Discussion Lost in a Good Fic -- The Well of Lost Plots Social Thread

Heads up! There's a massive case of plagerism unfolding on FF.net, all around one user. At last check at least 130 of their fics had been found to have been plagerised, out of what had originally been 191 stories (they've been deleting fics and now her total upon their page is 133). Most of them with explicit sexual content.

Link - Might want to have something soft around for when your jaw hits the floor.

And thanks to this plagerist, I've also learned that Bugs Bunny/Daffey Duck slash fic does indeed exist.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, Juliet!

Mira. I wasn't really in love with the first book; it was just okay (read it years ago). I'm willing to give it another go (mostly because of the TV show ).

 

Juliet316 - woaaah, crazy. So so crazy.

As much as I want to say that I don't understand why people plagiarize, I think I do get it, in terms of fan fic writers. Fan fic is one of the few things that can give you instant gratification. You post, and usually you immediately have someone congratulating you, or applauding, or leaving a smile. Because it's so easy to share your work, it's also really easy to get comments that uplift your spirit and make you feel like you are a good writer.

Some people just want to feel the benefits of posting fan fic without doing the work. And so they plagiarize. And now, that I don't understand. There's no point on getting congratulated for something you didn't write, since you didn't put in the work. There's no pay-off, because you didn't do the work.

Mira_Jade - I am always up for a writing challenge that involves winning colours. Because I like to do this to Nat (sorry, Nat, here's some sunglasses , I thought I needed to demonstrate what solar power is so people aren't confused ) and I also like writing challenges.

NYCitygurl - Mira and I have a loooong PM conversation going about GOT and ASoIaF. She's not kidding when she's talking about my powers that be.

I recently started watching Merlin. I watched the first episode a long time ago and never got into it, but I decided to continue plowing through. It's fun. Campy, but fun, and very heart-warming. It reminds me of the first couple seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, actually. That being said, I know the show has been out for a while and just finished last December, so if anyone here has seen it, please don't spoil me.

 

As a past victim of plagiarism myself (the thief didn't even bother changing the words or the title!), I really really don't understand it. If you (general you) have the energy to steal from somebody else's hard work (and even the bad!fics out there, at least somebody's actually gone to the effort to put their ideas on paper/screen), then you have the energy to actually think up ideas and put them out there yourself.

 

One of my best friends and I have conversations about it because she loves GoT. I just ... didn't as much

Aaaah, my eyes!

Also, Merlin is great! And it gets better as it goes on (haven't seen the last season though).

I agree; no excuse for plagarism. I agree with Idri about why people do it, but no excuse.

 

Nat, what are you complaining about, I gave you sunglasses!

I have a feeling that Merlin is going to get better as it goes along. It just feels like one of those shows - it uses it's first season to really find it's feet and then it takes off. Buffy was like that, IMO. Supernatural, too.

There's definitely no excuse for plagiarism. I definitely think there are people out there who want the glory without doing any of the work, which is why it happens. I'm sorry to hear that you've been a victim of it, Juliet. As far as I know, I've been lucky to escape it. I don't think anyone has copied from my work in fan fic, or if they have, I've never been notified about it.

There was an incident where a friend in my theatre history class made me feel very uncomfortable when I was in the third year of my degree. I had written an essay that won me a 90% (which never happens in that department - getting a 90% is like winning a gold medal at the Olympics and it's also extremely rare, I was the only person who did it that year) for the major essay. I was in the half of the class that had the major essay due first term (the other half were working on their performative projects - we then switched roles during second term). I wrote about a genderbended version of Hamlet and researched ways of bringing film onstage. I had costume designs drawn, drew floorplans for the stage, the whole nine yards. My friend asked me if she could read my essay after I got my grade back. The next term, my friend wrote her essay on a genderbended version of Medea. She asked me to proofread her essay, which I did - and in doing so, I realized that her thesis was practically the same as mine, her floorplans were identical save for a few minor differences, and the only thing that separated the two ideas was that I had used Hamlet and she had used Medea.

I knew it was accidental plagiarism. She had put a lot of work into research for that essay, but she also admitted to being really inspired by my idea. I was a little ticked off at first (especially since our stageplans were so similar, especially in how they worked in film and visual media), but I calmly talked to her about it. She hadn't realized that she had accidentally taken some of the ideas she saw in my essay and used them in hers. I was also worried about her getting pinned by the university's plagiarism police (which looks really bad on your academic resume if they find you guilty of it), so I made a very clear case about the similarities between our essays and she immediately said that she would credit me in her essay.

It was a weird case. I obviously don't own the idea of genderbending popular theatre canon texts, but I was the first one to think of it in our class and bring it up in class, and my friend's essay and mine were uncomfortably similar. We were also having a rocky relationship at the time, so... yeah. Overall, that situation sucked.

 

I try not to think too hard on it these days, because if I do, some of the anger comes creeping back, and it's not worth the upset in the end. It's over, done and the guy took down the stories he stole and quit after getting dogpiled about it (the fact that he stole from a few of the bigger name authors in the fandom definitely didn't help him).

That sucks about the essay. It may have been better if she had tried to rewrite the essay to make it different, but it's good that she at least credited you.

 

It does get much better after the first season. Heck, it gets better halfway through the first season, too I need to watch Supernatural--I think that's next after I finish Psych and Parks and Rec.

Juliet--what's nice about fanfic communities is that people do come down so hard on plagerizers that it's often stopped.

Idri--yeesh, that sucks. What a messy situation Glad it was resolved--though, like Juliet said, maybe she should have just revised her floor plans

 

Yeah... I made a few comments about it, but in the end gave up. We were both using the same stage in our floorplans and there's only so much you can do if you want to include massive TV screens on an oddly-shaped thrust stage that only has one vom and limited entrances/exits.

I'm starting to really enjoy it. I just finished an episode where they introduced a certain character without naming him and throughout the entire thing, I was thinking, "I bet he's Mordred, I bet he's Mordred, please let him me Mordred. Oh look, he is Mordred." The fun thing about this show is that it puts unique twists on the traditional Arthurian legends. None of the main characters start out where you expect them to be, so if you know the myths and legends, you're left guessing as to how things will turn out, which makes it so much more fun.

Student teachers always seem to be hit and miss. Which is sad, because I know so many of them. The university I studied at has one of the largest concurrent education programmes in Canada (con-ed is a five-year programme where you do your teaching degree along with your bachelor's degree, so you do placements throughout all five years, giving you much more practical in-class experience than the normal route of Bachelor's first, teacher's college second). As such, most of my friends from school went through con-ed and they are all fantastic teachers. Their students love them, to the point where some of them had students liking them more than the actual teachers. I guess because I know so many amazing people who are or have been student teachers, it baffles me that there are student teachers out there who just don't think. Like the one who accused you of plagiarism for ridiculous reasons, Mira.

And buying an essay online in highschool? Come on, high school essay writing was a joke. And why is it such a big accomplishment to brag about getting away with plagiarism?

 

NYCitygurl - yeah, that is the best thing about the fanfic community overall. No matter where you come in the spectrum of fanfic, if there's a thief in the midst of it, fanficcers come together and smack the thief down hard.

Mira_Jade, sheesh. I had some crappy teachers in school, but never that bad. I'm glad you won the fight, but yeah, that had to be a horrible experience to go through.

 

Jeez, that really sucks, Mira! And yeah, buying an essay isn't something I'd be bragging about ...

 

Spoiler

The thing I didn't like was that the potentially awesome Merlin/Morgana subplot that they hinted at for a few seconds. They would have been so good, hiding their magic together! And that one decision Merlin made by not telling her what he knew and offering his frienship--even though he was trying to protect her from Uther--basically cost Morgana goodness. With Merlin's support, she could have withstood her sister and waited for Arthur to be ready.

I mean, I know she's the bad guy, but I loved her when she was good

And for those of you who like words (which is ALL of you ) Idri's running Scattergories! Come play!

 

Like the boyfriend says... no I will get into yet another show. Supernatual and Doctor Who and Falling Skies have injured my soul enough. And GoT. But I haven't watch the third season yet. And the books are next on my list.

 

That's what I said after I got addicted to Doctor Who... and yet, I keep ending up getting my heart ripped out and stomped on by the Walking Dead.

 

Nat, I agree with the thing you said in the spoilers. I thought they were going to do something with that hinted subplot, too.

I have officially squandered an entire week and finished marathoning Merlin. I have no regrets about that, but my dad just informed me that he just upgraded our bandwidth because he thought I was going to go overboard. Oopsie...

In regards to finishing the series - the show is great. Really enjoyed it and there was a lot of refreshing, unique stuff in terms of adaptation. Series 2 and 3 are probably the strongest. Series 4 and 5 are quite dark (Series 5 especially, but it is completely understandable considering what part of the mythology that series gets into) and there are some questionable characterization and plot points. Just finished the finale and my heart feels like it has been stomped on. Which always happens whenever I watch or read something adapted from or inspired by Arthurian legends, so I should know better, but still.

 

RIP James Gandolfini AKA Tony Soprano
RIP Vince Flynn

 

Vince Flynn made me sad. I've read all his books and he was so good at tearing at your heartstrings! I'm sad I won't get anymore Mitch Rapp.

And same with Gandolfini. He was such a great actor and person. Soooo these things comes in three's...

 

Would the likely death of Paula Deen's TV empire because of being exposed as a racist count as the third?

 

Idri--Gah! I MUST finish the fifth season! Also, I want to be best friends with Colin Morgan and Bradley James. They look like they have so much fun

I mean, I love Paula Deen, but that word isn't cool.

 

I've maybe seen snippets at best of Merlin in passing, but I know the general gist from elsewhere. Maybe I'll give watching whole episodes a try while waiting for the DW 50th special and The Walking Dead to come back.

Food Network's dropping Deen (i.e. not renewing her contract that expires next month), and QVC and Wal-Mart look to be following suit.

 

Yay! You should totally give it a shot. But commit to several episodes; the first few are a bit cheesy.

Not at all surprised about that. They didn't really have another choice. I would not at all be surprised to see QVC and Wal-Mart do the same.

 

I'll ee about giving it a shot.

Smithfield foods dropped her today and that's a major endorsement for her.

Unfortunately her fans are leaving vile messages on Food Network's facebook page and website.