Original Content Rejected as Unoriginal

[monkeypie]

Big question mark in the air over my head today.

Yesterday my 100 percent original piece, "Ray-Ban Sunglasses: the Hippest Shades in the World," was rejected with this explanation: "We accept only completely original content."

Uh.. it *was* completely original content. I've been an author at Constant Content going on 10 years now, and have never plagiarized anything, ever.

I did originally write the piece on-spec for a client at a horrible content mill. None of the article was ever publicly posted. The client did not purchase the piece, and it was never offered to anyone else. I withdrew my article and submitted it here.

Could that be why it was rejected? I'm thinking the would-be client may be using my article without payment or permission. If anyone here can give me a clue, please do. I wrote to CC about this, but they seem to be too busy to reply.

--kpc

[light87]

More than likely, CopyScape, or whatever CC uses is really really awesomely sophisticated! I MEAN, it was ABLE TO FIND YOUR ARTICLE DESPITE IT ONLY BEING POSTED IN QUEUE ON A CONTENT MILL. That's awesome. I mean, somehow, it found it! Through all that restricted access, and deletions... it found it.

Another possibility is that yeah, the client used your post. Essentially stealing your work.

[light87]

Oh and you should really try googling before posting

http://www.slideshare.net/raybansumglas ... -the-world

If that isn't yours, then he's making lots of cash off of a free article for /no/ reason.

[Lysis]

Yeah, you gotta be careful about that. I have a few samples I wrote to try to win bids at places like Elance or I have written content only to have the customer want too much so I cancel the job. I've been thinking about selling them since I still own them, but there is always the chance someone stole it.

A word of advice -- if you plan to do something like this (and I don't blame you for trying to sell it), take a sentence or two from different parts of the content, mainly the middle or end, and just post it into Google. Copyscape just scrapes Google anyway. You'll find out if your content was stolen. Don't do just the first sentence. I can't tell you how many writers I caught plagiarizing by writing the first couple of paragraphs and then plagiarizing the rest.

[monkeypie]

Oh and you should really try googling before posting

http://www.slideshare.net/raybansumglas ... -the-world

If that isn't yours, then he's making lots of cash off of a free article for /no/ reason.

That most certainly IS my writing. Might as well tell you guys the content mill to NOT TRUST: HireWriters.com

That same day, I was "fired" for several jobs at once. None paid more than THREE DOLLARS each-- why the &^%$ someone felt the need to steal from a writer is beyond me. I will pursue this.

PS: I do google snippets of my sold writing now and then, just to see where it wound up. Never imagined I'd need to check BEFORE selling work. Sheesh.

[monkeypie]

Will a CONSTANT CONTENT admin or moderator PLEASE get involved in this thread??!!

This is the ONLY time I have been hit for unoriginal writing here or anywhere else.
Feeling miserable.

--kpc

[Abbamay]

So sorry, monkeypie. What a horrible feeling.

Abba

[evaku]

You haven't been banned form constant content have you? I've been here a few years now and I love this site. I always write 100% completely original pieces but I worry that one day I might accidently write a sentence or two that someone, somewhere on the internet has written before and get flagged for plagiarism! I know that the site is really fair and probably wouldn't do that for a couple of similar sentences, but I tend to over worry about stuff like that =P I hope that several years of showing that you are a good, competent, and original writer would get you the benefit of the doubt

[monkeypie]

You haven't been banned form constant content have you? I've been here a few years now and I love this site. I always write 100% completely original pieces but I worry that one day I might accidently write a sentence or two that someone, somewhere on the internet has written before and get flagged for plagiarism! I know that the site is really fair and probably wouldn't do that for a couple of similar sentences, but I tend to over worry about stuff like that =P I hope that several years of showing that you are a good, competent, and original writer would get you the benefit of the doubt

So far, so good. Not banned yet! I trust CC to be reasonable about this mess.

I've been in touch with HireWriters, and they said they "had their suspicions about the client, and now they have proof." So, they're banning her/him. HW offered to force payment for the whopping $3 the client should have paid me in the first place. Oh joy in the morning!

The page where my stolen work is hosted is part of LinkedIn, and I contacted them via email. Nobody's deigned to reply.

I sure do wish CC would get involved in this thread. Thank you to the fellow authors who checked in. This little rodeo ain't over yet.

--monkeypie

[monkeypie]

Sorry to hear this happened. You haven't been suspended for this; you just got the message we send when we detect that content isn't original. This shouldn't really impact your account with Constant Content at all.

Just a note - we do recommend that writers not submit content that could have been used in any way before.

Thank you, Constant! I did not see your comment when I made my most recent post.

--kpc

[Constant]

Sorry to hear this happened. You haven't been suspended for this; you just got the message we send when we detect that content isn't original. This shouldn't really impact your account with Constant Content at all.

Just a note - we do recommend that writers not submit content that could have been used in any way before.

[monkeypie]

Just heard from LinkedIn, and they're getting their Trust & Safety team involved.
I'll let you guys know how this turns out.

--monkeypie