a_message_to_cooper_rasha raze listen...you're my friend, and you've been a valued contributor here for years. i don't want to create tension or start any drama. but i feel a need to say something. i've kept my mouth shut for a while now, hoping this would just spin itself out and you'd lose interest in it. doesn't look like that's going to happen. and i can't go on biting my tongue any longer. this whole "literary thief" thing has gone way too far. copying and pasting things from people's tumblr and blogspot blogs without their knowledge or permission, and without crediting the source(s), raises some unsettling moral issues. now i'm having second thoughts about posting anything the least bit thoughtful on my own blog, because for all i know someone on some website somewhere is stealing my thoughts without crediting where they came from. i'm reluctant to tell someone i think might enjoy and appreciate this place about it, because i don't want them to see it like this. and on a purely aesthetic level, all those symbols are starting to get really irritating and unpleasant to look at. i'm sorry, but it's true. i tend to just ignore anything i see from water lillies or cooper_rasha now, because i know there's about a 98% chance it's going to be something stolen and filled with symbols where the punctuation should be. you're an incredible writer and artist. i can't fathom why you would feel a need to do this. if the whole purpose is to have a place to recall blog posts you like, isn't that what following people's blogs is for? i fail to see the value in copying and pasting all of this stuff and putting it here, and not even keeping it just in one place (which i still don't think would be okay, though at least there would only be one blathe to avoid then), but spreading it all over blather. it's also skirting with very dangerous territory, because if any of the people whose blogs are being pirated got wind of what was going on here, it could lead to some serious repercussions and even spell the end of this place as we know it. whether you meant to or not, you've built an excellent argument for fundamentally altering the fabric of blather and implementing a moderating tool so editing becomes a possibility. it's at the point now where i'm tempted to see if i can pull some strings and just get all these stolen things deleted, because they really shouldn't be here. and i'm not someone who normally thinks that way when it comes to blather. using ten different names at a time and writing as different characters can be justified as a form of creative expression. a lot of us have used pseudonyms over the years. the children's stories have at least been attributed to their original author, though the more i think about it, that's pretty dicey and dangerous territory too, plagiarizing entire books, and it could also lead to serious trouble. but this stuff...this isn't even literary plagiarism. it's *thought* plagiarism. it's gone past the point of being puzzling or amusing, and now it's just starting to feel seriously, profoundly wrong. the whole mindpop thing especially boils my blood. here we were all thinking how cool it was that this interesting, quirky person recovering from a stroke was here on blather after we hadn't seen any new faces in a while. and now i come to find out it was just more stuff lifted from someone's blog. it would be one thing if you'd admitted as much when confronted, like you did with those children's stories. but when some of us interacted with you as nina (which is what it turns out this person's real name is) and offered encouragement or compliments, you kept the act going. it seems like the blathes only stopped because there were no more blog posts of hers left to pirate. when i found out what the real deal was here, i felt like a complete idiot. i cared about this person, at least as much as you can care about someone you don't really know. i took her words at face value. i wanted to see her stick around and do well. meanwhile, she never even existed. not on blather. she was a lie. it's difficult not to feel betrayed. and i keep thinking about how she would feel if she learned someone effectively hijacked her identity in some obscure corner of the internet. if it were me, i would be mortified — even more so once i realized there was no way to delete what had been posted. i would find out who the "manager" or creator of the site was, and let them know i didn't appreciate what was going on, and then i would consider taking legal action. especially if i was looking into taking some elements of my blog and getting them published in book form, as it sounds like she is or was from what i've read around the internet. again...dangerous territory. and what about how pilgrim and no_reason might feel, knowing they sent good thoughts to someone who was never even here? you fooled us all. which is impressive in a way, i guess. but i don't think that makes it even remotely right. wasn't the_truth_about_fyngula_farmfish_and_frank a bit of a wake_up call about where this kind of thing can lead? the reaction back then was almost universal support and forgiveness. this is much more difficult to support or understand. back then, at least the words were yours. you were adding beautiful things to blather, even if they were dishonest. this is just ugly. at this point i don't even know what to think most of the time when a new name shows up. i don't know if it's really a new person at all, or if their words are even really theirs. i was naive enough to believe water lillies and cooper_rasha were both new 'skites when they first appeared, and not just pseudonyms for this whole literary theft project. i didn't particularly like the way i felt when i found out what was really going on there. and i don't particularly like the way i'm now suspicious of almost everything i read from an unfamiliar name, either. i honestly don't understand the purpose of any of this, when you're clearly quite capable of consistently writing deep, meaningful things that haven't been hijacked from someone else's brain. if it's a matter of liking these people's blogs, wouldn't it be a lot easier, less time-consuming, and less ethically dicey to simply post links to the blogs in question and say, "hey, check this out"? if it's to prove that here on blather we really can be anyone we want, or no one at all, or someone else who has no idea we're pretending to be them, and there won't be any consequences no matter what we do, the point has now been proven many times over. we get it. we got it a long time ago. if it's just a way to kill time, couldn't it be done more effectively on tumblr, where "reblogging" is a regular thing, instead of dumping it here, where we're supposed to be free from all of that, leaving the rest of us with no choice but to try and avoid blathes that have no justifiable reason to exist? i don't like knowing there's a 50/50 chance i won't be able to read anything new that gets blathed on any given day without feeling uncomfortable or depressed. i'd argue this is hurting blather and all of us here. i think this is really, seriously wrong. and maybe more people would write here more often if this wasn't going on. it kind of puts a bad taste in the mouth. for me, it's getting to the point where i'm not even sure i want to be here anymore. i feel like i'm watching someone i love get punched in the face a few times every day. and there's no joy in that. i think maybe it's time to give some serious thought to what this is accomplishing, and if it's really an appropriate or justifiable use of blather. these stolen words and distracting symbols are going to be here forever. it's a blemish that's never, ever going away. is this really something you want to leave behind as part of your legacy to this place? in my opinion, it's not only an abuse of blather...it's an abuse of the implicit trust between all of us that we essentially are who we claim to be, and that our words are our own. to that end, i want to openly admit to everyone right now that "chairs missing" is me. i thought the way i reacted to making some typos over on letters_to_no_one and the way the_nearest_thing_to_being_close is written would have been dead giveaways, but you never know. matter of fact, i'll readily cop to every single name i can ever remember using here if someone asks me to. i don't feel i have anything left to hide, and i don't ever want to mislead anyone else the way i feel i've been misled here, even indirectly. these days, i'm raze, and chairs missing, and "the evil angel on my shoulder", and that's it. those are the only names i use here now. just in case anyone was wondering. i care about this place, and the people here. i think you do too. so i'm asking you to please_stop this. i don't want to see this shit here anymore. and i don't want to be afraid that someone is going to see pieces of their blog have been jacked and then take steps to bring blather down, or call undue attention to this place. blather is important to me. i'd like to be able to know i can count on it to be here when i need it, and that it won't be filled with stolen things that serve no purpose. i don't care how many different names you use, as long as the writing is yours. but i don't want to see any more of this daily plagiarism. if it keeps happening, i'm not going to stick around to watch. i don't want to see the bruises anymore. 130303 ... raze (should have said "skirting on", or "flirting with"...not "skirting with") 130303 ... cooper rasha holy christ! 130303 what's it to you? who go blather from