Yet More Content Theft

Hello all,

This site http://www.fukien.net.cn/ has now nicked three of my posts -

http://www.fukien.net.cn/?p=823
http://www.fukien.net.cn/?p=870
http://www.fukien.net.cn/?p=871

There is a note at the bottom of the site to say that a link is provided leading back to the original content - apparently you get there by clicking the 'original text' link. There is no link.

I wanted to alert everyone as they may have stolen content from your sites also. I need to look into what action to take about this - it is driving me crazy. I've tried e-mailing the author but had no response and also tried leaving a comment, to which they responded by nicking another of my posts literally minutes later. Grrrr.


This Post was written by Helen from Food Stories

helping you build better blog designs

I just stumbled upon this blog about blog design which at first glance looks like it has some very interesting tips.


This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

TasteSpotting: Your Opinions Appreciated

hey fbs'coolers...it's sarah, just about to fall over from putting tastespotting v2 back up. *whew*

first, thank you to everyone who has shared very honest (the "*ouch* that hurt me, but i needed it" kind of honest) opinions and feelings in the comments of previous posts about tastespotting. that, plus the emails, IMs, and blog posts around the foodweb from everyone have been a tremendous help in refining tastespotting's future. there is still much left to do!

which brings me to the second...we just did a redesign on the site, and while the functionality is about the same (with the addition of being able to crop photos on the site and see a preview) and there will be more to come, it's fairly dramatic change in color scheme/look and feel. i would SO VERY MUCH appreciate it if you could share your opinions about it.

does the dark background behind the pictures make the food (*smack* me for using this term) POP? does minimal color (black white and gray) let the food stand out? does it feel clean? or is it too dark? drab? someone actually called it "scary."

thanks so much to everyone in advance for any opinions you have...if you'd rather share your opinions with me privately, you can also email me: sarah[at]tastespotting[dot]com

i'm going to go eat a cupcake now. they've been showing up all over the site.

This Post was written by Sarah from TasteSpotting

BlogHer '08 in San Francisco: Meet-ups for Attendees and S.F. Food Bloggers

The BlogHer conference will be in San Francisco July 18-20, and there are a couple of food blogger meet-ups during the conference that I wanted to let people know about.

There will also be an informal get-together planned by Amy and I where we're hoping San Francisco bloggers and BlogHer attendees can hang out together. That will be held at the Americano (on the patio) starting at 1:00 on Sunday, July 20.

There's more information at the link above for those who are interested. Hope to meet some new people, plus see some friends again!


This post is by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Reviewer vs Reviewee

I loved this very astute post from Lovescool.


This Post was written by Sam from Becks&Posh

Tastespotting: Your Opinions Wanted

I'm new to Tastespotting (I know, I know, where have I been?) but I see a lot of familiar food bloggers over there. I realize it's just changed hands (and I did read the recent post and comments on fbs re its disappearance), but I'm wondering what you think about the site, if you see a lot of traffic to your blog from the photos you post there, your experiences, etc.

My main question, though, is this:

How long does it take from when you upload a photo to when it appears?

I did manage to register, and it told me my first photo sucessfully uploaded, but that was several hours ago and there's no sign of it yet. They don't tell you if that's normal. Actually they don't tell you much of anything anywhere. I can't find a Help section, though one was mentioned in Nika's post on fbs last year about Tastespotting.

I also read on her post that the photos need to be cropped to 250x250. Am I just missing the page where it tells you all this stuff? Maybe that's why my photo didn't get published, because it was the wrong size?

It also looks like they've taken down the language regarding all submitted photos becoming public domain.

Your thoughts and help greatly appreciated!

7/1/08 UPDATE:
After I put up this post, I received a very nice email message from Sarah at TasteSpotting which included the following:

we're working on the site, and are heads down trying to get features smoothed out before we do stuff like the About an the FAQs pages (which we are working on right now), etc. :)As for "How long does it take from when you upload a photo to when it appears?" it could take anywhere from RIGHT NOW to up to 24 HOURS. however, as we are getting back up and running, it might actually take a little bit longer, since we have a limited number of people doing everything for the site right now. please be patient with us. :)

you don't HAVE to crop the photo, as there is a cropping tool on the site. however, the cropping tool isn't perfect and because it goes off a formula, it doesn't necessarily leave in the best part of the picture; so, if you want your photo to appear in a particular way, it's best to crop it to a square first (250 x 250) before uploading. we are working on features that will make it easier for the whole submission process anyway :)

In the meantime, I had already resubmitted my photo, this time cropped to 250 x 250 and it was published that same night.

I noticed today that there is now an ABOUT page on TS, and there are FAQ, etc. pages under construction.

I also came across this interview with Sarah which answers a number of questions including why/how submissions are chosen/not chosen, etc.

Then my ever helpful pal Beth (aka kitchenMage) alerted me to this site created by Jean at Notcot, founder of the original TasteSpotting.For the record, I did have quite a few visitors come to my blog via my photo on TasteSpotting.And for those of you who can't get enough food porn, FoodieView (which is a recipe search engine, restaurant guide, publisher of the weekly Recipe Roundups written by food bloggers, etc.) is about to launch "Foodie Views of the Day." You can read a little more about it here.

And thanks to all of you who left helpful comments about your experiences with TasteSpotting and beyond here in this post.

This Post was written by Susan from Farmgirl Fare

Food Blogger Blogoversaries Calender

Hello all, this is my first post for S'cool and I would like to say thanks Sam for adding me.

Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with all of you and the foodie events around the blogosphere, but it is a goal of mine to be more apart of the food blogger community, once I have tackled some personal stuff going on right now .

I had an idea I thought would be a fun way to support our fellow food blog authors. And help create a even closer community.

I started a calender for listing food blogger blogoversary dates. The date of your food blog's official launch or first post, is your blogoversary.

The calender will allow for clickable links in the description, so you can put your blog's title in the event title, and a description of your food blog, then any links you'd like such as : your blog's link, twitter account, face book page etc. If you click on the image below, you can view an example calender event.



I used google calender to create it. It's easily searchable in the google calendar database. So your readers can follow all of their fav foodies. All public calenders are indexed by google.

You can view it by clicking this link - food blogger blogoversary. There is a small button at the bottom right you can click to subscribe/ add it to your google calender account.

You don't need to have a google account to view the calender, or get updates for upcoming or newly added food blogs :

Click on this link to subscribe with any calender that supports iCal format. Here is a list from wikipedia of apps that support iCAL.


I also burned it through feedburner. So you can subscribe or use it to add to another feed you are aggregating on your sidebar etc.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/FoodBloggerBlogoversaryDates

If you would like to be added to the calender:

Leave in comments or email me (email link found in my profile) the following info:

• Food Blog Title
• Date of launch or first post (your blogoversary)
• Food Blog description
  
• Food Blog Url
• Any other links you want publically displayed (twitter, MyblogLog, flickr etc)

I will set each event to continue to be celebrated yearly, so you will get updated every year.

I hope this can be something that is fun and usable for everyone . It gives another way to celebrate and promote your wonderful food blogs.

This Post was written by Amber from Renaissance Culinaire

Publisher Gift Disclosures

It's that busy time of year, when book publishers have lots of cookbooks and food interest books to offer us food bloggers for free (subtly in exchange for a website review on our blogs).

When reviewing these free books, do you disclose the book's source in your post?

If you do, what is your best way to state this information in the post?

This Post was written by McAuliflower from Brownie Points Blog

More content theft

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know that there is another content stealing blog:
onlinerecipecolletions dot blogspot dot com

It doesn't have any ads yet but a lot of links to pharmaceutical products. The owner has an email address under "her" profile, but emailing her has been useless. These people (sploggers) remind me of these nasty little worms/pests that we used to have in Texas during the spring, it was just impossible to get rid of them!


This Post was written by Layla from Laylita's Recipes

Hello all --

I'm new to S'cool so first I'd like to thank Sam for letting me join (stat!) after I pestered her with the following question. Thanks Sam!

My question is this: I'm thinking of trying to start either a blogging carnival or general food blogging fundraiser for Obama. But I have no idea how to plan or start a fundraiser. I'll take any and all advice.

Sam has already warned me that many people don't want to associate their blogs with politics so I'm prepared for that. And I'm not entirely married to doing this event. But I thought I'd dip my toes in the water and see what the experts (you!) think.

Thanks! And thanks for letting me a part of this!

Kyla


This Post was written by KYLA from OHC: OMNIVORE HERBIVORE CARNIVORE

Serious Eats: Food Photography in Restaurants

Serious Eats has a post (and ensuing discussion in the comments thread) about photography in restaurants -- specifically New York restaurants. The post is as a result of David Chang banning photography at his restaurant Momofuku Ko. Thought you all may find it an interesting read.


This Post was written by Jen Maiser from Life Begins @ 30.

Great new way to add post permalink to your feed

Recently I'm having more and more trouble with people stealing my feed content, despite the fact that I've had a Blogger feed item footer for quite a while which clearly identifies the contents as belonging to my blog. A few days ago I found a website with a tab that said "Food" and the entire content of my blog for the last several months was there, with the feed item footer clearly displayed.

Not only does it concern me that my content is being used by other sites, but I also want to protect the identity of my posts so that a stolen version can't show up in a google search result above my post. (Talk about adding insult to injury.)

Yesterday I read a post about Blog Tips by BlogHer tech editor Virginia DeBolt. She talked about a new Feedburner option through Feed Flare, which inserts an author tag in the feed at the end of each post which contains the individual post permalink. Virginia points out that not only is this a good way to discourage scrapers, but it clearly identifies for Google which copy of any particular post is the original. Virginia pointed me to a post by Amanda at Blogger Buster who created the author and permalink feed flare. Using those two sources, I easily added this to my blog feed last night. Now at the end of each post in the feed, there's a line that reads:

Written by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen

and if you click it, it takes you to that post on my blog. (Anyone who subscribes to my blog should be able to see it in the feed on today's post.)

This is for anyone who uses Feedburner, not just for Blogger users. I'm very excited about it, and thought other people might find it useful.


This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

What happened to Tastespotting?

Does anyone know the story behind the message on the Tastespotting site? It says:

"Thanks for a great 18 months! In light of recent legal complications, NOTCOT will no longer be operating tastespotting.com"


This Post was written by Ann from Redacted Recipes

Blogging Food in Britian and the UK

I recently discovered the UK Food Bloggers Association, kind of a British version of Food Blog S'cool. The posts I saw were not as technical based as we sometimes get here on FBS, but it is an interesting read, with recipes, book reviews, blogging events, questions about ethics and advertising, but all with a British "accent."

Plus there are links to about 100 or so British food blogs to persue.

FJK of Blog Appetit

Is Anyone Else Being Driven Mad By Google Blogger?

Or is it just me?

I have a number of linked blogs with different formats, as part of my main food blog. I also have a testbed blog in which I set up posts and check them for layout before publication. This month, Google Blogger decided to lock out my testbed. I went through the standard unlocking request and appeal procedures and, having no luck, created a new testbed blog. A few days later Google locked that out too. More requests to unlock, more appeals, same again. This morning, Google has locked out the third version. They all have different names and content, of course, so the robots don't think they are multiple versions of the same thing.

Is anyone else out there also suffering from Google "helping its members by fighting spam effectively"?

This Post was written by Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef.

Is Technorati Worth the Trouble for a Food Blog

A while ago I realized that Technorati is not reading the tags I've been inserting into the end of each post. In fact I did some checking around on Technorati and it seems as though they haven't read any of my tags for a very long time (maybe since Blogger switched to new blogger, since it seems in the new Blogger the labels act as a tag. I'm still using an old html template and don't plan to change.) If I click on one of my Technorati tags, it does take me to that tag at Technorati, but none of my posts are there.

I'm noticing a few of my favorite blogs have dropped the Technorati tags and wondered how many food bloggers are still using it. It seems to me it's not a very likely way for people to search for recipes or food content.

Should I just take the tags out of my post template and forget about Technorati?

(BTW, they are indexing my blog because the list of "who links here" always seems fairly up to date.)


This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

Insurance for bloggers?

Discussion about insurance for bloggers has come up within another group I'm associated with, and it got me thinking about food bloggers and if anyone has been required to get liability or errors and omission insurance to take freelance writing jobs. Here is one blog that generated discussion about insurance requirements for bloggers.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/bloggers-need-errors-and-omissions-insurance/

In the same vein, what about adding disclaimer statements on food sites re: food allergies or anything else that might stimulate someone to bring legal action? I'm curious to know if any food bloggers have added such disclaimers or felt the need to get insurance for their own personal blogging.

Here are some other related articles:

Online Publishing Risks Create Need for Libel Insurance

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Legal Guide for Bloggers


This Post was written by Andrea from Andrea's Recipes.

Nutrition Information Template for Blogs

If you are interested in providing nutritional information with a recipe, here is someone who's developed the HTML and CSS for a nutrition label. He's giving it away to anyone who's interested. Someone sent it to me, and I thought it might be a good thing to share here.

XHTML + CSS Template for Nutrition


This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

Getting Banned from Google

Hello all - I was recently banned from Google due to some spam links being hidden in my template without my knowledge. I am using Wordpress, and I upgraded immediately!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the post from my blog with others just in case you have the same problem or you're not even sure where to look - there are some easy steps to check for hidden links and how to submit a reconsideration request!

Getting Banned by Google, and Upgrading WordPress

This Post was written by Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy

Stumbling Efficiently

Hi All,

So I have read quite a bit about engaging in social networks such as Stumbleupon to help promote blogs. I have been stumbling for a bit - just checking out other sites and trying to build a good stumble web page but I haven't done much more than that.
I am not sure if it is good policy to stumble your own posts - and I am not really sure how it works to connect with people on-line. Most of my friends are not on social networks so I am a bit out of the loop.
Any recs and ideas are appreciated!!
Thanks ~ Sue www.feelgoodeats.com