I know I am supposed to be on a blog break, but I decided to come back here just for this week to blog about an
issue affecting many bloggers, and has rendered many of us helpless. For me to
actually come back, then you should know it’s serious.
We all know the internet can be a shark
at times, devouring people up without mercy, and should you dare to speak out,
you would be devoured some more. When many of us see what’s happening, and see
we can’t beat them, we in turn join the sharks and bite too, thereby leading to
bloody internet fights with no winners. Twitter is especially known for the
most vicious shark casualties, and I do my best to stay away from it, apart
from when I have to publicise one thing or the other.
The intellectual ones who feel they have
something better to say are known to go the direction blogging. We all know
that not everyone can maintain a blog, as you must be able to say much more
than kk, lol, lwkmd, famzing thinz, Eleko Beach sturvs, etc., and do more than spew 140 or less characters
of random words that either make sense or not, to run a blog. It is with this
that everyone has come to acknowledge that bloggers are a different kind of
internet people. They are not just idle babblers who devour people all over the
place, they actually know what they are talking about. And should they decide to attack in a shark-like manner, it is not always
pretty, cos they do it with intellect. They do it the right way, they don’t
attack the person, they attack the post, which is more than I can say for
Nairalanders.
We also know that bloggers, especially in
Nigeria, form a very tight-knit community, and they know how to protect their
own. They look out for one another, and many times genuinely care for one
another. Thus the surprising turn of the issue I am about to discuss.
A blogger contacted me, asking
about how to deal with bloggers who steal, even though they reference the
source. I told her I don’t know, and I am a victim too. She said “aren’t you
the blogsville police?” Please, people how does doing 3 posts about blogsville
make me a blogsville police?
Anyway, I digress. On a normal day, I
would have laughed and gone back to what I was doing, but I had to discuss with
her because if there's someone who has been affected much by blog and internet
thieves, that person is me. Anytime I find out that one more post of mine has been
stolen, I feel helpless and close to tears. Most times, I don’t always find out
until much later, when I am looking for a post of mine via google. Ever since I
published my first book, I have been a victim too many times to count. I
commented on one of the thieves’ posts, telling him to please, mail me cos he
had no contact on his blog, but the person never got to me. I considered
putting a sign on my blog header to say, 'all blog and forum thieves should
steer clear if they can’t do the right thing by asking for permission'. Yes I
was that pissed, but I considered it too aggressive, so I went back to ‘mode
helplessness’.
You would think we should be happy that
we can write articles quality enough to be stolen by internet and blog thieves.
No. The thing is, when you steal someone’s article, you become a direct
competitor with that person when it comes to traffic and SEO. You share in the
person's stats, and if your site is really popular like nairaland or other very
popular blogs, you take 99% of the person's stats. Someone takes their time to
write a post (comedy and satire in my case), and gets almost no credit for it.
Yes, we know they write the person's name
at the end but why should one copy the whole post, if it is not stealing? Why
do it without the person's permission? Why not take a bit, and redirect the
remaining to the person’s blog if you really want the owner to get credit? Duplicating an entire content is a no, no, whether you reference the author or not. Complete content duplication is actually criminal, I researched it.
Ask
yourself, why did you copy that post? Is it to bring attention to your blog or
the real author? The honest answer will determine whether you stole it or not.
There was even an instance when someone took the whole of my post, and referenced
me in a way that wasn't even noticeable at all, such that in the comment box,
everyone kept referring to how they agreed with the blogger, despite the fact
that she wasn’t the author. They just did not notice the reference because it
was too obscure. We are a tight-knit family. We shouldn’t be killing ourselves
by stealing from one another. We should build one another. If you must lift my
post, ask for my permission first, and if I grant you, take only a paragraph,
and redirect the rest back to me. That way, we both benefit.
The truth is that bloggers and many forum
posters are stealing, and they steal posts they know would direct traffic
to their sites, and it is bad. Let’s call a spade a spade. We must stop it if we are guilty. Let’s
build others up, not tear them down. If other people outside blogsville are
stealing from us, we are supposed to try to come together, and do something
about it, but what of when bloggers are stealing unashamedly from one another?
Who will help us? Bloggers are complaining about this menace on the increase.
Please, can we suggest different ways to stop it? We have been known to stand
by one another in the past, let’s not stop now. Drop your suggestions in the
comment box, and redirect bloggers to come and read this post. Let’s not fold
our hands, cos anyone of us can fall victim tomorrow.
One last thing please, don’t steal this
post. It is written by me.
Atilola Moronfolu
@ilola
N.B: Once I respond to all the
comments this post generates, I am going back on my blog break
