January 8, 2004

Jimbo's got it going on

Rayne Today

He's got a damned fine set of pectorals and a classic washboard abdomen. He's got heartwarming pictures of fuzzy, funny pets, a rock climbing habit and a vegan lifestyle. The man writes openly about highly personal habits and his love life in an engaging fashion.

But as one commenter said, Jimbo's "...blog entries must be the hottest shit on the net...they're being grabbed up like DVD players in a Wal-Mart stampede."

Yes, The Mighty Jimbo of Digital Catharsis has been plagiarized by at least two different blogs. You can get all the juicy details at Jimbo's site; take the opportunity to go and read his work, figure out what the fuss is all about. There's more than one victim, too; at least two other blogs have been plagiarized by the same blog-poachers, suggesting a new trend.

Are these folks just Jimbo wannabes who really dig his charming metrosexual-machismo vibe? Are they folks without real lives or real writing skills? Are they just plain lazy? Or too stupid to realize the real thing Jimbo (or any real blogger) has can't be duplicated?

Is there something more nefarious going on here? Is it possible these posts are being harvested and reposted for other purposes? The plagiarists have been Xanga members; is there something about Xanga that encourages this kind of behavior?

Or is The Mighty Jimbo just the blogosphere's version of catnip?

The situation makes for many questions; got any answers?

Posted by rayne at January 8, 2004 8:33 AM
Comments

aw, shucks.

if i only had this kind of success in meeting women.

Posted by: the mighty jimbo at January 8, 2004 8:44 AM

Rayne, have your read this MetaFilter thread? It looks like blog plagarism might become a major problem.

Posted by: Neva at January 8, 2004 8:03 PM

Thanks, Neva, I hadn't done MeFi this week!

Sounds like the case they discuss at MeFi is more classic -- the misappropriation of materials for a quasi-journalistic endeavor. In Jimbo's case (and the other examples he cites), it's a creepy lifting of one's intimacies of life by cobbing personal journal entries.

By the way -- Neva, meet Jimbo; Jimbo, meet Neva. ;-)

Posted by: Rayne at January 9, 2004 6:55 AM

Thanks, Neva, hadn't done MeFi this week yet!

Looks like they're discussing at MeFi a classic case of plagiarism for quasi-journalistic use. In Jimbo's case (and the others he cites), it's a creepy lifting of another's life intimacies as a substitution for sharing one's own. It's more than a ballsy theft of near-commercial/commercial material; I don't understand what the motivation is for stealing another's life output...??

Posted by: Rayne at January 9, 2004 7:04 AM
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