Tired of the stuff you post here showing up in the news?

Sticky that, post a message at the top that's stuck, something like:

"All items here are copyrighted in such a way that using them as a press source is illegal and will land you with hefty fines. Contact Rebron if you need information for the Press."

"Note to journalists"

I guess this note doesn't apply to Slashdot then. ;)

That's fine for information, but it won't necessarily mean that reporters don't take unofficial comments from the blog anyway, especially given a choice between lifting something that they've already found and email to call or email someone for a comment.

Sure reporters can lift things from blogs but they don't have context and could look like an idiot for reporting something inaccurate. It feels like reporters are starting to learn to ask the blogger first to get context.

Tom said: "All items here are copyrighted in such a way that using them as a press source is illegal and will land you with hefty fines. Contact Rebron if you need information for the Press."

You can't do that. Copyrighting only covers substanstive reproduction. You can't use it to prevent someone from reporting something.

I guess this note doesn't apply to Slashdot then. ;)

You are so right. :(

What we're asking is for reporters to get context before lifting a blog quote. That's all.

Reporters don't care what you stick on your blog about official comments or unofficial comments.

This blog is hosted a mozillazine and is used to spread "official information" such as release candidates, info on update status, problems such as the autoupdate issues, etc. You can't be official some of the time and unofficial some of the time.

Anon, what is it that you think is "official" about mozillazine?

- A

It's not official versus unofficial, it's make sure you understand the context of what you're quoting from blogs especially when there are folks on hand (in this case press@mozilla.org) who are able to give you that context. This message isn't in response to Asa's quotes being in the news lately. It's more of a reminder to reporters to check-in with the people who are staffed to answers questions for them.

You guys must be incredibly naive to think press people will only address the PR people assigned to deal with them. PR people are press trained and know how to avoid shooting their mouths off. In other words, boring as hell. Blogs are a great source of better news and ooops-I-didn't-mean-that controversy.

Asa, I hope things will get better with the landing of the reporter tool... :D

IMO, looks like it's time to use the magic of two blogs, or even better (which isn't supported by Immovable Type), Categories. Ben's got it right, he's got Inside Firefox and a dead personal blog.

Another method is to impose your own categorization, by putting "Developers/Testers:" at the top of each post in bold, or whatever.

No matter what, reporters are going to do weird things. One from ZDNet.au came in #firefox and asked about what we had to say re: Yahoo Toolbar not working fully in Firefox, and I still haven't heard what that was about. I suggested to contact asa@, but should have used press@ :(

Oh, did she get to you on that?

I never actually knew what your title was until now. I've looked for a little 'about' link or section on your blog a few times, but never found one. Might be worth adding a short blurb somewhere on the site (or just linking to this entry). That may not keep the press from using your quotes, but it will satisfy everyone else's curiosity.

I see what you mean now Asa as I just saw your blog being linked in this article or example.

http://news.com.com/Firefox+improves+pop-up+ad+blocking/2100-1032_3-5654284.html

Sigh

http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Mozilla_Foundation_prepares_third_Firefox_security_update&diff=0&oldid=44098

I haven't removed anything else sourced, but really, "Various posts", heh. Wikinews.

:(