Recently in Encounters Category

I let them in, but then what did I do? I stood in the hallway and listened as they went door to door looking for the problem. It took several minutes before it occurred to me to put on some clothes and grab what was important. I didn't know what to take. I ended up grabbing my laptop, cables, purse and camera and then went downstairs to take photos. Twisted. I really need to think about what to do if I get this kind of warning in the future.

Turns out my upstairs neighbor left his BBQ burning. I had smelled smoke earlier, but wasn't alarmed because it's a holiday and several people in the neighborhood had been celebrating. *sigh* I need to believe that stuff happens and it can happen to me.

Anyway, thanks to the Chicago Fire Department for coming out. It's very appreciated.

What's wrong with this picture? Check the domain in the image and then check the content. Yep. That's Chicago Bites content that's been harvested and reused on another site.

If you go to the offending site, our content is no longer there. That's only because we are diligent in monitoring our content and presence online and proactive in taking action when our content is misused.

How did I catch this and deal with it in under an hour?

1. I had previously set up comprehensive Google Alerts on my name, screen names, site names, and common misspellings. Alerts were set to "as-it-happens".
2. I look at alerts as I get them. At minimum, I scan them daily.
3. I click through every link to see where it takes me. I've found that it's not enough to look at the summary.
4. When I saw the Chicago Bites content on this site, I sent an email. However, I didn't know who checked that email or how frequently they responded to inquiries. It was also doubtful the email went to a decision-maker.
5. So I did a whois look-up on the site to find the site's owner and contact information. The information was listed.
6. I took a few minutes and screamed at the name on-screen. The importance of venting cannot be stressed enough.
7. I called the owner and politely asked him to take the content down. He did. It was all very civil.

There were other options if this hadn't worked out. It's possible to find the ISP of a site even if other information is private. Hosting services are pretty good about enforcing TOS clauses. Additionally, this site used Google Ads. I had the option of contacting them and demonstrating how this site was in violation of Google's TOS. Since I took screen shots, I may still do that as a public service. Ours is probably not the only site that's been harvested.

We put too much work into our site and creating original content to have others take it and reuse it word for word, image for image, mp3 for mp3. I strongly recommend monitoring your on-line presence because you never know if you'll see your site on someone else's.

I got a comment today on the Chicago Bites podcast from a restaurant representative.  She left her comment on the podcast of the restaurant she represented, but committed a few sins:

1) Didn't say anything about the podcast or comment on the review
2) Talked about the dishes she liked at her restaurant
3) Plugged events at her restaurant

I think it's fine to leave a comment and identify yourself as a representative of the restaurant.  I appreciate hearing from the places we've been and what they think of our reviews. However, it's not cool to resort to blatant promotion.  It won't past muster.

1) Say nothing substantive about the photograph you're commenting on
2) Use obnoxious animated graphics that make me want to tear my eyes out
3) Advertise your obnoxious site repeatedly in the comment
4) Repeat steps 1-3 over and over again on several of my photographs

Banned!

I captured this little guy at the Quincy Brown Line stop. It's detailed with a jaunty top hat and precariously balanced on a curved sign. I think someone waited a long time for a train, but maybe this person let a train go just to finish their work of art? Maybe someone posed for a likeness? There's a story here, I'm sure of it. I want to find the snowman's creator so I can ask.

Photos are posted on flickr and I've added the snowman to a few groups. I'm curious to see if the Internet's reach extends far enough to cross the path of this little snowman's builder.