I make part of my income online, and get very annoyed if people just take my work and use it, without even the smallest token of recognition of ownership and appreciation. In order to avoid conflict, let's have an open discussion on what is appropriate usa of material.

My stance on it, is nicely put together in this article: blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/330...tent-on-the-Web.aspx

In short: Sharing and using is OK. But website owners need to make a living, or at least pay for the servers (An trust me, with an annual bill of about 750 U$D I know, there are real cost involved). The way they do this is in 99% of the cases trough either {re}selling products, or advertising. For this, a lot of traffic to a website is needed. For a website, the best way to get this traffic is by having their content used and shared, with appropriate references.

For instance, one might say: I know this great article on the first stages of a nebari with seedlings. Have a look at this site: www.growingbonsai.net/nebari-creation-with-seedlings/

Or even go one step further:
This is what I read on trimming the taproot, when building a nebari:
Once the plant is thick enough the tree is ready to have the taproot trimmed. Dig up the plant, and trim all of the root away, leaving only a few cms of the taproot. Typically, this section will have a number of thin roots on the surface. Be carefull not to damage these.

Before replanting the sapling, insert a root-barrier in the planting hole. This can be anything from a piece of plastic to a tile or piece of wood. The only job it has is to stop roots growing down, and force them side-ways. Do this when the plant is going into dormancy. When the foliage of the tree has started to turn colour, the plant will still move nutriens around for several weeks. Cutting the taproot now will allow some of the nutrients to be stored in new roots. Or you could wait untill the plant is fully dormant. Plant the sapling deeper than it was, to ensure the rootstum does not dry out and is protected agains the first frosts. Protect against drying out. After another growing season dig up the plant again, and clean out the new roots as you would for any nebari.(Found at www.growingbonsai.net/nebari-creation-with-seedlings/ )

This way any person can find the original source of the work, and the owner of the work is credited.

In my eyes it is never appropriate to just post a picture pulled from a website or a full list of items, or an article without any reference and link-back to the original website. In my personal view, that equals stealing and plagiarism.

Anyone thoughts on this?

Hi leatherback, interesting topic, I guess what I do is what you have done on your last post, put the copied material in italic or speech marks, then just put you source in brackets or say "this is from...". Cool topic, thinking about this topic was the most exercise I have done for a week! :lol:

And also if you notify in advance or after, the owner of the material then it might be fine. I guess it depends on the owners character.