Subject: No bad words,
Author:
Posted on: 2008-08-11 09:43:00 UTC
since FFN won't let me, but I did explain the reason for the note (I posted the fic on a different FFN account first) and the fact that, shock horror, I have an LJ where I also store some of my writing.
It'll be interesting to see how he responds. I also got more of the copy-paste thank you messages for the review I left on 'Arbeit Macht Frei'.
There's a lowlife on FFN who has been posting plagiarized stories by other people as his own. At least one is from someone I know, who is NOT happy about this. This story is from a story in German on FFN.
His profile is interesting in other ways, too, most notably for the threats he makes against anyone who calls him on his plagiarism. I got a real laugh out of him saying "...I will ensure that you never return to this site again" like he's some kind of FFN authority. If the FFN staff finds out about him (and actually shows more signs of life than the average brick) he'll be banz0red so hard his head will spin.
His account is a glowing crater. Cake for everyone!
(Sorry about the beak holes in the cake; the plover thought there might be some small, tasty crustaceans hiding in it or something)
He just lost a good portion of his fics, including the two that I reviewed/flamed. Let's see what happens to the last nineteen.
See if we can goad him into taking one of our stories. Or at least, what he THINKS are our stories *Rubs hands together and laughs darkly*
But seriously, I'm gonna try. I'll track down one of my online friends and see if we can tag-team this guy. I'll get bakc to everyone with the results.
Baiting and switching is NOT cool.
Even if he is a plagiarizing jerk, it does NOT mean that ANYONE has the right to troll him.
Cos.
Y'know.
Trolling is bad.
Also, I'd be really disappointed that another PPCer would think of doing something like this and try to carry it out.
But I have to agree it's not nice. i do have a sore spot against people who take other people's stories, and then act like they're the ones who've been wronged. Bad experiences in the past is all I'm gonna say.
Plus, there's just something about this guy that offends every one of my morals. It bugs me, but since WC has reported that he's taken twelve stories down, I'll knock my impulsive side out and let it listen to the reasonable one.
*Sighs* Am I still allowed to throw pebbles? Me and Sedri were having such a lovely game.
He's deliberately trying to hurt people.
For example, after Kittenmommy decided to have anything further to do with his CC (quietly, by PM) he first insulted and threatened her, then retaliated by posting reviews on a bunch of her stories accusing her of plagiarism and worse. He's done something similar to Roadstergal. Have you read his profile? He threatens people, he tries to intimidate people, and he's way beyond jerk and well into full-blown psychopath.
Not that I'm advocating any action against him aside from reporting his plagiarism to FFN Abuse, each and every time, mind you. 12 fics came down today; it's working. But it's not a case of "Even if he is a plagiarizing jerk" or any kind of "if" -- it's a case of "He definitely is a griefer out to upset and hurt writers" and if people want to play his game by his own rules, I can certainly understand where they're coming from.
I suppose I have a trace of the griefer spirit myself, since it gives me a certain pleasure to imagine him grinding his teeth in frustration at the fact that he can't find any of my fanfic to attack in retaliation for my outing him. :)
I just got this review from him, on the story I have on my reviewing account (I keep it there so fanbrats can't go 'don't criticise me when you haven't written anything').
"THIS IS NOT STOLEN"? Then why is it that this story was copied word for word
from another website? Did you even notify the author in question of what you
were doing? I think not. If you must borrow another story for your own
purposes, whatever they may be, you at least should notify the original author
of your borrowing. Otherwise, it is just theft. I will be reporting you for
plagiarism.
He's accusing me of plagiarism, on a story that I have on FFN and on LJ.
Give us a link to the story in question? I still have enough left of my mind to give him a piece of it.
... because you have the same story in two different places? Do tell me you're replying and explaining, and also telling him what a [long string of naughty bad words] he is?
since FFN won't let me, but I did explain the reason for the note (I posted the fic on a different FFN account first) and the fact that, shock horror, I have an LJ where I also store some of my writing.
It'll be interesting to see how he responds. I also got more of the copy-paste thank you messages for the review I left on 'Arbeit Macht Frei'.
It's actually quite sad, considering he shows an iota of skill in writing - his "warning to the unimaginative" is particularly funny, though I wonder if he copy-pasted that.
I also find the fact that he copy-pasted this into his profile amusing - "98 percent of teenagers do or have tried smoking pot. If you're one of the 2 percent who hasn't, copy & paste this in your profile."
I think he's lying.
Also, anyone notice at the end of one of the copy-pasters - "Ninety-five percent of the kids out there are concerned with being popular and fitting in. If you're part of the five percent that aren't, copy this, put it in you profile, and add your name to the list. AnimeKittyCafe, Hyperactivley Bored, Gem W, Bara-Minamino, Tsuyu Mikazuki, Weasel Chick, Revenant666, dragonsroar, foxdude33, FallenLex, Soelle, Happychica, nwfairy, SciFOXcraft279, Arem, Lee Pyro, LovinaHolmes, Ansela Jonla"
Who's that name at the end of the copy-paste? Why, it looks like our very own Ansela! You'd better check your profile, Ansela, looks like he's pillaging from the PPC...
That wasn't there when I reviewed him. All of those copy-paste ones are from my reviewing account, as well as the 'Thoughts To Think About'. I'll keep an eye out to make sure he doesn't get the one fanfic on that account.
Although, if he does take my Naruto fic and change the names on it, I'll definitely have proof that he's plagiarising.
I wasn't all that nice about it either. Refrained from cursing, since it doesn't do much good on FFN, but still wasn't nice.
This was the reply I got back, via Review Reply and PM
Thank you for your kind and helpful review. It is much appreciated and I
will
use it to improve my writing in the future..
I don't think this guy lives on the same planet as the rest of us. Even Suethors don't respond this way to honest concrit.
... Nah. *gazes up towards The Cloud of Arrogance* Yep, he's there.
Yep, sure, that makes sense. And is perfectly legal as well. (note sarcasm)
Seriously, does he honestly think he can do that? And that's a bit of an extreme response to comments...how exactly is he planning to retaliate, anyway?
Is that first, he says he will not respond to accusations of plagiarism, then he goes on to explain how he will retaliate. Retaliation is a form of response, genius.
"Theory on literature" indeed. Gag me with a spoon.
I wonder if he takes stories from people who leave reviews. Cleo-Alektryon left a review on "The Cannibal Flame," which was published a day before "Draco Malfoy and the Shadowed Fate."
~Neshomeh
He's claiming FENIMORE COOPER'S LITERARY OFFENSES as his own?
Sidious back, post DE? +++ Eternal Domain Error. +++
LUKE/LEIA!? R2/HAN!? +++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot. +++
Sorry, just finished reading his profile. He says he can have a 4,000 Word document returned, beta-read, in under three days.
So, what's our average turn-over rate for the PPC? My last chapter (Robecca) was nearly 8,500 words, and Cassie and Inkling had it return, beta-read in under a day.
As in, I get paid for it. Not enough to support myself, as I'm a Poor Student who has uni work to do, but never mind... Who ever said that nothing useful will come out of internet hoobies? I found my career! Anyway...
I really don't like taking jobs where I'm paid by the hour because every different document will take different lengths of time no matter what the word count. Even the simplest document will be read three or more times.
Which isn't to say I can't be fast; I can. Often my first return for anything under ten thousand words will come within a day. If the author needs to make detailed changes in any section, we'll discuss that.
However, as much as I don't want to agree with this guy, I wouldn't say three days is a bad thing if you want to do it right - particularly if you have a life, too. I can beta-read very fast, but I hesitate to make any promises, as something could suddenly come up and delay me for quite a while. Most people would understand, but I hate to let anyone down.
- Sedri, who doesn't call herself an expert (yet)
Don't think I'm defending this creep, but speed does not in and of itself make a good beta. If I take on beta work, I expect to read through it at least twice before sending it back to the author, and then I usually have questions for them to address in addition to basic corrections. That means another read-through after they've answered my questions with fixes; rinse and repeat if I'm still not satisfied. It takes time.
That's why I don't really do beta-reading these days. I don't have that kind of time during the school year.
~Neshomeh, who plans to do this sort of thing for a living.
A good beta has it back in a day. Less, if they're online when you send it. Chatvert had my massive twelve-page mission read in a day, and my Harry Potter beta has never taken longer than a day or two.
So, I'm able to read quite a long document (not sure how many words, I hardly ever use Wordcount) in a matter of hours - possibly even minutes - and finish betaing in maybe three hours? That is, of course, once I get around to it. But three days is appallingly slow to beta, even if it's sitting on your desktop for two of those days.
Now, should I post a mean little review in every story about stealing stories? It is oh so tempting...
But for now, I'll simply throw the pebbles Cassie gave me at him. Fifty Points if you can get him on the nose!
*grabs pebbles* The Hit Myrtle competition has nothing on this...
... or are his rules for writing pinched blatantly from Mark Twain's 'The Literary Offences of Fenimore-Cooper?'
Fail.
They're pinched second-hand from Mark Twain. More directly, they're pinched from me.
I did a bit of googling, and it seems there's only one place Twain's rules are listed in exactly that format: my FFN profile. Note: I just made a small change in my version, so they don't match exactly anymore.
So, counting me, that's at least three people I know he's ripped something off from, and none of them, to my knowledge, permitted it.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits. Better yet, may the viruses of a thousand lamers infest his computer.
There are no words for this situation. Really.
I might have to do a bit of research, see if I can turn up any very similar stories. After all, he as good as says that he's been copy-pasting... wonder if permission was asked for this "research." Probably not.
I like how he puts the words 'theft' and 'plagiarism' in quotes.
Also, 'libel' doesn't go plural like that, as far as I know.
...my brain wants to go curl up and die in a corner now.
Actually, they don't say they copy-paste stories. They say they adapt them using certain tools and methods but keeping the core of the story. Keeping the core of the story sounds to me like: taking the plot and rewriting the whole thing.
I can't judge on whether they did that as they don't quote source. Proper research requires you to give others enough information so they can replicate your experiment. In this case that would mean acknowledging where the core of the story came from.
That, and the fact that half the profile is made up of copy-paste statistics make it that I do not take this person seriously. Though I find the first paragraph very intriguing and would really like to see some research like that.
I tracked down a bunch of the original stories and linked some of them in my reviews. He just did a search and replace on character names. He didn't even proofread them afterwards. In one story, where a Kim Possible story was turned into a Star Trek:TOS story, he replaced "Ron" with "Spock", which led to "drones" becoming "dSpockes".
There's no science here. This guy is just trying to be an asshat. He's succeeding.