OK, sorry, but I'm mad like hell right now. I casually typed "offbeat ya" on Google, just to see what would pop out after nearly a year of blogging under that very name...and my jaw dropped when I saw this:
My first thought was "What, someone named their blog Offbeat YA too?" (not on Blogger, of course...), which was a scary thought, up to a point. But what I saw after clicking on the above link scared me even more:
IT WAS ME ON BLOGLOVIN'. Only, I never signed up on there. And never even meant to either.
It was me on Bloglovin'...complete with a trail of 18 followers I didn't have a clue about.
While you wrap your mind around this paradox, let's step back for a moment. Surely you all remember the turmoil caused a few weeks ago by the supposed death of GFC. While NO ONE had EVER mentioned that GFC was supposed to go (actually, that would be Google Reader), a worldwide panic spread over. Coincidentally - but not by chance, if you ask me, because I think they rode the wave and started a campaign taking advantage of that very situation - there was plenty of talking about Bloglovin' those days, and suddenly everyone was setting up an account just in case. Bloglovin' wasn't by any means the only blog aggregator available...but it was pretty much the one in the spotlight - the one every blogger was signing up for. Being my usual not-happy-to-go-with-the-flow self (and I don't mean offense to anyone), I decided to investigate every possible way in which a blog could be followed, not because I was afraid of GFC disappearing, but simply because I wanted to offer more options to my would-be readers. In doing so, I read about Bloglovin' causing blogs to open in a frame instead that directly linking to them - like this:
 |
| PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't look at the banner where "reviewed" has been spelled out wrong for ages without me noticing *facepalms* |
You have to click on the X in the upper right corner in order to be redirected to the actual blog address:
Now, this sounded so fishy, it was the actual reason why I decided to stay well away from Bloglovin'. It was not a number-of-hits matter to me...just instinctive distrust of the method. Also, I couldn't wrap my mind around the "claim" issue. Because - in case you don't know - even if you have registered an account, Bloglovin' requires you to "claim" your blog after doing so. Which is ridiculous, to say the least. It IS my blog already. I don't need to validate my blog property anywhere. NO SERVICE WHATSOEVER ASKS YOU TO "CLAIM" ANYTHING YOU CREATED ON THE WEB! (...On second thoughts, there's Technorati - but at least they wait for you to actually register before they ask you to do that!).
So I went on happily ever after, with GFC (that didn't die on July 1st of course), email subscriptions and a Linky account as following options (update, July 2017: I deleted the latter because it wasn't a thing anymore, if it ever had been...). Till I typed "offbeat ya" on Google, and the third search result was my blog on Bloglovin'. Which of course called for some action. [...]
So, after the initial shock, I set to investigate the matter further. Apparently (read the boxed line below)...
Yes, that much was already clear, thank you. Unfortunately.
Now, I wondered if the blog could be deleted from their list...and of course not:
A service, right.
Last time I checked, I needed to give my consent for someone to feature my content on their site. A public RSS only means that people can read such content, not that they can frame it somewhere else for their own purposes. Last time I checked, I needed to register (OF MY OWN FREE WILL) in order to benefit of any kind of service. Also, you're kidding me, right? Of course I have to allow RSS, or my blog would be totally private, and no one would be able to find my posts...
Furthermore, there's the aforementioned "claim" issue. Because while your blog is automatically featured on Bloglovin', you are not only induced to set up an account, but after that, you have to "claim" your blog by publishing a piece of code on a post "as a proof that you own the blog".
Which basically sounds like someone kidnapped your blog and now you have to ransom it.
This is what they say...
How considerate.
The naked truth? They're tricking you into fearing that, if you don't set up a Bloglovin' account and don't "claim" you blog, someone else might do that and mess with it. Which is not true of course, because a) who would "claim" someone else's blog? for what purpose? and b) even if they did, they could only mess with the account they created, not with your legitimate blog - to which you hold the virtual keys. And even in case someone else "claimed" your blog...it's the folks at Bloglovin' who created the disease they're "selling" you the cure for.
So, to end this rant. To those who are following me on Bloglovin', in total innocence and good faith...some of them are even GFC friends or followers too...please unfollow me on there! To everyone else...want to stay updated with my posts? Use GFC. Use email subscription. Use Linky. Bookmark my page. Or don't even follow me at all - I don't care. But I want NOTHING to do with Bloglovin'. I'd rather close my blog than sign up with them. I REFUSE to grant them legitimacy - and more power. And speaking of law - I'm sure there's a legislative void somewhere, for them to be able to "collect" our blogs...and I hope such void will be filled soon. In the meantime - PLEASE DON'T FOLLOW ME VIA BLOGLOVIN'...and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD (about this post, that is). Thank you so much! ♥
Update, March 2014: I found a code that can bypass the frame, with a redirect to your own blog. But - Update, July 2017: I also found out that the above code was messing up with Blogger's HTML, so I removed it.
So, to end this rant. To those who are following me on Bloglovin', in total innocence and good faith...some of them are even GFC friends or followers too...please unfollow me on there! To everyone else...want to stay updated with my posts? Use GFC. Use email subscription. Use Linky. Bookmark my page. Or don't even follow me at all - I don't care. But I want NOTHING to do with Bloglovin'. I'd rather close my blog than sign up with them. I REFUSE to grant them legitimacy - and more power. And speaking of law - I'm sure there's a legislative void somewhere, for them to be able to "collect" our blogs...and I hope such void will be filled soon. In the meantime - PLEASE DON'T FOLLOW ME VIA BLOGLOVIN'...and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD (about this post, that is). Thank you so much! ♥
Update, March 2014: I found a code that can bypass the frame, with a redirect to your own blog. But - Update, July 2017: I also found out that the above code was messing up with Blogger's HTML, so I removed it.
Update, March 2017: read what Nosegraze and These Paper Sites have to say about Bloglovin's evil ways. They're actually stealing posts now, plus messing with comments (see the first link) and email subscriptions (see the second).
I am lost for words. It is just weird :/
ReplyDeleteYes...it is :/
DeleteI have a bloglovin, and I've been pretty happy with it, but that's pretty shady of them to put up your blog without your permission. Definitely not cool. :(
ReplyDeleteMary @ Mary Had a Little Book Blog
That's it, exactly...because they should work with people who sign up voluntarily, like anybody else on the web...
DeleteI use Bloglovin, but unfollowed you as requested. I understand some of your issues with the site but here's a post that might clear up some of your problems (except the framing aspect):
ReplyDeletehttp://sheposts.com/content/bloglovin-not-blogscrapin
Hi Kate,
Deletethanks for unfollowing me (sounds weird, uh? LOL) and for the link...I read the post, but it didn't change the main issue I have with BL - the fact that I didn't choose to join them. The fact that, basically, they're putting me (and anyone like me) in a position where I should join them, willing or not, just because...( I'm quoting from the above article)..."If you claim your own blog within the bloglovin’ environment, you are able to manipulate how it appears in people’s “reader.” What if I don't? There's a screencap in the article you gave me the link to, where we see how an individual BL page looks when one is logged in. It says: "Claim your blog and change your thumbnail, name, category and description freely". Theoretically, one could "claim" another person's blog (I don't think the folks at BL check on these things, and I don't even have a clue how this "claim" thing really works...) and change all this stuff, so that those who follow that blog on BL would see things that aren't meant to be there...Not that I think that someone would go out of their way to do such a thing, but you never know. The folks at BL count on this fear, if you ask me. They're making your blog (well, a version of it) potentially vulnerable, so that you feel compelled to join them and protect your contents (or a virtual vessel of them). The funny thing is, this doesn't seem to enrage people. Now, it did enrage me. We all know nothing comes really free on the net - everyone preys on you someway or another - but at least I get to choose whom I'm "selling" myself to. I have at least the right to freely decide where to sign up for an account. BL took that right from me. And I'm enraged.
I think to claim the blog, you have to physically post a certain link from Bloglovin on your blog. That way, the only way for someone to claim your blog would be if they hacked your blog.
DeleteBut I understand why you don't like them.
Yes, that seems to be the way...which makes them all the more annoying, because I have to put a certain code of theirs on my page...
DeleteOh, well, I'm a grumpy old lady ;).
I don't even know the legal terms regarding this, but anyone with common sense would notice that something is at least somewhat wrong with what Bloglovin' is doing. I'm sorry you had to go through this. Have contacted Bloglovin' regarding this?
ReplyDeleteI'll make sure to follow you via email (:
No, to date I haven't contacted them...I know they don't even take into account deletion requests. But I plan on writing them at some point, just to vent out a little, you know...basically, I plan on being a little pain in the ass ;). But this can wait for better times...I need to do some more research on the subject!
DeleteSince you're already following me via GFC, it's OK. Thank you!
Also, I think this automatically happens when someone connects their google account with bloglovin'; all the blogs you followed on GFC, would be transferred to bloglovin'. I'm not sure how they do that, but it seems suspicious...
ReplyDeleteSame situation here. I asked them by e-mail to take my blog out but they didn't do it.
DeleteI don't visit them and feel completely disrespected to say the least.
@ Summer: apparently, it does work that way, and someone may find this little trick useful...which probably is. Still, yes, suspicious...
Delete@ Ana: that's how I feel as well. And when I went on your blog and discovered they've been doing this for at least 3 years and a half - since they only were an aggregator for fashion blogs, not for all kinds - I was gobsmacked. Maybe we who don't like this should raise our voices...but I suspect we are a sheer minority, what with almost every blogger using the "service" in some way :(.
WOW! I just saw your GR message and unfollowed you. I can't believe how disrespectful that is...and shady. I'm on there, but I thought it was really weird that I had to claim my blog that was already on there with followers. Like a commenter above said, they automatically put follows there when you switch. It's weird. Thanks for the notice!
ReplyDeleteShady is definitely the word :(. Thank you!
DeleteThanks, this is about the only reference I could find to Bloglovin' that wasn't all "Here's how to whore yourself out on Bloglovin'!"
ReplyDeleteEven Livejournal removed their clone of my blog when I asked them to!
I'm going to try citing some relevant sections of their terms of service to explain that somebody submitted content that was not their own (i.e. mine!) and that this is a violation if intellectual property.
It is fairly clear from their Terms of Service that if I were to set up a user account they would claim that I gave them "non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable , fully-sublicensable license to publish and use your Content" even though I didn't 'submit it' to their service but rather to another service (blogger) which they stole. Therefore their suggestion to 'claim' my blog is a trap to permit them to continue violating my intellectual property.
Also, when you click on an individual post, it's clear that they're not simply syndicating the content: they're reproducing the entire blog as it appears on your blog. My blog's background, comments, etc., are not part of the RSS feed. Little buggers.
- RG>
Thank you for contributing to collecting info about Bloglovin' on this page! After reading your post, I went on their site and looked for a link to the whole TOS article, which is very conveniently semi-hidden in the lower section of the main page, not to mention written in very small fonts, so you have to dig deep in order to find it. Here is the link:
Deletehttp://help.bloglovin.com/tos
And here is the whole paragraph about their rights to our blogs (3b, a.k.a. Users Conduct and Submissions):
You give the party (the “Account Holder”) who owns the domain name as hosted on the Service in which you post your Content (the “Hosted Area”) a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable , fully-sublicensable license to publish and use your Content. In addition to the right to publish, you also grant the Account Holder under said license the following rights, without limitation: (i) the right to reproduce or copy or create derivative works thereof; (ii) the right to transfer, deliver, and sell the Content, which includes the distribution via computer and networks; (iii) the right to edit, modify, adapt, arrange, improve, correct, develop, translate, in all or in part; (iv) the right to update/upgrade by adding or removing; (v) the right to film, perform or post the Content in any media, and (vi) the right to use or incorporate all or any part of the Content in any products or services of the Account Holder (whether or not associated with the Service). Except as described in our Privacy Policy, neither the Company nor any Account Holder will be required to treat any Content as confidential. By posting Content you hereby waive any and all rights to be compensated by UserVoice or any Account Holder for such Content.
Problem is, this is not only the Bloglovin' version of TOS. Google - on which our blogs are based - has pretty much the same content:
When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.
It's true that they add...
The rights that you grant in this licence are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.
...and Bloglovin' TOS sound more "aggressive" on the whole. Anyway, the main - and most significant - difference still is, I agreed on Google TOS when I signed up for an account, while I didn't choose to be featured on BL - though the rights they advocate in the paragraph above should reasonably apply only to those who have registered a BL account. Still, we are lured into a trap, as you said, in that they feature our blogs before we agree to that, and then try to coax us into setting up a BL account in order to "protect" our contents - while we're ultimately handing them the keys to said blogs.
This is an unusual situation. I've unfollowed you via bloglovin under your request. I love your blog, you take the time to review books that aren't on other blogs. How many times will I see the same popular book reviewed on hundreds of different blogs?Your's is refreshing. Keep it up, don't let this bloglovin mishap worry you :)
ReplyDeleteAww! Thank you!
DeleteBloglovin is the worst. Their TOU are just freaking insane. For what is worth, I've never used it, and never will.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not alone!
DeleteThank you for commenting :).
I may be a little late to this post, but I just found my blog on the bloglovin site as well. I cannot believe that they literally have my entire blog on their site. This is shady for sure.
ReplyDeleteNo worries about being late...unfortunately, this issue doesn't grow old as time goes by :(. And thank you for commenting!
DeleteNot being snarky - just wanted to point out:
ReplyDeleteActually several sites have you "claim" ownership of your blog, including facebook, G+ Pages, networked blogs, and the huge ones like Alexa. (which if you haven't claimed your blog on Alexa yet, you really should) Its just how they verify you own it so I cant go in and say I own your blog and control the settings etc.
They didn't add your blog, someone who uses their service and wanted to follow your blog through their reader did. Thats how most blogs get listed initially. Thats why its already list but you still have to claim it. Someone said "Hey I want to follow this blog" they added it to their list, so its in the directory - but it has no owner ON THEIR DIRECTORY because the owner hasn't claimed it yet. There's nothing hokey about it. It really is a nice service for its users, because it allows them to not miss posts from their favorite blogs, just like any other RSS reader (feedburner, etc). I much prefer bloglovin over getting individual emails from every blog I like. Emails are just too much.
As for your whole blog being on their site, its not. As you stated, Its displaying in a "frame". The top bar is their site - where you see your site is still YOUR SITE, its just displaying in a frame. You still get the hits and its still pulling your bandwidth- just they are also getting a hit on their frame since their service was used to bring the viewer to your site. Same way Networked Blogs works on FB, etc. they are just framing it. You can even see your blogger bar is still showing. Trust me, they would not be cloning blogger without a huge lawsuit FROM BLOGSPOT/AOL/Google (whoever owns that now).
Im not trying to sway you or anything, I just wanted to chime in.
Bunny, don't worry, I see you're not trying to be snarky :). And I can see that BL allows you to follow blogs easily. But I do have a problem with how these things work. Because while one can actually choose to have a page (and be featured) on FB or G+ or anywhere else - or one can stay away from those places - BL leaves you no choice in the matter. And It's just wrong that they put your page in the position of being vulnerable somehow (though I don't think one can do much with it only by claiming it on BL). I understand they're not actually cloning blogs, but they're messing with them anyway, up to a point. And - maybe I'm going to sound melodramatic here, but I'll risk it - with your free will too. I just want to have a choice - to be featured or not. Having said this, I'm glad you have chimed in. If you like BL, it's totally OK :).
DeleteI just found your post because I was looking up something to trouble shoot why a particular blog I am following on BL is not notifying me when he posts new content.
DeleteI just want to chime in (I know this post is old) to say, if you have a public blog why do you care that BL which is a free tool to read blogs with aggregates your content for your readers? Do you not want people to read your blog? I just totally dumbfounded why you have a problem with this if you have a public blog for anyone to find in google. I'm missing a point or you are missing the purpose of BL, feedly etc. Thanks to clarify for me. ;-)
Hi,
DeleteI can see why you, and people in general, find it odd that I don't like BL. But, like I said in my post and repeated in the comments, it's their attitude that I don't like. They set up a tool and ask you to use it, implying that your site can be claimed by someone else if you don't claim it yourself. The way they act, sounds like a hard sell to me. I want to have a choice in the matter - to join what I like. I joined Google because I chose to - that's why I have a Google profile. On the other hand, I don't have a Google + profile. It's all about choices to me. I don't like someone or something that virtually forces me (or subtly draws me) to do something. That's why I don't like BL :).
Hi Roberta. I totally understand where you are coming from. I just went through this while RSS issue with FeedSpot which is even WORSE than BlogLovin because they're default setting is to COPY (yes copy) your content and paste it on to a white background with THEIR ads on it. Sure people can go to your site if they find the link, but why bother when it's right in front of them?
DeleteI re-set my RSS feeder settings to only show on Feeds until the page break and that's helped with Feedspt, but ONLY with any new posts, any of the hundreds of posts I published before I changed the settings are fair game and FeedSpot has those in their database now, but I don't mind having an intro visible to my Feedspot followers, its like an ad for each post.
BlogLovin is really throwing me for a loop though. At least they SHOW my actual website which is a refreshing change from Feedspot, but I would LOVE the code to remove the frame as the default setting if you have it. I searched Ernesto's website for about half an hour, but i'm looking for a smidge of code which was from probably hundreds of posts ago and honestly, the Italian is making the coding look understandable to me. :(
Even if you can't send me the code itself, maybe you could send me a link to the specific post that contains that code? I would be eternally grateful for any help! Thanks Roberta, I appreciate it!
soundlysensiblebeauty@gmail.com
Hi! Well, I didn't know about FeedSpot - it sounds ugly as hell. Also, even if you set your RSS to only show feeds until the page break, there are ways around it as well...Someone should put an end to it.
DeleteI sent you an email :).
Hi, Roberta! I, too, tried to search for the code on his site but to ni avail.. (I speak Spanish, but unfortunately that didn't help :).) Would you mind sending it to me, too? (Hope this doesn't come tooooo late!)
DeleteI sent you an email :).
DeleteHello Roberta, I found your post while trying to find out if I could remove my crochet blog from BL, having just discovered that it was on there. I had already stopped blogging because so many of my photos, both from the crochet blog and another one, were turning up on Pinterest. I was trying to work out how I could post without the photos or the blog post being pinned. Now I find that the entire blog is available through BL. I have a hard time explaining to Pinterest addicts why it is so wrong and can see that I will go through the same thing with BL. I found the advice given by Katherine Tyrrell on her Making a Mark blog very helpful when it came to having my images removed from Pinterest, basically I asked them for money. http://makingamark.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/how-pinterest-removed-all-my-pinned.html
ReplyDeleteI have messaged BL with the similar approach. I have yet to ask Wordpress about the issue but they were no help with Pinterest. I understand your feelings about this completely. Intellectual property theft leaves me grinding my teeth. I had the opportunity to ask Randy Zuckerberg how I should deal with intellectual property theft and she suggested watermarks! Of course she and her brother aren't going to want us to stop "sharing", that's how they made their millions. I suspect your blog and mine are also part of someone's plan. Thank you for raising this issue and I hope we both get the result we want..
Hello Albertina, and thank you for your contribution! I understand how you feel about Pinterest of course - but alas, in this day and age, it's become really difficult to share what we do (or think) without being "featured" here and there. Watermarks - really. Like the Zuckerbergs don't have a clue about those programs that can get rid of them...
DeleteOn the other hand, I think BL and P are two different matters. While Pinterest can actually steal something you made without giving you due credit, Bloglovin' simply "frames" your contents, and everyone still can see they're yours. So, while messaging P the way the above article suggests may be a successful move, I don't think it could work with BL. It's not like, for example, they're taking a post of mine away from my blog and severing my property link to it. This can be done with a pic on Pinterest though, if someone is so inclined. I think what BL does is much more sneaky and subtle, so it's basically hard to counter it with the property theft reasoning.
Anyhow, I saw Tyrrell also wrote a post about preventing Pinterest from using Blogger images (see here), and I will incorporate the code in my blog. It might be useful, even though I have very little graphics of mine on the blog at this stage (and of course, the ones I use but didn't actually make myself are credited!).
Thank you, and please keep us posted about the BL controversy! I hope you succeed :).
Just to update you, I received a reply shortly after contacting them to say that my blog had been removed. I am going to ask for confirmation that this does mean removed and not "hidden". As far as I'm concerned "framing" it is just another way of using it without my consent.
ReplyDeleteThat's great news! May I ask what you wrote in your email to them? Did you use Tyrrell's email specimen?
DeleteInspired by it: "I do not know why my blog is on your site. I have never been asked for permission for my work to be used in this way and would not have allowed you to do so. Please note that my images and words are protected by copyright. IF YOU DO NOT REMOVE MY BLOG FROM YOUR SITE I WILL BEGIN TO CALCULATE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU OWE ME FOR UNAUTHORISED USE OF MY WORK."
ReplyDeleteI see...you have copyright protection...that's why it worked. It's great that it did, but one needs to be able to afford copyright protection first.
DeleteRoberta, one has "copyright protection" in the same sense that one has "free speech protection"; you don't need to purchase it to have it, you just have it.
DeleteIt has been many decades since one has had to register one's works in order to enjoy the protection of copyright. It is now enjoyed universally by all but those who explicitly relinquish it (i.e. by releasing something into the public domain or creative commons, such as on Wikipedia).
I'm simplifying the concepts a bit, but I think I get my point across.
Also, you don't need a lawyer to send a cease & desist letter, as Albertina's case shows. (Though it sometimes helps)
- RG>
Thank you for clarifying! Well, thanks to both of you :). Really helpful. I'm going to take action then.
DeleteI've found that the words "I will be taking legal advice" can have a profound effect on some people. It is worth contacting the government department that deals with intellectual property in your country to find out more (for the UK: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/)
ReplyDeleteCopyright for an image or text in the UK lasts throughout the lifetime of its creator and for seventy years after their death to the benefit of their estate. If the item is republished it is extended for another period of (I think) 25 years. You have the right to say how your IP is used, for instance I state clearly on my blogs that my images cannot be reproduced without permission and provide a contact email. I would be upset to find that an image had been copied and used, even if my name was next to it or a link to the source as I do not know in what context the image is being used. I spent hours in all weathers and in various states of health to take photos of my area every day for a year. It cost me time, money and quite a lot of patience so I don't want to see others gain from it without any effort!
Watch out if your site is being crawled by Internet Archive as they allow others to use your content in anyway they want to. I had to ask them to stop doing it via a forum which is crawling with trolls who think everything should be shared and haven't a single original idea of their own.
Good luck with it.
Thanks for the tips! It looks like I'm safe from the Internet Archive...for now :).
DeleteFollowed via GFC, since you don't support Bloglovin' - and I certainly want to respect your wishes.
ReplyDeleteI personally use Bloglovin' to stay up to date on blogs that I like to follow, just cause I find it convenient, but can see that you raise good points as well. :)
Thank you! I hope I didn't inconvenience you too much... :)
DeleteI stumbled on here while trying to find a solution to issues with my RSS feed and Bloglovin'. I realize this is an old post now, but I felt compelled to let you know how Bloglovin' works. They don't just add your blog for giggles, it had to have been one of your followers. You go onto Bloglovin' and search for you favorite blog, even if that blog does not have a Bloglovin' account, Bloglovin' will scour the web and detect the address. Then the person who searched for your blog is given the choice to follow it via Bloglovin'. So really, the only people you should be crossed with is your fans for putting you on there, but why bother? It's just another place for people to follow you, it doesn't do tricky or schemey things to your blog. Other people cannot claim your website because, like Pinterest, you need to insert a validation code into your blogs code (they refer to it as "claim") which makes it so no one can pose as owner of your blog or website. It's just like a fancy search engine that gives blog updates. It doesn't do crap all to your blog, so why be so bothered about it if it only helps you gain readers? I mean really, it's your readers' choice to follow you that way, it's about the same as adding your blog to their browser's bookmarks.
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteI understand where you're coming from of course. But I have a problem with shady things...or things that are forced upon me. Usually, the owner of a blog decides if she/he wants to join a place or not. With Bloglovin' they take that away from you. And they basically lead you to believe your blog can be messed with if you don't claim it. It may not be the case, but they count on your fear, so you end up registering an account because of that. Also, the reason why my blog is on BL is not a fan thing - not really. I was told that, when someone connects their Google account with BL, all the blogs they already followed on GFC would be automatically transferred to BL. So it probably started as a duplicate thing for those who were already following me via another option. It's not like someone decided to follow me on BL in the first place...
Also, I don't like that they frame my contents for their purposes. And this is not what a regular feed does. To top it all, I have three following options set up - GFC, email and Feedburner. I can see that some people like BL and find it convenient, but it's not like I didn't give my would-be followers enough chances...For instance, I prefer GFC, and some of the blogs I am interested in following don't use it anymore. In that case, I don't complain to the owners about that or change my mind...I simply use the options they set up. I hope those who are interested in following me can do the same without me inconveniencing them too much :).
Lol! That is funny! I am on Bloglovin and they have a few bugs that annoy me. If this happened to me I would be fuming. ~ it made me laugh though ~ sorry ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove
M+B
Don't worry, you can laugh! ;)
DeleteHave just found mine on there, and your post. I'm not laughing either.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I can't find the post with the code (and would it work on wordpress?). I've written to them...we'll see what happens. If nothing, I'll just have to delete my blog I guess.
I don't know if the code would work on WP...but if you message me (see the box called "Ask The Librarian") I can send it to you. I prefer not to post it here out of respect for the author.
DeleteI've been talking to a BL "higher power" lately. Will wrote a new blog post when I have more info. But don't you delete your blog over this BL issue! It would be a real pity.
I've found mine on there as well and sent them an email stating I did not give them permission to publish my work. I came here via a link from another blogger (bodhiattvaintraining) who is also very cranky about it.
ReplyDeleteI've been talking to a BL personality lately (he actually contacted me and tried to persuade me BL wasn't evil LOL), and he doesn't seem to get that I don't want to be featured on his site. I've just sent him a new, fed up email - let's see what happens. Needless to say, there will be another blog post about his clique when I'm finished ;).
DeleteI totally agree with you that they shouldn't be able to hijack your blog, but here's some things I've noticed about the site (I use it because people seem to like it, and I am a slave to my followers ;))-
ReplyDeleteI was looking up someone else's blog, and this came up:
"Can't find the blog?
Try searching for the blog's address (e.g. www.fashiontoast.com)
Still can't find it? Add the blog to Bloglovin!"
You could have been added by a well-meaning follower. (Which still shouldn't be able to happen, but just saying).
Also, about the hideous Bloglovin' page-within-a-page to view your blog? As a member of the site, you can opt out of that ugly thing.
I still agree entirely that they shouldn't have hijacked your blog, but I use it to follow blogs and gain more followers, as I am a small fry blogger. I will definitely NEVER follow your blog there, as I'm now educated on their heinous ways.
~Litha
I think my blog ended up on BL because of the frenzy caused by the supposed removal of GFC. Back then, people started using BL like mad all of a sudden, and they were importing all their followed blogs - mine included...
DeleteMy problem with BL is that they basically force their...how can I call it...platform? on you. You find your blog up there without even signing up. They seem to imply your blog is at risk if you don't sign up, claim the blog etc. I didn't know that one could get rid of the page-within-a-page view (thanks for the info), but again, one has to be a member to opt out of that. Basically, they trick you into signing up. That's the part I don't like...
Now, I've had a long and tedious email exchange with a BL personality lately, and I finally managed to have my blog hidden (if not removed) from their list. I'll write a blog post about it when I have time...but I already know for sure it will be fun LOL.
Thank you for contributing to this conversation :).
Well, like what litha said, someone could have added you in bloglovin so he/she can follow your blog easily. I understand your stand about others imposing their will on you or hijacking what you have.
DeleteWell, one of the perks of bloglovin is that when someone views your page through it, that view reflects on your page, not theirs. I see this as an advantage because I also think of the way I sift for something to read. I'd usually look at the posts listed on my blogger reading list which isn't good because I couldn't see blogs from other platforms. But on bloglovin, you can see all the lists of posts from blogs you follow. Clicking is very easy.
After I bought my domain name, I was surprised why my pageviews drastically increased. As it turns out, my blog was twice listed on bloglovin. One for my blogger name and another for my domain. I sent a request via their contact support, asked them to transfer my followers from my blogger name to my domain name and if there's any way they could delete the former. And they did!
I see your point Zirev. And I'm sure BL can offer many useful features to those who decide to join. It's just that I think one should retain the power to choose...and that's what BL takes away from you...
DeleteI don't mean to offend or upset you, but you really seem to misunderstand what Bloglovin does. It does not steal or publish your blog, it simply operates as a directory, linking to your posts so that followers can easily follow several blogs. The frame is there so you can easily cycle through blog posts, return to Bloglovin, or bookmark a favourite post without much effort, and it is easy to close the frame if you need the link to a blog post. There is no copyright or theft issue as literally all they are doing is linking to your blog. Bloglovin takes absolutely nothing from you.
ReplyDeleteNo offense taken :). I understand what you mean...but again, what I don't like is that they virtually force you to become a member - and I want to choose...
DeleteActually bloglovin does steal blog content. If a wordpress site is setup for only subscribed users to access bloglovin bypasses this and makes the content freely available. This is content scraping at its worst. Hopefully Google will catch on to this.
DeleteThis is so wrong O_O. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI recently and hastily added my tiny little blog to bloglovin. I regretted it as soon as I did, as I want to make an array of changes to my blog. BUT, as you know, they will now not let me delete my account with them!!! I am so furious about this! I am not 100% happy with my content yet, although Im getting there thus I wanted to make my changes in my time. Bloglovin doesn't care. I may even want to start a completely different blog and possibly share it there but my current one will be there no matter what. Its infuriating. Its MY CONTENT, why cant I NOT use it how I WANT?!
ReplyDeleteKathy, after a tedious email exchange with a BL power-that-be, I was indeed able to have my blog hidden (at least)...not removed...but it's still something. It took a lot of emails though. The guy contacted me after reading this post, and tried to convince me that BL was the next best thing, but I was so adamant he had to give in in the end. I will write a post about it in the near future, maybe it can help :). Stay tuned...and thanks for commenting!
DeleteOh...and for following! :D
DeleteThe link to the code just takes me to the main page. Is there a direct link to the post with the code? Or a date it was posted on? I can probably find it by the date too. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI sent you the code :).
DeleteBL goes farther than what is talked about here. I have a website with 1400 pages. It has a blog as part of it. My whole site is found on BL. I found this out by doing a Google search for a specific phrase on my site and found that BL was listed is the search results, showing my page. Then, when I clicked on the links on that phoney site, they went to my other pages but still with the BL junk showing.
ReplyDeleteCould you send me the link to the code, please? Thanks.
I sent you an email :).
DeleteHi there!
ReplyDeleteSo I stumbled onto your blog after I typed into google how did my blog end up on bloglovin, after I too discovered that my blog was been shown through that site. I'm pissed much like you were after your discovery. I understand that this is an old post, but has anyone had any luck contacting Bloglovin requesting a removal of their content?
Hi Isidorus,
Deletethe BL team state they can't remove blogs (I don't know if this statement is accurate, but still)...but if you perseverate, you may at least have your blog "hidden" - that is, it won't appear on BL even if it's virtually still there. I managed to obtain that, after a long and tedious email exchange...and I know of other people who were able to have their blog hidden too. Good luck!
Hi Roberta, salutami bella Italia. ;) I stumbled over your blog and in particular this post - like so many others - because of the trouble with that bloglovin site/company. I have currently the same problem you had. Thank you so much for your detailed information (although the post is dating back to August, 2013 it is still an issue in 2015. To get my blog removed I sent an email to Johan@bloglovin.com and support@bloglovin.com. Both email addresses are obtained by their public facebook account. And I sent the same message via facebook. Maybe that helps. And maybe those email adresses help others with the same problem. Kind regards. janedoemuc
ReplyDeleteHi,
Deletethank you for contributing to the topic (and "bella Italia" says thanks as well!). Though BL doesn't remove blogs - merely "hides" them - at least one has a way out. As a matter of fact, I managed to have mine "hidden" months ago...but I've been too lazy to write a post about that LOL. In my case, it was a convo with one of the BL founders that worked its magic. He emailed me after reading this post, and after unsuccessfully trying to convince me to like BL, he finally surrended and hid my blog...
Thank you again and happy blogging!
Hello Roberta,
ReplyDeleteTwo weeks ago I found your blog post after stumbling upon my blog on Bloglovin. I had no idea it was on there and why. My first reaction was 'WTF?' After some clicking and trying to find out what BL was, I noticed the 'claim it' text in the top corner. I was furious. Why should I have to claim something which I never lost and was always mine to begin with (when you insert some bad language in here it comes closer to my actual reaction). All in all, my reaction was similar to yours.
Reading your post and the comments was very enlightening for me. I completely agree with you on the issues of choice and free will. I do not want to become a member and hand over some of the rights to my content.
I spend a lot of time on the layout and content of my blog and hate that it gets eaten (as you so perfectly described it) by this website. Although I can't click on a post anymore without subscribing to BL, which I won't, I seem to remember that the first posts I clicked on had the BL www in the address line which to me means they have stolen my content.
After reading about your followers on BL I went back to my own blog on BL and found to my astonishment that I have 261 followers on there. 261! I have some 1300 followers on my blog, but this means I have a few hundred more. Or are they the same ones who just have different ways of following me? I don't know. Now I don't make any money from my blog, so in that respect it doesn't matter whether I have 1 or 10.000 followers, but it occurred to me that if I would make an income from my blog (and who knows, in future I may) it could mean I am missing out on income from ads or whatever I may be using. I don't know if that is true or not but it annoys me that things become so complicated.
I found that if a blog has its photos blocked from pinning or right clicking, on Bloglovin you can pin the same photos to your heart's content. I know there are always ways to bypass 'no pinning or right clicking', but I think it is so wrong that Bloglovin has such a disregard for the blog owner's wishes. This of course is on top of the fact that they should not have the right to show an entire blog within their frames without the consent of the blog owner.
Since I found my blog on BL I have done some more searching and found my blog on Got-Blogger, another RSS feed reader. My blog's entire content against a white background with a different layout and of course a different web address. Got-Blogger does have an easy RSS feed removal option on there website, which I will be making use of soon.
I will be writing a blog post on these issues soon to ask my readers what they think of all this and to ask them to follow me another way. I would like to include a link to your blog post if that is OK with you (I have to ask of course ;-) ).
Thank you for your informative post!
Kind regards, Josje
Thank you for your thorough comment! Oh gosh, I didn't know about Got-Blogger. Again, one has to set up an account in order to remove one's feeds. SO. WRONG. And their redirect pages even have advertisements! When will the RSS feed world get some regulation? Never, I guess.
DeleteOf course, I'll be honoured to get a mention in your blog post! And I'm looking forward to reading it. Please let me know when it's up!
Thanks Roberta. Yes those ads! Full page, just terrible. I will let you know when I post the blog.
DeleteBloglovin doesn't add your blog to their system themselves. It was an actual person who wanted to have you in their Bloglovin feed since some people do rely on it as their reader -- then your other Bloglovin followers must have caught on as well. But I understand your concern... Maybe they should figure out another way that readers can have you in their Bloglovin feed without creating a page for you.
ReplyDeleteThough, I must agree that I hate their frames system too. Users can have the annoying frames turned off though. It's pointless and should just be abolished, haha.
I have gotten Bloglovin to wipe off all my entries on their website before, so I wouldn't be surprised if they agreed to remove your entire blog account as well!
Hi! Glad you managed to get BL to wipe off your entries. They're a little slow accomplishing one's request LOL. As for my account, they said it couldn't be removed, by I managed to have it hidden.
DeleteThank you for commenting!
Yeah, I agree. They're SLOW, haha.
DeleteThere is an old trick used by people who have had problems like this before. Since your posts go directly to BL this gives you the opportunity to speak directly to and about them and their stealing of your intellectual property. Call them out! Let every third post you publish be about how BL steals property. Bad mouth them at every turn, maybe even throw some questionable content at them. Make up poems about BL's thievery. Get a discussion going within BL about BL. Everyone that has their content stolen should make it a point to post about it.
ReplyDeletePlace a paragraph at the bottom of every post mentioning the exact names of the online companies that do this and let it suggest that anyone who feels the same way should paste the same paragraph at the bottom of their blog posts, a disclaimer of sorts...
This is a great idea - though I suppose you have to make sure it doesn't backfire (bad mouthing could be a bad idea and get you in trouble...questionable contents would end up ruining your own blog/site...but forcing BL and other companies to host posts that are against them is genius!).
Deletei have the same issues. and dont know what to do. I did see scrapers before but they even picked up my last post. i thought i had removed the rss. dont know what to do. wrote to them,but doubt they will do anything. doubt i ever signed up. and if i did did not know they would publish every issue of my posts.
ReplyDeleteRootdigger,
Deletelast year, this post caught the attention of Mattias Swenson, Bloglovin co-founder and Chief Product Officer, who wrote me an email trying to convince me BL was a blogger's dream come true of something. It took a number of emails to convince him that I didn't think so and wanted out, but ultimately (after a month and a half) he dealt with it and hid my blog feeds on his site. So, if you fight long enough, it can be done. Also, see the comment above yours (and my reply) - some good suggestions there.
It's my understanding that even if they (Bloglovin) hides your feed so it's not readily visible to folks who are on bloglovin, any of your readers can still read your site via Bloglovin's iFrame. They just have to add your blog to the list of blogs they follow and they can still do that anytime they wish. Many readers do that because they are already on Bloglovin reading other blogs.
DeleteUh. That's wrong. We should have the power to set our following preferences. Also because all feed readers alter the appearance of our blogs!
DeleteHi! I really agree with you and I want to use the html code. However, do you know what the exact article was in which ideepercomputer gives the code? Because your link links back to the website as a whole!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
x
I sent you an email :).
DeleteThanks for this info. I knew something was wrong when I updated a post but found the old content on my own blog via bloglovin. I had sent an email and asked to remove my blog. They didn't and I didn't follow up. This post will always be useful..
ReplyDeleteThank you! The sad thing is, though, there's not much we can do except having our blogs hidden...
DeleteWhat the hell are we going to do???!!! Bloglovin has just hijacked my site. It is a total clone of my website in a frame, with a whole lot of someone elses articles down the side of it. I am a publisher for the quilting industry and I often work until 2am to get my articles out. How dare they do this!!! http://quiltingcubby.com We follow all the so called rules, linking back, but in return our stuff just gets stolen right out from under us without any consent at all. What the hell...???!!
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that happened... I found out about my site on Bloglovin because I found the referral link in my website stats. When I clicked on the link it took me to MY site on Blogloving in a frame. Then, a pop up asking if I wanted to subscribe to Quilting Cubby. So I subscribed to my own website with my own email address... and got a confirmation link. Now the question is this. Who is getting the email addresses of the people that are "subscribing" to MY site??
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteI'm not sure about the email issue...I don't think anyone but you gets the addresses, but I can't positively say it works like that. Anyway, try and contact Mattias Swenson (Bloglovin' CPO), explaining that you want your blog hidden from Bloglovin'. It will probably take a long while, but you should manage to obtain that in the end, like I did. Good luck!
What urks me about the Bloglovin' iframe is the fact that it's so tall, displaying snibbits of my posts in a slider with thumbnails.
ReplyDeleteI have a sidebar for that!
Why inform their members to add the Bloglovin' button on the top of their blog if users will also see their iframe?
I see what you mean. They are sneaky...
DeleteIt's actually a nice and useful piece of info. I am happy that you simply shared this helpful information with us.
ReplyDeletePlease keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading!
DeleteThank you for publishing this fantastic article. I've been reading for a while
ReplyDeletebut I've never actually left a comment. I've bookmarked your website and shared this on my Facebook.
Thanks again for a quality article!
Thank you for reading! I hope it was useful.
DeleteI just noticed this post while searching for your email. So I'm a few years late on reading this.
ReplyDeleteI don't actually uses bloglovin to read blogs at all, I really don't like feeders and readers and such (and I don't use them) because it doesn't show the blog as it should be read. I have a bloglovin account with one claimed blog because it seems like a good way for people to follow my blog and it seems like a very popular service, I see a lot of bloglovin badges on sidebars.
I honestly have been thinking of deleting my bloglovin account because it doesn't seem useful and I'm not even sure how it all works. Sometimes it seems to me that people click on the follow button because they want you to return the favor. I don't know. I find it a bit unnecessary for people to follow blogs at all because they can always go directly to the blog even on phones these days.
Have a lovely day.
P.S., I send a message through 'Ask the Librarian', I hope that gets through, if not, then the message is that you're one of the winners of my blog anniversary giveaway. Let know which option you would like.
Quote: "I really don't like feeders and readers and such (and I don't use them) because it doesn't show the blog as it should be read."
DeleteExactly! Also, with Bloglovin' it feels like someone else than you is the owner of your blog, and you have to "ransom" it from them by claiming it. As for deleting it - the fact is, you can't delete a Bloglovin' account. I hadn't even set one up in the first place, but since my blog showed up on BL all the same (though it wasn't "claimed"), I had to persuade a BL spokeperson (who had contacted me after reading this post to convince me they were doing a good service to humanity or something) to "hide" my blog on BL, because I wanted nothing to do with them. And it took an annoying series of emails back and forth to have him do that. (I still have them, BTW).
As for following blogs, I do find GFC and follow-by-email useful, since that way I'm always up-to-date with new posts - but the real reason why follow devices are important (at least in my field) is that, if you wants to request ARCs from publishers, you need to have a pretty solid follower count (whether on GFC, via email, on BL, on Goodreads, on Feedly...) in order to stand a chance.
Also, your message got through! Thank you, and I will get back to you in a few days!
So you really can't delete your blog from Bloglovin without some behind the scene help then? That's too bad. I have dealt with some people on deleting accounts and such and it's a test of one's patience so now I rather not bother unless it's absolutely necessary. I admire you for having the patience with the bloglovin people.
DeleteI see now why book bloggers show their follower numbers and such. I have not thought of why that would be important because I never have to show proof I have readers.
I had thought they have discontinued GFC because it used to be part of Google+ which had been discontinued but I guess they didn't remove it like I thought. Do you know you can add/follow blogs through your Blogger dashboard, even blogs that are not blogspot blogs (though there is a limit to the numbers of blog you can follow)? That is, if you don't mind reading blogs through your dashboard which I still do with some older blogs. I just tested it so if you see your number going up and down, that's me. But now I'm a follower.
Have a lovely day.
A blog on BL never can get removed...only hidden. If I go to my own link (which I do from time to time, to test if things are still the way they should), I get this message: "Sorry, this page isn't available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed."
DeleteGFC wasn't actually part of G+, so you can still add it to your blog. And yes! I use the dashboard that way too. Thank you so much for following!