Since he didn't really say why, 9GAG steals images from reddit and other places, removes the water marks and put their own there. They get alot of ad revenue from this, and they don't even deserve it. Here's a post from /r/9gag explaining it:
These are things I've observed in the last weeks, even months. I've been looking very closely at how, when and which submissions 9GAG steals. Today, I present my results.
UPDATE
I've edited my entire post. The 9GAG Administration is reacting to my creation and are observing the Hot / Trending page very carefully. They copy fewer submissions from reddit and give their copies realistic post times. The Trending and Hot page is being updated very slowly, which is very strange. Unless they are now missing the copies/reposts they usually take from other sites. Looks like I've caught the attention of the 9GAG bosses!
OBSERVATIONS
- 9GAG does indeed steal submissions from other sites everyday. Sometimes up to 90% of the Hot or Trending page are reposts from reddit, their main source.
You should know this one by now.
- 9GAG does not have automated scripts which steal your submissions. Everything is done by humans.
I don't know who came up with that idea that they made scripts, because it's just wrong. They have hired people to browse the biggest subreddits (such as /r/pics, /r/funny, /r/gaming, /r/wtf, /r/aww, /r/f7u12, /r/adviceanimals, /r/videos) and steal content. Day for day.
- 9GAG staff visits sites like tumblr.com, funnyjunk.com, reddit.com and 4chan.org in order to identify threats and react correctly.
They are reading this right now. They do this since 4chan attacked their site. This will make most my links to 9GAG lead to 404 or redirect you to their index page.
- When 9GAG steals a submission (from reddit), they rename the title and remove watermarks.
Proves that actual people are stealing our content. They have become pretty good at removing the reddit alien watermark from our rage comics and they will change our submission titles to "9GAG appropriate" ones. For example, they will replace the word "reddit" with "9GAG". Or rename "I have made this awesome cake" to "Awesome Cake" and "Look what I've found in Paris!" to "Genius graffiti from Paris" (they cannot be all over the world at the same time).
Bots cannot do this task. Only humans can.
- reddit is not the only site they steal from.
I have noticed they steal from other sites like tumblr and pinterest as well. Probably there are even more websites.
- 9GAG fakes the submission times of stolen posts in order to make it seem like 9GAG is the original source.
Let's take a closer look at this one.
>reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/z8icm/socially_fabulous_penguin/
>9GAG post: http://9gag.com/gag/5259343
>reddit post time: 22 hours ago
>9GAG post time: 23 hours ago
Now, it seems like it was posted on 9GAG before reddit! This is a witty trick from the 9GAG Administration. Let's find out by how many hours their post time has been manipulated. For this we take a look at the next post: http://9gag.com/gag/5259341. Obviously this has been posted before http://9gag.com/gag/5259343 because the submission number is smaller. But when we look at the submission times, we see this...
>http://9gag.com/gag/5259341 post time: 17 hours ago
>http://9gag.com/gag/5259343 post time: 23 hours ago
When it should be reverse! Oh dear, what is this? Wizard magic? Or proof that 9GAG invented the time machine?!
- 9GAG does not want their users to notice that their community is very restrictedly ruled by admins.
They're pretty good at hiding this. Their commenting system will automatically hide your comment if it contains the word "reddit" or "reddit.com", for example. It is only visible for yourself. Sign off Facebook and your comment will be gone.
They have taken other steps to make sure their users don't notice that most of the top 9GAG posts are stolen. They have removed the submission times from Hot / Trending, they have removed the Likes from user pages (except your own) - because bots can easily be spot since they have 0 likes - and they have removed comments from user pages because people would point out bots.
- 9GAG "repost accounts" are easy to spot. If you know they exist.
Example "repost account": http://9gag.com/bananabirdie (Screenshot)
Take a look at his posts. Nearly every single one reached the Trending or Hot page (indicated by the high number of comments and likes). This is impossible, regular accounts look like this http://9gag.com/loninox (Screenshot) and don't ever reach the Trending / Hot page. Not to mention with every single post.
- 9GAG staff does look out for people who point out "repost accounts". I have listed some in my post before. Nearly all of them are gone now. Once they see a "repost account" mentioned, they will not delete it - but change its name. Proof here. more
Seems like they really don't want to make this go public. They also want to keep the stolen content. Everytime a "repost account" is discovered, they give it a new name. Repeat ad infinitum.
At first I thought they have created a script that automatically changes the accounts name after a certain amount of visits (let's say 100) use the referrer reddit.com (or 4chan.org, tumblr.com...). But I shouldn't give them ideas. The account I've mentioned in this image has been changed as well, so there are definitely people changing the accounts names. I have never linked it anywhere, nor has anyone else. The referrer is i.imgur.com and not reddit.com.
"repost accounts" usually have two words in their names, maybe one or two underscores, some random numbers before or after the name. They have made a name generator script only for this purpose.
CONCLUSIONS
The fact that 9GAG has to constantly steal content from other sites is only proof that 9GAG has the worst community ever. Even though 9GAG is the 268th most visited site on the planet their users cannot come up with their own funny content.
9GAG seems to be based upon the idea that the administration steals content from other sites, as this old screenshot shows. It looks like they have always been stealing. Check how many posts have been posted by a user called "reddit". But now they have decided to hide the fact that they take their content from reddit.
9GAG does not want people to know this. They've done several things to make their content theft go unnoticed.
FURTHER PROOF
If you still don't believe it, check out these administrator accounts. Look how all of their posts got massive votes and comments - something that is impossible to achieve without cheating the system.
Here's some proof that 9GAG reads even tiny subreddits like /r/9gag. They deleted the 9GAG account of this redditor shortly after he created his thread.
Humans make mistakes, and 9GAG staff are only humans. Here is a post they accidentally uploaded on their Trending page. 9GAG users didn't understand the joke and their mistake went viral on reddit. Then 9GAG found out and removed the post (...since they observe reddit). Lulz was had.
OTHER STUFF
(LINK) (GAG) (USER) Let's see how long it takes for them to fix the issue.
- The owner of this post is a "repost account". Watch how it changes as soon as it is being discovered:
http://9gag.com/applebumer IS A REPOST ACCOUNT! WE FOUND OUT, 9GAG! YOU BETTER DELETE IT, 9GAG STAFF, OR I WILL BE VERY ANGRY...
Here is one of the oldest 9GAG accounts. Seems familiar?
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW
Either 9GAG stops stealing content from other sites using their evil system they have developped over time and leaves the content creation to their userbase
OR
they will make it even harder to detect stolen content, add more protection mechanisms and cover their tracks even better.
I recommend you go for the first option, dear 9GAG Admin who is reading this.
I apologize for my poor English skills. Feel free to copy this post. 9FAG_EXPERT out.
