Entry #25: Technical difficulties. · 11:14pm Apr 9th, 2014
To those of you following "Conquer the Stars", I'm very, very sorry, but I have some bad news for you.
Starman Ghost has requested that I pull "Conquer the Stars" from FiMFiction.net, as he no longer wishes to be associated with "Not Alone".
Obviously, I do not want to do this. I have told him so, as I believe that what I do with "Conquer the Stars" is my own business. He has accused me of leeching from what he has written, even though I have no more "leached" from him than I have from Hasbro or Stardock Entertainment or any other publisher on whose works I have written fanfiction.
Today he has threatened me with publicly stating that I have used one of his characters -Evening Star- against his wishes. As this is true, I'll have no choice but to remove her, and replace her with one of my own creation. This will require extensive editing.
Again, I do not want to do this. But it looks like I'll have to.
Edit: I'd just like to say that if I see a large number of down-votes spring up on anything Starman Ghost-related, I'll be very unhappy.
Edit2: You absolute fuckwits. Did you not hear a thing I said?
Edit3: After reading the (sensible) comments you guys have provided, I have decided to do the following:
I'll keep Evening Star as-is, and add a note saying that she is based on Starman's Evening Star. If there is additional trouble, I'll change her name to Morning Star, and make her coat exactly one and a half shades lighter.
...That fucking asshole.
Call him a sniveling little rat and use his character anyway to piss him off. That's what I'd do...
So, he first wrote one of the best TCB stories ever, got a lot of fans from it, and whines? What was he expecting? He had the right to pull his story, but this is going too far, considering that he first allowed you to make a sequel. The character may be his, but this is the internet. He may not like the fact that his character is used, but so do people who have their products torrented, rather than bought. This is small compared to torrenting.
His whining, and "wish not to be associated with Not Alone", will only keep backfiring at him. Honestly, he has to be stupid to spark this up after pulling his story down so long ago, since now everyone will remember him again, and that association with Not Alone. And this time the association won't be as good as earlier, considering what he's doing.
This may be a good thing (somewhat), maybe you'll finally start working on the story again.
This is one case where you should just tell him 'tough'
If he wants nothing to do with Not Alone then why does he care so much about what others do with it?
He has washed his hands of the Not Alone material making it the fanfic equivelant of abandonware, thus he has no right to dictate to you, or anyone else, what is done with the setting or characters going forward.
Okay, this is plain bullshit. I just lost a metric ton of respect for him. This is your story, and what you do with it is your own business.
Seriously?
Starman WTF? I know that he wants to have nothing to do with TCB but this is just being a dick. People on spacebattles won't be amused. I thought he said he was okay with it when it was beginning? Not going to search for it on a phone though.
And that is an unfollow. . .
And he tells you that after TWO YEARS of publishing the story?
Starman Ghost pulled "Not Alone"? Who cares! I have it in my Enormous Story Archive; anyone who wants it can PM me with an email address.. As far as I'm concerned, he's being a whiny bitch and you can write your own story as you please.
1995669
I think I'll pass.
1995671
I'd just like to point out that authors (and fanfic authors) occasionally write things that we're not proud of, regardless of how popular it is. Sometimes because it was written in the heat of the moment or as a response to something, and afterwards you change and no longer agree with what you wrote.
I personally prefer to leave my failures up as a monument to my sins, but each to each.
1995686
Unfortunately, he does have a point in that I am, using one of his characters.
1995699
From what I gathered, he thought it was dead.
To be honest I think you should keep the story going since it is your story. If he doesn't want to be associated with his story and yours is the unofficial sequel, I suggest you put the story under edit and remove his oc, and replace it with your own change the setting plot up a bit.
Oh and remove the "Sequel" thing since it is now a stand alone story... I mean if I were to look up "Stand Alone" on Fim I wouldn't find it, so what right does he have to force you to remove your story?
'Threatened you'? How so? Is he gonna send the Donut Steel police after you?
He abandoned Not Alone and its characters. Why does he care what you do with what's essentially discarded property?
Hell, I forgot that Evening Star was his character until now.
Ugh, this is a gross overreaction.
1995762
"Dead" as in, "I've forgotten about it and/or abandoned it".
The only reason he gained interest was because the Spacebattles thread had an update with a new snippet.
1995725
I would believe this point to be valid in this case, but Not Alone wasn't some heat of the moment story, as far as I remember it was written like any other story, with a lot of time between posting the first chapter and the last. He had a lot of time to cancel the story, or just leave it unfinished forever, but instead he not only finished it, but allowed someone explicitly to make a sequel, as far as I remember at least.
To be honest, I think most readers believe, or believed until now, that the story was dead, or on the verge of dying, considering when it was last updated. Wonder what made him think otherwise.
And in general, considering how far he's going after so long, I wouldn't change a thing. Artistic freedom or whatever, along with the fact that, like DarkCrusader28 pointed out, it's been two years and just now the issue is raised. Tell him to go ahead, he'll just associate himself with Not Alone even more.
I don't get this guy. He doesn't want to associate himself with a story he got rid of but he throws a fit over the use of a character from said story that he gave you permission to do as you see fit. I say just ignore him, he's just contradicting himself.
1995776
1995668
As angry as I am with Starman, language, please.
And, for the love of god, DO NOT GO OVER TO HIS PAGE TO HARASS HIM.
1995787
The thing is, his complaint ("Use of his OC against his permission") might just be valid enough to get me into trouble.
1995698 Who? The douchebag that's doing this to Dalek?
1995793 Sorry, I get really pissed sometimes.
1995793 But didn't he give you his permission to use his character awhile back?
1995815
That he did. However, he can, technically, retract his permission at any time he wants. Or at least I think that's how it works.
Even though he doesn't want to be associated with the story, it's still his work, and thus he has first right's to any and all original characters in said story. Sorry, I'm playing Devil's Advocate. I don't like doing so, but I am.
1995836, true.
But waiting two years to retract permission when everything was already set up and written? It's technically allowed, but it makes you look like a tremendous asshole.
So I get that, just going off what's said here, this guy's being an idiot and mean. It's fine to be angry and stuff about it. But Dalek IX is right in that there's no point in trying to start a fight over this. There's probably zero chance that anyone's going to change Starman's opinions about this and every chance that it'll just cause flames to be flung everywhere. As for why he's taking his story down, I don't know but if I had to guess I'd say that not everyone deals with being famous on the internet well. Trying to remove it from the internet isn't going to work but people do stupid stuff when they get emotionally messed. If that's true at all attacking this guy will seriously not end well.
Well, the rewrite might not be so bad. A simple ctrl+f and replace might cover most of it. That and changing any times you described her to match the new character's look. Still, very annoying and you never know what other small detail there will be.
1995836 Honesty, I think he's being a real hypocrite right now. It's YOUR story, and you don't have to use his characters if you want. If he didn't want to you to use his characters then he shouldn't have given you permission to write a sequel in the first place.
1995839
I know.
1995845
Again, he was under the impression that this story had been discontinued.
1995878 In closing, do as you see fit, Dalek XI, but in all due honesty I think that Starman just lost A LOT of respect because of this.
1995836 Yeah, he can retract his permission. But considering the circumstances, you have every right to ignore him. Edit the story if you really think he should have the right to ruin it for everyone, but let him know people don't like what he's doing, and that it may have been better for him to forget about this story.
1995858
That is probably what I'll end up doing. Unfortunately, that means that one particular plot line will have to be abandoned.
*sigh*
To be fair, the reason for Evening's presence was to tie up both stories together in some way. I'll see what I can do during Holy Week.
I can honestly see where he comes from; he abhors TCB and, even thought "Not Alone" was anti-TCB, in a way it was also pro-TCB, as it fueled the universe even further. And this is something he didn't want. He wants TCB to be rammed into the ground and forgotten since it is a piece of shit thing to begin with. Since he couldn't have it, he simply tried to distance himself from it and, to do so, he did the only thing he could've--he deleted "Not Alone".
Now, I can also understand why he would approach you and ask you to remove your story. But it doesn't excuse it. You created something entirely new and the website's regulations are on your favor, Dalek 9.
And even the character, Evening Star, can be used by you without any fear of admin intervention (knighty explicitly said that "having permission [to use other people's OCs] would be nice, but not necessary"). OCs aren't copyrighted and, unless he does copyright his OC, you don't have to remove it. This can't get you into any sort of trouble. Message an admin if you're uncertain!
And lastly, like you said:
This means you can just as well go to him and tell him to delete his story, since it leeches off of Harshbro's (pun intended) original work.
Now, am I telling you to call him an asshole? No.
Am I telling you to tell him to fuck off? No.
Am I telling you to use his character out of spite? Kind-of-but-not-really.
What I am suggesting you do is this: Approach him and explain why you will not be doing it (deleting the story and changing the character) in a polite way. Which I'm guessing you did, by the by. Next, if he wants to badmouth you, let him. Let him cry his hearts contents.
Honestly, if he wanted distance from TCB, he should've just abandoned it and that would be that. He's the one creating the drama that links TCB with him.
1995723 Please upload it on your profile (as your own story) but do not publish it. If you don't publish it, it is not breaking the rules. It would make it easier for us to access it. Dalek 9 could even link to it on "Conquer the Stars" (Dalek, please don't let him treat you as a doormat on this one. Stand your ground!)
Just a thought.
1995744 Ich liebe dich!
1995686 I lost all my respect for him a long time ago. I think the last of it was lost some time after he deleted Not Alone.
Given that Starman Ghost has absolutely no grounds on which to demand anything, especially 2 years after giving the green light in the first place, just ignore his demand since he's just being immature and petty at this point.
He gave you permission to make a fic based on his fic which was in turn based on another one which was probably based on another still. What he did "own" is now trashed and no longer his, especially since he's turned his back on it.
And as far as I'm concerned Starman gave you permission to use Evening Star which is the only real thing that could be considered "his" from your fic and given he dumped the TCB incarnation of that character into the trashbin with the rest of the story. Besides it can be said that your Evening Star and his are different characters, all they share is a name and a tiny amount of backstory, everything else is yours which is a great deal more than what he had.
He wanted to disassociate himself from TCB and removed his story as a result. Good for him, but he has no right to demand that another author remove their story just because it has a tiny connection to his, especially after 2 years. The only real tie you story has with his is Evening Star and as far as I'm concerned he no longer owns her and if it really becomes a problem, somehow, just change the name, then he'll have no ground at all to stand on from which to make demands.
/rant over
1995903
Unfortunate, but shit happens. Could maybe find someone who did a side story for it, but doesn't really solve the original issue.
1995941 How do you upload without publishing?
1995972 You simply create a story and publish the chapters. But you don't submit it to moderation (this last step is important, because you will be banned if you do).
I'm sending you a PM with my e-mail so you can send it to me if you want. So I may do it. I'll give the link afterwards.
While I may not like it, I absolutely understand not wanting to be associated with TCB. I'm glad you respected his wishes, though.
Whoever's downvoting all the posts calling out Starman Ghost, really? Are you that petty?
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I'd say keep Evening Star but change enough details that you "file off the serial numbers" as it were.
Or just create a character with similar name and backstory but is not Evening Star.
1995725
One question, Dalek. When you started this fic, did you get permission to use the character? If so, then you are well within your rights to keep using her since you already had the go-ahead on her and since you have taken her into such a different setting and added to her, she is effectively a new character, rather than the one you got permission to use.
1995995 It doesn't matter if he had permission or not. Stealing characters or having the permission withdrawn is not breaking the rules if you don't claim to have created them! knighty said so.
I would also like to point out that if he gave you explicit permission to make this sequel, then he cannot renege on that, unless he specifically told you when giving you the permission that he had that ability.
1995995
I got permission to do a sequel.
I'd post a link, but Spacebattles is derping right now.
1996000, it's still grade-A assholery though.
And I don't think Dalek IX wants that rep.
1996026 Depends. It's assholery if Dalek purposefully mocks the character or something like it. Just using it on another story (because it's a sequel) doesn't sound like a dick move to me.
1996016
Okay, firstly, permission to do a sequel isn't even needed to do a sequel, nor is permission to use another author's characters needed, as Acid points out above. It just makes you seem more legit. Secondly, in that case, your Evening Star is literally a functionally different character altogether just by virtue of what you've had happen to her over the course of her life in your story, rendering her at worst, an expy, else already a version of her with t he 'serial numbers filed off', and at best effectively a new version you created. For example, my own series has a character named Dusk Shine. He has NOTHING in common with most characters who bear the name beyond a few cosmetic similarities. He's MY Dusk Shine, not anyone else's. The Evening Star you have in CTS is YOUR version of her, and even then, if you want to credit Starman as her creator even though she has been fundamentally changed by the virtue of who she is and how she acts in your story, that's fine, but you are under no obligation to remove her from your fic, as knighty has already ruled on that in the favor of those who want to use other people's characters in their fics with or without permission. Hell, why do you think Chat got away with Aftermath?
...Wow. Chat actually did something helpful by getting away with raping a great fic. That's kinda disturbing.
1995809
Affirmative
1996038
You sir have a good point.
1996026
The thing is though, Velk, he's effectively created his own Evening Star based on the one Starman created, rather than using the original.
1995917
Hmmmm. Well, his tactic worked on me - though not specifically from him. It's stories like his - Xenolestia trying to destroy the world because "F U, she's evil" - that I hate most about the genre.
Which makes me worry about Conquer the Stars. The Tragedy tag is bad enough, but following directly in Not Alone's footsteps is not the kind of story I want to read. There seemed to be redeeming qualities in the princesses here, and hints that a better end could be achieved. God I hope this story builds on that rather that burying it.