UN-believable! Nobody can be THAT naive...
May 5, 2008 by Mel Aclaro
...or can they? It was hillarious reading the thread on real estate webmasters initiated by Mr. Ron Park. Mr. Park was miffed about the results of his $10,500 outlay to try and clone Redfin.
He hired a low-cost provider to do it for him. Then, when he didn't get the results he hoped for, he proceeded to dispute the charges on his credit card and asked for help on a public discussion forum at realestatewebmasters on how to get unstuck. He was kind enough to conveniently provide full reference about his intent to produce a "...Redfin.com clone, in all functionalities and appearance..."
>>"My name is Ron Park and I have been working with a service provider...to create my real estate mash-up site. My project...was for a Redfin.com clone, in all functionalities and appearance. They were supposed to finish the site by January 25th, 2008 but yesterday, 4/24/08, I told them I'm through with them. The site is nowhere near being a Redfin clone, and they've just been problematic from the start. I have given this company a total of $10,500..." <<
Redfin caught on. It's not clear if they're taking any next steps. But on one of their blog posts last week, they so appropriately pointed out the most laughable feature about Mr. Park's clone: at the bottom were the words: "Copyright 2008 Tareu.com"
I tried to take a look at Mr. Park's site. Not surprisingly, it appears to be in a state of disrepair. But, yep, there's the copyright. And, so was a link to "Sweet Digs," a would-be clone of a Redfin link to Redfin's online newsletter. (Have you no shame?!)
Hmmm... I also seem to recall a Realtor logo on Mr. Park's site. I wonder how this squares with NAR's code of ethics?
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Posted in: Ethics
Hi Ron. I have to say, I now have to applaud you. A lesser person would have simply stayed in the shadows and wished for the day when this finally blows over. I, for one, am convinced that your experience with this whole unfortunate series of events and the courage to follow up as you did above are sincere. And, I might add, your courage serves as a good example for the rest of us about how to recover from a potential PR nightmare. I'm confident that you'll come out well in the end. Within this community, I'll do my best to moderate any further negative comments on this topic so you can begin to put this issue behind you. Good luck! And, come back to RealBlogging often, you'll be welcomed.
Yeah, pretty bad, huh? To Mr. Park's credit, he has at least struck a tone of contrition and has seemingly given up on his claim and is chucking this all to a lesson learned. In his words,
"...I learned that copying a site is wrong, and that I wouldn't want my name and business to be associated with trouble and copycat-ism. And I also learned that outsourcing...isn't as easy as pie..."
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