The Dark Side of Having a Blog Post Freshly Pressed
73May 3, 2015 by Paula Reed Nancarrow
Practice Makes Perfect. Me practicing, 1958.
Last week I wrote about having a blog post Freshly Pressed for the second time.
The post that received this honor (explained here) was about the effect of my mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis on my parents’ marriage. It meant a great deal to me to connect with people who were moved by the piece, which is now my most commented-upon post, and the second most viewed. (Number one, as of today, is still this post.) “Forgotten is Forgiven” has also been reblogged more than any other post I’ve ever written – at last count, 33 times.
It seems you can write a piece that is longer than 850 words and still get read.
A post can be literary and poetic rather than utilitarian. It can be personal. The title doesn’t have to be a list to get picked up by search engines. That’s nice. I write grant proposals for a living. They are impersonal and utilitarian enough.
However, there is a dark side to my fifteen minutes of blogging fame.
I Just Call It Housekeeping. Courtesy JDreyfuss at Photobucket
Take those 180+ comments, for example.
The first week’s comments are from people who have been regularly following my blog, with whom I have established relationships. Starting on the day the post was featured on Freshly Pressed, I began to get one or two word comments, some of which were so shallow and general I was not even sure the person has read the post.
Blogs are supposedly an interactive medium.
But there’s not much you can say in response to “Nice post” except “Thank you.” Sometimes the comment will include a request to visit their site. If it’s relevant to the conversation, that’s fine. But “Great piece! Check out my blog!” is not conversation.
Don’t get me wrong. I had some incredible, heartfelt, discerning comments. I hope I will be seeing more of those people. But the sad fact is that some people troll Freshly Pressed posts and leave comments on all of them (sometimes without reading any) just to have a link that tracks back to their own blog.
Reblogging happens for a variety of reasons as well, not all of them good.
A number of people shared my post on their own blogs, prefaced with a comment on why it was meaningful to them, or why it might be useful to others. I appreciated that. But sometimes my post was reblogged in places that seemed to make little sense. MMGifts and More? Diplomatic Currents? The Militant Negro™? There are people out there with blogs that have nothing on them but reblogged material. Why?
In 2010, WordPress deliberately introduced reblogging, to better compete with Tumblr, where the whole idea of blogging is as much about collecting and sharing content as it is about originating it. But WordPress is a press, not a tumble. The initial response of users to reblogging was not positive. Many people felt that it blurred the line between social sharing and plagiarism. The lack of an opt-out was a major bone of contention. The issue was still being discussed in 2012, but by 2015, people seem to have pretty much accepted the practice.
I tried reblogging on WordPress once.
The post was mostly photographs of a spring garden, and Minnesota was cold and cheerless at the time. I included a comment expressing appreciation of the post. Two things troubled me afterwards, and I eventually deleted the reblog.
First, WordPress’ Publicize function treated it exactly as it might one of my own posts, and published it, as if it were one of my posts, to all my social media sites. This felt misleading to me at best. Second, all those photographs I so admired were automatically imported into my blog’s media gallery. Without attribution.
It was hard for me not to think of this when I realized I was getting traffic from Flipboard.
Flipboard allows people to create an “Internet magazine” with stories they can flip back and forth through, like pages. It is particularly popular with people who read on their ipads or phones. I typed “Forgotten is Forgiven” into the search engine on one of my higher traffic days. At least six identical pictures of my smiling, 29-year old mother stared out at me, like the Marilyn Diptych – all of them from reblogged versions of my post.
This made me a little queasy.
Marilyn Diptych 1962 Andy Warhol Courtesy Tate Museum
In truth, the “dark side” of being Freshly Pressed is the dark side of blogging memoir.
We share our personal stories on the Internet for many reasons. To be helpful. To be recognized. To be understood. Because Art. But living out loud online carries risks – and not just for us, but for the people we write about, people who are the authors of their own lives, and are living them, day after day, without seeing themselves as part of the cast in someone else’s story.
There is no guarantee that the origin of my words and images will stick, that there will be any way to trace back the digital memory to its source. The Internet has been compared to a collective brain. Apparently it has plaques and tangles of its own.
Courtesy John Hanacek, “More than the Sum of Its Parts“
Paula Reed Nancarrow 
I had to stop following someone who constantly reblogged – sometimes 50 posts a day! It got to be too much. I’d rather connect with other bloggers than spam them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That seems more rewarding to me as well, Jan.
LikeLike
I agree with you. There’s now an option buried in your settings somewhere to remove the Reblog button from your administrator’s bar. I don’t know how well it works (maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t see it) but I like to think its absence discourages people from reblogging my stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s worth knowing, thank you! And it was helpful to find your post and get a better sense of the history of the feature.
LikeLike
I read the post about your mother and father as well as this one. Love reading aceellvwritten blog. Am looking forward toote in the future. I have a lot of stories to tell, coming from a large family, but not sure how to get started . Just hope I can write as well as you when the time comes. Hope I can express the feelings that you projected about your parents, I could feel the love and the pain.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you; that’s very kind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not a huge fan of the reblog feature. Sparingly I don’t mind it, but I don’t understand having an entirely reblogged site–go to Tumblr for that, WordPress is more about creation than curation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right. I think WordPress panicked. Where are all the young people? Ack! They’re at Tumblr – what do we do? It is interesting that Publicize also lets you post TO Tumblr.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are shallow people who don’the read or think deeply and just want to take advantage of someone else’s success. Luckily you are not one of those people and what you sharedo was deeply felt and connected with so many of you readers. I am sure more people are reading g you now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Mr. Pied Type, commenting above, has a lovely quote from Cyril Connolly on his blog: “Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public
and have no self.” I agree. But it’s still nice to be read.
LikeLike
thanks for posting this. I enjoyed the trip back to your “most viewed” link, and the combination of that one, plus this one, is very informative — and somewhat overwhelming. some friends have been encouraging me to start a blog, and I would like to, but the lack of control over posted material is a bit off-putting, to say the least.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Diana. For the most part, I haven’t had problems. And every reblog but one – which I found just this morning, translated into Spanish – has clearly attributed the post. But this is such a deeply personal one that I am especially sensitive about it. And the images are mine, in a way, but also not mine. So my uncomfortableness with where they show up in part reflects my ambivalence about using them to begin with. It does have to be said that any foray into expressing yourself, your experience, and your interpretation of the world, has the potential for being misappropriated and misunderstood, even without the engine of the Internet behind it. And the courage to be vulnerable and authentic in public with your writing is a reward that outstrips the dark side by a long shot. It can be a great joy.
LikeLike
thank you for that encouragement!
LikeLike
I had a feeling this post was on its way to us. ;-) I think, as I’ve said, that your “pressed” post was wonderful and deserving. But. I have seen this dark side happen to popular (especially freshly pressed) posts. It’s so very clear some of the commenters did not read the post. Some don’t even try to pretend. Normally, you have a wonderfully interactive commenting section here so that must be difficult. I haven’t been back to your pressed post but I assume it’s overflowing.
As a side note, the “I Just Call It Housekeeping” illustration is absolutely hilarious. Brilliant!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sarah. Yeah, I loved that illustration too. It’s always fun when the tubes and wires cough up something so appropriate.
LikeLike
I tried reblogging a couple of times (when I had just started mine) but you’re right, it doesn’t sit well when your blog is a personal reflection. I took them down. If a blog is relevant now, I will link to it where it can ‘ve viewed in situ with the writer’s other posts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That seems like a good option to me; one I would certainly appreciate as the author. Thanks for stopping by, Jane.
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the plus side they were many me included, which your post touched a chord and for that I thank you
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that’s what makes it worthwhile. It never hurts to be reminded.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fascinating post. I’ve come to blogging relatively recently and when I was reblogged wondered what that was about having not noticed the very obvious button! And freshly pressed is a new concept to me to so interesting to see the downsides as well as I suppose the up in terms of having the thoughts of commentators aid one’s own analysis of the subject matter. Thanks Paula.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are most welcome, Geoff!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I found this particularly interesting as my blog is not a WordPress and I have occasionally wondered about swapping over, particularly for the ease of interconnecting between WordPress blogs. It’s a bit of faff leaving comments on mine because of the need to enter your details rather than it coming straight from an account but it does mean that those who do so are particularly determined. That can still occasionally bring about “look at me” comments but mostly I get people who genuinely want to connect and develop the ideas in my post. Not sure I’d want to swap that for 100+ comments and my content boomeranging around the Internet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, as PiedType says, there is apparently a way to disable the reblog option. I may consider it. What bothers me most is having the pictures stripped of identifying information. I know I have imported pictures where the credits are embedded, but I don’t know how to do so myself.
LikeLike
Interesting post. I don’t blog or religiously follow any blogs. Just a few I dip into occasionally. If something interests me I often share/retweet it as well on the basis of if I found it interesting someone else might as well.
LikeLike
Well, thank you for being interested enough to stop by, Diana – and to retweet.
LikeLike
Reblogging is good if this is just for the speeding the nice thoughts and new to everyone so everyone can reach to that blog post. but not for those who just want to take advantage of good writing.
LikeLike
I do think that is how a lot of people view it. Thank you for visiting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m skeptical of most reblogs. I’ve seen it done appropriately, such as a community blogger who feels the information is worth sharing. But reblogs from an unknown blogger who, like you say, has no brand or credibility — no bio, no photo, no legitimate online presence — is plagiarism no matter what WP calls it. Because they use your popular post to drive traffic to an illegitimate site that is probably scamming advertisers. As to the brief comments, sometimes new readers are shy and breaking the ice. But the promotional ones I ignore. Another great post!
LikeLike
The one reblog I have that is a translation of my post into Spanish I forwarded to one of my friends who is bilingual. Or I tried to. The email kept coming back saying it contained a spam link. Sigh. That’s not good.
LikeLike
I’ve gotten a few comments that tripped the Akismet filter, but seemed to be written by a living, breathing human– and so I’d look at them more closely. The comments would all be in English, but the blog sites they were connected to would all be in Spanish, and a lot of them appeared to have the same set of spam links.
LikeLike
Curiouser and curiouser. Or perhaps I should say Más curioso y más curioso.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent points made in this post, Paula. It is good to hear, and think about, the darker side of such things. I must say, I do feel an instinctive unease about re-blogging (despite having done it myself) because, as others have commented, it can so easily be abused. I tend to use it as a supportive gesture, to friends in particular – but it worries me to see blog sites made up entirely of other people’s posts. In Ghost Sites (as I call them), you find no commentary, nothing but post after post taken from other people’s blogs.
Not what I would call creative endeavour myself – but maybe I am just a cynical old bag!
My own, somewhat intolerant, view is quite simple: If you can’t be bothered to actually write/paint/photograph yourself, you have no business calling yourself a blogger; you are, in truth, little more than a fawning plagiarist, a thief of other people’s hard work and inspirational moments.
Okay: rant over!
LikeLike
Well, the Tumblr mentality is that the creativity comes in the way you catalog and curate. But I have essentially the same issues, so you can rant here anytime. ;-)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! Much appreciated!
LikeLike
It’s so nice for me to live vicariously through your experiences and reflections on them. Thanks for sharing:)
LikeLike
You’re welcome. I spared you vicariously living through the Minnesota Department of Education and Economic Development Youth at Work Competitive Grant that was due today, with its executive summary, 12 page double spaced Arial only narrative – 1 INCH MARGINS! – work plan, quarterly cumulative budget, partnership chart, letters of commitment, and fiscal capacity checklist. Hope that’s OK. ;-)
LikeLike
More than okay:) What fun you must have had. Glad it wasn’t me.
LikeLike
Interesting post Paula. I too don’t like the thought of reblogging unless it’s for an extremely good cause. I’ve only reblogged something once – my tutors (Esther newton) current writing competition because I was trying to help boost the comps awareness. For me personally I think that it is something to be done only on rare occasions to really highlight spectacular blogs, hence only having done it once. that being said there are bloggers like the storyreadingape who excel at reblogging and doing it both wisely and purposefully and I actually think what he does bringing awareness and raising the profile of other writers is wonderful. But then he attributes correct authorship and his a is to raise awareness. So not sure really where that leaves me?!
On the fence? As for seeing photos of your mum – I find that horrifying. I got a lot of traffic from clipboard for a week or so and it was crazy, but for an author interview id done so no personal photos. I think with everything there is always an positive and negative. I just wish there weren’t. Wonderful post 😊
LikeLike
Thanks, Sacha. The negative hasn’t lasted very long. That 15 minutes of fame is largely ephemeral. Putting positive and negative in a separate posts, and ending on the latter, may overemphasize it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I reblogged one of my own posts once to see what would happen and was immediately disgusted with the way it didn’t track the reader back to original source. I think my own writing is so bizarre no one would ever want to reblog it, lol, although I do find my stuff translated into other languages once in awhile.
The whole point to reblog is driving traffic. The more people (and bots) click, the more monetized sites make in kickback. Blogs that aren’t monetized still make money for the host in general since ads show up on free blogs. Basically, anything you write anywhere on the internet that isn’t on your own paid for domain is a free buffet service. If you weren’t intending to make money on what you write and want to keep it strictly on site, you can turn off RSS and web crawlers and several other things, but since WordPress auto-sends out to email readers, anyone out there can copy/paste content and never source it.
One solution I’ve seen some bloggers do, and do myself, is source your material over several of your own medias like pinterest and facebook that point back to original source. This helps web crawlers more firmly establish source, too.
There will always be uncontrollable content sharing in some form or another, have even seen authors complain of their entire books being available free online after they’ve contracted sales. The game, I think, is to create a solid web presence that autotracks everything you create back to you.
Sorry so wordy. If in doubt, tighten the spam filter and block rebloggers that are probably really pingback bots.
LikeLike
Thanks, Janika. (And no worries about the wordy; it’s all helpful.) I am not entirely sure I can clearly identify who is and who is not a “pingback bot,” and I’d hate to block someone who is just a well-intentioned tumblr-type. One of my commenters, above, has pointed out how to disable reblogging, and the editor who recommended my post has also emailed me to tell me how it’s done, which was considerate. On the whole I’m glad the story is being shared.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for telling the other side, Paula. There always seems to be another side to our bonanzas. Your original post was spectacular and helped me think about the Alzheimer’s pattern that runs in my maternal grandmother’s family. So far the grandchildren have escaped, but some of us are getting to the age when our parents shows symptoms. I also loved reading the two reflective blogs that followed. Giving the downside in this one may not be as popular as the previous post, but it’s a real and honest account. Thank you for your balanced approach.
LikeLike
Thank you, Elaine. I try to be balanced. If i don’t, at my age, I often fall over. ;-)
LikeLike
Thanks for the thoughts and the comments. The type of comments you mention I’ve noted in post that get more views than others (I guess some people just trace back popular posts as a way of trying to get noticed). I’m not a big fan of reblogs either, although I have reblogged post in other people’s blogs about me or my books, or posts where people state they want their posts reblogged (if I think they might be of interest to my readers), but in general I prefer to share so if people find the topic interesting they can go to the source.
It is be very difficult to share personal things (that sometimes we don’t believe are completely ours to share) and not quite feel we know where they might end up, however good our reasons are.
We can but hope that it will be significant for somebody out there.
LikeLike
Yes, that’s the main reason I share what I do. That, and to get it down while I still can. I’m banking on the tech fantasy that when it’s time for me to lose my memory, i’ll just be able to go To The Cloud for a backup…
LikeLike
Firstly, congratulations on your blog post being freshly posted. I think that is quite an achievement.
I can relate to your thoughts on reblogging and, as someone who does reblog other peoples posts, though not excessively, it has made me re-consider my actions.
I reblog to let my followers see these wonderful posts. Yes, it does annoy me that WordPress does not make it more obvious that it is a reblog and not my work and I get what you mean about the photos, which I always delete… they’re not mine to keep. I didn’t want them in the first place.
It won’t stop me from reblogging posts that I feel should be reblogged… and I always leave a comment, saying I have done so, in addition to the standardised comment that is generated, and saying that I hope they don’t mind.
I think the best way to avoid this is to not have a reblog button if you really feel uncomfortable with it.
And WordPress should take note… we are proud of our own work, like to help fellow bloggers, but would like it to be more obvious that a reblog is exactly that! It is not ours to claim and we don’t want it.
Thanks for raising these points In your post.
Dorne.
LikeLike
Thank you, Dorne, for the thoughtful comment. It sounds like you’re doing it right.
LikeLike
I’m making this recommended (since I can’t REQUIRE an OLDER brother to do anything :-) ) reading for my, well, older brother, who is about to start blogging re his life as an abuser-turned-counselor. And much more. I keep learning brand-new things from you, Paula! Thank you! Patty of RozPattyWriters
LikeLike
Awww, Patty. Thanks. And if experience is any indication, you can’t require a YOUNGER brother…or sisters… to do anything either. Or your parents. Or your children. Or your cat. Most certainly not your cat.
LikeLike
Oh, there is so much truth in these comments.
And humour! I laughed. (I have 4 brothers — older and younger, and two sisters. Plus a mother. And a cat. And I laughed when I got to cat.)
And Patty, I have a family member who may be very interested in your brother’s blog. Does it have a name yet?
LikeLike
At first, I thought to comment with one word. Then I thought my joke would might not resonate that well…
I have read about this dark side before. It also appears to be related to the big “drop” in visits that follows all the frenzy and sudden interest.
What you say about reblogging seems unfair and rather badly thought-out. For now, I refrain from reblogging other people’s posts. Is it a desire to remain genuine and keep the blog to myself (a little selfishly)? Or is it because I don’t feel too comfortable posting someone else’s work so effortlessly that it barely counts as engagement? I don’t know but a comment is always more welcome…
LikeLike
Yes, comments are always more welcome. Of course we are all so very busy, and there are so many blogs. I don’t get to read and comment on half the ones i’d like to every week. I really can see that reblogging is a legitimate way of sharing content you enjoy, if you’re not seeing your own blog as a personal platform for your own work, but rather a catalog or curation. There are writers I know who have books to write, and not much time to blog, but publishers insist on blogs these days. So in between their own posts, they reblog others, usually with recommendations. Thanks for stopping by, Elissaveta…
LikeLike
Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday, Paula.
I have yet to be Freshly Pressed. I did get a spotlight on the old VOX platform- a story for another time. But I have seen Freshly Pressed happen, much as you described. My comment would be among the first half or full dozen, and then perhaps about when the blogger responded to me, the comments had swelled to a hundred or more.
I appreciate the information about the WP reblog feature. I didn’t know it was in response to Tumblr. I didn’t know it stripped captions from images; I agree that if they contain attribution credits, that’s a concern. Mostly, I have used them to cross-promote other blogs I write on, including blogs I co-author with my wife, or her blogs, that I sometimes contribute to.
Much to think on, here, for which I thank you again. I think I may write more in a post of my own.
LikeLike
I will look forward to reading that. Again, I don’t think reblogging is a bad thing, when used properly; though I do wish something could be done about image attribution. And being Freshly Pressed has essentially tripled my blog followers at this point, though I have no idea whether that really means anything in terms of people who are reading the blog because they follow it. I have seen a large increase in the number of referrals that have come through search engines, so I think I’ve been more thoroughly indexed since that point, and the reblogging may have helped with that; I don’t know enough about the technicalities to say. As far as I’m concerned, the more readers I can get through SEO, the less promotion I need to do on social media, and the more time I actually have to write. Which was sortof the point to begin with. ;-)
LikeLike
Hmm… the art of SEO eludes me. As for the story– well, I’m tempted to just reblog the post (I brought over all my VOX and LiveJournal posts to WordPress) but, probably better to make a new post of it.
LikeLike
Paula, I never considered the downside to the being Freshly Pressed. Of course, I moved from WordPress to Blogger a couple of years ago due to limitations with my website. But I do think that’s the chance you take. There is always a negative side to everything and you have to weigh, for yourself, which is better–the additional exposure you get vs the downsides you mention. It’s up to you. Good luck.
LikeLike
Thanks, Jennifer. And of course, you’re right.
LikeLike
So, as you may remember, I had my story “Is This You?” go mildly viral on the internet last summer in August of 2104, under the title “I Am The Woman You Laughed At On The Internet” — it started on Story Club Magazine’s website, and got picked up by the Daily Dot, then XO Jane, then a bunch of other websites. Last month, the Daily Dot asked permission to reprint it in their online “magazine” Kernel, where they repost some of their most popular content, and I said yes. So, it had an entire new round of virality, this time getting posted on Facebook as well, where, as we know, folks like to do some commenting…and again, it spread to more and more websites, and chatboards, and Twitter. All of that has been bizarre, and a vast, raw learning experience. I’ve learned that once something is online, you lose all ownership of it — I mean, in every possible way, every possible meaning of “ownership”. Not only has every website except Story Club and the Daily Dot run the story without my permission (heck, most of them ran it without me even KNOWING they were running it), several have changed elements of the story without my permission — most notably creating changed titles, captions and bylines for it that I would never have approved: that undermine the intent of the story and its entire reason for existence. That has been painful…the comments that the story has garnered have been, of course, painful (though balanced out by a substantial number of beautiful messages readers have sent me)…the proliferation of the original photo that inspired the story has been painful (and ironic)….but here’s what’s most painful of all:
A local friend sent me a message on Facebook saying, “Hey, I listened to your story on the Umano podcast!” I was like, “Um, what? I didn’t record it for any podcast…” Well! Turns out that there’s a podcast of popular internet stories of all different types (news, health, sports, entertainment), read by professional actors. And an LA actress, model and yoga instructor named Rachel was hired by Umano to read my story. On this podcast. A gorgeous, thin, fit, SAG/AFTRA actress got paid to read, on a podcast, an autobiographical narrative about being weight-shamed on the internet, written by a professional actor/writer whose original narrative performance OF that story is what got it on the internet in the first place, and yet who has made ZERO dollars from its popularity.
The pain of hearing someone else perform my words when I wasn’t even asked for PERMISSION for that to happen – nor asked to perform it myself, nor asked whether I’d ALREADY performed it myself, nor given royalties, nothing — is, so far, the worst slap in the face of any of this saga. And there’s nothing I can do about it, except focus on the upside…that something like 20,000 people have seen or heard a story of mine in some form. I try to focus on that. :)
LikeLike
Yikes, my dear. That is a story in and of itself. I hope to hear you tell it somewhere soon.
LikeLike
It’s been too long since I dropped by here; especially considering that you’re one of my favourite bloggers :-) So glad I didn’t just RT, but clicked to read. So many want to be freshly pressed and It’s good to remember that like with anything, it has its ups and downs.
So sad that some people just want to leave links, and even worse that some reblog to steal someone’s shine. There should definitely be an option to opt out of reblogging. The idea of pictures that one might have put so much effort into taking appearing in another’s WP Media without credit is just unacceptable and also that the reblogged post is published like one’s own post is definitely concerning. No reblogging for me; I’ll stick to sharing via my networks.
Your post also got me thinking again about why I blog; your last 2 paragraphs is such food for thought. Thanks once again for another poignant read. :-) #aNoviceMumTwitterFeed
LikeLike
Thank you, adventurous one. ;-) I did find out how to hide the reblogging option. Although I think that if you are using the WordPress reader to read other people’s posts, it is incorporated there automatically, whether you have disabled it on your own blog or not. Not quite sure about that though. At any rate, I appreciate the sweet thoughts.
LikeLike
Thanks for this post, Paula. I didn’t realize the reblogging thing had been an “issue” with WP users, but I’ve certainly wondered about it. It does seem to get close to plagiarism sometimes. I once read a post that had been reblogged, and when I shared it on Twitter, accidentally credited the reblogger with the article, rather than the actual author. Fortunately, the original author spotted my mistake and called me out, but since then, I’ve been really careful about all of that. If it were up to me, WP would do away with reblogging.
LikeLike
The issue with sharing on Twitter and misidentifying the author is probably something WordPress itself can’t fix; but I do feel like the issue of someone else’s images being automatically imported into your media gallery without attribution ought to be addressed. The truth is that if it hadn’t been such a personal story, I probably would have seen it as simply another form of social sharing and not really thought much about it.
LikeLike
I am new to word press and have always been nervous about writing publicly or even on fb, because m a horrible speller horrible!! I have a friend who proof reads my wp prior to publishing, ironic enough I found your story as a reblog, I knew it was so I searched for you and your blogs threw that reblog, again I know nothing about reblogging yet, I was touched by the story as it related to my grandmother who raised me and the “blank stare” part in the face I related to just a few weeks prior, the story is to long so in a shorter version I snuck up on her in a shopping store she did not recognize me, I said ..you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,…she said who me?? im 75 years old, …I said yes you still the most beautiful woman….it was a moment her face when I said…its me sheena was blank confused searching for the brain function she is loosing….I commented on your blog you I believe commented on mine , that has no absolutely no relation to your vision. Im a dog groomer lol I blog about honesty in business and how its lacking, I feel I could relate. so this scares me esp the story about amy salloway, I cant even figure out how to post more then one picture on my blog. anyway my point, I don’t know if I would have found you if it were not for a reblogging??
LikeLike
Not to worry, my dear. I am very grateful that you found the post by any means. I’m not categorically against reblogging; I think many people simply see it as a means of sharing content they like. But out of the 30+ people who did reblog it, there were a few who seemed to be just driving traffic to their own sites, for reasons that seemed to have little to do with the content.
LikeLike
:)
LikeLike
Just a general comment of thanks to you but no need for a reply. I love reading your posts and wanted you to know.
LikeLike
Aww, gee, Suki. Who wouldn’t want to reply to a compliment like that? ;-)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I appreciate your talent. Your writing is razor sharp, pointed, the thoughts lined up in military order – color photos on the page seem flamboyant in comparison. Someday I want to write like that – in a way that my thoughts can be seen in the form of words on paper. I’m so sorry about your Mother. Aging is painful enough without throwing Alzheimer’s into the mix, I pray God will grant you many more good years with your parents. Peace.
LikeLike
Thank you. That’s a heartening thing to say. And yes, sometimes I wonder about the photos; it’s part of what attracts people to blogs, but they are sometimes a distraction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Awards.” I also added an Awards Policy page to my blog. I then wrote a post about “The Dark Side of Having a Blog Post Freshly Pressed,” which discusses reblogging and why losing control of my photographs is an issue for […]
LikeLike
Interesting! I was just about to write a post on ‘What is this thing called Freshly Pressed’ and was doing some research, and your blog popped up! I’m a fairly new blogger and I reblog posts only rarely, but did not realise that the reblogged post gets publicised on my social media as if it was my own, and I’ve only just discovered that all the other blog photos are saved to my camera roll. I don’t think this is good, so I’ll thing twice about reblogging in future….
LikeLike
It does seem at the least problematic, doesn’t it? Thanks for your comment, Georgie.
LikeLiked by 1 person