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Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:18 am
by dunbar
I've been sitting on this for a while, tossing up whether it's even worth mentioning or not. But now I just want to purge it from my system, feel free to comment with your own thoughts and theories, but I have a little tale to tell:

A number of weeks ago I was scanning through some mini reviews and got hit with some major deja vu. "Hold on," I thought. "This paragraph looks mighty familiar." So I scroll back up and sure enough there is the same mini review word for word from a different user. My interest was piqued as I'd never come across this before. So I did a little more digging...

One account often - but not always - copies word for word the mini review of the same - but not always - other account.

Two accounts belonging to one user, you say? Like where one is an old one and perhaps they are painstakingly transferring their thoughts across to the newer one? Well both accounts are active throughout April of this year and not necessarily reviewing the same film at the same time recently. (By the by is there a way to see a date of when a mini review was posted outside of a persons activity feed on their profile?) And I already mentioned that the one account doesn't always copy the other accounts mini reviews, sometimes they copy different accounts and also write mini reviews that, for all intents and purposes, appear original. So this theory has some inconsistencies.

Two accounts belonging to a couple, you say? Well that doesn't explain why, going by the recent activity on both accounts, the films they review aren't done simultaneously. Unless of course one member of the couple is making sure to agree with the other word for word in hindsight, in some sort of "we are becoming one mind now and must henceforth merge our neural networking of the past, present and future" scenario. Regardless, this theory poses some issues to me as well.

A blatant filthy brain slug, you say? Well why choose the words of mostly one other account? Why not cherry pick all the sweet words, puns, quips and flair from multiple accounts and sew together a mega mini review of pure awesomeness? And why copy/paste often, but not always. And why not align your score with the account whose mini review you are copy/pasting (something I didn't previously mention). Again inconsistencies with the theory.

The long and short of it is I'm mystified. It's such a small, insignificant thing as well but the reason/s why this exists in the first place is beginning to gnaw away at me.

There's my tale, you're stuck with it now. Thoughts?

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 3:02 pm
by BillyShears
Names. Dissssh

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:22 pm
by mattorama12
I noticed just a couple weeks ago two accounts that appeared different and had the exact same review for a movie. I don't remember the accounts or the movie, but I thought it was strange. I definitely put less thought into it than you, but now you've piqued my curiosity, too. My thought was that they were both using a review from some third party website or something. If you want to share the names, I'll try to do some further digging and see what I can come up with.

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:47 pm
by ribcage
Have you messaged these people?

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 7:35 pm
by paulofilmo
i've seen it happen a few times, where someone will copy my review, and then change each word so it looks and reads completely different

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 7:56 pm
by backwardsuit
Don't want to spoil the intrigue but is it possible that a reviewer has simply changed his/her profile name and picture, therefore giving the impression that it's a different account? Or are there actually two identical reviews posted at the exact same time? The thought of someone scandalizing my vanity is rather alarming...

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:02 pm
by Mentaculus
BillyShears wrote:Names. Dissssh


Yes let's dig on this one.

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 12:30 am
by JSchlansky
I noticed this also but it just seemed like two accounts for the same person to me, I didn't realize they were copying other people's reviews too, intriguing

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 12:36 am
by djross
x

Re: Mini review thievery?

Posted: Wed May 01, 2019 3:55 am
by ribcage
djross wrote:
Observed this occurring on several occasions myself, in which somebody duplicates a critique of mine, but proceeds to alter every term, with the result that the whole thing appears or conveys something entirely dissimilar.


Like to take a positive review and alter it into a negative? If so that's brilliant and hilarious.