Industry News & Feeds - An Unconditional Apology To Pen Bloggers Linked To.

[wimg]

Dearest Members, Guests and especially Pen Bloggers linked to in the now defunct Industry News & Feeds forum,

 

We would like to express our sincerest and unconditional apologies to the Pen Bloggers we linked to by means of RSS feeds in the Industry News & Feeds forums.

 

We rather stupidly never realized the possible consequences and unexpected side effects of doing so, or thought of requesting permission to do so, essentially due to flawed research, and have remedied this situation with immediate effect, by closing and removing said forum.

 

The creation of said forum and RSS-feed links was done with the best of intentions, not to redirect any traffic from anybody blogging about pens or associated subjects, or to obtain any commercial gain from it - we don't. The idea really was to show our readers there is more than FPN out there, and to provide a simple way to showcase this and provide a direct link to these blogs as well.

 

We certainly did not think about or anticipate potential consequences at all, so again, our sincerest apologies. The situation has been corrected now, and we will certainly think twice or more whenever we try to think of alternative ways of broadening the world of fountain pen interest, and will come out of our own, non-commercial, cocoon first, so to speak.

 

Simply said, we won't do this again, that is something I can promise to all.

 

As to comments we received regarding and using links to blogs here on FPN, every member here is allowed to put links to their own blogs in their signature, and announce new blog posts to their own blogs in the Market Watch forum, be it no more than once per month, or, in the case of premium account holders, in The Mall forum, with a frequency depending on the type of premium account. Anybody else here is always allowed to point out interesting deals, news, blogs, and other information regarding the wider pen market in Market Watch, with no pre-determined frequency, on the condition it is not a link to their own news, deals, links, or other items - as mentioned, that is allowed once a month only.

 

We are really sorry for our rather naïve approach with respect to all Pen bloggers out there. It won't happen again.

 

Kindest regards,
Wim
FPN Chief Admin

 

 

[pyramidValley]

When I first came to the site I thought it was a cool feature, still do. It's nice that you took it down and listened to voiced concerns.

 

I honestly think it should go back up, but only with blogs/companies that are okay with it and give permission. Right? learning from our mistakes and becoming better etc.

[dunivanb]

Great job on this!

[amberleadavis]

Wim, thank you for being proactive. Amber

[pen2paper]

quick action, and thanks for the explanation...

you mean you guys don't know Everything about Everything

Edited April 27, 2015 by pen2paper

[carlos.q]

Could someone explain the "consequences and unexpected side effects" of posting pen related blogs via RSS? I thought it was rather cool... and learned about some awesome blogs I had never seen!!!

[sargetalon]

Could someone explain the "consequences and unexpected side effects" of posting pen related blogs via RSS? I thought it was rather cool... and learned about some awesome blogs I had never seen!!!

 

It's a little hard to explain Carlos but I'll take a shot at it. Most of us bloggers work very hard on our content. We can choose to stream a full feed or a truncated feed through the RSS feature. When we put up a full feed, there is no motivation to link back to the original content. When that full content is reproduced on an ad supported site, the bloggers see no benefit from that. No revenue from the ads and no links back to their sites. In essence, it can be seen as profiting from others content. Now I certainly don't think this was done maliciously but for some bloggers, it became a real issue. I think Wim has handled this issue graciously and has done the proper thing by removing the links. Perhaps a better, maybe voluntary, implementation could be put forward in the future. Thanks again Wim for your dedication to the site/community and your quick response to these concerns.

[Davros]

I'm really happy swift action was taken. I was extremely surprised when I read about the issue, and I'm glad it wasn't due to a lack of ethics.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I'm glad the swift action was taken.

 

But I wonder if it's possible to put up a "teaser" and a link. That might accomplish all the goals: expose the wider world and protect the advertising interests of the blogger.

[carlos.q]

It's a little hard to explain Carlos but I'll take a shot at it.

Thank you for this simple explanation! I do hope that some other alternative can be devised where the feeds are put in one place but the bloggers are not affected negatively. Like I said, if it had not been for this failed experiment I would no have found out about some very interesting pen blogs.

[wimg]

It is as Waski explained (thanks!).

 

Essentially our (my own) research into this was flawed, so we straightened things out.

I guess we were just a bit over-enthusiastic with regard to opening another interesting channel for all our visitors here, and as we didn't come across anything regarding possible consequences, plus always have a link in every post made to the originating site, it seemed like a good idea to do this.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[anzhr]

This is the best outcome to a mistake that was made with the best of intentions.

[Pencilcaseblog]

Thanks Wim,

 

Even though I don't feel like it 'hurt' my blog, I do think it's very good to see that problems like these get treated fast and with necessary diplomacy! I do agree with some other comments above, that a new way of providing Blog news should be found. But I'm sure that too will be sorted out in the future!

 

PS: I actually felt slightly flattered that my blog was listed on there as well!

 

Kind regards,

[wimg]

This is the best outcome to a mistake that was made with the best of intentions.

 

Thanks Wim,

 

Even though I don't feel like it 'hurt' my blog, I do think it's very good to see that problems like these get treated fast and with necessary diplomacy! I do agree with some other comments above, that a new way of providing Blog news should be found. But I'm sure that too will be sorted out in the future!

 

PS: I actually felt slightly flattered that my blog was listed on there as well!

 

Kind regards,

 

Well, yes, it was done with the best of intentions: more to see of the pen world by visitors here, and essentially free advertising for pen blogs and other pen related web sites out there. That was the intention anyway .

 

We are working on an alternative, but that'll take time, as it requires extensive theming/skinning.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[sd10521]

I'm glad the swift action was taken.

 

But I wonder if it's possible to put up a "teaser" and a link. That might accomplish all the goals: expose the wider world and protect the advertising interests of the blogger.

 

A teaser link with maybe the first few sentences with a link back to the original content to help traffic on the original blog? (Naturally with the bloggers permission).

 

It was nice to read other things on a quiet weekend that I never knew existed.

 

Best of luck on this effort.