INGO Classifieds showing on 3rd party sites?!??

[chezuki]

Had a WTF moment when Googling the slushy machine I have for sale. I was looking for recently sold items for price comparison when I stumped upon MY VERY OWN AD linked on a 3rd part site less than an hour after posting.

Giant Slushy Machine

How does this happen? Browsing around, there are several INGO postings on that site.

 

[T.Lex]

My bet is that a bot made 50 posts that were considered "quality." Some days, that's a low hurdle.

 

[Birds Away]

Eek! Repel boarders.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Interesting site. Funny yours is classified as a "gun"

Looks like it just goes out and aggregates classifieds.

 

[chezuki]

Seems like a good reason for the classifieds to be hidden from guests and members who do not yet have access. This would also drastically reduce the number of runners who only join for something shiney.

 

[AngryRooster]

Seems like a good reason for the classifieds to be hidden from guests and members who do not yet have access. This would also drastically reduce the number of runners who only join for something shiney.

Would love to see this happen. Bots are everywhere. Sometimes late at night I've seen 200+ active users consisting of 5 registered members and the rest are "guests".

I don't usually put many things up for sale but if ads are getting cloned and posted on places other than INGO then I won't post anymore at all.

 

[AngryRooster]

Looks like the Whois information for the site is:

Domain Name: LIONSEEK.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1730308538_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2015-04-16T15:08:31Z
Creation Date: 2012-06-28T20:01:55Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-06-28T20:01:55Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registrant Name: Tom Kazarian
Registrant Organization: Kimba Ventures
Registrant Street: 90 Westdale Ave
Registrant City: Daly City
Registrant State/Province: California
Registrant Postal Code: 94015
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: +1.4157027733
Registrant Email: contact@lionseek.com



[h=2]What is Lionseek?[/h] Lionseek is a search engine that scans popular forums for items offered up for sale by private sellers. These items are then indexed on Lionseek so that they are easily searchable for users. If interested in the item, you can go to the ad where you can contact the seller directly; once this happens you are no longer on Lionseek but on the message forum where the ad is listed. The items found on Lionseek are not offered up for sale by Lionseek nor are they sold on Lionseek.

 

[bwframe]

This is disturbing to see.

Any regular INGO classifieds watcher cannot help but notice the less than personal trend the classifieds section has taken in the past +/- year or so.

Problem issues noticed;
High % of classifieds only posters
Non-INGO Advertiser "businesses" conducted in the classifieds
"Selling for my friend" becoming a regularity
Not to mention the flippers...

Overall, more and more less than friendly "Craigs List" sort of adds posted. Posted by "members" with no skin in the game, responsibility or accountability to the forum and membership.

They are really good at making sure their adds get bumped to the top daily though. Dominating their respective Classifieds section thread AND the "New Posts" search page, for weeks and weeks on end apparently...

 

[AngryRooster]

That site seems to have a select few forums it's bots have sunk their claws into. Lots of them are from here. Gotta love the TOS there as well. We're gonna infect your site with our bot, steal your ads & information plus pictures and then according to our TOS that we wrote give ourselves permission to do what we want with them, including sell, reproduce and license it. Oh, by the way, you agree to pay for any fines or fees and not hold us responsible in any way.

 

[mbills2223]

I simultaneously hate and love the internet.

 

[churchmouse]

This is disturbing to see.

Any regular INGO classifieds watcher cannot help but notice the less than personal trend the classifieds section has taken in the past +/- year or so.

Problem issues noticed;
High % of classifieds only posters
Non-INGO Advertiser "businesses" conducted in the classifieds
"Selling for my friend" becoming a regularity
Not to mention the flippers...

Overall, more and more less than friendly "Craigs List" sort of adds posted. Posted by "members" with no skin in the game, responsibility or accountability to the forum and membership.

They are really good at making sure their adds get bumped to the top daily though. Dominating their respective Classifieds section thread AND the "New Posts" search page, for weeks and weeks on end apparently...

This has been a topic of conversation of late.
Looking into this.

 

[AngryRooster]

Noticed that the bot is reporting new sales here very quickly. When things get bumped they are showing up in a few minutes at most. Bump on here says 13 minutes ago, the other site says posted 10 minutes ago.

 

[AngryRooster]

Any more of an update on this subject?

 

[AngryRooster]

Going to bump this, well just because it feels more and more relevant every day.

Edit:
After rooting around on lionsneak I found some guns listed from INGO. The most recent was from 8 months ago. It appears their bot may not be active here any longer. Glad to see that. I'm sure there are many others that are though.

 

[MoparMan]

This has been a topic that has come up since I've been a member in 2009. It would be nice if somehow the classifieds could be invisible until the 50 post minimum or site supporter status.

 

[chezuki]

This has been a topic that has come up since I've been a member in 2009. It would be nice if somehow the classifieds could be invisible until the 50 post minimum or site supporter status.

That's a double edged sword. A lot of established members found INGO through the classifieds. Google is an excellent recruiter.

 

[OneBadV8]

That's a double edged sword. A lot of established members found INGO through the classifieds. Google is an excellent recruiter.

 

[MoparMan]

That's a double edged sword. A lot of established members found INGO through the classifieds. Google is an excellent recruiter.

Yes, I do agree. That's actually the reason I came here in 2009. It was a 10 post minimum then. I thought I would only be here for the classifieds then, but I've actually meet quite a few nice people and increased my knowledge. It's been a great site. I just wish others would understand INGO is more than classifieds.