Comments on: Health bloggers bite back as Wellsphere sells on posts provided for free

By: Kirtan

Kirtan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:09:49 +0000

Terrible company. Complete thieves. DO NOT JOIN WELLSPHERE.

By: sarah

sarah — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:45:48 +0000

And that isn’t even the tip of it.
The real scam by wellsphere is that they tell you to put their widget on your blog which means you’re linking to their site while they put a rel nofollow on the link to your blog from their site… that is a nasty SEO trick.

By: Singletude

Singletude — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:48:23 +0000

If anyone is still trying to extract themselves from the Wellsphere scam, you may be encouraged to read this part of their HealthBlogger Network Participation Agreement, which I’ve taken the liberty of quoting:

“You hereby grant Wellsphere a royalty-free, paid-up, non-exclusive, worldwide, license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and publicly display your Health Blogger Content on Wellsphere.com. If you request that any of your Health Blogger Content be removed from Wellsphere.com, the foregoing license shall terminate and such Health Blogger Content shall be promptly removed from Wellsphere.com. To make such a request, please email Wellsphere at support@wellsphere.com.”

So as long as you request that your content be removed, Wellsphere has no further legal authority to use it. I hope that’s comforting to some of those who have been duped or who, like me, just had their blog content ripped, like it or not! I’m trying to spread the word about this.

By: Ana

Ana — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:47:02 +0000

Hi Hellen,
I’ve published yous parody at my blog. This is the post:
http://justana-justana.blogspot.com/2009/03/mr-george-rutledge-from-wellsphere.html
Thank you.
If you have any problem please, tell me.
love
Ana

By: Ana

Ana — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:53:07 +0000

I’ve said they deleted but when I google my blog there are still posts and images with the wellsphere link.
Some photos are mine.

By: Sherril Johnson

Sherril Johnson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:56:07 +0000

P.S. The dates on both of the emails quoted above should be 1/30, not 1/20.

By: Sherril Johnson

Sherril Johnson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:54:55 +0000

When Wellsphere sold to Health Central and I subsequently realized I had misunderstood the fine print when I joined Wellshpere and had signed away the intellectual property rights to my blog, I sent this email to every Wellsphere contact address I could find on 1/20/09 at 12:35 a.m.:

Wellsphere
1730 S. El Camino Real
Suite 600
San Mateo, CA 94402
(650) 345-2100

To whom it may concern:

Please remove my blog from your list immediately. The faster you get this done, the better the chances are that I will cool down enough to forget about the really negative blog post on the whole Wellsphere Scam that’s brewing in my mind right now. As a matter of fact, I’m angry enough to consult a lawyer about it if you don’t stop pulling in my RSS feed, immediately.

The reasons for my withdrawal are expressed eloquently on Musings of a Distractable Mind, All Is Not Well(Sphere).

Sherril Johnson
The Invisible Chronic Illness Experience Blog

The same day, 1/20/09, at 3: 32 p.m. I received this response:

Hi Sherril,

I wanted to let you know that we have deleted your profile and posts on Wellsphere from your blog at theiciexperience.blogspot.com/.

I wondered if you might like to connect with me personally, perhaps with a chat by phone.

Feel free to call me on my cell, 650 868-0197, or send me your number and a time, and I’ll be happy to call you.

Cheers, Geoff

–

Geoffrey W. Rutledge MD, PhD

Chief Medical Information Officer

Wellsphere Inc.

Dr.Rutledge@wellsphere.com

(650) 345-2100

And it’s true. All of my content is gone from the Wellsphere site and I no longer have any kind of account there. So thanks to the Blogosphere for lighting a fire under some rear ends that had the power to right this wrong. I hope it’s righted, anyway… and they’re not hiding my content somewhere to whip out when things cool off…

Sherril

By: Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:28:07 +0000

Wow, thanks for the well-written summary. I was a former product manager of Wellsphere and left on my 6 week mark after determining that the management was unscrupulous and shady. I was glad to get out of there. Subsequent to my short tenure there, I've come into contact with dozens of former disgruntled employees: I wasn't the only one who walked out. We have lots of stories to tell. Before this blog debacle, there was the first launch of Wellsphere. You might want to check out posts at Uncov and the comments at Techcrunch from their first launch. Happy to chat with you - just drop me an e-mail. Cheers, Mark Johnson, Former Wellsphere Product Manager.

By: Strong One

Strong One — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:03:01 +0000

I was never approached by them, but ‘GOSH-DARNIT!’ I came a breath away from joining since I saw so many other fellow bloggers as members.
WHEW..
Great summary!

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:51:33 +0000

Hi Helen!
I wrote this post:

http://justana-justana.blogspot.com/2009/01/wellsphere-scandal-1800-contributers.html

I’ve just received an e-mail and and Dr. Rutledge has deleted my profile and posts.
Perhaps I will repost it with another title:
“How to get out of Wellsphere”
I believe that it was because of posts like yours that they realized that they had delete.
Thank you very much!