Is Thought Leader M&G’s Wibble.co.za clone…

…with awesome authors and the backing of the M&G brand?

Came accross wibble.co.za 41 days ago, submitted it to muti

Wibble is a multi-user, multi-industry blog. If you are a thought leader in your industry open an account NOW

Over at Mail & Gaurdian Vincent Maher & Matthew Buckland have just launched thought leader…

wibble.co.za clone?

The default plugin that comes or used to come with a Worpdress installation is called Hello Dolly. Dolly, also the name of the first sheep cloned many years ago.

Is it just me or is there something strange happening here?

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17 Responses to "Is Thought Leader M&G’s Wibble.co.za clone…"

capdog says:

29 August 2007 at 15:55

Crazy, but that’s exactly what I thought the first time I saw Thought Leader. That they were “copying” Wibble, of course it’s not really true, but the comparison is there to be made.

I also think that M&G are doing a better job. The content on Thought Leader has been amazing so far, can’t really say the same for Wibble. Sorry dudes. Just my opinion.

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Charl says:

29 August 2007 at 16:20

What happened to webaddiks blog skin? Its back to the WordPress default..?

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A reader says:

29 August 2007 at 16:20

The content may be better, but that’s because they’re PROFESSIONAL WRITERS on thoughtleader. Wibble isn’t a journalist forum.

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Rafiq Phillips says:

29 August 2007 at 16:26

TYFYC Charl – There appears to be a bug, the theme keeps hopping back to default. sorting it out now.

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capdog says:

29 August 2007 at 16:44

Ok, I thought they were similar in that respect. Guess not.

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Vincent Maher says:

29 August 2007 at 16:44

Yeah Rafiq you’re absolutely right. When we saw Wibble launch as the first EVER group blog we thought “wow man we have to get us one of them”.

Before you sprout random nonsense maybe do a little research and see how many newspapers have editorial blogs globally. According the the latest Bivings report says 96% of American newspapers do.

If anything we drew inspiration from commentisfree by the Guardian, who has a shareholding in our company.

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Charl says:

29 August 2007 at 16:58

@Rafik sweet

The quality of writing on TL is definitely better and “the reader” who said its obvious because theres professional journalists on there – your wrong.. I blog on TL with a host of other casual bloggers and I’m far from a pro journalist.

TL’s design and layout is also tons better

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Rafiq Phillips says:

29 August 2007 at 17:09

TYFYC Vincent – Arb thoughts, not random nonsense 😉

Been very quiet on here lately enjoying the last few days of winter, sprouting before spirng has sprung…

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hash says:

30 August 2007 at 23:20

In defense of Vincent and Thought Leader. He and Matt told me about it when I was in Jo’burg a couple months ago. It’s been on their minds for a while.

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Ramon Thomas says:

31 August 2007 at 00:02

Why would you blog on a platform like this? I don’t get it. Surely blogging on your own domain is superior in the long term. After all is is the effort researching, writing, interacting and building readers really worth the trouble? I was so surprised to find out Arthur Goldstuck now has a blog. I have a Google alert on his name and it never came up nor does Technorati currently know about it. I noticed the domain for thoughtleader has been registered in March so it’s been in the pipeline for a while. Another thing is that I’ve set-up a business blog for Arthur at http://www.thebigchange.com and I just wish he could start sending out the newsletter that it’s based on again.

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A reader says:

31 August 2007 at 07:35

Sure, I’d imagine that it’s been on their minds for a while.
Wibble has also been on the minds of the creators for a few months now.
Perhaps one should look at who the original creators of Wibble are. I have it on good authority that a little floor crossing has happened here.
With the back-up, resources and capital of the M & G, of course Thought Leader is going to be sharper. Wibble is an entity that started on its own. But it’s no secret that Matthew Buckland was one of the original shareholders of Wibble and has since pulled out. Seems all too coincidental to me, is all I’m saying.

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yasser says:

31 August 2007 at 09:39

hmmmmm…….
In-ter-est-ing

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Vincent Maher says:

1 September 2007 at 06:45

It seems too coincidental because you don’t understand how business works on a day to day basis. Posting that anonymously also implies you’re a little spineless don’t you think? There is hardly a scandal here, unless you have the mentality of a 12-year-old.

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Vincent Maher says:

1 September 2007 at 06:59

@Ramon TL is an invitation-only site and none of the author sections on it are supposed to replace that person’s blog. Unlike Wibble, you can’t just sign up on Thought Leader – our editors have to select you, invite you, give you guidelines etc and they reject posts, frequently. It works the same way the opinion and editorial section of a newspaper does.

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Ivo Vegter says:

2 September 2007 at 15:02

I happened to be present when Wibble was first discussed. The meeting involved a fairly wide range of people, several of whom aren’t part of the venture now. When Vincent Maher approached me to contribute to Thought Leader, it didn’t even occur to me that it might be seen as a “copy” of Wibble, MyDigitalLife, or any other group-blogging site. It certainly wasn’t pitched that way. They speak to different audiences and publish different things.

Besides, would you object to a new magazine or newspaper, because the medium itself is not an original idea?

I am ashamed to say that I have a blog. I know. I don’t have an original bone in my body. I ruthlessly stole the idea. Worse, I even copied the code I use to run it. Thrice guilty, I modified an existing theme. I feel so dirty.

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Your Group of Web AddiCT(s); says:

2 September 2007 at 18:03

What else can we clone and evolve? 4 Examples

There’s been some conversation lately about cloning or copying ideas, whether Muti copied Digg, or Afrigator copied Amatomu which copied Technorati, or Thought Leader copied Wibble, who cares?
Anyway, so I was thinking what else could we “c…

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WALLY ALLEN says:

3 March 2008 at 14:52

Hi Rafik , I am really way behind when it comes to all the new gagetry and applications which may be useful to market my patented quickframe products. I was most interested in what you had to say on Carte blanche last night please contact me I need your help thanks and kind regards Wally

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Is Thought Leader M&G’s Wibble.co.za clone…

Question: What do these things all have in common? Everybody know…

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