So you found something cool on the internet...

Loldwell and Rosscott created this handy “So you found something cool on the Internet” comic flowchart to help encourage proper attribution of people’s work found on the Internet.

“See Something? Cite Something.” Amen brother!

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(via Comic Flowchart That Encourages Attribution of Work Found Online – laughingsquid.com)

EDITED 14.01.2012 to add…

This has been shared all over the internet today, and just now by comics genius Scott McCloud:

I LOVE this flowchart (and endorse the sentiment): http://some.ly/gXGKPL (thnx @wohali and @shidoshi) #isayitscomicstoo

Then he felt obliged to correct his tweet with proper attribution:

Oh, the irony… Here’s the REAL source of that flowchart/comic on attribution: http://www.notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc #ithink

And again:

*sigh* Actually here: http://loldwell.com #fuckyoutheinternet

(Though I think technically both of the last two links were valid sources.)

I’m a big fan of giving attribution, for exactly the same reasons as the flowchart makes clear, but I think the lesson here is that it’s too much to expect everyone to suddenly develop some kind of journalistic integrity around the ethical standards of sharing funny shit you just found on the internet. It’s enough if you just link to the source that you found, and let everyone else worry about maintaining the chain of attribution all the way back to the original.

I pretty much always make the effort though.