It's so strange what happens when you google your own writing online. I found some sites I hadn't seen before. I also found a website called Buddharocks, which seems to be reposting several Buddhist bloggers' writings, without clear linking. And also with some really awful word choice changes made, perhaps to duck copyright issues?
Finally, there's a link to of my posts from here in an issue of the Upaya Center's Newsletter, and I was surprised to find that the post I sent to Buddhist Geeks several months ago was - posted. They never told me. I'm off to e-mail them now, but you can read it here.
6 comments:
My posts get Twitted by someone named annagoh who lists Buddharocks as her site. Haven't googled my writing and not sure I want to.
yeah, I don't go looking for it, or worrying about it. but there it was, and i figured since a fair number of bloggers' work was there, it was worth mentioning.
It's funny isn't it. I didn't think to google my writing either but before I started my blog my teacher said he found a post I made several years ago on a Zen forum. Creepy! Is the Internet really that long lasting?!!
Anyway, I check the stats on my blog and they have gradually being going up and then 2 weeks ago my stats went through the roof. Like more hits in one day than an entire month! I checked out some of the sources and found my posts reposted in their entirety on several other sites. Nice to see the message spread I guess. What was interesting though was the long comments of people talking about me as the author rather than the topic at hand. I decided to pop into the thread and say "Hi, yes, I'm that guy you are talking about like I'm not here". It was funny. It was like chatting about someone behind their back and then suddenly you realise they are standing right behind you. Too funny!
I also remember finding one or two poems I'd written during retreat several years later on someone's web page. Not sure how they even got them.
I just went looking for them again, here is one of them
http://www.gardendigest.com/zen/quotes4.htm
Wow, I remember that night. On a 10 day retreat, slept out on the veranda of the zendo all night. Those lines bring back a lot of memories of that retreat.
With Metta
Dean
http://themindfulmoment.blogspot.com
Must be interesting to find your writing tucked between Dogen, Huang Po, and other famous masters :)
Greetings
I am the designer who volunteered to put up the BuddhaRocks.org portal, and I discover this 'complain' only today.
I wonder why none of you bother to contact Buddharocks.org instead of making wild, actually, almost malicious accusations against the portal all over the Internet ?
In my humble opinion, I think what you're doing isn't very Buddhist, let alone Zennist or morally admirable ...
Let me tell you why ?
The domain Buddharocks.org was idling and it was me who asked the onwer, Anna why wouldn't she make use of it to do something meaningful ? She says she would like to but she neither has the time nor the expertise to do much. So, I convinced her to let me sync in related information and I thought I might as well hang couple of ad banners at the same time, hoping to generate something for charitiable causes. Sorry to disappoint those who are jealous over this particular aspect, there is no money in what we do. Not at BuddhaRocks. We generated a few pennies and that is all and yes, Adsense has terminated our account citing complaints from ... (you should know who).
Obviously, I didn't know there are enlightenmnet seekers who actually aren't even willing share spiritual information with the masses !
You may ask why didn't I contact you prior to doing anything ?
First, by offering RSS feeds, you have implied you'd like to share (after all, you have full control over the feeds).
Second, it's an impossible task for me to liase with all those involved (there are hundreds of you and I am working all alone, I wish I have the time).
Third, you can always contact Buddharocks.org should you have any issue. Their contact is clearly printed at the site, something A thief will never do.
Fourth, we don't see aggregrating something from the Internet to share publicly as anything wrong. But we now realise there are one or two people who don't see it that way ... We got the message now,
Except one or two gentlemen who have contacted us with no problem whatsoever, none of those who are not willing to share even bother to contact us. Instead, they go around spreading hate messages and or malicious accusations eg. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4076bdc41dacf3c1&hl=en ... who not only complained at her own blog, but also at other blogs, forum etc.
Is her action justifiable or make any sense, let alone Zennist ?
By the way, I have recently revamped the portal. All old contents have been purged, so for the selfish ones, fret not. Your precious blogs have been cremated.
If you have any idea what can I possibly do to help you and the community at large, please feel free to drop me a note (email to BuddhaRocks, they will forward to me). I am just trying to add something philanthropic to my resume.
Trust all is well now.
Ted
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