Posting as per soulless' request.
Peppersghost came to 17 asking to speak to a moderator to submit a plagiarism complaint regarding DrChandra (account age 1907 days, member for 1906) and the articles Clown Town and SCP-3440.
Screenshots of conversation are pending on PPG and will be added to this post when they are supplied. Here is my conversation with Peppers regarding the topic.
<PeppersGhost> It's about Chandra.
12:42 PM Since this may be logged, I'll start from the beginning.
12:42 PM <unclenicolini> Please do go on, let me know when you are done
12:43 PM <PeppersGhost> During my hiatus from the site, DrChandra started corresponding with me via wikidot asking questions about Herman Fuller's Circus of the Disquieting.
12:45 PM Specifically in regards to lore that I had planned but hadn't put into practice yet. I provided it, with what I thought was an understanding that it was Chandra's voluntary was of making sure any Circus stuff they wrote would be compatible with what I intended to do.
12:46 PM Time went on and Chandra got antsy when I never posted anything. This eventually evolved into Chandra straight-up writing articles based around the lore I provided then without my permission or consent.
12:46 PM I talked to them about this after a particularly egregious incident and they apologized profusely.
12:48 PM Then today Chandra posted Clown Town. It contains some original embellishments, but the whole thing is basically a retelling of the same origin story I gave for the Clowns, though with significant deviations.
12:48 PM You'll notice I am not credited anywhere.
12:49 PM Chandra claimed once that they just wanted to make sure the lore I spent so much time working on made it onto the site. It is clear now that this is not the case. If Chandra wanted to help me tell my story, they would not change things around to suit their canon.
12:50 PM What started out as shared lore for canon compatibility has turned into what I believe is bald-faced plagiarism.
12:51 PM <unclenicolini> OK. Do I have your permission to share this with the disc team so they may deliberate?
12:54 PM <PeppersGhost> Yes.
12:54 PM And I can provide the original messages I sent Chandra
12:54 PM Some at least; I think some might be on irc logs I don't have anymore but the bulk will be wikidot
12:55 PM <unclenicolini> Okay. Let me know when you gather those and Ill stick them in the O5 post when I make it in a few.
12:57 PM <PeppersGhost> The real smoking gun here, though, is SCP-3440. The first paragraph of the description was lifted from my sandbox. My sandbox! They decided to "helpfully" finish my SCP draft without my consent and publish it under the pretext of a "kind of collaboration"
12:58 PM And I forgave them for it and only asked that they let me replace the article with my own version when it was finished.
12:58 PM And then they go and post Clown Town without even mentioning where the entire idea came from.
Posting at the request of Nico so he can go do his doctor's appointment.
Here is the irccloud log of PeppersGhost's PM to Nico, which has the proof of 3440's plagiarism. https://www.irccloud.com/pastebin/pMMSQOJE
Here is the sandbox link: http://scpsandbox2.wikidot.com/peppermill
To clarify, as some of it gets lost in pastebin's formatting (or lack thereof…)
I believe most of the Clown Town discussion took place over IRC, so that would require much deeper digging that I don't have time for at the moment. It's kind of moot, though, because the most egregious and clear-cut plagiarism is SCP-3440. As mentioned in the chat log, the reason why I didn't report this sooner is because the Clown Town incident made me lose any remaining belief that Chandra has been acting in good faith.
My work, dated January 7th 2016:
Special Containment Procedures: All knowledge of SCP-XXXX and its point of access must be restricted to Foundation personnel. Any non-Foundation individuals capable of perceiving and accessing SCP-XXXX's entry point are to be interviewed and amnesticized. Foundation agents embedded in the Civic Opera Building's security staff are to prevent access to SCP-XXXX, except in the case of authorized personnel.
Description: SCP-XXXX is a dual-purpose entertainment and embalmment facility of anomalous construction and operation located approximately 100 feet beneath the ground floor of the Civic Opera Building in Chicago, Illinois…
SCP-XXXX is accessed via an elevator in the basement of the Civic Opera Building. The elevator is protected by a perceptual anomaly that renders it undetectable to human subjects who do not have prior knowledge of SCP-XXXX's existence. This defense mechanism, combined with additional pretermemetic interference4, prevented the Foundation from discovering SCP-XXXX until…
The main room of SCP-XXXX is a three-story theater built for an audience capacity of 1,044…
Chandra, October 1st 2017:
Special Containment Procedures: All knowledge of SCP-3440 and its point of access must be restricted to personnel with 3440/2 clearance or higher. Any non-Foundation individuals capable of perceiving and accessing SCP-3440's entry point are to be detained, debriefed and amnesticized. Foundation agents embedded in the Civic Opera Building's security staff are to prevent unauthorized access to SCP-3440.
…
Description: SCP-3440 is a dual-purpose entertainment and embalming facility of anomalous construction and operation located approximately ██ meters beneath the ground floor of the Civic Opera Building in Chicago, Illinois…
SCP-3440 is accessed via an elevator in the basement of the Civic Opera Building. The elevator is protected by a perceptual anomaly that renders it undetectable to human subjects who do not have prior knowledge of SCP-3440's existence. This defence mechanism, combined with additional pretermemetic1 interference, prevented the Foundation from discovering SCP-3440 until…
The main room of SCP-3440 is a three-story theatre built for an audience capacity of 1,044…
Excerpt from a message I sent via Wikidot PM to DrChandra on June 29th 2017:
Sorry about that; as you can tell, I tend to move at a pretty glacial pace when it comes to responding to messages.
To address your questions:What are the remaining 2 SCPs you have planned?
Okay, well, they're gonna be pretty dang long, so even the summaries are gonna be pretty lengthy, but I'll give it a shot:Herman Fuller's Marvelous Mechanical Marionette Matinee (title pending): a clockwork theater located 75 meters below the Civic Opera Building in Chicago, Illinois. It was created by Fuller as part of his later efforts to expand his entertainment empire beyond the circus. The theater also served the purpose of allowing Fuller to get additional performances out of performers who had already died.
The theater is a dual-purpose entertainment and embalming facility. In essence, when a deceased human body is placed in the machine, it is automatically embalmed through injections of paraffin and the replacement of blood with glycerin. A compound similar to SCP-1921-A2 is also introduced into the body, effectively replacing the subject's nervous system. Unlike SCP-1921-A2, threadlike strands extend from the subject's arms, head, and shoulders. These strands are then connected to the overall theater machine. Once connected and activated, the corpse becomes a human marionette that the theater can control. Marionettes aren't fully alive, but they're not fully dead either.
The audience seats in front of the stage are full of old marionettes that have been disconnected and covered by sheets. One lone marionette remains connected to the system, bearing the name "Herman Fuller." The machine is programmed for several performances: a monologue about himself, a musical number, and a serious of inarticulate screams. The third performance, unlike the previous two, does not seem to be on a set loop and always has unique variations.
[Crapton of additional lore redacted for brevity]
Hoooo boy! Having typed all this up, I now remember just how freaking much I still have left to write. I need to get on that while there's still good spots left in Series IV. I don't think I'll be able to get to critiquing your newer stuff in this sitting, but I'll try not to keep you waiting another three weeks!
So, yeah, this is officially how Herman Fuller meets his end. However, the Circus doesn't always travel linearly through time, so there's still the possibility they can run into him while he's still living.
As you can see, there is no room to question whether or not I still intended to finish the draft.
Plagiarism is a permaban-worthy offense and as such, Chandra deserves a permaban.
Supporting this motion.
Perma. HAs the article been summarily deleted?
Living the dream, or dreaming the life?
<DrChandra> Hey, my latest piece got accused of plagiarism in the comments, but they didn't explain what was plagirized
9:20 PM <%AbsentmindedNihilist> DrChandra: have you checked 05?
9:21 PM D<DrChandra> I haven't, will now
9:21 PM <%AbsentmindedNihilist> that has some explanation and evidence for the whole affair.
9:21 PM → VincentVanGone joined ⇐ Gee0765 quit
9:21 PM D<DrChandra> Yep, I've got a disc thread
9:22 PM <%AbsentmindedNihilist> as i am not disc
9:22 PM i cannot handle any matters related to this
9:22 PM i am looking right now for someone who can.
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9:22 PM <@taylor_iOStkin> Hi
9:22 PM taylor_iOStkin → @taylor_itkin
9:23 PM <@taylor_itkin> give me a second, Chandra
9:23 PM D<DrChandra> They're talking about permabanning me. What can I do?
9:23 PM <@taylor_itkin> Let me get up to date on your thread, give me a minute.
9:23 PM D<DrChandra> I'll do anythingto stay on the site, please
9:24 PM <@taylor_itkin> Dude.
9:24 PM Take a deep breath, ok?
9:24 PM Let me read the thread, let me get up to date.
9:25 PM We can talk in a minute.
9:25 PM ok?
9:25 PM D<DrChandra> No
9:25 PM <@taylor_itkin> Let me lay out for you what is going to happen here.
9:26 PM I am your friend. As such, I cannot cast any impartial opinion on this situation.
9:26 PM So.
9:26 PM ⇐ DoctorPensin quit (~ten.tsacmoc.nm.1dsh.3628105D-CRInys|criigc#ten.tsacmoc.nm.1dsh.3628105D-CRInys|criigc) Quit: CGI:IRC (EOF)
9:26 PM <@taylor_itkin> I'm going to let you lay out a defense for yourself here.
9:26 PM D<DrChandra> Thank you
9:26 PM <@taylor_itkin> If you consent to it, which I hope you do, I'm going to post it to O5.
9:27 PM D<DrChandra> Ok.
9:27 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok.
9:27 PM The floor is yours.
9:27 PM D<DrChandra> The permaban is for 3440, right?
9:27 PM ⇐ Tufto quit (llafwons.fo.yrotsih|100743diu#llafwons.fo.yrotsih|100743diu) Quit: Connection closed for inactivity
9:27 PM D<DrChandra> I can barely read it right now
9:28 PM <@taylor_itkin> claims of plagiarism related to PeppersGhost's lore and SCP-3440, yes.
9:28 PM ⇐ dolphinslugchugger, LordofLaugh, minathewitch and MirageTD quit
9:29 PM D<DrChandra> He seems to be upset I didn't credit him, but I honestly don't remember him telling me about Clown Town. I'm going to dig up the e-mails.
9:30 PM <@taylor_itkin> Clown Town isn't the main issue.
9:34 PM → Laneous, Alces_ and Doctor joined ⇐ DrChandra quit
9:35 PM D<Doctor> https://www.wikidot.com/account/messages#/inbox/4116614
9:35 PM <@taylor_itkin> for record keeping, Doctor above is DrChandra (same host mask)
9:36 PM Also, Doctor, that gives me an error.
9:36 PM C<@Corvus> We cannot read your wikidot messages
9:36 PM D<Doctor> Relevant line - I had virtually no mythos in mind for the Clowns.
9:36 PM That's Pepper saying that
9:36 PM It's an wikidot email, how can I show it to you?
9:36 PM <@taylor_itkin> screenshot it.
9:36 PM D<Doctor> Okay, please be patient with me
9:37 PM P<PeppersGhost> I'll stay out of this for the most part (right now at least) but I will step in to say that this predates the conversations about clown origins
9:38 PM → %Dora (was Dora; halfopped) joined
9:39 PM P<PeppersGhost> I had no mythos in mind at the time. It was through further conversations about HF lore that I ended up providing my thoughts on clown origins
9:39 PM D<Doctor> PeppersGhost: I did not steal Clown Town.
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9:40 PM <@taylor_itkin> This is not going to be a platform for you two to fight or argue
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9:40 PM <@taylor_itkin> Peppers, please either stop talking for now or leave the room. This is Chandra's time to defend himself.
9:41 PM P<PeppersGhost> Understood, sorry. Just wanted to provide context for that particular statement.
9:41 PM D<Doctor> Does the screenshot even matter now then?
9:41 PM <@taylor_itkin> if you feel the need to provide context or whatever send it to me in a PM.
9:41 PM Yes, Chandra, if it is part of your defense.
9:42 PM D<Doctor> blob:moz-extension://2fa47285-e777-443b-ba59-eb3a8abd61ae/4efeb3a4-fda3-4a32-9aa6-a9a250c86bab
9:43 PM <@taylor_itkin> that's not a link that works.
9:43 PM D<Doctor> What's Pepper's Claim that Clown Town is his original idea?
9:44 PM <@taylor_itkin> >
It contains some original embellishments, but the whole thing is basically a retelling of the same origin story I gave for the Clowns, though with significant deviations.
9:44 PM D<Doctor> Can he prove that?
9:46 PM <@taylor_itkin> >
I believe most of the Clown Town discussion took place over IRC, so that would require much deeper digging that I don't have time for at the moment. It's kind of moot, though, because the most egregious and clear-cut plagiarism is SCP-3440. As mentioned in the chat log, the reason why I didn't report this sooner is because the Clown Town incident made me lose any remaining belief that Chandra has been acting in good faith.
9:47 PM D<Doctor> But I deny that Clown Town is an act of plagiarism, and he previously forgave me for 3440
9:47 PM I just need to figure out how to let you see screenshots
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9:48 PM <@taylor_itkin> He forgave you for 3440?
9:48 PM D<Doctor> Yes, and I have e-mails saying so
9:48 PM <@taylor_itkin> That's not the point.
9:48 PM If he *forgave* you for 3440, then you're admitting that you did in fact plagiarize it.
9:48 PM And that in of itself is extremely problematic.
9:49 PM D<Doctor> No, he accused of plagiarism, but privately, and we worked it out
9:49 PM I maintain I was acting in good faith, and that Clown Town was not based on anything previously written, in a sandbox or otherwise, but Pepper
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9:50 PM <@taylor_itkin> your message got cut off at 'but Pepper'
9:50 PM D<Doctor> I meant by pepper
9:51 PM How do I do IRC pastebins that you can see?
9:51 PM <@taylor_itkin> just post them.
9:51 PM D<Doctor> where?
9:52 PM <@taylor_itkin> right here.
9:52 PM Ok.
9:52 PM D<Doctor> These are long e-mails, it will take too long
9:52 PM <@taylor_itkin> So.
9:53 PM I'm going to ask you to address the claims made specifically in the O5 thread before going into Clown Town.
9:53 PM I'd like for you to at least get some relevant and pertinent defense statements in.
9:53 PM Especially since you're having trouble with the current line of defense, technologically.
9:55 PM → +CuteGirl (was CuteGirl; voiced) joined
9:55 PM D<Doctor> I need some way to show you the e-mails between me and Pepper
9:56 PM <@taylor_itkin> Clown Town was the catalyst, not the main issue that was reported.
9:57 PM A<@ARD> Doctor: can you take computer or mobile screenshots
9:57 PM D<Doctor> I can, but I can't seem to link them
9:57 PM U<@unclenicolini> Doctor are you on a computer or mobile
9:57 PM A<@ARD> Can’t you just upload them directly to your client
9:57 PM D<Doctor> computer
9:57 PM U<@unclenicolini> Windows?
9:58 PM D<Doctor> how?
9:58 PM Please, I'm not thinking clearly
9:58 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok.
9:58 PM Everyone stop.
9:58 PM Chandra.
9:58 PM Take a deep breath.
9:58 PM If I could make a suggestion
9:59 PM take a few minutes. Come back later. This has been a conversation with absolutely 0 consistent topic or point of conversation.
9:59 PM Come back when you are both able to breathe and able to form coherent sentences that I will be able to actually understand
9:59 PM D<Doctor> I can do this.
10:00 PM — @taylor_itkin sigh
10:00 PM D<Doctor> First argument: Yes, 3440 was originally Pepper's idea, we discussed it and he wrote the first paragraph of it or so in his sandbox, which I acknowledge in the comments and it's credited as co-authored.
10:00 PM → dolphinslugchugger joined (seussit.fo.rorretrorroh|si.ehs#seussit.fo.rorretrorroh|si.ehs)
10:01 PM D<Doctor> Second: Due to his absence, I did post the final version without his explicit conscent, which he took issue with, but we eventually resolved the matter privately and he decided that discipline was not required, and I have e-mails to support this
10:01 PM Thus, 3440 was not plagiarized
10:02 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok.
10:03 PM D<Doctor> I also fully deny that Clown Town is an act of Plagiarism. Pepper and I have discussed Herman Fuller lore often, but he never wrote or discussed writing a something like Clown Town.
10:04 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok
10:05 PM D<Doctor> Please submit this to my disc thread, as everyone talking about perma-banning me is freaking me out
10:05 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok.
10:06 PM Is that all?
10:07 PM D<Doctor> I have e-mails to support my claim, and once I figure out how to share them I'll link you
10:07 PM <@taylor_itkin> Ok.
10:08 PM Feel free to PM them to me on wikidot when you can.
10:08 PM D<Doctor> Ok, I might just forward them to you actually
10:08 PM <@taylor_itkin> ok.
10:10 PM Is that all you want to say?
10:11 PM D<Doctor> Can I plead for leniency? I acknoweldge that I shouldn't have posted 3440 without Peppers permission, but I deny that it was an act of plagiarism and we worked this out over two years ago. I'm contributed a lot to this site and it means a lot to me.
10:12 PM <@taylor_itkin> Its in the defense logs now, so it'll be on the thread.
10:12 PM D<Doctor> Also, I sent you the first e-mail
10:12 PM <@taylor_itkin> ok.
10:13 PM Anything else?
10:13 PM → Pratten and DeamonHeart joined
10:14 PM D<Doctor> I don't know what else there is to say
10:14 PM <@taylor_itkin> Alright.
10:14 PM I'll be putting this on O5.
10:16 PM D<Doctor> They already deleted my account!
10:16 PM Please, I'll even take a year ban, but please don't perma ban me!
10:17 PM How can you delete my account without first giving me a chance to refute the charges?
10:18 PM Someone please tell me there's a way to get my account back
10:18 PM <@taylor_itkin> your account isn't deleted
10:18 PM OK.
10:18 PM D<Doctor> my membership's been removed
10:18 PM <@taylor_itkin> Yes
10:18 PM but your account still exists.
10:18 PM Here's what I'm going to do.
10:18 PM I'm going to post this on O5.
10:18 PM I will post a single comment with it.
10:19 PM And stuff will proceed from there.
10:19 PM I have no control over the situation from here on out.
10:19 PM D<Doctor> I know, thank you taylor
10:19 PM <@taylor_itkin> You're welcome.
I don't think we should take this as their appeal, as they weren't even aware the ban had gone through until halfway through.
PeppersGhost
To: DrChandra
It's me again
3 Jan 2018, 08:14
Happy New Year!
I owe you a huge apology for ghosting you. Long story short, I'm easily distracted, and my parents' divorce coupled with finishing my degree were enough to pull me away from thinking about SCPs until the holidays rolled around and I got back to feeling like a person again. Even with circumstances the way they were, though, it was still very rude of me to leave you hanging without a word about my situation, and I'm sorry for that.
Having said all that, we need to address the matter of SCP-3440.
The quality of piece is not an issue. In fact, I only read the first few paragraphs because I want to remain impartial on my opinions of the piece itself. I know we already kind of collaborating together—and I'm not opposed to collaborating in the future!—and I know that I left you hanging and made myself an impossible person to collaborate with for a while there, but lifting text word-for-word from my sandbox without my explicit consent was a blatant violation of site protocol. The issue isn't how I feel about you using my ideas and writing, per se. The issue is more that you didn't know how I'd feel about it, and proceeded to post it to the site regardless.
I realize this creates a rather precarious situation since you're on wiki staff. On the one hand, I'm a pretty big stickler for rules and keeping authority figures accountable, and let's face it, this would qualify as plagiarism by the site's standards. On the other hand, I like you, I like your writing, I appreciate your interest in the things I've written, and I'd still like to work things out so we can work together in the future without any hard feelings. All-in-all, I don't want to blow this up into a huge issue, but I don't think it would be appropriate to let it remain entirely unseen either.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure really sure what I'm asking for here, if anything. I disagree with the process you've undertaken, but at this point I don't have any strong opinion regarding what to do about the article itself. Mostly, I think I just felt like getting all that off my chest. I haven't snitched to the higher-ups, so I'll leave it to your discretion as to what to do next. In the meantime, I look forward to getting caught up on the other things you've written.
Got a reply from DrChandra:
Hi Zyn
I would like to appeal this ban.
Just to reiterate to you what I told taylor:
1. Yes, 3440 was originally Pepper's idea, we discussed it and he wrote the first paragraph of it or so in his sandbox, which I acknowledge in the comments and it's credited as co-authored.
2. Due to his absence, I did post the final version without his explicit conscent, which he took issue with, but we eventually resolved the matter privately and he decided that discipline was not required. Thus, 3440 was not plagiarized.
3. I also fully deny that Clown Town is an act of Plagiarism. Pepper and I have discussed Herman Fuller lore often, but he never wrote or discussed writing something like Clown Town.A recent convo between me and Pepper:
DrChandra Can we talk? I'm not mad. If you have anything you'd like to say to me I'd like you to say it.
22:57 PeppersGhost We can talk. I still can't find the logs—I might not have them, I bounced between several computers during college—so there's probably never going to be real closure for Clown Town. I can tell you what I remember if it's worth anything.
22:58 PeppersGhost Suffice it to say for now I remember contributing to the concept and I started composing a long letter to you about it asking humbly to be mentioned in the comments
23:00 PeppersGhost But the longer I worked on it, the more it became clear to me that I didn't want to do that kind of thing anymore, and that I wasn't really happy with how the 3440 thing resolved
23:01 DrChandra I sincerely do no recall Clown Town being your original idea. We talked about Clowns, yes.
23:02 DrChandra I understand why you weren't happy with 3440. I got off to light, I agree
23:02 PeppersGhost As I'm sure you've been looking over our old messages as well, you'll notice the part where I talked about the clowns being ZK.
23:02 DrChandra Yes, that's still in the draft on the collab wiki
23:03 DrChandra This was originally an SCP, but I couldn't get it to work, so I made it a Serpent's Hand, and thus no ZK
23:04 DrChandra I don't deny that we've talked about Clowns, just that Clown Town is plagiarized.
23:04 PeppersGhost Is the conversation about it in there?
23:05 DrChandra I don't know, didn't look
23:06 PeppersGhost In my recollection, you inquired for further information for why they would have ZK potential, and that's when I came in with the talk about how they're reality benders
23:06 DrChandra They were reality benders long before Clown Town was posted.
23:07 DrChandra Forget about the work. I just want you and I to be ok. I just have this crushing sense that all my friends hate me now.
23:07 PeppersGhost I don't think you stole Clown Town per session, in fact I'm pretty sure you came up with the name
23:07 PeppersGhost It was specially regarding their Homeland having a lower Hume field that put it in a state of flux and that the clowns preferred our plane because it offered more stability
23:08 PeppersGhost In fact I'm not sure the latter half is really mentioned in your piece? I honestly didn't read it super thoroughly
23:09 DrChandra I haven't checked, but I'm sure it's deleted, but if I get my account back and I make it co-authored and acknowledge your contribution, even if we can't agree on what it was, would that fix anything or would that be too little too late?
23:13 PeppersGhost In any case. Hindsight tells me that this was probably a case of us having so many conversations about this stuff that the lines between where my contributions ended and your ideas began we're blurred. I may have jumped the gun on feeling like you weren't acting in good faith, but the feeling of frustration was still present and I dreaded the idea that this would continue to be an ongoing issue. I just wanted it done with
23:13 PeppersGhost me not having to police you, not having to feel like I'm keeping secrets, just everything out in the open instead of the weird power imbalance of trying to help you not get banned but also feeling slighted
23:13 PeppersGhost I mean, for what it's worth, the thing that made keep it a secret this long is that I really hate the idea of you being permabanned, and I hope you appeal
23:15 DrChandra Can you tell that someone on O5? That you want the ban appealed?
23:15 DrChandra I am appealing, of course.
23:15 PeppersGhost I don't care if the piece is deleted or not, or if it's put back on the site
23:16 DrChandra It's still on the site, for some reason.
23:16 DrChandra But if the person accusing me of wrong doing doesn't want be banned than that must count for something, right?
23:17 DrChandra Is it okay If I send this whole conversation to Zyn?
23:20 PeppersGhost Again, as I've expressed to multiple people now, I acknowledge that the Clown Town deal is a lot more gray. You did come up with the almost all of it after all. It's gray. The logs don't exist and honestly even I can't say who was the first one to bring up the idea of a clown homeworld, only that I described what I thought it might be like and some of that ended up in the final piece. It's amorphous enough that it moved
23:20 PeppersGhost me to say something, but not concrete enough that I felt fully in my rights to pursue action against that particular piece, or would even really feel justified doing so
23:21 DrChandra But you don't want me permabanned, right?
23:21 PeppersGhost I suppose; I know I'm more rambly and emotional than what they're probably looking for in a disc accunt but that's my default state anyway
23:21 PeppersGhost Feel free to pass it on to Zyn, yeah
23:21 DrChandra Thank youPepper has indicated that he does not want me to be permabanned.
Even if you reject this appeal and come to the conclusion I have done wrong, I ask for leniency. I have contributed nearly a hundred articles to this wiki, and it means a lot to me. I request a temporary ban and the ability to use IRC chat.
Thank you
DrChandra has appealed for leniency on the ban, specifically for the ban to be temporary and for them to still be allowed to use IRC.
Speaking in this thread as the chatstaff who proposed and enacted the ban from 19.
Although there was some objection, a majority of responding operators and half-operators at the time it was discussed considered plagiarism a sufficiently severe infraction for us to use our ability to override site/chat separation.
As such, we will not be allowing DrChandra to use our chat until their ban is overturned, if such a day arrives.
Appeal and all the various PMs included. The minimum I'd be willing to commute the ban to is 1 year, and if the articles in question (SCP-3440 and Clown Town) have not been summarily deleted yet, have them removed from the site. (We should do this latter point regardless as to the ban length, but just bringing it up).
That said, if the rest of disc is of the opinion of retaining the permanent ban, I will support that decision as well.
As I am not involved in chat staff, I cannot comment on IRC access being restored.
I would be willing to commute it for a year, given that the slighted party also stated not wishing a ban (ie. desiring leniency.)
Living the dream, or dreaming the life?
The logs where this is mentioned above were sent in by the user at fault and are thus inherently in doubt.
Additionally, they don't even say "I definitely don't want you banned" and the wronged user mentions feeling overemotional at the time of writing - this is really not a good source for their final statement on the matter.
Also, plagiarism is still plagiarism even if the other person is a good sport about it or whatever. Our integrity as a writing community is the issue at hand, really, in my opinion.
Disregard, please see the post I will be making in a few minutes below.
Given this, also fine with commuting this to a year.
Noting that I ran this through Zyn and LadyKatie before posting.
PeppersGhost would like to add clarification to the matter. Statement below, relevant areas in blue
11:49 PM <PeppersGhost> Clarification on the Chandra debacle if any mods are still up: Chandra and I had been in talks to collaborate around the time 3440 happened, but I never intended for the Matinee (the idea/draft that turned into 3440) to be the subject of that collaboration. Chandra asked what I was planning to write, and I told him.
11:50 PM <PeppersGhost> (when I was looking through the 05 thread, that point seemed a little ambiguous/misleading)
11:51 PM → Sunconure11 joined (~PI.24C1C037.F778BA57.83A0E388|situO#PI.24C1C037.F778BA57.83A0E388|situO)
11:53 PM <%RockTeethMothEyes> Not a mod, but I am staff. I'll be sure to pass that along, Peppers.
11:53 PM <PeppersGhost> Thanks.
he previously forgave me for 3440
This is only of the barest relevance as the user is not Disc staff and plagiarism is a trespass against the integrity of the site as much as the wronged user. Agreeing with perma, appeal in one year, all the usual.
Although there was some objection, a majority of responding operators and half-operators at the time it was discussed considered plagiarism a sufficiently severe infraction for us to use our ability to override site/chat separation.
I was not present but, as a chat admin, I agree that this case crosses over between site and chat; chat was used to facilitate a wrongdoing on the site. The chat ban will be re-evaluated in the context of the site ban when changes are made to the site ban.
DrChandra PMed me this official statement they would like added to the record:
“I would like to officially acknowledge wrongdoing in the case of SCP-3440. I wrote it based on confidential information shared with me by Peppersghost as well as material present in his sandbox.
My original intention was to collaborate with him, however, he was then absent from the site for several months with no way for me to contact him. I posted my draft and tagged it as co-authored, and though I may have believed that at the time I accept now that I was not justified in doing that.
What I did was both immoral and in violation of the site’s rules, and as such I deserve to be punished. I derive a great deal of enjoyment and personal meaning by contributing to this site, so know that at least a year away from it will indeed be a punishment for me.
I sincerely hope that you will deem a year’s punishment sufficient and allow me a second chance to contribute to the site. I believe my content has been a net positive for the SCP Wiki, and I hope to be a net positive for it again.
I do however assert that Clown Town is not plagiarized in any sense, and since, to my knowledge, Pepper has no evidence to back his claim that it is, I would request that it remain on the site until such evidence is produced or it drops to -10.
I hope there are no hard feelings, and that we can all be friends again someday. Thank you.”
PeppersGhost has rescinded his previous statement of leniency for Chandra to me in a PM on Discord. Reasoning and proof of this below.
I feel like this entire situation was poorly handled by both parties. I feel like the truth is likely somewhere in between the two accounts, which has a great deal more "failures in communication by both parties" than "intent to deceive the wiki by passing off another person's work as one's own."
However, I also feel that Chandra, who is an experienced author, should know that nothing less than explicit assent to give up an idea, collaborate on an idea, etc. will suffice, and that there is no acceptable amount of time to wait before taking it upon themselves to believe they have the right of it.
I stand by my original suggestion of one year, with the opportunity to appeal in six months.
(account deleted)