to the tune of “The Rattlin’ Bog” because how could it possibly be to the tune of anything else?
Hi ho, the Tumblr blog,
The blog linked from my web page,
Hi ho, the Tumblr blog,
The blog linked from my web page.
Now on the blog there was a tweet,
A rare tweet, a screenshot tweet,
A tweet on the blog,
And the blog linked from my web page.
Hi ho, the Twitter blog,
The blog linked from my web page,
Hi ho, the Twitter blog,
The blog linked from my web page
And on that Tweet there was an image,
A rare image, a FaceBook image,
Facebook on the Tweet, and the Tweet on the blog,
And the blog linked from my web page
Hi ho, the Facebook image,
Could have been my web page,
Hi ho, the Facebook image,
Could have been my web page.
And on that image there was a post,
A rare post, a WordPress post,
A post in the image, FaceBook on the Tweet, and the Tweet on the blog,
And the blog that IS my web page.
Hi ho, the WordPress blog,
The blog that IS my web page,
Hi ho, the WordPress blog,
The blog that IS my web page.
Now on that blog, there were some words,
Blog words, they’re my own words
My words on the blog, the blog on my page, screenshot on facebook, then posted to Twitter, then on to Tumblr…
With no links to my web page.
[spoken](Or my Tumblr, or my Twitter, or my FaceBook, but that’s the internet for you.)
Hi, ho, the media chain,
The media chain on the internet,
Hi, ho, the media chain,
The media chain on the internet.
(Please include attribution. In this case, jenrose.com)
Commentary:
People often screenshot posts that are useful or amusing to them. I understand the inclination. In my case, though, I go out of my way to make it really easy to share the actual words. On my website, every article has a widget to share to multiple services. On my Tumblr, if you go to the post on my page, there will be a share widget.
Why is it better to use actual links to actual words, rather than a picture of those words? At the most basic level, it’s good manners. If I put a share widget on my post, I don’t mind you sharing a link to that post with the widget. It’s super easy to do, just click the button, follow directions. Takes about a second if you’re signed into whatever service you’re blogging to.
Screenshots are copyright violations, especially in this context. I don’t make money off my website(which is irrelevant to the legality of it,) but I do like to know people are reading my stuff. So it matters to me that they know where it came from.
Now am I going to sue? Not likely. Does it deprive me of a little light at a hard time of year, when my health is really poor? Yeah. If people are sharing my words because they matter, and talking about them, and they do it on a screenshot I don’t know exists, I don’t know I helped them. That matters.
But there’s a deeper issue. I write words in a format that is very easy for screen readers to parse, which means that my articles should be easy to access for a blind person using a screen reader. Your images? Don’t mean anything for them. I often write about accessibility issues, issues for neurodivergent people, and the profound irony of my words being shared inaccessibly is irritating.
I don’t always have the energy to put pictures up with what I’ve written, so they may not catch as many eyes, because I’m not trying to clickbait people in for ad dollars. That doesn’t mean you should just put all my words into pictures.
And if you absolutely must, for the love of viral kittens, please link back to where you got it. And maybe where they got it. Tag me. I don’t mind.
This post prompted by finding multiple posts that followed meandering paths through Twitter, Tumblr, FaceBook and back again, with some digressing stops for commentary on Reddit and YouTube. I’m glad y’all are talking. I wish that it wasn’t something I stumbled on by accident. (Very weird to have a friend repost my words from a screenshot from a social media venue I’m not on, and say, “Oh, that’s me.”)
Please share. Just don’t leave me out of the loop, and please don’t leave accessibility considerations out of the loop.
Screenshot original post was by IWriteVictuuri
