Together with Jason Schramm from Shiwej, I’ve decided to start a guestblogging series which will run on both our blogs at about the same time.
Today (October 30th, 2005) is the second installment of the series and it’s all about Randy Charles Morin of KbCafe, who will explain how he treats people who blogiarize, how he lists his sources, and why he is trustworthy.
1. How did you get into blogging?
I first got into blogging in 2002 while working for Opencola. I opened a Userland Radio (paid) blog primarily as a means of figuring out what RSS and blogging were all about. I immediate got excited about the opportunities in this space. I founded a blogging company called Dude, Check This Out! on an idea I had about using associative relevance to determine what you didn’t know you didn’t know.
2. What is your blog’s name, what is it about?
I have two personal blogs; iBLOGthere4iM – [rss] and RVDad – [rss]. I post things on the iBLOGthere4iM blog that I think are cool! Very little on this blog is personal. RVDad is my blog where I talk about personal things, like my motorhome, my family, my adventures and my life.
3. Are there any policies you follow when reporting on an issue?
I really don’t have many policies. That said, there are some blog authors who blogiarize (plagiarize blogs, steal ideas and content) or are generally not nice people who I avoid linking to. I avoid linking to any IDG Website as I caught them re-publishing one of my articles on their Website without asking permission or paying me. I emailed the authors listed on their Website and found a dozen more that were never contacted or paid. When I approached them, they told me I was privileged to get one of my articles on their Website. They ignored most of my emails and thru lawyers at me the rest of the time. They refused to compensate me and basically put me in a position where I would have to take legal action to get any compensation for myself or the other authors. I personally wasn’t interested in a lawsuit and abandoned the issue. But, I avoid giving them any Google juice.
4. What guidelines do you follow when linking to an outside source?
I usually link to the author and the source when blogging. If you look at almost any blog entry I write, I will link to the original content author within the body of the post, but I will also add a source link in the footer of the post that links to the blog entry that got me started down the path to this great content. Quite often, their might be several sources between my source and the original content author and you can usually click thru to find that path. That said, these are not guidelines, it’s just something I do. It’s not that I’m trying to be righteous either. I’m linking because linking encourages accidental discovery of my own blog. Yes, I’m doing it for selfish reasons.
5. Do you think you are trustworthy? Why do your readers trust you?
I’m trustworthy, that is, if you are playing fair. When you are not playing fair, then you can be assured that I’ll come down on you. I think my readers generally trust me, because I tend to play on both sides of the fence. There are bloggers out there who think Microsoft (substitute any company name) can do no right and will bash them for donating money to orphans. Myself, I’ll bash Microsoft with the rest of them, but I’ll compliment them on their orphan donations too!
6. Do you think bloggers should be treated as journalists and be privy to the rights and protections that journalists enjoy?
Why not? Just because somebody pays you to write crap don’t mean your crap is any more valuable than Joe-blogger’s.
Initiated together with Jason Schramm, this guest blogging series will continue to make people aware of the power of linking and the need to give credit to the people who earn it.
Together, we’re improving the Blogosphere,you can help if you start linking here !
And be sure to check out Jason’s post here.
Note :
Jason and I are not related but have a common field. Jason writes for the BlogNewsChannel, and takes care of Apple Watch, very surprisingly the Apple section of Nathan’s network.
I sometimes write on Inside Google & Inside Microsoft.