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A copycat of Pinterest has me feeling crabby

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On a visit to Pinterest this morning, it wasn’t long before I found something to Pin, screenshot of my Pin, shown. Here’s what happened. I Pinned this Leaf Art project onto my DIY Crafts and Sewing board, (visit me on Pinterest here). I then clicked through to read more about it and the link didn’t obey.

Instead, I got this pop up. First thought, it’s spam. But if not, one, I don’t speak this language, and two, I’m not a member so cannot log in to what looks like a login. I looked at the source address of the Pin and it said, pinme.ru. I got the following back from a Google search:

A bit of reading and I see it’s the Russian version of Pinterest, a copycat. Okay, so why is it closed to Pinterest users, meaning you cannot get to the source (or see the source) of the photo without a Pinme.ru account? If there is no way to view or get to the source of the photo, I hope Pinterest will remove anything pinned from Pinme.ru. Just my two cents. Thoughts anyone? I’d love to hear from you.

Images uploaded by Scarlett Burroughs / Quilting Editor

Ed. note 6/4/2012: Janice commented below she closed the X and was able to get to the information. I went back out to my Pin in question, closed the X and here’s what I saw. The Leaf Art Pin shows up now on a Pinme.ru site. That’s as far as you can go though, you don’t go to the source of the photo by clicking through. This Pin took me to the Pinner’s Boards. See below:

Ed. note 6/5/2012: I am closing comments on this post and have deleted the Pin discussed here.

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Comments

  1. I hope Pinterest removes it, cause Number one I don’t want to Pin anything that might potentially have a virus and that sounds like it might. If not then they should be part of Pinterest. You may have just gotten lucky and avoided some spam or worse.

  2. International law differs, so I’m not sure even Pinterest can do anything about the copycat, but I, too, hope they will remove anything from that source. However, they do have to be notified when something like this occurs. It’s been my experience they do respond when even those who have no account bring something such as this to their attention..

    I, for one, have been more and more annoyed lately with the increase in scraper blogs (and websites), and they use exactly this kind of medium (pinme as well as pinterest) to bring traffic to their sites, not only to generate ad sales, but also, as you may have encountered, a way of planting bugs via unsuspecting visitors.

  3. Well, I got there fine by just ‘x’ing out of the pop up. It is no different than anyone pinning anything from any other site. If I am on a foreign language site and pin something, and you repin it, then you try to go to the original website, you aren’t going to be able to read it. *shrug* If you repin someone’s repin of someone’s repin and so on — then you really don’t know where the original is from.

    Not to mention, are we sure that pinterest didn’t copy them?

    No matter who had the original idea – I think its great to be able to share images etc across the web even if I have to translate or whatever. The whole world doesn’t speak English 🙂

  4. Janice,
    After reading your comment I put in an Editor’s Note about the ‘X’ing out of the pop up. One thing I wanted to add is that I do often go to foreign blogs and I translate them via my Google browser. I didn’t think to do that with the Pin address once I ‘X’d out of the window. I just did and I was able to trace the Pin to this site: http://vk.com/decorate_it.

    Pinterest copied them? I came to that conclusion from reading American media, so you’ll want to consider my sources.

    I agree with your final sentence. I sure wish we Americans spoke more languages from an early age…it’s so hard to learn when you’re older.

    Thanks again for sharing your thoughts,
    Scarlett

  5. Hi Snowcatcher,
    I did report the Pin, so at least Pinterest will be aware of this and they are normally pretty good about getting information out.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
    Scarlett

  6. Hi Barbara,
    That was definitely what I feared the most is that I got hit by a virus. I’m still not sure until I hear from Pinterest, or other Pinners who can attest to this same event happening to them.

    Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts,
    Scarlett

  9. I saw that on Sunday as I was browsing and was completely taken with your nature’s canvases. When I tried to pin I saw the …ru item and I steer VERY CLEAR of anything with a Russian country code as too often it is riddled with viruses.
    If there’s a petition to sign/add names to on Pinterest to have that link removed then count me in.
    Helen — Firenze Cards

  10. I am very sorry that your idea was ‘pinched’ by another site, really I am.
    It makes me feel very angry that people feel they need to do this and not show the original artist,. But I feel I must ask, why did you say ‘we americans should learn more languages at an early age’.We should all try to do this.
    Do all Americans automatically assume that they are the only users of Pinterest, when i have pinned many Australian, Japanese and European pins since becoming a member? I do apologise if this offends you, but I found your remark quite arrogant.Something I found prevalent within American culture. We should all be vigilant for the scammers, copycats and clones.Once again I am sorry that your wonderful colourful pin was hijacked. Please do not let it stop you from pinning again as i shall be following your boards in the hope of getting ideas from you and other creative people like you. Thanks for your ideas.

  11. Lorraine,
    I am sorry you inferred from my comment that I’m mostly upset about someone copying the Pinterest concept. That is untrue. Microsoft copies Apple all the time – take the HP laptop I’m typing on right now. I chose it 3 years ago because it physically looked like a Mac (white cover) and it included software to make it easier to interact with photos and other media built in camera, etc. (perks Mac had for years in their products).

    My Pin was not hijacked, I simply took a screen shot of a Pin from Pinterest with the source Pinme.ru. If their copycat Pinterest is for Russian speakers and countrymen only, that’s fine, I just do not want my user experience diminished on Pinterest. Getting a pop up that looks like spam was alarming to me and is to most users as you can see in some of the other comments. The arrogance – in my mind – comes straight from the makers of the copycat Pinterest (pinme.ru) in asking a Pinterest user to log in to their system whilst in the very system they copied.

    Let me clarify something else. As an American, I am making no such assumption that we are the only users of Pinterest, of course not. I had no intention of offending international Pinterest users with my commentary, if I did it was unintentional, I promise. The reason I mentioned ‘we Americans should learn more languages at an early age’ was to point out the very thing that prompted you to say, ‘I found your remark quite arrogant’. I’m painfully aware Americans tend to see everything through the American lens. I try not to be one of those Americans. In our defense, if we had countries as close as say California is to Oregon speaking three different languages, then learning a non-English language would be easier for us. Most Americans do not travel internationally whilst growing up, so it’s a structural barrier besides. But I digress.

    Warmly,
    Scarlett

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