Friday, August 5, 2011

Bloody Post

Some people repeatedly say the word "bloody  #~*-%@#?" when they are mad or upset! I will not say that, but i feel like it because many of my photos were stolen by some people.The thieves posted my photos as their own because they want to sell seeds or plants on line to interested people frequenting a gardening forum site.  I was not really alarmed, nor too upset when they got the photos, but they pretended to be the owners of a garden having my plants. Moreover, they pretended to be graduates of my alma mater and the short experiment i did on amaryllis, they profess is theirs. I was at first amused by it. However, when i surfaced in the forum site and claimed what are mine, those other people who seemed to notice the anomaly in the thieves' "unusual photos", did not believe me despite my thorough knowledge on the matter and the plants in question. It looked like the owner being me has the burden of proof, for them to believe!!! They seem not to know  how to correlate specifics for being true and being false! I showed them my deep knowledge on forcing amaryllis to flower. I even taught them a lot of technical considerations so they will learn on their own strategies, instead of just following a recipe-like instructions. I even told them that flower-forcing in the tropics is somehow different than when you are in temperate climes. And i privately messaged some of them, so they will personally know. Do you know what i received in return? They berated me for the technical instructions i know and how i expressed them. They even got so sarcastic because i know technical things! Someone even asked if i have technical journal articles, even if i know they will not even understand a bit of it. When I sent them the links in spite, highly scientific vs slightly popularized, i didn't hear anything but a "what are the things you are delving into now"? Isn't that ridiculous, bordering on disgust!

Thanks to Plantchaser for alerting me of my stolen photos.

One of the photos stolen from this blog doesn't have watermark then. They cannot believe this is from my backyard!

I remember it was Autumn Belle and leavesnbloom who experienced this a few months back. I still remember Autumn Belle's expression of disgust in her post. They even taught us to be cautious and put something in the blogpost to at least lessen thief occurrence. But because i am not very good in following computer instructions, i didn't follow. Now, i try putting watermarks in my photos, which are not full-proof measures. It is not actually the stealing part which disgusts me, it is the reactions of some people in that forum. Anyway, i will be posting the blood lily to correlate with the experience. It is also a bulb like amaryllis and it is bloody red. By the way, my stolen photos include several Curcuma elata, several Delonix regia photos, and of course the wonderful amaryllis, in its hedgelike splendor, including the experiments. Those who frequent this site will remember those photos.

My feeling now is to be happy that i have the technical knowledge about plants, being a plant physiologist. Physiology is the science of functions, which include physical and biochemical functions of living organisms. So plant physiologists are the people who study the hows, the whys and the reasons why plants behave like what they do in certain conditions or environment, especially in times of stress. And photography is my hobby, so i create my own photos,  explain what I see to the best of what i know for the purpose of sharing, being good to people, and appreciating the goodness of gardeners/photographers! So be it!

Like the red-orange amaryllis (Hipeastrum puniceum), this blood lily (Haemanthus/Scadoxus multiflorus) also flowers here in the country after the first heavy rains following a long dry season.These are also in my backyard and sometimes behave as weeds. We have beautiful weeds, don't you agree!






They just grow there with the weeds, which seem to magnify their beautiful presence among greens

The remnants after the red colors dried and dehisced. Those round tips are the fruits

Only a few fruits seemed to have been successful above. I will try to let these mature and gather the seeds, experiment on its germination and probably give to friends.
Leaves sprout when the flowers start to wilt. These vegetative portion will continue to grow during the rainy season, after which they dry and the bulb become dormant again during the dry season. These green vegetative portion will be beautiful if placed in nice containers and mixed in other colors in the garden. Next time i will experiment also on its bulb, if they can be forced to flower like the Hipeastrum puniceum.


The previous post on this and the amaryllis is http://www.abagillon.blogspot.com/2010/03/bulbs-tropical-style-for-blooming.html  


This is also linked to  Show and Tell Friday

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24 comments:

  1. Andrea, I know how you feel. I really do!

    Even my post titles are stolen for naughty websites, maybe flower expressions helps them sell sex.

    Now, I got to do extra work putting watermarks in every picture and I also hope my readers don't regard these marks as obstructions.

    Please pardon me for saying this. It looks like you have become their 'ghost writer' without pay. I wonder what else you can do to stop this. I really have not respect and I despise these people who are so thick skin as to steal from others but not enough brain to write the articles themselves.

    Remember to watermark your pics. - at least any reader would know it belongs to you. You can use Picasa program (FOC from google) to do this.

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  2. I am so sorry that this has happened to you, Andrea. Someone stole my entire blog once --and luckily, I found out about it.. Reported it to Blogger and wrote the 'idiot' for stole it... I think this happens alot more than we know. It's just terrible.

    Beautiful set of pictures and info.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. Andrea,

    It is must be a compliment that your articles and photos were chosen. If they were poorly written, no thief would bother.

    You could add a link to your blog in all your posts so that readers would be able to identify that the articles they read are written by someone else. These thieves would end up helping you promote your blog. Wouldn't that be free advertisement? Bloody to rosy?

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  4. I'm so sorry this happened to you. I had the same thing happen...they even reposted my posts as theirs on their blog! Geesh at least give me credit!

    Gorgeous flowers!
    *hugs*deb

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  5. That's always the risk Andrea, for all bloggers like us. Hopefully you're feeling much settled with what happened. Lovely photos btw :)

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  6. Andrea, Your blood lily is gorgeous!
    I am so sorry for the people stealing your blog, Andrea. There is remedy with Blogger. Tell them about it and they will remove the content from the other person's blog (well, at least they will if it is a blogspot hosted blog). Good luck!
    Beth

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  7. Andrea,
    Your flowers are gorgeous! It seems there are always folks out there that don't have a clue about being a *nice* person...I don't know if its the way they are raised or what but its sad.
    About all you can do is watermark your photos good and include in the posting your link.

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  8. Oh, how sad that people steal even our blog posts if we don't watch them. Your photos are phenomenal, and I can see why they would be tempting to anyone with theft on the brain. I'm sorry this has happened to you. I don't watermark my pictures (though they are not of your caliber) so maybe mine are out there somewhere too. I wish the thieves would like to weed, they could at least come help me out here. ;')

    The flowers you have shown are just amazing, things I've never been privileged to see, thank you so much for sharing.

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  9. Hi Andrea - I'm sorry this has happened to you! I work in the Internet industry and know a few things you can do. My Companies website (all 60,000 pages) was completely uplifted and published to a different domain by someone, then riddled with Ads - and we got them closed down. It's happened to hudreds of texts of ours, photos - I could carry on telling you stories, suffice it to say I have 12 years experience of dealing with this!

    The first thing to do is write to the owner of the website and tell them to remove your images and texts and that if they do not, you will file a DMCA Takedown notice with the company that hosts their website AND with Google, Bing et al. That will usually do the trick as Google will remove their site completely from their index which equals death for most websites.

    If that doesn't work or you need help contact me via my blog or e-mail me! (info @ and then my blogs domain)

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  10. I do remember reading Autumn Belle's post about her pictures stolen for some other purposes. And now its your turn to be victimized.

    I'm just too lazy to put watermark on the photos I post in my blog. I guess they're not worth stealing anyway...LOL

    On the brighter side, take a little pride that your pictures were stolen for another reason. It means they're good. These people don't know what 'acknowledgment' means. Just pity them.

    Their negative reaction when you confronted them was a manifestation of their guilt. Maybe it would help if you publish their sites so people who care would disseminate info not to do business with these people.

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  11. Your photos are wonderful, Andrea. It really is sad others felt the need to steal your work. But it seems to come with the territory of blogging. Lucky you had other bloggers looking out for you.

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  12. I am sorry to hear this happened to you. Once people have made up their minds it is difficult to change them despite the evidence.
    Thanks for visiting my blog the other day.

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  13. OH Andrea, I am so sorry. It makes me angry when people do this. All they have to do is give credit. A person stole one of my pics and put it on their sex site. You can report it to google and have them taken off. There are always people out there who will take advantage of this and now it's important to watermark our work. We spend hours and hours upon the photo shoots, waiting in lines, hiking massive trails, sitting quietly waiting for that "perfect moment", editing, cropping, driving....for what? Someone to steal our work?? I've recently started labeling my work after that incident. I'm sorry and I do understand your frustrations.

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  14. Lovely flowers! Thanks for your visit.

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  15. Wow, that is one of the most beautiful weeds I've ever seen!

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  16. Some people have no ethics it seems. I am sorry that this happened to you and at least they could take down the work and apologize..but then they would have to admit that they did it....

    Thank you for leaving the website..Global Coherence Initiative. It looks interesting, but I haven't looked over the entire website yet...Michelle

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  17. Oh drats, Andrea, what a pain! I suspect it happens a lot. People with no talent, skill or ethics ride on the coat tails of those who do. You're an expert in your field, you write informative posts with great images, so you'd be an easy target. I'm not sure adding the watermark helps. You see I put them on mine, but I can remove them in 10 seconds in Photoshop, so the only thing I hope for is a thief's to have a moment's hesitation in stealing my photos. Yeah, right. I post them to share without expecting remuneration, but still if someone was gaining a commercial benefit from my work I would consider legal action. Sometimes just a letter from a lawyer asking for a royalty payment and credits can settle the matter. If you decide not to, then best is to rant hard and get over it fast... and move one. Don't let them steal your peace of mind in addition to your posts.

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  18. No wonder you were offering me blood lilies. I'm glad it is a sign of friendship and not a signal of war, at least for me.

    I've decided that marked (and possibly marred, ugly) pictures may be better than having my pictures stolen.

    I vouched for you personally on the forum. If there are some who still refuse to believe who you are, I think that is their problem and not yours. You don't need to prove yourself to the rest of us who have benefited from your knowledge and generosity.

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  19. Andrea... I might be a victim of such hideous acts but I have yet to find out or be alerted by someone... Thanks for dropping by my blog... I earn my keeps in the university in the weekdays, and in the weekends, I am all over my garden dirtying my hands...

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  20. Hi Andrea, thank you for stopping by at Polonica: Home Again. I am so glad you found my stories from Poland interesting.
    I have very limited gardening experience (only balcony gardening and some house plants). Love your photos. Gardens, whether real or virtual always bring calmness.

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  21. OH THAT MAKES ME SOOOOOOOOOOOO ANGRY!!! I am so sorry this happened to you. It has happened to many of my favorite bloggers...
    your flower photos are outstanding as usual...no wonder they stole them!!! (:)
    It does my heart good to tour around the gardens that are linked into my little party...I so wish every one of the people who share lived close enough that I could walk the gardens in person. Thank you so much for sharing with me this week...I hope you will again very soon!
    Hugs and smiles from Alberta Canada to you!
    (¯`v´¯)
    `*.¸.*´Glenda/Tootsie
    ¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
    (¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.

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  22. Lovely! They certainly brighten up the surroundings.
    Thanks for commenting on my blogs. Good to know that you have traveled far and wide, including some parts of Sweden. I live here now with my Swedish hubby. It's been hard for him living in the Philippines, so we decided to move here.
    Best regards.

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  23. Hi Mam Andrea! I am too late in reading this post...hehe...I agree with Sir Bom, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I even searched and was able to read your article on Tomatoes! Be Happy!

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  24. Andrea, I shared your link on my Facebook page. Somebody asked about the blood lily.

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Your comments inspire me to post more, and our conversations make life and gardening more meaningful.

However, Anonymous comments and personal back links give me problems, so i don't publish them. Anonymous + back links = SPAM = DELETE

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