A Manifesto on Linking
I’ve been watching a lot of the crediting and linking on blogs and news sites lately, and it’s amazing to me what lengths some sites will go to in order to avoid linking to the competition– even ignoring the news, to the detriment of their readers.
So here’s my new manifesto on that front: if keeping readers at your website depends on you keeping them unaware of the competition, YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR SITE.
Not unlike how anime companies need to proactively replace fansubs rather than sue people who make them, people who run blogs and websites need to proactively offer unique content that’s worth reading rather than try to hide the existence of competitors’ sites.
So if any of you write blogs, run sites, etc. do me a favor: credit the original source of the material (even if it’s a competitor!) and, if there is one, the site that linked you to the original source (even if THAT’S a competitor!). I’m sure I’ve failed to do this in the past, but it’s what I plan to do every post for the future.
Compete on your content, not on the ignorance of your readers.
Ummm, I just linked your site about *checks watch* five minutes ago in ref to your Light Yagami and Zac Efron thing. I gave you full source credit. I’m not all that clever and would have never made the connection. It’s true, I’m not. You can ask all four of my readers.
…just like how you have “original” content with your “according to canned dogs” blog posts eh?
Haha, I’m not going to go around policing other people’s links to me or anything, but thanks for the link! I just think linking both the original and secondary source is a good level of common courtesy and kinda hope other blogs will pick up on it.
As for Zac Efron is Kira, I didn’t come up with that originally either! I mentioned in the original post that it was pulled from an anonymous image board (one that doesn’t like being linked to). So I’m not all that clever either. I just have a lot of time on my hands XD
Thanks again for the link!
@lol, a.k.a. hinano (nice try though): Yes, which I credit and link. Admittedly, I didn’t always include the original source in those, but like I said– I’m going to from now on :)
As for “original content,” it doesn’t mean that you can’t post anything that someone else has posted– my own original content is as often my own commentary, which some people seem to enjoy, as it is my own finds on the ‘net, panel/con reports, chats with industry folks, etc. No one person (or even one organization) can find and post EVERY single fun/interesting thing out there, so it’s fine to pick up news from other sites– as long as it’s credited.
:D
I’ve been writing news posts for a few years now and as a matter of courtesy (as well as legitimacy) I’ve always tried to source my news articles according to where they originated from, but if I’m feeling really lazy, I’ll often just use a generic ANN or AnimeNation link and leave it at that. I understand your frustration though, I’ve had my fair share of “scoops” usurped by other websites and/or random users spreading it through e-mail. But ethically, everyone should try to abide by this unwritten law of giving credit where credit’s due.
And I’m not sure if this is related or not, but I immediately picked up on the fact that ANN sourced Yaoisuki, rather than you directly, on that discussion you had with CPM concerning the Libre controversy. To be honest, given how anal some people are about appearing to be professional and taken seriously, I suspect much of this concerns the dignity of sourcing a “mere fan blog” for an exciting story.
@Paul: Oh, on the contrary, I had that discussion *for* YaoiSuki– Jen is a friend of mine who asked me to talk to John about it. So as far as I’m concerned, they’re the real original source for it. I wasn’t worried about that at all– in fact, I haven’t had any real problems with NYAF coverage. :)
haha i’m at work and my cookies got deleted so i wrote a random name 8D
i’m just picking on ya, i agree that people should credit their sources, and i’m glad to see that you’re admitting to your own past “mistakes” rather than just saying A and doing B (yes there are some people who do that, boy do I hate reading their blogs :P)
also reading Paul’s comment above I take it your article is referring to someone on ANN, meh well after NYAF I don’t have a pleasant image of them anyway. (especially Answerjerk)
@hinano: Really? Why’s that?
I thought linking back to the original source was to avoid accusations of plagiarism, if they ever arose? I’ve always made an effort to do so, in the extremely rare event that the original creator find my site.
@Hinano: LOL answerjerk. I’d agree with you on how ANN’s actual people are jerks.
@MK: Well, I’ve seen people utilize a secondary source in place of a primary if the primary was their competitor, as well as seeing people neglect to cite a secondary source and skip straight to the primary.
Hmm sometimes I wonder if the bigger sites even consider blogs and other small sites their competitor?