Automatic Blog Post Rehasher
March 16th, 2008
Email this article to a friend
Does good content matter in the blogosphere? Recently there has been quite a bit of discussion suggesting that perhaps it doesn’t.
James at Men with Pens wrote about Getting Creative With Your Content, or rather, how people are not getting creative with their content:
“I scroll through my feed reader, my attention dulled by the similar headlines. They’re carbon-copy titles that make a desperate attempt to grasp my attention. Some – very few – do. But I’m often quickly disappointed. The headline may be mildly intriguing, but the content of the first paragraph is just the same old stuff. Nothing new, nothing entertaining, nothing interesting.”
Skellie wrote about Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online. Considering how many people admire her writing, it surprised me a bit to see her say this:
“Good writing, clever writing, beautiful writing — all of these things are unnecessary in the creation of great web content…clever turns of phrase, immaculate grammar, flawless spelling and crisp sentences are relatively insignificant.”
(Her point was that “all great web writing must do is communicate great ideas without getting in their way,” but I’d contend that even great ideas don’t necessarily matter, as evidenced by the success of certain blogs).
These posts received a flood of comments from people on both sides of the issue. I felt that a lot of people were doing their best to resist admitting what deep down they know is true: maybe great content really doesn’t matter that much.
It occurred to me that perhaps we’re looking at this the wrong way. Instead of lamenting the sad state of the blogosphere, maybe we should just give the people what they want: rehashed content. And I have a tool that will save you a lot of time in creating it: the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher.
Now you can easily rehash content from these blogs:
- 4-Hour Workweek
- IttyBiz
- Hunter Nuttall . com
- Men with Pens
- ProBlogger
- Seth Godin’s Blog
- Skelliewag.org
- Steve Pavlina . com
- Zen Habits
(I chose these blogs because they’re some of the well-known blogs I read. I’m not saying that they consist of rehashed content.)
Just fire up the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher and pick a blog. Adjust some parameters to fit your writing style, click “Rehash it,” and it spits out a brand new post for you, using word choice similar to the selected blog. It even gives you an image to use.
Some of you English majors may quibble with the grammar of what it spits out, but it really doesn’t matter. As you may know, people don’t read every word, they just scan. As long as your post contains a few buzzwords, it’s golden.
If you write (or read) content online or anywhere else good writing doesn’t matter, I’ve just saved you thousands of hours and given you a practically infinite number of free posts. I may have even improved the quality of your content. 
Me Hunter. You read.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Too funny!
You need a self-writing-thoughtful-comment-rehasher as well so we can just cut and paste into our favorite blogs, too!
Nez’s last blog post..Why Be Wary of Super Cheap Products
March 17th, 2008 at 2:48 am
I think there’s an important distinction between valuable information and successful posts and blogs.
I think the challenge is how to help surface and share more valuable insights and ah-has. Web 2.0 seems optimized for popular, so there’s opportunity to optimize for useful, accurate and relevant.
If I could slice the Web, I’d slice it by:
- reference vs. action
- popular opinion vs. expert opinion
Imagine a distilled search on all the “actionable” info by experts in a given domain.
Imagine a distilled search of all the “insightful” info by experts in a given domain.
That said, I’m glad the Web is debottlenecked and we have access to more first-hand experience. Sure I need to filter more, but I’m finding there’s more insights and actionable info directly available than there used to be.
J.D.’s last blog post..Designing Organizational Architecture
March 17th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I toddled over to see why you’d linked. I read. I agreed. Yes, I cried! And then… wait. Wait, what’s he saying? Rehash my posts??! WTF? Did he just LINK to a post rehasher? Does he have any idea how post scraping puts the fear of god into bloggers? (Like the way my heart’s pounding right now at 6 friggin’ AM in the morning?)
Omigod, *sharp, creative French swearing*, I’m going to *violent, regrettable action* and the after I’m done that, I’ll *heavy legal action inserted*, the little basta-
Hey. Wait a minute.
*Blinks.*
Joke’s on me, dude. Good one. (mild curse at getting sucked in)
March 17th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Hunter,
My reaction wasn’t as animated as my partner’s. I went to the Rehasher, squinted at it dubiously and contemplated clicking that button long and hard. Was the world about to explode? Was this Rehasher going to pull one of my beloved posts that I worked so hard on and make mincemeat out of it? Must…not…click…button…
*click*
*Harry nearly chokes on morning coffee and James comes very close to renaming blog “Man with Pen”*
That was funny as hell. Thanks!
Harrison McLeod’s last blog post..Would You Become Someone Else To Achieve Your Dreams?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:41 am
[...] much quality actually matters. And there’s been some interesting and strong opinions. But, Hunter Nuttall is suggesting that you could save time by taking an article off one of the popular blogs, such as Zen Habits, or Skelliewag.Org, put it [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
That was great, Hunter! Will there ever be a way for users to add other blogs and rehash them? Or rehash from a particular URL?
March 17th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi Hunter,
Like you, I’ve seen this argument in blogosphere.
It makes me wonder, can we post anything, and our loyal readers will continue to come back? Will we continue to get Stumbled and Dugg? If that’s the case, all social networks could lose their reputation of having the best of the best, blogs will be tagged as “words taking up (cyber)space”, and someone else may be plagiarizing Obama’s “words , just words” statement to describe blogs.
How sad it would be if blogs took on a “myspace” mentality and we start posting tons of personal photos, include music playlists, write about what we had for dinner, vent our frustrations over a fight with our significant other, and stop sharing valuable information.
Although the “automatic blog post rehasher” is a joke, some may use it and actually gain readership and ad clicks. I can see it all now, “The Top 1000 Rehashed Blog Posts In Cyberspace”. Like “Men with Pen”, if that happens, I may have to go back to blogging without a blog.
Barbara’s last blog post..Branding In Blogosphere – A Necessary Evil
March 17th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
@ Nez, I hadn’t thought about a comment rehasher, but judging from the comment spam I get, there must already be tools to do that. Although they’re not incorporating the “thoughtful” aspect.
@ J.D., maybe we need a “Web 2.0u” to segregate the useful content!
@ James, LOL…but I think you need to take the heavy legal action before the violent, regrettable action! Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows I’m harmless. Incidentally, if it had bothered you, then of course I would have taken it down (though you’d lose a link).
@ Harrison, I was under the impression that you guys had a plethora of pens, but know that I know you only have one each, I’ll have to be careful not to do anything that endangers you or the precious pen you’ve been assigned!
@ Catherine (“The Anti-Squash”), thanks for the link.
@ Mrs. Micah, LOL…are you serious? I know you post a lot, but have you really run out of ideas? (If so, try blogging about why credit card debt is bad–that seems to be a popular finance topic for rehashing.) No, I think I’ve pushed the envelope far enough already. I just wanted to make a joke and hope it didn’t tick anyone off.
@ Barbara, you’ve shared some good thoughts here. I think I’m going to have more to say on this.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
*blinks*
you mean all the sweat and blood…
ok the incessant brainstorming (“hmm…how can I make this moment in the icecream shop into a great post?”), the headlining (ok I’ll admit, I find writing headlines fun and they would be that much more creative if I wasn’t worrying about people not clicking on my articles bc they dont get it. Its art.)
anyway
this all for naught?
Granted, I do recognize a whole lot of rehashing. That’s why some blogs, once on my radar, stick and others – well.. i’ll head to that red X with a vengeance. I love reading good content, clever writing, interesting styles, differentness (yes i just made that word up)
for instance, all those make money online blogs actually made me read problogger exclusively.
on a side note- men with pens – i really like that name so I’m headed over there
Dammit Hunter.. with James with his sharp french swearing. AND I’m flipping a bird. To the people who get to do thsi and get away with it.. not you of course
you – you get a very sweet hug.
everyone, lets say it together -
“Awwwwwwwwww”
JEMi | Tips for Life, Love, You’s last blog post..Waiting to Live
March 18th, 2008 at 12:40 am
[...] I posted about the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher, which is a tool I wrote that spits out random combinations of words vaguely resembling a blog [...]
March 18th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Wow JEMi, you showed a lot of differentness in that comment. Men with Pens is a very interesting blog. The post I linked to above was the first one of theirs I read, and it made me an instant subscriber. Haven’t actually seen any sharp French swearing though.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Calisse de tabernac d’esti.
How’s that?
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Are You Accepting Dirty Money?
March 18th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Well James, you certainly stumped Babelfish, which could only translate
“Calisse de tabernac d’esti.”
as
“Calisse of tabernac of esti.”
Urban Dictionary was helpful in translating the rest, for those who are interested.
BTW James, you’re perfectly welcome to have “Men with Pens” in your name on this blog (yes, I just came across Michael Martine’s post while trying to find out if you were from Quebec).
March 18th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The last time I was up visiting James, I found this nifty little book called “Speak Quebec” by Daniel Kraus. Fun stuff.
Harrison McLeod’s last blog post..Are You Accepting Dirty Money?
March 19th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Why the f** isn’t Gravatar picking up our cool square?
Urban Dictionary was fun. That’s the first dictionary I’ve ever seen besides Speak Quebec that not only knows the words, but the proper definition AND uses Quebecois examples. Not French from France, but true Quebecois Franglais. Very, very cool.
AND! I love the flexibility of our curse words. Take Calisse, for example:
It can be used as a noun, a verb and has other uses as well. The level of vulgarity of this blaspemic swear differs from region to region.
Yes. One small word is polyvalente and useful in all situations in any form you choose. Brilliant.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Overhaul Your Image for Better Results
March 20th, 2008 at 7:06 am
[...] go and read the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher. I promise you, nothing you are doing right now is as important as this. If you’re an IttyBiz [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Happily, I haven’t run out of ideas. But it would be hilarious to remix some posts from the giants of PF and see if they turn out anywhere near coherent.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:30 am
That is too funny. Only thing is, some site is actually going to pick that stuff up and use it. Of course I have read real blogs that make a lot less sense . . .
Michael’s last blog post..Ignorance Can Be Good
March 20th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
haha, now that was funny!
@James ah bin esti d’ciboire de criss!
Jon – FreelanceFolder’s last blog post..Online Entrepreneurs And Responsibility
March 20th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Hunter,
The Rehasher is truly, madly, funny. And oh so sad at the same time.
By the way I too had that puzzled reaction at Skellie’s post, and I just can’t agree with her. Just because some can get by with subpar spelling, grammar, etc. doesn’t mean it isn’t valued. I may consume food at McDonald’s, but it doesn’t mean I don’t understand and appreciate a better meal, if you know what I mean.
Great post!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Was That You Throwing Your Money Out the Window Today?
March 20th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
[...] Automatic Blog Post Rehasher is getting some attention on Digg. An active Digg user told me that it’s front page material. [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Very funny, quite clever. The film industry has been doing this for years… but it never looked so good!
March 21st, 2008 at 12:17 am
Wow, look at all these people Naomi sent over!
@ James, what rating is your gravatar? I have my blog set to only display up to PG.
@ Kelly, I thought Skellie had a point, in that there are successful blogs that are not well written. On the other hand, her writing is a huge reason for her popularity. I’m not sure who decides which blogs have to be well written, and which ones don’t. But I’m glad there are people out there who appreciate good writing.
@ A Script Doctor, you mean like James Bond?
March 21st, 2008 at 4:52 am
@ Hunter – It’s our banner ad square. Definitely a G. Still trying to remember my Gravatar password and it’s been four days with no luck… giving it another shot today.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Fiction Writing: Should You Plot Your Plot?
March 21st, 2008 at 4:59 am
Please tell me why I have more passwords than I have cat hairs on my sofa, and why they are no more necessary to me than those cat hairs?
Should be fixed now. Email association was going bonkers.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..Fiction Writing: Should You Plot Your Plot?
March 26th, 2008 at 1:50 am
[...] a banner for me, just a banner without any extra bells and whistles. Despite the fact that my Automatic Blog Post Rehasher had nearly killed James and Harry via heart attack and choking on coffee, respectively, they [...]
April 17th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
I call it the Formulaic Blogger and I wish it would just die.
Nicole’s last blog post..Dog Piss at the Park
April 26th, 2008 at 5:39 am
I agree, Nicole.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
[...] The Automatic Blog Post Rehasher took me a couple of days to create. The concept was pretty easy to come up with, and writing the [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 11:31 am
[...] of using Hunter’s “Automatic Blog Post Rehasher”, where does your inspiration come [...]
July 29th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
[...] Unique contents that deliver value. We are tired of rehashed content. (Except this extraordinary one) Unique content is fun to read, and it attracts incoming links. But I’m putting this at #4 [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 12:59 am
[...] my Automatic Blog Post Rehasher post, someone left this comment: “For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve [...]
October 19th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hi Hunter!
I have to say your Automatic Blog re-hasher is a distinct improvement on quite a few of the blogs I stumble on – I least I can tell it is SUPPOSED to be nonsense, not nonsense masquerading as fact!
Rhys´s last blog post..How To Hide Adsense From Social Traffic
October 19th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
@ Rhys, as far as I know, no one is actually using this to create their blog posts, but in some cases, I guess it could be an improvement!
August 25th, 2009 at 8:33 am
I like this tool, however how about sharing the source code? The easiest way I found to do a similar type action (rejig content) is by translating it into one language, then another, and then back into english.
I would guess this is how this works, as obviously the sematics tend to get a little lost on this tool.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
@ Chris, the source code is visible when you view the HTML source. It’s written in JavaScript.
Translating and retranslating would work well, but I would consider that to be too close to stealing content, which I wouldn’t do to these nice people.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
A blog rehasher is nothing new with black hat marketers. They spin articles all the time.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
[...] Unique contents that deliver value. We are tired of rehashed content. (Except this extraordinary one) Unique content is fun to read, and it attracts incoming links. But I’m putting this at #4 [...]
July 30th, 2010 at 9:13 am
I would love to see more categories on that Automatic blog harsh. It is limited on topics. Also, add more websites where to pull the writings from. Will you update that Automatic blog hash one day?
Thanks
March 19th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
[...] Content brings the traffic Traffic brings the power Minute after minute Hour after hour Everybody’s bloggin’, but most of them ain’t tryin’ Half of them are trippin’, half of them are lyin’ [...]