Friday Facebook Message

Dear You,

I’m feeling a lot better this week than I was last week.

I’ve taken someone up on their offer of helping out with the caption contest, I won’t start the next one until I’ve finished judging this one (please stop entering for now).

There are a few hundred blogs out there that are inspired by the I Wrote This For You project, I know because I track the words “I Wrote This For You” and “pleasefindthis” and other key words based off entries to see where the project goes and what people say about it, which leads me to them.

Some of these projects go on with my complete blessing because they asked me first or they told me what they were doing, or quite simply they had the good sense and common decency to state somewhere on the page

“This is what we’re doing and we were inspired to do it by these guys.”

These are some of the ones I’ve particularly enjoyed.

http://theartistandthewriter.blogspot.com/

http://thehistoryofhumandesire.com/about-this-site/

http://notesaboutyouandme.blogspot.com/

http://hubbafornow.wordpress.com/

We’re going to be start linking to and promoting these projects soon to thank them for acknowledging us, considering how many people don’t bother or think it doesn’t mater.

Here’s an example of what we really don’t like:

http://pleasefindthis.tumblr.com/

(This is the only link like this I’ll share as a) they’ve since stopped and b) the rest of the rip-off artists can rot in obscurity for all I care. But trust me that there are, literally, hundreds of them.)

They stole our entire identity without our consent. And the only reason they could have for mimicking us without acknowledging us, is egotism. They know that a lot of people like the I Wrote This For You project, so they figure a lot of people will like them too.

This flies in the very face of what we do, which I imagine is why people who try and do that lack any real substance behind their words and they feel flat and lifeless on the page, like some kind of twisted Hallmark version of us.

Which is why we appreciate the people who do link back to us so much.

In the greater scheme of things, we’re not that big. We’re a moderately successful garage band of a blog which is run off time and money that we put in ourselves.

If we ever end up making a living off it, you are more than welcome to take everything. But as things stand, we don’t.

Of course, the easiest way to make money off the blog would be to advertise on it but we don’t do that. The blog itself is an experience. The fact that there’s virtually nothing there but the posts is what makes it special to me.

You’ll notice I’ve even taken off the links to the facebook group and to the twitter streams because I feel like we’ve got enough people in both right now. That might change but that’s how I feel at this point in time.

So as many of you who follow me on twitter know or if you’ve visited the blog in the last week, we’ve added a donations link on the top right of the page.

https://tipit.to/pleasefindthis

We honestly and humbly thank those who’ve donated so far.

I write for you.

Your appreciation sincerely helps justify our devotion to the project and allows us to spend more time on it, making it better.

Support the artists who inspire you. Not just us, but the painters, photographers, musicians, writers and other creative people around you, who sing because they have to but share with the world because they want to.

And if you are an artist, never be afraid of making money off your art.

As I tweeted yesterday, anyone who tells you that creativity should be free, does not make a living being creative.

Enjoy the weekend and enjoy being who you are. You deserve it.

Love,

Me