Blogging Heroes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a personal perspective! I found this week I re-blogged two articles one after the other. On the one hand I hate re-blogging because I feel as if I am stealing someone else’s work, even though all I am technically doing is sharing an excerpt with a link.
On the other hand sometimes I really, really want to share something I have read and re-blogging is a good tool to do that. Hopefully readers browsing my site will click over to the other writer and read the full article. Re-blogging is more time efficient that Tweeting several times, for example. Is it really any different to sharing to StumbleUpon, apart from StumbleUpon’s vastly superior “hit juice”?
I recall a heated discussion about re-blogging on the WordPress forums some time ago – there were for and against arguments, as there should be. I can’t remember now where I stood at the time, or if I sat on the fence!
How do I feel if an article of my own is re-blogged, I thought to myself. That should be a reasonable indication of how others feel if I re-blog one of their articles.
It depends. If I find an article of mine re-blogged to a site that is nothing but re-blogs, I’m not overly impressed. I don’t really like such sites, but I am aware that is my personal opinion. Perhaps “re-blog only” sites have a regular readership who like to follow those sites to give them easy access to a range of articles.
If I am re-blogged to sites like TheAntiBogan or Lyn’s Daily Links (The Political Sword) I am very happy because it usually generates a lot of visitors!
Therein lies my guilt, I think. I know I can’t generate as many visitors for the people I re-blog as those sites, so I end up feeling as if I am stealing rather than supporting their work. I also wonder if it makes me look too lazy to write my own stuff! 😆
I try not to re-blog because of this, but when something calls to my heart, as Lisa’s article did yesterday, and is related to topics I also write about, I feel it is justified.
I read an article this morning I really liked, World View Through a Straw which ties in with an article of my own from early last year, Entitlement Mentality: A Personal Perspective. I have resisted the urge to re-blog, I’ve done too many this week! It is a good article though, so sneak over and read!
Do other bloggers feel this same conundrum? Is it just me? Am I being overly paranoid?
What of readers? Do readers dislike re-blogged material on sites they follow?
I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this, readers and writers alike!
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I’ve been reblogged a couple of times recently by newbies who do nothing but – what is the point of that?
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Rescued you from the spam folder!
With you it may be the great photos – photos are attractive and re-blogging usually grabs one photo. Yours are always so good!
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Thanks for reblogging my article World View a Straw. I don’t view it as stealing my work at all. I am flattered that you thought what I had to say was worth sharing with your readers. I reblog occasionally because I feel like someone said something important and worth sharing and I couldn’t have said it better.
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Actually, I didn’t re-blog yours, I just linked to it! That was an illustration of the difference. 🙂 I did like it a lot though. 🙂
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ah well, thank you anyway …LOL I did like your post about reblogging.
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I’ve never used the reblog button. 😆 If I see a post I like, I’m more likely to write my own thoughts on the subject and to link to the said post (and suggest to readers to check it out because it’s awesome 😀 ). I don’t remember anyone reblogging any of my posts, but unless they used it to promote something I strongly disagree with, I wouldn’t mind.
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Sometimes I think the person’s work doesn’t need my take on it, that is when I prefer to re-blog (I think – I’m confusing myself) – by that I mean it is so well written I don’t want to say anything extra! I often link in my articles, as you describe. Just every now and then I use that button……
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I know that feeling, that the other person said it so well I couldn’t really contribute to it. Since I’m lazy, when that happens, I just read that person’s post and enjoy. 😀
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I have used WordPress for over 7 years and have never noticed the “Re-Blog” button. Now that I have – – – *grin*
Reblogging, by a reputable follower or friend (such as Lyn or Miglo) is a great ego-stroke. By scraper sites it is an annoyance because they generally are trying to monetise their sites.
If I have written something political then I am pleased for it to be spread wide and for more people to see it. I only wish someone would start reblogging that evil pair Sid and Sod. Then they may leave me alone – – –
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I am literally laughing out loud! 7 years and you never noticed? 😆 😛
Glad to have passed on some useful information!
Scraper sites – is that what they are called? But you can’t monetise WP sites?
I’m trying to be politics neutral at the moment. Although having blasted members of both main parties, suppose I’m almost obliged to say something at some point. At least my enrollment is up to date! 😀
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Those scraper sites – WordPress.org sites (paid for like yours) can be monetised (I am on the free wordpress.com), the Google blogs expect motentisation and many scraper sites are on privately created platforms.
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Not me. I am WordPress.COM I assure you! I do have a domain name upgrade and a premium theme though.
I rarely use the slider though and that is a whole other story!
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I’d ask before re-blogging somebody else – as a courtesy. Technically, re-blogging without permission breaches the copyright of the author. I have a note on my blog requesting that anybody who re-blogs my stuff asks me first. I do not refuse permission unreasonably (I wouldn’t, for instance, want something of mine -re-blogged on to a site that took my material out of context, or where it was put into a context that cast it in a bad light) – but normally, no problem. However, I do like to be asked. So far, I’ve had a lot of people re-blogging – one of them serially – but only one of the people doing it has actually asked. I was, of course, happy to give permission – it’s great to receive the courtesy. I suspect the automatic way that people do it is symptomatic of today’s ‘free to copy’ world.
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I forgot to mention asking! I usually do ask for permission, although I’ll admit with both Jennifer’s Trust article and Lisa’s article I didn’t. That was very bad of me. I think the ease of using the button makes one act on impulse rather than courtesy sometimes.
WordPress users did at one stage suggest the option to have the re-blog button removed, but as WP pointed out, anyone can effectively re-blog by publishing an extract and a link anyway. At least with the button there is some control over the format and no ability to edit the original work. Also the sharing buttons are unavailable, which is a good thing to. I see re-blogging as a way to send traffic to the author, not generate hits for myself.
Plus us poor bloggers get constantly bombarded with suggestions to support other bloggers by sharing links etc etc which is an encouragement to re-blog.
After I wrote it, I was thinking it is a little like re-tweeting and the Twittersphere thrives on RTs. It is more than a RT though, isn’t it?
I agree re the context – very important. I wouldn’t be happy to find my work on a racist site, for example! 😀
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I was also wondering the benefits of re-blogging. I usually don’t do it because I only want my written material on my blog. I don’t know why thats an issue for me. I’m weird. But I also don’t know everything about re-blogging so I may be missing out on some things.
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That too for me, prefering my own work on my website. I see good and bad and end up confused! I am not sure if all the blogging platforms provide the fuctionality either or if it just WP.
We’ll work it out in the end I am sure!
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Hi Robyn, I, for one am glad that people take the time to reblog others articles.
For me, it means that if I have missed out on reading ‘stuff’ from one source I can catch up on another. So don’t feel bad or think that you are stealing someone else’s work, you obviously think that it is worth while sharing or you wouldn’t do it. There is just so much to read on the Internet it is good to be able to read a reblog from someone you trust.
Thanks.
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Thank you Sandra, that is good to hear! Yes, I do share when I see something I really think is worthy. Of course, there is a lot I don’t re-blog that is more than worthy too, but clearly I can’t re-blog everything. Just every now and then I see something and “Oh, I so want to share that!”
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WordPress gives you the opportunity for re-blogging. If you publish a blog for everyone to read then why should re-blogging be a problem? I am not sure though how it works regarding comments. For instance if someone writes a comment to one of my blogs which WordPress regards as “Spam” and I agree that it is “Spam”, then this comment cannot appear on my site. However if this same blog is posted on someone else’s site what happens then to comments I mightn’t like? Do I still have control over the comments?
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That is actually a very good question, Uta. I am very vigilant re comments but I know not all are as careful. I always hope that people wanting to comment will do so on the full article – i.e. the author’s site and that has usually been my experience, although (aside from this week) I re-blog rarely. Or at least I try to!
I think it might be hard for WP to ensure comments are able to be moderated by the original author, however they could turn off comments altogether I guess. I notice the share buttons do not appear on re-blogs, which I think is a good thing, although I haven’t checked if that is just a default setting and can be changed. Hmmmmm – I must do that!
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