The principle behind linking is simple, but also a bit of a culture shock to many journalists who have spent years working in competitive environments.

If you see something else someone has written which you like, link to it. Let your audience see what you’re reading and where you’re getting your information from.

So far, so simple – but then along came the idea of the ‘reblog’ to muddy the waters.

And I can’t decide if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

I blog using WordPress and, when logged into WordPress, I get the option to ‘reblog’ any post I see on another WordPress blog. Until last weekend, I’d ignored it, largely through ignorance.

then Vicki Kellaway, a former colleague at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo – and author of the brilliant Bananaskinflipflops travel blog – shared a link to a post on the Sweet Mother blog