another unethical dz website

[happythoughts 0]

It always fascinates me when someone has to use unethical means to promote any product. Then, there seems to be an expectation that we would trust the vendor in other aspects of their business.

They are loading up their HTML in small font (unreadably small PLUS it is not in a displayed color). It is designed to never be read, just picked up by search engines.

The idea is to use the names of reputable people and dzs to get search hits.

It is on the main page, right under the counter-bot. If you drag your mouse, you can see how it is never meant to be read.

Here is the beauty. It lists all the other Florida DZs and a few people. Lakes Wales, Z-hills, Clewiston, Miami, Sebastian (and even steals their "scenic dropzone" logo). It mentions Skyventure, and a few people like Colon Berry by name.

Legally? It states, "Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: ..."

It sounds like someone consulted an attorney before misleading you. So, it is probably legal, but just not honest.

Here is the best part. The last line is, "As you waste your time reading my html, know that im laughing at you and off doing the next greatest thing and realize, this is one example why you are where you are today and not doing much better with your life."

Well, Emilio M, here's laughing back. You didn't outsmart anyone, you just signed your name to your business ethics.

Perhaps, the dz owners don't know what was set up in their name by their "webmaster". I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and a phone call this weekend.

[narcimund 0]

http://www.skydiveswflorida.com

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Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: Skydive Florida, skydive south beach, skydiving south beach, skydive southbeach, skydiving southbeach, sky dive south beach, sky dive southbeach. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: sky diving south beach, sky diving southbeach, skydive in florida, skydiving in florida, skydive key west, skydiving key west, skydive keywest, skydiving keywest. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive daytona, skydiving daytona, skydive zephyrhills, skydiving zephyrhills, skydiving pahokee, skydive pahokee. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive west palm beach, skydiving west palm beach, skydive chicago, skydiving chicago, skydive clewiston, skydiving clewiston, skydive st. petersburg, skydiving st. petersburg. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: air adventures, air adventures of clewiston, skydive west central florida, skydiving west central florida, florida skydiving center, florida skydive center, skydive florida contact, skydiving florida contact. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive city, skydiving city, skydive sebastian, skydiving sebastian, scenic dropzone, dropzone, freefall adventures, skydive training programs, skydiving training programs, skyventure, skyventures, skyventure orlando, skyventures orlando, skydive space center. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive palatka, skydiving palatka, www.skydiveflorida.com, tropical adventure, dropzone.com, www.dropzone.com, skydiving adventures in florida, sky dive florida, skydive deland, sky dive deland, skydiving deland, skydive homestead, skydiving homestead, tandem skydive, tandem skydiving, skydiving links. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive links, USPA, uspa.org, florida keys, skydiving clubs, skydive lake wales, skydiving lake wales, skydive news, skydiving news, skydive gift certificate, gift certificate, skydive florida, skydiving florida. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: florida skydiving, south florida skydive, south florida skydiving, skydive miami, skydiving miami, skydive america, skydiving america, skydiving southbeach, skydive orlando, skydiving orlando, skydive ft. myers, skydiving ft. myers, skydive naples, skydiving naples, skydive tampa, skydiving tampa, skydive Ft. Lauderdale. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydiving ft. Lauderdale, skydive video, skydiving video, download skydive video, download skydiving video, extreme sports, bridge jumping, skydiving equipment. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive equipment, roy torgeirson, anne-laure touron, anne laure touron, emilio mamuyac, emilio, mamuyac, jim west, torgeirson, touron, Jamey Raulerson, Raulerson, Raulerson skydiving, Kenny Ruetsch, ruetsch, Kenny Ruetsch skydiving, LaBelle, labelle, skydive labelle, skydiving labelle, skydive LaBelle, skydiving LaBelle, tandem skydiving, fundraise ft. myers. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: fundraising, sports, Florida Skydiving Center at Lake Wales, Freefall Adventures Florida, Jacksonville Extreme Sports, Palm Beach Xtreme Skysports, Colon Berry, School of Human Flight, Skydive Lake Wales, Skydive Tampa Bay,Skydive Williston, Skydive City Z Hills, z-hills, Jump out of a perfectly good airplane,learn to skydive south florida, learn to skydive florida, IAF-program, AFF, AFF program, AFF-program. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: IAF program, IAF, parachute jumping in florida, parachuting in florida, Sport Parachuting in florida, Parachute clubs in Florida, Florida Skydiving Centers, wellington, royal palm, miami, fort lauderdale, boca raton, south florida, freefalling, jump, jumping, airplanes, pilots. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: flying, blue skies, uspa, skydiving america, skydive america, team building, corporate, vacation, excitement, incentives, fundraising, employee recognition, extreme, sport, adventure, air, challenge, parachutes, parachuting, tandem, accelerated, free fall, drop zone, dropzone, skysurfing, center, centers. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: sky diving, student programs, skydive classes, skydiving classes, skydive training, skydiving training, aviation, outdoor, recreation, sports, club, clubs, static-line, skydive equipment, skydiving equipment, skydive instruction. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydiving instruction, air-sports, gift certificates, world record, free fly, freefly, freefly team, skydive team, video, picture, pictures, jump, DZ, freefly tutorial, freefly instruction, freefly calendar, freefly events, AFP, AFF, WSA, world skydiving association, resort, skydive resort. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: world skydiving convention, extreme sports, canopy, twin otter, otter, cessna, caravan, cessna caravan, air sports, aerial sports, aerial stunts, base jumping, airsports, skysports, skyjump, skyjumping, bungee, bungee jumping, relative work, rigs, gear, accelerated free fall, airborne, boogie, aircraft. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: certification, licenses, license, licensing, skydive courses, skydiving courses, skydive today, learn to skydive, thrill, thrills, us, usa, first jump, adrenaline, freestyle, head down, sitfly, skysurf, skysurfing, formation, university, coach, coaching, camps, airport, outdoors, terminal velocity. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: 8-way, 4-way, simulator, wind tunnel, world class, suncoast skydiving, suncoast skydive, suncoast. As you waste your time reading my html, know that im laughing at you and off doing the next greatest thing and realize, this is one example why you are where you are today and not doing much better with your life.

Revolting. The good news is this shit doesn't work. In fact, Google is known to penalize websites that try to cheat this way.

Try putting any of these terms into Google. You won't get their homepage. Some of them link to internal pages, but google has clearly downgraded their homepage position.

And yes, they deserve it.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[happythoughts 0]

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http://www.skydiveswflorida.com

Revolting. The good news is this shit doesn't work. In fact, Google is known to penalize websites that try to cheat this way.

Try putting any of these terms into Google. You won't get their homepage. Some of them link to internal pages, but google has clearly downgraded their homepage position.

And yes, they deserve it.

I googled "skydiving zephyrhills".
They are there as Skydive Florida.

For those who don't live in Florida, Punta Gorda is nowhere near Zhills. Probably 2.5+ hours driving time.

[shermanator 3]

wow. i'm curious what you were doing that you found that? tiny little print!

CLICK HERE! new blog posted 9/21/08
CSA #720

[jbanning 0]

Yes, I found it, you have to hit select all. How did you know to look?

[happythoughts 0]

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Yes, I found it, you have to hit select all. How did you know to look?

If you are ever looking at a website and wonder how the search engine found your keywords, just right-click on the page. Then, click "view source". This gives you the HTML source.

Then, do a "find" on whatever text that you were using with the search engine when the search engine found it. It will find the keywords in the page.

If they are in tiny print on the webpage, just copy them to a Word document and they will appear regular size.

[narcimund 0]

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Yes, I found it, you have to hit select all. How did you know to look?

I wasn't the one to originally find this of course, but if I'd ever gone to that website I'd have noticed the large blank gap at the bottom of the window above the stupid "WARNING" notice.

Since I'm a website developer, I'd wonder what that was caused by. A simple view source reveals all sins.

I also commonly Select All in webpages. The highlighting reveals tremendous information about how the page is assembled: which text is graphic vs. text vs. flash, how columnar layout is achieved, etc.

It's just professional curiosity that sometimes pays off with entertaining surprises like this one.

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[narcimund 0]

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you waste your time reading my html, know that im laughing at you and off doing the next greatest thing and realize, this is one example why you are where you are today and not doing much better with your life.

Since yesterday Skydive Southwest Florida removed this snotty line from their website. Skydive Southwest Florida is obviously reading this thread.

So they removed the insulting comments from their code but Skydive Southwest Florida DIDN'T remove the misleading, probably trademark-violating text.

post edited by request

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[pilotdave 0]

Oh come on... it's just an attempt to beat skyride at their own game. I think its ridiculous to connect this to aircraft and equipment maintenance. What a joke...

Dave

[hippie_md 0]

Through Google search, you will find several skydiving websites in Florida using the indentical method that the website designer for Skydive Southwest Florida used, however, you have chosen to single-out this specific DZ. I find it amusing that the web site designer would embed code for no else to see except other website designers and people whom are bored enough to look, i.e. "As you waste your time reading my html, know that im laughing at you and off doing the next greatest thing and realize, this is one example why you are where you are today and not doing much better with your life." I find this very funny, reason being, you allowed yourself to become bothered by this and I don't doubt that this website designer is reading your rant and laughing even more so. I suspect this website designer has a great sense of humor. Furthermore, If your secure with who you are and happy with your life, then what this individual has said should have no effect on you, however, I believe if your not completely happy with your life, I see how this may have disturbed you. Guys, let it go, be happy, jump more!

I would not be concerned that this DZ is gaining business that another DZ could have. If people are happy going to one dropzone than another, let it be. Perhaps in the future, the student or upper jumper will visit your DZ and perhaps they will overhear your negative rants about another DZ, which will create a negative environment. Perhaps the Skydive Southwest Florida staff are reading your post and apparently they have not responded to you. Perhaps their too busy jumping and having a great time, get over it.

When you focus on the negative things in life, you'll have a lot more negative things in your life. When you focus on postive things in life, your life will be beautiful!

Let it go...

[Zarkon 0]

From a web development standpoint I would agree that it's unethical to manipulate the search criteria like this, but I'd leave it at unethical advertising or at most business practices. I wouldn't consider the DZ 'unsafe' because they want to trick consumers into hitting their site first. There's a lot of web consultants out there whose only job is to increase the web traffic on a site by manipulating search criteria, it's possible the DZ didn't intend to be deceptive...and if so I doubt they sit around the bonfire at night cooking up evil plots.

Looks like they also disabled rlick and highlight on their main page now, but it can still be seen by ctrl-a ctrl-c ...well whatever works for them I guess

[happythoughts 0]

You need to re-read my original post.

I found the site because of an nonsensical search engine hit. I wanted to find out why.

The reason was that the website was built using poor professional ethics. I don't support that. I hope that you would do the same in your professional life.

I also found it interesting that designer took the time to intentionally put comments in their page to taunt other professionals. That sounds like a person with two issues - lack of ethics and a serious lack of self-esteem.

It is quite easy to pay Google to move your website to the top of a search. The unethical design is to make the names of successful businesses to point to the clients by error.

It is a type of reputation theft. That is the reason that the web designer made it unreadable to people, just the search engines. They were hoping that people would not find their deception.

I do look at the positives in life, but I also highlight the easy solutions for the negatives. Doing the right thing is too easy in this case.

[LouDiamond 1]

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Looks like they also disabled rlick and highlight on their main page now, but it can still be seen by ctrl-a ctrl-c ...well whatever works for them I guess

It also looks like they edited the text some as well. Skydive Deland and reference to Dropzone.com have since been removed. The previous version and the subsequent/current changes made after this thread to try and conceal it demonstrate very poor form IMO. In the end it's a reflection of the web master and the business.Hopefully they will choose the hard right over the easy wrong and do the right thing.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[veri 0]

Things like that, along with the aforementioned snotty commentary, will definitely push me to another dz, no questions asked.

Pretty damn pathetic, and even more so when they tried to disable right-click / highlighting (yeah, because that's not hard to work around or anything) instead of just removing that garbage.

(also another semi-geek here, so nice find on the not-so-hidden text.)

[llkenziell 0]

I still can't find it -- even hitting "Select All" just stops at the bottom before the large gap. =/

"Living like fallen angels who lost their halos" - Unknown Prophets

-Love Life-

[narcimund 0]

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I still can't find it -- even hitting "Select All" just stops at the bottom before the large gap. =/

Hehehe. it's funny to watch how the web developer is responding to this thread. He's now converted the whole thing to a complex JS encoding. But if you don't spot it the current hidden search engine spam is:

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Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: Skydive Florida, skydive south beach, skydiving south beach, skydive southbeach, skydiving southbeach, sky dive south beach, sky dive southbeach. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: sky diving south beach, sky diving southbeach, skydive in florida, skydiving in florida, skydive key west, skydiving key west, skydive keywest, skydiving keywest. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive daytona, skydiving daytona, skydiving pahokee, skydive pahokee. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive west palm beach, skydiving west palm beach, skydive st. petersburg, skydiving st. petersburg. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive west central florida, skydiving west central florida, skydive florida contact, skydiving florida contact. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: scenic dropzone, dropzone, freefall adventures, skydive training programs, skydiving training programs. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: sky dive florida, tandem skydive, tandem skydiving, skydiving links. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive links, florida keys, skydiving clubs, skydive news, skydiving news, skydive gift certificate, gift certificate, skydive florida, skydiving florida. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: florida skydiving, south florida skydive, south florida skydiving, skydive america, skydiving america, skydiving southbeach, skydive orlando, skydiving orlando, skydive ft. myers, skydiving ft. myers, skydive naples, skydiving naples, skydive tampa, skydiving tampa, skydive Ft. Lauderdale. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydiving ft. Lauderdale, skydive video, skydiving video, download skydive video, download skydiving video, extreme sports, bridge jumping, skydiving equipment. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydive equipment, roy torgeirson, anne-laure touron, anne laure touron, emilio mamuyac, emilio, mamuyac, torgeirson, touron,  skydiving, LaBelle, labelle, skydive labelle, skydiving labelle, skydive LaBelle, skydiving LaBelle, tandem skydiving, fundraise ft. myers. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: fundraising, sports, Jump out of a perfectly good airplane,learn to skydive south florida, learn to skydive florida, IAF-program, AFF, AFF program, AFF-program. Other great skydiving centers and subjects include: IAF program, IAF, parachute jumping in florida, parachuting in florida, Sport Parachuting in florida, Parachute clubs in Florida, Florida Skydiving Centers, wellington, royal palm, miami, fort lauderdale, boca raton, south florida, freefalling, jump, jumping, airplanes, pilots. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: flying, blue skies, uspa, skydiving america, skydive america, team building, corporate, vacation, excitement, incentives, fundraising, employee recognition, extreme, sport, adventure, air, challenge, parachutes, parachuting, tandem, accelerated, free fall, drop zone, dropzone, skysurfing, center, centers. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: sky diving, student programs, skydive classes, skydiving classes, skydive training, skydiving training, aviation, outdoor, recreation, sports, club, clubs, static-line, skydive equipment, skydiving equipment, skydive instruction. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: skydiving instruction, air-sports, gift certificates, world record, free fly, freefly, freefly team, skydive team, video, picture, pictures, jump, DZ, freefly tutorial, freefly instruction, freefly calendar, freefly events, AFP, AFF, WSA, world skydiving association, resort, skydive resort. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: world skydiving convention, extreme sports, canopy, twin otter, otter, cessna, caravan, cessna caravan, air sports, aerial sports, aerial stunts, base jumping, airsports, skysports, skyjump, skyjumping, bungee, bungee jumping, relative work, rigs, gear, accelerated free fall, airborne, boogie, aircraft. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: certification, licenses, license, licensing, skydive courses, skydiving courses, skydive today, learn to skydive, thrill, thrills, us, usa, first jump, adrenaline, freestyle, head down, sitfly, skysurf, skysurfing, formation, university, coach, coaching, camps, airport, outdoors, terminal velocity. Other good skydiving centers and subjects include: 8-way, 4-way, simulator, wind tunnel, world class

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[Zeemax 0]

Just to throw another 'amusing' spanner in the works... Am i right in thinking that music is Ian Van Dahl (sp)?

If so, are the site owners paying the PRS fees (or the equivelant in the US) for the use and broadcast of this music?

If they claim it to be a sound a like (which could negate this fee), in this country, it sounds far too like it to get away with not paying.

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[narcimund 0]

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Hehehe. it's funny to watch how the web developer is responding to this thread. He's now converted the whole thing to a complex JS encoding. But if you don't spot it the current hidden search engine spam is:

And now they've just taken the whole site down. Party poopers!

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[PhreeZone 15]

Site is still online here, they may have just blocked your IP.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Thanatos340 1]

As long as it is not Dishonest, What is the problem?? Everyone wants better search engine Placement.

There are not Regional monopolies or exclusive Franchises being sold for Skydiving. This is a free Market Economy. Long as companies are being honest, Competition is a good thing.

I own a small Software company. I PAY Google Ad words, MSN and Yahoo for TOP placement whenever someone searches for one of my Competitors. I cant see why a Dropzone should not do the same thing.

The difference between this and what skyride does is that Skyride tries to hide who they are and have sites for DZ`s that do not exist. They are using fraud and deception in my opinion. But making sure that your website is listed in a search engine when someone searches for a Competitors is a completely acceptable and ethical business practice as long as your listing is not deceptive.

Example: You sell widgets. Company is J`s Widgets.
Your main competitor is K`s Widgets.

Someone searches for K`s Widgets, Your listing comes up as J`s Widgets - An alternative to K`s Widgets. Better Prices, Better Quality.

That is just good marketing.

Now if you hide behind a fake name or try to fool people into thinking you are really K`s Widgets, Then you are being unethical. This is what Skyride does and the Reason many people have such a problem with them.

[PhreeZone 15]

Actually using hidden words, gateway pages, intrasite URL redirection pages and a few other things are considered "abuse" by at least 3 major search engines and they will take known violators and remove them from their indexing since they are poluting the results of the searches. This is to keep their product from being clogged with junk pages. What if you went to search for "dropzone" but the first 75 results were just people that copied the dictionary into their code as hidden words and bumped all other search results since they used the word dropzone more.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[narcimund 0]

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Site is still online here, they may have just blocked your IP.

They were funny before. Now they're hilarious! We've got them comparing IP addresses in their access logs with geographic locations in our profiles... That's just plain childish. This is a business?

And they're shooting themselves in the foot. I'm sure Google will be really proactive in indexing their encoded JS block. They've got a technology geek willing to sabotage the business to prove how clever he is.

"Vanity -- definitely my favorite sin." -- The devil in Devil's Advocate

First Class Citizen Twice Over

[Thanatos340 1]

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Actually using hidden words, gateway pages, intrasite URL redirection pages and a few other things are considered "abuse" by at least 3 major search engines and they will take known violators and remove them from their indexing since they are poluting the results of the searches.

Agreed. Like I said, I PAY the sites for top placement for my Business. Cost over $1K a Month for Yahoo alone and I have to pay about $8 per click to keep the top spot for certain key words (Including the names of my Biggest competitors).

Whoever is working their page is obviously pretty clueless as the tactics they are using are no longer effective anyway. But what they are trying to accomplish is NOT unethical in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with making sure potential customers see your site when they are looking for a competitor as long your are honest about who you are.

Sort of like searching for a local Walmart.. And Target shows up in the list.

[rehmwa 2]

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They've got a technology geek willing to sabotage the business to prove how clever he is.

I'm wondering if this is the entire story. Nothing more, nothing less. Maybe a note to the DZ about how their web jockey is working their site would be a surprise to the DZO.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[PhreeZone 15]

I'm not allowed access either now but outside my primary IP the site is still coming up.

Its funny since I was in FL the other week and had considered to head by there to jump their chopper but the weather washed it out. Since I'm blocked that makes my next trip to FL pretty each to plan since I can't get their phone number anymore.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com