The Copy-Paste Cleanup Thread

Thanks, I've reworded the description.

The description of A Tale Dark And Grimm reads like it was taken from somewhere.

Purple Element and qazsedc keep sending me angry messages for cleaning up the plagiarism. Should I report this on ATT? I don’t want to be harassed because I cleaned up someone else’s mess.

Edited by Walkinshadows on Nov 2nd 2021 at 2:08:14 PM

Yes, you should. Or just message a mod and ask them to read your PMs.

Edited by WarJay77 on Nov 2nd 2021 at 2:16:36 PM

I have suspended both of them. Those responses are not acceptable.

Sorry Shadow

So per this ATT thread, all fanfic recs that copied the fic's synopsis for the summary need to be removed and replaced if able. Considering the amount of recs spread across dozens of pages, should that cleanup be done here or in a dedicated spinoff thread?

Here, I did the ones I follow, the ones we need to fix are the same list, so no point cluttering the forums. People who are invested are here.

• Use these Huntersof Justice & Fanfic/Dekiru:The Fusion Hero! as examples.
• The first several tropers altered the original description to fit, whilst the latter was just 'describe it'.

I've just had to remove text from every single recap page from Series 5 of The Loud House (16 total pages) as all of the summaries where copied and pasted over from either IMDB or the show's fan made wiki.

Examples:

This, this,this, this, and the summaries here were all copied from here.

There seems to have been three tropers who have added these in. ~NegiSpongie, ~Kissinger113 and ~InventorXG.

I have discovered that ~NegiSpongie has also done the same on the Chucky recap pages, as I had to remove these two texts as they were copies from the show's fan made wiki here and here.

I have sent a plagiarism notifier to all three of the above.

Edited by Atlantis1930 on Nov 3rd 2021 at 1:34:10 PM

~Walkinshadows, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, I saw examples like the links below for years have a similar setup to my pages and honestly didn't realize that it was a problem let alone plagiarism, and by the time I had a chance to fix things after realizing the actual problem, I had gotten suspended, since I don't have access to my computer or time to really do any edits at work anyway. As soon as I get it lifted, I'll start working to make sure no other fanfic pages I edit or make have the same problems, I promise you that!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/OfGemstonesAndWatches https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/AGirlAndHerBike

Edited by Donquill on Nov 4th 2021 at 11:38:09 AM

Walkinshadows, Thank You for replacing the reworded description on Dekiru: The Fusion Hero!, I apologize again for snapping at you, I make no excuses for my behaviour.

• If the first sentence needs work perhaps replacing it with something like this; "In this Fanfic, Izuku Midoriya is born with a quirk, one to fuse with any material in existence and even with people in the style of Steven Universe & Dragon Ball Z. (Rest of description, except 'find out here.' then add this sentence to the end;) What happens when these boosted powers are merged with the power of The Number One Hero? Find out here."
• I'm trying to preserve the author's inspirations, but I can't quite make them fit, so I'm open to suggestions. However placing it on the page with a request to rephrase that part may work best?

I recently realized I had done a copy-paste of my TV Tropes creator and works pages over at another site, Wiki Fur. Have spent a few days revising the entries at the latter site (I'd like to keep my TV Tropes pages as is), and just found out about this thread. While I think they're now sufficiently different, I'd appreciate some feedback.

Creator pages

At TV Tropes:

Bolt_DMC is a US-based fan fiction writer whose work is found at Archive of Our Own. The author writes short story length one-shots and poetry in a variety of styles for the film Bolt, which are collected into a series called The Bolt Chronicles. These can be read individually or as one long multi-chapter entity, and the series is ongoing, with new stories inserted into the timeline as appropriate. They were first posted beginning in August 2019, but many had been written prior to that date, beginning in February 2018. Thirty-one fics and two poems have been produced in the series as of July 2021.

A trope page for the series is found here.

====

At Wiki Fur:

Bolt_DMC is a fan fiction writer based in the US.

Writing

Bolt_DMC's works are found at Archive of Our Own (AO 3). They write short story length single-chapter fics as well as poetry for the Walt Disney Animation Studios' feature film, Bolt, collected into a series titled The Bolt Chronicles.

This is an ongoing series, with new stories and poems inserted into the timeline as they are finished. While the entries were first released starting in August 2019, many were written prior to that point, the earliest completed in February 2018. These cover a broad range of styles and can be read individually or as one long multi-chapter fic. As of July 2021, thirty-one short stories and two poems have appeared.

Works pages

At TV Tropes:

The Bolt Chronicles is a series of Bolt fan stories written by Bolt_DMC. It consists of a collection of short-story length one-shot fics and poetry in a variety of styles which interlock chronologically and can be read separately or as one long multi-chapter entity. The series is ongoing, with new entries inserted into the timeline as appropriate. They were first posted beginning in August 2019, but many had been written prior to that time, beginning in February 2018. Thirty-one fics and two poems have been produced as of July 2021.

While backstories exist for Bolt and Mittens, and a few fics occur during the period covered by the movie and before, the majority take place post-canon. By the end of the film, Penny and Bolt have left the TV show they starred in and now reside in an undisclosed rural location along with Mittens, Rhino, and Penny's mother; the post-canon entries trace their adventures in this venue. Starting with "The Ship," Bolt and Mittens become lovers (and soulmates). A list of stories in order of chronological setting is found below:

[list of works snipped]

They can be read on Archive of Our Own. A detailed overview containing background information on the series (including story order) is available here.

Beware of spoilers.

====

At Wiki Fur:

The Bolt Chronicles is a collection of Bolt fan fiction works. Written by author Bolt_DMC, it contains both short-story length single-chapter fics and poetry. While first released starting in August 2019, many were written prior to that point, the earliest completed in February 2018. This is an ongoing series, with new works inserted into the timeline as they are finished. Covering a broad range of styles, they can be read individually or as one long multi-chapter entry.

Most of the stories take place post-canon, though some entries are set during the timeframe covered by the movie or before, and backstories can be found for both Bolt and Mittens. Penny and Bolt have left the TV show they starred in as of the movie's conclusion, and joined by Mittens, Rhino, and Penny's mother, they now live in a farmhouse located in undisclosed region; these post-canon entities describe their adventures here. Bolt and Mittens become a romantic couple beginning with "The Ship," and are revealed to be soulmates in the final story, "The Gift."

As of July 2021, thirty-one fics and two poems have appeared, and they can be read on Archive of Our Own.

[list of works snipped]

To be clear, you do have the right to copy your own work from site to site, but since these are both wikis, it's difficult to prove ownership, and differentiating them is a good idea even if you wouldn't technically be plagiarizing. It would be a no-brainer if the writeups were attributed to you specifically, but since they are attributed to the wikis, someone who doesn't know that you wrote both entries might think they were plagiarized.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 6th 2021 at 10:10:20 AM

Thank you for the clarification — very much appreciated.

If you have any feedback one way or the other on the examples above, that would be great. As I said, I think they're sufficiently different, but if I'm wrong, it would be good to know.

Edited by BoltDMC on Nov 6th 2021 at 7:30:36 AM

Searching for accidental WikiWords can cause lots of copy-paste descriptions to become pretty obvious. I found Angel S05E12 You're Welcome, Boardwalk Empire S 2 E 5 Gimcrack And Bunkum, and Tweny One Jump Street S04E14 "A Change of Heart" which seem to copy Buffyverse Wiki, Boardwalk Empire Wiki, and Rotten Tomatoes (or IMDb? It's on more than one site so it might just be a TV guide description)

I've sent all episodes but one of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and all of Dream SMP season 1 to the cutlist. Plagiarism is widespread in Recap pages.

edit: what should I do about pages whose descriptions I can find on other sites, but not any proof it was made before the TV Tropes page?

edit 2: Boardwalk Empire season 5 has entirely descriptions also found on IMDb, but I can't find any proof that the IMDb description came first.

Edited by N1KF on Nov 8th 2021 at 11:39:12 AM

This plagiarism report was posted over at ATT:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=105792&type=att

The person bringing up plagiarism issues at ATT in the above post has apparently found at least two more examples by the troper in question. They're also requesting help, but I'm not sure what I can do.

Just passing along the update.

If the user in question hasn't edited since 2016 there is nothing we can do from a disciplinary standpoint. The same policy applies: if whoever is doing the cleanup doesn't have enough information to rewrite the content, it should be deleted and replaced with a placeholder.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 10th 2021 at 6:30:36 AM

At least some of the recap pages on Power Rangers Zeo contain descriptions that are the same as those on IMDB.

Edit: Another serial recap plagiarist. This person made multiple recap pages for different Power Rangers series with copied descriptions (some copied from IMDB or the Power Rangers Wiki). I'll try to go through and find them when I get the chance.

Edited by Walkinshadows on Nov 11th 2021 at 8:29:20 AM

Mushoku Tensei feels like it's taken and from somewhere

I've done some googling with the text but haven't been able to find anything.

Edited by Atlantis1930 on Nov 12th 2021 at 5:53:01 PM

I went through every episode of all but like two series of the Power Rangers (Mighty Morphin' and Beast Morphers) and removed the plagiarized descriptions. Some series had been previously gone through by someone else.

What about it exactly? I dunno, if you're talking about the main work page description, it looks like something written and formatted for tv tropes to me. I compared it with the descriptions from the show's wiki and Wikipedia (two most likely candidates for plagarism) and the tv tropes page words things pretty differently from both of them. Those two pages are actually more similar to each other, but that's outside the scope of this wiki.

Edited by antenna_ears on Nov 17th 2021 at 8:18:02 AM

Just found this page, Demon Turf

... usually I'd post this enquiry under "Works Needing Tropes" ^note  we have a thread for this, right? Or... not? but after snooping a bit, aha, the intro is stolen from the promo site.

Given the page contains 3 tropes (2 which are ZCE), the "under construction" banner and the fact that it was last updated 6 months ago... anyone familiar with the work want to save it?

The character page is even worse, only one trope exists, and it hasn't been edited in over a year. Given that both pages were solely edited by a troper who was suspended back in July (and is unlikely to be unsuspended), along with both of them having almost no tropes with context, them still being "under construction", and that the main page description is plagarized, maybe the pages should be cut.

Edited by Shadow8411 on Nov 18th 2021 at 5:37:22 AM