Get Your Own Blog. Well, Perhaps I May...

July 15, 2009 9:20 AM

Etiquette call: Using one's own comments on one's own blog?

Let's say I started my own blog. On my blog, in addition to other content, I decide to "graduate" some of my MeFi comments to my own blog, where, theoretically, they get a different audience.

For example, in yesterday's Palin thread, I decide to reprint my own comment on my own blog, sans anyone else's content, and linking to the freely available Washington Post column that the post linked to.

I would be diligent in ensuring that only my MeFi contribution would be re-posted this way.

Kosher or no? I can see valid arguments on either side.

posted by Cool Papa Bell to etiquette/policy at 9:20 AM (23 comments total)

Totally fine.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:22 AM on July 15

You can also repost any of my comments and claim they were written by a toy poodle.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:22 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]

Bonus!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:23 AM on July 15

Yeah, that's fine, they're your words. Reprinting other folks' comments in context, in moderation and with attribution, is pretty much unimpeachable as well.

Really the only problems I can recall us having as far as mefi/YOFB interactions (and these are all pretty rare at that) are:

1. People copying mefi content wholesale or without attribution or both,
2. People being specifically abusive or stalkery about mefi stuff or mefites, and
3. People just sort of simulcasting stuff on mefi and their own blog as a general practice (which begins to seriously muddy up any impression that they're using mefi as anything other than an extended promotional platform for their own blogging).
posted by cortex at 9:27 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]

Thank you, and a good note about the simulcasting aspect. The frisson of the MeFi community brings out the writer in me, and maybe some comments could be re-purposed and/or extended into short essays (largely for my own vanity), but I'll have to be mindful of simulcasting.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:36 AM on July 15

You can steal my comments too, so long as you link to Givewell.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:06 AM on July 15

Perhaps a good place to note adamrice's pony request.
posted by WCityMike at 10:18 AM on July 15

You can repost any of my comments as long as "reposting" means "carving in solid granite and covering in a thin layer of gold".
posted by blue_beetle at 10:30 AM on July 15

And by "carving in solid granite and covering in a thin layer of gold," I assume you mean, "passing the dutchie and drinking Goldschläger."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:36 AM on July 15

good note about the simulcasting aspect

It is using the site for nothing but self promotion that is the problem. When a user's sole contribution is to parrot blog posts as front page posts, it is clearly an abuse. Less so in comments, but if it is the sole contribution of a user it is still pretty bad. If you parrot your blog in a comment here and there, when the content is relevant, no big deal.
posted by Chuckles at 10:37 AM on July 15

Wow IRFH, it's like you're reading my mind!
posted by blue_beetle at 10:38 AM on July 15

To aid in this, you can go to your profile, click edit, click the export my comments link, and you get a little text doc of your comments.

You can probably also just go here:

http://www.metafilter.com/contribute/my-mefi-export.mefi

There a limit on how often you can do this (I think it's once a week).
posted by cjorgensen at 10:42 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]

Yeah totally okay. We look a little askance on people copy/pasting stuff from their own blog to MeFi among other places, but that sort of thing is totally okay.
posted by jessamyn at 10:43 AM on July 15

Yeah, I've done this before. It's totally fine.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:44 AM on July 15

I've done it too, but I thought I was being edgy and sticking it to the Man. Now that I discover it's totally okay, I feel cheated.
posted by languagehat at 11:20 AM on July 15

Please don't do this. It's frowned upon for a very good reason and you will be found and banned.

Just wanted to see how that would read. Anyway, please do whatever you want.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 11:20 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]

I've told a few jokes to people in real life that I originally read on MetaFilter. Should I end the joke by making my voice real high and squeaky to say "via ColdChef" or would that be a bad idea?
posted by yhbc at 11:39 AM on July 15 [1 favorite]

The way I look at it, MetaFilter is my OFB.
posted by Mister_A at 12:38 PM on July 15

I tend to crosspost between here and my blog quite a bit. Of course, the people who own the restaurant bathroom stall door that I sharpie my thoughts onto still refuse call it a "blog", they keep saying it's "vandalism" and that "I'm violating the restraining order".

Whatever. I'm not going to let those stupid censors stop me from spreading my truth.
posted by quin at 12:49 PM on July 15 [5 favorites]

"Should I end the joke by making my voice real high and squeaky to say "via ColdChef" or would that be a bad idea?"

You seriously think your voice could be made higher or squeakier?
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 4:20 PM on July 15

quin, you should jack off on the NY Post, that'll show 'em!
posted by Mister_A at 7:22 PM on July 15

You're just mad I didn't say "via mr_crash_davis 3-D: Items in Underwear May Be Smalller Than They Appear".
posted by yhbc at 8:16 PM on July 15

I sometimes copy/paste the stuff that jessamyn mercilessly deletes from AskMe to my blog (see the bottom of my profile page). When she finds them, that is. Mwahahahahaaaaa. i keed. i only did it that once. swear.
posted by allkindsoftime at 5:44 AM on July 16