#gdontop

“Look, if I could go back in time and not be thrown through the windshield of my car into a puddle of toxic sludge, I would.”

I've got to write this out and get it off my chest, because keeping it bottled up so other people won't have to deal with my (admittedly negative, possibly petty) feelings is going to end badly. So. 

Last week, someone brought it to my attention one of my stories--my most popular story, in fact--had been plagiarized. This person provided me screenshots of the stories for comparison, and yep, plagiarized. Only sections, but some things were stolen word-for-word. The fact that the entire story wasn't copy/pasted, and only certain lines and paragraphs were taken, made the theft seem that much more insidious. 

I contacted mods, and the story was taken down (though by the author or the mods, I can't be sure). And then the author deactivated her profile on the site where the stories are located. Okay, that was her choice. I just wanted the offending story removed. Whatever.

Three or four days later, she reactivates her profile. AND REPOSTS THE STORY THAT HAD BEEN REPORTED FOR PLAGIARISM. Now, I thought "okay, she's probably changed or removed the parts of my story she'd copied"... NOPE. This time, I contacted her directly, and told her to remove the story again, or I'd do what I could to get her permanently banned from the site. It's even in the site's TOS that plagiarism will get you banned immediately! I was fucking flabbergasted that someone would 1) not just steal someone else's work and claim it as their own, but also 2) post the story a second time, after it had already been pulled!

Y'all, I thought this girl was very young, and so had felt kinda bad when she disappeared the first time. I was sure she was embarrassed. Then I learned she is in her mid-twenties, and all my sympathy went 'poof'. Then I was just angry. I've calmed down a lot since she deactivated for the second time.

But none of her friends and supporters know why she left, because I didn't go spreading it around. I figured it was dealt with, and it is. Apparently she's told people she's having 'personal problems', and now they're doing a 'Supporting Project', calling her the author of the 'beautiful story' WHICH SHE FUCKING STOLE from me and who knows how many other people. I just. I want to tell them the reason she deleted her social media presence, the 'personal problems' she is having is she's a plagiarist who got caught TWICE and is unrepentant. Her response to my message telling her I knew she'd taken my work without consent and needed to remove it again? "Okay". No apology, just that single word. 

And I know it's petty, and her friends can do whatever they want, but I want to tell them what kind of person they're supporting. I want to call her out. Just. Why? Why do internet popularity points make people do these kinds of things? I've never, even for a moment, considered stealing another author's work and claiming it as my own. Hasn't even crossed my mind. 

Ugh.

I'm not going to do it.

Probably.

Most likely.

It just makes me angry this chick goes around stealing other people's shit and then has a SUPPORTING PROJECT put on by her friends and fans bc she's so ashamed of her behavior she disappeared from social media. AND THEY HAVE NO IDEA! Urge... to call out... r i s i n g...