One of the nice things about blogging is that the ability to keep the relevant people informed is as simple as providing a link back. However, there are some things that happen behind the scenes that can often be overlooked with regards to giving credit for work or keeping others involved.

There have been several things that have happened to me that are rather irritating and I’d like to get them out so perhaps others can avoid them in the future.

Posts or Projects Changed Without Notice

Whether contributing a guest post, or writing for a multi-author blog, it is best to keep everyone in the loop in order to create a more team-like atmosphere. Multi-author blogs, in my opinion, should not have an atmosphere where it’s everyone for themselves. The authors of the blog should be interested in furthering the blog, not themselves (although self-promotion doesn’t hurt).

The problem with some multi-author blogs, however, is that there is an underlying ranking system where not all authors are created equal. It’s almost the equivalent of having the opener share the stage with a headliner at a concert. As a consequence, the headliners get the preferential treatment and the openers get the shaft. This type of attitude immediately kills any chance of becoming a team.

One thing I have noticed with some of my posts I have contributed — or what I consider major contributions — is that they are changed without notice. An image might be inserted, or some ad put in, or the post moved all-together. A comment I made may have been deleted, or edited. All with me figuring out somewhere down the line with me scratching my head saying, “Something’s not right here.”

I’m not a big fan of red-tape and will accept that there is an admin at a site and that admin needs to get stuff done and stuff done now. I’m fine with that. But at least let me know about it. And if there is some big drastic change to a portion of my work, I’d appreciate at least a heads up.

Credit Stripped Without Notice

I’ve worked with people on so many projects, I have lost count. It’s nice to be given credit for something, especially if that something turns out to be somewhat popular. I don’t expect the credit to be in big lights or anything, but perhaps the credit to be somewhere on the page that says, “Hey, this dude helped me out.”

I discovered recently that the credit I received for a particular project had vanished. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked. I scratched my head and thought to myself, “What did I do to piss this person off?”

The simple fact is, the credit was removed. Now I’m perfectly fine with not being credited for work. Some of the work I did might have only been a few hours of work and wasn’t really “that” monumental to the project. The thing that irritated me is that I wasn’t told about it. Once again, I had to find out for myself.

No Credit Given

This is something that irritates Bes Zain (RA Project author) more than me, but I have been feeling the sting lately. Bes is more-or-less peeved that others are using the appreciation techniques mentioned here on their own sites without referencing the project. That’s fine in my view because I feel the more appreciation, the better. But I can see where he’s coming from when other people look at the other person’s effort and think the other person was the originator of the idea.

A real life example is that I created a logo for a major software program. The project lead asked if I wanted credit in the PowerPoint or launch material. I told him “no” because you don’t see people being credited for logo creation of other software programs. In this case, I was pleased that this project lead asked me if I wanted credit for the logo creation. I declined because credit wasn’t necessary.

Another real life example (names removed) is when a manager tasks a subordinate to redesign a website. The subordinate slaves away for six to seven months coding the redesign and getting all of the stakeholders involved. When it comes down to briefing the redesign to upper management, the manager proudly chimes in, “Yes, that’s the website I built.” How exactly does that make the employee who did all the hard work feel?

Conclusion

It’s not all that difficult to keep the appropriate stakeholders involved or to give credit where credit is due. For example, on Ajax Edit Comments, I have made an attempt at keeping everyone involved (with periodic news updates) and giving credit to the testers, translators, and those who have found bugs. It’s hard to include everyone, but I’ve done what I consider my best.

The danger of not including stakeholders is that people feel left out. The danger of not giving credit is that people feel used or betrayed.

Thank you for reading.

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