Blogging Etiquette

Published on by Niki Meadows

No my blog is not going to turn into a how-to guide for blogging. There are plenty of blogs dedicated to that topic doing a great job. I am however going to vent about a recent post I stumbled upon.

I get there are only so many ideas and I don’t have a monopoly on them. That said, if you are clearly inspired by someone there are ways to go about giving that blogger credit. I don’t mean, “hey that’s a great idea I want to write about it”. I mean, “hey that’s a great post, I’m going to change it up a tad and run with it”. Like add a sentence or two, keep your entire idea, words, subject matter and all but just say it’s mine because I added a sentence… Yeah that really happened.

In the future, do.one.of the two things listed below to avoid making the blogger feel like crap after they actually took their time to write the post and now feel like their time has been wasted, their thoughts, and hard work have been… stolen. Proceed to do one of the following–

  1. You can link back to the blogger’s post, or their blog in general depending on the situation.
  2. You can reblog.

A lot of time, thought and effort goes into writing something that gets skimmed over and read in less than 5 minutes. I can understand there are varying levels of techsaviness and blog etiquette knowledge, what I can’t understand is passing off someone else’s words and ideas as your own. If you were clearly influenced by a post in particular (especially if the content and very words aren’t your own), the right thing to do is to give that blogger credit at the very least.

By sharing or linking to another blog you aren’t going to lose your followers. There isn’t a limit on the number of blogs a reader can view and they don’t have to choose between yours and the blog you are giving credit to. If that’s the case, then you might need to reevaluate your content because your blog should be able to maintain it’s own following (no matter the size) even if you direct traffic elsewhere.

As much as I love blogging, I’m conscious that there’s always something I could be doing instead. Dishes, cleaning, cooking, talking with my husband etc. I try to limit my blog time to when the girls are sleeping or preoccupied with something else, but there are times that I am engrossed in what I’m doing and it cuts into time I should be doing something else. That’s my choice and responsibility, but it makes me feel like all of my hard work is for absolutely nothing when someone goes and takes my words and passes them as their own. So please, be conscious before you post. Make sure you would be ok with someone utilizing your post in the way that you use theirs.

At the expense of losing a follower (or a few) I hope this post is taken for what it is; an honest expression of my feelings of my work. If you honestly just weren’t aware, no worries! I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, that’s why I’m posting this as a general public announcement and not reporting you so your blog gets taken down, emailing you what I thought when I came across the post, or calling you out specifically. No hard feelings, just make sure to spread the blog love, there’s enough to go around!

 

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60 thoughts on “Blogging Etiquette”

  1. I’m feeling your pain on this one, Niki. Writing takes a lot of dedication & time and in the end you’re rewarded with something to be proud of. For someone to steal that, unknowingly or not, is hard to take. I recently had a similar experience on Instagram with a person stealing three of my photos and passing them off as their own, with no credit or mention of me. It may sound melodramatic but it felt like such a violation because those photos are special to me and I want to inspire people with them. Likewise with your wonderful blog no doubt.

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  3. Wise words Niki!

    A couple of years ago a random girl used one of my photos to make it her cover pic on Facebook and didn’t put any credits. I would have never known about it, but a common friend commented on the photo and tagged me. When I saw there was no mention about where the photo was coming from + all her friends commenting how beautiful the image was… I was so mad! I wanted to say something! Then my boyfriend told me that I should feel honored someone liked my photo so much that she used it as her cover, and the fact that my friend tagged me was a enough of a reminder for her that it is important to give credit to the author. So I ended up not saying anything directly to her.

    I think a lot of people don’t have the sensibility to understand how important it is, especially if they’re not the ones putting all the time and effort on creating the image/text they’re reusing.
    And I doubt you’ll lose followers because of this post 😉

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    1. I just don’t understand that. I’d be one thing to comment on how much she liked it and asked to use it but to just claim it… How can people be ok with doing that? I can understand what your boyfriend is saying but I’d still have to let her know in the future she should ask to use pictures that aren’t hers or give the owner credit… Thanks for sharing your story Inés!

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  4. Some of it could be the lack of knowledge… you may post how to ping back tag or reblog but if the blogger hasn’t learned how to properly he/she may be oblivious to any upset. I say this because I once thought I had put a post on saying it was an idea on such and such blog and thanked them even suggested people go and see. I typed the name of the site as i hadn’t learned about the how two’s so they didn’t actually get recognition that was theirs to have. Although I don’t doubt there are purposeful plagerisers, some may have just made a mistake as I did. 😯😕 This is a good post and i hope your shared how to’s reach many.

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  5. I totally agree! I once came across a post very similar to mine and even used the same CC image….If I’m inspired by a post I usually write “Inspired by (insert link to other post)….and write my own experience

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  6. Well said Niki and so shamelessly wrong, I can’t understand how someone could deliberately take someone else’s work and pass it off as their own. Only hope that it’s through lack of knowledge and nothing more malicious and that they’ve maybe learned from it. Good on you for writing about it, hopefully the message will sink in.

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      2. Yes! Never know what sneaky people save and run. I use stock photos but from specific sites and I submit my own photos as an exchange since they’re free but I wouldn’t find one then use it without permission or attribution… 😮

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Unfortunately people do it simply because they don’t think they will be caught. I have to often explain this to my students that just because something is on the internet does not make it “free” to use. Sadly, adults do the same thing as well.

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    1. That thought did cross my mind. I thought, I wonder if they don’t think I’d visit their pages. I wasn’t on a finding expedition, I just like to read and interact with those that I come across and I was floored when I saw my content. No one else would know but I did… :/

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. I understand the feelings of frustration and anger. You taking something that is personal and making it your own without acknowledging where it came from. You are right to feel upset. I would perhaps email the person if they do it another time.

        Liked by 1 person

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