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ladyloveandjustice · 3 years

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I got plagiarized! Woo!

Okay, I’m on a family trip at a place without wifi and haven’t been able to get this up, but basically here’s the low down. I received a message from someone telling me that a guy called @fuhrerzakk (yes, I know, yikes) on Twitter had plagiarized my essay and passed it off as my own tweet thread, like, a year ago. Apparently he’d deleted the thread after being caught plagiarizing some OTHER tweet threads (and locked his account shortly after) but they gave me screenshots!

start of the thread! LOOK at all those likes!

and here’s one of the many many screenshots that show that the thread is plagiarized from a possibly too passionate essay I wrote on Winry Rockbell waaaay back in 2013. You can read the whole thing here!

i NEVER pull those numbers on Twitter, and also, 1000 is far beyond the number of likes the original essay got on tumblr! Dang.

Anyway, I contacted the dude with a simple request: please do a tweet admitting that was plagiarism and crediting me. he got back with me very quickly, but has yet to fulfill that request.

I’ll put more details under the cut, but hey. If you’re someone who somehow found this post because you were googling about Zakk or whatever and you liked what “he wrote”, I’ve got a huge backlog of more of the same! I’ve even got a Patreon and Kofi you can look into here! And a writing website here! I’ve been having a tough time for a while now, and I always love feeling like people find something worthwhile in my work. Any support is meaningful.

Now, about my conversation with Zakk:

He responded to me with a very long apology and story of his woe I won’t post here, but I simply made my request again:

Stuff about how he was so sorry again I’ll leave out. I will note the apology he made was clearly not directly to me, since I heard nothing about it, nor did he bother to contact me. I guess a catchall apology to everyone was supposed to be good enough. I made the request again:

After that, radio silence. He never changed the bio or did a tweet. So here I am.

Obviously, don’t harass him. But yeah, I’m not impressed with either his original actions and his lack of follow-through. I’ll leave it at that as my last word on the subject. I just wish my work could get recognized in a more positive way, I guess. What more can I say.

Edit: He’s now credited me and put the link in his bio. I’m fine putting the situation behind me.

#fullmetal alchemist #winry rockbell #plagiarism #fuhrerzakk

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kingofthewilderwest · 3 years

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Hello! I’d just want to ask you a question on when did @/fuhrerzakk ask for your permission on using your Maes Hughes thread?

I am responding publicly only because this is a widespread public matter on Twitter. Multiple people have messaged me about this. I have also been in communication with fuhrerzakk about this. Thanks to everyone who has been talking to me about this. I intend to be kind but factual, but I am here to set the record straight.

Twitter has been going after fuhrerzakk for copy-and-pasting other people's meta without permission or credentials. My Maes Hughes analysis from November 29, 2018 was one of the works taken. You can follow the link, see the material, and see the date my meta was posted. Fuhrerzakk and I have reached an understanding and are on good terms with each other as I speak. I do want to emphasize this: fuhrerzakk and I are on good terms. See more below cut.

I did not give permission to fuhrerzakk to use my Maes Hughes analysis and some of my words were taken out of context earlier this morning to suggest that I had given permission. However, I am not angry at fuhrerzakk. I do not want my words used to pillory fuhrerzakk or hurt them further in any capacity. I do believe in kindness and giving people second chances, and after our private convo, that is what I am doing here.

Below, I will explain what's going on on my end:

Yesterday, Fuhrerzakk sent me both a DM and an anonymous message asking for permission to copy my meta works. Feeling a little leery about a blog that didn't have any material posted, I tried to answer politely but carefully. I made sure to answer the anon message publicly on tumblr for "receipts" in case anything weird popped up with someone taking my writing. That way, everyone would have seen me say, "Don’t use a new post to take my entire analysis, reword it, and put your own insertions into it."

I intended both my conversation with fuhrerzakk in private yesterday, and my posted message, to be good screencappable proof that I was not giving permission for people to copy my analyses.

Of course, my wordiness got the better of me, hahaha. I always try to answer very politely to people, even when I'm feeling uncertain. My answers follow a honey-and-hatchet format. I give kind words to people first to make them feel comfortable before I detail my full perspective. Well, cropping worked against me. That's on me. This morning, fuhrerzakk woke up, saw the storm on Twitter, and hastily defended themselves using a screencap of the first part of our conversation. As you'll notice, it makes it seem like I had given permission for word-per-word repastes.

However, that was not the full conversation. Here is my full response and what I actually said:

Today, I received messages from several helpful people. They told me about my Maes Hughes analysis being on Twitter and so forth. I shared some screencaps of my earlier fuhrerzakk private messages. You may see those screencaps floating around Twitter. I will be adding my own Twitter posts shortly.

Fuhrerzakk also messaged me today admitting they had used my Maes Hughes analysis on Twitter without credits, and apologized profusely and sincerely to me. You can see the first part of their apology below.

We have had a long conversation. A long conversation. In this long conversation, fuhrerzakk and I talked about:

How fuhrerzakk is deleting all tweets that were taken from other people.

How fuhrerzakk used the screencap of our DMed conversation inaccurately but will rectify it. The mislreading screencap has already been deleted and I have verified it's already been deleted.

How fuhrerzakk is drafting a public apology post for Twitter saying all the analysis resposts were wrong, they feel bad, and they're going to change their behavior on social media. They shared the full soon-to-be-public-apology in the DMs to me. It is a good apology that explains but does not justify their mistakes, and shows a desire to make things right. I recommend you guys read it when it comes up, and that you treat an apology with the encouragement it deserves.

How fuhrerzakk LEGITIMATELY FEELS BAD about this.

And more.

While it is true that some people are incredibly deceitful and will use emotional conversations like this as further manipulation, in this case I say: guys, please take fuhrerzakk's word on this. You guys can watch it for yourself. Watch for the public apology post. Watch for the change in behavior before you shout out. Fuhrerzakk intends to change their behavior on Twitter. Give them that chance, and because of that, I don't think that more rumor-spreading, pillorying, hate-speaking, or mocking will do any good.

This is not the first time that human beings have been legitimately harmed because they made mistakes on social media. Over and over again on tumblr and Twitter, I see a call-out culture that loudly turn mistakes public and treat people as enormous "evils" of social media. We all make mistakes. Fuck man, guys, I have some posts from like 2014 where I got yelled at by fandom senpais, and I still think about how much it hurt me. I was a young college student, I had barely been on social media, I didn't know what I had done wrong, and I was scared at their response. I'm sure everyone else has forgotten those posts but me, but hell do I remember them. They hurt baaaaad, and I'm someone who can take a beating compared to lots of people I know.

Think about what you're doing and how much you're hurting someone for an infraction you learned about 5 minutes ago. Think about the human behind it. Think about all the things you might NOT be aware of that'd change how you'd respond. Think about how loud public screaming sessions turn into festivals where people WANT to share drama, WANT to have fun with someone else's mistake, WANT to take pleasure in rooting out "wrongs." It's gross, dudes.

Telling people they did something wrong is fair. Being hard but firm on people who make repeated infractions because they don't care is fair. Talking to people in private first and then maaaaaybe going public if things become repeated issues is fair. But mocking people for enjoyment, playing witch hunt and drama for enjoyment, that is not cool. These sorts of social media takedowns can be extremely psychologically debilitating, and I don't want to see you guys become bullies yourselves in the quest for the elusive "purity" that toxic purity culture has imbued within y'all. People make mistakes. While there are assholes out there, not everyone's an asshole, and I don't like y'all assuming everyone who makes an infraction is an asshole.

Maybe teaching people and giving people kindness is a great way of helping people improve their behavior instead of psychologically damaging them.

Last. If you haven't seen it. A relevant video from someone I've always admired, talking about the toxicity of Twitter's pillory culture:

youtube

#blabbing Haddock #ask #ask me #non-dragons

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