Account suspended for plagiarizing myself

[alena]

Hi, all.

I used to have an account for Constant Content but as there was some spam issues with the email I was using, (and also because I couldn't remember my CC password ), I closed that account and started a new one. There were some accepted articles in that account which I obviously can no longer get access to, but I kept them in my hard disc. Some of them were uploaded and accepted shortly before I started my new account, and I thought I would like to move them over to my new account.

I realize that CC says I can't post articles from another source since I can't prove I wrote them, so I spent the past couple of days rewriting the pieces with the same content, but different wording. I don't think it's plagiarizing as such because I'm the one who wrote the articles and I was changing the phrasing.

However, I just got an email from CC saying that my account is suspended for plagiarizing. Is there any way to unsuspend it? Or do I have to start another account? I've also got some newly accepted articles in this new account (new pieces I wrote, not from the old account), as well as money in my account that hasn't yet been paid.

[Lysis]

Did you use the same email addy for both accounts? If you did, and you rewrote articles from your other account, point out to them that you used the same email as proof that it's you.

[SJHillman]

Plagiarizing has many gray areas at best. If you reference another one of your articles, you have to cite yourself or its considered plagiarism. However, if the other articles were unsold and unpublished (at CC and elsewhere), then it should just be a matter of pointing it out to CC. I think it's actually a good thing because it shows CC is protecting writers; it's just unfortunate that you ran into one of the downsides that any system has.

[alena]

No, I didn't use the same email as before. That account was shut down due to the spam issues I'd had. I also used a new penname when starting up my new account as I felt it sounded better for the stuff I was writing at the time.

If it really is only a matter o proof, I've got the entirety of the unsold articles on my old account, which should surely indicate that I was the one who wrote them? (I only ever put a little more than one-third of my articles up). If more proof is needed, I could also furnish details of payments made to that account and so forth. Do you think that would be enough to convince them?

[jak]

I would email support, give a general idea of your problem, give them the url of this thread for more detail if they want it, and ask what can be done about it.

[alena]

I emailed support a few days ago, but I haven't heard back from them yet. I kind of expected that one of the mods on the forum would reply to this thread, but that hasn't seemed to have happened either.

[mnicol22]

Hello alena!

As far as I know, it is against CC's rules to open a new account after suspension unless, of course, you are otherwise instructed by Support. Any earnings from the suspended account will be paid out on the next payday, and articles are deleted, except for those that have already been sold. I do hope you figure things out, though!

Just a quick question: how did you manage to close your account? I've been trying to figure it out for a while, but I can't seem to find relevant information on the site. I'm not really interested in closing my account anytime soon, but I like to know my options. It's called "being a control-freak"!

Thanks