Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned. It’s been over a week since my last blog post. Every time I look at a confessional I think of HIPAA. Priests are light years ahead of everyone else when it comes to confidentiality. I have just one question. How is that little partition supposed to preserve someone’s anonymity?

They say that confession is good for the soul, which brings me to what’s been going on lately in the blogosphere. So much has happened over the last week. I’ve been ripped off, but I wasn’t sure how it happened. I’ve taken a few days to sort things out by going through my old email and I’ve finally put the pieces together. I know what happened now.

Last week I learned that Wellsphere had been bought out by HealthCentral Network. I didn’t really pay attention to the news at first because big companies eat up little companies all the time. And then Twitter EXPLODED. People were making accusations that their blog posts had been stolen by a filthy guy named Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge. I vaguely remembered the name, so I checked my saved email file. I had received a letter from Dr. Rutledge a long time ago. He invited me to join Wellsphere and I initially voiced an interest, but I stopped communicating with him when he asked for sensitive information about my RSS feed account. I was so happy that I hadn’t gotten tangled up with the guy and I asked via Twitter if anyone had thought about putting together a class action lawsuit. Then I received another email from Dr. Geoffrey Rutledge. Here’s what it said:

    Hi MJ,
    I wanted to let you know that we have deleted your profile and posts on Wellsphere from your blog at nurse-ratcheds.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, xxx xxx-xxxx, or send me your number and a time, and I’ll be happy to call you.
    Cheers, Geoff

This is how I learned that my blog had been hijacked. Wellsphere took my writing without my expressed written consent. When I originally wrote to Dr. Rutledge, I told him that I’d be honored to have my blog featured on Wellsphere. That’s not a contract. I’m really offended that there are some individuals who are blaming the bloggers for their current situation because they didn’t read the terms of service that was buried on the Wellsphere website. I finally found their TOS after digging around on their website and I’ve learned that thieves hide their finest work in the fine print. Wellsphere conducted predatory business practices and should suffer the consequences of their actions. I’m still interested in learning more information about any class action lawsuits that are being put together, so please keep me in the loop. By the way, I think we should go after HealthCentral just for being dick heads. HealthCentral’s CEO Christopher Schroeder told the Wall Street Journal Health Blog that he thinks that most bloggers are happy about the arrangement. Send him a subpoena. That will show him how happy we are about getting ripped off.

Confess your sins, Wellsphere, before it’s too late. Liars and thieves go to hell. They also end up in court.