Imperfect

permissive propagation

Inspired by David's Blog interactions.

Take this bullet from Jedda's Week Notes 071:

Let's steal from each other more to show how valuable we think our creations are. See Sylvia's postscript in Culture of crediting:

P.S. I've read that some artists regard copycats as a good thing — that their art was well-regarded enough for another to want to mimic it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that. I hold this view also.

Copycats bless us with how much additional surface area they afford our creativity. Allow them to make our art that much more widespread, inspirational, and immortal.

I'd prefer someone copping my work wholesale without credit than not at all. If they can show me how to market it better than I can, that's a learning opportunity to seize. Even if they don't, who knows how many more people could benefit from it being shared?

I think David's on my wavelength:

I have a Community Echos section at the bottom of a blog post where I list reply posts. It's a great idea; blatantly stolen from Jedda's own Community Echos idea.

Have some more examples. Visit David's post and see how fly his new link hover animations look. Then compare them with my own. From a broader perspective, consider how many people remix others' themes to let their creative expression shine with help from fellow designers.

May our essences by propagated through the annals of history.

Being found worthy enough to link to can be welcomed like being found worthy enough to copy. Thankfully, you can establish connections with those interfacing your shared wisdom in many different ways.

Besides his solution above, David mentions automated mechanisms like Webmentions. However, I share his sentiment of preferring tighter constraints. Although, manual linking sometimes comes with the cost of missing out on link referrers depending on your service or plan.

David also explains how Joel's dedicated Blog pings page lists others' interactions with his blog's content. Not only does it signpost where organic and mutual connections have emerged or will emerge, but it can prevent the need to update old posts if you don't want to. It's a welcome reminder that I can retroactively link to writers who found my writing valuable enough to interface.

That said, most of my posts nowadays start as responses. I explain that part of my process in shoot more shots:

Inspirational content becomes scaffolding in the form of separate free writing, summative bullet outlines, or block quotes to "reply" under.

I would have written much less over this past year and counting if people around the world didn't openly share their thoughts online. I continue:

Fitting bookmarks and other newfangled inspirations soon get mixed in.

I'd like to think that interweaving hyperlinks into my paragraphs transform my posts into curated, contextual, yet miniature blogrolls. The few posts with multiple influences that engendered responses from each, like magnitudes of friendship, showcase the pattern's value.

With how inspired I am by writing found elsewhere, it would be nice to receive more inbound communications. There's plenty of fair game: appreciating shoutouts, resonating with talking points, suggesting crucial fixes, or even showing how you remixed my art. While I could initiate connections myself, effortlessly publishing posts feels so much meatier than agonizing over what to email someone. I'm trying to do a better job of it, but one can only write and link so synthetically without blowing emails out of proportion. There's also the safety concern of adding hyperlinks to emails in the first place, per Andrej's Digital hygiene:

Never click on any link inside any email you receive. Email addresses are extremely easy to spoof and you can never be guaranteed that the email you got is a phishing email from a scammer.

Those of you that like and appreciate my thoughts: what stops you from connecting with me, particularly on a persistent basis?

Want to reach out? Connect with me however you prefer: