McClatchy Policy Changes

Some of you have taken note of policy changes in The Olympian and The News Tribune concerning "use of material".

In the spirit of good community and being professional (when do we get paid?????) I reached out to McClatchy for clarification.

In short, here is the policy:

Anything you might copy and paste from either newspaper is legit, as long as it's accompanied by a link for credit.  Where written permission is required is for complete reproduction of a story.  Thus I'm suggesting that if a contributor wants to discuss or critique a story, reproduced the first paragraph or so, then accompany that with a link to the full story in the media of choice (we should really treat all media the same).

You need not agree with the story or comment you've selected.  Officially, our policy of being an adult membership blog stays the same, thus I'm not going to fret over someone using a word that might not be suitable for a general readership product, but I am going to ask that we restrain ourselves a bit.  This whole "inflammatory rhetoric" stuff can go both ways and, frankly, I want to rise above the level of manure that I see from....well.....the other guys.  This is sharing readership and I've seen a nice rise in our readership level since sharing with Olyblog.  No one loses when everyone plays fair.

Thanks for participating and enjoying ThurstonBlog.  I've noticed a nice exchange of readers developing with a couple of other local blogs - Olyblog in particular.  Some of our "over the top" humor won't appeal to everyone, but that's OK.  We keep it on our blog and we own it.  My first return to Olyblog, after two years or so, ended up with me asking Thad to close the thread because it was turning into radec's opportunity to bitch at me (and Anon The Great) and avoid the "out of the closet" that we require for membership.  I wanted to honor Olyblog's format and I know that flame throwing is a sensitive issue to them, so I took the high road.  You'll notice radec hasn't blogged on Olyblog since.  People like that have nothing to contribute.  They just want attention and to stir the pot.

My differences with The Olympian are more legendary than I'd like them to be.  Unfortunately, things happened.  I keep my own backyard clean, therefore if I don't blog in The Olympian, I cannot be responsible for any problems they have with others that try to drag me or ThurstonBlog into their little whine making.  There is an email address on ThurstonBlog and all of their complaints should be sent there.  Otherwise, they are just violating The Olympians TOS to get attention.  That is not my business.

OK.....enough.  I just wanted everyone to know the rules of the road really haven't changed.  Let's be us and have some fun, contribute to our community and maybe we can learn from others in the meanwhile.