This workshop walkthrough stays in the order the work happens.
Please do me a favor, read this post and give me your opinion:
(source)
I need to do a little venting… Please bear in mind that I am due to have a baby within the week and so hormones may not be at completely stable levels and please be understanding- but I really need to make some things clear.
Let me give you the background to this little vent.
I was contacted yesterday, by what seems to me to be a gossip blog aimed at mom blogs. The person contacting me stated that she had received the assignment to write a post about my blogs because that they had received a single anonymous tip (with no proof) that I was copying other bloggers without permission and that they are upset about my featuring other blogger’s posts in full. (she- the lady who contacted me, is btw the author of a crafting blog that features other people’s posts too) Just so you know (including the anonymous tip) is only the third complaint I have ever received in the last 2 years out of 1,300 published posts. BUT I have received a LOT of thank you email for features.
So, I would like to address that accusation of blog copying openly- right now, right here, for all to discuss.
I have never featured a story without express or implied permission! EVER!
First:
Let me explain how I feature other bloggers so we can be perfectly clear:
- Email Submissions projects
- Party Highlights
- Requested permission to share great stories that I find.
If I feature an entire blog post in full on my blog it is with the author blogger’s consent either implied or express as stated about everywhere I can put it on my blog, from the be featured post, the contact post, every party link… and it should be sorta obvious from the posts we feature. But here is what I mean by implied or express:
- Express consent from emails asking me to feature their projects.
- Implied consent from bloggers linking to parties with rules clearly stating that by linking to the party they give me FULL permission to post the feature in full. (which I have not been doing lately BTW, since no one reads rules before participating, and somehow that is my fault?????)
Second:
The rules to be featured are listed in my “Be Featured” post, linked in my contact post and on every party I have. I have also started re-emphasizing the full feature policy in my reply emails to be sure people understand that is what they are agreeing to. Is it wrong that I expect people to:
- Please read the rules before participating in my blog, by party or email submissions.
- Contact me directly, if they have a problem with a feature of their work.
Third:
If you are frustrated by the “full” features, I would really appreciate you contacting me directly. Ask yourself these questions first:
- Did I read the rules completely, before submitting a project or joining the party?
- Is it my story that they featured? (if not- you can bet that I did not feature it without permission granted in which case you have no right to say anything- the blog author has granted their consent- it has nothing to do with you!)
Fourth:
You may be surprised to find out that I have had my share of frustration over other blogger’s featuring my projects without my consent, as it was not listed in any rules for participating in their linkys, etc . Or readers being inspired to try one of my projects (yea- isn’t that the point?), directly coping my projects, taking their own pictures along the way of the steps I showed them and then passing it off as their own option- ugh, very frustrating!
BUT and this is a big BUT (no I’m not talking about the one I am sitting on!) I cannot take back the traffic they gave me from features or links. I cannot take credit for my blogs growing on my own. It is all about the blogging community. Once a new reader finds a blog from a link or whatnot and they join my blog, I cannot take that traffic back, I owe it to the blog who featured a project and gave a link and I am thankful they are helping me to build my blog. I may wish they didn’t feature it in 3 months, but guess what they did, I gained new readers from it and that is that.
I should mention that I am not talking about it being okay to copy a full post without permission and posting it on a blog, that is wrong, Let me make it clear that I have never done that. I won’t ever do that, and I would be thankful if people didn’t wrongfully accuse me of doing that. Thanks!
Venting session over.
Am I being melodramatic?
Am I being unreasonable?
Please let me know what you think.
AND if you have been featured and it was a positive experience, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU- I could use some support! Please leave a comment!
