Apoplectic Skeptic

As I’ve said before (along with plenty of others, I’m sure)… if you’re getting something for free, such as, oh… I dunno… maybe a slick, easy, stylish, trendy blogging service based in NYC… then you’re the product being sold.

Why people are asking for “their slice” of the big ol’ money pie is a mystery to me.

Sure, I wish tumblr’d have gone about it a different way (I’ve long hoped for a pro-level tumblr account option, real serious paid features, etc), but it is what it is now and to whine and bitch about “how come I didn’t get miiiiiine?” on this historic payday is pathetic. Unless you’re being snarky, in which case… snark on, I say. :)

helms-deep:

A few months ago, I wrote this post about how to properly source material that you found on the internet, here on Tumblr, or even add your own info if you in fact were the one who created said content, and want others to know how cool you are because you’re proud of what you’ve done.

On Sunday morning, the following image came across my dash via a reblog from one of my followers:

If you look at the image, it is very clear who created it: the blogger apolloablaze. And here’s the link to the original post, which now has over 66,000 notes as of this writing. It’s very clever, and apolloablaze deserves credit for creating this.

Now, a short while ago, I saw this from Buzzfeed:

Notice who they put as the “source” of the image? Themselves. You’ll also notice that the image has been slightly altered, with the “Tumblr” logo looking more like the Yahoo! font.

Not more than 15 minutes later, what comes across my dash?

Notice it’s the altered image from Buzzfeed. And also notice that this person has not only stripped it of its source, but reuploaded the image to their own blog and replaced it with THEIR NAME as the source. If you take a look at the particular blogger in question, they are notorious for doing this, not only on their own personal blog, but on two other blogs they manage.

So my question is this: what should we do? Start publicly shaming these people? Create a new blog called “stopstealingotherpeoplesstuff.tumblr.com” and let people submit obvious attempts to snag other people’s original content? Flood their inboxes with messages telling them to stop? Start stealing anything original they post, strip their names from the “source” and replace it with our own? I’m not sure.

Personally, I’d just like to make sure that original content creators are always credited for what they make, and that their work is properly attributed. I know the reblogging system here on Tumblr isn’t the greatest, and that’s part of the problem. I’d love to see the actual “source” of an image be retained no matter how many times it’s reblogged. that would be a good start.

Regardless, if you didn’t create it, it’s not yours. Don’t attribute yourself as the source. You’re breaking the #1 rule of the Internet as given to us by Wil Wheaton: Don’t be a dick.

Rant over. For now.

People suck.

There are many high-profile sites and fellow tumblrs who aren’t following this very basic code of online conduct.