ApolloImperium Posted October 23, 2010 Report Posted October 23, 2010 Status Updates from Apollo TOS Review - Plagiarism Due to a recent uptick in plagiarism found on the site the Admin and Moderator Staff feel it necessary to revisit the topic and ensure everyone understands what constitutes plagiarism. The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as "the wrongful appropriation or purloining and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas… of another" while the Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines it as "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." How does this relate to Fan Fiction and AFF? As I said earlier, we have seen an increase in the amount of plagiarism that our sweep team finds while going through the Archive. This can constitute as anything from the traditional copy and paste that most people think of when we discuss plagiarism to writing an unauthorized sequel. Here is a list of things that AFF considers plagiarism as well as how we handle it: Direct copy and paste from another author's story: This also includes wishing that a person posted to AFF and putting up their story on AFF. Even if you put up a disclaimer such as, "This is so &so's fiction. They don't post here, so I'm gonna post it for them," it is still plagiarism. If we find that you have directly copy and pasted someone's story, you will be added to AFF's Hall of Shame. No questions asked. We will put you out there for all the world to see you as the thief that you are. We will also ensure that the administrators and moderators of other archives that we work with have your information so that they can make sure that you aren't in their archive as well. Cobble-Fic, or taking bits and pieces from other people's stories and publishing it as your own: If we find one and have enough evidence indicating that the user has stolen from other authors, the offending author is deleted from the archive and is never welcome to return. Continuation of a story with out permission from the original author or a sequel of a story with out permission from the original author: This is also includes taking over a 'abandoned' story. Even if the author hasn't touched the story in years, continuing the story without permission is considered plagiarism. We hide the continuation or sequel and send an email to both the original author and and the one doing the other story to ensure that it is authorized. If it is authorized, the story is unhidden. If it is not authorized, the story will be deleted. If it continues, we will delete the author. No citations of quoted works such as songs, poems, novels, etc: The author is emailed and left a review on the review board since some authors are ignoring the email and given 1 week to correctly cite the items. If the author does not fix it with in 1 week, we will hide the story and the author will have 30 days to correct it. If after 30 days it is still not fixed, the story will be deleted. Plagiarism is very serious and we treat it as such. If you want your account to remain active, just don't do it. When in doubt,either don't do it, cite it, or contact the original author. If you are still in doubt, feel free to contact us and we will help make the determination. On a positive note, our staff is also always on the look out to ensure that your works aren't posted else where without your permission! To give an example - Our staff recently found a site that with out the owners knowledge had some of our Author's work posted with out their permission. The owner and I worked together to ensure that the stories were removed and everyone walked away happy! As I said, we are very serious about plagiarism and it does work both ways. Art for a 2011 AFF Calendar Contest So far 20 people have downloaded the template for the 2011 AFF Calendar Art Contest! There are two weeks left before entries are due, so there is still time! You can visit this topic for all the important details! Dribs, Drabs and Doggy Tales! Thank you to everyone who responded to our very second prompt, "Witch!" We have 7 responses so far this week! Don't forget that the topic doesn't close until 11:59pm tonight, so there is still time to get in an entry. For everyone that has participated, we will be sending you the badge for this week that you can display where you so choose! If you've read the entries, please don't forget to review the story and let the Author know you liked it! As a reminder, the next topic is now posted, please visit this forum and starting Sunday 8am you can post your new entries! Funding Status Information to exact status is always found on the donations page. Currently, the site has $229.59 stored in PayPal. October's hosting costs have been paid and with expected advertising revenue we are well covered for November! We do always appreciate donations though! Please see the donation page for further information on how.
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