Pingoodle

Hi everyone! Cheers to the person in my inbox, I figured I may as well put a recent post about this because everything else is long since buried. I always figure that if one person has a question, a lot of other people do as well. If for whatever reason anyone wants to have a discussion I’m open to it, though I’m not around on Wattpad much these days. 
          	
          	So what if people convert stories? I’m glad you asked! There’s two situations here to be discussed. The first one is where fanfiction or other online, unprofessional works are converted. The second situation is where published novels, and novel series are converted. 
          	
          	In the first situation, sometimes... it’s fine. If you asked permission to convert and the author said yes then hey! Nice! Convert away! Everyone is onboard, everyone is having a great time, I’m happy for you. 
          	
          	If you did NOT get permission, that’s where the harm starts. I stumbled into conversations about conversion in the first place because a friend of mine was very distressed and on the verge of deleting their fanfiction because it had been converted to Camren on Wattpad. I went to see the story to see if I could help report it (I could not, for unpublished work only the original authors can report) and right there in the “suggested” was... more converted stories. 
          	
          	I’m a writer. I’ve written a lot. I know that writing takes time, and thought, and energy. It also often means putting yourself in your stories. In one of my stories, there’s a scene taken right from my own life of a time when I felt the worst I’ve ever felt. Conversion without permission is taking the work and the passion of someone else and saying “I don’t care about you, this is mine now”. That sucks. Don’t do that. 
          	
          	Also: it’s against the law, fanfiction or not, and it’s against Wattpad’s policy as well. Did you notice the tick box when posting a work that says it has to be yours? That’s there for a reason!

Pingoodle

In the second case with published work, it’s extra illegal. In fact, it’s so illegal that Wattpad doesn’t even require you to be the copyright owner to report it — you can just link to the goodreads or Amazon page for the published work. 
          	  
          	  Besides the law though, unless you’re converting a book by JK Rowling pretty much, you’re doing direct damage to an author. Authors really, really don’t make a lot of money. Conversion is just piracy with a coat of paint — and often the books converted are from small authors, self published or from small presses. These are the authors that are struggling to make money and keep writing even BEFORE the threat of piracy. Further, I’ve often found queer books converted. All the problems that authors face are made worse if they are trying to publish queer books, especially F/F. You’re hurting people who are already struggling. 
          	  
          	  (On JKR: I only mention her because she became a billionaire by writing, which never happens. She's an awful person with an awful ideology. Trans people deserve support, TERFs do not.)
          	  
          	  Truly though, I have full confidence that if people put the time towards writing instead of converting, they would end up with good stories too. Anyone can write, it just takes time and practice. Whatever you write will be much more specific to your ship than anything converted could be too!
          	  
          	  One final note: I’m not specifically targeting Camren. I truly just do not care enough about this one ship to target it. And no, this isn’t a homophobic attack either. Conversion is unethical no matter what kind of ship the story is being converted to.
• Reply

Pingoodle

Hi everyone! Cheers to the person in my inbox, I figured I may as well put a recent post about this because everything else is long since buried. I always figure that if one person has a question, a lot of other people do as well. If for whatever reason anyone wants to have a discussion I’m open to it, though I’m not around on Wattpad much these days. 
          
          So what if people convert stories? I’m glad you asked! There’s two situations here to be discussed. The first one is where fanfiction or other online, unprofessional works are converted. The second situation is where published novels, and novel series are converted. 
          
          In the first situation, sometimes... it’s fine. If you asked permission to convert and the author said yes then hey! Nice! Convert away! Everyone is onboard, everyone is having a great time, I’m happy for you. 
          
          If you did NOT get permission, that’s where the harm starts. I stumbled into conversations about conversion in the first place because a friend of mine was very distressed and on the verge of deleting their fanfiction because it had been converted to Camren on Wattpad. I went to see the story to see if I could help report it (I could not, for unpublished work only the original authors can report) and right there in the “suggested” was... more converted stories. 
          
          I’m a writer. I’ve written a lot. I know that writing takes time, and thought, and energy. It also often means putting yourself in your stories. In one of my stories, there’s a scene taken right from my own life of a time when I felt the worst I’ve ever felt. Conversion without permission is taking the work and the passion of someone else and saying “I don’t care about you, this is mine now”. That sucks. Don’t do that. 
          
          Also: it’s against the law, fanfiction or not, and it’s against Wattpad’s policy as well. Did you notice the tick box when posting a work that says it has to be yours? That’s there for a reason!

Pingoodle

In the second case with published work, it’s extra illegal. In fact, it’s so illegal that Wattpad doesn’t even require you to be the copyright owner to report it — you can just link to the goodreads or Amazon page for the published work. 
            
            Besides the law though, unless you’re converting a book by JK Rowling pretty much, you’re doing direct damage to an author. Authors really, really don’t make a lot of money. Conversion is just piracy with a coat of paint — and often the books converted are from small authors, self published or from small presses. These are the authors that are struggling to make money and keep writing even BEFORE the threat of piracy. Further, I’ve often found queer books converted. All the problems that authors face are made worse if they are trying to publish queer books, especially F/F. You’re hurting people who are already struggling. 
            
            (On JKR: I only mention her because she became a billionaire by writing, which never happens. She's an awful person with an awful ideology. Trans people deserve support, TERFs do not.)
            
            Truly though, I have full confidence that if people put the time towards writing instead of converting, they would end up with good stories too. Anyone can write, it just takes time and practice. Whatever you write will be much more specific to your ship than anything converted could be too!
            
            One final note: I’m not specifically targeting Camren. I truly just do not care enough about this one ship to target it. And no, this isn’t a homophobic attack either. Conversion is unethical no matter what kind of ship the story is being converted to.
• Reply

angthology

What happened to Steal Your Heart?!

Pingoodle

Life, mostly! I’ve moved away from Wattpad for a variety of reasons. If you were hoping for a reread though, a) <3 b) you can find it on AO3 though it’s only visible to logged in users. All the Steal Your Heart stuff is there, plus a few more short stories in the universe I’ve written over the years.
• Reply

Pingoodle

@CamilaCabelloLover97 Thank you for being polite about it! I'm a little surprised you didn't find the answers you wanted on this page, since this all went down in January. 
          
          I reported a few conversions to the original authors because a friend of mine had one of their fics converted without permission and almost ended up deleting all of their fandom accounts over it. I didn't like that my friend was upset, that's really as deep as it is. And most authors don't have any idea their fic is elsewhere on the internet unless they look, and it doesn't occur to most that someone would violate their work by doing that in the first place. 
          
          I've said this before so I'll say it to you too: converted fics aren't "yours" because you changed a few names, other people worked hard on the rest of those words! And I have faith in each and every person that they can create beautiful words and stories of their own if they try. Wouldn't that be better in the long run if you had stories perfectly tailored to your ships? 
          
          Anyway, I hope you have a lovely day!

inactiveaurora

See, I don’t wanna scroll down, and idk why you are getting so much hate. But can someone tell me what’s happening.

Pingoodle

@camrenismydrugbish Oh man is this still happening somewhere? To my knowledge at least, this had died down. But to save you the scroll the tl;r is that I checked with some fanfic authors that they were okay with their stories being converted, and told some real-life authors that their books they make a living off were being plagiarized. Because of that, some stories got taken down. And here we are! You really will have to scroll if you want more details than that, I only check wattpad once an age.
• Reply

puckled

this message may be offensive 
I understand why you do what you do but there are more important things in the world. With the amount of fics that have been taken down you seem to get your way a lot so use it for something good. Don’t focus on this juvenile bullshit. Idk you at all but I’m gonna assume that you’re better than this shit. I’m a Harmonizer/Camren shipper but the fandom can be quite toxic and it can get to you. Leave this shit alone.

Pingoodle

@puckevans Hey! You're new! Probably check out about a dozen posts down if you're confused! Have a good day!
• Reply

LMoriarty

13 posts down, in response to carryn154, pingoodle gives a comprehensive description of everything that has happened. she details what she has done, why she has done it, and answers whatever question you're currently thinking of asking. 
          
          before commenting, do everyone a favor and go read that first.

HerDuo

Not here to say any rude or disrespectful stuff just wondering how u can tell when the fic or story is up without the author pressmison and when they do have permission do u still seek to ask and make sure just curious theres no hate just been seeing all lot of stuff going on n I just caught up to this

HerDuo

Thxs
• Reply

Pingoodle

Hey! I appreciate the effort in getting caught up, but there’s still a tiny bit more to get caught up on. I made a big three part post if you scroll a little down. But my goodness people are still just finding this for the first time? I wish they’d also find my explanation too!  Have a good day!
• Reply

minorlystvck

this message may be offensive 
Hey.... Can you do me one fucking favor? 
          Please, just please stop deleting camren stories okay?  You do know that writing is not easy....... Just please stop okay? Just.....please.... 
          
          AND IF YOU DISRESPECT CAMREN AGAIN YOU ARE DEAD!!!!  Or..... I'll just report you if you don't... Just please.... 
          
          Oh and
          
          
          YOU ARE MESSING UP WITH A WRONG FANDOM!!!!!!! >:(((

Camrenlover25

@Camren_JenLisa_97  I believe you are done. Also posting pingoodle's acount and all the info on social media is not gonna help nor make you feel better.
• Reply

minorlystvck

▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一
• Reply

Pingoodle

@Camren_JenLisa_97 In terms of casting camila, I encourage you to google “casting Lacey”. It’s a published novel in a demographic that struggles to make money even before people start pirating it online. It had been plagiarized entirely except for the names.
• Reply

TuFuturaPesadilla

Please Could you stop denouncing Stories / fanfics That's already a little tired I want to read one that followed..And disappears..Go to hell Because there are writers who break their brains (it's an expression) trying to create the next chapter and you arrive ... And you erase it ... Please ...

LMoriarty

@TuFuturePesadilla the stories that we are denouncing are not stories written by the people who have posted them. they are stories that have been stolen and reposted w/out the original author's knowledge or consent, which is a violation of copyright law (ergo, a crime). 
            
            furthermore, we're not erasing anything. in order to submit a takedown request you have to be the owner of the material. if you try to do it without being the owner, it says, "we appreciate you reporting it. but only the owner of this content or their legal representative can submit a dcma takedown request, so if you are in contain with them, please ask them to contact us". 
            
            this has all been discussed to death already, so as pingoodle suggested, if you want to know what rly happened pingoodle made a comprehensive reply about everything that's gone down, so you should scroll to find that.
• Reply

Pingoodle

Hey! If you scroll down a couple posts you’ll see me go into detail about what actually happened. But basically nothing happened to original stories! Have a good day!
• Reply

anona-bitch

this message may be offensive 
Right I do not get this bullshit 
          This is a fandom not a thing that destroys other people 
          It’s a ship 2 people who may or may not have been in love 
          They won’t coming for camren they are coming for stolen work now you all wanna b*tch about it go somewhere else 
          Now I’m not on anyone’s side 
          From an ex 5h/ camren shipper 
          I ain’t being part of a fandom that thinks this is okay 
          Like GROW UP