3 ms·

This is pretty insane. Here's the plagiarizer's new Substack profile: https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan - the profile was

This is pretty insane. Here's the plagiarizer's new Substack profile: https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan - the profile was created 2024-04-26. That's not the actual author, it's someone stealing Michael's content under their own name. For now, please be suspicious of Substack-hosted content - here or elsewhere - from anyone without obvious reputation. Obviously stealing old Substack hostnames and posting otherwise-identical content on the orignal URLs is now a thing. Their URLs are not as stable/consistent as we all (reasonably!) assume. Substack, if you allow old hostnames to be re-used, how about removing the ability to use the same URL slug? Or at least removing the ability to back-date posts? It's probably worth looking for old URLs (ie, hostname+page slug) that have been re-published by different Substack accounts, too - obviously this flaw is being exploited. Plagiarizer, you're obviously active on HN. Can you share more about why you're doing this? Boredom? Substack monetization grift?

whitakerch 2y ago
I'm confused as to how we can tell. Where do you see "the profile was created 2024-04-26"? Is the instagram linked on the profile also faked or is that the real guy? How do we know it was deleted back in 2022? Because there's a single web archive snapshot where the page shows as "Not Found" in that year? That could happen for other reasons. The guy could also be re-instating his own substack. I'm not doubting this but want to know how to detect it. If the instagram is the real guy someone should tell him lol.
- troydavis 2y ago
  Profile creation date is in the profile metadata. View source on https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan and find for: profile_set_up_at The Instagram link is not the real author, it's just some random person with the same name. I'd rather not share more about this person's pattern, but I've sent it to Dan and Substack. If you look closely at the links I pasted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40164077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40164077 (and profiles), you'll spot most of it. I'm sure they'll get better next time, though. This is all but impossible to detect unless there's some pattern/tell. That's why I say to be somewhat skeptical of Substack URLs for now, unless you know the person giving it to you (or are otherwise sure the blog wasn't deleted). The real solution is for Substack to not allow people to re-publish on URLs already used by other accounts, so you and I don't need to try to figure this out on a case-by-case basis - in general, that's not possible.
troydavis 2y ago
Update: the Substack profile and blog have been deleted, either by the plagiarizer/scammer who saw these comments or by Substack. The article itself is still online (even though the index page and profile are gone), though I assume it will be deleted soon. Here's what the fake Substack looked like in the time it was online (roughly 2024-04-26): http://web.archive.org/web/20240426123303/https://michaeldehaan.substack.com/p/what-we-train-our-brains-for http://web.archive.org/web/20240426123303/https://michaeldeh... It had 10+ posts written by the real author, re-created under the original title, URL slug, publication date, and byline. The only difference was that the actual Substack owner was a scammer, not the author. As mentioned elsewhere, this is essentially undetectable by regular people. The only fix is for Substack to prevent it from happening at all. http://web.archive.org/web/20240426130030/https://michaeldehaan.substack.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20240426130030/https://michaeldeh... has a preview of the index page, though it doesn't list the other blog posts that were re-published.

whitakerch 2y ago

I'm confused as to how we can tell. Where do you see "the profile was created 2024-04-26"? Is the instagram linked on the profile also faked or is that the real guy? How do we know it was deleted back in 2022? Because there's a single web archive snapshot where the page shows as "Not Found" in that year? That could happen for other reasons. The guy could also be re-instating his own substack. I'm not doubting this but want to know how to detect it. If the instagram is the real guy someone should tell him lol.

troydavis 2y ago
Profile creation date is in the profile metadata. View source on https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan https://substack.com/@michaeldehaan and find for: profile_set_up_at The Instagram link is not the real author, it's just some random person with the same name. I'd rather not share more about this person's pattern, but I've sent it to Dan and Substack. If you look closely at the links I pasted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40164077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40164077 (and profiles), you'll spot most of it. I'm sure they'll get better next time, though. This is all but impossible to detect unless there's some pattern/tell. That's why I say to be somewhat skeptical of Substack URLs for now, unless you know the person giving it to you (or are otherwise sure the blog wasn't deleted). The real solution is for Substack to not allow people to re-publish on URLs already used by other accounts, so you and I don't need to try to figure this out on a case-by-case basis - in general, that's not possible.

troydavis 2y ago

Update: the Substack profile and blog have been deleted, either by the plagiarizer/scammer who saw these comments or by Substack. The article itself is still online (even though the index page and profile are gone), though I assume it will be deleted soon. Here's what the fake Substack looked like in the time it was online (roughly 2024-04-26): http://web.archive.org/web/20240426123303/https://michaeldehaan.substack.com/p/what-we-train-our-brains-for http://web.archive.org/web/20240426123303/https://michaeldeh... It had 10+ posts written by the real author, re-created under the original title, URL slug, publication date, and byline. The only difference was that the actual Substack owner was a scammer, not the author. As mentioned elsewhere, this is essentially undetectable by regular people. The only fix is for Substack to prevent it from happening at all. http://web.archive.org/web/20240426130030/https://michaeldehaan.substack.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20240426130030/https://michaeldeh... has a preview of the index page, though it doesn't list the other blog posts that were re-published.