BloggerLuv Community

Just today I had a powerful reminder of how special our blogging collaborations truly are. I want to share what that difference is so that each blogger can make a conscious choice whether they prefer our way or business as usual.

Here is the question to ask yourself:

Do you want other bloggers to feel free to write about you, link to or use your image with credit, attribution and a link to your site because that is how they show BloggerLuv

OR

Do you believe that  someone who does that is using you or trying to imply that you are endorsing them? Which is it?

CommentLuv Community

Today I used an image with attribution and a link to recommend another blogger who is not part of our community. She was, to use her own words, “furious” and considered my actions unethical.

I am sharing this with you because I want to remind us all that there may be as many different perspectives among people as there are people. What I saw as a generous gift to her she saw as my using her.

She was so angry that she asked that I remove all links to her site, which I did. There were at least a dozen that I had included in posts over the years.

I apologized sincerely and in hindsight of course I wish I had waited for her permission rather than including her in a post I know will be very high traffic and garner many incoming links.

That will make me more cautious which bloggers I recommend but not keep me from recommending those I know believe in random acts of paying it forward and BloggerLuv.

We must always be aware that there is no one way to view any action. Although we may know our intentions, others may not. They may take offense.

That is why I believe it is best for us to decide. Decide which communities see the world the way you do and become active members. In many cases, it is not that their way or our way is right or wrong – it is simply a choice we each make about how we view the world.

You may notice that I often use the BloggerLuv and CommentLuv community images, recommend them and link to them in my posts wherever I am published.

The reason I can do that – and you can do that – is that John and Andy both know the value of empowering members of their communities to feel they belong and are free to share why they Luv the communities and the members.

If you feel as we do and want to share the Luv please join us here, at CommentLuv and in the SBC forum where bloggers supporting bloggers is our motto.

If you do not believe in what we do, we wish you well and hope you will forgive any of us who inadvertantly link to you when you would rather we did not. As our communities grow it is easier to know who welcomes our actions. The safe way is to link to others you know in these communities.

P.S. That page I was working on announces the public release of the new GrowMap Anti-Spambot Plugin. If you value your ability to comment in others’ blogs and want to ensure that all your regular commentator’s comments will get through I encourage you to try and share this plugin.