I'd like to be the
braggy early adopter, but in truth, I am more of a 2nd waver. I joined Pinterest in late 2010. It was quirky, below the
radar and totally visual. I liked pinning what made me happy, not what might be good for my so-called social media presence: DIY
projects, typefaces, places I want to visit, images with light that made me swoon, and
over-the-top craft gestures.
This image of mine is all over the boards on Pinterest, with nary a photo credit.
Baaaaad pinning. (and punning.)
On
the downside are people who pin to blatantly promote themselves, or a political agenda (esp, ahem, one I disagree with), or scary points of view, like praise for anorexia. There's also, sometimes, a downward spiral of conformity. Witness the many many weird naked newborns photoshopped heavily and wearing ginormous knit headgear. (And I say this as someone who loves all of these elements but please god,
not together.)
Anyway,
now Pinterest has hit the big time, commercialization is imminent.
Word is out. And you know what else is out? Linking credit to the
creators. You can diligently (but not always reliably) click back to the source, but face it, how much diligence is going around these days? Watermarks (yuck) aren't the answer if our work is being pinned from a publication, like a book or magazine or website that isn't our own. The answer? I don't know. But I'm trying my best to give credit, and to pass it on.
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see more sheep & farm & wool & fuzziness on my website, in the she shoots sheep shots portfolio
*yes! the title is a Hogan's Heroes reference.
I'm with you on that. I find Pinterest to be incredibly useful in that it's a good way for me to keep track of work that I admire but I have a strict rule about not pinning if the image can't be traced back to its source and credited.
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