I was yaking with my sister the other week about Pinterest, when all at once I realized that I was beating the table with enthusiasm, and speaking ahem…vehemently. I had not realized I had so many strong opinions about the fastest growing (and currently very hot) social network.
We will tackle these opinions one at a time. Will you agree with me? Probably not always. That’s ok, if you let me rant, I will let you disagree in the comments.
I will start with my #1. Rule.
Always follow the link
Or stated otherwise:
Check on the link before repinning
It happens so often: oh, amazing chicken made with only two ingredients! I want to cook that! Oh, an obscenely decadent cheesecake? I will pin it! Two months pass. Hmm, I’m in the mood to cook that tasty chicken that uses only two ingredients. You run dutifully to your board, click on the picture, and voila, it takes you …NOWHERE. Which two ingredients will it take to make that chicken? Now you will never know.
I did an experiment. How long would it take for me to find a pin that would illustrate this problem? As fate would have it, this happened the first time around.
See this lego man cake?
Cool, Huh?
Yes! I want! I want to make Lego Man Cake!
(Clicking..) Here are the results
MEATLOAF!!
I don’t want Meatloaf! I want Lego Man!
Yes, I this happened on the first picture I clicked on to test my experiment. I spent a small amount of time (2 minutes?) clicking around to see if I could find Lego Man Cake from the link. I could not.
I do not have time for this nonsense! Neither do you. Save us our sanity and double check your links.
This may become a semi-regular topic for me. Topics …Most useful pin of the week. Most over-pinned pin of the week. What’s up with all the DIY’s? Are you really going to make all those cupcakes?
Over and out…
and Happy Pinning.
Also, i realize that you could probably totally make the lego man cake with just the picture. But you know the lady who figured out lego man first? She will never get the credit. Makes me sad for her. Poor lego lady. She will have to drown her sorrows in meatloaf I guess.
Andrea Esh 
This made me check my metal chicken link. I’m so annoyed because when I originally looked at it I followed the link and there was the blog and it was so funny. But before I could pin it I closed the window and when I went back to get it I could NOT find the same one. I had to search for it and then I was in a hurry so I didn’t check because I’d already read it but no, of course the second time it didn’t work! AGH.And also in my defense, 90% of my links do not require anyone to follow them . . ha!
I hate that too, but i figure that person was prob. like me and too much in a hurry to check it out before she pinned. :)Here’s a lego man cake you can pin 😉http://www.jenthousandwords.com/2010/11/daniels-9th-birthday-cake.html
i would enjoy hearing you speak… ahem… vehemently! it’s passivity and complacency that make me tremble with fear. :)i never check pins for links. but have been disappointed at times when i want a certain recipe and then oh man. really? meatloaf? and speaking of DIY… that actually was a topic of discussion today because of one of your pins. i’m still laughing. go ahead. address pinteresty topics on a regular basis. sounds fun.have a great weekend!
So funny. I’ll have to go check some of that stuff out myself. Sounds pinteresting.
@aSeriesofFortunateEvents – that is a funny one if I remember I first read it from Becky Z Yoder either on Facebook or Pinterest. See how dedicated I am to helping you fix this problem? 🙂
This is too funny!And I agree with Cindy, I’d love to hear your fist-thumping in real life. :)I can imagine it while I’m reading, and that’s really fun! I don’t use pinterest as often as a lot of people, but I agree, when there is a bad link, it is so frustrating!! And I don’t usually check the links before I repin, it takes too long!
I’m totally there with you on checking the pins first! I did find an easy way to find a pin’s origin. You go to google images, copy the link of the picture and wha-la it usually comes up with the page it was first posted.
oh yes!! i know exactly what you are talking about! been there, done that. too often.But, to be honest I don’t always double check my re-pins. If I pin something originally tho, I make sure that I’m clicked on the particular blog entry that contains the image I’m wanting to pin, NOT the home page/blog of the image. Not sure I’m making sense, but I think pinners should be instructed the right and wrong way to pin! =)Instruct away Andrea!! I’ll pin your blog and maybe some of my followers will pin, and their followers will pin, and so on…… and you will become famous! haSeriously tho, you should.
I will pound the table with you. SO irritating! At first I so dutifully checked every pin to be sure it was linked properly before using it. But it gets time consuming. 😦 So now if I can see I’ll be able to figure it out, then I’ll just pin and check later. I just don’t understand how the original pinner can’t go to the post instead of the main page to pin. That would help us all so much. Thank you in advance. Next Pinterest rant: Why can you not search for friends???! So aggravating when I know a friend is on Pinterest, but I can’t find them. Pinterest love: the “scroll to top” button. See I have enough material for a post myself. 🙂 I love your rants.