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Plagiarism
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Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jun-18-2007 17:17

"To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source." (Source: Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

People who copy and paste holus bolus other people's already approved Random Mystery intro's into their own and then claim them as their own...

SUCK!

I can't make it any clearer than that :)

Replies

Jojo
Jojo
Old Shoe

Sep-6-2007 21:27

There is a difference between having one or two of the same ideas and having all of the same ideas, in the same order, playing out to the same idea in the end, with every detail having been the same idea too.

Does that make sense?

Cali Ryan
Cali Ryan

Sep-6-2007 21:37

Yes. But that is actually my point. What if (I know, it can be an extremely long shot......but what if) two people just happen to have the same idea in the same order to the end.......without having any knowledge of the other person's writing?

(Like I said, I know it's an extremely long shot for that to happen, but it could.) But if it did happened, what then? Would you take the safer route and say it's plagiarism? Or would you ask the author's about it first, then go from there?

(I'm not trying to be difficult here. I'm just curious that's all.)

- Cali

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Sep-6-2007 22:45

How does it go, someone once reckoned that: A million monkeys banging on a million typewriters for a million years will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.

Anyway... there's plagiarism and plagiarism. I don't think any of us would just dismiss what some has written off-handedly. My original post was aimed fairly and squarely at the dip-sticks who copy and paste whole intros and claim them as their own.

There are many themes that repeat themselves throughout the 600+ intros there are that have been approved.

The big three are:

In Sleuthville,

* It's invariably raining; or stormy; or cloudy, and more than likely somewhat dark.
* Detectives are usually down to their last dollar, and bordering on alcoholism, when a new client turns up on their doorstep.
* The police are incompetent, and/or just plain stupid.

That's not plagiarism, beating a dead horse maybe, butnot plagiarism.

We would always, as you put it 'take the safer route' of consultation, before dismissing an intro / SM.

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Sep-6-2007 22:48

oh lol, ok so I misread what your 'safer route' was... but I think the explanation still holds up.

Stooby
Stooby
Well-Connected

Sep-7-2007 00:25

Dead Horse? Bang goes my latest effort based on dark, stormy, cloudy and rainy night where I'm about to turn to the bottle of Whisky bought off the homeless guy down the road when the client shows up grumbling about incompetent and stupid cops....

Ah now I'll have to find something else to write about....

*Wanders off grumpling to himself...*

Cali Ryan
Cali Ryan

Sep-7-2007 01:03

I wasn't referring to the whole "It was a dark and stormy night, etc, etc, etc" thing when I asked the question. Although I could see where one might get that impression. No, my mind went to the "What if" factor of two minds coming up with the same storyline at the (relatively) same time type of thing. And so I just naturally asked the "What if" question.

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. And thanks for all of the clarifications.

- Cali

Cali Ryan
Cali Ryan

Sep-10-2007 17:37

OK, I have another question. (Simply because I have an idea about an intro. and I don't want to break any rules with it.)

Would it be considered plagiarism if the "detective" quoted something by "forgot" where it came from?

For example:
"Out, damned spot!" I said as I was trying to wash the spot of blood from my shirt. I don't remember who said it, probably a dectetive, but they were right. It is a "damned spot."

-----------

So, would this be considered plagiarism? Or would this be considered a creative way to use a line (or more) from literary works?

(BTW, I do know where it comes from. It comes from "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. And it is said by Lady Macbeth. )

- Cali

Stooby
Stooby
Well-Connected

Sep-10-2007 23:21

That would be fine is my guess, quoting from other works a Sleuth may have read (yep some of us can read.. not many of us get the time!)

One thing to watch out for and ringing alarm bells with the spot thing is that it's got to have been written by the right the right time period, Sleuth is set between 1920 and 1940 (don't know if there is a consensus on that) so not point quoting something written in 1980!

Cali Ryan
Cali Ryan

Sep-11-2007 19:19

I understand your concerns with the time period thing. I was thinking about quoting from works prior to 1920. This should help with keeping in the time period.

Quoting from works within that time period (1920 - 1940) would probably be ok as well. But I was thinking on playing it a bit safe and just sticking to earlier works. Anything later than 1940 would not be appropriate for this game, so those works should definately not be quoted from.

- Cali

Huglover
Huglover
Old Shoe

Aug-8-2008 15:46

BATS!
I had been hearing some sounds from my chimney and the ashdump door, so I had opened it up in case there was a bird that had fallen down the chimney.
Now I stood in the kitchen looking at the bats flying around, wondering what to do next, and regretting that I had such a soft heart.

..............

May be this could be an useable start for an intro? - but unfortunately I can't figure out how to continue from here...
- so I thought that I would just leave the idea out for free. If anyone wants to make a complete intro out of this "start", please feel free. You don't even have to quote me ;-)
It was just something that recently happened to me, and I came to think that is might become an intro in some way. :-)
Good luck :-)

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