Plagiarizing open-source projects and claiming them as one's own has a notorious reputation in the open-source community, theoretically comparable to Zhai Tianlin's dubious actions in the academic paper field. However, the open-source community is much smaller and people lack empathy for the severity of plagiarism—unlike papers, where almost every graduate student is required to write one. Moreover, this apology seems insincere, merely attributing the issue to a "communication error," which is hard to believe. Admit it, He Tongxue, you just want to claim all the open-source achievements for yourself, making it easier to boast about your boring work and for self-media to sell traffic.
He Tongxue claims to be a self-media blogger in the tech field, but what exactly do his video works accomplish? Here are a few titles:
To be honest, when I see these video titles, "How fast is 5G?", "How far can an A4 paper fly?", "Recreating an old-fashioned typewriter," I feel a strong sense of juvenile science experiment style. These topics might inspire teenagers' interest in science during middle and high school. But if you ask how valuable these topics are? Aside from boasting, they have no value at all.
What constitutes valuable practice? Analyzing the shortcomings of current technology, proposing feasible solutions, then developing and manufacturing a product to replace it, and analyzing its pros and cons. This is the normal path of technological updates and iterations. He has no idea what valuable and meaningful research should be done, so the content of his videos is increasingly boring. "How far can an A4 paper fly?" I remember watching "Big Windmill" as a child, where they constantly aired "How much weight can a piece of paper hold?" "How can a piece of paper help a toy car cross a bridge?" He Tongxue's video topics are still at the level of "Big Windmill" aimed at elementary school students over twenty years ago. Having never participated in real scientific research or project development, He Tongxue simply doesn't know what valuable topics to pursue.
The most absurd thing is that after masquerading as a tech blogger for so many years and plagiarizing open-source projects, erasing all copyright information of the original authors, He Tongxue surprisingly doesn't even have a GitHub account!? If you ask him what programming languages he knows, I'm not maliciously speculating; he might not be proficient in any language. Without personally writing code or starting from basic engineering work, he cannot establish a personal understanding of computers and hardware products. The difference between hearing others talk about it and having personal experience is too great.
He Tongxue lacks both a deep understanding of cutting-edge technology and the ability to analyze products from a practical standpoint. This leads to the videos he produces being very boring. However, he is not entirely without merit; he is a top-tier predator in the media field. Every boring topic is given a sensational title, always in the form of a question, accompanied by super exaggerated numbers, and the language must be shocking.
It seems increasingly evident that personal superstition and worship are spreading throughout society. It is the public's need for deities that shapes figures like He Tongxue and Dong Yuhui. He Tongxue is even revered by fans as "Saint He." Han people do not believe in gods; if it doesn't rain for two months, they will curse the heavens for being blind. But this does not mean that people's spiritual world truly doesn't need deities; they project their expectations of gods onto movie stars and self-media influencers, forming widespread personal worship. The personal worship and superstition of self-media influencers are not affected by the influencer's downfall. He Tongxue's plagiarism of open-source projects is a collapse, but true fans will not abandon him or criticize him for being shameless for traffic. On the contrary, true fans will find various reasons and excuses to maintain the balance of their inner world.
"Saint He" is like a religion, rooted deep within their hearts, becoming a part of their spiritual world. How could God be wrong? God is never wrong. So what if He Tongxue plagiarized open-source projects? He Tongxue did nothing wrong; he brought immense popularity to the open-source project ASCII-generator, and an old open-source project that had been stagnant for years suddenly flourished. Not everyone can receive such a blessing from He Tongxue.