Commenting on Comments

I was browsing the Fair Review Project again today, aimlessly wandering from link to link to see if there were any interesting or amusing blogs on which I could waste a bit of time before I take my Mum out (happy birthday Mummy) later.

Somehow I ended up at a review of a blog from the directory and from there, the same entry (replicated on another blog). Although the entry itself wasn’t particularly interesting, a comment from an obviously self-important male caught my eye:

i feel that girls dont venture into the IT industry coz they have limited spatial thinking and visualizations

Of course, being a girl-geek I quickly responded — defending my ‘position’ and calling him out for sexism — simply for the sake of making it known what I think of opinions like his of course. Except, after I posted it I realised that I’d just added a comment to a blog I’ve never read or replied to before aimed at someone other than the owner of the blog, with not even a passing mention to the original entry.

A massive violation of blog etiquette, or part of the normal entry/conversation progression? Do you delete comments from people responding to someone other than yourself or let it slide?

Posted on: August 20, 2007 · Category: Interwebs

With Thanks

Thank you to those who sent me e-mails and/or left comments after my ranty post yesterday. I appreciate that effort that it takes to try and be sympathetic or supportive so it’s always nice when I’m on the receiving end of that good will. I chilled out with some beans on toast and an evening of Wii Play/Wii Sports.

Primarily though, this is a thank you to those who left your thoughts on my post about Using Web Tutorials. I never realised how strongly some of you feel, but it was quite nice to see that about 98% of you actively take part in/encourage crediting. It was somewhat odd that a few of you took it upon yourselves to assume my point of view when I deliberately avoided posting it, but such is the nature of blogging I guess.

For the record, I believe in crediting where it’s due. I also think something only becomes mine if I use the knowledge learnt to create something new; simply modifying it doesn’t change the underlying structure — or in the case of HTML/PHP/etc tutorials — the code. That said, I’ve never actively encouraged people to credit tutorialtastic which is why it always surprises me when people do :)

Posted on: May 12, 2007 · Category: Interwebs

Using Web Tutorials

An interesting topic came up between a few friends today about people who follow web tutorials and then claim that the product of those tutorials as their own. This made me wonder about the general attitude out there, so of course — as a curious git and a tutorial writer — the logical option was to blog about it.

When you follow a tutorial, do you consider the end result your own, or do you consider it something that effectively belongs to the author of the tutorial?

Related post: “I wrote my own CMS!1!!”

Posted on: May 10, 2007 · Category: Interwebs

Notify Me? NO!

What the hell is it with the sudden burst of people using the comment subscription tick box (plugin?) with WordPress? Is it really that prosperous for a website owner to have it automatically ticked? Does it benefit anyone? Do I care what other people are saying on your website? No, no, no! I really do not care what your sheep are repeating, please do not subscribe me to your comments.

That’s probably the most angry and aggressive sounding paragraph I’ve churned out in a while but I am getting seriously annoyed with leaving a comment and not noticing until after I’ve added it that I now seem to be subscribed.

Sure, I could pay more attention, but do I honestly have the time to inspect a page each time I want to say something? No, I do not. I’m a busy woman. I have things to do, blogs to read, websites to run etc.. I don’t want to have to go through the hassle of un-subscribing myself to sod knows how many blogs each and every week because someone decided it was a good idea to automatically select a checkbox.

Posted on: May 6, 2007 · Category: Interwebs

Battling Direct-Linkers/My Conscience

I was trawling through my Awstats logs yesterday (as it’s the start of the month and there’s less to go through) and noticed a site insisting on direct-linking to my free avatars. Now, usually I don’t mind too much if someone has taken the occasional one but this particular site was using several avatars on several of their posts throughout the site.

I visited the site looking for some contact information because a quick e-mail explaining the technicalities of bandwidth theft is generally all it takes. However, on doing so I discovered that not only is the site just about covering their own server costs, but is a support community for “those whose lives or relatives/friends have been affected by a subarachnoid haemorrhage/stroke“.

I struggled greatly with my conscience as I wrote out the details of their direct-linking, but in the end decided to say nothing. I have lots of bandwidth (more than I’ll ever use) so where’s the harm? Would it have benefited me to humiliate and disadvantage those who were reaching out to others? No. I think I did the right thing, but I am interested to hear what other’s would do in the same situation…

Posted on: May 2, 2007 · Category: Interwebs