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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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 Posted - 03/10/2010 : 00:11:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Sludge
I have had fwfrs approved and I later noticed that the underlying pun I thought so clever had already been used. The review was different enough that someone else might get it at a future date if I were to delete it, and that still wouldn't be fair to the originator of the pun.
Alan Smithee is really quiet in the forums, so he won't go beating the drum for such an unoriginal review. So for me, Disown relieves me of the undeserved credit and votes. Other users who know about Alan Smithee will take a good hard look before voting on it, and the stolen pun won't rear its ugly head later through another fwifferer. In short, Alan is a protection zone for crappy, stolen reviews.
That's the closest that anyone has ever given towards a good basis for disowning.
However, if the reviews are close enough then if the later one is reported Benj should (eventually) reject it and transfer the votes to the earlier one. It therefore doesn't matter if it gets unfair votes in the meantime, and if it's in one's rejected list it will block exact duplicates just as well as if it's in Smithee's approved list. If the review has no votes by the time one realises, then one can effect the same ends by editing it after reaching the weekly quota and then editing it back to the original form, which also saves Benj a little work. I've thought of doing this after reporting a voted review, but I don't know whether it would be harder for Benj to transfer the votes from a rejected one.
In the case of Smitheeing non-duplicates, though, it seems to be the perfect way of preserving an offensive or otherwise faulty review on the site while dodging any further pressure to delete it. The only ones I do consider disowning, although I still don't out of principle, are ones which are good wordplay and not objectively inaccurate but which I don't personally agree with, for example "Crapuscular" for Twilight. |
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MguyXXV
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 00:46:15
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However, Smithee is also the owner of some gems and considerable vote-getters (hence the inability to distinguish between the dross of others and the genius of ... you-know-who).
Derivative or not, I invite you all to vote for this little Smithee gem: "Very knotty boy!" - The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio (1971).
Ahhhh: great minds think alike.  |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 04:15:33
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quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
However, Smithee is also the owner of some gems and considerable vote-getters
Yup, I was updating some stats today and was surprised to see how many well established reviewers' top 100 totals were lower than 'his' and that it's even a similar story with the top 1,000 totals. I was thinking of specifying having to have a higher figure than 'him' to be included instead of some of the arbitrary minimums. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 04:31:59
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How many Smitheed reviews has everyone voted on?
I've voted for 72, none post-disowning other than a couple of those by 'twocentz'. There are only four for which mine is the only vote: this one, which I don't remember, and these three reviews, which I can remember voting on and are all by AussieCanuck. |
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lemmycaution 
"Long mired in film"
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MguyXXV
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 08:12:59
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quote:
Originally posted by lemmycaution
That nonsense about yelling "TWOCENTZ" at your monitor in a darkened room is the bunk. I'm going to try it now to disprove this silly urban legend. I'll report back in a couple of minutes.
You fool: do you know what you might have done?!?!
Don't EVER do that again!   |
Edited by - MguyXXV on 03/10/2010 08:14:21 |
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bife
"Winners never quit ... fwfr ... "
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 13:29:44
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quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
How many Smitheed reviews has everyone voted on?
43 (including 2 of my own  ); the second review here is my favourite smithee review 
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
Derivative or not, I invite you all to vote for this little Smithee gem: "Very knotty boy!" - The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio (1971).
Ahhhh: great minds think alike.
I disowned "very knotty boy" some years ago when it surpassed 25 votes.
I had written it as a 'companion review' to mguyx's "knotty boy" and i assumed that with his being a top 100 review, everybody would see mine for what it was, a cheap knock-off of mguyx's genius. As the votes started to accumulate I realised that perhaps people were voting on it as though it were an original piece of work. I considered deleting, and sometimes still regret disowning instead, but i figured the review still had some merit and with a smithee-tag most reviewers would realise there was something 'not quite right'.
And I am comforted that mguy can still use 'my' knock-off to promote his masterpiece  |
Edited by - bife on 03/10/2010 14:26:59 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 14:54:15
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quote:
Originally posted by bife
I had written it as a 'companion review' to mguyx's "knotty boy" and i assumed that with his being a top 100 review, everybody would see mine for what it was, a cheap knock-off of mguyx's genius. As the votes started to accumulate I realised that perhaps people were voting on it as though it were an original piece of work.
I for one voted for it on the basis of the reference. I love tributes to well-known reviews. There's no reason to suspect that any of its votes came from any other basis. Obviously I wish I hadn't voted for it now. By giving it to Smithee you helped 'him' have a higher top 1,000 than MguyX. |
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MguyXXV
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 18:49:24
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quote:
Originally posted by bife
.... As the votes started to accumulate I realised that perhaps people were voting on it as though it were an original piece of work. ... with a smithee-tag most reviewers would realise there was something 'not quite right'.
That's the sentiment that led me to disown my knock-off review for "I Am A Camera". I posted the famous three words of legendary film critic Walter Kerr under my name, but I disowned it because it is not my original thought. I have noted several reviews that mirror newspaper headlines and I wonder which came first. I think Alan should get those type of reviews.
("TWOCENTZ!" ) |
Edited by - MguyXXV on 03/10/2010 22:30:30 |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 19:09:25
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I know you Smitheed that review a while after I pointed it out -- quite innocently, as part of an unrelated fourum discussion about whether we should allow "borrowed" taglines from movie posters -- and I just want to state publicly that I never urged you to give it to my man Alan [a doggone good fwiffer!] or chastised you in any way. [In fact, I try to refrain from urging any goddam action, and chastising is way beyond me!]
But you're not alone, dude: there are other obviously cribbed reviews on this site, including some by big-shot reviewers, but I'm lettin' these dogs sleep as long as they want. I'm not the police, and I don't even want police up in here. |
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lemmycaution
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 19:17:39
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quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
quote:
Originally posted by bife
.... As the votes started to accumulate I realised that perhaps people were voting on it as though it were an original piece of work. ... with a smithee-tag most reviewers would realise there was something 'not quite right'.
That's the sentiment that led me to disown my knock-off review for "I Am A Camera". I posted the famous three words of legendary film critic Walter Kerr under my name, but I disowned it because it is not my original thought. I have noted several reviews that mirror newspaper headlines and I wonder which came first. I think Alan should get those type of reviews.
("TWOCENTZ!" )
"N'erdowell"  |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 20:53:10
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If a review was written after the existence of an identical movie tagline (or a magazine headline &c.), then I can't see any value in its being reproduced here. Plagiarisism under Smithee isn't preferable to plagiarism under any other name.
However, because we often review in advance, many puns are actually used here first. This is presumably usually by coincidence, but I don't think it's out of the question that some marketing people and journalists have come across ideas on this site and borrowed them. It would only be natural for them to Google the film's title to see what people already had to say about it, and especially in conjunction with certain key words this site would sometimes crop up on the first page. |
Edited by - Demisemicenturian on 03/10/2010 23:18:16 |
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MguyXXV
"X marks the spot"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 22:15:32
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
I'm not the police, and I don't even want police up in here.
Why people always gotta be calling the police and thangs?
I found the quote quite by accident and did not realize it was from so notable a source when I originally posted it. Honestly, I didn't even realize that the quote had a derivative link to the film: I thought I was employing the quote in a new context! When randall quite innocently mentioned its pedigree, I did some research (see "N'erdowell" link, above) and was at once mortified. I felt dirty. But then I got over it and published a few books on how brilliant I am in "rediscovering" this original thought. Oh: forgiveness is divine.
Then I gave it to Alan, so I could jump on the plagerism bandwagon and call him out for the fraud that he is.
I think, in that earlier thread, we kind of punted on the issue of originality, as there were a few other reviews that raised chicken-and-egg questions. And being gentlemen and gentlewomen, we turned a bit of a blind eye to the issue. But now that the book is coming out, it might be an issue of note, as the last thing we need is a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
Otherwise, I can assure you all that each of my other reviews is original. In fact, I just came up with a great one for "Basic Instinct", but it's five words: "Crossed, uncrossed, GOOD DAY, crossed". Any suggestions? |
Edited by - MguyXXV on 03/10/2010 22:31:48 |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/10/2010 : 23:16:08
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quote:
Originally posted by bife
the second review here is my favourite smithee review
I hadn't seen that before and have added it to the very small collection that have received my post-disowning vote. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/11/2010 : 02:57:44
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| Latest Alan Smithee stat: 5.5 per cent of his reviews are the top-voted ones for the films. |
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Alan Smithee
