Yahoo Image Search Meme
Joking aside, I feel like I should mention something about reblogging. Over the last few weeks, I’ve run into an issue with this. People have been reblogging a lot of my stuff including things that shouldn’t be reblogged. This sounds weird, but here’s a few incidents:
- My goal posts being shared. Not really something that I think is worth sharing since it’s just an update for my blog followers.
- Sales and events that are long since over. Do some of these people read the posts they reblog?
- Character origins, WIP, and other tidbits that I share about my world. This gets scary with the Works in Progress.
If you are going to reblog then please read the post and think about if it is worth sharing out there. A poem, a marketing post, book review, or anything else that can benefit from extra exposure makes sense. Those tend to be designed for sharing. Family stories, health-based posts, Works in Progress, and anything that seems like it’s made for comments more than sharing should probably be left alone. At the very least ask permission because not every blogger has the same thoughts on what should be reblogged or not.
Now if people are wondering what is causing this, I’ll explain a bit more. I want to mention future stories and get feedback on my ideas. The discussions/debates that I’ve had in the past have helped me focus on pieces of my stories. I don’t feel comfortable sharing this information if I might find these ideas thrown around the Internet. I know that’s the risk, which is why I won’t be posting this stuff any more. Not until the current situation changes. I’m not happy about this because this was one of the fun things about blogging.
Another option is to remove reblogging entirely, but that would hamper all cover reveals, blog tours, and marketing posts. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t have an option where you can pick and choose which posts can be reblogged. Not unless I missed it in my lengthy search.
So, please read a post before you reblog it. That way you don’t pass on something that isn’t worth sharing.
Legends of Windemere 
One suggestion is that you include a line that states you don’t want this reblogged. Or one that states to reblog this one only. Just a thought. @v@
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It’s getting to the point where I’ll have to add that or cut off reblogging in general. The strange thing is that some things that get reblogged don’t make any sense for reblogging. For example, a post about being sick with the flu doesn’t have to go further than the blog itself.
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You could also consider blogging privately to a group of your readers who are interested in those posts that you’d rather not have reblogged. WordPress does offer that option rather than publishing publicly. Just a thought.
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Thanks. One downside to that is it cuts out new people from it. Many times I’ve had a new blogger turn up out of nowhere with some insight. Is it possible to reblog private posts?
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That’s true. Hadn’t thought of that problem. You can make private posts public at a later date. I’m not sure about reblogging when they’re still private. Best of luck with that!
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Thanks. I might try the warning next time. It’s also a possibility that I take reblogging off for the whole blog for a limited time until the post I want to ‘protect’ is pushed within the archives.
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Thanks for the info.
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You’re welcome.
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I think people should reblog sparingly anyway. I follow so many blogs that I get the same post four times. I really only want to see the original. Reblogging serves a useful purpose, but everyone should consider their audience before doing it. I’ve unfollowed several serial rebloggers.
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I agree. I reblog book debuts and reviews, but I’ve been trying to spread them out after the initial post. Still, there should be some kind of standard for hitting that reblog button. Almost like these are special and I believe they’re worth sharing.
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You do it right. You vet the post and put some thought into the process.
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Thanks. Not even like it’s that hard.
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I agree with you Charles, though most of my own posts are rebloggable and folk can help themselves to the reblog button with my blessing, there are a few, particularly time sensitive posts, that seem a tad pointless to share after the event. On the other hand I hugely appreciate those reblogs from people who are trying to help promote a book or offer!
But some are just weird choices… 🙂
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I agree. The past events and my goal posts are the strange ones. I guess some people are more lenient with the reblog than others.
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There are a handful of sites out there that seem to reblog indiscriminately based on numbers alone, which seems a strange way of doing things to me.
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I’ve seen those. Not sure what the purpose of them are.
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Unless they have advertising in them, neither anm I.
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I couldn’t agree more. I have a follower who has been reblogging the stuff I’ve posted about dealing with my dad. I can’t imagine why even my friends would want to read that, and certainly people who haven’t a clue. It’s one reason I have cut back on blogging in general. I just don’t understand the purpose sometimes.
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It’s definitely making me rethink what I do on this. Really strange about your father posts being reblogged.
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I just hope they reblog things about my book release
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Seems the serial rebloggers go for everything, so they gather up the promo stuff with the non-promo stuff. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.
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I should reblog this 🙂
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Would that be funny, ironic, or both? I come from the generation that listened to Alanis Morissette, so I don’t fully understand irony any more.
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You can approve comments, but not reblogs. How crazy! 🙂
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You can also remove the ability to comment or likes on specific posts, but not reblogs. Weird.
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Plus, reblogs give the images to the reblogger… Not going in the right direction…
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That’s rather irritating. Racks up the media files like mad.
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It’s an unfortunate aspect of social media. We do have to be mindful of what we put out there. I once had to ask that a writing panel I developed not be reprinted in a blog, because I hope to get convention invites to present it again. The blogger was very understanding.
Perhaps include a privacy statement or even a copyright statement?
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I’m leaning toward that idea for the stuff I don’t want reblogged. I’ll put a copyright statement or a ‘do not reblog’ message at the top to see if it does anything. The difficulty comes from those that appear to not even read the post.
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I get what you’re saying Charles. I only re-blog cover reveals, book releases, and interviews, unless I come across something I find really interesting or funny. If that’s the case, I always ask permission from the owner of the blog. I’d never want to re-blog something someone wasn’t comfortable with.
Sorry you had to go through that these past few weeks.
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Thanks. It’s really been going on for a while, but it seems to have amped up since the summer started. It’s strange too because I can’t figure out why someone would reblog some of this stuff.
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I know. That’s really weird. I’ve re-blogged some of my own health related posts to my new blog, but that’s because they’re related to the blog’s subject matter. Have you reached out to the parties? I’m assuming it’s only a select few.
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Not yet. Most of them don’t see to be real entities.
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Ooohh. That’s quite the dilemma then. I’d reach out to WP then and see if they can help you out. I’d hate for you to have to disable your re-blog function since I’ve used it a couple of times (legitimately, of course!)
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I looked it up and there’s no middle ground. Either you have it for all posts or you disable it for all posts.
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Good advice. I don’t re-blog very often. Unless I am helping someone by re-blogging a post that they want re-blogged, the post really has to touch me in some way that I feel is necessary to share. In most cases I do ask before doing so though not always. Either way, you do have to read the post before deciding that it is something that is “re-blog worthy” and still use some discretion before hitting the “Reblog Post” button.
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Good method. I guess the hierarchy is like, comment, and then reblog. 🙂
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