Blogging etiquette!!! Or Warhammer 40k Blog Hub are thieves!!!

A simple message to those responsible!!!

Final Edit: I have had an apology now off of the individual responsible and they assure me that no harm was intended. I'm willing to believe them as they've taken the articles down and actually seen things from my perspective. So I thank them for that, just please let this be a cautionary tale to others. We're a small community us game bloggers and word gets around eventually. Thanks.


I've not been blogging very long, and I'm coming up to completing my eighth month now. In that time I've often wandered about 'blogging etiquette'. I mean you sign up to Blogger, Word Press or whatever platform that you use and away you go. You're pretty much allowed to get on with straight away. Sure there are guides as to how to make your blog look pretty or how publish posts etc... but there are no guides really as to what you should or shouldn't do. While that's great and liberating and I'm all for it, I do think there are etiquette issues that crop up. I've often wandered whether or not I've breached any imaginary blogging etiquette rules. Simple answer is I don't know.

I've tended to conduct myself in the 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you approach' to not stepping on any toes. I think it's served me fairly well so far as hopefully I haven't done anything that rubs people up the wrong way. However, recently I was having a chat with a fellow blogger who pointed something out to me that I had been totally unaware of. And that is that some scum bag has been reproducing all of my articles in their entirety on their blog. They've even had the brass balls to list me as a contributor to their blog. All without actually asking for my permission. I can't even contact the thief because they haven't left any contact details.

The site is hosted on the Blood of Kittens site and I have contacted them to ask that they get the site to remove all of my content and all mention of me as a contributor. Some of you might want to check that all your hard work and effort isn't being stolen:

http://bloodofkittens.com/40kblogs/

I'm sorry but I think there is no excuse for just simply being a traffic squatter. I have no problem with saying 'hey I've just seen this article over here that I think you might like to read. Here's a link and what I think about it'. But to simply copy and paste somebody else's hard work and to claim that they even contributed to your shitty little blog theft site is beyond the pale.

I would never dream of stealing or plagiarising somebody's work. Never! I have posted links in articles I've written to other people's blogs so people can go and see the original articles for themselves. I will continue to do this for articles that I feel are worthy of being highlighted and read by others, because it's the right thing to do. If the individual responsible for stealing my work is reading this blog post of mine then can I ask you to please remove all of the content you have stolen off of my blog and remove any mention of me as a contributor to your crimes. I have no wish to be associated with such a horrid sordid little endeavour. My only hope is that the individuals who are responsible for the Blood of Kittens blogging network, who I have asked to contact those responsible do so, and you the person responsible do the decent thing and take my stolen work down off of your site.

If you didn't mean to cause offense, then that's fair enough, but you have and I'm not happy that my permission for reproducing all of my work wasn't requested. The really, really galling thing is that I'm not a bad guy, and if someone had asked permission I might even have granted it. Other people have emailed me and asked if they could use some of the pictures of products that I've reviewed on my blog, pictures I've taken myself. I've never once said no. I'm not an unreasonable individual and I wouldn't normally go off the deep end like this, but the most irritating thing is that my blog which pretty much has fuck all to do with 40k is on 40k blog hub. Sorry WTF!!! Peace out!

EDIT: The individual responsible for it has contacted me to say that they will take down my articles off of their site. I thank them for that. They claim they were only trying to highlight other peoples blogs, and that may be true. However, in my case checking where my traffic has come from I have NEVER seen their blog appear in my 'Traffic Sources' list. So on that count they're failing. If they wish to see how it should be done Can I please direct them to Colonel Shofer's Mild OCD Model Blog who has appeared on a regular basis in my weekly 'traffic sources' list and has been a great help in promoting my blog. I'd like to take the time to say thank you to Colonel Schofer for his work.