I don’t know! I just remembered an Italian friend of mine notified me that an Italian site was using it too. This world is getting so small. I also didn’t pursue this Romanian site either because all of the comments were pretty angry about what I had written (I used google translate to read some of them,) and I didn’t want to deal with the backlash, so I let someone else claim it! Haha! 😉

That’s awesome! Thanks, z!

Hi Shoreacres,
I’m so glad to hear your perspective on this. You’ve definitely piqued my interest on this topic even further. I haven’t heard this before, but I see it must be a growing sentiment. You make some great points about getting permission to reblog, even if WP allows and encourages it. It would be a nice feature to add to actually require permission to reblog. I am learning that even with that, it’s still important to ask.

I did not know that the original post is stripped after a second reblog. That defeats the purpose of why I support a reblog. The reason I like the reblog is that it requires you to go the the original blog for the full article. To me, that is much more valuable than someone copying my entire post but adding a link to my blog. If they give it all away, no one will ever go to my blog for the content. It’s probably different for people who have different purposes for blogging. I do it mostly for fun, so for me it’s more valuable to have more people read my content than not.

As far as linking vs. reblogging goes, I do believe a link vs a simple reblog is more thoughtful. In fact, I almost never read re-blogs, and I HATE blogs that only reblog. I don’t really get the purpose of those. I agree, it’s lazy in some cases. I have on occasion linked to other posts that have inspired me, but only 1 time did I reblog someone else’s post because I loved it so much. It’s interesting that my stats were so low for that post. My posts don’t often get reblogged (I don’t exactly write about a topic that most bloggers care much about,) but when it does, I see very few links to my blog from a reblog. So I think it’s a common sentiment that most readers don’t care much about taking the time to read a reblog. I go to a blog to read that reader’s content, not something they’ve reposted from someone else, so in a sense, the whole program isn’t very successful, is it?

Hopefully more readers will at least get to read your comment! We all have different boundaries about what/how we want to share our content.

I see that you like reblogging, but in my opinion, the practice encourages content theft. My issue is less with images than with the written word, but when someone reblogs my post I treat it in precisely the same way as I would if they’d right-clicked an image – as content theft. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who allows reblogging to go on with their words or images is giving a tacit word of permission for other kinds of content theft. Using the word “reblog” doesn’t change the reality of what’s happening – someone is using my material without my permission.

One problem with reblogging is that, while the source is connected to the first reblog, it’s stripped out after that. Beyond that, I simply do not want my material published on another site. Period.

If I get a notice that someone has reblogged my material, I never, ever post that trackback “reblog notice” on my blog. I go directly to the person who has done it and tell them to take it down. I explain that while wordpress may think it’s hunky-dory, I don’t. You’d be surprised how many people are shocked – they assume that since WordPress allows it, it must be just fine.

People will say, “Oh, it’s so nice – someone liked your stuff so much they wanted to share it.” Perhaps. More often, I’ve found it’s that someone is so lazy they’d rather post someone else’s material. There are entire blogs filled with nothing but reblogs. There’s a way to share without reblogging – it’s called linking.

It’s interesting – I’m seeing more and more people who are serious about maintaining the integrity of their content placing very clear “Do Not ReBlog” notices in a prominent place on their blogs. I certainly have.

http://playamart.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/right-clicking-images-from-websites-pinterest-and-google/

I still love your punchline! z

yes, sometimes it’s just a case of informing others of the etiquette. long ago when my elementry art students protested that i did not allow them to use published photos from magazines for art competitions. I would state, “Does it seem fair that person saved his money for a good camera.. traveled half way around the world. Stalked the animal, printed the photo (before internet!) and had it accepted… and now you are going to swipe it and copy it and use it as your own? That’s wrong!’

Education is the link, and WP has helped with this post about using other’s photos.

Thanks so much. I look forward to sharing yours!

Lisa/Z