Go and read this article over at the Mad Editor.
http://www.madeditor.com/2008/02/id-rather-be-hated-than-used.html
It’s long, but it’s important that we all read this, especially those of us who blog. The blogging community needs to be aware that blogging brings with it an inherent responsibility to not be jerks. To not steal. And then to not blatantly tell the person you steal from that you don’t care, that you won’t own up to the fact that you’re stealing just because you don’t want to give up the increased blog traffic that you’re getting because you stole that incredibly cool and funny thing that SOMEONE ELSE WROTE!!!
For the record, the thing that got stolen is this: http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.html, written by Deborah Markus of the Secular Homeschooling Magazine. If you find this article someplace else, and it doesn’t give credit to Ms. Markus, please be aware that she wrote it, and that someone stole it from her.
And just to clarify some basic rules of writing: If you take something someone else has written and post the entire thing on your own blog or website and NOT GIVE CREDIT to the original author, that’s plagiarism. And that’s theft. And if you do this, please be aware that you are being a jerk, and that you should stop being such a jerk because the world’s already got way too many jerks.
And if you find that you’ve accidentally linked up to the site that’s got this article posted without proper credit to Ms. Markus, it is my ferverent hope that you will change your link to point to the original author’s site and remove and all links to that other website that doesn’t deserve any more links EVER. And if you want to roast them alive in a fabulously scathing blog post, by all means, do so and let me know so I can read it and feel better.
One of the reasons I homeschool is that I want to teach my kids to be adults, and professionals, to teach them CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY, and part of that is teaching them that STEALING IS WRONG.
When I see homeschoolers stealing, it makes me so angry.
Hurting myself laughing here, lady — thank you so much for being the exact polar opposite of a jerk!
–Deborah
Deborah, glad you’re laughing. And really, I just gotta say that I love that Bitter Homeschooler piece you wrote. That got me bustin’ a gut laughing, too.
Me, too! Me, too! Not the jerk part…I’m just agreeing with your post. I, too wrote something on my site today about it! Angry people against stealing the credit jerks, unite!
I got that meme done and I have an award for you at my blog.
Ooooh…thanks Kitten!
And Maria, I’m on my way to see what you posted, right after I stop by Kitten’s place.
Seeing things incidents like this always make me sad. Social news was supposed to resolve many of the problems with the traditional media but instead is being exploited to make plagiarism and copyright infringement more successful.
It’s a terrible shame but hopefully this is a problem we can overcome.
Thank you for drawing attention to this issue.
WoW! Inhave seen that list cut and pasted all over the place. Never, of course, with the authors name attached. Her name will forever be seaed in my brain.and if I ever decide to cut and paste I will search down the original author! I don’t WANT to be a JERK!=K