So I was working on the content of a website today, and it’s pretty obvious that most of the content came from a sister site. (It’s obvious partly because I was told exactly that.)
No big deal: that sort of thing happens all the time. I’ll edit it up all pretty-like, and it’ll be original enough when I’m done.
Except, as I’m working, it becomes obvious that the partner site got their content by taking it off other related sites, and were lazy enough about it that the paragraphs switch from 1st to 3rd person where the editor forgot to make a switch.
Then, in one of the borrowed-borrowed sections, I notice that that site (we’re now three sites removed from the current project) borrowed their content from someone else, and actually forgot to change the name of the site the content referred to… so now I’m working on stuff that’s copy-copy-copy-copied.
Poorly.
And let’s not even mention that there are typos and misspellings that have survived through at least four incarnations.
I’m now convinced of this: there is no original content on static internet websites. All the once-original content was actually written by one guy who, from 1976 to 1992, scampered from system to system, Johnny Applemacintosh, seeding a few bits of fresh thought here and there, and then left it all to germinate and overgrow into fecundity.
(note: even this post might have been ripped from other sites)
