It hurts a lot when people go about stealing works here on nairaland without contacting nor crediting the authors,some even went to the extent of claiming ownership of those stories written by nairaland authors and receives praises and accolades for scripts they don't know how the authors struggled to put down.

I was once a writer here on nairaland, i was so committed to the story,begging my readers to comment and encourage me, sleepless night just to write an update because i dont always get the opportunity to write during the day holding to the fact that i was still schooling, all my dreams, effort and commitment was shattered when i accidentally discovered my work on some Facebook pages and groups,what amazed me was the huge number of likes and comments people drops on each episode while here on nairaland i don't get anything more than 10 to 13 comments on each update,i decided to confront one of the Plagiarist because non of them credited me and according to the comments the poster was claiming ownership because they were all calling his name and praising him while they beg for next episode to be dropped quickly. I dropped a comment claiming ownership of the work and also i dropped a direct link of the story here on nairaland to back up my claim but i was disappointed by the outcome, the guy insulted me while his fans followed up and started calling me names, it was really sad and bad experience for me, i was hurt, from that moment i hated writing, my self-esteem failed me while i lost all the inspiration, writing became boring than fun to me not because i'm weak but because there were more than 10 different people posting the story on fb all claiming ownership, you can imagine how low my spirit went but i didn't give up, i needed to prove that i own the work so i went on and discovered more people posting the work but the good thing as of then was that most of them were on episode 42 while here on nairaland i was on episode 54 which was the last episode for season 1 of the story, so i went and deleted the story from episode 43 to the end and then put my contact info for any one who needs the remaining episodes of the story, believe me people started contacting me through my Facebook username that i dropped, all asking for the remaining episodes and why i deleted it, in other not to bore you with the long story i told each of them to show me where they were posting the story tho some said that they only wanted to read while some provided link to where they were posting it, i then took the right steps to create awareness before restoring the episodes back, the bad news was that i couldn't write the season 2 due to loss of interest but after a while my fans persuaded me to come back and finish the work i managed to get back but not like before cos the inspiration wasn't following anymore whenever i try to think and imagine all i see is blank space instead of images and ideas i really struggled to finish it.

So here are the 2 things i suggest nairaland writers should start doing in other to protect their works,actually we're the one making a mistake, we let them copy our works without creating us simply because we also failed to credit ourselves, believe me those people copying our work is actually our die hard fans that's what i discovered when those people that were actually copying my work became my friend on fb, they were all calling me boss and pleading for forgiveness.


1.first step

Always end the title of your story with your name
example hole in the wall by souloho19, katakata street by centino

Step 2

Your episodes, sub-heading or sub-title should always end with your name and must be written on each episode of your work

Choose one of the examples below and make sure to write that way on each episodes of your work

(for your title) katakata street . By Centino
Or
(for your episode) Episode 10. Story by Larrysun

NUMBER 225 KATAKATA STREET
(for sub-title) The New Tennant.Story By centino


2

Create a label or should say trade mark to protect your works, now don't be confused let me explain that to you.

Just in a bracket write your name,email or social media handle that will identify who the author is and would enable any of your fan or readers to reach you, also write something to tell any one reading your work that you're the main owner of the work then copy it and be sure to paste it on each paragraph of your episode such that each episode would have about 4 to 6 of it.

Example..
(This story is written by youngzubi,reach me on Facebook young zubi desmond)

Or if u prefer your email address

(This story is written by youngzubi.reach me on my email youngzubi@gmail.com)


Better still your phone number or whatsap

(This story is written by youngzubi. Contact me on 080 na u sabi de remaining)

After you must have done one of the above kindly copy it and paste them before or after each paragraph on your episodes, this will enable your readers to know who owns the work even if it's being copied by a Plagiarist, if they decide to edit by deleting those things believe me there are some that they won't see or notice but i dont think they would have time to start editing because they only COPY!

Still your guy youngzubi
Centino
TheBlessedMan
Souloho19
Larrysun

Nice One Frm You ... I Love Ur Work... I Easily Understand Ur Write Up In Pidgin.. Sex Na Food

My man Youngzubi. Correct guy.

I get you totally man. What I must say however is that no plagiarist is worthy of the credit for losing your mojo.

Guy, you see this internet, once you click send/submit/post you no longer have control. If you try, you will be grasping at straws. First time I found out they were stealing my work, I came here and threatened fire and brimstone. Then in the dead of the night I begin reason the thing. When I brought my work to a free platform what exactly was I expecting? The people that pitch their works with publishers and/or spend their money to self publish (In Lasisi Elenu's voice) ARE THEY MAD?

If you want to write here or for any free platform, you must be sure of the reason you are doing it, and do not take yourself too seriously. Once you begin to feel like that, then know that it is time to package your work and go and find a publisher or start your own website or find any of those escape routes our readers always accuse us of here on Nairaland.

Nowadays when I talk about my Katakata Street being plagiarized, I am doing so only for the benefit of the thief because I know that the thunder that is warming up to fire them is such that even I will have pity on them when it happens so I advise them to do the ethical thing for their own safety.

All those gymnastics so that they will not steal something I am already giving out for free will only be dispiriting. It is not as if Seun is sharing his billions with me for the traffic I bring to his website.

Thank you for this awareness.
This same plagiarism issue is the reason I don't write on Nairaland.

Oga Seun, if it's possible try and make all comments, write-ups and generally all posts on Nairaland inaccessible to copying. I mean there are codes to use for that, right?

Centino:
My man Youngzubi. Correct guy.

I get you totally man. What I must say however is that no plagiarist is worthy of the credit for losing your mojo.

Guy, you see this internet, once you click send/submit/post you no longer have control. If you try, you will be grasping at straws. First time I found out they were stealing my work, I came here and threatened fire and brimstone. Then in the dead of the night I begin reason the thing. When I brought my work to a free platform what exactly was I expecting? The people that pitch their works with publishers and/or spend their money to self publish (In Lasisi Elenu's voice) ARE THEY MAD?

If you want to write here or for any free platform, you must be sure of the reason you are doing it, and do not take yourself too seriously. Once you begin to feel like that, then know that it is time to package your work and go and find a publisher or start your own website or find any of those escape routes our readers always accuse us of here on Nairaland.

Nowadays when I talk about my Katakata Street being plagiarized, I am doing so only for the benefit of the thief because I know that the thunder that is warming up to fire them is such that even I will have pity on them when it happens so I advise them to do the ethical thing for their own safety.

All those gymnastics so that they will not steal something I am already giving out for free will only be dispiriting. It is not as if Seun is sharing his billions with me for the traffic I bring to his website.

Lol

Bro the matter Na big issue, i guess we should just continue with our charity work cos literature section is charity forum unlike politics section that bloggers use to drive traffic into their sites

New story coming up soon sha
Title MAN PIKIN IN A WONDERLAND(ADVENTURE)

Pinkberry5:
Thank you for this awareness.
This same plagiarism issue is the reason I don't write on Nairaland.

Oga Seun, if it's possible try and make all comments, write-ups and generally all posts on Nairaland inaccessible to copying. I mean there are codes to use for that, right?

I guess that can only be possibly in apps

i hate to be copying people story to my blog. without asking for permission. d pain d writer take in writing,the idea and d logic. and many blogger will still claim to be d writer of d people work. Reason y i tell d reader that am,not d writer of stories


youngzubi centino

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