Yes, a little on the negative side of being a free provider of help/advice and practice TOEFL materials on the Internet...
I used to be a contributor to the mighty Test Magic forums - mainly in the TOEFL section. I noticed that a huge amount of people go there for help and advice, but generally it is just test-takers talking to each other - with little or no feedback, pointers or materials being provided by the Forum owners at all. After about a year (perhaps more) of posting and providing links to places like this blog to get more help and access to free material, I got a couple of rather pompous warnings from the Forum owner (Erin, I think his name is) and had a lot of my posts cut. Basically, he was saying I was doing too much self-promotion...
To be fair, Erin was reasonably nice and straightforward about it, but to my annoyance I saw my posts cut and posts from some other TOEFL teachers or commercial service providers remain - some of them blatant advertisements for pay-for materials or services (or at least heavily linked to such). I only ever mentioned things that were free and open to the general public (which, as a matter of fact, accounts for about 98.5% of the material I have on the Internet!). I also found it a bit off-putting that there are hundreds of posts in that forum linking to ILLEGAL downloads of copied textbooks and CD files. Right - so you don't want posts to free help materials that are completely legit, but you will allow the forum to be a gathering place for mobs of people to obtain illegal materials?
Oh well. Erin is rightly famous for the immense traffic he gets at Test Magic, and his interview with Google Adsense where he talks about how much money he is making from click-thru advertising. Perhaps he sees links out to other forums or blogs as a potential threat to an infinitely minute amount of his potential income or something. I don't know, but I'll happily stay away from there from now on...
On the subject of dodgy rip-off merchants (not Erin or Test Magic, sorry, I'm referring to people who essentially "steal" other people's materials), I noticed a new site recently called Toefl Max.
The person who put this one together has more front than a major department store... Not only is there a page where you can just go in and start downloading pirated versions of every major TOEFL textbook imaginable (wait until the big publishers get on your tail, pal - they really DO take textbook piracy seriously and really do go looking for the pirates - and you've got all that stuff right there with plenty of site information to track you down!), this "respectable" entrepeneur has gone ahead and copied and pasted all the independent speaking questions I put together for questions 1 and 2 - straight into his own site, pretty much claiming them as his own! I've noticed he mentioned that materials for questions 3-6 will appear soon - he's probably trying to figure out how to rip the listening files I've made for these questions on my forum and website (they're pretty well protected in secure Evoca players). I notice this vagrant has not posted my full speaking test there (yet), though (despite the fact I've made the embed code freely available to all site developers who want to feature a full speaking test) - most probably because I've put my name on the thing and featured explicit links back to my own site...
Jeez - if you're going to take my materials, the least you could do is acknowledge where you got them from, and perhaps even do the professional courtesy of providing a link back to the original source. My hours and hours of designing and writing so that you can whack them up on your own page complete with Google ads to start making money...
Yep, I have to admit, it's been one of those days where I wonder why I do what I do with free TOEFL materials and preparation guidelines. Perhaps I really need to join the crowd and shut everything away behind password-protected pages, and start charging people!
Naaaaaah. There are too many good, honest people out there (in legitimate need of a helping hand) who would miss out - right?
Hi Jason,
I can not believe people are so shameless. I just want to say that YOU HAVE THE BEST WEBSITE about the topic.
Us, your followers, we apreciate your work and always recommend our friends your web.
Rosa
Posted by: Rosa | February 15, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Hi, Jason. This is Erin from the forums. I'm sorry if I was off-putting. I try not to be. And at least in this post, you seem like a decent guy, i.e., the kind of person I like to see in the forums.
The thing is, on the forums, there are just so many people who sign up to promote their sites. Did you know that there are companies that people hire just to make posts on forums? And "robots" that do the same? Every day I have to ban people who spam different sites in different ways, and I often have to make decisions very, very quickly. It appears in your case, I may have made a mistake. (I'd have to take a look at your posts to remember what I was thinking at the time.)
Feel free to drop me a line, if you like.
Posted by: Erin B. | June 30, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Hi Erin,
Apology accepted and appreciated! And by way of reciprocation, my apologies if my post seemed a tad harsh. Having explained yourself, I can understand the issues involved. I've been copping some of the same with my own sites and forums, though of course probably not on the same scale as what you experience.
It was nice of you to drop by here, take the time to read the post, and actually respond. Good on you!
All the best,
~ Jason
Posted by: Jason Renshaw | July 02, 2009 at 01:02 AM