The tale that Monkey never told is the one everyone wants to hear. For the last 8 months his blog Monkey Fables And Tales was the most popular blog at Entrecard. Then 2 days ago his blog suddenly vanished from Blogspot with the following message “Sorry, the blog at monfat48.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.” As the twitter airwaves buzz with more questions than answers, let’s look at the two explanations given.
First the explanation given by Where The Hell Was I in this forum post. Author Charlie Hatton claims Monkey Tales stole all his posts. Doing my share of the legwork, I find Charlie’s claims to be true. He is an established net personality and his posts pre-date Monkey’s posts by years. There is no way he manufactured a fake Internet identity as a prank on Monkey Tales.
Monkey’s side of the story: Before hearing the above accusation, I messaged Monkey Tale via Entrecard and asked him what happened. Here is his message quoted in it’s entirety. My apologies to anyone insulted by me posting an email without permission, but I no longer have any way to contact the author.
From: Monkey Fables And Tales
I’ve decided that EC isn’t for me any more. (And unlike others who quit, I decided I didn’t need a dramatic exit with a post condemning the place.)
I’m putting all blogging on hold for awhile as well since it appears the business I work for is having a rough go of it with the economy spiraling down.
(We sell high end beds and accessories and I’m going to put more time and effort into that right now in an effort to get sales back on track, which my boss would appreciate.)
Mike”
Who to believe? While not a personal friend off Monkey Tale, I always liked the guy. He seemed to be a stand up guy in an Internet world of scammers and spammers. More than once I read forum posts of his complaining about “crap” written by other people. Yet, I have to look at the Google evidence. Almost every post was stolen.
Why it gets weirder:
- Monkey Tales did not have a single ad on his blog. Not even AdSense. He made no money from his actions
- Monkey had many blogs in the system, all written for the purpose of generating credits to advertise for his main blog.
- Monkey dropped many cards per day, probably 1300-1500 each and every day.
- Monkey’s blog was a blogspot domain, he couldn’t even sell the domain name in the end.
So, did Monkey Tales fool all the people all the time? If he did, I think an apology to the original authors he stole from and to his readers is in order. Either way, I welcome him to contact me and I will post either his apology or rebuttal to the accusations. In the end, I’m not really angry at Monkey. For the first time he actually made me laugh.
It says a lot about Entrecard that the most popular blog for 8 months was all stolen content. Actually, it might say it all.
What stands out to me in the reply you received is that Monkey said he’s putting his blogging on hold. Why delete the blog(s) entirely if that’s the case, rather than just let them hang out on blogger until ready to return? That jumps out as odd to me.
How very strange. I can’t say I ever knew him well, but I remember him hanging out on Blog Catalog last year and he always seemed like a nice guy to me.
It is good to see this situation with monkey explained here.Why he did it only monkey knows,and as Stan said the top blog on Ec for 8 months with stolen content what a slap in the face for EC.
Turnip, his blog hasn’t been down for 2 days — I dropped on all of his blogs last night.
I agree that it looks bad, but sometimes there are things that we just have no way of knowing. I wish Monkey would tell us. I feel that we are missing something here. He is a good person, IMO, and I can’t reconcile the behavior he is accused of with that.
“Sorry, the blog at monfat48.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.”
By the “address not available for new blogs” tells me he hasn’t deleted his blogs from Blogger.com.
Blogspots can be set for only author viewing. Also can be set to not show up in any pings or any searches on the internet.
Well, that’s kind of depressing. I really enjoyed reading his blog. What an ass.
Just when I thought I had heard it all. . .this is one of the strangest things I have ever heard.
I guess he just really liked the recognition?
This is a true mystery. I saw his blogs were there last night and now tonight I see nothing. I start to search and came across all the posts. It’s sad that a person had to do that.
I’m going to agree with Chilly on this one. I think the blogs are still there. They’re just hidden from public view. It would be nice though if he would come out and address the public since he made so many fans over the past few months.
Thanks for this post. I actually tried to figure out what was going on when he dropped off!! I could never figure out how the guy got such a high ranking in Entrecard either, but that’s ok too. Sucks that it was all stolen.
“For the first time he actually made me laugh.”
I never got his popularity. I’m so with you, I never thought his postings were particularly funny, witty, or well written.
Mommie: He actually posted about how he got to be #1. He had 5 blogs, and used all the credits to make one blog popular. That’s what he said publicly. Privately, he used to message all the newest people and say hello. add them to favorites, and so on. Funny how he left thtat little trick out of his “secrets” article. But a good magician can’t reveal all his tricks. Nothing beats a good disappearing act at the end of the show.
Wow, very interesting stuff, I was wondering what happened to him, and BTW, how on earth do you drop 1300-1500 cards everyday, I’m new here, I thought the limit was 300.
I always found him to be nice, cordial, and funny on Entrecard, but never saw the appeal of the blog. The content may have been funny, but there was nothing attractive about the blog, nor were there any pictures.
I don’t see why he would put his blogs on hold. I mean, I know sometimes you get busy and can’t post all the time. I mean, if you can bring in a LITTLE ad revenue, it’s better than none and post can be written as a passenger in a car.
Very strange, it just does not make sense. All I know is that the blue monkey on the red background will be missed in the Entrecard neighbourhood.
Wow. Thanks for digging into this. That is one of the weirder things I’ve seen. I would wonder if his entire blog experience was just some sort of social experiment, but the time commitment for that project seems outlandish for the results.
Is it possible it was all just a front to experiments with developing bots to drop cards? Or as a way to test out Entrecard’s security protocols? That’s just random speculation on my part.
that’s really strange. i was wondering what happened yesterday when all his blogs were deleted. i would still like to hear his side of story but it puzzles me that he still made efforts to drop his cards the past days and even bought ads if he knew he was about to leave.
I wondered where his blog went. Thanks for investigating this and letting us know. It does not say much for Entrecard if their top ranked blog for all these months is all stolen content! I think the fact that his blogs were immediately deleted without an explanation speaks volumes.
Why are you saying he didn’t make money on it? Can you imagine how much EC-credits he got per day? My guess is that he sold it. And when the new credit rules were applied his posting decreased.
I know how many credits he got per day. A blog like his can get 1000-1500 per blog. If he had 5 blogs, then he made 5000-7500 credits a day. But he also advertised on many top sites. I saw his ad everywhere. I don’t think he ever sold credits.
I am trying to figure this out but if there were no money in it I fail to understand it. I have mixed feelings, he seemed like a nice guy, he kind of fought for the (IMO) right stuff but then he does this which can’t be answered for..
All in all it should be captured on EC long ago.
I suppose none of us know who the others really are (with a very few exceptions).
I guess the trick is to embrace that concept and enjoy it rather than fall down a hole over it.
As always you are right Ken, its not worth digging out our brains for it.
I hope hes ok though. I don’t think he will be ‘hated’ if he comes back.
he has us all talking and wondering, so magician is a good word for him. I am saddened by all of this, I still like to believe in Oz.
This is an unfortunate incident because I enjoyed reading his blogs. One of the reasons that I started blogging is because I enjoy the writing – it’s a form of release. It therefore makes you wonder what satisfaction a person could get from using what someone else has written.
This is bizarre. What if Monkey/Mike is that Hatton guy? Just a thought…
Wow! That’s really weird and a pity. I enjoyed reading his posts. Indeed, as far as I remember Monkey Tales was almost the only blog I stopped to read when I was on a dropping spree (which usually happened after I published a post).
Like Theresa, I am wondering if Monkey and Hatton aren’t the same guy performing some sort of strange experiment.
It’s a bit crazy, but then again… monkeys are supposed to act a little crazy
Wonder if the truth will ever surface or not.
Please pardon my language here, but that is fucked up. I’m floored. Thanks for the info!
i wondered what happened to that little monkey, not mike, but seeing his blog during my dropping.
stolen post? wow. who busted him?
I agree with Julie@Cool Mom Guide…that’s just f**king wrong!
Bizarre! Maybe Monkey is Modern Glam?
There is a certain “challenge” to joining a site like EntreCard, learning the ins and outs, developing a system and then proving you are competent enough to get to the top. I know that I have started up a new blog and used my theory of dropping to see if I could get a new blog up to the top three in a category. That’s as good as I could achieve. I always wondered how he was so successful. Now…he did master the EntreCard System, we have to give him credit for that. He would not have had to steal content; it wasn’t that interesting anyway. Why couldn’t he have written short posts? He had a lot going for him but he chose not to share any of his real persona. At any rate, he dropped on my sites a LOT and I did reciprocate that.
“More than once I read forum posts of his complaining about “crap” written by other people.”
So upon reflection, can it be said he did not steal crap? He certainly didn’t write crap. He didn’t write non-crap. He stole non-crap? Or was it all crap after all?
Sorry, you’re probably thinking this comment is crap.
Hence,
Entrecard Popularity index is not the measure of blog popularity.
QED.
I never got into reading that blog. The posts could be good but there was something missing when I left comments, there wasn’t a feeling of real feedback. An interesting situation. But having the posts and all the blogs removed does seem condemning.
@dai: actually, Monkey Tales was a highly popular blog.
Regarding other comments bashing Entrecard for not properly screening the content of that blog, I wonder who of us, being a (unpaid) moderator there could perform a deep and thorough review on every blog submitted.
The blog was entertaining and good enough, it becomes very popular indeed and I’m not telling from EC popularity, but from the comments every post had. Now it seems that it’s a fake, so what? Is it Entrecard’s fault?
The FBI and CIA weren’t able to asses the risks and discover the 9/11 plan on time, and I guess they have much more staff than EC.
I think the moral here is just “sh*t happens”
Although I might be jumped on for this – fact is, no one personally knows Monkey OR the person at the other blog.
Sorry folks, but all of this is heresay. Unless anyone sat infront of either and interviewed them… both, at the same time (yes, could be the same person) – no one really knows.
The internet is a place where our “faces” are merely what we allow others to see.
So, while this is an interesting story – I’m putting not one ounce of truth in either side.
Love and Light,
Mon
No, Charlie Hatton is the real deal. You could just as easily claim since nobody has arms big enough to wrap around the earth, how could they ever prove it’s round? Unless Google itself is involved in the hoax to frame monkey, the proof is there. You just don’t know how or where to look. Let me introduce you to the wayback machine. http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Go there, enter http://www.wherethehellwasi.com/ and take a look.
For those of you saying the blog is hidden from view by anyone but the author, that’s incorrect. Blogger would ask for a login. If you are logged into Blogger, it would say you couldn’t read that particular blog. Blogger/blogspot seen a rash of blog stealing/spamming in 2004/2005 so whenever an author deletes a blog, that username keeps the URL, incase they want to re-open it.
I don’t understand why people steal anything online other than HTML colours. Use your own face. Post your own entries. Be yourself. You’re 100xs better than anyone you’re thinking of ripping off.
I wondered where he had gone when I went to check yesterday. Weird indeed.
This is weird! I’ve no idea why they steal such contents? Aren’t they aware that this can be discovered sooner or later?
Loosers they are!
I am totally floored. Turnip, as usual good job of tracking shit down. You have always been true blue. I am glad someone else said his blog was not that good. I never did understand why he was so popular. I have to rethink this whole internet thing. Oh and I agree with Anthony. Why is this entrecard’s fault?
i was amazed that he’s advertising everywhere in the entrecard community, only to showcase a stolen content! strange! so far, i’ve read only one post in his blog. And i don’t even remember what it says.
Well, at any rate, he’s given everyone something to talk about here at the end of his run. Just about every EC blog I’ve hit today has a post about it, and all of them seem to be gathering comments.
I can’t fathom what the gain from all that work might have been. Maybe he was just bored.
Etta: His material makes much more sense when you view it as stand up comedy routines. Ever see “The King of Comedy?”
Mike: Are any of these other posts a direct copy of my post? Scoundrels!
Haha… not that I noticed. All the comments seem to be strikingly similar, though. Perhaps someone is going around ripping off other people’s comments.
There are plenty of sites I have left comments on and have never seen anything reciprocal. His (monkey) was just one of many. The Internet is a wild and wooly place and will probably always be.
The only main problem I have is it just shows my wife how crazy I am for trusting anybody on The web. To here, if you can’t see them face to face, then you can’t trust them.
Maybe she’s right.
I hope not.
Beamer
Mike: Interesting comment. Except that on the WordPress admin end, I see all the IP’s and email adresses. Only one comment above is a fake comment. Someone with an agenda used a fake name and website, no big deal.
The bigger mystery is how do they write about the story without linking to me?
Only two people did.
Wow… don’t overthink me, Turnip. I was actually just offering a commentary on the fact that no one has anything original to say about this, so all the comments are “Oh damn, hadn’t expected that. I thought he was a nice guy.”