Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Posted by Gabe on June 23, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter | 17 Comments to Read

Don't steal that post!I recently wrote a post, “To Follow or Not to Follow” that yielded incredible results (in my world) in terms of retweets and comments.  When I wrote it I had no idea it would get that much attention.  I figured then I had the key to “How to Write a Popular Blog Post”, (soon to be on the best-seller list),  so I wrote, “Is Twitter a Time Suck?“.  I honestly thought this would do even better because of all the input from other people, but I was wrong.  It garnered a few comments but not nearly as many as the former mention.  So I will not be making my submission to Doubleday just yet.  Today I figured, why not ask my Twitter colleagues what they would like me to blog about? That might prove interesting.  I was a bit uncomfortable posing the question because in my eyes it is a bit presumptuous (like they care what I write anyway) but I pushed on.  I received a thoughtful reply from @AmyShropshire: “How about a post on how to properly credit people on Twitter.  Seems timely after what happened to your blog post.”  “Good one”, I thought.  Whether my colleagues are interested or not it should be talked about.

What Amy is referring to is Rule #7 from “Why I Blocked You” from the aforementioned post on followers: “I blocked you because I just discovered that you wrote a blog post a week later that was titled the same as mine and paraphrased my thoughts without any credit. “  This did indeed happen to me. Can I prove it was copied? No – that’s because it wasn’t, word for word anyway.  The title was the same, the blog post came out a week later (after mine had gotten lots of recognition) and many of the concepts were the same as mine only abbreviated.  They were shortened because we are all told that people who read blogs don’t actually like to read so we are supposed to make things short. (As you can see I don’t necessarily believe that.) And that person was one of my followers.  Now can I prove he did anything?  No.  After all it could have been just a coincidence, right?

The point of this post is not to “out” anyone, but to remind us all to give proper credit if an idea is spawned from another post, web site or tweet.  People who plagiarize are going to continue to do it and wouldn’t even read this post, so I know I won’t reach them.   We simply want to remind people who might not have even thought of it to give credit to the person who wrote the material that influenced you or that you have used.  In fact, it is best to get permission if you copy something directly from someone else’s blog, but at minimum tell people where you got it from.  The ironic thing is that my post that was suspiciously reworked somewhere else originally gave that very person credit for partially influencing me to write that post.

If you don’t believe things are stolen from blog posts, then you haven’t seen what happened to Danielle (@extraordmommy).  She has a friend who lives in the Czech Republic who happened to pass by a new grocery store that had a life-size picture of Danielle and her family plastered right in their window!  It was an ad for the store, done without their knowledge or permission.  (Read the entire post here.)  That picture originated from her blog.  So the opposite side of this coin tells us that we all should be protecting our materials more efficiently.

I’m also sure that the photographers out there would like me to make certain you are not stealing pictures for your blog posts.  I get most of mine from I-Stock – I pay a small fee to use each one.  It really doesn’t cost that much and it can really add to the flavor of the post you have written.

Now I have also discovered that other people have “pinched” the logo from our Kids Are Heroes web site and used it on their blog.  They use material from our web site, without asking permission.  I haven’t gone after them because they write very favorably about us and provide a link to our web site.  Having said that, most of them contact me to ask permission before they do it.

When I write I try to include references to as many other people as I can.  After all, why would someone want to hear only my thoughts when I can provide those of others as well?  This also brings these other people back into the conversation which makes blog posts and comments on them more interesting.  So it is only beneficial that you give credit where credit is due, even if it is just for the inspiration.  Thanks, Amy!

If you have any, kindly share your horror stories in the comments section.

Update: 6/24/09.  As I thought about this post and all the attention it is getting early on I thought about what can one do to protect your material.   I admittedly know nothing about this subject.  I also wondered how would I know if people were copying me?  So I Googled a good portion of a sentence in the followers piece and came up with just one result – mine.  My guess is that most plagiarism would go undiscovered because people don’t have the time  to be that vigilant because it assumes people would even want to steal their stuff, of which many are not convinced (as I am not).  Also like me, they wouldn’t know how to go about finding copied pieces other than by simple googling.  So, if most people are like me, then their blog posts are very vulnerable to plagiarism.  With the amount of people blogging I would also guess that many are not even being read let alone stolen.  But then we refer back to Danielle’s case – it does happen indeed.

So in an attempt to offer everyone something on how to protect your material, I bellied up to the Google bar and found this: “Protect Your Blog and Counter Copyright Thefts” a piece by @tibipuiu.  He prefaces his post by providing a disclaimer which I respect and also repeat – as I mentioned I know little about the subject. Hopefully I will never need to become an expert on it.

Also just in is a wonderful and informative comment from one of my favorite tweeters Kyra (@milogirly) that has some great detail on how to detect (and deal with) plagiarism.  Thanks so much for offering this kind of help to everyone, Kyra!

And as a final note Cory (@corynhughes) sent me a link to a timely post about the editor of Wired getting outed yesterday for plagiarism regarding his book about how content should be free. Fabulous! 

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  • Amanda Beals said,

    Gabe: I can tell you another story from a media company I used to work for. A blogger contributed an excellent, but very personal evaluation of the college football drafting. Another sports blogger, picked up his story and added the full copy to his blog. Next thing we know the second blogger who lifted the original post was celebrating. Why? Because Sports Illustrated picked up his story and his site was slammed with uniques. We did request the story be removed from 2nd blogger which he did. Our lesson was to establish a very strict policy on how people chose to reference our work.

    I hope this helps.

    Best,
    Amanda

  • Chris Heidel said,

    Again, a great post. I don’t understand why people don’t just credit the source? So annoying. Thanks for the reminders. What is the etiquette for shortening something on Twitter so you can RT? When I have room, I put “RT(abbrev.),” but don’t know if I even need to do that. Thoughts? I keep my tweets to 120 where I can to make RT (and crediting) easier.

  • Gabe said,

    Amanda, Hope that 2nd guy’s karma eventually caught up with him. Thanks for the comment.

    Chris, Funny. I was going to add that. Since you requested here is the format of the RT:

    Say I post a tweet that says: “I am very popular with the ladies!” Now you are very impressed with that tweet so you write: “RT @KidsAreHeroes I am very popular with the ladies!” OR a newer format is: “I am very popular with the ladies! (via @KidsAreHeroes)” (Don’t use the quotes.)

    Many people prefer the second method but I am old school – I prefer the first because it takes up less space. Enjoy!

  • ExtraordinaryMommy said,

    First of all – I really enjoyed reading this post – I think the topic is so timely and one that many people likely do not think much about. I have seen blatant plagiarism online (the thieves usually disappear when they are found out) and I’ve seen what you are talking about with your pilfered post.

    I credit everyone, everytime. If I see a thoughtful post and it inspires me to talk about it (as happened two weeks ago on my show on MomTV) I mention that the topic ‘was inspired’ by the original blog author.

    I don’t understand why it is so hard to give credit.

    Also – thank you for mentioning the story of our stolen family photo. We haven’t officially determined where the picture was taken from, but suspect it was from a social network on which I had posted it.

    Danielle

  • Beatriz Alemar said,

    I couldn’t have said it better myself. The internet supplies us with a great wealth of knowledge and information. At the same time, the sheer amount of information out there makes it almost impossible to police copywrite law. There is no strict school teacher out there standing over your shoulder checking all your sources. Many people are under the misguided assumption that they don’t need to credit original works in an informal setting like the internet. In the end, plagiarism is STILL plagiarism. It wasn’t acceptable in school, and it’s not acceptable online. “Give credit where credit is due!” Great post, Gabe!

  • Gabe said,

    Danielle,
    Thanks for commenting. Sorry that had to happen to you. I would feel violated if that were my family.

    Beatriz,
    Thanks for reinforcing my thoughts. I truly hope that we get at least a few people who had never considered to do this to change their actions.

  • Clarissa Cooper said,

    I must say do not give up yet on that offer from Doubleday. As you already know you choose to follow me first on Twitter and I immediately followed you back because I was impressed. I joined Twitter as a job search tool and in less than a month I have discovered something much, much, more. I have my own way of following and RT and letting people follow me as I am sure you also noticed. I get it with Twitter and I will continue to Twit until I die or the world ends which ever comes first. Gabe, keep up the good work I applaud you and your efforts. Twitt on!!

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks Clarissa,

    Wow! Now if I can just get everyone else to “have what you’re having” I might just get that deal from Doubleday! All kidding aside, thanks for the kind words. :) It seems like you are as passionate about Twitter as I am. Scary.

  • Kyra said,

    Gabe,

    I check for scrapers on a daily basis. We had a run-in with a gentleman in the UK that was stealing our corporate blog, word for word and posting it as his “own” content. The kicker was that the owner of the website was paying this guy over $800.00 a month for this “unique content”. The owner was generous and rectified the situation as soon as I brought it to his attention. The moral of my story is: give credit where credit is due.

  • Gabe said,

    Kyra,

    Wow!! How do you “scrape” as you say? How can people check to see if this sort of thing is happening to them?

  • Hal said,

    hi Gabe & all,

    Enjoy your articles Gabe, and thanks for following me.

    On the topic of retweets: the convention I use is RT @username at the beginning; I delete the colon that mixero (by default) adds after the username.

    If I have anything to add (and there’s room), I’ll put it at the end of the RT with H: in front of my comments, to separate them from the original tweet.

    On the other hand, if I substantially change or write a whole new tweet, but want to credit the original author for the idea and/or link, I’ll write it myself and tag it at the end via @username .
    ( I think it’s important not to “put words in people’s mouths” )

    Finally, if someone’s tweet has set me off on my own course of enquiry, and what I tweet is a few steps removed from what the original person posted, I’ll still thank them with Thanks @username or Tx @username at the end, as shown here: http://bit.ly/aG5qE

    I would only substitute a link from the original tweet, in order to make it shorter, and never if the original link is one that the author could track ( eg. bit.ly or ow.ly )

    I can commiserate with folks here and in the wider world, who’ve had their work appropriated without credit.

    Thankfully in my film making and photography, the only time it has happened recently (a photo in a book, that the publisher thought was a personal photo of the author’s) — the author apologised profusely and has undertaken to be sure the credit is included in the next printing.

    One of the more odd and yet still disheartening types of plagiarism that happens on Twitter, Digg and FaceSpace (I refuse to call this duo by their actual names, just as I decline to refer to Mr. Bush ever having been “elected” ) . . .

    . . . is when people appropriate links that others have dug up. I have researched and tweeted some pretty esoteric pages that I have found, and then discovered linked traffic to those pages explode *after* my tweet, yet not using the short link that I have created. With today’s URL shorteners allowing one to track click-throughs over time, this slimy bit of faux-originality even deprives us of the pleasure of seeing how long and how far our ideas have traveled.

    Thanks Gabe for your thoughtful posts.

    :)

    Hal

  • Amy Shropshire said,

    Wow! So many comments already! It’s disappointing to see that so many people have had problems with this type of thing. I’m in the process of looking for a full-time job and I post my portfolio online but have found my work elsewhere without attribution. My mother has found her artwork being sold at art fairs without her permission. It’s a shame that people think that just because it is online, it is fair game.

    I’m glad that Chris brought up the Retweet as well. I’ve seen some of mine retweeted without my @ on it. I try not to let it bother me but I can’t help to feel a bit used. As far as shortening them, I try to cut out any unnecessary words, then I use txt slang (ie, u r gr8) as a last resort. I always include the RT @ even if I change the words. Some people just aren’t on to the whole ‘keep it to 120 characters’ concept =)

    PS-Never be presumptuous about asking what to write! I love that you care what your readers think!

  • Chris Heidel said,

    Hal. Thanks for the RT explanation though I am still a little confused. Maybe this makes for a good separate blog post. I definitely have more questions. Hal public thanks for the sample RTs of my stuff on your Twitter account. That helped.

  • Hal said,

    hi Chris,

    Thanks for your kind thanks – you’re welcome :)

    Others’ examples are a good way to see protocols in most any walk of life.

    The ways I do RTs are pretty consistent with the rest of the Twitter world, with some refinements that make sense to me ( :) and perhaps make sense only to me :) ).

    About the only thing I’d add to the examples above, is that when I RT a RT, I try to put the original poster at the beginning and the subsequent retweeters at the end:

    RT @username1 tweet goes here tweet goes here via @1st_re-tweeter @2nd_re-tweeter

    …as I did for one of yours at http://bit.ly/S9k3F .

    You’re right too, that the subject of RTs might make for an interesting further blog post by Gabe !

    :)

    best,

    Hal

  • Gabe said,

    Wow! Having a tough time keeping up with the comments on this one!
    Hal, thanks for taking the time to help us out with your thorough comments, and for helping Chris.

    Chris, I would be happy to answer any further questions you have on retweets or anything else, but it seems Hal covered eveything.

    Amy, Thanks for dropping by. I am glad we have connected on Twitter. I sense that you will provide a great deal of value to my network. :)

  • Kyra said,

    Gabe,

    Here are a few of the things I do to find the “scrapers”.
    I check my awstats every morning. I pay special attention to the hosts and look for any IP addresses that are using an abnormal amount of bandwidth. I also check the links from external pages and am able to track down sites that way.

    I also check feedburner stats for uncommon uses. Many people will just latch onto a feed and use that to supply their website with “fresh content”, supplied by you.

    I also use http://www.copyscape.com/ which is a pretty good tool for finding poached content.

    Another one I have signed up for but haven’t used yet is Tynt: http://tracer.tynt.com/features-and-benefits-of-tracer

    It tracks when people copy your content and provides a link back to your site.

    My usual protocol for dealing with the scrapers is:

    1. I will block the IP entirely if it is just a scraper site. WordPress has a great plug-in for this: WP-Ban http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-ban/

    2. If they provide a link back to our site, I generally leave it alone.

    3. If no link is provided, I send them an email to remove our content, followed by a phone call. If I get no response, I try to contact the host provider for the website. This usually solves the problem.

    I’m sure I have left some things out, but hope this will help point you in the right direction.

    Cheers!

  • Gabe said,

    Wow!! Thanks so much, Kyra!! I’m sure my readers are happy to see this comment too. I will definitely check this stuff out.

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