Pinetiquette.

I’m writing this as a sort of guide for people that use pinterest. And by guide I mean, I want you all to fix these things that bug the shit out of me. If you don’t have a pinterest account, YOU SHOULD GO GET ONE. I have invites so leave a comment and I can send you one.

I really love the site. I’ve already tried several recipes and got a lot of inspiration for Cassidy’s room makeover in the few short months I’ve been obssessed using it. It’s such a great tool to organize those bookmarks that seem to get lost in the shuffle as we surf the massive web. Plus, I love getting to see the things my friends have pinned. Different girls all of them, but cool to see how many things we ALL love.

There are a few pet peeves I have though and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen these two things happen and it annoys the creativity right out of me.

#1 – If you are going to pin something, pin the individual web page for THAT recipe, craft idea, etc. So many times I see it where instead of linking to an individual blog post containing the recipe for something, people copy/paste what they see at the top of the page. That’s fine if the blogger never blogs again, but once that item is pushed off the main page of the blog, now I have to go searching for it.

Example!

I made these really awesome pink lamonade cupcakes the other day which I found on pinterest. The problem is that when it was originally pinned, the blogger had just published the recipe so the pinner just had to copy/paste the blog’s main URL. But the blogger has blogged many times since then so instead of the pinterest picture linking back to the actual recipe page, it links back to the main blog. So now I have to go to the blog, find the search bar, enter the recipe name, find the post and click. I know it’s not THAT much work but if you are looking for good cupcake recipes and you have to do this on EVERY CUPCAKE RECIPE PIN YOU CLICK it can get old fast.

Even worse, several times I’ve gone to click on a pin and it just links back to a picture! No blog post, no article, no recipe, just an image of some awesome thing I want to know more about! FRUSTRATING!

Solution: Make sure that when you submit your pin, that you are linking it back to the ACTUAL blog page. Just click the title of post, copy and paste the URL of that post, submit! Easy! Also, if you’ve had to search like I said above, rather than repinning, create a new pin with the correct linkage.

#2 – Image theft is OUT OF CONTROL. Like, when I see my photos floating around out there being repinned and linking back to a tumblr (NOT the individual POST, but the tumblr’s MAIN PAGE {SEE #1 OMG}) it does get annoying. Now my awesome image is getting attributed to some random girl on tumblr that looks like she just makes it a habit to steal photos and repost them WITH NO ATTRIBUTION EVEN THOUGH RIGHT THERE ON MY FLICKR PAGE I REQUIRE IT.

I’ve seen this happen SO MUCH to Melanie

Six of the below pictures are her’s. One links back to a blog post with no attribution to her, one links back to a blog’s main page so I have no way of knowing if she’s attributed (SEE #1 ABOVE!!), one links back to a failblog WIN (the main page, OF COURSE SEE NUMBER MOTHERFUCKING ONE) where people in the comments who recognize her link to her flickr page, one links back to some random photo sharing site and TWO actually link back to Melanie’s flickr account.

I understand that we can’t ALWAYS find the original artist to attibute but some people don’t bother trying at all. This is also why, as a general rule, I don’t link back to tumblr blogs. Most tumblr blogs that I’ve come across make no point of attributing the original so I have no desire to then promote the blogger in some way.

*steps off soapbox*

For the most part, Pinterest really is just all around a completely awesome site. Right now I’m off to search it for something yummy to make my coworkers for a Monday Morning Treat. Don’t let these two things discourage you from using it!

(Just don’t commit either of these crimes or I will have to hunt you down and pretend I don’t like you for like five minutes.)

10 thoughts on “Pinetiquette.

  1. I hate both of these things so much! I pin a lot, and a lot of what I repin I don’t open until I’m going to to use it, and to find out then that it’s just linked to a picture or a blog’s main site is so frustrating. I usually hunt it down, delete the pin I had before and repin it with an actual source. This is especially frustrating when I’m looking for neat places to visit on our (possible) cross country trip. Some of the coolest stuff is just pinned as “Want to go here” or some crap. Great that you want to go there, where is it?! I understand that Pinterest is used for our personal references, but it’s also a sharing site. Don’t pin things as “want to do this”, “like this recipe” or whatever. Actually describe it! Okay, sorry, I went on a rant on your comments >_<

  2. I agree with your points. I’ve only used Tumblr thus far but oh… my… god is the thievery and lack of consideration SO rampant. I try my darndest to repost things that are properly attributed to the originating source.

    I’d love to hop onto Pinterest, so if you don’t mind throwing an invite my way, I’d gladly have one! 🙂

  3. I couldn’t agree with you more on the first one. I also hate when people pin something that seems like a recipe (“Crockpot Chicken Casserole!” for example) and when you click on it, it just links to a photo, no recipe, no blog post, nothing. WTF.

    1. The picture thing KILLS ME. I hate it when I go to READ about something and people have linked back to an image. I don’t understand how you could mess up the URL so badly!

  4. A-fricking-MEN!!!!!

    Seriously. When they let people “redeem” their pinterest invite, it should make them take a test on how to pin, repin, delete comments, DO IT RIGHT. And if you fail the test you can’t be on pinterest.

    I try really hard to make sure most of my pins are attributed correctly and link back to the correct place. With the phone/ipad apps, its a little tougher but the point is – if people were doing it right in the first place, we wouldn’t need to keep doing all this double checking.

    thanks for the venting board to get this pent up pinterest rage off my chest.

    i feel better now.

    happy pinning!!
    from a fellow addict.
    i mean pinner.

  5. I always try to keep that stuff in mind when I’m pinning, but I guess I do a lot of mindless re-pinning and don’t check the sources before I re-pin. I will make sure to do that from now on, it is definitely annoying when all you see is the picture or the entire blog and not the post you wanted.

    1. That’s actually a really good idea. Well, at least a really quick video tutorial the way they have one on how to install the bookmark button.

  6. This is a great post. I haven’t used pinterest yet but I’ve heard a lot about it and I have definitely seen the same things happen on Tumblr.

  7. This is the first time I’ve heard of pinterest. It looks like an amazing site! And those cupcakes look all kinds of amazing.

    I love your site by the way!

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