On my mind - Pinterest - I've been merrily pinning away, as have many of you, and I enjoy it and actually find it very useful, but... actually two buts:
- First - many of my pins are art lessons and I've already got the rest of the year planned and then I'm retiring, so I'm trying to get the most of what I've already pinned. So why am I continuing to pin lesson ideas? These pins will be of no use to me at all. Am I just wasting time or is there some use for these pins?
- And of even more concern - I have several new Pinterest followers every day, some of them art teacher people like me, but others seem to be buxom young women in provocative clothing with similarly provocative profile statements that make me think they should be looking for a DATING website and not one to find a tutorial on making an abstract work of art by melting crayons with a hair dryer. I wonder why the heck they are following ME (especially when my profile pic is of a cheerful NECKLACE!). I also seem to have entities following me on Pinterest (and here on the blog) that seem more like business enterprises than actual humans) and I can't help but wonder if these two categories of unexpected followers are the reason (somehow indirectly) that my email spam folder is filling exponentially on a daily basis with messages seriously outside my comfort zone. In other words, LOTS and LOTS of them.
I'm confused, Phyl. You want to know what to do with all of your pins before you retire and you have too many people following you on Pinterest? I guess I don't understand how having lots of people follow your pins is a security issue. I guess I'm just not tech savvy enough!
ReplyDelete:)Pat
Maybe there is no connection. But I think there is. Having a lot of people following on the blog or Pinterest means a lot of people have access to your email address, which makes it available to spammers. Even though I don't really understand how it all works, the increase in spam coincides with the increase in Pinterest followers and I do not believe it is just a coincidence, but more like an unintended inconvenience.
DeleteAnyhow, this was originally a totally different post ruminating on a bunch of stuff - but the rest of it has been separated into a different post entirely that I'll finish tomorrow when my head is clearer.
And don't get me wrong - many of my new followers seem like really great interesting people! If it appears I'm offending them I'll delete this post. Just wondered if other compulsive pinners seem to have the same problems with spam increase.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten a bunch of new pinterest followers in the last few days as well (something like 15 in 3 days.). But I've gotten a lot of dirty spam for years because it took just one company giving out my email address without me knowing it. I think it may be a coincidence that both have happened to you at the same time, but spam like that sucks regardless of how it happened. And I say keep pinning the art projects for us newer art teachers that follow you. You know what's good and following you helps us find it, so it is of good use :)
ReplyDeleteHi there!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean.
I have people/businesses following me that I can assure you, has nothing in common with me! I guess it is just about the numbers? Or maybe just in case you have something they can use (rip off?) I don't know.
I also wonder if the spamming and these new followers are related. I don't receive much spamming. I have another email address that is not linked to my personal email address with which I log into FB, twitter, Pinterest and such. For the sole purpose of security. For business and such I have another address. Call me paranoid but it might just make it a tad more difficult to spam me. Not necessarily prevent it. :-)
I love your pins/posts. I'm a homeschooling mommy that are trying to teach my children art although it doesn't come easily for me. I find your pins/posts quite helpful. I'm just horribly bad with showing you our results!
Anyways, thanks for your blog.
I'm a new follower to both your blog and your pinterest page and I'm not offended! I agree that when you own a blog, facebook page, pinterest page, etc you are opening yourself up for possible unwanted emails/spamming. My husband always warns me about that as well. As someone (a first year art teacher) who has found valuable information on both your pages I hope you do continue to keep blogging and pinning.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the previous poster who suggested to make a new email account (separate from the one you currently use) and use that for your personal one (or change your google and pinterest email addresses) so that you have separate accounts- I think that's a great idea. One for blogging and one for personal- that might help. Also utilize your spam folder so that it catches those unwanted emails and automatically pulls them out of your inbox and sticks them in a spam folder that you can check on occasion to make sure any pertinent emails don't get lost. Good luck and thank you for all of your effort you put into you blog!!
Hi, Phyl.. in response to your first bullet- um.. I have a WEDDING board! Yup! For a wedding I will never throw again, so yes, I do believe that I am wasting my time, but I can't help it, I like weddings : ), just as much as you and I love art education. BUT... I will try to regain some of my credibility by tagging along with what Dru said and say it helps other following Pinners get inspired (that's just my way of trying to tone down my obsession with weddings). I mean... I also have a doggy board, for no good reason other than dogs are adorable.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the second bullet... I actually don't get TOO much spam, at least any more than any other average person, I think? Again, like Mrs. Belzer, somehow I'd get your spam folder to be more active. I don't know how you do that, but right now.. I have 2,342 messages in my spam!! (Whoa, even that surprised me when I went to check)... but I never even look at that folder, so my inbox is mainly relevant emails.
I know you mentioned you keep pinning after you already have all your lessons planned out for the year. I am just curious as to what you are going to do with your blog? I visit and read your blog at least once a week. Sorry if you have already addressed it .. I must have missed it.
ReplyDeleteOh, Jen, I will definitely continue to blog! I still have lots of old photos of lessons I've never posted. I'm sure the blog will change, but I won't know how until it happens. Keep reading; I'll be here! Thanks for caring :)
DeleteI have had a lot of followers added as of late too. My guess is that probably sooner or later, Pinterest team will add some sort of block mechanism to make sure you can protect yourself. I think you can also block all emails that may be sent to you through your settings.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that Pinterest isn't related to spam. But if you think about it, we can't even go to a clothing store without them asking for our email addresses nowadays. Spam could be coming from anywhere.
As far as you still pinning lessons, keeps at it. We are art teachers at heart whether we are student teachers or retired. We still want to inspire one another. :)
Phyl I had the same problem, so I moved most of my items to Evernote, which is private. On Evernote I can add more, do more - and the Pinterest gawkers/stalkers/awkwards decreased. I feel more comfortable with Pinterest now. Enjoy!
ReplyDeletehttp://pinterest.com/hipwaldorf/
Thanks everyone for your comments. I haven't tried Evernote yet but may have to check it out. I do have a spam folder, and my spam does go there, so maybe it isn't the problem I think it is. I check through it periodically because sometimes I find an email that I actually was meant to receive, so that's how I know I've got so many many more lately. Certainly not as many as Hannah though, so maybe I'm OK after all!
ReplyDeleteI find myself repinning about half of what you post, so keep going! I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteHmmm....I should check out my Pinterest followers, I guess. I'm thinking that exotic young scantily clad women probably really aren't interested in what I'm posting.
Ditto, Jan. That's why I find it so puzzling.
DeleteI think that the more I pin, the more followers that I get and it just grows from there. I think it is a great source for Art teachers. I only wish I had had the internet when I started teaching. It would have helped sooo much. I am hoping to retire in the near future, but I find so much inspiration from other art teachers too, that I will continue to pin ideas. I have found that over the years, that I get so much inspiration for my own art from my students, and it is the same with Pinterest. I'm getting to the point now that I need to go back and re-organize my pins in create more specific categories.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally get spam in my inbox, but mark it as spam. And I also have 3 emails. One main one for personal and some business, another old one, just so I can use messenger, and another for business related email.
Congratulations on the retirement!
I agree with you, Beth! I wish the internet had been around a few years ago as well! I love the inspirations found on pinterest. If I had not started pinning, I never would have found all of the blogs. I guess I am a boring pinner, not many followers but my friends - certainly not any exotic ones!
ReplyDeleteCome by my blog: hockadayart.blogspot.com.
Enjoy a well deserved retirement!
I'm so proud of you Phyl! You have worked so hard and shared so much and now you are being recognized and rewarded for all your effort. You should feel honored. It seems that you have unknowingly prepared yourself for this next step in your career as scary as it all seems. I can certainly appreciate your fears being of the same generation as you and knowing what I did and did not learn and watching how our profession has changed. At the end of the day all the jargon goes out the window and what remains is the love of art that we instill in our students. That is my satisfaction when I feel bogged down by all the changes.
ReplyDeleteAs far as summer classes go I have led some rec. art programs. They are a nice respite from the structured environment of the school setting. It forces you to grow and be flexible. And if you ever need a partner in crime let me know. I'm just down the road a piece!
I hear you Phyl, you've echoed a lot of my concerns about Pintrest. I have yet to figure out what to do about it, although I do have a different email address that I use only for things like my blog, pintrest and Facebook. I'm also wondering why many of these people have any interest in following me...but I do know I hope you'll continue blogging about something...anything.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula. I am definitely still going to be blogging. I will be pulling lessons "from the vault" to share and also blogging about whatever comes next. I'm addicted.
DeleteI've had this problem a couple of times in the past. But I'm not 100% sure how I fixed it.
ReplyDeleteI think it has to do with me installing an extension for Chrome called "Pinterest Right Click" which allows you to right click on any image you find on the internet and pin it that way. With the exception of videos, where you have to right click somewhere on the page and not the video itself for it to work.
Thanks:
Buy Pinterest Followers