My First Friend Friday

Through one of my favorite Twitter friends and bloggers, @OhMyTy(visit her at www.heybellablog.com,) I came across a great interactive group for bloggers.  Katy, at www.ModlyChic.blogspot.com, has created a weekly questionnaire for a community of (mainly) fashion bloggers to answer 5 questions that pertain to the world of blogging.  Each week the questions change.  Links to all of the group members’ answers can be found on her blog.

As a slightly less seasoned blogger, I thought this would be a great way to communicate with other bloggers and show my support for their sites as well.

Here are this week’s questions and answers.

1. What are the 'unwritten rules' about copying content that we bloggers should all abide by?  I don’t think bloggers should copy content from other bloggers and try to pull it off as their own.  Other blogs should only be used to inspire.

2. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. But when it a
post imitation and when is it copying?  They say imitation is the highest form of flattery but too much imitation can be very irritating.  Most people want to stand out as an individual and while it’s nice to have people look up to you and emulate you, most people do not want a carbon copy of themselves.  Imitation and copying is the same thing to me.

3. Taking another blogger's idea (perhaps for an outfit, or DIY
tutorial) is pretty common in the blogging world. Do you think it is
necessary to credit the original source?  If you are copying another blogger’s work you 100% should cite your references!  If not, it should be classified as plagiarism.

4. How have you improved your blog by comparing it to other bloggers?  I use other blogs for structuring ideas for my own blog.  I don’t want my blog to look or be like anyone else’s but I make notice of different things bloggers are able to do (like toolbars, photo collages, etc) on the same blog format as me and then I try to figure out how to make my own blog more professional and less amateur. 

Have you made changes due to something you have seen others doing? Only for the above listed reasons.

5. Have you ever had one of your posts copied by another blogger or publication? How did you handle the situation?  Since I have not been blogging long, I have not had anyone (that I have noticed) copy any of my posts.  I try extremely hard to make my blog different from most of the ones I read.  However, if this were to happen, I would be okay with it as long as my readers knew my content was original.

Interested in joining in the conversation? Learn more about Fashion Beauty Friend Friday and then join the Google Group. This will get you access to the Friday questions a couple days early as well as the off-blog conversations we have on any number of topics.

XXoo