Hoanator founder Andrew Hillman is a thief! Boston MA website owner steals content from Real Estate Webmasters

What a dill-weed!  It is good to see that these people are getting caught and justice is served.  The unfortunate thing is that there are SO MANY more that don' get caught and continue to commit these acts of infringment with little regard for anything. 

That sucks. This site is visually appealing but it has a looooooooooong way to go. The HOA angle could be a good one but tough to pull off. I think he will have a little trouble now because of your post.  

I have done nothing wrong. I never spammed forums and self promoted. Check all my replies. I had someone fill the categories and two (2) were the same as yours. Sure, I probably should have checked things but since I haven't been on site your site for some time I had no clue where the person I hired got the content to fill up the forums. I have barely even tested the forums or even read the topics. I thought they were created by the person I hired. I could understand you being mad if the entire forum was the same but it's not.  I have revised these two but I seriously think you are taking this over board. I am fine with you posting this.  I apologize. 

"I Have Done Nothing Wrong" he says.  Only copyright infringement, yeah that is nothing.

I feel bad for Andrew if it's as he says -- many of us have been burned when we outsourced to someone we thought was trustworthy and didn't check up on everything they did in our name (remember when one of our old writers recycled their copy from a previous client? that was embarrassing). Whoever is responsible, they should be kicking themselves -- it would've been so easy to rewrite those descriptions, even a bit.

I'm curious as to what that jessica_4.jpg looks like... hmmm... j/k

I noticed that on Morgan's browser too and was wonering the same thing. ;-)

I bet you it's Jessica Alba. He doesn't seem to be the Jessica Simpson kinda guy.

Honestly I don't believe a word the guy says - he sent me an "apology" via PM - he wrote "Although I hired a college student to create the forum fields I should have researched and checked his work." At first he claimed to have addressed the issue by rewriting the descriptions - did he rewrite them? No - He cut them in half deleting the end part so that he was only stealing "part" of the whole description - this kind of action just shows what kind of person he is - When he was called on this the smart / right thing to do would have been to delete the offending forums altogether - instead he just tried to change them enough (In his simple mind) to get away with the theft. NOT COOL! Then he says he deleted the forum - he didn't delete it, he just removed the link to it (For now) - Currently he still has 14 forums on that board that were taken from real estate webmasters. Andrew, if you truly wanted to make things right and err on the side of caution you would delete every single forum set up that even remotely looks like it was taken from REW - come up with your own ideas, your own forum sections and descriptions and do the right thing. You wrote " I hope you will consider removing your blog post about me. Give me a chance to prove that I am an honorable person. Let me know what you want me to do to make this up to you. " You tried to cover things up and then claim you are honorable - you don't give me anywhere enough credit - you want a chance to prove you are an honorable person delete ALL of those forums immediately. THAT is what you can do to make it up to me  

Oh and as for the Jessica thing - I have no idea, I think it is my sons screensaver (He is 13) I was on his laptop when I was posting this last night lol.

And it is likely Biel (Or however you spell it)

From a branding perspective, I think the name of the website might be enough to keep people away. How does one pronounce it? How does one spell it? What does it mean?   (HOA = home owners association), nator = ??  

@ Marin--(grin) I thought the same thing--hoanator brought the word "pimp" to mind rather quickly, methinks. ;-) Probably, not the best choice in domain names.

Ah, yes.......the old  "I hired a college student and didn't check his work" excuse.   The standard fallback position.  The buck stops with you Andrew.

Can we create an entire forum category for exposing content thieves?  I can't tell you how many times I've found my building descriptions cut and pasted onto other agents' sites in various cities.  And some of them even outrank me in the SERPs which really chaps me!  Other than expose them what else can be done?  Has anyone on here ever taken it to the next level and gotten attorneys involved?

@hiresises.com I think this is a great idea

@ ericbadgley and highrises - just a thought, but I think posting them on your REW blog is VERY effective!!  Google "hoanator" (grin) Methinks that is speaking VOLUMES currently to Mr. Hillman about what not to steal. Much more effective than forum posts. Yes. Attorneys have been involved in previous intellectual property issues around here. Sad, but true. They are sometimes needed.    

Eric you have a great point there. 

Yuk!  Chalk this one up for the "Stupid File."  Copying your main competitor's content probably isn't the best approach when starting a real estate forum. 

Good point Gerry.  After Andrew's comment here I wonder if I passed judgement too quickly.  I'm hoping Morgan took the necessary steps to allow Andrew a chance to retract things.  I can understand if he didn't, as I would be pissed off to see someone post in my forum then post my content in his forum!  Personally, I've hired employees who've embarrassed me as well, so I can understand how things can get bad real quick.

I most certainly did Joe, before writing this post, I called him on it, and instead of apologizing right away and taking it down, he tried to defend his actions. His next step was to "claim" he took down the forum, when in fact he only removed the link. Then he said "I have changed the writing" which he did not do, all he did was cut some off the end (Still using my content, just the first part) - thinking that was enough (Hmmm If I only use half of it, maybe he won't think I stole it) the guy just didn't get it! I think he gets it now.

Don'rtover look his instamls.com.

Wow- I can't type

I am very sorry this Andrew Hillman guy from the northern united states has done this!

Why dont you span this Andrew Hillman guy in real estate on all the search engines and let google know how Andrew Hillman from MA is!

LMAO

http://www.google.com/search?q=andrew+hillman&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGIH

This Real Estate Andrew Guy is a real bad guy! Andrew Hillman what your doing is not nice or fair!!

Please make sure everyone knows this is not the Andrew Hillman from Dallas Texas

I think you're fine. It says his location in the title.

He is giving us other Andrew Hillmans a bad name!!!

Peter Andrew Hillman

Boston, MA