The Blogosphere can be rough

Posted on | February 27, 2008 |

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I’ve been doing this blogging thing for a while now so I’ve learned some of the intricacies involved in being a part of the blog community. Blog etiquette is an unwritten code and not knowing some of the nuances can result in severe backlash from others. Then you have to figure out commenting and spammers and trackbacks and pinging and attribution and other linking techniques etc.

I was recently reminded of this after one of our posters neglected to appropriately cite a reference from another blogger. The link was there (a little buried) so credit was given but essentially the post was repeated verbatim with a couple of comments at the end. Not necessarily what one would consider to be great etiquette. Now from my perspective, I wouldn’t really care. In fact, I’ve had articles stolen, blog posts pinched, press releases ‘reworked slightly’ and I put it down to the nature of the beast. There are bigger issues out there than having my 2 cents passed off as someone else’s 2 cents. My favorite is an article written be me years ago that appears on their website with a link title to our website but the link going to another one of their pages and of course with no credit given, appearing to pass it off as their own. Still, like the real world, opinions differ and some may take offense at such an action.

It’s complex, particularly when you start looking at folks who are getting paid to blog but here are a couple of my own “best practices” with regard to citing others, including those with a copyright statement.

Link source - always link to the original post. Links should be encouraged as that’s what the community is about. Make the link noticeable. Try to link it to the individual page or post rather than the home page of the website like www.dinkuminteractive.com/about.html instead of just www.dinkuminteractive.com.

Blockquote - if you need to cite a reference verbatim, try to restrict it to a few sentences. There is no hard and fast rule as to how much, just don’t go crazy. You might have to experiment a little with blockquoting depending on your platform. In its simplest form though, use “quotations and italics.”

Learn more. Fair use does come into play and Blog Herald provides further insight into the Basics of Fair Use which is more than enough to make your head spin but may be just what you’re looking for.

“The doctrine of fair use is designed to place a limitation on those absolute rights and weigh them against the needs of society. Fair use, in short, allows copying of copyrighted materials in certain, limited, situations.”

Obviously, I’m simplifying things but this should offer a little more insight as you consider entering or are new to the blogsosphere. Sometimes it can feel as though everyone is picking on you and making you feel like you’ve made the biggest mistake ever (yes the blogosphere is full of drama). You probably haven’t. Just remember to learn from it and maybe share your experience so someone else can learn.