Plagiarism on Mibba - Comments

@ Miz Erie
If you PM me links to the stories then I and the other admins will take a look at them, but even in cases like that, it's not always going to be plagiarism, but we will check it out for you!

@ Katie Mosing
I completely get that. But when the person is a regular reader of said author (and has raved about the "original" story beforehand), writes in the same type of (uncommon) format, uses the same fandom, begins with the same set-up, uses nearly the exact same layout, offers the same summary, warnings and apologizes in the long summary, and posts it just two weeks after the "original" story, on a site like this, it should have actually been looked into and not just brushed off. There wasn't even a courtesy glancing at both stories.

@ Miz Erie
@ Brian Haner Jr
Did you know that there was a book published in Europe with a plot almost identical to The Hunger Games? The stories were almost exactly the same, even down to the details like the chariot rides and the games themselves. With a story as unique as the one in The Hunger Games, it seems impossible that these aren't cases of plagiarism, right? Well, because the two stories were so similar, there was an extremely detailed investigation to be sure. The two authors spoke entirely different languages, were oceans a part, and had no contact with any of the same people. There was no plagiarism in either case. It is very possible for two people to come up with the same idea, similar characters, and even similar details without either story being plagiarized. There are millions of stories out there and millions of people writing them. What are the odds that none of these millions of people are going to come up with similar ideas? Slim. The truth is that our ideas aren't always as unique as we think they are. Odds are that someone else, somewhere else, has come up with something almost identical, and I think it's subjective to assume otherwise.

@ Brian Haner Jr
Yeah, I was told it wasn't plagiarism even though EVERYTHING BUT the wording was the exact same, down to the layout. But eh, I got over it... kind of.

Miz Erie:

I still have the concern for when a story shares more than just a similar idea but doesn't fit into this definition of plagiarism. I honestly think there are stories that are plagiarized that fall outside of what is defined here. When there are so many similarities between two stories that it statistically cannot be coincidence, attention needs to be paid. But what do I know? I was told it wasn't plagiarism because it wasn't worded the same way.

Agreed.

I still have the concern for when a story shares more than just a similar idea but doesn't fit into this definition of plagiarism. I honestly think there are stories that are plagiarized that fall outside of what is defined here. When there are so many similarities between two stories that it statistically cannot be coincidence, attention needs to be paid. But what do I know? I was told it wasn't plagiarism because it wasn't worded the same way.

Excellent definition. Clears up the gray areas really well. Plagiarism is pretty easy to spot, not something you generally have to squint for.

takahe.angel:

Sharing a similar idea with another writer is not plagiarism.

I think this is my favorite line out of this whole article. It seems that not many people understand this, from what I've seen, and I think it is very important to address this. This was a very informative and well-written article!

Let's hope no one plagiarized my work on mibba

Da Real Barack Obama:

I can't deal with that picture. It's so great.

Oml same :')

About a year ago someone reworded my entire story and posted it with the same name and everything. It took Mibba awhile, but it was eventually taken down. The "author" got to stay though, and when I asked about the zero-tolerance policy, I was told that there wasn't one or that it didn't apply for some reason (I can't remember which). That really bothered me.

Ever since I've been really nervous about my story being stolen again. & I hope next time that the author will actually be banned because if she's plagiarized me I'm sure she's still plagiarizing others too.

So far no one has plagiarised my work, and I hope to keep it that way!
Thanks for writing this article, I'm glad Mibba has a quick response and a no tolerance policy.

A few years back, I had someone steal an entire idea of mine and use it as their own. But Mibba was great with handling it, so thank you for that as well as writing this article to raise awareness!

I found someone who plagiarized my favorite creepypasta and twisted the story around. First chapter copied nearly word for word. The story was gone as soon as I reported it. Good job, mibba editors! :]

Luckily, I don't think anyone has plagiarised my work :)

Sadly, I don't read enough stories on here to find out if anyone has ever plagiarized my writing. :/

I can't deal with that picture. It's so great.

So glad someone decided to write an article on this!