Watermark Posts

[edchapman]

ok... this may sound silly to some but I think if you take a look at how I use SMF at WorshipSwap.com you will see how I have a need for this. I'm sure some other news related sites may want this too...

Anyway.. I would love an option to put a watermark behind the post it'self. So that when someone copy and pastes it on another site the water mark goes with it. 95% of my posts get added to other sites and most with no credit to where they came from. It would also be nice if the watermark could be on the printout too. I would like to be able to pick what boards have watermarks and be able to hide them for certain users.

[Oldiesmann]

Even if you add a watermark, people could still remove it after copying your post.

[Kindred]

besides.... posts are not images. Posts are text...   so how would a background image affect the text?  (answer: not at all)

[Oldiesmann]

Kindred - in this case the "watermark" would be done by inserting some "invisible" text into the post (that's the same color as the background of the post) - when someone just selects all the text and copies it, they'll end up copying the "hidden" text as well.

It's not going to stop people from copying the posts, and text-based "watermarks" are much easier to remove than image-based ones.

[karlbenson]

I'm not sure best way to do this. As far as I can see any link would have to be visible.

If you tried hiding text with same color as background etc especially with links, it could fall foul of google and other search engines as hiding text. 
That would be very bad for seo purposes and could even result in being sandboxed.

[ALEJO]

i dont think that there is a way to do that... one thing that can be done its something that blocks the copy of the text... but a watermark... i dont think so

[karlbenson]

Blocking copying of text is ineffective.

a) It only works in IE
b) There are 99 million ways to get around it that can't be blocked
c) You would annoy your genuine users more than those seeking to copy.

[edchapman]

Good to see some responses... If nothing else I got a few people thinking. maybe not for very long but.. oh well.
Thanks anyway.

[ALEJO]

Blocking copying of text is ineffective.

a) It only works in IE
b) There are 99 million ways to get around it that can't be blocked
c) You would annoy your genuine users more than those seeking to copy.

its better than nothing

[karlbenson]

actually for the reasons I outlined above, I always advise against using javascript copy/paste blocks.

[allumius]

you can look this page http://www.mundoplus.tv/noticias.php?seccion=series&id=2471
if you wan copy the text of news, when you paste, this is the result

Los Simpson, el videojuego ofrece mundoplus.tv a hilarante historia basada en la serie creada por Matt Groening. Para esta comedia de acción, Electronic Arts cuenta con el reparto completo de voces originales en castellano de la serie para que to mundoplus.tv s los personajes en Los Simpson, el videojuego suenen como en tu serie favorita. A partir de noviembre podrás disfrutar en España de las aventuras de los conoci mundoplus.tv s personajes televisivos en todas las consolas del merca mundoplus.tv . En concreto desde el 2 de noviembre estará disponible en XBOX 360, Ninte mundoplus.tv o Wii™, Ninte mundoplus.tv o DS, PlayStation® 2 y PSP, y el 15 de noviembre para Playstation 3.

[Dannii]

I suggest you adopt a creative commons licence and start building our collective culture

[karlbenson]

Indeed they way they do is by putting <s>websitename</s> after every 50 characters or so, but hiding it with css

s {
  display:none;
}

HOWEVER as I said above if you do that Google and other search engines DO READ css/javascript to detect hiding elements like that. And you may get a negative SEO effect and could potentially be blacklisted from google/search engines.

[edchapman]

The boards I want to protect are not open to guests...so I'm guessing google does not see them either... however, membership is free.
Is there a way to "add the URL every 50 characters or so" on posts that have been made in specific boards?
BTW... This is all way over my simple head.

[Oldiesmann]

Yes, it is possible, but again, there is nothing you can do to prevent copying - if people get wise to your method, they'll just remove the watermark. It's not a very effective option.

[edchapman]

Something like that would at least cutdown on so much of my hard work getting paste on other sites.