WordPress Plugin – FeedEntryHeader
(Please wait)Current version: 1.01 (5th December 2007) | Read The Changelog
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Allows you to add a copyright statement and a link to the original article, to the TOP of your feed entries, in an effort to hamper content scrapers.
Features
- Add a copyright statement and a link to the original article to the top of your feed entries
- Build your own customised message, including your site name, site URL, post name, post URL and author name
- Simple HTML can be used to enhance appearance
- Doesn’t affect the comment feed
- If you use DualFeeds, the message is only shown for the full post feed
Why Use It?
Content scraping of full post feeds is on the rise. Finding your content displayed, in full, on another site is very frustrating.
There are a variety of plugins to help with this, including several which allow you to add a copyright statement to the end of feed entries. However the copyright statement has limited impact by the time the reader gets to the bottom of the page.
The reader is more likely to take action if they see the copyright statement at the beginning of the page, along with a link to the original article.
Requirements
WordPress 2.x.x (tested on WordPress 2.3.1, 2.3, 2.2.2 and 2.1.3).
Installation
- Download the feedentryheader-1.01.zip file and unzip it.
- Upload the feedentryheader folder to the wp-content/plugins folder.
- Activate the FeedEntryHeader plugin within WordPress.
Upgrade
- Download the feedentryheader-1.01.zip file and unzip it.
- Upload the feedentryheader folder to the wp-content/plugins folder, overwriting the existing files.
Usage
Once the plugin is activated, the default message will be added to your feed. The default message can be changed on the FeedEntryHeader page in the Options menu.
You can use the following ‘tags’ in your message:
- [##SITENAME##] – Site Name
- [##SITEURL##] – Site URL
- [##POSTNAME##] – Post Name
- [##POSTURL##] – Post URL
- [##AUTHOR##] – Author Name
- [##YEAR##] – Year (for Copyright statement)
To reset the message to the default, copy and paste the default message to the FeedEntryHeader Message field, then choose Update Options.
Many content scrapers remove all links, leaving the anchor text behind. For this reason I have set the default message to use the post URL (rather than the post name) as the anchor text.
If you ask users to contact you if they are reading the copyright message on another website, don’t use your email address, as spammers may find it and start sending you spam. It’s better to give a URL for a contact page.
Although this plugin was designed for displaying a copyright statement, there is no reason that you could not display other items instead.
Compatibility
FeedEntryHeader has not been extensively tested with other feed plugins but it is very unlikely there will be any problems. If you do encounter problems, please let me know.
Related Plugins
If you want to add a copyright statement to the bottom of your feed entries, I recommend RSS Signature or Feed Footer. There’s also Angussmans Feed Copyrighter although it doesn’t have an option screen.
Support
This plugin is officially not supported (due to my time constraints), but if you leave a comment below or contact me, I should be able to help.
Like the plugin? Buy Me A Drink! Make a donation and get your link listed below.
That sounds like good idea. I am currently using Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter Plugin
It works OK, but it still got splugged, because it’s showing the copyright at the bottom. I will give your plugin a try. Thanks!
Stephen:
I was having some issues to use your plugin with Full Text Feed and Feed CopyRighter. I finally found the solution.
Your plugin is using add_filter priority equal -1, which is the same as Full Text Feed. I change it to 1 and everything works fine!
Great plugin! Job well done and well appreciated!
Hi Terence,
I think they will still scrape the site (I think it’s all automated), but at least the copyright statement and original URL is at the top. The main difference between this plugin and the Angussman one is that this one shows the message at the top (and you can define you’re own message without hacking the plugin).
Hmm, what were the issues. I know Full Text Feed uses priority -1 as well, but that shouldn’t cause a problem. My plugin will probably fire first (I think it’s alphabetical if the priority is the same), but all it’s doing is adding the message to front of the content – that shouldn’t cause a problem for Full Text Feed. I’ll have to do some testing with this ASAP. Thanks for letting me know.
The problem is now resolved and the new version (1.01) is up on the site. Only 5 people got the original version. If you download now, you will get the fixed version.
The problem was that Full Text Feed creates the content again from the database, losing whatever has been added to $content (in this case the copyright message).
I fixed this by removing the priority -1 on “the_content” filter. Full Text Feed will now fire before FeedEntryHeader, which can then add the copyright message after Full Text Feed has done it’s thing.
Thank you Terence for bringing this to light (and even suggesting the fix!).
First off Stephen, a big thank you for your contribution to all WordPress bloggers. This is something that we normally wouldn’t need but because of scrapers, we are forced to to install something like this. I have blogged about it to help spread the word.
I just had one question. Do you know if this works on for scrapers that merely post an excerpt of my own post with a link to it? Or is this only for full content scrapers?
Jeffro, Thanks.
At the moment, the plugin adds the message to the top of your feed, regardless of whether it is a full post feed or summary feed (unless you use my DualFeeds plugin – then it’s only for the full post feed).
So regardless of whether the scrapers display the full post, or only a summary, it will appear at the top of the post.
Well, I just checked out a few spammers that posted what looked like a sentence or two from the article and then did one of those “CHECK OUT THE FULL POST HERE” with the HERE being a link to my article. Other times these damn sploggers show a random excerpt from my blog as well and I’m not seeing the copyright information being adding to their posts.
I’ve never come across a full scraper, scraping my blog content before but these ones that are taking a sentence or two or some random excerpt are the ones killing me.
Found you through Lorelle’s site. Thank you so much for creating this. I am so sick and tired of the Made For Adsense sites that scrape and steal content.
I wish Google would be more vigilant of who they allow to enter their adsense program because most of the splogger sites I’ve found that have copied my content (all of it not just an excerpt) are showing adsense. Sorry for the rant but I am so angry after finding my site content ripped off at several spam blogs.
Thanks again for the plugin.
Jeffro, hmm, that’s tricky. If they are just taking a random excerpt, that makes it almost impossible to add a copyright message in what they’re taking. I haven’t seen these splogs myself.
I guess the only thing to do is to look for a pattern behind it. For example, if we found they always took the third paragraph, I could probably add a parameter to display the copyright message at the start of the third paragraph. Without a pattern, there’s very little we can do – apart from reporting them to Google (if they use Adsense) or to their host.
Hi Carmen, Thanks. No worries about the rant – I’m angry too (as are a lot of people) and I completely understand.
My feed is being scraped automatically, every time I post, by a splog with no original content, which is covered in Adsense ads. I’ve reported them to Google and I’m waiting to see if Google will take any action. I really hope they do! I’ll leave a comment here sometime in future to let everyone know what happens.
Is this available for 2.3 wordpress?
Kimberly, the plugin works just fine for WordPress 2.3. I know because I’m using it on WordPress 2.3
Yes, I stand corrected. Right before activating this plugin, I activated a different plugin (category autotags) and it caused the error.
This one works wonderfully!
Thanks for the plug and thanks Jeffro2pt0 for the reply.
Hi Kimberly, as Jeffro says it works with 2.3 (I’m on 2.3.1). I’m glad it works and I hope you find it useful!
Jeffro, thanks for stepping in with the answer so quickly!
Thank you very much for this excellent plugin. I use it now for my RSS and I think it makes it look more professional too.
Hi Andrew, my pleasure!
Thank you for this excellent plugin. Question = is the link to the original article still supposed to work even if your feed is a summary feed? The text is always there, but link to original post is only there if I do full feed.
OK I shall give this plugin a guernsey and see how it fares.
Patrick, I’ve had a look at your feed and I can see what you mean. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
The plugin code does the same thing regardless of whether it’s full feed or summary. This leads me to believe that the link is being stripped by the WordPress mechanism that creates the summary feed.
If that’s the case, then there’s not much I’ll be able to do about it. A solution would require each user hacking their WordPress core code – not something to be done lightly!
I’ll have a look into this later (when I have time), but I’m not hopeful at this point.
ShadowKnight,
Love the terminology – give it a guernsey! Been a while since I’ve heard that (I’m living in China at the moment). By the way, that Aussie Blogger Forums logo looks great on your site! I’m going to have to add one to mine real soon…
Stephen – thanks very much for taking a look and responding. Thought it might be WordPress. I will research it at WordPress support as well, and post back here if I find out anything useful.
Cheers …
Patrick, Thanks. I normally like to jump in myself with these things, but I’m swamped at the moment, so I’ll leave it with you for now. Please let me know what you find out and if there’s something I can do, I’ll do it. Thanks.
Super pluggin thanks.
Hi Desty, Thanks!
Stephen,
I used your plugin for quite a while and I love it. I have seen the effects on the scraper sites so I know it works. I would like to see an option where you can move this to the bottom or hide it from RSS feeds.
The way your plugin is set up to pull the post title is the best option I have seen, and that is what I like the most about the plugin. The only issue is that this is appearing on the Buzz Boost (Feedburner) and it will show the copyright first instead of the first few lines of the paragraph. I am sure this issue is very technical but just wanted to let you know.
I am currently experimenting with the RSS signature and your plugin because my RSS feed doesn’t show the next page link (where as it will show the more… link) WordPress is always evolving so someday it may happen.
In the meantime, keep up the hard work.
Mark @ TheLocoMono
Hi Mark,
Thanks. I understand what you’re saying about the message being at the very top of the feed entry.
Unfortunately there’s no way to hide it from the RSS feed, because that’s where the scraper sites get your content from. It has to be in the feed – that means if the scrapers get it, so do your normal readers.
I originally put the message at the top because there are other plugins (listed above in the Related Plugins section) that put a similar message at the bottom. I’m not particularly keen to add an option to show it at the bottom, but if there was enough demand I could do this.
In the short term – if you want it – I could do a quick hack to the plugin file so it does appear at the bottom instead of the top (but with no option) and email it to you. Let me know if you want it.
I was also thinking about an option to put the message after the first paragraph – but I’m not sure when I’ll have time to add this.
Interesting point about the next page link. I’ll have a look into whether this can be added as well – but my time is a bit limited at the moment…
I agree with you on the major point, there should be no way to hide the copyright from the feed, that is pretty much the sole point of adding it to the feed to discourage scrapers.
If you do have the time, please send me the quick hack. No rush but I would like to compare the hack with the present version.
I like what you say about the option after the first paragraph which would be handy especially if it is a short paragraph to intro the article.
Hopefully the other readers will voice their opinions here too so you can get a consensus.
Mark – sorry, I’ve been tied up offline for the last few days. I’ll email it to you shortly. It will be exactly the same as the current version, except it will append the message after the content instead of before it. As for the other changes, they’ll have to wait for the moment.
Mark – Do you find a lot of the splogs are just allowing the copyright notice and link to stay in?
Stephen – Think the plugin is a great idea. Sort of an arms race response to automated plugins that take the RSS content and republish it as their own. But in response to the comment you posted on our site – this plugin wouldn’t really stop the hard core scrapers who modify the links manually, would it? Still, better than nothing, I suppose.
Didn’t realize splogging is what the practice is called. Two quick questions:
1. I’ve noticed I’m installing more and more plugins on our site and I seem to recall reading that plugins slow down your site. As a plugin developer, what’s the word on this? And probably, more specifically – how does this plugin affect page loading?
2. I like the plugins that you’re using on this form – the spam protection and the preview. Which plugins are they?
Hi WebDiggin,
Sorry, I’m a bit slow in responding.
Yes, this plugin won’t stop the worst of the scrapers – nothing will (apart from not having a feed).
There are all different sorts of scrapers out there. Some strip the links out, so there’s no link back to your site (but if the anchor text is the URL people can still copy and paste it into the browser). Some scrapers just take a few random paragraphs from your post – it could be the middle or the bottom, so there’s no easy way to add a link in it. As you say, some manually edit what they scrape and there’s pretty much no defense against that.
But some scrapers do leave the links in. Just yesterday I got pinged by a splog who’d scraped my feed. I only got the ping because of the link FeedEntryHeader added to the top. So I knew of it within minutes of it appearing – just what I’m going to do about it is another issue!
As for plugins: in general, the more plugins you have, the more work your server has to do. Of course, how much effect it has depends on how well written the plugin is and just what it’s doing. Most plugins only add a tiny bit of work to the server, but of course, it all adds up.
As far as affecting the page load, there are two distinct parts to the process:
1. WordPress builds the HTML (plugins run as part of this process). The user can’t see anything yet, the browser is sitting there waiting for the page to come back from the server.
2. Once the page is built, it is sent to the browser and the browser starts to display the page and download any other files that the page requires (CSS, scripts, images). The user still won’t see anything until the page arrives at the browser. If the page is big, it may take a while to arrive.
In general, for most sites with problems relating to speed, it’s not the first point which is the problem, it’s the second one. The way to fix this is to try to make the page smaller – easier said than done!
The plugins you ask about are: Math Comment Spam Protection and Live Comment Preview.
I use Digital Fingerprint to find and scraped posts by putting a unique in each and every post, and I use RSS Feed Signature to add a copy right at the end of each post in my RSS feed.
JTPratt’s Blogging Mistakes’s last blog post..How to Create Your Own WordPress Theme
Is there a way to control the font size on the FeedEntryHeader? Terrific plugin, already found a couple scrapers where the header showed up first before the post.
Mark’s last blog post..DoFollow or NoFollow?
I am curious, the link on the “scrapers” that shows the article, is it dofollow? I figure if they are so intent on scraping our sites, might as well get a linkback from them.
Hmm as a ‘fully rounded’
SEO I know of the content scraping business, I am going to test this out and yeh if there is a link back then great a link back for you 
.
If you have a great blog there is a big chance it will be scraped esp in the main niches, financial, health etc.
Basically guys n gals if it’s a proper coded scraper it will strip all this out, but a grabbed from a Black Hat board for free or a commercially available one no chance this is ahead of the game
Cool stuff people wont want that on 100’000 MFA Splogs trust me and will removed you one.
Loving this blog, lots of great new plugins and ideas I didn’t know about, like learning new stuff.
Reading more. . Oh and I am in a proper job now
.
James – Firespin
Would be great if we had option to choose where the message displayed: top or bottom.
While it is a matter of choice – I would still be interested with bottom or perhaps even both.
all in all it is a cool plugin
WoW. I could use this!
I don’t have a lot of content scrapers coz honestly my content isn’t great. I have two lol I caught them when I deep-linked into one of my articles. This would give me some link-love 
Been looking for a good solution to this issue for a couple of blogs. This plugin is easy to use and works perfectly. Thanks for making it available.
Thank you for the link and detailed explanation. But somehow I feel, if a person wants to copy stuff he/she will, they will not wait to see the copyrights, may be your suggestion is good and I shall try it out to put it on the top of the page rather than the bottom of my web page.
Wow – u don’t know just how much this is going to benefit my blog
I have been looking for something like this for ages
I have installed it into my 2 blogs.
Stephen I am very greatful to you for this plugin for wordpress.
Thanks for a great plugin Stephen. As someone mentioned before, is it ok to move the “copyright” to below the post instead?
That is a great idea. Any way you can show you made the post not the other site is a good one. Sounds simple i will have to try it.
Thank you very much for this post. Great information that will benefit me a lot.
Yes this plug in, will tweet this now for you.
If we want to make our blog looks great it’s better to switch to self hosting wordpress or try out blogger. We need to get our own hosting and install the WordPress software ourself in order to use plugins.