Update: Big Creek has taken down their website.
Look at the above pictures. Does something look funny? How about the following? (You can click to see larger versions of the images)
That, my friends, is called plagiarism. What's worse is that the site committing the plagiarism is a church website for Big Creek Pentecostal Church in Kentucky. No credit is given to the actual creators (Word of Grace's talented staff) and much of the content has been lifted. I mean, word for word.
What's most amazing to me is the amount of work that's been done to change certain things. I mean, the guy who runs the website, Josh Mullins, is both the the Children and Youth Programs Coordinator and the Print, Media, and Web Communications Coordinator. Now, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't feel so great spending my time and giving my money to a church that has a website so blatantly lifted from somewhere else. Josh may or may not have done all the work (he might have hired a company to do it), but Word of Grace's site has been on CSS galleries and the like. It's not like no one's seen that design before..
It's obvious that whoever did this put hours and hours of work into copying the WoG website. I mean, graphics have been touched up, everything was converted from dynamic PHP files to static files, menus had to be changed, lots of content (including an internet/intranet portal application had to be migrated to WoG's layout) had to be updated, the site map had to be completely changed, etc. This is... ridiculous. Seriously... check out the staff pages:
If you're a church and you need a website, stealing really isn't the way to go. And if you hire someone to make a site for you, make sure they're not stealing the site, either. Ask to see original documents, etc. Send the website around to people you know around the country. Make sure those people don't have any suspicions. Lifting a layout like this might work for a MySpace page or something, but not for a church website. What is the church going to think when they find out? How is the staff going to feel? How will this affect their attendance? How will people feel about giving money? How will the church support itself when they will lie like this? This is a seriously egregious move with deeper ramifications than one might think.
Don't steal.
On 2007-02-06 15:31:43, Sarah Garone said, "Fast action"
As of right now (4:30 pm Tuesday afternoon) the Big Creek website has already been taken down. Looks like somebody's in trouble...! By the way, how did WoG find this?
On 2007-02-06 20:43:07, Thea said, "I go nothing..."
My outrage meter is running very low... I think I'm just going to be sick. I'm on overload...That just tipped me over the edge from the mandatory innoculations in Texas for young girls....i think I'll become a Nun-someone tell Greg- I'm too tired.
On 2007-09-23 16:22:14, Jon said, "Untitled"
Without the Lord giving us the talent of designing web pages to reach people inviting them to visit our Church's and sharing what we are about we would have to depend on spreading the Word by mouth. If I designed such a page that attracted many people to visit our Church I would feel Blessed to know that another Church copied my design to bring more people to the House of our Lord. I thank God their is not copy rights on how I share the Bible..........My hours spent working for the Lord are the Lords