Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Abandoning Pinterest?


Interest in Pinterest is flatlining.


Has Pinterest's visitorship really stopped growing? It is summer after all, and we're vacationing, camping, sitting by the pool sipping margaritas - generally spending less time on the internet.

Several reasons are invoked when pinners come to their senses and leave Pinterest. There's the massive waste of time investing in growing desires that will remain unsatisfied; ineffective spam and hack protection; and increasingly, the fear of having to cough up thousands of dollars to an irate photographer.

WANTING THINGS YOU CAN'T HAVE IS HARD
Some people are deleting their Pinterest accounts out of what could be described as yearning-exhaustion.
I am not missing out on some ground breaking concept that I will never be able to find again by not using Pinterest. Yes, the internet is a vast ocean of information and ideas. But I would rather lose them forever, than to waste more time adding things to my list when I could actually be doing something like playing with my kids or going for a walk. When I’m finally ready to build a farm house table, I’ll start my project the old fashioned way and Google it.
For some, Pinterest leads to feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction with one's life:
I would see beautiful home furnishing pictures and compare them to my home. I would see gorgeous fashion pictures and compare them to my wardrobe. I would see mouth-watering pictures of recipes and compare them to my own dinners.

THE UPSIDE OF SPAM
Others were put off by the recent flurry of locked accounts due to hacking:
Now, I’ve put up with Pinterest throughout all the privacy issues, dealt with my fair share of spam, the terms of service debacles, and spent countless hours ensuring clients, the service can be worth the hassle. But the most recent, takes on a whole new level.

RONI LOREN'S CAUTIONARY TALE
What would happen if a pinner were subject to a copyright infringement claim, and would have to settle financially with the infringed party? Recently, a romance author and blogger Roni Loren has had to settle with a photographer, and her woes have stricken fear in the hearts of other bloggers, and pinners. The story is currently viral on Twitter.

Liz Hellebuyck is now clearing her blog of infringing material:
...we don’t bother to read these insanely long “terms of service,” which put the user at fault for using a tool they provide.
Donna Newton, in Using Pictures, Risk A Lawsuit, declares a similar intent.

More digital ink spilled about Roni Loren: Stacy Green, Harsh Mellow, Jaime Morrow, Pickyme, Julia Indigo, Living Life The Hard Way. Stella Telleria.

One Rebecca Enzor is concerned enough to remove her unauthorized pins, but has already figured out ways to keep the images using the "like" function.

How to whip Pinterest's stalling horse into action, when a few lawsuits against pinners would lead it straight to the edge of a cliff?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is Rebecca Enzor, and I wasn't clear in my post. I'm only "liking" the images until I can figure out if they are ok to use. If I find out they aren't I'll be "un-liking" them and keeping them off my boards. The "like" function is just a way to get them off the boards (so people can't re-pin them) until I find out if I am allowed to pin them or not.

A Glass Artist said...

Thank you for the clarification!

Anonymous said...

That method didn't work at all - you can't like a pin that you've already pinned. So I deleted the boards completely and am re-building them from scratch with images I've been given permission to pin.

A Glass Artist said...

Ben Silbermann himself had to delete his boards, and start again from scratch, using only legitimate material. You're in good company...

Anonymous said...

I ended up deleting my Pinterest account all together. I decided it was going to be too much work to do it the right way, so I better just not do it at all.