Ok, I'm going to put this to the readers. I really would like to hear everybody's opinions here. Here's the story:
Last week I received a comment on an older post,one from last year. It was pretty much a commercial for a site on a particular doll-a-day subject I had done. That's fine. I don't mind that. I think it's great to share other sites and blogs that will inform and add to everyone's knowledge or enjoyment of their doll hobby, (Or whatever else I may have been talking about.) You may have noticed that I pass on links or information to the blogs of followers who join. The more the merrier. It wasn't even a big deal that the 'comment' was a commercial for a site run by the person leaving the 'comment'. It might have been polite of them to say, 'hey, I have this site. Please visit.' or something along those lines, instead of just 'Blah blah site is a site all about blah blah, with lots of information,etc., etc.' What bothered me was, when I visited their site I found that they were using one of my pictures from the post they were commenting on, to illustrate a rarity. I didn't even realize the glaringly obvious difference between the normal and my rarity, and so didn't comment on it in my post. So, the commenter was using my picture to illustrate the rarity on her site, wants to advertise her site on my blog, and doesn't even alert me to the fact that I have a rarity? I'm not totally averse to someone using one of my pictures. I have been known to use a picture from the internet of a doll NRFB or mint in box to show readers what the doll looked like originally. I usually try to ask permission or use something very generic. I never use any picture that is someone's diorama picture or other 'creative' photography, unless I've searched extensively and can't find any other picture to illustrate what I'm talking about, and I have asked permission. In fact, the commenter and I have both used the same picture of a mint in box doll, me on the post I'm talking about, and them on their site. I don't know where I got the picture now, but truthfully, it's not impossible that I got it from them. (On the other hand, they could have gotten the picture from the same place I did. They have pictures from Joe Blitman's page on their site too, so maybe they use a lot of other people's pictures.Not a good thing to do on a regular basis.) So see, I can't complain too much. I guess it just would have been nice if they had been more polite about things.
So, now with that off my chest, do you, my readers, think I should publish their comment/commercial? Everybody can always use more information, so I could be helpful. But.... Let's have a vote. I'll abide by the readers' decision.