This post is for any threads that you wish to continue on from the prompt post 6 & 7 they are getting long, or discussing off-topic conversation. All meme rules apply.
Debate Threads - Quick IntroductionrosesofnightFebruary 3 2012, 10:33:20 UTC
We've had a request for a friendly discussion/debates to happen on the discussion post and these are always welcome. Feel free to start any friendly debate you feel about a topic!
We've mentioned previously that rules on the discussion post are somewhat more lenient than prompt posts --- particularly where a heated tone on the pp post would normally get more involvement due to trying to keep wank down.
ON the discussion post however, we allow controversial topics and understand the tone could get quite heated. However, there are still a few rules:
- Everyone is allowed an opinion
- Disagree with the idea or opinion and explain why to initiate discussion while understanding that the other person is allowed to have a differing opinion. Don't diss the person you're talking to.
- No character bashing. Discuss the scene in context and explain your opinion based on scenes & actions of the character, not your personal thought of the character.
At the request of a member, I'm going to start the first one off, however feel free to start further debates. If you do, we'd appreciate a comment in the PSCQ post with a link to your thread, so we can pass it onto other mods to keep an eye on the thread.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 3 2012, 10:35:35 UTC
What people consider to be plagiarism? Is it just claiming someone else's words as your own or does it cover people copying your posts and posting them elsewhere without your permission even if they give you credit.
Considering the existence of various memes and other platforms such as Tumblr, which tend to have their own individual etiquettes, this could be quite an interesting topic.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 3 2012, 17:43:33 UTC
Of course taking something someone else wrote and posting it as your own is plagiarism. That's probably something we can all agree on. But I've seen people copying posts or rants from a user's LJ and posting it to a community without the user's knowledge, saying 'this user posted this: text here' and to me, that's at the very least of violation. They could easily post a link to the journal if they need to draw attention to the post so badly(even though they're mostly just using it to bash the user and that's wrong too) but they choose to copy and post the entire thing and it gives the original user to no ability to delete the post, as they could on their own journal.
Or, since we're so fic involved here, people tend to save their favorite fics. I know I have before. If an author removes a story they wrote and you have it saved, it raises some issues if someone else is looking for it. To me, privately sending them the story file seems no different than lending a book but posting the deleted fic, even if you credit the original authors, seems like a violation. When people delete things, they delete them for a reason.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismfearfulltFebruary 4 2012, 10:04:29 UTC
I pretty much agree with that, with one exception - quotations. Copying and pasting sections of something someone has said is not plaigiarism, it's a quotation. Done all the time in academic studies, essays, reports, and plenty of other official-type things that are often widely circulated. The author of those derivative texts has no say over whether or not those pieces of their own work are used.
(Obviously this is different if we're talking about bullying or making fun of other people, but I'm just talking about the hypothetical act of copying part of someone's post and reposting it with credit. It's not always an act of derision.)
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 4 2012, 18:06:04 UTC
I'm not talking about quotations to be used academically. I'm talking about things you might post in your personal journal or blog that people copy and paste elsewhere without your knowledge so if you delete your blog, your comments are still out there without you knowing. The person could easily just post the link to your blog if they need to share the comment so much. Nothing that any of us posts is so important that it'll be a huge deal if the post got deleted, there's no need to copy and paste it somewhere else. If you delete something, there's a reason why you did and that should be respected. It's not plagiarism to post something saying: this person wrote this (text here) but to me, it does seem wrong not to respect the person's decision to delete a post or fic.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismfearfulltFebruary 5 2012, 00:07:12 UTC
Devil's advocating.
Generally speaking if someone deletes something from LJ it's because they're embarrassed by it, or they've realised they can make a profit from it, or they're pulling a "leaving forever".
Being embarrassed by something does not automatically mean that everyone should stop talking about it - people in real life deal with this all the time. It's a learning experience for most people, and more often than not (again, assuming its intent was not to bully) it's not actually something that will affect anyone's life unless they choose to let it. And if it does happen to affect their life outside LJ (ie; opinions that may cost them a job, incriminating photos) then what makes anyone think they wouldn't have fallen into that trap elsewhere in their lives?
In my experience when someone deletes something under the 'profit' heading it's because they want to convert it into a book. Now, that's where the private sharing of files and ebooks comes into it. Because we can do that to anyone's books. We can also quote from anyone's books. I would assume that an announcement would go out letting everyone who has archived the story/whatever that the works should be taken down. That's fine, that's what they should do. But it's not exactly plagiarism to copy and paste small sections of someone's published writings unless you claim it's your own.
And finally, the leaving forever type of deleting... In my opinion if you're leaving forever to move on to greener pastures/more mature passtimes/whatever, then why should you care if people are sharing your works when you're gone? Assuming they don't fall under either of the above categories and assuming that your old username is still credited, what problem could you possibly have? You're gone. You're not reading any comments about your work anymore, be they on your journal, someone else's, or a community. Even if they're making fun of you, how would you know unless you deliberately searched to find out? Having done this one myself I can honestly say that I don't give a rats if people share my words from those old places.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 5 2012, 02:07:15 UTC
Slight side-convo. Cassandra Claire (AKA Cassandra Clare) pulled all her fanfic when she got published, but if you look around, you can still find The Very Secret Diaries and The Draco Trilogy hosted by 3rd parties. Some people will send you her fic if you ask. She took it down, but you can still find it of you look.
She's a good one to mention when talking about plagiarism. Google "plagiarism wank" and you should find the fanhistory report of her issues on the subject. A lot of the wank came from her quoting things in her fic without sourcing them. People were seriously pissed.
Quotations aren't plagiarism IF you credit the source. If you quote something and don't credit it, it's plagiarism, plain and simple.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 6 2012, 06:43:44 UTC
I had no idea Cassandra Clare wrote fanfic. That's kind of cool. The only stuff I ever read from her was short stories in anthologies but her books are somewhere on my overflooded bookshelf, bought solely because of pretty covers.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 6 2012, 06:55:53 UTC
She wrote primarily in the HP & LotR fandoms. She inspired and was involved in some pretty epic wank. She was one of those BNFs who divide the fandom. Because either worshiped at her feet, or they hated her with a passion.
Anyway, she's been accused of plagiarism several times and there was a massive amount of wank over it.
I haven't read any of her published work, but I never really liked her Draco Trilogy anyway. The Very Secret Diaries made me giggle, though.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 6 2012, 07:00:27 UTC
BNF?
I'm reading the wank from your suggestion to google it. Wow.
From what I've heard of her published stuff, it seems to be the same way. People either love it or hate it, I've yet to meet someone who says they're 'alright' or 'decent'. I know they're being made into movies, but that's almost every YA series these days.
Re: Debate: PlagiarismrosesofnightFebruary 6 2012, 15:10:33 UTC
Big Name Fan. A member of fandom who makes a name for themselves so big that the whole fandom knows about them, and they bring attention to the fandom from outside.
Now he's a celebrity in his own right, but before he got on Glee, Darren was a BNF.
Debate Thread: BDSM vs FeminismrosesofnightMarch 22 2012, 23:30:17 UTC
So I've just finished reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey' which pretty much blew my mind with the slow progression of getting into a bdsm relationship. Reading some people's comments about it though, there seems to be a lot(too many) people who think that women who enjoy being submissive are somehow less worthy than a woman who doesn't and that a female sub is harmful to the feminist movement. Thoughts?
Debate Threads - ConCritrosesofnightMay 8 2012, 17:56:14 UTC
What's your opinion on construction criticism? And if a person says no concrit welcome, are you less likely to read or review or comment on their post than if they accept concrit?
Personally, I don't think you can become better without concrit but I think people need to take a step back to think about what's actually concrit and what's their personal opinion before they post. I'm all for concrit but when it starts being more 'I don't like this because Rachel/Will/Blaine/etc would never act this way' it leaves concrit and becomes their personal opinion on the characters and it's pretty useless to an author who doesn't share that opinion.
If someone says that concrit will be ignore(I've seen this on a few blogs but not on fics) I don't comment at all and I usually don't read it. Flames should be ignored but concrit is meant to help.
We've mentioned previously that rules on the discussion post are somewhat more lenient than prompt posts --- particularly where a heated tone on the pp post would normally get more involvement due to trying to keep wank down.
ON the discussion post however, we allow controversial topics and understand the tone could get quite heated. However, there are still a few rules:
- Everyone is allowed an opinion
- Disagree with the idea or opinion and explain why to initiate discussion while understanding that the other person is allowed to have a differing opinion. Don't diss the person you're talking to.
- No character bashing. Discuss the scene in context and explain your opinion based on scenes & actions of the character, not your personal thought of the character.
A recent example of that is the Finn/Santana discussion thread which people still expressed their opinions, but were civil.
At the request of a member, I'm going to start the first one off, however feel free to start further debates. If you do, we'd appreciate a comment in the PSCQ post with a link to your thread, so we can pass it onto other mods to keep an eye on the thread.
Reply
Considering the existence of various memes and other platforms such as Tumblr, which tend to have their own individual etiquettes, this could be quite an interesting topic.
Reply
Or, since we're so fic involved here, people tend to save their favorite fics. I know I have before. If an author removes a story they wrote and you have it saved, it raises some issues if someone else is looking for it. To me, privately sending them the story file seems no different than lending a book but posting the deleted fic, even if you credit the original authors, seems like a violation. When people delete things, they delete them for a reason.
Reply
(Obviously this is different if we're talking about bullying or making fun of other people, but I'm just talking about the hypothetical act of copying part of someone's post and reposting it with credit. It's not always an act of derision.)
Reply
Reply
Generally speaking if someone deletes something from LJ it's because they're embarrassed by it, or they've realised they can make a profit from it, or they're pulling a "leaving forever".
Being embarrassed by something does not automatically mean that everyone should stop talking about it - people in real life deal with this all the time. It's a learning experience for most people, and more often than not (again, assuming its intent was not to bully) it's not actually something that will affect anyone's life unless they choose to let it. And if it does happen to affect their life outside LJ (ie; opinions that may cost them a job, incriminating photos) then what makes anyone think they wouldn't have fallen into that trap elsewhere in their lives?
In my experience when someone deletes something under the 'profit' heading it's because they want to convert it into a book. Now, that's where the private sharing of files and ebooks comes into it. Because we can do that to anyone's books. We can also quote from anyone's books. I would assume that an announcement would go out letting everyone who has archived the story/whatever that the works should be taken down. That's fine, that's what they should do. But it's not exactly plagiarism to copy and paste small sections of someone's published writings unless you claim it's your own.
And finally, the leaving forever type of deleting... In my opinion if you're leaving forever to move on to greener pastures/more mature passtimes/whatever, then why should you care if people are sharing your works when you're gone? Assuming they don't fall under either of the above categories and assuming that your old username is still credited, what problem could you possibly have? You're gone. You're not reading any comments about your work anymore, be they on your journal, someone else's, or a community. Even if they're making fun of you, how would you know unless you deliberately searched to find out? Having done this one myself I can honestly say that I don't give a rats if people share my words from those old places.
Reply
She's a good one to mention when talking about plagiarism. Google "plagiarism wank" and you should find the fanhistory report of her issues on the subject. A lot of the wank came from her quoting things in her fic without sourcing them. People were seriously pissed.
Quotations aren't plagiarism IF you credit the source. If you quote something and don't credit it, it's plagiarism, plain and simple.
Reply
Reply
Anyway, she's been accused of plagiarism several times and there was a massive amount of wank over it.
I haven't read any of her published work, but I never really liked her Draco Trilogy anyway. The Very Secret Diaries made me giggle, though.
Reply
I'm reading the wank from your suggestion to google it. Wow.
From what I've heard of her published stuff, it seems to be the same way. People either love it or hate it, I've yet to meet someone who says they're 'alright' or 'decent'. I know they're being made into movies, but that's almost every YA series these days.
Reply
Now he's a celebrity in his own right, but before he got on Glee, Darren was a BNF.
Reply
Holy crap, that's insane.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Personally, I don't think you can become better without concrit but I think people need to take a step back to think about what's actually concrit and what's their personal opinion before they post. I'm all for concrit but when it starts being more 'I don't like this because Rachel/Will/Blaine/etc would never act this way' it leaves concrit and becomes their personal opinion on the characters and it's pretty useless to an author who doesn't share that opinion.
If someone says that concrit will be ignore(I've seen this on a few blogs but not on fics) I don't comment at all and I usually don't read it. Flames should be ignored but concrit is meant to help.
Reply
Leave a comment