Real Estate Forums

SEOWolf · 07-01-2005, 01:11 PM

I’m sure that many of you are aware of the firestorm recently in other Real Estate Forums.

It started when SEO-Guy (Morgan) at REWM felt that this forum copied his. On closer examination there were 2 Categories on this forum that were identical. Although this was inadvertent I have changed them and would like to apologize to Morgan publicly for my oversight. This was my mistake and not Al’s.

As a result, Morgan has banned Al and myself from REW and deleted all of our post and any back links we have as a result of those post. He has also stated that there may be others treated similarly for participation in this or other forums.

This is or course Morgan’s prerogative.

Until Al and I were locked out of REW we had no idea there was a problem. Had we been notified first, we would have addressed it in a professional manner.

Moran wrote:

Quote:

Not all comments in that post pertain "just" to your forum, there are many out there that have done exactly the same thing.

Thus far, only this Forum has been penalized and sadly enough, other Forum operators have jumped on the bandwagon to avoid the wrath of SEO-Guy.

I have made additional changes to even further separate the look and feel of the two forums in an effort to appease Morgan with no hopes, expectations or desire of being allowed back in REWM.

I am disappointed, but not surprised. Noting a history of this was the main reason for creating this forum. As we all know, deleting back links hurts search engine rankings and Al and I wanted to create an environment where your post, back links and ranking were protected.

We will NOT ban any members for disagreeing with us or marketing their websites or services in other forums. On the contrary. We encourage debate and we also encourage our Members to market themselves and learn in other forums.

This isn’t High School and we won’t ask you to pick sides and penalize you if you don’t fall into our “clique”. We are all adults here and don’t have or want cliques.

As long as a Member conducts themselves professionally and treat other Members in a like fashion they never need to worry about being Banned. In the unlikely event that a Member is banned, their Post and resulting back links will remain unaffected. Deletion of Post is about like getting fired, and the boss taking all you pay checks back. We feel if you put the time and effort in making Post, you should NEVER be penalized by their removal.

We have received PMs from a few members that say they will not be able to participate in this forum any longer. That is unfortunate, but we do understand the pressure you are under. Rest assured your posts are safe here, and you are always welcomed back.

For those that have sought to crucify us in REWM and National, please do your homework. Many of the REWM Forums that was claimed copied were not. The other REWM Forums that were claimed as being copied (i.e. Google, Web Design etc.) exist on numerous forums that well pre-date the existence of REWM. It’s easy enough to do a whois to determine Domain Creation Dates.

While other Forum operators can make any claims they wish and are not bound by the REALTOR® Code of Ethics. As REALTORS® Al and I are bound by these Articles. We have taken great care to abide by The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ® Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. Anyone needing a refresher can CLICK HERE.

If you find anything that is copied on this forum or that is someone else’s intellectual property, PLEASE, post it here. Just be specific and if it is legitimate, we will gladly change it.

My impression of the main target audience for REWM is Real Estate Webmasters. Our main focus has been, and still is, Real Estate Agents and Agencies with web design and SEO as a secondary focal point. Although we have kept Search Engine Optimization on a “SEO 101” basis, Members can get as technical as they wish. This is YOUR Forum. As Al often says “Together Everyone Achieves More”

For those of you that have sent messages of support via PM and email… Thank You!

~VegasMack

neodemes · 07-01-2005, 04:13 PM

Who/what is REWM?

webmaster · 07-01-2005, 04:33 PM

Actually Mack your statement is incorrect. We at REWM did not delete any posts by yourself or Al - see example here http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread1724.html

That is a thread still in tact started by Al. My choice to ban you and Al for starting this forum, and other conduct such as moderator poaching from other forums (By this I mean automatically promoting moderators of other forums and high posters to moderators of this one in hopes that they will be flattered and participate) as you say is my perogative, and it was clearly stated that no member of REWM would be banned or penalized for participating in other real estate forums. You and Al are the admins, and responsible for this forum, hence the ban.

My quote pertaining to the loss of links was

Quote:

All links from all REW clients sites will be taken down as well as they each will lose hundreds of backlinks that they recieved from this forum.

This references the fact that by default when you are banned from a vbulletin forum, you automatically lose the privellege of a signature thus each post you made (Which I believe was in the hundreds) will no longer have that signature attached thus the links contained within are no longer there and you lose the benefit of that privillege. The second part about REW clients is protection for our clients. As we found this forum to be unethical, we certainly do not want our clients linking to it - thus the links were removed. I am sure you would do the same if you found that you had linked your clients to a site that was in your opinion committing an illegal act such as intellectual property theft.

Once again let me state that not a single post of yours or als was deleted from REWM forums.

Now to clarify my intellectual property theft comment. You had knowingly copied categories, forums, structure AND descriptions which I personally wrote and reproduced them on this forum. That is the intellectual property theft issue and why I was upset. Anything I write and personally create, then publish on my website is my intellectual property and automatically protected under both united states and canada federal law from unauthorized reproduction.

Not once did I claim that i owned the rights to calling a forum "web design" or "introduce yourself" those elements fall under the claim of structure

You were not banned for disagreeing with me or any other REWM staff, nor is anyone else, we have very clear rules on our policies regarding membership and none say you must like or agree with what we say.

You are correct that so far, you are the only admins to be banned from REWM for starting up copycat forums - there are several other forums being evaluated for such indescrepancies.

I would like to thank you for the appology and attempts to rectify the situation, however that does nothing to change my official position on what transpired.

I welcome responses

SEOWolf · 07-01-2005, 05:07 PM

First off – Welcome to the Forum Morgan.

I stand corrected. You didn’t remove the Post, only any benefits derived from the post in the way of the back links.

Now, please let me correct you.

You did NOT need to remove the signatures of Al and myself. Vbulletin allows you to retain signatures on Banned Members. You did that strictly to harm.

As for your intellectual property, please be specific. Most of your forum names can be found in many Forums that were up and running YEARS before you created REWM.

I’ve apologized for the 2 Categories that were identical to yours and have changed them.

I have made additional changes to further separate our two forums.

This was done NOT to kowtow or to stroke your ego, but in an effort to appear fair. I am far too old to be bullied or intimidated.

My official position on your official position to remove me from REWM is… it’s OK. Better now than after a few more hundred back links that may have been lost in a moment by a temper tamper.

Please feel free to respond. Specificity would be appreciated.

~VegasMack

STVP · 07-01-2005, 05:07 PM

My thoughts,

REW I feel that your reaction to those responsible for copying your forum structure is valid. You reaction of banning them is your decision and I have no argument regarding it. However casting threats to those who are members and or moderate the forum was uncalled for. Did you notice that people were scrambling to let you know that they were canceling there involvment in fear of loosing there links. When I signed up at PREW i had no knowledge of the copying that had taken place. I mean with that said are we as members supposed to look threw the millions of sites to make sure that there aren't similarities before signing up. I dont know about you guys but I dont have the time for that. REW I understand your view, I hope you see mine. No need to flex muscle's and threat those who have done nothing wrong and who were just networking like anyone and everyone that participates in forums. So lets all crack a cold beer and enjoy.

Thanks

Josh (aka) spicoli - stvp

STVP Vote for your favorite real estate forum

neodemes · 07-01-2005, 05:13 PM

OK, now I know who it is.

I can't comment on what was/wasn't copied. Never compared the two sites.

If it were me and I were all that concerned that the descriptions and site format were intentionally copied, I might contact the site owner and request some changes.

If the changes were complied with, that would be that.

Making a point of putting 'banned' under the usernames because someone invited members to visit/moderate at another forum...

Get over it. Life's too short.

Quiz: What were the greatest word's ever spoken?