So I was peeking in on Google+ this afternoon at about 3:30 and saw a dude post a link to the McKayla is Not Impressed tumblr. I thought it was funny so I plus one’d it, and shared it on Facebook. Because I’m not friends with the dude from G+ on FB, no attribution was necessary. I logged off for a while and did stuff away from the internet. I know – crazy, right? Anyway, when I went back later I saw a bunch of people I follow and who follow me sharing the link on their FB pages and Twitter with no attribution. I get it, it was a fast-moving meme. But still. You saw it somewhere.
Back in the day we all attributed. We’d either say ‘via @theperson’ or ‘h/t* @theperson’ or mention the person directly in some capacity. We even attributed across media, if we were friends/followers with the person in various channels. Nothing cool that you found in your streams went unattributed. That was how we grew our audiences and made more friends. Attribution is how we rolled.
Not anymore. Now everyone wants to be fucking Len Kendall (who I know for a fact uses monkeys to discover content.) Very few give attribution.
Maybe everyone forgot, so here’s the rule on how to share stuff in social media:
When you see something in your stream from someone you follow that you think is cool enough to share with your audience – share it, but give attribution to the person you follow. That’s what happens when you RT. That’s what happens when you ‘share’ directly from a FB post. Give attribution. Anything less is virtual plagiarism. You have no monkeys.
* = hat tip, newb.
***
Harley
Aug 8, 2012
Very, very, very true. I know that not everybody has the benefit of a journalism class or degree, but every time someone steals something I posted (or stole but also gave attribution), I experience 5 seconds of pissy rage.
Jason
Aug 8, 2012
As an English Lit undergrad and Medill Journalism (alright, Integrated Marketing Communications) grad, I second the attribution. Credit where credit’s due. (I even tag my downloads with the source.)
Len Kendall
Aug 8, 2012
At this point almost everything is stolen from somewhere. Generally the only original content comes from our reactions. Oh also, my monkey’s are filthy thieves too and I’m just an accomplice.
Jim Mitchem
Aug 8, 2012
No doubt, I’m a firm believer in that theory (genius steals and all that). But attribution is a good thing when it’s obvious.
Ben Thoma
Aug 9, 2012
Not sure I fully agree with you on this one.
The problem with the line of thinking is that there’s an assumption that everyone along the way will attribute correctly. With journalistic pursuits and matters of science and math, this is necessary. But for “mckayla is not impressed?” it will never be perfectly credited.
If the author/curator of that content didn’t include their info on the destination site, then that’s their mistake. I don’t think it’s my job to give them credit. If I retweet it, then Twitter takes care of the attribution. But to suggest that I must give credit to everything I ever post seems like it’s taking an academic rule (and a great one!) and applying it to a non-academic pursuit. I especially hate this when posting from places like YouTube, where the default tweet includes “via @YouTube.” The link takes the viewer to YouTube and generally I didn’t follow @YouTube to find the video. I almost always delete this part before posting. (Also, it seems redundant and takes up characters I may need for commenting.)
What I would count as an Social Foul would be to start your own tumblr feed with the same “mckayla is not impressed” images and just add a few of your own. Then you are just trying to gain cred with someone else’s effort. That would need to be fully attributed, for sure.
Jim Mitchem
Aug 9, 2012
I think you misunderstand the sentiment here. I’m not saying that everything needs to be attributable in that context. Rather, when you see someone in YOUR stream post something cool, and you think it is cool enough to share with YOUR audience (that gives YOU credibility somehow), you definitely need to attribute the ‘find’ to the person you saw it through first. There’s no changing this rule. It is what it is. And not enough people adhere to it (or perhaps, know it.) And I’m not in journalism, so I don’t subscribe to any AP style guide for this stuff. It just seems like common courtesy. And it IS how we grow our audiences.
That said, no one is attributing this post to me – and that’s 100% perfectly fine. Because, as you point out, the end result IS my content. So I don’t need attribution in a tweet/share.
You’re also right to point out that outright theft (of actual content) is not good karma either.
Thanks for the comment.
Robert K
Aug 9, 2012
100% disagree. Attribution for sharing is nice where convenient. But but you’re getting bent out of shape when someone fails to acknowledge your apparently super-human ability to click a “share” or retweet” button? That’s silly. If you’re not adding any significant value to the content or the surrounding dialog (i.e. people aren’t inspired to link to your contribution .vs. the original source) then you haven’t done enough to warrant bitching about lack of attribution, sorry.
Jim Mitchem
Aug 9, 2012
Well then that’s you. Look, if you share something that directly affects your credibility, and you FIND that content via someone you follow but you don’t attribute the find to them, then what’s the purpose of following them? To steal cool ideas to share that make you look cool? That’s not how we grow our audiences in social media. It’s just not, man. Sorry you don’t agree. But then, you make it screamingly clear that the people you follow just aren’t important enough to consider in that regard.
Len Kendall
Aug 10, 2012
By the way. I put together these slides a few months ago. It pretty much reveals the formula for how I “stay interesting” on Twitter. I still do have a room full of monkeys, but most of it comes from this process… http://www.slideshare.net/lenkendall/be-interesting-on-twitter
Kat
Sep 11, 2012
Jim is right.
People who are secure and mature give credit. Not just in social media. Everywhere.
Generosity wins. Littleness loses. No excuses.
My novel – Minor King
Recent Posts
Copyright © Jim Mitchem. Hosted by Command Partners.