A Pinterest Lesson Learned...

I have learned a lesson and would like to share it with you.  I am a huge fan of a broad range of art.  I am inspired by artwork of many forms and the artists who create this amazing artwork.  I have featured many artisans and their work on my blog, always very careful to create the links that will take my blog readers to the artist’s website, to view more of their work and read more about them.  As an artist myself, copyrights are very important to me.  

When I joined Pinterest and read about how it works, one of the things I really liked about the site was that no matter how many times an item is re-pinned, it always keeps the original site link.  You can click on that link to go to the site, or you can double click the picture from a Pinterest board, and it will take you to the site that it was first pinned from… Or so I thought.  I do not check each picture that I re-pin, but I will be from now on.  

I re-pinned an amazing photograph and I didn’t realize that there was NOT an original source attached to the picture.  I’m not sure how this particular picture was first pinned to a Pinterest board, nor do I know how other pictures are pinned without an original source attached.  When I find something on the web that I would like to pin to one of my boards, I use my “Pin It” button, and the source has always automatically followed the pin.  (In the 'Description' I also type in the artist’s name and/or the name of their store.)  These pins show as “Pinned via Pinmarklet from…” and then it names the website.  I thought that using your "Pin It" button, or a "Pin It" Button provided in a blog post or on a website, was the only way something could be pinned to a Pinterest Board...   But I guess pictures can somehow be uploaded without using the "Pin It" Button... ?

As an example of what a pinned picture looks like when it's embedded into a blog post, below is my Teddy Bear Wedding Cake Topper, which I pinned from my Etsy Shop to my Polymer Clay Artwork Pinterest Board using my "Pin It" Button.  Below the picture, it shows that the source is Etsy, via myself on Pinterest.

Source: etsy.com via Trina on Pinterest

**When you click on the Source, which is etsy.com (directly above to the left in grey print), it will take you to the original site the Teddy Bear Topper was pinned from ~ which, in this case, is my Etsy Shop and the listing for these Bears.  When you click on Trina (above) it will take you to my Pinterest Boards and when you click on Pinterest (above), it will take you to the Pinterest website.  (The grey print and the links come with the pictures when you embed them from Pinterest into a blog post, etc...)

Unfortunately, on Pinterest, when browsing the pins (and re-pins) of the pinners you follow from the main "Pinners You Follow" board, you CAN’T see the sources or sites that the pictures originally came from unless you click on a picture and look at it individually.  So, unless you click on every picture before re-pinning it, you won’t know what website (or lack thereof) it was first pinned from.  If it says “Uploaded to Pinterest" or "Uploaded Pins” there may NOT be a website or original source attached, and once re-pinned, it will show on your board as “Uploaded by User” ~ (If you are re-pinning from inside one of a fellow pinner's boards rather than from the main "Pinners You Follow" board, you can see the websites on the pictures without having to click on each one individually.) 

I did not realize that the photographer's photograph that I re-pinned said “Uploaded by User” and that when double clicked from Pinterest it did NOT go to a website.  Being new to Pinterest, and excited to share some of the awesome art I was seeing when I first joined, I blogged about it…  I shared some pictures directly from my boards on Pinterest using the “Embed” key next to the pinned pictures.  I thought the information that came with the pictures that I posted to my blog article would take my readers to the original sources, but in this case, for this particular picture it did not, because there was NO source.  

I am writing this post to make my fellow pinners aware of this.  None of us want to pin something to our boards without properly recognizing and giving credit to the artists whose creations we are pinning.  Since I was not aware of this, I am thinking there may be other pinners who are also not aware of this.  Sincere apologies go to the photographer whose awesome photograph was somehow uploaded to Pinterest without proper credit being given.  In addition, and on a personal note, I am very sorry that I did not notice that the artist’s website was not attached to the photograph when I re-pinnned it.   

To all my fellow pinners, please make sure proper credit is given to the artists of the work that we are all pinning and re-pinning and that sources are attached to pins and re-pins.  In Pinterest's Pin Etiquette it says: "If you notice that a pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment so the original pinner can update the source."  I will definitely be doing that, as well as browsing through my own boards to make sure my pins have original sources on them.  (Which, if any of you know my boards... That will take me a very long time! LOL!!)  
 

I enjoy Pinterest.  I have learned new things there, made new friends there, I've been moved by photographs and/or things I've read there, I find inspiration there, as well as things that make me smile.  Pinterest should be a place where we can all continue to find those things that inspire us, teach us, move us and make us smile.  Thank you for reading my post today. ~Trina