ShortText.com Users: In Ur Blog Steal’n UR Posts

UPDATE: shortText.com has removed the content and redirected it to my site which is very decent of them.  They reiterated they make no claims to the ownership of the material and it is user generated.  On second glance and due to the speedy response it seems that they have a nifty website, with a few unscrupulous users.

This morning I would like to introduce you to a new website. The site is called ShortText.com, described as “a simple tool to post text on-line, with minimum fuss. No sign ups, no sign in, just instant web presence for your information.” What Short Text also does, or allows users to do is post other web user’s content. The web is all about sharing, and I understand that. That is why I create a blog and also why I create and share original content. However I also like to recieve credit for the articles I write.

Currently if another site wants to share your content the “proper” method of doing so is to share a snippet of the post or guide and link to your site for the full text. ShortText takes the pesky linking out of the picture and displays all of your post, while making an ad revenue which could have easily been used to pay for hosting fees or an attempt at paying down student loans.

Early this morning I was looking at my inbound traffic and I saw a decrease, I also saw that many users were finding the site by searching for “iPhone Wisbar” referring to a How To article I wrote regarding making your Windows Mobile device look like the iPhone using Wisbar Advance and Wisbar Advance Desktop. However now when you Google “iPhone Wisbar” the first result is a ShortText.com link where my entire post is stolen. I wouldn’t even be so upset if there was a link in the post directing users back here.

I am all for sharing and I really don’t care if I make money from these articles at this point. What does bother me is someone else making money off of my work with no attibution.