Leaving Your Website Naked and Other Social Media Tragedies- by Brinda Berry
As I roam around the internet, let me assure you that I see and experience some things that make me cringe. I’m using Gloria’s blog today as a place for telling you about things that BUG me. She lets me get away with anything here, so I think this will post before she notices…*whistling*
ViciousV (CC BY-SA 2.0)
- Now that everyone has freaked out over using images that they do not own, I see lots of N-E-K-I-D sites. What are you guilty strippers thinking? We need images. Put some window dressing back on that thing. Solutions? Read my post about how to credit and use Creative Commons for Images and Music. I found the picture above on Flickr and gave credit to the photographer per Creative Commons licensing. Or join up with WANA Commons, the brainchild of social media guru Kristen Lamb.
- Make friends with me on Twitter, but do not Direct Message (DM) immediately with your sales information. I do not succumb to peer pressure, unless it involves chocolate.
- And for that matter, people stop clicking on those DMs that say, “Did you see this picture of us together?” When you do, you get the awful, dreaded Twitter virus that sends that sucker to my Twitter inbox. Geesh! .
- Please put a header image on your Facebook author page. We’ve moved along to the Timeline view, and it’s fabulous. Or at least we can pretend we love it by posting an eye-catching photo.
- I have admitted that I do not speak CAPTCHA. It’s that word verification language on some people’s blogs. I have recently become VERY frustrated with how many bloggers still use this. Stop it. Most good blogging platforms catch spam. Or you can monitor and then delete one if you need to do so.
If you want to know if you can find more than puppy pics on Flickr, check out what I found on http://search.creativecommons.org/ . This one is licensed for sharing as long as I give the photographer attribution and not use it for commercial purposes. I also agree to use the same CC license if I alter it.
Search term used? Hunk.
CelebMuscle (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
BIO: Brinda lives in the southern US with her family and two spunky cairn terriers. She’s terribly fond of chocolate, coffee, and books that take her away from reality.
Gloria Richard 
Lots of good information here, Brinda. Thank you. I, too, wish people would stop, look and NOT click on those questionable emails. If I don’t recognize the sender or the subject, into my junk mail it goes. I have one more to add to your list. If you join a LinkedIn group don’t immediately source out the emails of other members and hit them with personal emails to sell your books. And I stop following the Twitter people who automatically tweet a sales ad every 5 minutes. If I met you on the street would you do that? Interrupt the conversation to sell me your book, over and over?
OK, now I’ve vented. I guess that was two more, wasn’t it?
Those are excellent complaints. I agree.
I’m sure that the offenders are not obnoxious in person, but they get carried away in social media.
SKA-WEEEE!
I woke up this morning to discover I have an informative, rock-star B-L-O-G again.
Ah, Facebook and Twitter. Bless their social media potential under Gloria’s sporadic attention.
In my
basketcase, “sporadic” is synonymous with “almost never.” I post and tweet awesome blog articles (like this one), then pack my crayons and go home. And, the key to success on those is a two-way dialog, isn’t it?It’s too late to put them on my list for this week, but I know there are some awesome blogs posted on how to effectively use FB and Tweety Bird without letting them become a time suck.
Thanks for the linky-dinks for images, Brinda. I won’t be using the one of The Hunk because I have a personal policy against ogling men with bigger and perkier boobs than my own. Yeah. I know. I know. It’s all muscle.
Off now to stand on my head until gravity reverses its toll on my bod.
That guy has muscles? I didn’t even notice. 🙂
It’s all about the tats. 🙂
I only looked at his eyes. Huh.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for telling people about the dreaded captcha. I hate it. Blogger especially is fond of captcha and I sometimes spend five minutes trying to figure out what the squished letters are. I’m always wrong.
If some of you are not getting comments on your blog and you have captcha, it’s your own fault because it’s a nightmare.
I’ve started using WanaCommons, and I’ll be using Flickr too, because it’s part and parcel with WanaCommons. I’ve even posted a few pictures, just to help out. If I can remember to take my camera with me in the mornings, I’ll try to post more. I see the best shots on my walks and I’m not even worried that you all will put them on your blogs. More exposure for me! Woot!
Thanks for another great stealth blog, Brinda!
I have also found it’s easy to take my own photos with my iPhone for blogging purposes. They aren’t high quality and pretty like Mr. Tats, but they serve the purpose.
I don’t understand people/organizations that use social media and actively seek followers, yet don’t provide a representative image (photo, book cover, logo) or any information about who they are. Are you an environmental group, a kindergarten teacher, a zombie?
DITTO on that. I love the thought of being followed by a zombie,
I agree with you Brinda, I cannot make out most of those CAPTCHA things, one time I gave it four tries before I gave up and didn’t leave a comment on a blog. So bloggers some of us are there, just not able to leave a comment because the CAPTCHA is too obscure to read!! Very good post today Brinda!!
Sometimes, I neurotically keep trying to guess the CAPTCHA until I get really, really mad.
Number five gets me every time!! Often I won’t comment on a blog with that hot mess because it’s so frustrating. Great list Brinda.
Great thoughts on social media. Great to get the word out there into the blogosphere…..
Hope that somebody turns off their word verification.
That’s the kind of blog I like: short and to the point. Captcha is a pain in the behind.
Off to search “hunk”. I’ll be busy the rest of the afternoon.
I found him on the first page of search results. 🙂
Hi Brinda and Gloria! As always, great post. Had me laughing. The other dreaded Twitter DM virus carrier msg, “Hey, they’re saying bad stuff about you HERE.” Really? Well, if so I don’t want to know so I wouldn’t be clicking on that link anyway! 😉
Ah, and Facebook Timeline. Sang to the tune of Dory’s “just keep swimming” jingle from Nemo… Try to love it, try to love it, love it… (although I did put up a nice alien-standing-in-line-at-Dollywood header image).
Okay, and the CAPTCHA, saved for last. Argh. I really do painstakingly re-enter that darn code as many times as it takes, but yeah, it’s frustrating sometimes. 😀 Was thinking it must be nec for some blogger platform, otherwise, why would they have it?
Have a great day, everyone. It’s sunny & chilly here. Perfect fall weather!
Now, I have to go look at the Dollywood header… And no, it is not a requirement in Blogger. You can turn it off in the settings.
Yikes, the entire post is great, but that hunk is something really special. Thanks again, Brinda. You continue to amaze with your wealth of knowledge. Hey, can you post more like him??
Question: If I use amazon book covers, can I avoid copyright issues. It’s alwo a way to give authors a free plug.
Question 2: How about art from over 100 years ago? Is that also free of issues?
Hmm…I think you were impressed with my image discovery skills. 🙂
As for your questions, I am giving an opinion–not legal advice. 🙂
Q-1. Using Amazon or book covers from any source seems fine to me. Amazon does not actually own the cover anyway. The publisher may own it and wants the book advertised. It seems to fall under Fair Use, which is a US copyright law you may be familiar with. I searched to get a legal opinion, and found a law blog for libraries who display book covers on websites, etc. http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/2008/08/book-jackets–.html
Q-2: Again, I would presume it is fine, but I searched for something legal to back me up. It would depend on the limitation of copyright. Works of an author of unregistered (with the US Copyright office) who dies before 1942 are in public domain. See the handy-dandy chart on this page:
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
The Captcha thing drives me nuts! Much muttering ensues in our house when I battle a Captcha. I need to do something with my Facebook page. I might develop a plan during my holiday.
I have said a few very bad words over CAPTCHA. Have a great holiday!
The question now is… Can you get that hunk delivered?
*grin* Fed Ex?
I totally agree with everything you said. Captcha frustrates me. No images are boring, and PLEASE DON’T send me your book info the minute you meet me on Twitter. I will never buy your book if you do this. Okay, I’m done now. Thanks, that was therapeutic. 🙂
This was SO good! You’ve relieved me of feeling like a dummy over ‘CAPTCHA-failure’! Excellent tips all around (particularly on hunk …). Thanks!
Thanks, Patricia. If you knew how many tries it take for me to pass the CAPTCHA test, you’d feel very sorry for me. I sit there asking the screen, “Is that a ‘b’ or an ‘l’ with an ‘o’ and of course it was actually a ‘p’ sitting higher than the other letters.
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