Scraping content and passing it off as "community building" [How to do social media wrong]

I got an email today from Candace aka @mamanista letting me know that a good portion of my post about developmental milestones was on a site called Trigeia.com.  In her email she wrote (reprinted with permission):

I discovered that my content was on their site when their Twitter feed (which also lacks original content) was spitting out my posts minutes after I posted them.

I asked some legitimate questions about their business model. They evaded, were rude, and then removed my content.

I popped over to take a peek and sure enough, there was my post (amidst other scraped posts) with a "submitted by Trigeia" byline, no mention of CityMama, and a "read more" that linked to my original post. 

I sent them an email asking them to remove the content (and another when it wasn't removed right away) and heard nothing, so I jumped onto to Twitter to ask if anyone else had gotten their content scraped by Trigeia.

In quick succession, I received three "@" responses (you can also see them by searching twitter.com/trigeia) Edited to add: they seem to be removing some of the more hostile tweets in their stream in an attempt at "revisionist history." Good thing I have screen shots.

@CityMama what is the deal with this bashing? Come on now! we are not scraping any ones content! you are just giving us free promotion !!

@CityMama why is it that you are ok with your articles on Alltop but you are not ok with your articles on Trigeia?

@CityMama we are working very hard to make sure our users and reader bounce to the sites that are being featured on our site

Bashing? Because I asked if anyone else was having their feed scraped? Their sudden defensiveness was my clue that I wasn't the first person to raise concerns with them.  Also? Defensiveness and saying things like "but we're promoting you!" and screaming "fair use" is standard operating procedure for content scrapers.  I have been down this road before with scrapers who are equally rude when called out on their bullshit.

I don't mind people linking to my posts or even quoting them. But posting them on a site which contains completely unoriginal content to make it look like the content is yours? And trying to make money via advertising off of my uncredited work which you did not obtain permission to use? Nuh-uh.

My response (and you can search twitter.com/citymama to see the entire convo.)

@Trigeia give me a frickin break. free promotion my ass. you are a content scraper and have a rep that preceeds you. and it's not good.

Seems Candace isn't the only one that has been bullied by Trigeia. Tanis from Redneck Mommy messaged me on Twitter to tell me that she sent them an email yesterday and also was treated, ahem, poorly.

I went on to explain:

@Trigeia 1)Alltop does not publish my content under a different name 2) they link only 3)i know @guykawasaki. Satisfied? #trigeiasucks

As of this afternoon Trigeia was Twittering that they were in a "battle" with me (what is this, high school?) and other moms. A battle. For asking for our original content to be removed from their scraper site.

@darrenmonroe dude, have to disagree. Couple of Moms are bashing us!! lol

Yet at the same time, they Twitter about how important it is for them to "not piss anyone off" and build community.

@CityMama We are not working to piss any one off! we are simply building business to connect people to their passion.

And I have to say, Trigeia twittering to try to send people to my original post to leave nasty comments was a particularly nice "community building" touch.

They are also telling folks who saw the Twitters going back and forth that our emails are apparently worth seeing!:

@elliottng thanks for the feed back! weve taken her content off of our site. doesnt seem reasonable you should read these emails they wrote

At the time of this writing, their site is completely down so I can't actually verify that my content is off their site. I'm not sure what other bloggers have written, but if the following 4 sentences are something people "should see," I venture to say that other bloggers must be less polite-er folk than I:

How to do social media wrong? Get onto Twitter and instead of taking responsibility for your actions, tweet and retweet how you are the one wronged and misunderstood all the while letting the world see that your words do not jibe with your mission statement. Send people to a website claiming you're in a battle with the blogger under the guise of community building. "LOL" about being "bashed" by a bunch of "moms," as if we are the ones who have no idea what we are talking about or who have no power. Trigeia, you have no idea.

Updated to add (because things have gotten weirder since I wrote this post): How else to do it wrong? Having your wife tweet me pretending like she's an innocent bystander:

 

See, their first mistake was presuming that I gave a rip about my site traffic. News flash: I don't! I'm glad she reached out because it's with her "why have an RSS feed" tweet below that we finally see the method behind their madness:

 

How I do it? Ask a question. Hear from other members in your community who all have the same exact problem, get encouragement from peers who tried to do something about it and got nowhere, and set about fixing it in your own way.

Again, I will not be Twitter-bullied by a company who claims to be all about connecting people with their passions. By a company who steals content from bloggers and tries to pass it off as their own. By a company who bullies mom bloggers into backing down. And I know I am not alone.