forum posts for a new site

[AffiliateDreamer]

If I have a forum with say 10 000 posts, I then take all those posts and create static files and post them on a new domain...will I get banned from google for this?

Is this safe?

[AffiliateDreamer]

the reason i am asking is that I have seen many sites that just simple create sites from public domain content sites. So it must be alright for someone to create a site based on a site they already own, just on another domain? (ie. a site with forum content only )

[Marcia]

If there are 10K posts, then there were a lot of people who contributed to those posts. Before even considering the search engine issue, was there a Terms of Usage that could possibly limit the usage in another venue? Was it made clear that the posts could be used for other purposes, and did users agree to it? It isn't quite the same as materials in the public domain.

>>will I get banned from google for this?

It wouldn't be banned, getting hit for duplicate content is something else. I think I'd be more concerned about a poster finding out and kicking up a fuss about what they contributed being used elsewhere in a static site.

See, what you might run into is a matter of copyright issues, and that's really something that should be checked out before going through all the work it takes to set up a site and then possibly having someone kick up a fuss about it without you first knowing what your standing is from a legal viewpoint.

[AffiliateDreamer]

speaking of privacy/copyright issues, are news groups redistributable?

[AffiliateDreamer]

Marcia,

could you provide me (PM if you want?) of a TOS agreement that states that all posts may or may not be redistributed on a website owned by www.****.com domain.

thanks!

[Marcia]

I do know that iVillage has had in their TOS that anything posted on the site by members becomes their property to re-use, that's agreed to when people agree to the TOS - and that's stringent because of the position they're in.

I'd say the best place to research is to head over to Yahoo Directory and ODP and browse the forum categories. That way you can see a lot, keeping in mind that some may not be as comprehensive as they should be. And also check out the government copyright laws for whatever jurisdiction you're in.

[rogerd]

AD, one penalty pitfall could be duplicate content (if this forum content still resides on the original domain).

Also, you can assume that your posters will find the new content. They will be searching for a topic that interests them, their name, etc., and stumble across the new site in the SERPs. Therefore, I wouldn't assume you can fly under the radar on this - you need to have all your bases, legal and otherwise, covered.

[Marcia]

# 23 right here

You will not copy and retransmit any information out of these forums without first getting the permission of the original author of the message and a WebmasterWorld.com administrator.

[webmasterworld.com...]

The TOS varies from site to site and from place to place, and more than likely would have had to be verifiably in place prior to when people posted before re-using what posters wrote on another site for the purpose of deriving revenue, which I assume is the motivation behind transposing to static content.

Whether or not Google can detect duplicate content, and to what extent, is still out on the floor for debate and has been discussed many times, particularly recently. I personally believe they're going after duplicate content, and we have to keep in mind that what they don't detect can still be reported to them by competitors, particularly a sensitive issue if AdSense is being run on the new site.

But the more important issue for you in the scenario you're describing is the copyright issue, particularly as it relates to the visibility of a forum venue.

[AffiliateDreamer]

I wonder how google handles sites that provide feeds to other sites, that's allot of dup content out there and with the immergence of blogs and RSS feeds i'm not sure what could be done?

[Marcia]

Here's the reference, go at it!

[google.com...]

But keep in mind that feeds are submitted by the site owners and meet copyright guidelines of the ones running the feeds. It isn't the same as members posting publicly - which I've personally confronted a couple of times with things published on another site.

This is a pretty good one

[webmasterworld.com...]