This will be the second of a third chapter I will write on this post, but the third one will be very big and complicated while asking a lot of you guys, so give me some time to work it out.

This whole thing is an author's note. Just sayin'. TL;DR is at the bottom.

Well Jesus. That escalated quickly.

Really kicked up quite a storm, didn't I?

Ok, so hear me out, fellow authors. This guys, Logansey5, has PM'd me asking for forgiveness. At first, I thought, hell no. Right? And to a certain extent, I still feel that way. No way in a million years is this acceptable to anyone. It is straight up theft of property. And frankly, I don't see how anyone at any point can see that this is ok.

BUT. He explained himself. I will admit, he didn't do it in possibly the best manner, or the cleanest, but after sort of talking to him, it seems like it was misguided intentions. He didn't know what the hell he was doing (in a few ways), and he screwed up. Pretty badly. The purist inside me started to really want to hear him out.

Now granted, I made this a WAY bigger deal than it possibly needed to be, but this is an issue that runs rampant in many communities. But what we forget sometimes (incoming existential feels) is that these people, though doing really dickish things, are people. And when the creative well runs dry, or never got any water to begin with (admit it, writer's block is partial to no one), at the end of the day, we want work that is good and can be appreciated. And though this might be me being soft because this is this guy's first offense, and since I personally believe that any man can make amends after 1 fuck-up, I think this guy, like anyone else, can be a good writer.

To all of you guys that stood up for me on his work and 'amen'-ing my response work, SonicELITE, Anonymims, chrissdomm, aliyaperez101, nightmareking, EchoNumbers, Kieran Wespell, The Warty Hogg, DaRk-Ar741 and others, thank you. And tell me if I'm being too lenient on this guy. But I have a soft spot for up-and-coming writers, since I pretty much was one about a month ago. We need to make sure that this doesn't happen again, but for those who just want to write, don't know how, and are just misguided as hell, rather than those who want to basically get a piece of the action, we need to help them out. Give em a bit of rehab, teach them how to go out into the world and be creative, and grow as a learner and a writer.

Now by no means have I let this guy off the hook. This is what needs to happen with him, and really anyone else who plagiarizes, for them not realizing how bad this hurts creators. He needs to 1) Take an interest in really being better. If someone just copies work, puts it up, hurts creators for a few days while he's in the process of being reported, and does it for the hell of it, they get nothing. But for those that reach out to us and want to prove they can be better (and believe me, they can be), we have a moral obligation to help these people realize that what they are doing is wrong on so many levels. This will spread awareness of the problem and fix it at the same time. They also need to 2) Put out something that is original to prove they want to get on the straight and narrow. Ok, creativity isn't straight and narrow, but you get my point. We help them, but we make sure they aren't doing this scummy stuff anymore, rather, putting out some quality rather than cancerous garbage that hurts the rest of the community and takes time away from making our own content to deal with those who don't.

And lastly, they need to really make up for their actions. To rally with us when they see it happening, and making a shitstorm as well as us. Because I think that once future plagiarizers see what can happen, what does happen, and what will become of them if they can't get back on course from this very toxic deviation, they can stop, and once again, spread awareness. Because at one point, they were part of the problem, and they can get off of it too.

As a writer, this guy is totally not off the hook. He's got a lot to do before he makes up for this, and it needs to be that way with everyone, and I hope that this has spread enough awareness to the situation that more of us react more swiftly to this kind of behavior and are able to fix the problem. But as a human, I can forgive him. For now. So IF (and this is a bigger if than my font size will allow) he gets out there with truly original content (I have PM'd him on how to get real inspiration without copying, so let's see where this goes), and he tries to make amends for what he has done, please don't be toxic with him. Don't make him not want to write, because we all love writing for what it is: being able to put our creativity out there for the world to see and admire, and hopefully not touch. So helping these guys get that same experience is in my opinion our moral duty.

I think that we've done something good here. We've made a noise on an important issue, but now, I think it's time that we take the high road and help them out. If I'm doing the wrong thing here, I'm sorry. But from one writer to another, I think that the creative in all of us really wants to see people like him mend his ways and put out something that is additive and transformative, like what we try and do. This first chapter was a rallying cry for not just my story, but for stories in general. This one is what to do in the aftermath of our outcry.

This is the human thing to do. Not vengeful or spiteful as I initially wanted. But human.

I hope that this has a bigger effect than I realistically think it will. Because this can be fixed in a better way than just making a whole bunch of noise at those who did us wrong. And I'm going to just avoid bringing my own faith into this. This is solely human.

This comes from now seeing both sides of the situation. I know personally that this was probably something that should have never happened, and needs to be avoided at all costs. But we need to, as we stop these guys in their tracks, and let them know that what they did won't be tolerated, let them know that there is another way. And for people like Logansey5, (Come on, you didn't even change the A/N? Pretty much a dead giveaway.) we need to educate them. Bring them in. But let them and everyone else know this:

PLAGIARISM.

WILL.

NOT.

BE.

TOLERATED.

This needs to be stopped, but in a productive and not toxic way that helps everyone.

We made our noise. And I'm proud of this community as a whole for doing so. This has been sort of a faith-restored-in-humanity type experience for me. We need to take the next step in making the community truly something great.

Authors, don't think less of me for trying to bring in those who may have done us a disservice.

Plagiarizers, if you're really just struggling to find an idea of your own, let us know. For me at least, I am happy to help. But don't go about it in this wrong way.

Thank you all. Until next time!

TL;DR- High road in the process of being taken, glad we could make a noise. Don't be so mean, to me or this guy- let's take a better, more civilized path to making our community great. But never let our voices go unheard. Ever. Bring the dissenters in. Peace.