Some Pinterest users have sadly adopted the horrid practice of removing artist, merchant and location information from pins so their captions can be cryptically self-expressing, e.g. “blue,” or — and I hate this one with the blazing heat of a thousand suns — “yes, please.”
You don’t need to remove attributions, credits, or notices that an item is for sale in order to express your feelings about an image! Below are four examples from my own Pinterest boards, three of which contain my own comments. On the left are my own captions, which contain information I gathered from the people who pinned these items before me. On the right are examples of the selfish captions I saw after these graphics had been repinned from my boards. Click on any image to see a larger version in another browser window.
Remember — Pinterest is a public place, where you are displaying the art, photography and merchandise of real people. If you want to create your own private look-book, do it offline. If you’re sharing images in a public space, give credit to the people associated with the images.
P.S. Want to see my Pinterest boards? They’re here!
Part 1: The difference between
“pinning” and “uploading”
Part 2: Why Pinterest needs
perpetual rights to display your work
Part 3: How YOU should behave on Pinterest
Part 4: How artists can protect their work
despite widespread sharing
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I really think you are on to something with this post.
I’ve been thinking Pinterest is a very self-centric culture.
I’ve been working on a similar post!
Thanks
Nick — I look forward to reading your post!
Question, can you add to the caption to give it more searchable terms? Could you add the word “silver” or “toe ring” in the last photos or “faces” in the door examples? What if there aren’t any words in the caption area? If it’s a picture of a horse, can you add “horse” to make it searchable? Thanks for this post.
Mimi — Yes, you can do all of those things! When you use Pinterest, you’ll see people adding actual hashtags to their captions. You’ll also to VERY complete product names, like “Caribbean Fun sterling silver 2″ hoop earrings with turquoise blue and green glass beads.” For some reason people will capitalize the first letter of each word in these descriptions, which I think make them hard to read, and don’t help search engines to find them. You’ll also see links in the caption area.
You can add or subtract anything you like to the caption area. I’m trying to convince people NOT to erase the name of the artist when they’re adding their own comments.
Excellent post, Angelique. I’m a big believer in giving credit if at all possible. That’s one of the things I love about pinning from Flickr – it does so automatically. But whenever pinning from, say, Instagram, I always make it a point to add the title & artist’s name. Always. Sometimes, though, I’ll see something on Pinterest I’d like to repin with only the super-lame “.” for a description. In that case, I’ll throw in some kind of observation, but it’s often just a word or two. I only wish more sites were like Flickr with the built-in attribution. I did a post on that where I now link to your post and would welcome your comments there if you like: Link Instagram and Pinterest with Flickr.
Richard — We need to start the “volunteer curators of Pinterest” club! I read your post, but I’m having trouble commenting on it. The frustration I have with Flickr isn’t Flickr’s fault; it’s that so many people don’t add an identifying name to their account, even when they are trying to develop a reputation as a photographer, and they have a website and other self-identified social media accounts. I can understand why people who just want to post their vacation photos do so anonymously, but what’s the point of that when, in other places on the web, you are promoting yourself as a photographer? Grrr….. (Can you tell I used to work at a museum?)
The people who put “.” as a comment don’t realize that Pinterest will accept a caption-free image if you just add a blank space to the caption. I do that when I’m posting a photo with a saying to my “funny” board, and the image speaks for itself.
A related note: I’ve been putting something along the lines of “Graphic by Angelique/A.F.MarCom” on all of my original graphics, and I’m hoping more people who create graphics of any sort, even funny sayings, do so to, because it’s a shame for people to be unrecognized when they create something that so many people enjoy.
I agree that when there is a credit or description you must keep it. I was talking with a group of wedding photographers last night – and it was one of the biggest fears that they would loose the credit. (I did also recommend a watermark to be safe). It’s good to see people reminding pinners to keep the important things in the comment area. Great timing on this post!
Thanks! Watermarking and/or creating a “frame” for your image that includes your name and URL are great ideas for photographers.