Imamother and magazine articles

amother

OP ↓

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:01 am

I've been noticing from time to time, that topics that are heatedly discussed on imamother, were being written up in magazines a couple of weeks later. It's left me with the feeling that writers use imamother to gather data and material for their articles.
Does anyone else notice this?

watergirl ↓

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:38 am

It totally happens, which is one of the reasons mods appreciate when people report threads where it looks like the OP is gathering informal data, anecdotes, etc. for an article. If the person is going to quote the site, then it brings traffic and more members (a good thing). If the person does not, it's stealing (a bad thing).

A few years back in one of the holiday supplements of Mishpacha, people here were very upset when there was a story written to look just like the format here. This is a separate issue than the one I mentioned above. That person clearly knows what this site looks like and used this content for her story. It's a violating feeling, not original on the author's part, lazy and not cool (my opinion).

amother

Lightcyan

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:41 am

watergirl wrote:

Not a few years back, it was this Sukkos in the Mishpacha story supplement. Not only was it formatted to look just like Ima, it made fun of how we take everything anyone here says and totally blow it up till it becomes this huge issue.

amother

↑ OP

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:44 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Magazine articles are usually printed 4-6 months AFTER they are accepted and fully edited by the magazine.

So no, probably just a coincidence.

I don't think this is how it is across the board. Articles often mention recent events & situations. An article was printed about a relative of ours, 3 weeks after they passed away.

↑ watergirl ↓

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:50 am

amother Lightcyan wrote:

Wow, it was that recent? I feel like it was older than that!

In any case, we DO tend to blow up smaller issues into bigger ones. It's how it goes on this kind of site, and the hope is that OPs read everything with a grain of sand and don't let it blow up their lives. The author had a point, and it could have been a good lesson for everyone who uses any social media and to be frank, also for playground conversation.

The thing that made it so wrong was how clearly the author made it a rip-off of this site and made us look like a bunch of fools. She could have done it so differently without any hint as to who she was talking about.

chanatron1000

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 10:51 am

watergirl wrote:

If you're referring to the oddly titled story "The Blog Post," IIRC, people here were able to identify which specific threads it seemed to be based on, and the story was overall mocking this site. Also, if you believe the husband character (which you have no particular reason to, but the way the story's constructed sets it up as the punchline) then what happened is that the woman misrepresented her situation, got responses based on what she'd said (because people aren't mind readers), and then for some reason she took what they said at face value as if they applied to her actual situation.

↑ watergirl

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 11:04 am

chanatron1000 wrote:

Yup, I remember it more clearly now.

Point being, someone mocked this site.

amother

Burntblack

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 6:52 pm

amother Lightcyan wrote:

Was in the Ami.

InnerMe

Thu, Jun 06 2024, 7:10 pm

ectomorph wrote:

Of course they read imamother. What else would they read? It's the only place to go.

Yeah if I'd write for mags (I don't) imamother would certainly be a great place to see what makes people tick, what's hot now, what's controversial, what people are looking for.

It's a great place to hear what your readers are interested in because their readers hang out here. It's like any product where you're trying to do market research so you need to go where the customers hang out and find out what talks to them.

You can't actually use threads and make them into articles or use people's posts or write a thread specifically for an article unless you specify but if they're just browsing to see ideas of topics I don't think that's a problem. But maybe I'm wrong and it is.

I'm sure plenty writers are here for the same reason everyone else is - for the entertainment and information and then certain things pop out at them and they're like hey maybe something with this topic can be interesting.