Jan 30th, 2013.
While all my reblogged posts have been removed it was simply through the kindness and decency of those who responded to my request that this has been resolved for me. I’m leaving this post up to alert others to the issues involved in reblogging.
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WordPress.com (my blog’s free platform) has added a couple of functions that allow any other WordPress member to repost any WordPress.com entry directly into their own blogs, with links back to the original post. Reposting has happened a couple of times to The Stitchery posts and I’m not in favor of reblogging at all. But I’m still reasoning it out, mired in confusion over something that seems such a violation of my own personal work.
How it works: any WP.com member can hit the “repost” button and magically my work appears on their blog with the first picture in full size, the rest of the pictures in thumbnail size and the first few lines of the text. If you want to read the whole thing you will be redirected back to the originator’s blog. Any “repost” can then be reposted by any other WP.com member, ad infinitum, and so on and so on. After the first repost the following reposts lose the photo credits so that’s a copyright infringement and WordPress is fostering it. But reposting is not in itself illegal as far as I can tell.
Just unpleasant. I am informed about the reposting only because I have allowed “pingbacks” in my comments section. If pingbacks which link to the reposter are turned off then you’ll never know who took your stuff and where it is now.
The Stitchery has enjoyed a rather special and small circle of friends and I’ve intentionally kept it that way in order to stay away from so much of the unpleasantness that can occur on the internet. I don’t want to attract much attention to us. I just want to have fun.
Blogging is all about sharing our own creativity. With fabric and thread there are so many different options and interpretations no two projects look the same. It’s fun to see what others do and fun to share what’s hot off the machine. And the same thing applies to gardening and animals and daily life or what ever else I have on my mind. It’s rather personal, isn’t it? That’s why I’d rather keep this space small in the blogosphere. Yes, I just might be delusional. But I’m The Writer, aren’t I? Can’t Writers be delusional now and again? Isn’t that one reason they write in the first place? But I digress.
Taking someone’s work to provide content for your own blog doesn’t involve any creativity. It is sharing and yes, it does expand the circle, mainly to the benefit of the person who has reblogged. There is little evidence that reblogging brings in new contacts to the originator. And anyway, I’d rather be asked first.
But now I have no control over what new audiences will be reading my words here, there or everywhere.
WordPress.com has agreed to consider adding an “Opt Out” feature to the repost button. It will most likely cost money to get that option and I don’t know if they will add the Opt Out capability to their “Press This” button. At the moment I am faced with only these choices:
- a. Make this blog “Private” so that people can read it only by invitation
- b. Move to my own domain and host
- c. Stop blogging and close The Stitchery
- d. Get over it, buck up and continue on
I’m not a big fan of any of these choices. I don’t want to spend more of my time or money blogging than I already do. So far today this issue has consumed most of the day. Argh.
And gee, I was just starting to have fun with blogging again. Darn.
What would you all do? Am I overreacting? I’d love to hear what you think.
And don’t hold back now 🙂 I’ve got my Big Girl Panties on.
The Stitchery 