I like Pinterest, I really do. I think it's a brilliant idea and I'm officially addicted. It's like a gigantic image candy store. I'm very grateful it's free to browse. I get lost there. Sometimes for too long to mention. I'm amazed at the creativity, the ingenuity, the cleverness and the outstanding talent people have to offer. It is one of my favorite places on the internet. But…
Now, I don't like to complain but I confess I have a few pet peeves.
When I visited today, this is what I found. I grabbed a screenshot while I was there:
And I'm thinking to myself, oh my stars, who stole all the pins and left a bunch of text in their place?
I think it's safe to say this defeats the purpose of Pinterest, no?
So I beg you, when pinning, don't copy and paste the whole post, the whole recipe, all the instructions or add a 3000-word comment!
Update 2/17/12: They've now limited description characters to 500. Yay!
Not only does it clutter the whole experience, it's courteous to send those who are interested in a pin back to the site where it was originally found. Plus, it's not good to violate copyright!
Bonus advice:
It also makes me crazy when I click on a pin only to land on a home page…and the pin I'm interested in is no longer there.
If you're on a website and see an image you'd like to pin, please make sure you're on the individual post (get there by clicking on the title of the post that contains the image), not just the home page. There's nothing more frustrating that clicking through a pin, only to realize the post with that image has long been pushed off the home page.
Would you like to help stop the madness? Why not Pin It
Any friendly advice you'd like to leave for fellow pinners?
And if you liked this, you might be interested in my other Networking & Social Media tips.
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I wrote the Ultimate Guide to Pinterest to help some newbie pinners know what to do and what not to do! Love these comments.
I've started posting the blog name in the text below the pin. So I'd say "Blogging Tips from Blogging With Amy". I'd love to have time to put the actual link there, but alas! This way if something happens, the person who sees the pin (the Pinee?! LOL) can do a web search if they want.
this is really a pointless blog… the great thing about social media is that you can express yourself or share what you want.. you can choose not to follow or not to participate… but don't throw stones at other people.. you obviously discriminate against others.. and for that you miss what Pinterest is all about.
Wow……. you seem to have hit a nerve.
After a few bloggers like you have pointed out the abuses possible, I've tried to clean up my own pinning. I don't pin pictures from re-bloggers – I try to take the time to go to the original source. I also don't lift whole posts or recipes. I didn't read all the comments but see that a few of us thought of the same thing…if FB and Twitter can limit # of characters so can Pinterest.
OTOH, we as bloggers and artists and writers need to figure out a way to make this work FOR us and not against us. I disagree with Kendall. You can choose not to participate, but that doesn't mean someone isn't scraping your content and pasting it onto Pinterest.
I wrote Pinterest a letter today on my blog which says "My Love Has a Limit".
Dixie
I see some people putting thir blog or Etsy address right on the image. I thought that was brilliant.
Hi Amy, thanks for the insightful topic and sharing so much of yourself in your blog. I just noticed some concerns regarding Pininterest that might be worth sharing.
http://llsocial.com/2012/02/pinterest-modifying-user-submitted-pins/
"If you post a pin to Pinterest, and it links to an ecommerce site that happens to have an affiliate program, Pinterest modifies the link to add their own affiliate tracking code. If someone clicks through the picture from Pinterest and makes a purchase, Pinterest gets paid. They don’t have any disclosure of this link modification on their site…"
I am ok with all these activities if there is full disclosure. Having an opt out would be nice but not required if people are aware of Pinterest's approaches and can make the decision with all relevant information on the table.
Amen@! Well said Amy! Thank you!
100% SPOT ON !!!!
I couldn't agree more…. so annoying when people take the visual beauty of Pinterest (the whole idea) and replace it with their text – especially when people get into these silly arguments about a pin !!
Also – it is NOT an advertising space… it's a museum of beautiful things… stop putting products and prices for retail purposes !!!
A good thing getting messed up.
I hope it will pass somehow..or else interest will have to limit text characters like Twitter !!!
Great post. I am one that makes sure I pin correctly to help others find the content I enjoyed when I created the pin.
Thanks for helping to educate the pinterest fans. I have one craft that has gotten a fair amount of attention (it was pinned months before I was even on pinterest) on pinterest. The majority of people don't share the directions but a few have. I haven't had the guts to ask those people to edit their pin….until now.
My hope is that pinterest changes the amount of characters you can use to stop this practice.
My other pet peeve is when people pin an idea from a rebogger. I love rebloggers, but I wish pinners would head over to the original person who created the craft or recipe and pin from there.
yes, yes, a 1000 times yes! It takes an extra 2 sections to make sure you are pinning the right page… so why are people so lazy? What's the point of pinning if you can't go back to the actual post??
My big Pinterest Peeve is the fact that I can't sort my boards into Categories. I am a full blown Pinterest addict and have stacks of boards and would REALLY like to be able to group them to make it easier to flip through them. For example, I'd love to have a "Christmas" Category as I have separate boards for "Christmas Food", "Christmas Decor", "Christmas Gifts" etc.
Ah yes, organization is always the tricky part, isn't it? I agree.
YEP! I feel the same way! There should be subcategories…
did you hear, pinterest capped how many words per pic now! yayyyyy!!!
Yes I did! Thanks, Annie.
I like to but the recipes below the picture. Have you ever clicked on a pin looking for the recipes and that post, page or website doesn't exist any more. That is so frustrating. So I add the recipes below with the source. If you don't like it don't repin it that way. Enjoy pinterest the way you want too and let me enjoy pinterest the way I want too. Also I have used the pinterest add app and it placed money amounts in the corner of my picture from an article that had nothing for sale.
My pinterest peeve is turning it off and looking around at reality – which just isn't quite as cute.
Just kidding!
I get sour when I see a photo of food but the description says something like, "yummy" or "must make", and I have to click on it then go to the source to find out what it actually is, only to find out that it's some gross thing like tofu jello or something, but the photo looks really tasty and totally deceives me into clicking it to find out what it is. Say what it is in the description please!
Thank you! This drives me crazy too. Thank goodness they've now limited the words per pic.