Reblogging debate
This morning I received the most cordial cease-and-desist note imaginable from Dan Silverman, who writes one of my favorite blogs, Prince of Petworth. Basically, there was a post of his I reblogged on Tumblr, and he felt that people shouldn’t post other’s content without permission. Fair point, and certainly what’s expected by print media, copyright law, and so forth. At the same time, it’s kind of anathema to much of social media.
Here’s what I wrote in response:
Hi Dan,
No problem—I’ll delete the reblog.
One thing to think of, though. On Tumblr (which that page is part of), people reblog all the time (with citations, of course—like I did). The software and community both really encourage it, by
- having a reblog button appear when you read others’ tumblr posts,
- counting others’ reblogs of your posts as part of your “tumblarity” (I know it’s lame, but it’s on your dashboard when you log in and some people care how they rank), and
- having a bookmarklet thing for your browser so you can share something on the web that you like.
Tumblr’s not unique like that, either. A lot of people use Google Reader to read blogs, and when you click the Share button at the bottom of the post, it puts that post on your page of shared items. Here’s mine for example:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/08451567164627726947
So, in short, there are many people who are glad that their posts are shared through social media—either because they want their views to percolate through the web or they simply want to drive traffic back to their blog. On the other hand, you’re not the first to dislike this trend and ask that your content not be shared.
Maybe down the road there’ll be a standard tag or something that folks could put on their blogs to tell individuals and software not to share content. In the meantime, I’m happy to oblige your request and delete the reblog.
Take care,
Andrew
He replied that he only meant it as something for the future—that I didn’t need to delete the post—but also that he hadn’t ever considered this whole perspective.
Dan’s been so nice about this (and is a friendly person the couple of times we’ve met in the neighborhood), that I really don’t want to make it be about stinginess. Moreover, he’s looking to pull PoP into a full-time job down the road, so he needs a revenue model that works. Despite my opinion that through sharing he’d get more hits and clicks for advertisers—plus exposure for potential related paying gigs—I can’t make that decision for him.
I’d be interested in reading others’ thoughts about this, though. Reblog (!) with comments or email me.
