What an odd co-incidence, then, that just 3 days after I posted about what to omit in home exchange photos, a club owner posted an article to her blog that covered exactly the same topics. Though she cloaked this by using a quote from a reader that discussed some of what I had written, she included this passage which did not reference anything else she had written but appears to be a direct response to what I wrote about whether or not swappers should include photos of themselves:
"People will have different ideas about what they most like to see when browsing home exchange photos and descriptions. Part of the fun of home exchange for many is the chance it gives to try out someone else's lifestyle for a short period. But it would seem to be taking this to extremes if you really didn't want to know what the residents looked like so the image of them in their home wouldn't detract from visualising yourself living there! Goodness - would anyone expect their exchange partners to hide away family photos they'd normally have on display around the house in order not to detract from your fantasy of being the owners of their home? I may be wrong but isn't it nice to be able to match an image of the people who normally live in a home with their personal touches - the decor, their choice of books, their CD collection, etc?"
This is clearly a direct response to my blog post on this exact issue which was posted just a few days before this blog entry. I have previously asked this same club owner to stop nicking my topics so blatantly but I guess new ideas are hard to come by.
Swap club owners looking for new topics for your own blogs, could you at least credit me as the source of inspiration when you write an article based on something you have read here?
Oh, and try not to distort my original article too much. I never said people should remove family photos or CD collections so someone else can fantasize that they are the home's owner. I just said that when people include photos of themselves they often choose very artificial ones and that it sends a subtle message that the potential swap partner is intruding on someone else's living space
Better yet, think up your own ideas for blog posts. Thanks.
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