My New Conversation With My Inner Self

In collaboration with Pawan Maruvada from The Other Perspective


Me: Hi, Inner Self!


Inner Self (IS) : Hello! Long time!!


Me : Yeah, long time! Had been very busy. Didn’t had the time to talk to you at length.


IS : It’s ok. better late than never! What is it that you want to talk about today?


Me : There’s one thing, which is on my mind for a long time now.


IS : Tell me…


Me : I have been writing my own blog for a cool 5 months now. Done over 100 posts! Have some regular patrons. Have had a variety of posts on my blog.


IS : That’s good. But where is all this leading? And what is variety of posts?


Me : I’ll elaborate…well, in the recipe of my blog, I have had various ingredients in the form of some Fun posts, 55 Fiction, Satire, Humor, Informative posts, Rants, Tags, Awards etc etc.. but one variety of post is missing.


IS : Which one??


Me : Its the Cut/Copy-Paste posts.

IS : A Cut/Copy-Paste post? What is that?

Me : Well, this is a post in which you Cut/Copy-Paste anything from anywhere and post it on your blog, either with no change or some minor changes. I want to do such a type of post too. 


IS : From the looks of it, it doesn’t sound appealing at all. Why do you want to do this?? 

Me : Oh, there are a lot of reasons…

  • It’s the easiest thing to do!!
  • It can be done in a wink!
  • You don’t get to put any stress on your grey cells or don a creative hat!
  • You get rave reviews for doing so too. People literally thank you from the bottom of their hearts for sharing such wonderful info with them.
  • In fact, some believe it to be your own creation and give you amazing creative titles.
  • And even if some know that it not your own creativity, they’ll still post rosy, glorious comments.
  • You get awards/recognition too for such posts.
    What more could a blogger ask for?

IS : But the comments on such posts might be marginal? 
Me : NO, you are mistaken. They are in huge numbers. 

IS : I believe the bloggers are an intelligent, creative, thoughtful tribe! Why would they be glorifying such a copy cat thing? 

Me : They are! In fact, most of them are so very talented and creative. I guess, nobody wants to be in anybody’s irritated or dumped books and no blogger would like to lose his/her followers or commenter’s, just because you don’t like/agree with their ONE post! 

IS : I don’t understand, where do people Cut/Copy Paste such info from? 


Me : Arre…there is so much information available on the world wide web. Then you have forward mails which you get a dozen a day, then you can Cut/Copy Paste from other blogs too! 

IS : Ok, if such information is accessible to all, so why bother duplicating the whole thing??     


Me : Agreed, but these bloggers think that may be their readers do not have access to that kind of information. So, they are kind of doing a social service, by providing the info right on their computer screen!! 

IS : Just a thought, does the well worked out posts lose their importance, in the process?? 

Me : They do! In fact I received very few comments on the posts which I worked on the most (and they were elaborate). Very few people read the entire posts at a stretch; the others just go through it superficially and leave a bland comment like “Good”, “You are the best”. But in the case of Cut/Copy Paste posts, a reader can get gist of the entire content in one go and hence puts up better comments (or am I feeling that they are better?). In this process serious posts are the real losers. 
IS : How can one get the gist of a Cut/Copy Paste post but not of an original one? 


Me : The answer is simple. A Cut/Copy Paste post is generally (in nearly all of the cases) obtained from forwarded mails. Any blogger with some sweet 20 posts under his name tends to have constant access to e-mail (20 posts is a benchmark, for example, it may be lower too). And as it is universally known, forwarded mails are bombarded in a frequent mail user’s inbox. Hence, there is a greater chance that a reader of a Cut/Copy Paste post knows the content matter of the post beforehand. 

And moreover, most of the Cut/Copy Paste posts are generally humorous. The grey cell burnout factor is minimal in their case. So, upon reading the first paragraph, one can easily get the drift of the post, thereby letting the reader to come to a conclusion without going through the entire post. 

But when it comes to an original piece of writing, one cannot predict the ending just by reading the introduction. There might be many twists and turns in between and also the intensity may increase depending upon the author’s caliber so, it eliminates many of the passing readers. 

IS : Judging by your above thoughts, are you telling me that the quality of comments define the posts? 


Me : Nah! After a certain period of time I feel every blogger reaches the stage where he/she doesn’t care much about the “Present Sir/Mam Comments”. Yes, thoughtful and well researched comments are always useful for the blogger as they present the pros and cons of the post, and hence help the blogger in becoming better. But in the end, it is the satisfaction of the blogger which matters the most, nothing can beat that. 

IS : Hmmm… looks like a logical answer to me. 

Me : It is. Oops, that reminds me of something, a part of the lyric from Sum 41’s song “Pieces”. 

“If you believe it’s in my soul,
I’d say all the words that I know,
Just to see if it wouldn’t show,
That I am trying to let you know,
That I’m better off on my own”

IS : That was a good adaptation!
Me : But, somehow, somewhere I don’t get a good vibe about doing such a post. 


IS : Ok, I get your point. Let me share with you something from a Blogger (who does a Cut/Copy Paste Post) and a Commenter’s perspective on such posts. You know that, a Blog, as Wikipedia describes it, is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Right? 

Me : Right. 


IS : Since it is a personal website, the author has the right to post whatever he/she deems correct/blog worthy. Since, its a personal blog, the author has all the right to publish anything he/she desires. So, as a blogger, in case you are happy to have a Cut/Copy Paste Post on your blog. By all means, go ahead. 

And in case you do not like the idea, don’t do it.

As a Commenter, you have a choice… 

  • To read the blog and comment on it.
  • To read the blog and refrain from commenting on it.
  • Neither read (I am sure you’ll get an idea after first few lines!) nor comment on it.

Me : Makes sense.
IS : So go ahead and express what you feel on your blog, after all it’s your personal domain!


Image Courtesy: http://www.robbyslaughter.com/images/cut_copy_paste.jpg