17 June 2012
Having been away from Opuss for a while, I have spent some time tonight browsing all the excellent material that has been posted. However, the last hour of this browsing took a serious turn as I learnt of the recent scandal that broke while I was away. I don't want to drag it back into the light, as it has all been dealt with, but I feel the need to express some thoughts on what it means. If anyone reads this and has a constructive response I would love to hear from you. Hopefully the fact that I am writing this at 01:15 in the morning means that not many people will see it. This is for the best, as I suspect some people may still feel sore about the whole matter.
So, to begin. I joined Opuss fairly early on, in the days when it was all new and experimental. I really enjoyed creative writing at school, and since leaving I had lost an outlet for my words. Opuss intrigued me, and so I got involved. It was fantastic! The community, considerably smaller back then, were all lovely people, and their posts were diverse and just...Aah. Words can't describe it. I don't think I can even spell the noise I just made, but I hope you know what I mean.
I tentatively posted one of my poems, not really expecting much. Yet lo and behold, I quickly received a lot of positive comments. This was a real confidence boost, and Opuss became a great source of emotional inspiration and strength to me. Be it one like or twenty, what matters to me most is that people can read and appreciate my work. Even if only one person ever reads a poem of mine, it has been shared. That is the importance of Opuss to me, that we can share with each other.
After Opuss had been around for a bit, users started to fall into one of two categories: those posting their own creations, and those posting quotes. These are equally as valid as each other, but having joined Opuss for poetry I steered clear for the large part of the quotes.
It seems that this posting of quotes has over time become infected with a dangerous disease known as plagiarism. Everyone can make mistakes, and establishing copyright is a very complex process riddled with pitfalls. Blatant, uncaring plagiarism is not on though.
As others have pointed out, the rating system is partly (unintentionally) involved in this. It is pretty much inevitable that as soon as a ranking system is implemented in any walk of life, there will be those who want to be at the top. A ranking imposes a hierarchy that can be both a blessing and a curse. In the beginning of my time here I was astonished to find I was rank 99, and again this boosted my confidence a great deal. Equally though, I felt pressured to maintain/improve on this position, and it is perhaps this pressure that leads us to desperate, foolish ends.
I can proudly say that every single one of my Opusses is my own original work, and the majority of users are exactly the same. I don't consider myself an authority of any kind on here, and the fact that I have a better rank than others is purely because I have been here longer and thus had more time to post Opusses.
The quality of other peoples' Opusses is magnificent, and you should all be proud of what you have created. Every time I check Opuss I find something genuinely inspiring, and it is a privilege to be amongst this vibrant community. There will always be a minority of plagiarism and bad-mouthing, but that does not have to affect the majority. Normally a phrase like 'actions speak louder than words' would be used at this point, but as Opuss is about "Beautiful Words", I am unsure what to say.
It is possible that a lot of what I have written makes no sense. It now being 01:51 I cannot vouch for my grammar, but I hope that the general tone of my piece comes across. These are certainly not beautiful words that I have written, but they are sincere.
Long may Opuss thrive.
Thoughts • Opuss № I