Hey everyone! This is going to be a really short article on something that caught my by surprise. I don’t really want my blog to end up being too much about irrelevant things outside of metaphysics or an avenue where I whine too much, but I think whatever happened warrants a personal post and that I speak up about it. Yes, I do whine on my blog because no one has any idea how tiring this job can be at times, and because it’s such an esoteric field, not many people can understand the things you go through.
I recently wrote an article on whether you can change your BaZi and Zi Wei Dou Shu chart some time back and it was pretty well received. I published that post on 17th December 2017.
One of my readers has brought my attention to a blog post that had the exact same title by a website who is offering Zi Wei Dou Shu services as well and has notified me that the content or idea of the post was a bit too similar to mine for comfort, so I went in to take a look. I’m not sure if I’m being sensitive here, but strangely enough it does feel very similar to mine. This similar post was published on 25 January 2018.
The structure and flow of the post, and even some of the terms and examples used were very similar. To summarize, some similarities are:
1) Bringing up the Tao Te Ching (道德經) out of nowhere.
2) Using the example of ‘having too much Water’ in your BaZi chart and telling the chart-holder not to drink water. Making fun of the fact that water isn’t blue or black and Wood isn’t actually green.
3) The sudden discussion on transcending your chart, which was not really consistent with previous posts the blog owner wrote.
4) Using the example of ‘bribing’ deities, and trust me, not many people use this example unless they have read books written by the author I mentioned in my original post.
5) The section the questions to ask yourself if you’re wondering why your career or relationship isn’t going anywhere is pretty similar to how I presented my ideas and thoughts as well.
6) If you’ve read my previous posts, you will know my style of writing and the words and terms I like to use, and some parts really do sound like me talking.
Basically, given the timing of the post and how inconsistent it was with previous posts, the whole structure and style of writing was really, really a bit too coincidental.
In any case, I’m not angry or whatever. Perhaps a little peeved. This is the first time this as ever happened to me so I’m not quite sure how to process it, so pardon my need of a response and outlet by writing this post. As much as I wish to keep this sideline of mine as professional as I can, I think everyone knows by now my blog is my outlet too. It’s really quite a challenge handling so many different aspects of this sideline on my own.
I do feel a bit flattered that someone out there takes inspiration from my blog posts and sees me as a thought leader of sorts? The only thing I would reprimand this blog owner for is copying the structure of it and being intellectually lazy, because I know for certain that kind of mindset ends up with the client suffering from a wrong reading.
Anyway, it seems like the post has been taking down now, but my reader happened to take some screenshots, so I’ll let everyone be the judge.
I’m fine with the people ‘copying’ my ideas on blog topics and taking inspiration from it as long as the correct message is being spread. Besides, the knowledge on metaphysics is publicly available and it’s not intellectual property that I own. My only concern is that I don’t feel there is a need to copy me if this field was truly their calling and passionate about this field. The fact that they decided to take it down after being called out does imply that their intention was not to spread the right message. In any case, I’m no one to judge. As long as they are helping people and not seeing this as a business and seeing it as quick and easy money, I’m fine, and I really do hope more genuine practitioners come out to spread the right message.
Don’t get me started on the ‘practitioners’ who are buying fake social media followings to appear more popular. It’s none of my business I know – I always told myself to just focus on my own practice and I have – but now that things have ventured into my blog posts being copied, I really want to get this off my chest, put this out in the open and say that I am absolutely disgusted with the way some of the things are being done in this field. I’m not saying I’m the perfect practitioner. Read my previous posts and you’ll know I owe up to ‘scolding’ my clients and making mistakes in my analyses at times, just that some things don’t really sit well with me.
But wow… The structured of the post was really a bit too similar. As Oscar Wilde puts it very eloquently:
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”
Not trying to say I’m great, but whatever happened does speak volumes of the person who copied me. Anyway, just for everyone’s information: I’m in the process of creating online courses for my website, so I guess I’m going to have to take some measures to protect my intellectual property moving forward.
Update (13th Feb’18): It seems like the blog owner put up the post again, but this time with a completely different writing style and content. To the blog owner: Don’t ever do something like that again. It’s not nice. Peace!
Update (18th Feb’18): I’ve reach out to the blog owner and he has since apologized for copying my content.
-Sean
