If a site is going to offer Arsenal news, I damn-well wish that only actual fans could provide the coverage. What we might lose in journalistic je ne sais quoi we would more than make up for in passion, dedication, and ownership.
I say this because, apparently, an article at arseblog, a site that I regularly consult and definitely admire, re-appeared at other sites as if it was original content at those sites. You can read a bit more on it at arseblog itself. Now, before I get too high and mighty, I will start with a few disclaimers:
- I am a full-time English teacher who composes in the wee hours and waits for what seem like opportune times to post the material. As such, I have a keen eye and low tolerance for those who would repost others’ content as their own. Further, whenever I include information from elsewhere, I make sure that I (a) point this out by naming the source-site and (b) providing a hyperlink to the original (as I did above).
- I strive for originality. This does mean that I peruse other sites to try to find an angle that hasn’t been covered yet. I might respond to something, such as when I mentioned that there were rumors that Szczęsny might leave in the summer and be replaced by Petr Čech. but I’d never pretend to have discovered or revealed this on my own.
When you come here, I hope you’re finding original opinions and analysis based on stuff that has already happened–the games themselves, highlights, and statistics. I love this club more than a healthy person probably should, and this drives me to think about what it means when, say, we unexpectedly win or lose or when a player has an uncharacteristically good or bad game. I think long and hard before, during, and after I write in order to deliver interesting opinions that might also be insightful and helpful. On one hand, I might be just a bit flattered if I found that one of my posts reappeared at some other site. Imitation is the sincerest form, as the saying goes. On the other, I’d be hoppin’ mad that someone is getting hits at their site thanks to my work. I might be just another naked chimp at a typewriter, but dammit, I’m proud of it. Not so much the naked part or the chimp part, but you get the picture, even if you don’t want that particular picture bouncing around in your head.
If you’re coming here and enjoy it, fantastic. If not, offer a comment (a polite one, I’m a tender soul). Too optimistic? Wildly inaccurate? Blithering idiot? Bring it on. I look at these sites that blindly repost articles and can at least say I wrote mine all by my pretty little self (I’m not referring, by the way, to aggregating sites but to other sites that will lift a story, post at their own site, and pretend they created it).
This might all amount to little more than a hill of beans, but this is my hill, and these are my beans. That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.
Up next: Cazorla’s brilliance.
