it? What gives?
4
6
votes

74ku.com

Updated March 21, 2013:
The post below was copied from Stackoverflow.com. It mentions the SO user's ID but does not mention that it was copied from SO. It also does not link to the original post.

http://74ku.com/question/149547

Updated May 17, 2013:
According to the comments, it looks like this site is down, but it was apparently up in March, so...?

4
  • These guys now appear to be offline, will check again in a few days.
    – Nick Craver Mod
    Commented Apr 12, 2013 at 3:01
  • Yep, looks offline from here too.
    – Grey Panther
    Commented Apr 12, 2013 at 8:22
  • Still looks down over a year later.
    – Pops
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 19:01
  • Possibly related to 9exceptions, reported here.
    – Pops
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 19:05
6
votes

www.gp958.com is a verbatim copy of the majority of content from Android Enthusiasts right down to the site's title tag, and linking images from stack.imgur.com. The copyright line at the bottom of each page says:

© 2013 GP958 All rights reserved.

Which breaks our cc-wiki license.

Example:

http://www.gp958.com/questions/44293.html is a copy of What does permission "MANAGE_ACCOUNTS" mean?

There are no links back to the source site, there's no mention of where the content came from, the original authors names have been removed and replaced with "Guest".

1
  • Another example: http://www.androidenth.com/q/answers-what-does-permission-manage-accounts-mean-44293.html. At least they keep our user names plus avatars, and state CC-BY-SA as license, but do not seem to care for the BY of their source: I cannot find a link back to ASE, nor do I find ASE even mentioned (neither on their start page).
    – Izzy
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 16:21
6
votes

This site copies the Stack Exchange site content (without following attribution guidelines)

Site: http://t6942.codeinpro.us/

Example

  1. This http://t6942.codeinpro.us/q/508112064f1eba38a4facfd7 is a copy of SO question Finding path to plist in Xcode project folder
  2. This http://t6942.codeinpro.us/q/5080d43e4f1eba38a49a7e8f is a copy of Serverfault question Can't resolve DNS only in one machine
  3. This http://t6942.codeinpro.us/q/5080d46d4f1eba38a49ade6c is a copy of Serverfault question Reset crawled content for one content source in MOSS

I was able to link to one of the SO questions(which I answered) copied by this site: http://www.ggkf.com/. This came up as the first result in Google search results.

enter image description here

SO Question: CGImageRelease Error in architecture i386

Copy link: http://www.ggkf.com/ios/cgimagerelease-error-in-architecture-i386

The list of many such copied questions can be found on this site.

5
votes

http://www.genealogyqa.co.uk/

As far as I can see, this site is copying every question and answer verbatim from Genealogy.SE. There is no attribution present.

Example:

http://www.genealogyqa.co.uk/q/answers-what-is-the-value-of-recording-the-witnesses-of-a-baptism-or-marriage-3481.html

What is the value of recording the witnesses of a baptism or marriage?

5
votes

http://codeinpro.us

  • Questions are not linked back to Stack Overflow
  • No attribution whatsoever
  • Names of the poster are not shown.

Found as a result of http://t1688.codeinpro.us/q/5080e9cc4f1eba38a4be9188 versus When should I use the "strictfp" keyword in java?

http://t6803.codeinpro.us/q/508116df4f1eba38a4022725 from Copy current selection on hotkey

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