T-13, 1.28: 13 (of many) Blogging Blunders

I’m sure nearly very reader who blogs has found themselves doing at least one of these at some time or another, usually in all innocence, but red-faced when caught–by themselves or others. (BTW, the simple solution when one falls off the wagon and commits one of the errors below? Apologize, if applicable, and then police one’s behavior more closely.)

1. No “hat tip” for blogpost inspiration from another blogger. Oops. No one wants to be ungracious, stealing ideas from another blogger w/o crediting them, right? Well, no one with any ethics whatever.

2. Unfar use of “fair use”. Come one, now. We all know how tempting it can be to quote material at far too great a length until what was fair use becomes unfair. Quoting snippets and commenting at length? Cool. Quoting a whole article or blogpost and simply having a one sentence intro and that or less as a summation? Theft. But sometimes, it seems sooooo tempting toquote 90% of an article with lil bitty punctuating remarks thrown in, eh?

3. Uncool trackbacks. Sure, almost anything goes when someone posts an open trackbacks/linkfest post. Almost. (Even OTPs can be abused.) But tracking back to a NON open trackback/linkfest post but tracking back to a post with just a link in a post that has nothing else relating to the post linked to and no reason (apart from simple link whoring) for the link is cheap and tawdry and rude.

4. Speaking of which, “link whoring” can be exceptionally rude in other forms, too. Sure, a joke post poking fun at the behavior by going over the top with it can be fun, but folks who regularly surf blogs dropping comments with multiple links to their blog, send innapropriate trackback pings, etc., for no reason but the link posting are (see previous comment on “cheap and tawdry and rude” behavior)…

5. Hot-linking images or media files. This is usually a newbie error. Most folks don’t deliberately steal bandwidth, so usually those who commit this error simply need a lil schooling. Usually. Well, almost always, actually.

6. Flame wars. It’s a natural reaction when one is attacked to take everything public immediately and “go nuclear.” But I’ve found that most folks (MOST) respond well to private dialog via email when they’ve made some stupid remarks on their blog about me or committed one of the other blogging faux pas. Most folks really do appreciate an offer to set the record straight. Of course, there are those who refuse to admit error and then compound it by blowing their stack publicly. In that case, sometimes flame wars are unavoidable, but those cases are really not as common as some of the flame wars in the blogosphere might make it seem… And while I’ve known some real idiot bloggers who deserve a public flogging, time’s better spent beating up on pubschool administrators, politicians *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople, cos they are among the most dangerous elements of society right now. 😉

7. Playing with trolls. Trolls do not make good playmates unless one has LOTS of time and energy to spend playing “whack-a-troll” with a BIG stick. Best solution? Ban their IP. Freedom of speech on one’s own blog is defined however the blogowner wants. Here, it’s pretty simple: make sense. Dumabsses need not reapply for commenting privileges. 🙂

8. “Me too! Me too!” Too many posts that simply say, Me too!” are almost terminally boring. Wanna say nothing but “Me too!” go sit in the amen corner where you can be ignored.

9. Commenting at more length than the original blogpost. (Guilty as charged.) If your comment on someone else’s blog is running to greater length than the original post, GET YOUR OWN BLOG! Or, for those who already have your own blog, why the ever livin’ heck are you wasting blogfodder in a comment?!?!? Blog it, link to the post that spurred/inspired your comments and track back! *sheesh!* You’d think that would be elementary (remedial?) Blogging 101. 😉 (Yeh, one of my personal failings for sure.)

10. Putting on airs. Come on, folks! We’re just people standing on soap boxes in the public square. We’re not *shudder* popular pundits, great philosophers or grus with the wisdom of the ages spilling from our keyboards. Maintain a lil perspective. For the most part (and by “most part” I mean 99.99999% of us–including me), we’re just common joes and josephinas trying to make a dent in the once impervious-to-reason-and-fact Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind/Political Elite culture of destruction that’s tearing our society down; common folks sharing bits and pieces of our lives; or just folks like me who’re doing nothing more or less than trying to mollify the voices in our heads. 😉 Sure, there are some great movements and important issues being promoted and discussed on blogs… by common folk like you and like me, for the most part. Be what you are. Speak in your own voice. (Of course, those of us with multiple voices vying for attention in our heads have the small advantage of being able to pick and choose among many different voices… as confusing as that sometimes is for both our readers and ourselves. *heh*)

11. Grinding out blogposts because one feels one has to. When it’s not fun, stop. I said that in another context to one of my fav bloggers–someone who has an unique voice and unashamedly speaks in it. That blogger was having a lil difficulty with the level of anger that some actions by a group of folks were engendering in ’em. My counsel? Be angry. Use that anger. Until you no longer enjoy being angry or using it for effect. Same for blogging. Don’t do it unless you’re enjoying it. Really. It comes through no matter how you may mask it.

12. Jumping the gun. Or, depending on timing, the shark. *heh* Yeh, check stories before commenting on ’em. We’ve all seen that juicy bit that’s just toooo juicy to be true. It usually is. Too juicy to be true. Check it out before jumping on it.

13. Slavishly following a meme or preset pattern for a post. Sure, there are LOTS more blogging blunders than 13, but I could have stopped at ten or gone on to 15 (or 20 or… ) if I weren’t slavishly bound to thirteen for this post. *LOL*

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Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub and Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Allie Is Wired, 123beta, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.