Help Needed Tracking Down Blogger

[sadida]

Hey all,

For a few months now, I've been running a blog that examines some of the teachings of some religious broadcasters in my home community. They have four hours of local cable TV each week, live callin-type shows, and I got tired of them telling my community that they were the only ones going to heaven - so I started my blog to examine their teachings.

Well, I must have finally struck a nerve, because last week they started up a copycat blog - it looked just like mine, but it was not me - and they started saying that I was really with them, but getting training on how to fight as they do.

Well, this is, of course a crock of hooey, and I want to find out who it is doing this. But, it's a wordpress blog, and they're not putting their names, and they won't come to my blog where I can see their IP.

So, my question is - is there any way at all that I can find out their IP address, to match it to people who have commented on my blog? Any way at all? Is it embedded somewhere in source code - or if they've copied images from my blog, can I somehow trace them that way? I really want to expose what these guys have been doing - lying, slandering me, etc.

You can answer me here or PM me - but any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

-sadida

 

[treleth]

Well, if you have their url, you can do a whois on them and get their name... if you're willing to post it, I'm sure me, or another board member would be willing to do it for you.

 

[Hitman]

You could also redo your blog's layout, so it differs from them.

 

[Deleted 2]

The one thing I can think of is to add the requester's ip address to a digital watermark in every image on your site. If the other site copies your images (as opposed to hotlinking them) you can find out their ip address.

I've never used any software for this purpose myself, but two things a quick google search turned up were phpwatermark and Veqa Image Marker.

However, wouldn't it just be easier to post a disclaimer on your site stating you have nothing to do with the other site? Even if you do find out their ip address, what good will it do?

 

[sadida]

treleth - they are doing their blog on wordpress, and it doesn't seem to work with wordpress. I've already tried that. But thanks for the suggestion!

Hitman - done it, two times. They copycat each time.

Zero Hour - It's a long story. Let's just say that these folks are very destructive in the way they present their arguments - and there's a lot of "X-files"-type "who can I trust?" stuff going on. If I could figure out their IP and then compare it to the people who've been commenting on my blog, I would have a better idea who I could trust.

I also MAY need to get a life.

Thanks, all. Any other suggestions will be read appreciatively.

sadida

 

[sadida]

Zero Hour - I've been scouring the internet trying to figure out how to do the digital watermark thing. I'm using a Mac - any suggestions?

 

[Deleted 2]

It depends on where and how you host your blog. Using a Mac or PC has little bearing on it.
What you want to do is use software that, every time an image is requested on your webserver, it serves an individualised image with an invisible marker. That marker will later allow you to identify people who have pillaged images from your site. I think the pieces of software I linked to above will do that, but I haven't used them, and I haven't actually done this myself.

You can do this if you keep your blog at a web hoster that allows you to run your own php scripts. If you use a free service, like wordpress or blogger, you can't.

 

[sadida]

Ah, then I can't, as I use wordpress.

Oh, well. It was a brilliant suggestion! Thanks!

Any other ideas, y'all?

sadida

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Call in. Weekly. Tell them that their blog layout breaks "thou shalt not steal", and their content breaks "thou shalt not lie"

If they persist, consider taking the story to local media.

 

[sadida]

I know you guys have been losing sleep over this - but my mystery copycat blogger has disappeared. He deleted his blog and fled the blogosphere.

Weird.

Thanks for the help!

 

[M'Sharak]

Maybe he got the idea someone was looking over his shoulder.

Sometimes that's all it takes.

 

[Deleted 2]

Good to hear

 

[Allyn Gibson]

When you say they're a "Wordpress blog," are they hosted at Wordpress.com, or are they using the self-hosted version of Wordpress?

If it's the former, just report them to Wordpress.com for violating the TOS if they're plagiarizing you and/or hotlinking to your images.

If it's the latter, use Whois to find out who their host is, and then contact their customer service. You may be able to find out, from customer service, who they actually are.