AboutUs.org – Is it Ethical?

Comments

1. TechZ says:

   8/24/2006 at 3:43 pm

   I don’t particularly like that they are collecting site info like this…

2. Smoove D says:

   8/24/2006 at 11:01 pm

   What would be unethical about it? I mean, my site is on the internet for everyone to see and domain registration information is public. I imagine it will become a useful tool for spam artist though, and therefore I am not a fan of this site.

3. Ajay says:

   8/24/2006 at 11:46 pm

   Unethical, because your site content and personal information is gathered very much without your permission.

   And you already spoke about spammers

4. Ozh says:

   8/25/2006 at 1:25 am

   A few weeks ago when I found about this wiki while checking my own domain names throught whois.sc, I edited and deleted every page there about me or my domains.

5. Lisa says:

   8/25/2006 at 11:48 am

   Completely unethical, because while it sucked the content from my pages, it conveniently removed the copyright notice posted at the bottom of them.

6. mal says:

   8/26/2006 at 4:56 am

   I do not like AboutUs.org, I started to delete my entries, a few days later they were back on there. It looks like a spammer’s paradise!

7. Teli says:

   8/27/2006 at 11:51 am

   It would be unethical, in my opinion, if it started listing information not publicly available about you and your website. This is very much possible since it allows people to edit any website’s information.

   Scenario: John B. Average becomes miffed with Jane B. Average (his competition) and decides to post all of her private information on the site. Jane B. Average has no idea this site exists, but starts wondering why strange people are e-mailing her, calling her, or even driving by her home. See where I’m going with this?

   As is stands now, I don’t believe AboutUs.org is unethical, but I don’t care for it.

   It’s not a registrar or whois look-up service; the owner should give website owners the ability to opt-out of appearing in the list. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and even The Internet Archives give webmasters a way to opt-out of their directories, and so should AboutUs.org.

   My 2 cents.

   ~ Teli

8. Jonathan says:

   8/28/2006 at 5:11 pm

   Kudos, Teli. Couldn’t have said it better.

9. Simon says:

   9/5/2006 at 1:26 am

   To Opt out of AboutUs please visit this page http://www.aboutus.org/How_can.....AboutUs%3F

10. Mads Myhrvold says:

    12/4/2006 at 6:36 pm

    It is not ethical. And the hole idea behind it is disgusting. Because what they actually do is stealing other peoples effort. They don’t care about copy rights either. Some people like those behind aboutus.org can’t contribute any thing of their own. They can only copy. What a pitty…

11. Pipoy says:

    9/1/2008 at 9:54 am

    Unethical and unfair! Even if you transfer registrars and get whois privacy, they’ll just publish your whois data found at your old registrar. Happened to me at Enom. Bastards really!!