We very often come across the same content published at ten other places on the Internet. Many blogs, websites and social networks have content that is often taken from other sites. People don’t always fill their websites or blogs with original content. As a result of which, many of them are facing plagiarism charges and lawsuits.
This lack of original articles, photos, videos, etc. is further exacerbated by the fact that popular websites like Tumblr and Pinterest have reblog and repin buttons respectively.
Tumblr and Storyboard Story
The first thing you read on the Tumblr homepage is- “Follow the World’s creators”. The sad fact is that many a times the content on Tumblr is not created but copied. Tumblr pages often have articles, pictures and other content either reblogged from other Tumblr pages or that are reproduced from other websites. This trend recently resulted in Tumblr getting sued as users posted copyright protected images. Instead of trying to filter and block copied content, Tumblr has decided to reward original content. Storyboard is a new project that was launched by Tumblr a few months back. Storyboard features interesting original content from Tumblr and the Awl on its simple and attractive page.
The Awl is a website that urges its users to “Be Less Stupid” and is known for the quality of its long articles and stories. It is now a serious threat to web publishing giants like the Huffington Post. In the present content writing world, the Awl is an anomaly. The editors do not waste time on SEO, keyword densities, etc. to attract visitors. They publish good articles and trust that their content will attract people- and surprisingly this has worked. Tumblr with its millions of users and blogs has partnered with the Awl to encourage Tumblr users to create lengthy textual content that is original. As reported by Forbes, many interesting articles have been published on the Awl and Storyboard as a result of this partnership.
Future of Content Writing
The young Tumblr user base is embracing this collaboration with the Awl. Instead of posting and reposting pictures like they did before, users are now straying away from short status updates and posts and writing content that is long, articulate and interesting. We are used to short tweets and status updates and we have to wait and see if more people will embrace the long form writing that Storyboard and the Awl demand.