Forums → WEPR → Proper Citation
| 62 | 21651 |
Alright guys, another thing has been recently brought to my attention. I wasn't going to say anything while people were posting uncharacteristic sentences and making little omissions here and there, but this has now gone far beyond the pale:
I'm talking about plagarism. AGAIN. I did this for the ASCII art, but believe it or not this also applies to academic and informational material.
So let's be entirely clear:
* It is inappropriate to post passages or source quotes that is not YOUR OWN original content WITHOUT REFERENCES.
* In some cases, this is illegal, particularly if the document you STOLE does not cite some kind of copyleft or free-to-use clause. Chances are they have this nifty "do not distribute without permission" or a (c)- meaning copyright, meaning don't copy and paste the whole thing elsewhere.
* Worse, you think you're going to get away with that, and then say "no, seriously, I didn't copy and paste it, I wrote it myself." Are you guys even in high school yet? Have you not been taught that this form of plagarism is entirely unacceptable? Do your teachers not even bother to inform you that copying an assignment word for word and passing it off as your own is wrong?
* The reason I'm going off about this is because the clearest sign of a copy-paste job is that the post has limited or no relevance to the thread at hand. You're taking shortcuts without processing, and guess what, as a result, you're spamming.
* It's important to develop the habit where you're able to think for yourself, to evaluate the things that you're reading so you can determine what they have to do with the topic and if it supports/rejects it, and how strongly. If you can do this then we won't have the need to wade through tons of frankly useless crap just to get an idea discussed. This is important in a broader world application.
But I know that currently there is no actual discouragement from people engaging in what is tantamount to criminal activity. Which is why I'm calling upon harsher measures to be taken upon users who a) blatantly copy-paste AND omit the reference, b) when challenged, maintain their innocence despite being proven guilty.
- 62 Replies
Isn't this only illegal when it is published
no. if you take someone elses work and post, write or say it as your own work, which by not quoting you do you are guilty of plagiarism.
even if it is not published it belongs to the person who created it.
but you will mostly quote thinks of the web, so in a way the are all published.
and quoting is also great, so that other people can see to whose post you answer, and or which source you used for your research and therefore judge if the source is reliable or not
People just want to appear to be intelligent, so they copy and paste something an educated person wrote. I'm not surprised at all.
There's not much you can do about it. The fact is that children are running these forums and you just have to deal with it.
The fact is that children are running these forums
Ugh, I know. Stupid children. I try to stay away from 'em myself.
[quote=Ernie15]
Flag
I highlited Raditz's post and quoted it and got that.[/quote]
That always happens, you must have highlighted the flag.
No matter if it is stupid children or people trying to sound smart, it is still a very important rule to remember to cite the source.
Some of the mods are extra aware of plagiarism, and will punish it very hard, especially if it keeps being a problem.
I think it's always the right way to name the source no matter who it is. The bad thing about copying stuff is that you may be fined for it if you copied a lot or if you quoted passages which have a copyright on them and with which money is earned. When you post "irate copies" like that, people don't have to buy the original and the company/person that has the copyright loses money - they can sue you for the payment and this may be very expensive (especially in America with this extremely liberal law system). So, ALWAYS remember the source and please, if you don't have an own oppinion on something, DON'T quote - let it be!
thats what happens when the lawyers get involved, "knowledge should be given freely to those who want it" - some dude i cant remember whose name.
would that suffice, well its prolly a bad example, cus i thinks its a paraphrase.
"knowledge should be given freely to those who want it"
It's the fine line between privately using the knowledge and passing it off as your own that is the problem.
I agree. Different people are finicky about different things
ah, i see, so instead of like,
"hey guys check out this theory of mine, called the theory of relativity, jus thammered it out with al in hte basement"it should be like ,
"hey guys, lets look into einstiens theory of relativity, that i helped him him do the other night in my basement"
I think that your original post was on the mark across the board and is something that should be spread across the world. If everyone actually thought before they spoke or wrote anything the world would be a better place. It was ;in my opinion; not too harsh.
I, for one, thank you.
ah, i see, so instead of like,
"hey guys check out this theory of mine, called the theory of relativity, jus thammered it out with al in hte basement"
it should be like ,
"hey guys, lets look into einstiens theory of relativity, that i helped him him do the other night in my basement"
Proper citation within your statements follows more like "STATEMENT" [AUTHOR, WEBSITE/BOOK, PAGE NUMBER]
Notice the bold quotes. Aside from the citations to the right, this is signifying that this statement was not by you and your credibility is intact.
-- Quote the statement
-- Cite the author, website, and page number within parentheses or brackets. Whichever.
-- Credibility is saved.
If it is a picture, video, or whatnot, just link where you got it from--simple as that.
Users' claims that are challenged and proven wrong not only have their credibility shoot through the toilet, but can be written up for a ban as well.
Of course, being banned is much better than being fined a nice sum of money or being expelled from school, right? Consider it a form of pity or love that the mods ban you before the situation goes Federal.
Thread is locked!