Sys-con is commonly treated as a legitimate media organization. Google News indexes it, for example, and software companies quote it. My personal experience suggests it is shameless, and that reputable people and organizations should avoid it.
Here's the story. I see that others have experienced something similar.
In October I wrote a blog post about cloud computing. I received this nice email from sys-con's Jeremy Geelan ("Sr. Vice-President, Editorial and Events"):
http://whimsley.typepad.com/
We try and do this across all our many and varied sites from time to time by adding insightful posts by writers outside our immediate circle. It's our way of introducing fresh new voices and technologies to our audience...
So, let us know, yes? Thank you - meantime have a great Tuesday! :)
Jeremy G.
A colleague of mine has been to a couple of conferences organized by sys-con. A quick look at their website suggested they are one of those gazillion or so Silicon Valley tech. news sites. So I thought, OK, I know there's no money, and I'm displacing real columnists and it's digital sharecropping, but let's see how it goes. I said OK and they republished the post. No one came through to my blog from their publication, which surprised me, and I did have to tell them to remove a copyright notice which claimed copyright for sys-con, which should have warned me off, but so it goes.
Then in December I looked at my incoming traffic and saw someone had come from Yacht Vacations and Charters Magazine, which also includes my post here. I have no interest in my name being associated with anything that looks like a front for advertising junk so I wrote to sys-con at the email address they provided (seta@sys-con.com) saying this:
The piece I am referring to can be found at http://www.
The email bounced. I sent it to another sys-con email address I found. I heard nothing.
Then yesterday I get someone coming to my blog from a third sys-con "magazine", CRM ("The First and Only Independent Magazine Serving CRM Developers"): from here to be precise. Also inappropriate, also without permission. Plain wrong.
So I googled some text in the article, and it turns out that sys-con has posted my piece on 19 different sites (here is the list).
I guess I could ask them to remove it again, but this is so obviously bad faith that I'll just post this and unleash the awesome power of my internet influence instead. Plus, when I get back to work, I'll write to the marketing people at work and tell them to stay well away from sys-con.
Emphasis on the con.
who's the person in the picture next to your articles?
Posted by: Dipper | January 11, 2009 at 05:13 PM
Certainly not me. I think it is Nick Carr, a high-profile blogger who I was responding to in my post. But I had no pictures in my original post, so sys-con put them there.
Posted by: tomslee | January 11, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Hey, saw your post. Thought I'd share a recent experience with them. Hopefully the power of the internet works! Check out my link. Got cursed out by the CEO for sending them feedback they didn't like. How's that for customer friendly?
Posted by: Jame | January 29, 2009 at 01:49 AM
Thanks Jame. Your experience not only confirms my doubts about them but goes many steps beyond that. Amazing. (Especially as I expected your link to take me to a Rick Roll).
Posted by: tomslee | January 29, 2009 at 06:25 AM
Thanks for the comments! I think that my post has caused them problems, since the continue to post in an effort to discredit me, my expertise, and my professionalism. They must be receiving complaints. :D
http://web2.sys-con.com/node/824052
Posted by: Jame Ervin | January 29, 2009 at 01:17 PM