Plagiarism in Bloodclaim: the Verdict is Guilty

[darkhavens]

spikes_kogagirl, now an ex-member of bloodclaim, has been added to the list of known plagiarists over at stop_plagiarism for plagiarising a Spander classic, Twilight Time, by Shadow. Tweaked chunks of Shadow's story turned up in spikes_kogagirl's two chapter Spander fic, 'Mending Souls' which was removed from her journal shortly after I contacted her.

Comments

[tabaqui]

You're a good mod. Thanks for the update.
*hugs*

[darkhavens]

Thank you. *hugs*

[sciencegeek]

Thanks for the update. I have been stalking covertly watching s_p, and was kind of worried with the lack of update - is the post going to stay locked or go public, do you know?

As well, I kind of laugh when I see comment on plagiarism that basically says "I didn't know I was doing it!", because uh, in real life? People, don't really care if you mean to or not, just if you did it. I actually had a elementary school teacher that was nearly kicked out of university for accidentally plagiarizing. And this was back in the day before they had computers to help out on this (although in retrospect, I do kind of wonder how accidental it was, but I don't know all the details, it could have been a newly published paper that she didn't have access to when doing the bulk of the writing, I have no idea)

[darkhavens]

I wondered if the f-lock was something to do with the posting problems the mod was having, so I have left a comment asking. It could just be unintentional, it wouldn't be the first time someone's accidentally locked a community post. (It happens here often enough! *g*)

The 'I didn't know I was doing it' defence is... weak, at best, and cannot possibly apply to anything more than a random sentence or two. And you're completely right, it doesn't matter, because the offence was still committed.

For some reason, that's... just not getting through. (Still!)

[sciencegeek]

Well, I'm not sure if it's just throwing her hands up and saying "Ok fine I did it" and hoping it will go away or not, but on the s_p page, it appears there was an edit indicating that the person in question came clean. Or "no longer denies the claims", which at 6 am means the same thing in my brain.

[darkhavens]

I woke up to a PM from the s_p mod letting me know that the post had been unlocked, clarified and ETA'd. All things considered, I think 'no longer denies the accusation' is as close as we're going to get to a mea culpa. Which really isn't that close at all, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Here's hoping this is the end of it.

[shakatany]

The sheer idiocy of the guilty party thinking she could get away with it is astounding. TT is a classic Spander story, one I rec to newbies and is so well known it would be like trying to pass off a copy of the Mona Lisa as one's own. I'm glad it is all over - you handled it well doing everything in a proper way.

Shakatany

[darkhavens]

What a wonderfully appropriate icon. *g*

Thank you. She's still claiming it was totally unintentional and that I should have let her change it and make it all go away without 'dragging it out' like this.

She also believes the s_p mod thinks it was unintentional. Personally, I just think the mod worded her resolution awkwardly. *sighs*

[shakatany]

Unintentional... what she means it was unitentional on her part that she was found out.

I admit that I went over to her LJ and the new comm and saw that ironically she has links to s_p all over.

I note she's a member of the young generation who has grown up with google and copy&pasting who tragically don't seem to get what's wrong with what they're doing. And even worse it's not just kids - see here.

I think I can say for most of us that Bloodclaim will always be our source for Spander.

Shakatany

[darkhavens]

Oh, yes, she is a huge an of s_p. Or she was. She even c&ped a big chunk of their profile's definition of plagiarism into a PM to me. She seemed to think it proved her innocence...

I just followed that link and I am appalled. What happened to ethics, morals, commons sense and courtesy? *weeps*

Thank you for your kind words.

[mysticdreamer32]

I will never understand why people do this kind of thing, what do they get out of it? Not a lot in my opinion..it doesn't help their writing or image. I also don't understand why they tend to to go for their fandom's most popular stories, do they honestly think we wont notice eventually. I think i understand why she made her own comm now. It's I really liked her stuff (or what i thought was her stuff,) it seem her stuff was getting better all the time. But now I'm wondering if any of it was hers at all.

thank you for the info.

[darkhavens]

I will never understand it either. Maybe it's a special skill. ;)

I haven't looked at more than a couple of her other pieces, but I saw nothing suspect in those I did skim. I'm sure that all of her work will come under increased scrutiny now, both past and present, and if anything is found, it will be brought out into the open, but it's entirely possible that this is the only instance of plagiarism.

I'm not sure why she seems to think only doing it once is any better than doing it repeatedly, but she does. :/

[emelye_miller]

Again, thank you for your integrity and the update.

[darkhavens]

Thank you.

I've been as open as I can be about providing access to the evidence, barring the most recent emails, which would add nothing of value to the case (entertainment, possibly, but no value).

I hope this draws a line under it and makes every potential plagiarist out there think twice.