40 Comments to “Bloggy Question 22 — A Real Issue: Blogger Justice?”

1. September 24th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
   Scorpia said

   Nasty all around, Liz. I clicked the search link and it came back with over 60,000 hits. Oof!

   It was certainly a big mistake on Mr. Corazza’s part to do what he did. Especially after reading the comments on Flickr where it seems that more than just Kris’ photos were lifted and presented as his own.

   And even after what appears to be a public apology, and some words of moderation from Johnny Blood, there was still a lynch mob atmosphere.

   It’s frightening how quickly something like this can snowball. And how it will be on the ‘net for a long, long time.

   I think Chris Garrett is right to be worried. Especially when people react before they have all the facts. In this case, it turned out true. But the future is another matter. This is the downside to instant, world-wide communications. Anything can get out and around in so little time. True or not.

   And I don’t see any way around that myself. Brrr.

   Wow, that was depressing. I hope you have something fun lined up for Tuesday night, Liz, because I’m gonna need it after this.

2. September 24th, 2006 at 8:03 pm
   Whimspiration said

   Oh wow, that is a big question. On the one hand, I think it is great that now every individual with internet access has a forum on which to have their voice heard, but on the other hand, there are a good many carzy, lying, vidictive maniacs out there on the web as well.

   I’d have to say that, no matter the risks, like a true democracy, blogging gives every person the right to speak up, and in a large enough forum (like the internet), the truth does come out, is heard, and the lies dissipate like chimney smoke.

   I have seen it happen in smaller enviorons like community groups as well as other areas of the internet. In the end, the truth nearly always prevails.

   I say power to the people. Stating your opinion has never been the wrong thing to do.

3. September 24th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
   Sasha Manuel said

   It’s a scary thought — cuz like what it said about something like this happening to parties on different continents, the possibility of abuse is there. It’ll be quite disastrous for bloggers all around. As much as I appreciate the power a blog can give to the blogger but the idea of an abuse is not a pretty thing. I hope there should be some sort of responsibility practiced and equated justice — not just acts of revenge.

4. September 24th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Yeah, I read this the day Chris wrote it, and I’ve kept just because it was so . . . so . . . like the Scarlet Letter. We can only hope that if such a thing would happen to us that we have gathered enough good will our own friends would act as a barrier. :)

   I’m looking and thinking, Scorpia, for a really fun idea! :)

5. September 24th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
   Joe said

   Hey Liz,

   I think that there are too many people that just assume that if it is on the internet they can use it and call it theirs.

   I have run into a few times where something I had written was quoted and attributed to the owner of a site with not even a nod to me (as the actual writer).

   I try to just ask for an acknowledgement that I was the original source. Never got a response from any of them.

   I wouldn’t go as far as a lawsuit, but I may (or may not) post about it.

   I do agree that with the instant (and non-reversible) aspect of the internet, people need to be aware of what they write, quote or otherwise take credit for.

   It could very well come back to bite them, and it may even cost them money or worse their reputation.

   $.02

   Joe

6. September 24th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Hey Joe,
   It’s true that bad things you do can come back to bite you, and maybe even that they ought to . . . but in the case of this story it seems possible that bad things that you DIDN’T do could also come knocking on your door.

7. September 24th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
   Joe said

   Too true Liz, that’s why we need to be careful of what we do, especially with a new, instant form of communication.

   It’s probably worse that a fopa (I know that’s not the correct spelling) on TV.

   This will stay around forever, if not longer. ;-)

8. September 24th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
   Scott Ahlsmith, CTC said

   This is a classic case of the failure of Surowiecki’s “The Wisdom of Crowds,” or the dumbing-down effect of a too centralized, highly dependent mob sometimes referred to as the blogosphere.

   In order for crowds to be smarter than the sum of their members, Surowiecki argues that the members need to be independent, diverse in opinion, and decentralized.

   In this instance the blogosphere failed on all three counts. The good news is that the blogosphere is small compared to the wisdom of a much larger crowd — the universe.

9. September 24th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Yeah, Joe,
   This will stay around longer — even the unfair accusation that might happen won’t go away. That’s the part that’s disheartening.

10. September 24th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scott!
    Nice to hear an upbeat take. I like the universe.

    Humans do have this way of knee-jerking to run off to slay those dragons, don’t we?
    We just can’t seem to understand that dragons don’t really exist and that every story has two sides. Until after the fight is over.

    I want you guys on my team.

11. September 24th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
    Joe said

    Hey Liz,

    You know what was really cool that happened to happen on my Blog today?

    I actually had a couple of new people that read the post and it turned into a “real” conversation.

    They talked back and forth and helped each other with different things all stemming from the post.

    Cool, huh?

    (yes, I did contribute to the conversation as well)

    I don’t know how you keep up on Tuesday nights. Whewwwwww

12. September 24th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Joe,
    Now you know my horrible secret. It’s a lot of work. . . :)

13. September 24th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
    Joe said

    But fun…

14. September 24th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
    Joe said

    Sorry, I forgot the :-)

15. September 24th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Of course, it’s fun! If it wasn’t fun (and funny) I wouldn’t do it. I love you guys and I love having you over! :)

16. September 24th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
    Joe said

    You don’t mind if I invite my new friends over for Open Mic Night, do you?

    I thought not, hope they show. I’m sure they will let you know. ;-)

17. September 24th, 2006 at 9:01 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey, Joe,
    The sign reads EVERYONE’S WELCOME.

18. September 24th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
    Joe said

    I think Andrew used my new subscribe to comments thing, gotta go talk to him for a minute.

    Maybe he’ll stop by here if I ask nice. ;-)

19. September 24th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
    Joe said

    I invited Andrew, so I hope you didn’t go and log off or anything.

    Actually, I invited him to Tuesday night, but told him to stop by tonight or anytime. ;-)

20. September 24th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Joe,
    I’m here and working.
    As always!

21. September 24th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
    Joe said

    Why would tonight be any different? :-)
    Anyway, Andrew is from Singapore and I have no idea what time it is there :-\

    I know it’s 10:30 here, and I have to go soon, so Nite Liz, see ya soon.

    If Andrew shows up, tell him I said Hi.

22. September 24th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Night Joe!

23. September 24th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
    Timothy Johnson said

    Liz - very relevant topic. This will be the new “business ethics” question of the 21st Century (putting Enron in its rightful grave). What people do not realize is how much the communication lines have blurred in the “written word” - I had mentioned in an earlier post about “academic types” not taking blogging seriously, yet there are blogs talking about bad-mouthing professors (motivation to keep my head above water). Since I blog about my project management experiences, sometimes I need to take “creative license” to hide real names, companies, dates, etc. I had an experience earlier this year where I gave “too much information” and the ex-client got a little grumbly. Just further motivation to watch what you put in writing. I guess this legal battle proves that it’s true what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words (and all of them posted by bloggers). Thanks for great thoughts on a Sunday evening.

24. September 24th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
    cat said

    On the bad side, there is a crowd mentality where some do not research the reality of what is going on, they just react.

    On the good side, now more than ever the little man has power over big companies. Companies can no longer ignore what they assumed were the ‘insignificant’.

    Take the LogoWorks saga. It’s still being discussed a year later. Short version - it started on a design forum, the CEO came in and started threatening, it then mushroomed to the blogs.

    http://katzidesign.com/archives/index.htm

    A year later and LW are now trying to whitewash what happened. It’s not going to wash because designers are using the technology to keep tabs on the conversation. They have a voice.

    Were some comments thrown from both sides wrong? Sure. It’s one of the problems with an online free-for-all. Some over-reacted to the comments, but that’s to be expected when everyone who wants has a voice. Also, when anyone can sign up under a sig, they become braver than in a face to face conversation.

    You asked the question ” What if It Were You or Me?”

    If I did something wrong in anothers eyes, I would hope I’d be sent an email so I could correct the oversight or explain.

25. September 24th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks, Tim, for bringing this to a manageable level. I know exactly where you are coming from.

    “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” I grew up with that sentence. Looks like it needs dusting off.

    People haven’t gotten used to the fact that even though they are in the comfort of their own home. Anyone now or in the future can read what they choose to put in words here.

    It scares me sometimes for the folks who write about their jobs and personal lives.

26. September 24th, 2006 at 10:06 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Cat,
    I would hope that we got the same chance at the beginning to set things right too. I guess that’s the real problem. He didn’t. We would have. Maybe that’s why we haven’t got hung and he did. . . . :)

    The logoworks thing is an example. They didn’t set it right, when they should have.

27. September 24th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
    Scorpia said

    As far as stealing other people’s stuff, that’s been going on a long time. I should know.

    Back in the early 80’s, when I was still doing the GameSIG (Games Special Interest Group) on CompuServe, I had a number of game walkthrus there, complete with copyright notice.

    A Computer Gaming World reader in Italy wrote me for game help, and in his letter, casually mentioned my walkthrus.

    Since he wasn’t online, I asked about that. He replied they were on a floppy disk that had come in from Germany, which he called a “hotbed of piracy”.

    And he knew they were mine, because they’d been copied with the copyright notice intact ;)

    But getting back to the original matter, it’s all too easy for people to be lead or misled. Most will just believe what they read and not check for themselves. Think how many email rumors are floating around the ‘net. Somebody gets one, goes “Oh my” and immediately forwards it to everyone in the address book.

    Blogs can be even worse, since they’re public and any number of people can reply in public, including on their own blogs.

    I don’t have a lot of faith in the crowd. Push the right buttons and you can get them to do/believe what you want.

28. September 24th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Scorpia,
    I agree with your feeling about how information travels through crowds. It’s about pushing buttons not knowing what’s real or true. Urban legends prove that out.

    Sorry to hear about your games.

29. September 24th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
    Scorpia said

    Game walkthrus, Liz, not games. Detailed instructions for finishing a game if you get stuck.

    Of course, I was upset when I found that out, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. It wouldn’t surprise me to find some of them floating around the ‘net today, with or without attribution (not counting the one site that has permission).

30. September 24th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Sorry Scorpia, I read that, it didn’t register. It’s been years since I played a serious computer game — couldn’t ever get my head around the idea that walkthrus and cheat-codes were okay. I wanted to get there without them.

    Stinky that folks steal such things.

31. September 24th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
    Scorpia said

    Ah, you’re a rugged individualist! Why am I not surprised? ;)

    Years since you played, eh? Shame, shame! We must do something about that one of these days. That’s all I say so this thread doesn’t jump off topic.

    Of course, it’s not just me. I suspect that anyone who posts a walkthru has it “borrowed” by some site or sites. Hard to do anything about it, as they’re offered freely to the public.

32. September 24th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Does rugged individualist mean the same as person who’s willing to beat one’s head against the same brick wall to test every darn brick for days on end?

33. September 24th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
    Terry Zulit said

    Words are power, and power needs to be used wisely……using the power of words to hurt anyone, in anyway, for any reason, is really bad karma.

    Terry

34. September 24th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Terry,
    You are a grown up of the very best kind.
    That is very cool what you just said there. I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about that when I write on my writing blog in the morning. . . . Thank you.

35. September 25th, 2006 at 2:19 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    I forget .. who’s name was actually ruined? The innocent guy with all the free publicity, digg traffic, A-Listers and B-Listers STILL blogging about it .. and listed 357,000 times in the search engines? Or the other guy?

36. September 25th, 2006 at 6:09 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi HART,
    You do have a way of cutting through to the chase. It’s one of the things I like most about you. :)

    I think the guy who pulled the stunt can’t really work under his own name anymore. I’d call that ruined. I’m not sure, at this point, I’d call anyone in the scenario innocent. The guy who was originally “harmed” didn’t have to take it so far.

    I don’t believe in revenge. I think it takes a person lower and doesn’t make anything good. I’m with Terry.

37. September 25th, 2006 at 8:56 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    Sure. Terry’s words were good karma :D

    And, in honor of this post, I’ve uploaded the 2005 Stella Awards Powerpoint to my site.. for no reason really.

38. September 25th, 2006 at 9:00 am
    ME Strauss said

    HART!
    You are value-added every time you comment.

39. September 25th, 2006 at 9:06 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    I try :) There really is a site though - http://www.stellaawards.com that seems to dispute the powerpoint winners .. although, it’s all in fun. I thought I should point that out ..

    Mind you - I wouldn’t mind being listed in Google 357,000 times .. in case anybody wants to blog about my horrendous mistake

40. September 25th, 2006 at 9:08 am
    ME Strauss said

    When are you going to break down and buy the URL for 1-800-COMIC?