Do you own what you post on fluther?
I don’t. I sort of want to own my words, but I don’t feel like that’s a good desire. I think that once the words are out there, they no longer belong to me, or anyone (although they might belong to fluther). This is ok for me, because it’s like an improvisational dance. Me and the questions. Me and the people here. We make a move, and it’s over with. Gone. There is nothing except the next move. You can’t replay a dance (unless you videotape it, but usually only professionals get taped).
I play improvisational music that hardly ever gets recorded. Sometimes the music is absolutely incredible, but there’s no recording. It’s gone. If you were there in the moment, you could appreciate it. Otherwise, you missed it.
So that’s how I feel about fluther writing, too. It loses it’s relevance within a day or maybe a week. The people who see it in real time see it, and everyone else misses it. It’s gone like the sound that the tree in the forest makes—or doesn’t make. No one is around to hear it any more.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
18 Answers
“Word are not sparrows – once they fly away, you can’t catch them.” – Russian proverb.
It may lose it’s relevance but it is out there forever. Just google daloon and voila there are daloon fluther posts <;}
Every time I submit an answer on Fluther, it is forever assimilated into the proverbial online ether and it’s basicly public domain from that time on.
Whether or not I get any lurve for answers (which has never been and never will be a motivating factor for my presence here), that is my 2.5 seconds of fame each time someone reads one of my answers.
If any of my responses helps someone, makes them laugh, or is even meaningful in some small way, that is a good thing and it was worth the effort.
Unfortunately some things I wish I could take back or change (but who doesn’t?) That being said, I own everything I say. If one of my statements, comments, or opinions comes rolling back on me 2 years from now it’ll still be mine.
“Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”
Yes, what I write in mine. What a reader perceives is theirs.
Nope. When Fluther: The Motion Picture is made, and one of the threads you created is used in the movie, Ben & Andrew get all the residuals.
hope so, i hate not owning anything
I’d like to add to my original answer that, after reading Fluther’s terms of service as posted by @shilolo, they apparently own what I post on Fluther after I post it and they can change, delete, or alter any information posted on the site without warning and without attribution.
I have no problem with that because I don’t think I’ll ever give the Fluther ‘powers that be’ any reason to drastically alter my responses. Except for the occasional moderation to one of my answers, maybe, if I’ve been a bad boy.
@daloon: Except for the fact that hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people come every month through google to your old questions…
I don’t care if I own what I write here. But I liked what you said about improvisation, Daloon. I find that if I get to a question two days or so after it’s been asked, it’s usually dead. But man, when it’s alive, it’s alive.
I’ve always liked to think it’s owned by the community, not necessary Fluther the business. My username is simply a a category in the giant library of information and anecdotes.
@andrew: They may google my old questions—although I wonder what kind of search they’d be on (assuming they didn’t search on my name), in order to find my questions? I don’t ask those standard questions about “how to“s and not too many relationship questions. I wonder if they search on “spandex” would they get today’s question?
Anyway, I’ve run out of questions for the day. Could someone do me a favor and ask “What google search terms that did not include your fluther name would bring up some or many of your questions?” Thanks.
In as much as words express thoughts and ideas, and these eminate from our very minds, and our minds are our own (presumably) I would say that we own what we post, but then even the word “own” must be qualified.
What I think when I see that word used in the context of the question is, our thoughts whether expressed in words or not belong to us.
Once expressed however, in this particular medium, or an essay, what have you, it takes on a life of its own from other minds that analyze and reflect upon its various shades of meaning, and develop conclusions that spawn thoughts of their own. Thus postings are a kind of ‘collective ownership’.
i don’t think anyone owns anything posted on the internet
@MadParty: I agree. I’d love to know how you feel about that. Do you give it away with absolutely no expectation of anything in return, or do you wish you might get something back; remuneration, perhaps, in the form of money, or reputation?
For ownership, I believe that writing here is like speech- it goes out into the world so be careful what you say. Personally, I got scared when I tried twitter and google started indexing it and attributing it to me. There’s no privacy when it comes to online thoughts. So I would not write a novel in your posts. Incidently what you said about improvising is often what I think about my offline writing- I often feel like I’m improvising with myself. Now I would be curious about what happens if you get inspired by one of the posts here and start creating something based on it. Is there something like fair use of the posts here?
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
