Bad.

UPDATE: I got a lovely email from the blogger in question (and he played along with our joke in the comments section – and said: “It’s me. The boob man.” hahaha) He apologized for excerpting too much of my content. Really nice of him, really nice email. Thanks, dude! I appreciate it! Like I said below, I was sure he meant no harm by it./END UPDATE

It is very bad manners to take an entire post I have written (or 90% of it) – put it on your site – and provide a measly link back to the post. No. Bad form. Another bad form: taking an excerpt of something I’ve written – and then the only link you provide back is to the CATEGORY ARCHIVE from whence my post came. Which means it would be very difficult for any reader to come to MY site and find the original post.

Seriously. If you want to link to my stuff and think a paragraph or two is good enough to excerpt – go for it. But not the whole post – just to keep people on YOUR site as opposed to mine. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Maybe I just don’t understand this site. It’s not quite a blog – but – what is it? What is this “stumble upon” I am seeing in the URLs? And when you click on the link that supposedly goes to my site – you go to yet another link – where I am excerpted. I’m quite dense, regarding different kinds of blogs, etc. So I’m not even sure what I’m looking at. Regardless, I do not like how I am being excerpted there and I don’t quite know how to contact this person. He obviously likes my Dino posts, and others – but I very much dislike how he lifts my entire posts off my site, puts them on his, and then only provides a link back to me.

I do appreciate that that he likes the Dino posts.

But seriously: learn how to excerpt properly. I learned how to do excerpts in, uhm, 10th grade English class – so there’s no excuse. None whatsoever.

Hopefully – he’ll see this post in his own referral logs – and change his excerpting ways. I’m sure he means no harm. But I’m just tellin’ ya right now: excerpting someone else’s writing like that is bad form.

(And if I am misunderstanding the purpose of this Stumble Upon thing – then that is due to my own ignorance. I just don’t like seeing an entire post of mine sitting on someone else’s site, regardless.)

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85 Responses to Bad.

  1. ricki says:

    um, yeah…

    a “content” warning would have been helpful for some of those piccies. Ow, my eyes.

  2. ricki says:

    …that said, it is just plain lazy to take another person’s writing and post it, without adding on to it or presenting your own commentary or SOMETHING. You know – like “added value”? Otherwise, the person doing it is kind of like those vultures who come in and lowball the value of stuff in people’s estates, tell them it’s worth nothing, buy it up, and then sell it for bookoo bucks on ebay.

    it’s legal but it’s sure as hell not ethical.

  3. red says:

    I don’t do content-warnings. Sorry about that. :(

    If someone could explain to me what this Stumble Upon thing is (Mark? O Internet Guru???) then that would be great. Like: it seems like the people on there have their entire blogs with the “stumble upon” in the URL … as opposed to ever getting out of that environment.

  4. ricki says:

    well, if my campus propriety-police come and hunt me down for looking at a website with a boobie on it, I’ll have to pass the blame onto you ;)

  5. red says:

    Oh – and I’ve had other bloggers do similar things to me before. I know it’s cause they’re enthusiastic about my writing and stuff – and yay for me! But to put the majority of MY post on THEIR site is bad form. They want to keep the traffic on their site.

  6. red says:

    hahahaha Yes, please just say “My friend Sheila links to things wihtout warning me, that bitch!!”

    Sorry, though – it’s just a weird little policy I have. I don’t have many but that’s one of ’em.

  7. Debbie says:

    I’ve noticed it too and have also noticed a lot of hotlinked images from my site on this mysterious Stumble Upon. Hey, how about they Stumble Upon the bill from my web host, too?

    There seems to be a strange trend where people just post the RSS feeds from a group of blogs they like without any commentary of their own. There’s one called Reknit that posts feeds from a slew of various knitting/fiber-realted blogs, including mine. I set my RSS to only show a few lines, but still, it’s a little odd and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s almost like they’ve created an online magazine of sorts and in many cases, it’s not driving traffic to the original poster’s site because you can read the whole post there. I guess it’s sort of similar to Bloglines, but it still feels a little . . . I don’t know . . . off.

    Could it just be gathering various RSS feeds? Do all of your posts show up in this persons blog thingy, or just certain ones. If it’s all of them, you might want to try to set your RSS feeds to only show a summary rather than full text.

    Yours in trepidation,

    Debbie

  8. ilyka says:

    I haven’t checked out Stumble Upon yet, but from what you describe it sounds identical to TailRank, a site that did the same thing to me a couple months ago. There seems to be an increase in sites that want to act as clearinghouses (you can’t call them blogs) for blog articles. Some do it respectfully, like Digg or del.icio.us, and only provide excerpts and always give readers a direct link to the source material. Some, it seems, do not.

    . . . and, yeah, Stumble Upon looks more or less like TailRank. From the About page:

    StumbleUpon helps you discover great websites.

    With a single click you can find and share interesting sites recommended () by friends and like-minded people. Learn More…

    No thanks, I’ve learned enough. Looks like one more loathesome internet trend to stamp out.

  9. red says:

    Debbie – oh I am so glad to hear that I might not be alone!! Yeah – the “stumble upon” thing has come up in the last 2 weeks. So is it a NEW thing or … I honestly can’t figure it out.

    He does not link to ALL my posts – it seems that it’s the Dino posts, as well as some of the Cary Grant posts.

  10. red says:

    Ilyka – so what do you suggest???

    I’m not sure how to adjust my RSS feed, but I’ll figure it out, Debbie – thanks for the suggestion there.

    I’ve never even thought of this stuff before, because I am technologically retarded.

  11. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t get the whole Stumble Upon thing either. I’ve seen it in my referring links and I’m stumped by it.

    I’ve had a couple of Live Journal users post entire lists or poems I’ve written. I appreciate that they enjoy them and want to share but how about teasing the content and then providing the permalink? Not only is it proper form but odds are, if the reader enjoyed that excerpt, they might want to click around my site a bit and find similar posts. It’s good reader service!

    If people are so concerned about losing the visitor by linking out, I wish they’d just insert a “target=_blank” in the URL so that the link opens in a new window. (Sorry, that was a bit nerdy.)

    I didn’t know any of this stuff when I started my blog but I figured out. I have no patience for people who plead ignorance when it comes to etiquette. I shake my fist at them.

  12. red says:

    Curly – I’ve had a Live Journal person do that to me too – I don’t get it.

    I am glad to know others have run into this Stumble Upon thing too – the first time I noticed them was a couple of weeks ago, after I posted all that stuff about Dino.

  13. Mr. Bingley says:

    We get a lot of these ‘stumble upon’ referals too. i haven’t gotten back to the sites because i refuse to let them put any cookies on my machine.

  14. red says:

    Bingley – really? Wow, that was smart.

    I just don’t like the sight of the whole operation, frankly. There’s just something about it …

  15. Alex says:

    That was so weird.

    So,like, this is an iformational center for other people’s Blogs??? Is that right? Is it run by one guy???

    I’m so damn confused I don’t know what to do.

    Whatever it is, it sucks that anyone would use anyone’s words without credit. It’s creepy and wrong.

  16. red says:

    Alex – I can’t really tell. Like – it seems to be a “blog compiler” – so you can randomly click through and “stumble upon” new blogs, if you like.

    Which is all well and good – I am fine with many of those other sites, I just don’t like that the entirety of my posts are being put up over THERE. Yes, they are attributed to me, but STILL.

  17. ricki says:

    I wonder if it’s just a – erhm – “crawler-bot” (there’s an actual name for it but it’s the one word you don’t like mentioned…beginning with s.) that automatically reaps stuff from blogs…meaning there’s no person behind it in the sense of someone reading blogs and picking stuff they like, if there’s just some ‘bot with certain keywords searching and compiling and generating traffic by basically appropriating others’ work.

    It still makes me kind of ooged out. I really wonder if people who look at those ‘stumble upon’ things ever really do find new blogs they like that way.

  18. Emily says:

    I don’t get that site, either and even worse, for somebody who doesn’t really get what it is, it isn’t entirely clear by the way the posts are structured that it is YOUR writing and not the site owner’s. It’s bad enough to excerpt huge chunks of posts from someone, even with a link. But to tak someone else’s stuff without making it ENTIRELY clear that it belongs to them and not you? Oooo, chaps my hide.

  19. red says:

    Emily – I know. It just doesn’t look right at ALL.

    Here are my rules for attribution:

    I say: “Great post here!” (and provide a link TO THE POST – not just to the main page of the blog the post appears on – some bloggers are tricky that way, but I think it’s pathetic. Traffic-whores, sorry.) If there’s something I want to excerpt – I’ll pull out the paragraph or two – and then AFTER, I will provide another link: “Go read the whole thing”. Because then the reader doesn’t have to scroll back up to find the URL, if they want to click over. This seems to be standard practice. You gotta share traffic-

    ricki – that’s why I wondered if this was a blog at all, or anything compiled by, you know, A HUMAN BEING – or if the “s” was somehow responsible for what I see over there.

  20. Thanks to the story about the unfortunate incident that befell my feet on the subway, my blog is now included in several link farms about foot fetishes. Unlike dmoz.org or Digg, those link farms do not seem to have a human editor compiling and categorizing the URLs. I think it’s like ricki said — my site was crawled for certain key words and then whammo! I’m in the company of porn sites. Not that I mind…

    Seriously though, it’s scary. I hate that loss of control over my words and my reputation.

  21. dorkafork says:

    It looks like it’s compiled by a human being. If you click on the “Next Stumbler” link in the upper right, you can see other people’s stumble upon whatevers. The main difference seems to be everybody else just writes short descriptions of the links, whereas this guy excerpts the whole damn post. That’s why I think it’s not some sort of robot. I think it’s set up for the person to type in a description, and also it looks like he’s got a link to one of your posts where he didn’t excerpt the entire thing.

  22. Carrie says:

    Those random images inserted inbetween your blog posts are cracking me up. It’s like, Sheila porn! I bet the guy who is doing this only buys Playboy for the interviews, too.

    Stumble Upon:
    Sheila waxes lyrical about the letters of Thomas Jefferson.
    Spanish chick with big boob in the middle of her chest!
    Sheila tells us about her iPod.
    Woman with underwear on backwards!
    Sheila swoons over Cary Grant.
    Naked chick!

    I think someone might have a crush on you? Is it wishful thinking?

    You’re all, yeah, I’m hot, I know it, of course that’s how some guys would imagine me, but I’m pissed the bastard is ripping me off!!!!! LOL.

  23. red says:

    Carrie – I’M DYING with laughter … that is TOTAALLY what it looks like –

    hahahahahahahahhhhhhhhhh

  24. Carrie says:

    D’ya think that’s his idea of ‘Happy Place’? ;-)

  25. red says:

    It is!!! It totally is. Seriuosly I can’t stop laughing.

    Sheila tells us about her iPod
    Woman with underwear on backwards!

    I think that was my favorite part.

  26. Carrie says:

    Stumble upon: As if Sheila’s prose isn’t exciting enough – making her blog just that much more visual, if you know what I mean. Spicing up the blog world, yep, Sheila for the hornially challenged.

    Stumble upon: Pimping the blogs, hubba hubba. For readers whose attention span needs a little boost.

  27. red says:

    Sexing up The Federalist Papers for the masses!

  28. Carrie says:

    “Yeah, but worst part is, he’s keeping all the traffic for himself!! I mean, if he’s going to pimp my blog out, he should at least link me out, tease the readers with just a tantilizing taste, not give them the whole post! That’s just rude!”

    “Uh, I don’t think teasing is his forte…..”

    I bet he doesn’t admit to surfing porn sites, either. It’s art. He digs intellectual chicks. It’s not just about the boobage.

    LOL Omigod, we totally stumbled upon him and are dissecting his sexual and mannerly issues as a result, I bet that’s so not what he had in mind!

  29. red says:

    this is so hysterical … hahahahahahaha

  30. Carrie says:

    If only you knew! Is that all you had to do to become the number 1 blog??? Is that the missing ingredient to success? Artful boobage? Backwards underwear? What do you call a woman with one breast in the middle of her chest? A cyclotits? Cytit? Cycboobs? Quick, email the web designer, we need another Sheila variation!!

  31. red says:

    cyclotits.com

  32. red says:

    Una-boob-er.com

  33. red says:

    Oh God. I am now spamming mySELF.

  34. Carrie says:

    LOL! That was tea-sputtering. That poor Spanish woman. She’s beautiful, but imagine having in your portfolio, “A.K.A. Cyclops Breast”. http://www.cyclotits.com omg lol

  35. Carrie says:

    Hello, my name is Una Boober!!!!!!

  36. red says:

    Third Eye Boob.

  37. Carrie says:

    The Una Boober, does she wear sunglasses and a hoodie, live in a wood cabin and write long tracts about obscure historical references to the founding fathers???

    Oh my god it is all becoming clear now!!! You are the Una Boober!!!

  38. Carrie says:

    You should totally dress like that for Halloween. Be the Una Boober.

  39. red says:

    I knew my true identity would come out eventually.

  40. red says:

    1776-boobs.com

  41. ricki says:

    okay, now I’m laughing at the una-boob.

    but when I saw it, my first thought was “EEEEEEEEE! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!” and my second thought was “I need a good stiff drink now”

    and I don’t drink.

    But you know, it is wrong – it’s just so wrong – to be reading along on a Dean Martin post (a PLAGIARIZED Dean Martin post at that), and then get hit smack in the middle of your eye (and I do mean smack in the middle) by that.

    actually, makes me wonder…what would the Rat Pack response be to meeting a woman with just one tit in the middle of her chest? And an apparent fondness for showing it off?

  42. Carrie says:

    Check out my new iBoob

  43. ricki says:

    Our Founding Boobers.

    The Boob Pack.

    “Hey, Alexander Hamilton – getta loada this!”

    Boobs and Books (Although, the internets being what it is, I bet that one’s taken already)

    Boobs and Dictators….

  44. Carrie says:

    The best Cary Grant movie, The Philadelphia Boob or North by Northboob, and why, by Sheila.

  45. red says:

    I personally adore Dean Martin’s song “Ain’t That a Kick in the Boob”.

  46. ricki says:

    Insane Boobstyle Mentioner.

  47. red says:

    The Boob of Stalin.

  48. red says:

    hahahahaha Oh, I hate those IBLers.

  49. ricki says:

    Lenin’s Boob.

    (And the fungus growing thereon…)

  50. red says:

    Yeah, clip that fungus off your boob, please. Thanks.

  51. Carrie says:

    The Day I Showed My Boyfriend the Back of My Eyeboob.

  52. red says:

    hahahahahahahahaha Oh my God, now we’re taking out the old posts, are we??

    Don’t even TRY, Boob!

  53. ricki says:

    all your boob are belong to us.

  54. Carrie says:

    Liza Miboobi Visits My Acting Class.

  55. red says:

    “All your boob are belong to us” – I’m seriously dying.

  56. ricki says:

    seriously…I think red WON with her “Don’t even TRY, boob”

    i do not think it is possible to top that.

  57. Carrie says:

    What Is The Point of a Daddy Long Boob?

    (Dammit you beat me to the Don’t Even Try one!. I have to say, given the Cyclotit, The Back of My Eyeboob was inspired, even if I say it myself)

    “In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eyed Boob is King”

  58. red says:

    I still don’t know what the point of a Daddy Long Boob is, and I RESENT them for their pointlessness. If you are going to be so pointless – then do you have to look so scary??????

    Oh. 74 Facts and One Boob.

  59. Carrie says:

    What Happens When Your Parents Read Your Boob.

    “Sheila, dear, your underwear is on backwards.”

  60. red says:

    This dude is gonna see this URL in his referral log if he has one – come – and try to follow this conversation and be like: I am NEVER linking to that crazy person again!

  61. Lisa says:

    Friday Diary Boob

  62. Lisa says:

    OR Diary Boobday

  63. red says:

    Lisa’s here! And she jumps in with two boobs first!!! Yay!

  64. Carrie says:

    Or worse, he’s a regular reader, and there’s no way he is going to own up now. “Yep, that’s me. I’m the boobman.” With each post he is sinking lower in his chair. Or is he?????

  65. red says:

    Carrie – yeah, really, let’s say he’s been here from the beginning, loving me quietly and unobtrustively – and THIS is the first time I Notice him?

    hahahaha Nope. I wouldn’t own up either.

  66. Lisa says:

    I’ve been in court all day. With my boobs.

  67. red says:

    Lisa, “You can’t complain about what you boob”. I read that somewhere, I think. :)

  68. Lisa says:

    I’m still laughing at “Don’t even try, boob!”

    And I’m totally stealing it.

  69. Carrie says:

    It’s like, a worst nightmare. His (not so secret, it’s on the web, for god’s sake) secret fantasy, namely, you, but with boobs, or at least, a boob, The Sheila Boobs. For years he has been reading you and adding his own mental image of what you must do between writing posts. He decided to take it one step further, and make it into his own blog, his mirror blog of your blog but his fantasy of your blog. You became the ideal blog (bloob?) woman. So far, so good. Until the day…..the object of his desire, namely, you, discovers his tribute to you and proceeds to mercilessly ridicule it, complete with new domain names and re-written posts titles, and an idea for the perfect Halloween costume. Which, he kind of sort of has to admit, he secretly really really hopes you do dress up as and he drifts off into a fantasy about running into you as Una Boober on Halloween in some pub, and having a fantastic conversation about the merits of letter writing, George Washington, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe and the history of Armenia.

  70. Carrie says:

    End italics should have been at “ridicule it”, dammit.

  71. Lisa says:

    “Boobsday”

    Stephen Boobalus

    Portrait of the Artist as a Young Boob

    (I’m here all week! Try the veal!)

  72. red says:

    Fixed it! (As tears of laughter were streaming down my face picturing that scenario you describe.)

  73. red says:

    Stephen Boobalus – hahahahahahaha

  74. RTG says:

    That is very queer. Maybe it’s spam? I mean, I’ve seen some creative spam lately – maybe it’s … spam?

    I don’t know. But I don’t like it either. I’ve had it happen to me. Many many people posted some of my 9/11 posts (and Sean’s) and some didn’t even bother to link back. That’s just bad form.

    Bah.

  75. hey, i have a stumbleupon account, and what you are seeing is strange… the place he put that whole post should just be a little review of the site he found, and some tags.

    you can make a stumbleupon account for free, and then you can message him if it really bothers you… ask him to take the review down, or change it to an excerpt. the program itself is pretty fun, actually, i have found some great links…

    http://toishi.stumbleupon.com/

    and while they are calling that my “blog” it is not… as you can see from the different link i gave above.

  76. and, i usually don’t read the “reviews.” i just hit the “stumbleupon” button that appears on my browser, which (if i happened to stumble upon it) would take me directly to your site rather than to his review of it. so the effect of the annoying copying might be less than you think.

  77. red says:

    emily – thank you SO much for your insider’s look, I really do appreciate it.

  78. Mr. Bingley says:

    I regret that I have but one boob to give for Sheila’s blog.

  79. PatrickP says:

    Damn, I missed a lot today. This was fun to read.

  80. red says:

    Bingley –

    You always know the right thing to say.

    :)

  81. Mr. Bingley says:

    It’s the Virginia Gentleman in me, Ma’am.

    (and, boy, when I was in college was there a lot of Virginia Gentleman in me!)

  82. red says:

    I just updated this post. I heard from the blogger in question – and he apologized for excerpting too much of my stuff.

    He also said, “Hi, it’s me, the boob man.” So he obviously has a sense of humor as well.

    He appears to have taken those posts down. Thanks, dude!!!

  83. Mr. Bingley says:

    How very cool of him!

    There’s hope for the world…

  84. amelie / rae says:

    dang, i missed out on a lot of good commentary yesterday.

    sheila “74 facts and one boob” – bwahaahaaaa! but all i can think of is “the rest of the guys (uhm,.. boob)” and “sexy [like, uh, boob]” from the long giant post. poor donald!

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