ciml - 8:26 pm on Jan 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

> banned because some rookie copied his site exactly

Now that makes a lot of sense, but I'll offer some pedantry on the word "banned" if I may. When Google finds two identical URLs, it tries to keep just one. This is the best situation for the user, who doesn't want an 1999 AltaAista style set of results with the same page filling up the top10.

If someone manages to trick Google into listing the 'wrong' URL (as happened significantly in December 2001) then this is very bad for the victim, but that's different from Google choosing to "ban" the victim's URLs.

RFG:
> hire bored teenagers

Yes, I guess they could write the guestbook filling scripts. ;)