El Plagiarismo

Most crimes are forgiveable. Most crimes are rehabilitatable [sic]. In the most general sense, if you screw up, you can be forgiven and reaccepted. There are exceptions, the most notable being those found dead to rights as being a plagiarist at PTC. Given that most PTC feds foster a different kind of writing than what you'd find at FW or other promo fed circuits, plagiarism is a much, much larger problem there.

When a plagiarist is brought to light, well, it can get ugly, quickly. More often than not, the plagiarist isn't really welcome in any PTC-related fed or event. Example, this thread where a returning guy by the handle "Educator" is trying to make friendly with the community. He was perhaps the most infamous plagiarist in AWC history, using stolen work to gain all the top titles in the fed.

So, no one should be surprised at the reception he's gotten thus far, and you know what? I don't blame them one bit. There are certain things you should understand about this game and about the environments it is played in. You don't go looking for a second chance at PTC if you've stolen someone's work. I mean, it doesn't matter if you've stolen it from a fellow e-wrestler (which to me, is the ultimate in unforgiveable crimes) or from some author on the Internet somewhere. Don't expect them to want to take you back if you've done that in the past.

I mean, to some it may seem irrational, but plagiarism isn't easily monitored. Once someone is found out to be a plagiarist, the fedheads and interfedheads have to now check every single one of his/her work against Google. Really, anything else, fed cancers, shooting, etc. is easily monitored, and it's easy to see if people change or not.

And for all those who think that plagiarism doesn't really hurt anyone, well, think again. The Jewish religion has been the center of a worldwide conspiracy because of a plagiarized work. Have you ever heard of the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion? It's a book that's regarded as the manifesto for Jewish world domination, trumpeted by anti-Semite groups everywhere. It's also a raging fake, a plagiarism of a satirical book about Napoleon III.

That is an outlandish example, but really, if I were running a PTC fed or a writing event at PTC, why the hell should I want a plagiarist involved? Regardless of what you think about the offense, PTC takes it seriously. If you don't like their stance, then go somewhere else and either try to start fresh or pull the wool over their eyes. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The Cardinal Sins of E-Fedding

All this talk about plagiarism... I'm in a sinful mood right now. (Sidenote... I'd love it for all of SIN to come back and feud with the HPSC... the ultimate A1E Turf War.)

If there's any lesson to be learned since Thursday, it's that plagiarism is bad. In fact, it's one of the worst, if not the worst thing you could do in e-fedding. I can think of three other contenders to the worst title.

I call 'em the Four Cardinal Sins of E-Fedding. If I could have thought of three more, this would have been the Seven Deadly Sins, but in a way, I'm glad I didn't. For one, looking at the negative all the time sucks. Two, well, seven deadly sins is too clichéd.

Anyway, here you go:

Plagiarizing another handler: This isn't separate from plain old plagiarism. IT also doesn't mean I condone regular old plagiarism either. It's bad, it's grounds to have a handler tossed out of any fed or e-fedding circle. But stealing from another handler... that's dishonor. I mean, I know both are dishonorable, but there's an extra level of dishonor in stealing from a peer, from someone whom you purport to be a friend. I can look someone in the eye who stole a short story off another anonymous guy. I won't have much respect for him, and I might give him the short shrift, but I can still look him in the eye.

I don't think I could ever look someone who plagiarized another handler in the eye. Ever. They don't deserve it unless they take on a HUGE penance and prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that they aren't going to steal from another handler again.

Making malicious OOC comments in IC segments... ie, shooting: If you have a problem with another handler, don't fucking drag it out into the competition for the week. This is a hobby, not a personal bitch-session. Don't bring the rest of the fed down because you're unhappy with someone.

Using another person's character without their permission: The real pisser about this is that most people who use characters out of permission use them so badly. Most people who have the good judgement to use another's character correctly are talented enough not to fuck up the execution.

But yeah, this is pretty low and selfish too. If you can't generate your own heat without sabotaging the heat of another character against their will along the way, maybe you should reconsider being in the hobby.

Being a backstage cancer: Do I need to explain this? I don't know, I think this happens the most out of the four. Whether it's backstage or over IMs or on the forums, it's the easiest sin to commit because it's the easiest trap to fall into.

If you go into e-fedding for the wrong reasons, you're likely to become malignant. And yes, while airing disagreements is fine and necessary for the health of a fed, when it becomes chronic, deliberate and transparently contrarian. And it happens when you job continually when you go itno e-fedding just for the purpose of winning. It happens when you expect the world to kiss your ass and someone actually has the gall to tell you that your work isn't perfect. It happens with misinformation, lies, deceit.

And while plagiarists are easily dismissed and shooters and character usually aren't chronic in this regard, cancers can stick around for a long, long time, especially if they've infected other handlers and have them believing that they're right. Much like cancer is a bitch to treat and hit-or-miss when talking about a cure, when you get a cancerous personality trolling around your fed... it's hard to change or cure him completely.

Now, the one thing to remember about all these sins is that no sin is completely unforgiveable. I've been guilty of being a cancer in A1E, but I've made amends with everyone, and I'd like to think we're all on the level now. I was involved in a shooting incident, where I was shot on, but that's now water under the bridge. I don't know of any plagiarism incident that's been forgiven because they've all been on PTC, and they hate plagiarists.

But it can be hard, especially with severe cases.

Still though, I think it's best to err on the side of forgiveness in most cases, especially for first offenders. Because this is a hobby predicated on having fun and cooperation. If we start alienating everyone because we perceive they're useless, then we won't have anyone to work with.

Repeat offenders though? Fuck 'em, since they really are few and far between. I have faith in the pool of handlers around the hobby. I really do.

Plagiarism in e-fedding

So, over at the PTC Boards, Alcaeus' handler made a revelation that he plagiarized a Greek History site for the basis of his RPs for the Infinite Gauntlet. From my understanding of the situation, it wasn't totally voluntary; he was found out by RJ (Hanshi no Shikaze, one of PTC's admins... I will refrain from speaking of him on this blog outside of anything factually because Mama said if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all. I learned my lesson from the Kaya blog... and I actually like Jim, who is Kaya's handler, as a person, I just got a little carried away because of the e-fed implications. I promised I'd never get that riled up again, so I will refrain from editorializing on RJ.).

He was summarily booted out of PTC events, and Stephen Caldera, GCW's fedhead, kicked him out of that fed. HSW has not taken any disciplinary action yet that I know of, and they've also defended him in the situation. He also withdrew from the ToC before I caught wind of the gravity of the situation, so basically, he knew the shit would hit the fan and knew when I found out that I was going to boot him.

I'm not here to discuss that thread. A lot of ill-will has come out of it, and I'm not about to perpetuate it. It's best that it stays dead and buried.

However, there are a few things that interest me about this whole situation.

1) Why would someone take material verbatim from a Greek History site (and a large chunk of it for that matter) as the basis for a wrestling RP?

2) This isn't the first time a handler in a PTC fed has been guilty of plagiarism. Yet, in all my years in A1E, the FW.com feds and the EWN angle community, I haven't heard any more than one incident of plagiarism (which was actually never substantiated). Why is PTC such a hotbed for plagiarism?

3) What drives a person to commit plagiarism in the first place?

I think I'll attempt to answer these questions in reverse order.

What does drive a person to take the work of someone else and claim it as his own? Well, to answer that, you have to answer the most important question of all. What is anyone's motivation for joining an e-fed? If the answer to that question is "To win titles, matches and basically pwn people," then you get a good start as to why some people would take this route. Of course not everyone who wants to prove superiority needs to do so by cheating; in the PTC circle alone, look at folks like Andy Hewitt (Doctor Curiosity among others), Jeff Ward (Angelo Deville) and Joe Schmidt (Adam Dick).

There's a question of maturity level though. There's also a question on whether those guys and other PTC luminaries are actually in it to be dominant or to have fun. Even if they are in it for the former, they obviously show a very high maturity level. They don't cheat to get what they want.

So you have two identifying marks for a plagiarist now. They're obsessive and immature. Still though, we've had our share of obsessive and immature folks pass through the doors of A1E/MBE and the various FW.com feds, and yet if there are any cases of plagiarism, I haven't heard them yet. For the most part, the petulant punks of greater-FW world resort to pompous, no-selling RPs and public bitching about stuff, and when they don't get their way, they either quit or they grow up. No one gets so desperate to win that they'll think about plagiarizing someone else's work. I think this is mainly the case because it's so frigging hard to plagiarize wrestling promos and not get caught.

But with creative writing... well, it's not as hard. Creative writing is abundant on the Internet and in books, readers, pamphlets. All you have to do is find an obscure enough story, change the characters' names to protect the guilty, and voila! Instant RP! That's pretty much why you can think you can get away with plagiarizing in PTC and not, say, FW.

Sometimes, you can, maybe if your fedhead isn't vigilant enough or if a judge doesn't know how to use Google search. Then again, who doesn't know how to use frigging Google anyway?

But Greek history? Seriously, unless Zeus and Apollo slugged it out in one of the epic early Greek pro wrestling feuds, what the hell is the point of plagiarizing that kind of work for a wrestling-based story? Why would someone feel the need to go anywhere and plagiarize any old thing for a wrestling-based RPG?

I'll tell you why. It's because I feel that generally, PTC feds and the interfed have lost touch with the basic spirit of e-fedding, at least from an RP standpoint.

Now, I can anticipate the argument. "Why are you in a PTC fed if you think they've lost touch? YOU SHOULD JUST QUIT YOU HYPOCRITE!" Well, I guess after telling the contrarian voices in my head to simmer down, I ought to explain what I mean.

By and large, I think most PTC feds on the write-up and feud mechanics are true to the spirit of wrestling. AWC has a lot of good-to-great wrestling feuds going on. From what I hear, PRIME does too. There isn't any question in my mind that these feds are *wrestling* feds, at least when they put the cards together.

However, I try to read some RPs, and it's like... why is this in a wrestling arena? I mean, plagiarizing Greek history for a LEGIT vampire, who claims above storyline that he's 2500 years old. C'mon now, that sounds more like something that should be RPed for Gangrel/White Wolf/Manga role-playing, not for wrestling. I think part of the problem is that some people just want to write roleplays and they think that wrestling and whatever else they can roleplay are interchangeable.

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that idea. I mean, I like the idea of RPing in a non-traditional setting, doing RPs in non-traditional senses. If I didn't, I wouldn't be involved in PTC. I'm doing my best to adapt to that style without compromising my beliefs. Right now, I'm not doing a very good job of it because I'm jobbing more than winning, but that's okay. You don't learn if everyone praises you and the fedhead just books you to wins. It's all about adaptation, learning not only to write in a style, but to write topically. I'm learning to mix those two together, to become a better writer.

The problem, I think, is that people come in and don't necessarily have to write topically for them to get over. So if they struggle, it's easier for them to plagiarize because their range for things they can copy is so broad.

That's how someone can plagiarize a Greek history site and win an e-wrestling match.

I happen to think that's sad.

Now, don't get me wrong. There's a place for narrative writing in e-wrestling, and there's a place for non-traditional RPing as well. There's a place for the PTC style; however, I think that for the problem of plagiarism to go away, the spirit of wrestling needs to be more present in all competitions.

Or else you might as well just be another Vampire RP circle.