I've seen similar things happen, too. I know there's the mindset that one has to be THE authority on something, but admitting the idea wasn't yours originally isn't a stain on your reputation — rather the opposite, I think. It shows you have a strong moral character, and you're just a damn decent person for showing some humility.

I know of one blogger who has to be an idea thief, because coincidental duplication of other bloggers' posts cannot happen that frequently. Ya know? Plus, that particular blogger has also been known to troll the blogs that originated the ideas, saying, "Wow! What a coincidence! I just covered this on my blog, too!" and including a link to that post. That's temerity.

You've always been great at linking back, as have most people who read here. That builds a more sustainable community — sharing.

A lot of my blog posts are riffs on, expansions of, or contrarian views to things I've read elsewhere. To me, part of the value of blogging is to point people to the source material in the hopes that they'll enjoy and learn from it as much as I did.

Cathy, there was a coincidence last week. Anne and I wrote about the EXACT SAME THING –she on her blog, me on the forum blog. Same artwork, even. In that case, it was pure coincidence. I saw the artwork in our shared folder and thought "Hey, that would work!" Should have read her blog first. 🙂

I get that sometimes we forget. I've done it, but I try to mention it ("I read somewhere this week, can't remember where….")

That being said, I think you're spot on. I do believe there are times when it is just coincidence, but when you see the same idea over and over from a relatively small network, it gives me pause – at a minimum.

Heck, I've even said, I can't remember where I read this, but I would give credit if I could remember when boomer brain robs me of the memory of where I read something.

Like you said, it's the decent thing to do.