The Cheezburger Network

[Ron Jeremy 2,032]

Seems my writing these is becoming somewhat of a regular thing. Hmm.

 

The “Cheezburger” network. Surely you’ve heard about this network of sites by now. Perhaps you’re a regular there, write comments, maybe have a submission or two up. But have you ever actually done any research into what the site is?

 

Launched in 2007 by a man named Erik Nakagawa, the site “I Can Has Cheezburger?” featured a type of image macro called “lolcats”; pictures of cats accompanied by horribly grammatically incorrect text. As the site grew in popularity, a larger network of sites was made: the “Cheezburger” network.

 

This network of sites is parasitic: It generates no content of it’s own. Instead, it relies on content submitted by users. Sounds perfectly reasonable, right? Well, no. The moderators of the sites do little to no background check on content, so frequently, content featured on the sites is plagiarized, and they make little to no effort to prevent this.

 

In fact, it’s highly likely they acknowledge this fact but do not care. All the sites use banners that, instead of being added to the bottom of a submitted image additionally, they cover up and delete some of the the bottom lower part of an image. An example I made myself* to illustrate the point follows.

 

Example image (click the link).

 

Now, the “Cheezburger network” is successful.. They can afford to run many sites, hire staff, and operate a store that sells mass-produced goods. Why does such a successful organization need to promote theft of content from their competition? And that brings me to my next point.

 

Their business practices.

 

Whenever the “Cheezburger” network sees possible competition, they attempt to muscle their way in and take over so they can have all the profit, and if possible, buy up and assimilate the former competitor. They attempted the maneuver on the site “Halolz”, (a site that runs on user-submitted humorous video game content, with the original author/s actually credited regularly unless impossible) by launching the now-defunct site “Bob’s House of Video Games” and blatantly stealing content from Halolz and either blurring out the Halolz watermark or covering it with their own banner.

 

Who needs ad revenue more? A small-time website operator, or a massive, dare I say greedy organization like the “Cheezburger” network? A person who actually has interest in the subject their site is based on, or a “Cheezburger” network employee? And this trails off into the next section.

 

The sites themselves. The “Cheezburger” network adds sites to it’s network on a frequent basis, basing these sites on whatever they can profit from using their underhanded methods. The Pokémon fandom (“Pokémemes”), the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (“MyLittleBrony”), anything. These sites attempt to muscle out the little guy so they can take that seat by working as a hub for content based on that fandom. These sites lack personality, and are just leeches. Those who operate the sites most likely have no interest in the “fan”sites they are operating.

 

In the end, all the “Cheezburger" network is is a leech, that feeds off peoples’ content while spewing out waste in the process. It’s the closest thing to Wal*Mart a site of it’s kind can be: It invades a subject, creates it’s own bastardization of a site for it, steals content (and viewers, ad revenue) from the better sites with it’s sheer household-name popularity, and when there’s nothing left of it’s competition, it assimilates it, and moves on to the next area to find more victims. With that, I conclude this before it ascends to the length of a small novel.

 

*I would have used an image hosted from one of the “Cheezburger” network’s sites, but I didn’t want to directly link to one of their images, and copying one of their images and hosting it on a hosting site would defeat the purpose of me saying plagiarism is wrong.

[Stretch 25]

huh interesting

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

I'll never go on that site again.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

So in an attempt to simplify this, it's like they go around clearing out all the libraries near your house and bring the books to theirs so when you go rent a book, not only do they have every copy, they also charge you to rent a book out even though it used to be free before from somewhere else?

 

Looking back, my example seems to describe a monopoly, which is kinda what the CB network is doing?

Edited March 10, 2012 by Doctor XFizzella

[HomuraBL 851]

...Is this including knowyourmeme?

[Legit101 300]

Completely agree, a horrible site with dare I say horrible users.

 

...Is this including knowyourmeme?

 

No, KYM doesn't take credit for and watermark everything uploaded. More of an archive.

KYM is owned by the cheezburger network though.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Lucifer

[be my waifu 2,842]

I never did like that place

[Kapi 215]

Sadly, we're talking about America here. Not saying everything in America is bad, but enough of it is to make it well known. Sometimes I find funny, original stuff there, but you're right, too often is it copied from other websites. The same can be said of YouTube, I can download a video, reupload it, and call it my own, and not a lot of people would notice.

 

I don't flat out blame the company though, and here's why. If they had staff taking care of looking through, and researching every submission, almost nothing would be posted to the site. We should be able to rely on users to point out the obvious. Its the same here, you guys (Mods/Staff) can't be everywhere at once, so you rely on users to press that Report button. That becomes a problem because you can't always rely on the users to make that decision, and some will report legit images for the lolz.

 

Maybe implementing a system like Craigslist has would work better. If you don't know, Craigslist is a website that allows you to post things you're selling, for free. Almost like an online garage sale. They work on a simple system called "flagging." Anyone can flag a post by clicking on one of the links in the flag box, these can be used to report Spam, Miscategorized posts, etc. Basically, after so many flags, the post is deleted. Nobody but Craigslist knows how many flags it takes, and the number can differ depending on the area and section being posted in. Its not foolproof, but it would work better than Cheezburger's current system.

 

For what its worth though, they wouldn't have a problem if they stuck with one site, and one site only. By adding on sites by the boatload, they're taking on more than they can chew, and for what? The money, of course. Just like you said, they're destroying the smaller sites so they can take all the money for themselves. Sadly, that's the way America is. I can name a handful of companies/businesses that aren't in it "just for the money." That's pathetic.

 

So yeah, I can say I 100% agree with you.

[HomuraBL 851]

Sadly, we're talking about America here. Not saying everything in America is bad, but enough of it is to make it well known. Sometimes I find funny, original stuff there, but you're right, too often is it copied from other websites. The same can be said of YouTube, I can download a video, reupload it, and call it my own, and not a lot of people would notice.

 

I don't flat out blame the company though, and here's why. If they had staff taking care of looking through, and researching every submission, almost nothing would be posted to the site. We should be able to rely on users to point out the obvious. Its the same here, you guys (Mods/Staff) can't be everywhere at once, so you rely on users to press that Report button. That becomes a problem because you can't always rely on the users to make that decision, and some will report legit images for the lolz.

 

Maybe implementing a system like Craigslist has would work better. If you don't know, Craigslist is a website that allows you to post things you're selling, for free. Almost like an online garage sale. They work on a simple system called "flagging." Anyone can flag a post by clicking on one of the links in the flag box, these can be used to report Spam, Miscategorized posts, etc. Basically, after so many flags, the post is deleted. Nobody but Craigslist knows how many flags it takes, and the number can differ depending on the area and section being posted in. Its not foolproof, but it would work better than Cheezburger's current system.

 

For what its worth though, they wouldn't have a problem if they stuck with one site, and one site only. By adding on sites by the boatload, they're taking on more than they can chew, and for what? The money, of course. Just like you said, they're destroying the smaller sites so they can take all the money for themselves. Sadly, that's the way America is. I can name a handful of companies/businesses that aren't in it "just for the money." That's pathetic.

 

So yeah, I can say I 100% agree with you.

 

I was with with you until you said America was in it for the money. You make it sound like every individual is a greedy bastard.

[Aureity 3,055]

Where else do I get my memes? I only use memebase, I wouldn't be caught dead at 9gag or reddit.

[HomuraBL 851]

Where else do I get my memes? I only use memebase, I wouldn't be caught dead at 9gag or reddit.

 

Knowyourmeme could work.

[Kapi 215]

I was with with you until you said America was in it for the money. You make it sound like every individual is a greedy bastard.

 

Sorry, I said in the first paragraph "Not saying everything in America is bad, but enough of it is to make it well known." I probably should have been a bit more specific.

There's enough greedy companies out there that it pretty much makes its own point though. Not everyone is, I know that, and like I said, I can even name a few companies that aren't in it just for the money. But, with the way big business is, it casts a bad light on all of us.

[Ezynell 2,037]

I've actually thought this for a while, but in a much more... uneducated way. Nice to see that somebody made a thought-provoking, detailed post about it I wish someone would make a not-so-conceited version of that site, but the problem is it would never get enough attention.

[ScottishUnicorn 284]

Let's see, I originally used to visit "I can haz cheezburger" websites back in about freshman year, I stopped probably the next year. Looking back at the website while going to a website called Reddit it's impressive to see how much content is stolen from Reddit, it's disgusting.

I wouldn't be caught dead at 9gag or reddit.

 

I can understand 9gag, but why not reddit

ლ(ಠ_ಠლ).

[Aureity 3,055]

Let's see, I originally used to visit "I can haz cheezburger" websites back in about freshman year, I stopped probably the next year. Looking back at the website while going to a website called Reddit it's impressive to see how much content is stolen from Reddit, it's disgusting.

 

I can understand 9gag, but why not reddit

ლ(ಠ_ಠლ).

 

Nothing ever catches my interest : I could solve a calc problem before I found something worthwhile to read.

[Legit101 300]

Sadly, we're talking about America here. Not saying everything in America is bad, but enough of it is to make it well known. Sometimes I find funny, original stuff there, but you're right, too often is it copied from other websites. The same can be said of YouTube, I can download a video, reupload it, and call it my own, and not a lot of people would notice.

 

I don't flat out blame the company though, and here's why. If they had staff taking care of looking through, and researching every submission, almost nothing would be posted to the site. We should be able to rely on users to point out the obvious. Its the same here, you guys (Mods/Staff) can't be everywhere at once, so you rely on users to press that Report button. That becomes a problem because you can't always rely on the users to make that decision, and some will report legit images for the lolz.

 

Maybe implementing a system like Craigslist has would work better. If you don't know, Craigslist is a website that allows you to post things you're selling, for free. Almost like an online garage sale. They work on a simple system called "flagging." Anyone can flag a post by clicking on one of the links in the flag box, these can be used to report Spam, Miscategorized posts, etc. Basically, after so many flags, the post is deleted. Nobody but Craigslist knows how many flags it takes, and the number can differ depending on the area and section being posted in. Its not foolproof, but it would work better than Cheezburger's current system.

 

For what its worth though, they wouldn't have a problem if they stuck with one site, and one site only. By adding on sites by the boatload, they're taking on more than they can chew, and for what? The money, of course. Just like you said, they're destroying the smaller sites so they can take all the money for themselves. Sadly, that's the way America is. I can name a handful of companies/businesses that aren't in it "just for the money." That's pathetic.

 

So yeah, I can say I 100% agree with you.

 

This is completely different.

Google doesn't advocate uploading copyrighted content and will take it down if they become aware of it.

I'm not sure if memebase even has a report button.

When you upload content to YouTube it doesn't get a big "YOUTUBE" watermark on it, content uploaded to memebase does.

 

See what I'm saying?

 

Where else do I get my memes? I only use memebase, I wouldn't be caught dead at 9gag or reddit.

 

I didn't know memes were a physical objects.

[FLARE 952]

I wonder why people STILL use this website/network....

 

'Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.'

-Albert Einstein

[Aureity 3,055]

I didn't know memes were a physical objects.

 

Most people would say "I got that idea from a book".

An idea is not a physical object either.

[Legit101 300]

Let's see, I originally used to visit "I can haz cheezburger" websites back in about freshman year, I stopped probably the next year. Looking back at the website while going to a website called Reddit it's impressive to see how much content is stolen from Reddit, it's disgusting.

 

Like what?

[Kapi 215]

This is completely different.

Google doesn't advocate uploading copyrighted content and will take it down if they become aware of it.

I'm not sure if memebase even has a report button.

When you upload content to YouTube it doesn't get a big "YOUTUBE" watermark on it, content uploaded to memebase does.

 

See what I'm saying?

 

I know. Since I'm not a member of any Cheezburger site, I'm not aware of any report buttons or anything like that. The point I was trying to illustrate is that users should be held responsible for their actions. If you take an image off of a website and then repost it somewhere else and say "its mine, I made it," its wrong. Of course, I blame the site for not having much of a policy regarding plagiarism, like you said Google/YouTube blatantly says "don't upload anything you didn't make."

 

Further, users should be reporting stuff they see that was stolen, if there's such an ability. Like I said, I can understand they don't have millions of staff members looking at submissions all day, but I don't see how they openly embrace stealing other peoples' work.

 

Also, yeah, I'm not great with words, I know I might contradict myself sometimes, and say things I don't mean to, I want to say sorry in advance for that. I have so much crap going on in my life right now that sometimes I can't think straight. I know I'm comparing Apples to Oranges, not something I like doing, but it just happens sometimes..

Edited March 10, 2012 by Kapi

[Legit101 300]

I know. Since I'm not a member of any Cheezburger site, I'm not aware of any report buttons or anything like that. The point I was trying to illustrate is that users should be held responsible for their actions. If you take an image off of a website and then repost it somewhere else and say "its mine, I made it," its wrong. Of course, I blame the site for not having much of a policy regarding plagiarism, like you said Google/YouTube blatantly says "don't upload anything you didn't make."

 

Further, users should be reporting stuff they see that was stolen, if there's such an ability. Like I said, I can understand they don't have millions of staff members looking at submissions all day, but I don't see how they openly embrace stealing other peoples' work.

 

Not acting on it = embracing it.

Profiting from it and doing nothing = embracing it.

Doing nothing to stop it = embracing it.

As far as I see.

[Zero000 435]

Here's what I do:

 

1. Go there and use meme-maker.

2. Import image with extra 100 pixels on the bottom.

3. Add impact fonted text.

4. Save

5. Cut off the watermark on bottom.

 

[Kapi 215]

Not acting on it = embracing it.

Profiting from it and doing nothing = embracing it.

Doing nothing to stop it = embracing it.

As far as I see.

 

You summed it up pretty well.

 

No matter what, both sides should be held accountable. Users shouldn't be uploading stolen content, and Cheezburger shouldn't be embracing it. Its a bad business model, but its netting them tons of money, so I doubt they'll be changing anytime soon..

 

EDIT: "Users should be uploding stolen content." Gee, that's a bit screwy.

 

EDIT 2: Also, I should've said "I don't see how they can openly embrace stealing other peoples' work." Another reason I should proofread my typing.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Kapi

[Ron Jeremy 2,032]

...I'm touched by the amount of attention this thread is getting. <3 I just thought I'd add this in case anypony accuses me of telling lies to make the "Cheezburger" network look evil/etc: You can do your own research on my points if you want.

 

Wall of text.

 

I agree with your points. Also, to put on top of your suggesting they get a flagging system, I have this to say: It easy to check and see if an image is plagiarized. Ridiculously easy. One can look around on art sites and see if they can find it. Heck, you can even drag/drop an image into Google search to find duplicates of it. If they had any plagiarism prevention at all, the problem would not exist.

 

But then they would have another problem: No content.

 

Not acting on it = embracing it.

Profiting from it and doing nothing = embracing it.

Doing nothing to stop it = embracing it.

As far as I see.

 

.

[DashingRainbow36 264]

I love the cheezburger network. I go to failblog, failbook, WIN, trolls, Bronies, Memebase, and many others.