:facepalm: New Eden Capsuleers Writing Contest - Plagiariser Report

Fiction Portal Player Fiction
1

Hello

I recently posted several responses to the New Eden Capsuleers Writing Contest.

This was in an attempt to ring the alarm bells about plagiarism and back scratching in the roll play community, which resulted in a blatantly plagiarised poem being granted a position in the winners board for poetry. These responses have recently all been totally censored by a person with sinister intent and forum moderation powers under the guise of ‘off topic flagging’. I note that only my half of the conversation was expunged, the defences posted against me have been left in place to give a facade of innocence, and virtue.

The purpose of this thread is to set out again my findings for the public record. Here, in my own topic, I am going to post the facts for all to see.

Introduction

I thank all honest competitors, and applaud all original poems, associated with that contest. However I refuse to give even the slightest utterance of thanks to the judges.

Having taken weeks on end to complete the judging, it has now become clear any reasonable person that the effort was utterly tardy. None of them thought high enough of this competition to run any of the entries through a plagiarism detector, and as a result they have declared a blatantly unoriginal and plagiarised work as a winner.

The 3rd place winner entered initially anonymously, but later revealed to be by Cilisa Lugara, can be shown to be a copy from the below breakdown.

Plagarism
Plagarism965×776 226 KB

Modification of original poem

And it gets worse. After I reported this to the organiser Lunarisse, she then, clearly, has promptly colluded with her role playing friend Cilisa to cover the matter up. The original poem was modified by combining the first two paragraphs into a single paragraph, so as to support the claim that only the first two paragraphs are copied from the lyrics linked. Then the original poem post was modified further to include a credit to the lyrics.

In reality, 4 of 6 of the substantial paragraphs of the poem are outright and blatantly copied. And this has been left with the status of 3rd place, by the judges, above many other original works!

Back scratching of the role play community

Subsequent to this outrage, the roll play community has come out of the woodwork to get all my flags of foul play deleted from the thread completely, as if they never happened. This means the plagiarised work stands as a third place joint winner!

9 Likes
3

Your statements are most likely being removed because you arewere OOC on an IC forum. ThisThat part of the forums is for posting in character and CCP/ISD is traditionally very strict about moderating that. (I fully expect this comment to go poof soon too.)

If you want to discuss the in-character posts, you should post on Player Fiction or EVE Lore Discussion instead. You can move your own post by editing the original.

Hope this helps, have a nice day.

(PS. As one of the contestants, I am ok with how Lunarisse handled the issue.)

10 Likes
4

Its almost like she made clear exactly what happened and the decisions she made or something.

Rectifying an issue does not a coverup make, and you continuing to try and put her on blast after her being fairly open and straightforward with how it was handled makes you sound like a brat.

10 Likes
5

The role play community judges of that competition ranked a blatant and flagrant plagiarised (or shall I say practically verbatim) poem above many original works. It stood as 3rd place, because of relationship salvaging.

1 Like
6

A post here discussed moderation of another thread in a different forum subsection and has been removed.

Discussing moderation is not permitted. As a reminder, posts on the relevant Intergalactic Summit subsection must also be In Character (IC).

Discussion of moderation is as much disallowed on IGS as elsewhere, whether cloaked in “RP” or not.

If there are to be OOC discussions of material on the IGS subsection please use an OOC subsection, such as this one. Please also refrain from insults and inflammatory language when doing so.

Thank you.

3 Likes
7

I did use this one, so why are you telling me to use this one, just trying to lay down authority. Is it illegal also for me to talk back to you?

1 Like
8

The attention you are bringing to the subject can’t be bad imho
but I honestly doubt you will find many more supporters for your outrage.

It is a good derivative work and deserved the placement it got because it harmonises with the the setting in which it was presented.

There is nothing new under the sun.

9

Plagiarism is obviously unacceptable, attempting to skirt the fact of it by talking about nine lines of original content where twelve were copied from the work of another, verbatim and without credit was always going to agitate people.

Speaking for the poetry category (the one I paid most attention to) it is also something that was compounded by an appearance of bias rooted in the inscrutability of the voting; what was the relative weighting of form, content, structural semiotics, and the poem’s context within the setting of New Eden?

In a competition where the judges are a self-selected cross section of a small and insular community, it should be expected that people outside that clique are sensitive to prejudiced outcomes–something guaranteed as much in the fact as appearance of by unstructured voting based solely on the judges’ personal preferences.

3 Likes
10

A worth while question.

Those are all factors I’ve asked the judges to consider (pretty much the way you phrase it).
Due to ESL issues and computer issues, we’ve tried never to punish formatting or minor grammer mistakes.

I’ve never assigned a particular weight to each for the judges to utilize (pod and planet had factors like this but not specific weight either) but it may be worth considering if this is run again in the future.

For me, as the organizer, the “new edenness” if you will was always a major reason for me trying to run the contest to help encourage lore building and is an important factor.

1 Like
11

As a 13 year member of the Omega Capsuleer community, I must say I’ve lost all trust and respect for the host and judges of that contest. Also all the subsequent actions that have transpired after the fact will not be forgotten.

2 Likes
12

Prestigious RL competitions do not do this, but it may be worth mentioning those factors in subsequent announcements, you have a poetry competition where quite evidently taking each in aggregate both the judges and competitors lack formal education on the subject matter.

I would consider it reasonably likely that if you make the criteria clear, it increases the likelihood that you will see more structural sophistication and attempts to ground their work in the context of this setting.

3 Likes
13

Speaking out of character here, as is required:

  1. I recused myself from any entries I would see as a conflict of interest to my character.
  2. I’m an author, editor and proofreader in real life. I’ve also adjudicated several in-game and RL writing competitions, so while this was IC, I did take my judging VERY seriously. There’s a reason I keep coming back to help Luna out with this competition.
  3. I’m not about to check every entry or run it through TurnItIn for plagiarism. This contest was in good faith, and the incident was sufficiently dealt with.
  4. We did this contest in our own time. We were not compensated, nor were we allowed to enter for prizes.

You’re coming off as a petulant child who didn’t win a prize for a poem that was, in my opinion, not as good as some of the other entries. Even with the reordering of rankings, you wouldn’t have placed in the top three. Sorry.

Also, you’re slandering several good players’ names. I suggest next time you understand what sort of contest you’re entering, and understand that it’s just for fun. You’ve created a mountain out of a molehill.

Also, my opinions are my own. I know Luna IC and OOC and respect her highly for organizing this year after year, so this should not reflect on her at all.

5 Likes
14

You are making a very unsophisticated argument here, which basically amounts to an appeal to some kind of authority that you think you have as an experienced writer and judge of writing, supplemented by some insults aimed directly at me and my poem.

Everything you have said is irrelevant and irrational I am afraid.

You judged badly, it is easy to run a plagiarism check, if you are as accomplished as you are claiming you would know that. It is a matter of seconds, not even minutes, if you have the correct resources.

Thus you out of incompetance judged a fake as a winner.

Then… after I reported it… you allowed the fake to STAND AS A WINNER REGARDLESS!!! It is still ranked right now as 3rd… right this very moment, and the thread is now locked so it is permanent.

That is almost unbelievable to me. You have therefore judged a plagiarised fake over all but 3 of the entires (i.e. the 1st, 2nd and jount 3rd). This was all done to save face of the role play community involved and the forger specifically.

I think you have only shown you are not competant to be judge, and have no integrity to the original works submitted to rank this fake above them.

I submit to you, all of the hearts your post gathered are just your buddies back scratching you.

1 Like
15

And I firmly submit your above rant justifies your petulant child attitude.

What is it exactly you hope to accomplish?

You’ve sufficiently slandered many people in character and out of character. Is your righteous indignation satisfied yet?

16

Another insult as a response, it will get you nowhere, it is irrational and totally and utterly irrelevant to the logical points I have made.

1 Like
17

The incident was dealt with. What more do you want from an in character contest? You’re honestly deluded and this is tantamount to harassment of Luna and the judges.

18

Yes, but the problem is how. It was dealt with by upholding the incompetent judgement so that a forgery ranks as a winner above original works, and to accomplish this the original forged poem posting was modified.

Plain and simple, you have judged a plagiarised fake as a winner, and now it was reported to you, you have stuck to your guns and you have doubled down - it is still 3rd place even now.

It is not harassment if it is stating facts. Another unsophisticated and weak attack to accuse me of that.

1 Like
19

Then plain and simple: don’t participate next year. There is nothing twisting your arm to do so.

20

Why not, I am still a competitor in good standing, I can do what I want actually. I have a perfect record of integrity and good judgement. If anything I should be a judge replacing you.

21

Your vitriol is highly misplaced. It was an in character contest as was stated. We judged entries in good faith. We gave up our time and volunteered.

Am I meant to know every possible song and poem in existence in order to judge the contest? No. The rules clearly stated no plagiarism and someone took advantage of that. The prizes were reordered and the person returned their isk.

Even with this reordering, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE WON.

This was explained to you and yet still, you persist. Why? That’s what I want to know, which you still haven’t answered. This feels like a personal vendetta against Luna.

3 Likes