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I love Lifehacker as much as any other fan but I am a bit confused as to how they are creating posts (which do give credit) that mimic SE questions in full.

How Do I Stop My Fire Alarm from Going Off When I Cook? Lifehacker

How do I stop my fire alarm from going off when I cook? Seasoned Advice (cooking.stackexchange.com)

The titles for both posts are the same, so nothing prevents Lifehacker's post from being higher in the rankings (and there should be nothing wrong with that seeing that Lifehacker is a recommended knowledge resource).

Incognito view

The section is labelled "crowdhacker", so I assume the comments stay on Lifehacker, as well as any new answers or critique.

Is this sort of writing style (inasmuch as the cc-wiki allows it) encouraged, or is this some sort of partnership between Stack Exchange and Lifehacker to scratch each other's back?

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  • 2
    Google should know better. Tut tut. – Matthew Read Jan 17 '12 at 22:57
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    It's not the only one Lifehacker - DIY – ChrisF♦ Jan 17 '12 at 22:58
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    I've just noticed there's a /?lh at the end of the links back to SE. I'd say this indicates that there is an official arrangement here. – ChrisF♦ Jan 17 '12 at 22:59
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    As long as there is attribution, this is allowed. – simchona Jan 17 '12 at 23:02
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    That URL looks so incredibly easy to game... – casperOne Jan 17 '12 at 23:03
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    Actually, I find this an interesting way to use SE content. There's an actual manual effort visible here, a welcome change from the dozens of SEO spam farms! – Pekka supports GoFundMonica Jan 17 '12 at 23:04
  • @Pekka'sOrganicRepFarm If we told Lifehacker "how about we take your huge user base, and instead of showing them your content, we show them ours instead", and Lifehacker said yes, I'm all for it. I'm not quite sure how that was negotiated, but it works out great for us – Michael Mrozek Jan 17 '12 at 23:31
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Yes. Stack Exchange does have a new partnership in place with Lifehacker. Keep an eye out for a "Crowdhacker" post published at their site once or twice a week.

And we appreciate the SEO concerns. Don't hesitate to shout out if you think the content deal is doing more harm than good. (We're pretty sure it's not). Or if you see something you wrote published somewhere you don't want it.

Thanks for keeping an eye out!

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    Mad props for getting this super-cool arrangement worked out, by the by. :) – Aarthi Jan 17 '12 at 23:15
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    You might want to edit the Cooking question to remove the preamble (check the screenshot) it's probably doing nothing for our page rank. – ChrisF♦ Jan 17 '12 at 23:16
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    @Sam Or if you see something you wrote published somewhere you don't want it. Isn't cooking also CC licensed? – PeeHaa Jan 18 '12 at 0:08
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    Yes, all the sites are CC licensed. – Joel Spolsky♦ Jan 18 '12 at 3:15

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