kjfitz
12/20/06 07:52 PM
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(You should see the German site that ripped off the entire VGT (GGT at the time) database.)
It is all a by-product of an automated process run by someone trying to increase the page rank of the commercial links on those pages (discount bedding, etc.)
I don't think someone is ripping us off by design. Poking around those sites it is pretty clear that they are gathering random data from the web to populate their fake sites. The sites get spidered by Google and the legit data helps the page pass the algorithms that Google uses to filter out these types of sites. Then the links on the page to the advertising sites get promoted in credibility and the advertising sites get better page ranks.
Unfortunately it is a scam that there is very little we can do anything about.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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kjfitz
12/20/06 08:01 PM
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Here's the German site:
http://www.aliensview.de/index.php?option=com_detail&Itemid=1005&id=5916
Note they ripped off everything down to the descriptions that mention the "More Info" link that they don't even have. 
Best as I can tell that site's data and stats have never changed. It may be a false front for some other activity or community or it may be an email harvesting engine. It is an awfully elaborate scam site though. They used our RSS feed right after it was established to suck down pretty much the whole database.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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nic
12/20/06 08:37 PM
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Yeah aliensview.de is a really strange site. They went through all the trouble of copying our data and displaying it on their site, but haven't updated it since Sep 2005. I sent them a 'please dont' do this' message, and never got a response.
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kjfitz
12/21/06 03:38 PM
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This seems to be the onwer of alienview's site:
http://www.michael-kreil.de/
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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