This is what I'm thinking when I read something I really like and have my finger poised on the cool button until I get to the end and see that the entire thing was written by someone else.
Its hard to say what hits me about certain nodes that makes me go ahead and slap them with one of my limitted C! cards, it can be a lot of different things.
Sometimes its because they express a new idea to me really well, other times its because the noder somehow perfectly described an idea I already know about or referenced something I like. Sometimes its a well-written personal account that I find touching, risky, comforting, infuriating. Many times its just the writing itself, I love to appreciate a fine or original manipulation of language to convey ideas.
However, when I find that the noder simply copied something cute, funny or informative they found somewhere else I could never consider giving it a C!. I mean I'm not saying there's anything wrong with adding information here that you obtained from other sources, in fact I think its a great idea. This is a relatively barrierless database of all kinds of tidbits, anecdotes and facts, and alot of the things that already exist out there are well worth filing with E2.
I certainly don't vote things down just because they are entirely quoted from other sources. Hell, I've even been known to vote up a few of those nodes. I especially like them when the noder adds some kind of personal insight, even a word to two can be enough to show me why they feel a connection to that particular piece and want to include it here. But when there is nothing but someone else's writings word for word it sometimes annoys me. I mean all of us can grab a book of poetry and node every single poem to rack up a lengthy list of write-ups under our belt. And if that's your thing, more power to you.
It just somehow amazes me how often things like that get C!ed. |
