Plagiarism: what’s copying and what’s not
What is plagiarism?
"The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own."
In role-playing, plagiarism is pretty much the same.
Role-Play Creation
In role-play creation, plagiarism, for example taking the entire Harry Potter premise or setting a roleplay in it without any credit or acknowledgement is still plagiarism. You should credit somewhere, “Inspired by [source]” or “Based on [source]” and replace the source with the title of the series you took and implemented in your role-play. In role-play creation it’s also important to credit any things you never made yourself. If you did not create it but put it in your sign-ups or roleplay somewhere giving credit the original creator. Another form of copying a roleplay creation is by using an idea similar or exactly the same to somone who’s already created it.
Role-Play Posts
Copying or passing off someone else’s post or writing as your own is plagiarism. This is wrong and against the forum guidelines. “How do I avoid plagiarism?” Simply, don’t copy someone else’s post, either by switching around their words or just plain out copying and pasting it.
What constitutes as a Role-Play Creation Plagiarism?
Copying the same premise or plot or setting without the creators permission. There’s a difference between similarity within genres and similar role-play. For example, I can’t stop you making a roleplay about Greek, Roman, Eygptian and Norse gods altogether or seperate but if there’s a correlating plot/premise (using the Percy Jackson setting) I could call that a ‘copy-cat roleplay’ or a plagiarised role-play.
What happens if someone stole my idea?
Reach out to our @RPStaff or our RP moderator, @CrazyCaliope and let them/her know along with proof you had the idea before. Examples could be a link to a post or something with a time-stamp.
The owner of a role-play similar to mine contacted me, saying I copied theirs. What should I do?
The best thing to do in order to avoid conflict is to acknowledge it and take your roleplay down. If you disagree be sure to let one of the @RPstaff know or @CrazyCaliope as previously mentioned.
I really want to recreate/revamp a dead roleplay that I enjoyed but the owner is inactive
The general rule of thumb is wait two months until the role-play has died, but recall that it’s always good to ask the owner first to be polite.
My role-play is similar, but the other roleplay is dead yet the owner is active
Either ask the owner or wait two months. And as prementioned, it’s always better and polite to ask the owner first.
I told you this.