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Regifting VS Repurposing

by OsakaSaul on January 25, 2012

I went looking for my mom in Google – by searching “funny regifting stories.”  You can imagine my dismay in discovering not one of you has nominated my mother for the regifting buffoon of the year (dis)honor, despite her years of giving clearly the wrong thing to the wrong person.  (I’ll look for your mom – and my mom, assuming she’s roughly hand-wrapped a Ronco Slicer-Dicer “As Seen on TV” and did you in with it – and other regifting stories in the comments below, and we’ll see if I can’t beat your best regifting story.)  What I did find was from a Cosmo article with a collection of funny regifting stories, I found these stats:

Top 5 Excuses Why People Regift

1. It was a perfectly good gift that I simply didn’t want or couldn’t use: 90.8%
2. It was something I knew the recipient would genuinely like: 45.3%
3. I didn’t have money to buy a new gift: 36.9%
4. I didn’t have time to buy something new: 27.7%
5. I didn’t like the gift recipient, so I didn’t care what I gave him or her: 12.5%

 

As I get deeper into blogging, you know what occurred to me? Those five regifting reasons read pretty darn close to the reasons people tell me they “repurposed” content to populate their blog:

1. It was perfectly good material that the author simply didn’t want to share or couldn’t figure out how to share where it would get seen much.
2. It was something I knew my readers would genuinely like.
3. I didn’t have money to pay authors for my blog – but wanted contributors anyway.
4. I didn’t have time to write something new.
5. I don’t get business from my blog, so I don’t care what I publish.

Dishonorable mentions:

6. “What’s never been said before anyway?”
7. “The guy’s going to appreciate getting seen more; I did credit him, after all.”
8. “Publish or perish, I can’t simply go mute can I?”
9. “Its just a blog post – not like I printed it in a book or included it in a screenplay.”
10. “I spent all this time building a my crack team of content sharers; we share each others’ blog posts here and there, and so, I must take advantage of that, open the fire hose, and spew as much ‘content’ as the system can handle…”

You want CMS action, and have yet to bask in the not-so-warm glow of being recognized for your…

Douchebaggery

No, that's not my car - but I seem to have silver paint on my key...

little patience/big car (is a not totally unlike) little patience to write/big CMS

Because we all need CMS. (And I didn’t have the time to locate a parking spot that I would have had the time to back my fuel hog into.)

Hell, even when I see you douching it up, I usually don’t have the nerve to call you on it – since if you are a blogger and we share each others’ posts, sooner or later you wind up helping me with something and so, I really would rather not offend you. As for controlling your reputation, I am safest keeping my opinion to myself.

Content Repurposing

Here is Ezine Articles on the subject.  Ah, but article author Cathy Strucker only discusses “…taking intellectual property you have created and using it in another way.” Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/110568 Not a word about ye ole copy > paste > credit someone who has not given you permission to use their material > “voila,” instant blog post.

So, where do you stand on bloggers lifting the work of others and using it to lure social media consumers to their sites?  Is it fair play when a blogger credits an author – who he has not garnered permission from – and grabs the entire article…?

Your blog is like your house

I wont tell you how to act.
I may, however, silently judge you and then rethink my sharing of your blog to my social media streams.  And if you’re a particularly offensive host, I probably wont stay long – or return for more.

While we have this special opportunity, while I am not calling out anyone in particularly, least of all you, the situation is perfect for me to ask you to consider my stance on the blogs of others:
1. You put your name on it, you tie your professional profiles to it, and thus, every thing you slap up to your blog represents you.  Professionally.
2. Maybe you are profoundly respected and also known to use very foul language when speaking with nearly everyone.  It might not work for me, but you might be the type of character who makes that work – and so, on your blog, as well, that aspect of your persona might not be a thing to hide.
3. Stanley Kubrick directed films less and less frequently from the beginning to the end of his career; there are great bloggers who leave us work which resonates, though they do not publish daily.  Maybe you’ll be okay if you don’t publish daily as well.

Rules on reblogging / repurposing the material of others: strikingly similar to those for regifting

1. If just one rule-of-thumb is best for you: don’t do it ever.  You’ll never be able to play it off well if you get caught.
2. You actually get caught far more often than you think you do, but people often settle to remember you for it – rather than calling you out for it.  (Unless the original gifter/author is them.)
3. What you leave under your blog header for us is like what you leave under the Christmas tree for us; rock-solid take-away value and a dearth of thievery/pawning off your “lifts” from others’ writings will be something we will remember you for – every bit as much as it was clear you put much thought into what you gave us for Christmas.

It all matters, at least that’s my stance.

About Saul Fleischman

Working with social web apps developers on getting things made: my role tends to be functionality ideation, user experience, and also, marketing communications and community development.

su.pr size it! http://su.pr/190Q3V

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  • Anonymous

    I like how you tied regifting to blogging. And I agree, you’re right.
    One thing concerns me though……you’re reading Cosmo?! :P

    • Saul Fleischman

      You kill me @davergallant:twitter ! No, I do not read Cosmo; had to search for a great run-down on why people regift.  Someone gets angry at me – if I flat-out ask my mom!

  • Eric Wittlake

    Saul, I’m with @davergallant:disqus on this. Cosmo? Really?

    You nailed this: we remember and think differently of the blogger when we see it happen, even though we don’t say anything about it. For me, it makes me question every other piece of content they have and if they really have any of the “expertise” they are displaying on their blog.

    • Saul Fleischman

      Thanks @wittlake:disqus yes. Its their “house,” as I wrote, so we quietly say nothing, but we do remember them for “grabbing” content.

  • Sarah Arrow

    Reblogging is quoting another blog and adding a link, not copying it wholsesale?
    I find article marketing is the biggest culprit when it comes to my articles being lifted and someone else’s name put on them.I had someone call me out on a guest blog accusing me of “stealing” a paragraph from one of my own posts. I was able to prove my content had been there first but I fear one day I might not be able to do that; that I would have shut that article account down or something.

    I also read so much and I am scared stuff a phrase will stay in my head and I’ll use it unintentionally stealing and not crediting the source.

    I don’t see the blog post theft problem being resolved any time soon, just the waters being muddied further with people using plr, ghostwriters and other techniques for content creation.

    • Saul Fleischman

      For sure, @saraharrow:twitter it is not going to a problem soon solved.  But none of us take kindly to find our writings lifted and “repurposed” by others – just to generate contant, and leads, back to their own blogs/profiles.  I see it all the time, daily, in Facebook and G+, by the way.  At least credit the original creator, when you share, right?

      • Sarah Arrow

        The very least is to attribute correctly. I attribute my inspiration, my muses, my cat, my hubby – I perhaps over credit?

        The trouble with copying others and stealing their work is if they are hit by a bus, your content supply has just stopped. Create your own stuff and you don’t have this issue.

        • Saul Fleischman

          Yes, @saraharrow – for the FB or G+ shares, an attribute is the cure; for an entire blog post, you’d want to get permission before “reblogging,” as you very well know.  I hope the article was entertaining, at least.  I wrote it just before Christmas – thinking of my mom’s regifting (and of bloggers re-thieving – but not you, of all people)!

  • Andrzej Marczewski

    Very nice saul  @osakasaul:twitter   Going on the actual gift reuse, I remember my Gran giving my Mum (her daughter) a hand made table cloth.  The trouble was Mum had made it for my Gran a couple of years before! 
    With my games site, I do find that the RSS feeds get used to create content for entire new sites.  I have tried to take them down, but in the end realised that as all the images and links are embedded and lead back to me, I still get the actual traffic.however, just copying bits of posts without attribution is plagiarism and there is no place for that in any kind of written media.  Sadly, the web is still “new” in some peoples eyes and they seem to think that plagiarismdoes not exist!

    • Saul Fleischman

      Cheers, @daverage:twitter the game site .rss thievery – now that’s the first I’ve heard of that – incredible!

      • Andrzej Marczewski

        Yeah, kinda sucks @osakasaul:twitter . Happens a great deal with smaller sites!  

  • Andy Nathan

    So, Saul should we all post this blog content on our site? ;)

    • Saul Fleischman

      You kill me, Andy.

  • The JackB

    At least twice a month I find my work reblogged and repurposed…poorly. It never ceases to amaze me how some people think that anything they find online is available for their use.

    And about Ronco, those gadgets were great. ;)

    • Saul Fleischman

      I must learn @thejackb:twitter what you do to find where your work has been reblogged.

      • The JackB

        I use Google and run searches for my posts. Sometimes people let me know that they have found my material somewhere else. It is not something that I spend a lot of time doing.

  • Sandor Benko

    Thou shalt not copy-paste. Simple as. Plus your blog is your home, why would you put someone else’s decorations on the wall?

  • Christina Majaski

    You can’t copy and paste and article and post it on your site, even if you credit the author. The proper way to use someone’s work is to excerpt and provide a link to the rest so that the original author will get the pageview at least. Otherwise, you (not YOU but in general) are a content thief and will likely receive some sort of Cease and Desist letter some time in your life. Usually, the author is not credited and the work is just lifted.

    You find this by googling a string of words that would most likely only be found in your post. For example “Hell, even when I see you douching it up” (with quotes) might be a phrase that is easy to search to see if this article has been copied and pasted. Also set up an alert for your name so if someone does give you credit for something, Google will alert you.

    • Saul Fleischman

      Now that’s great, thanks @cmajaski:twitter – I’ll grab a chunk of text from a post, google it, see who might be poaching my blog content. Perfect explanation!

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