Rules posts are by far my least favorite thing to write, but as we’ve matured from the early days, when 50 unique visitors in a single day was considered worth boasting about, to our current iteration (a little bigger, a little more professional, ehem....7000 followers on Instagram) it’s become clear that we need to make sure everyone is aware of the basic, mostly common sense guidelines. Not long ago I posted the bare bones rules of the land: don’t swear, cite your sources, be nice, etc. The community here is wonderful, supportive and even self-regulating to the point that admin powers are rarely needed. The last time I tapped into those “powers” it was to rotate an image that had been Kinja’d, for instance. :)
Recently, I was telling another LaLD’er that what I am most proud of is the community we’ve created here. We are acutely aware that Hot Wheels collectors have a terrible, terrible reputation as a whole. Falling into pettiness, viciousness, and acts of disturbing behavior over what in reality amounts to toy cars. Which, let’s face it, you can usually find enough change in the car ashtray to purchase. (Unless you smoke, I guess?) Live and Let Diecast! has been around over a year and a half and none of the awfulness I’ve encountered elsewhere has ever been an issue on our site.
A large part of that is due to the passion we have for collecting. As I’m sure you are aware, no one is paid to contribute here. We do it because it’s enjoyable and fun. I think occasionally we might have a tendency to cut a corner or two because of this, however. It is all too easy to run a GIS search and grab the most awesome-ist image for your post. Obviously that is not acceptable, much less fair, to the creator. So here are the rules:
1) Use your own images whenever possible
2) Do not use anyone else’s image (watermarked or not) without contacting the owner and getting permission
3) Always cite and link back to the original post, not just to the general blog
4) Don’t be greedy. Recently someone took every single image from a picture heavy post and put them in their post. This is akin to taking a whole article someone else wrote and then copy and pasting it on your blog.
Mostly though, remember that creating content takes time and effort. If you enjoy something so much you want to share it with others, give that person the proper credit. It might even inspire them to create more :)
You can always reach me at jeff@liveandletdiecast.com if you have any questions.