I was reading a genealogy blog that I have been reading for quite a while, and I learned a new term that I've never seen before - splogging. Splogging is nothing new (it's been around for at least five or six years) and I've certainly ended up on websites that were splogs, but it's something to think about as we start writing and creating blogs. Splogs are easily set up blogs that pull in a high number of RSS feeds from other blogs on a given topic and those RSS feeds are surrounded by ads. The hope is that they will end up high in search results, people will go there in hopes of finding "real" content, and then - accidentally? purposefully? - click on the links, thus creating revenue for the splogger. What's interesting about splogs is not only that they are annoying and unethical, but they are also downright illegal because they very often steal the content from other blogs and post it as their own. I don't imagine anyone in class would do something like this! But it does emphasize that there is a fine line between creating a blog and linking to other people's content The goal of a blog seems to be that you should be reflecting on what you are reading (with credit given and links back to the original content) or creating your own original content. Here are a couple of blog posts that talk about splogging, how it is plagiarism, and how it violates copyright. Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/10/splogging.html Plagiarism Today http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2005/11/08/behind-splogging-why-sploggers-splog/