Pinterest is the
newest social media craze that’s blazing through the Internet right now, and
people are securing invites to the site in droves. The general idea
behind the website is a good one, but like everything in life a few bad apples
can spoil it for everyone. The concept is to allow users to virtually pin
up pictures they like, ranging from categories covering recipes to photography
to DIY home projects, amongst others. Users are able to pin pictures that
are already on the site, or original works that they found across the web.
Before you start pinning, though, you should take into consideration these ten
things that really annoy Pinterest users:
- Pinning
without permission: A
lot of sites want the publicity gained from pins, so they will make it
easy for you to pin their work. However they also want you to give them
credit for it. When you are attributing credit to a pin, it’s good
practice to post the original site or blog where you found it. This
allows other people to track it back to its origin; in some cases
Pinterest will do this automatically. There are many people that feel
that pinning is a form of copyright infringement and are fighting it every
step of the way. Make sure what you are pinning won’t infringe on
any copyrights before you pin it.
- Making
negative comments about pin: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but that doesn’t mean you
should take advantage and post derogatory comments about other people’s
pins. The idea of Pinterest is to get ideas out there to be shared,
and there may be pins that you don’t like that someone else may love; if
you don’t like it simply move on. Far too often people seem to make
picking apart things they don’t like pinned to Pinterest their new hobby;
find something more constructive to do with your time rather than wasting
it degrading other people.
- Not
giving credit: Many
people that post things on their blogs don’t mind if you pin something
from their post, but you need to give credit to the person who did the leg
work or took the picture. Again, this can be done by including a
link back to their site in your post, which will allow them to get more
followers. You don’t want to give the false impression that the work
is yours.
- Fake
users: People have
started creating spam bots to go out and pin things and make comments on
them. These posts usually include links to sites where something can
be purchased. These bots are crowding out the comments made by real
people, and are a good example of one of the bad apples that is going to
ruin Pinterest for everyone if something isn’t done to stop it.
- Free
advertising: Using
Pinterest for free advertising is not the point of the site, and is
something that annoys legitimate users. The site is designed to share
ideas, not for people to try to make a buck on every good idea. It’s
amazing how many ways people can figure out to make money.
- No
link: There is a wide
array of DIY (do-it-yourself) projects shown on Pinterest, but many don’t
link back to the original blog or website where it appeared. The
same thing happens with pictures of other projects. You see the end
result, but there’s no link to give you more details about the picture or
instructions on how to do something. This defeats the purpose of the pin
because users are unable to find how to execute the project.
- “Photo-shopped”
pictures: Pictures
that portray something fantastic, like a person standing on a precarious
looking place such as a high cliff or rock formation, tend to get repinned
by other users who find the picture inspirational. However users are
generally annoyed when they find out that the picture was nothing more
than an ordinary photo that was then photo-shopped into something amazing.
- Arguing
in a post: It really
annoys users when there are tons of comments on a pin, but instead of
being nice, constructive comments it’s a heated debate going on about the
picture. If you don’t like the picture move on. There’s no
point in arguing about where it was taken or what it’s a picture of.
- Misidentification: No one is perfect, but a common pet
peeve among pinners is when something is misidentified in a picture.
Say you posted a picture of a bird you saw in your back yard that you’ve
identified as a blue jay, when it’s really another kind of bird. This is
an easy mistake that can be corrected by doing a little research before
pinning a picture.
- Pedophilia: Apparently there are a lot of
photos posted of little girls, and the intent of a mime called Pedobear is
to cause other pedophiles to look at the pictures. Originally it was
used more as a way to point out pedophiles and now it’s somehow become a
mascot for them.
Contacts and sources:
Hannah Howard
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