Can I give attribution to authors only once after it was properly given or from a profile link in a page?

Question

I read the attribution instruction here : https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/06/attribution-required/

And they are pretty clear.

However I still have a question!

- Repetitive Attribution

Say, that I am helping on one of the sites on SE and several users are involved and we resolve the issue of the question at hand.

Now, I want to use this content on a page of my own in a discussion format. Jeff advised:

1. Visually indicate that the content is from Stack Overflow or the Stack Exchange network in some way. It doesn't have to be obnoxious; a discreet text blurb is fine.
2. Hyperlink directly to the original question on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345)
3. Show the author names for every question and answer
4. Hyperlink each author name directly back to their user profile page on the source site (e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username)

My question is, can I create profiles for each participant in the discussion in my page with the same names as the users from SE? Inside these profiles would contain a description saying something like: This user profile was created solely for the purpose of linking back to this Stack Exchange user This profile would also contain a direct link to the original authors profile page in SE. This is, so the person viewing the profile I created would know that they can find the original author in the SE community.

Every response would include this profile created by me. This profile has a description and links back to their user profile on SE(Stack Exchange). This is apart from all the attributions that I would already include in the main discussion page, such as a links to the original topic. That is something I will always include.

Phrasing my question again: Can this profile I created be considered a fair attribution to the author since it would sign each contribution with the authors name on my discussion page as per license requirements with a link directly to the original author via the profile link inserted in the description? This way anyone interested in reaching the author directly would know that he is only available on the Stack Exchange platform.

I am asking because I have used contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required in the past and I always give proper attribution but I had never seeing a case where I would need to add HTML links after every paragraph. By doing the way I am asking, it would help keep the attribution consistent to every author in every piece of shared content on my page.

Answer 1

You appear to be under the impression that you have to link every mention of a user. That's not correct. You do need to link it once, but not once per paragraph.

As an example I'll point to Mi Yodeya's publications. If you look at the postings there (example, PDF) you'll see that every question has a URL, every contributing user is named, and there is a page in the back with the mapping of user names to profile URLs. This approach has passed muster with SE; in fact, SE even helped us produce a print run of one book. They're well aware of how we handle the license.

If you're linking anyway, how does it help you to use an intermediary link on your own site? Just link to the profile. I don't see how your site's user pages help you with your problem, but you seem to be doing it because you think you have to link every use, and that's incorrect.

Finally, perhaps you're worried about long URLs, particularly if you're reusing content in a print publication. Note that there are short-form URLs, like $site/q/12345 and $site/u/67890. You don't have to spell out 'question" or "user" or include the question title or user name. See the Mi Yodeya publications for examples.

Answer 2

No -- don't do this.

A user account is supposed to be owned by a user. If you create the user accounts and hold the credentials to them, you own the accounts. This sounds like impersonation to me, and makes it appear that content on that account comes from someone it does not.

I get that you would be attempting to give them credit on Stack Overflow by redirecting people to the original content by linking to their SO account on the user page but most people don't view user pages, which means most people will assume the content is original to your site, which makes your site look better attended than it is. This is false advertising. Plus, linking to their SO account doesn't link to the page where the content is. It's buried at least three or four links in if it's even possible to find the content as the user profile only lists the question titles. Content isn't searchable without using the actual search function for the site.

Discussion page -> Discussion user page -> SO user profile -> ???

This means it's very easy for you to take their content and post it without context... which is a problem.

You need to be citing the post not the user and with your method, the post isn't being linked.

I would strongly prefer that you post the content as you and link every post back to the actual SO answer rather than do this convoluted process you're describing.

Answer 3

You don’t have to link to the authors at all.

What matters is what the license requires. The ToS or this blog post (which, by the way, misses an important requirement) can’t add any requirements.

For the rules you have to follow, see section 4 of CC BY-SA 3.0. For attributing the authors, it says:

(i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, and/or if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party or parties (e.g., a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution ("Attribution Parties") in Licensor's copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party or parties;

No hyperlink (nor a URI) required.