Dear Jordan Yerman:
Every now and then, I poke around the Internet to see how my posts are doing, particularly ones that have proved popular. It's a little conceit of mine, a way for me to gauge what's popular and what isn't, what's been re-tweeted or Dugg or linked to. The editorial staff here like to see lots of hits on our posts, because it drives the advertising revenue that keeps our paper afloat.
I'm sure you've figured all this business about eyeballs and hitcounts out on your own as a blogger; we're not so different, you and I.
One big difference, though, is that when I see an awesome idea on the Internet and expropriate it, I give credit. I link to the site, I give credit in the text, and if possible I provide a linkback note to the original writer. I don't, for example, gank a very popular post about things hard to give up for Lent that I saw on Digg. I don't expropriate the information in the comments (the two hours without coffee bit was the first comment) without credit either.
I would have sent you e-mail, but there's no e-mail address associated with your profile. I don't feel the need to join some social network in which I have no interest and for which I have no time just to send you a private message, so I left a comment on your copycat post, which you ignored.
Writing these things can be hard, or at least time-consuming work. Stop ganking my (copyrighted) posts, stand up like a decent human being, and apologize. Put a linkback and some credit on your post. Be a man.
Tu m'emmerdes. Go look it up.
