Yes, this blog title is for tl;dr.
If you’ve been on the Internet last week, you’d have seen a post making its round by one Derek Low, titled “What It’s Like To Fly The $23,000 Singapore Airlines Suites Class“.
I first read it on Vulcan Post. Written Buzzfeed-style, photos after photos with short bursts of witty lines which I found impressive. Some were funny, which I duly took note of.
Also the experience of this luxury, wow! It’s something that I’d never go through, so I enjoyed these valuable nuggets of insight to what money (and air miles) can buy.
Then I reached the Comments part. A couple of people accused Derek Low of plagiarism. What? How on earth can anyone plagiarise a S$23,000 SIA Suites Class experience?? What are you, envious with blind hatred?
I was ANNOYED. I take plagiarism accusations seriously; I personally know what it feels like to have your work used without proper credit (and payment). You go cold, warm, sweaty, in shock, as you realise in horror that the sentences seem familiar… because you strung them together in the first place! Hello your original work, bad grammar and all.
You feel like you are being robbed… that’s because you are!
I took the trouble to locate Andy’s original post on Andy’s Travel Blog. He sure didn’t make it easy. Note to people with websites: please, manage navigation better.
After going through his first and second post on the subject, I came to the conclusion that…
1) I thought that Derek Low wrote a funnier post (sorry but he did); and
2) Wow, did that uncreative Derek Low bugger seriously copied from Andy or what..!
There I was, getting all pissed of with Derek Low on behalf of writers everywhere… then I had to get to work.
Later I returned to the offending post and re-read it. Yeap, there they were, some same photos and sentences directly taken from Andy’s blog.
Then I refreshed the blog, and voila! they were gone! By this time, Andy had taken to Reddit to air his grievances, and I bet Low was feeling the heat.
But I know what I read. I only hoped that Andy had somehow printscreened the alleged offending bits. Later I found out that he did, and I asked if he’d send me a copy.
Hi Andy, if you’re reading this, you need to learn how to printscreen web pages better. If people around the world are going to steal your work, it will only benefit you if you can better present evidence, with original sources and all.
I should have been doing other (paid) work, but I spent 45 minutes to re-adjust and re-printscreen the alleged plagiarism the best I could.
Here you are:
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1) … first, a lot of unnecessary build up
Why did I remember this line from Low’s first version? I thought it was witty, something that I may have written 😉 Sure this line has been been produced elsewhere, but in a post about flying on SIA Suites Class to introduce the opening items? Yeah right, REALLLLYYYYY original…
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2) HI OOPS SORRY NO YOU CAN’T HELP ME
Turns out, Andy wrote this exact line in a DIFFERENT post on his experience in the Cathay Pacific First Class.
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3) Photo of The Private Room, and a line about having documents inspected by 8000 people
You can click on the photo below for a larger version.
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4) OK I’ll board first
Exact stolen photo, exact stolen tagline. Interestingly, Andy says that this boarding sign photo was taken at the Frankfurt Airport, and not at Changi as Low implied.
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5) The flight attendant insisted on taking a photo, since I was a big important travel blogger
THIS stood out. This I remembered was strange, as the accompanying photo to this sentence seemed out of place. The photo was taken from a high angle in a corner… which flight attendant could possibly do that?? I chalked it down to misguidance..
… until I saw the original line on Andy’s post, and it made so much sense.
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6) Not wanting to leave the plane
That was funny. Too bad Andy wrote it first.
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There were more: about hiring a poet to elaborate on adjectives, about packing a suitcase with lead bars… and oh, apparently this wasn’t Derek Low’s first plagiarism offense: *click*
Reading through Derek Low’s first, pre-edited post, I had no doubt that he went through this amazing SIA Suites Class experience. That should be inspiring enough to come out with a fine post in your own words!
But the fact that Low edited his posts to remove alleged plagiarism, AND did not acknowledge nor apologise for his wrongdoings makes him a proper unoriginal douchebag.
Hence me blogging about it.
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