I’M GIVING UP, I’M GOING TO QUIT

It’s all too much for too little reward, and I can’t go on anymore. Now don’t panic, I don’t mean I’m going to quit Steemit, or even top myself. But I am going to quit arguing a controversial opinion on Steemit.

Posting links to source images has become accepted etiquette on Steemit, and I can see that arguing about the rationale behind that behind that “rule” is just shooting myself in the foot. Hell will freeze over before I win this argument. And in the meantime, most of the movers and shakers I’m trying to impress on Steemit are going to disagree with me, so it’s not getting things off to a good start.

Image Source

So this is going to be my last post on the subject. I already posted a more in depth overview of my opinions on the subject here and I still fully stand by all of it. But from now on I’ll just shut up about it and toe the party line.

I do want to mention here that as an image and content creator myself, I fully support Steemit’s hard stance on plagiarism. Without that, this might as well be a cross between Reddit and Facebook.

The main point I was previously making is this:
If you do a reverse Google image search, to find the source for your image, you are likely to find around 20 million of them. eg.

As to where any of them really originated from, I think the internet has been interbreeding for decades, and the idea that we can work out the original source for most images is an idealistic myth.

But I’m going to quit arguing the point now, and from now on, I’m just going to do what most other people are doing – copy the first URL I see and credit it as the source for my images. Where the images are my own, I will include one of my signatures on them @sift666, www.sift.co.nz or www.frot.co.nz, and if they are not my own work but from my own photo or images collections, which includes photos taken by friends and contacts, that I often can’t remember who took, I’ll put a link to www.frot.co.nz. We have over 1200 web pages online and chances are, somewhere in that lot, is the image in question.

As well as not wanting to alienate people on Steemit who disagree with my viewpoint, I am also a supporter of the new Steem Trail initiative to curate and promote posts. My partner Deb @kiwideb is one of the first curators, and one of the things they expect in a post is links to image sources. So although my viewpoint hasn’t actually changed, arguing this any further would be shooting myself in both feet.

One of my odd little quirks is that I make a point of including an image every time I post a comment. These images are typically the first appropriate image I see on my SteemIMG account https://www.steemimg.com/sift666 and I plan to keep doing that because I like images (But I won’t be posting any links to those, sorry)

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour and I suspect this is one of those times, so I quit. Apologies to anyone who wanted to see someone take a stand on this, and if I see any posts expressing similar viewpoints, I will upvote them with the full power of my insignificant minnow account.

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SIFT666 aka Ian Gregson from Wellington, New Zealand, is the world’s foremost authority on Steemit image crediting and works full time as an enforcer.

In between copying and pasting other people’s images into his Steemit posts he is attempting to paste his own signatures and claim ownership of his photos of random strangers without them ever finding out.

He is also developing a new website portal to rival Steemit called www.frot.co.nz where he is testing out a new feature called “frottage” that may revolutionise blogging and create a serious global paradigm shift.

Any pictures labeled @sift666, www.sift.co.nz or www.frot.co.nz are his own siftings.