Terrell Mims: Misunderstood Samaritan

Last week, I received an email from Holy Taco editor Ian Fortey informing me that a gentleman named Terrell Mims had, quite without my knowledge, run an article I had written on his website, the recently deceased Terrell Mims University. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of misunderstanding surrounding this, many people assumed that by copying and pasting an entire article and not giving any credit to the original author, and then responding to the comments section as if he had written it constitutes “plagiarism”, an ugly word with ugly connotations.

I am here to set the record straight. After tracking down the original sources to 16 of the 23 articles that were identified as “stolen”, I came to a conclusion; Terrell was simply alleviating some of the burden associated with being a moderately successful writer on the internet. Those of us that write for well known sites have a hard time keeping up with the glut of responses we get from our public, especially in the comments sections, so what Mr Mims did was simply redirect some of that feedback and take it upon himself to field those comments with his own responses, kind of like some sort of real world fan-fic. I don’t know about the other 16 people he “ripped off”, but I feel that he was doing us a great service.

To show my gratitude to Terrell for posting the entire article that I watched The Wizard of Oz 4 (f*cking) times to write word for word with no referring byline, and taking all of that responsibility onto his shoulders, I have decided to return the favor and respond to several of the unfriendly Facebook comments he has received since this whole “incident” “came” to “light”. The original poster’s names are being left off to protect the awesome.

I’m confused. How is a person with zero credits hosting a writing seminar?

Well, I was trying to get some credits to my name, but all of this rudeness forced me to take down my site. I almost had enough content to publish a book.

Terrell Mims

Terrell, why did you set your Twitter account to private? What are you stealing back there where we can’t see you?

I will respond to that with a line I coined; Why so serious?

Terrell Mims

Terrell, why do you keep blocking us? I honestly just want you to explain yourself, if you have any explanation. I think all the people in your writing group, anyone you’ve duped into paying you, deserve to know why you deceived them

Let me explain; I was totally going to rewrite them, I just forgot. Plus, you know, some of those articles had hundreds of responses. How could the original authors ever keep up with all of that traffic?

Terrell Mims

You are in trouble.

In trouble? Yes, I am in trouble, of caring too much.

Terrell Mims

Plagarized any articles lately, sh%t c&nt?

Wow. Do you kiss your mom with those fingers?

Terrell Mims

You Sir, are a real copy and paste pro…!

Thank you! Finally, some positivity. See folks? Some people see the light. :)

Terrell Mims

‎”Write a 2,000 word article with FOUR key strokes!! Impossible you say?! No! Step one, Hit Ctrl+C. Step two, Hit Ctrl+V. You’re done!” — Definitely should be your next how to. Just make sure to give me credit for the idea… oh wait…

I should use that. I haven’t figured out how to cite references yet, but I’ll be sure to give you credit at some point, I bet.

Terrell Mims

Maybe this is just a huge publicity thing and he is making a movie about a douchebag who steals things.

Oh, man, I would so totally watch that. Write it and I will put it on my site for the world to see. I will even respond to feedback, free of charge!

Terrell Mims

My final words, now as me and not Terrell; Thank you Terrell, thank you for taking mine and other hard working writer’s words and giving them a new home, where you could stem the tide of popularity they suffered on their own and taking the burden of credit upon yourself, and then speaking in my stead to people who thought you did a great job with it. You’re inspiring, like Wynona Ryder wrapped in a Todd Bridges shell.