Copy/Paste Abuse

@webeishere (36313)
United States
May 3, 2007 2:27pm CST
Okay I am a lenient member here as far as accepting and or deleting friends. I am on the verge of getting rid of a fewe on my list for flagrant violations of mylot guidelines. I have yet to report any as I am a tad afraid. But this abuse started wehen these said members reached the 500th post mark "earning" the right of the copy/paste option. Briefly one meMber starTs many discussions daily. Granted they are all very good discussions. That's another reason I didn't report this one in particular. But the discussions are completely from a website. No link added as to where this info was collected etc either. My understanding is it's all right to quote a site a bit then add a link for the rest of the story. But these discussions are all the webs words not a single word or comment from the poster at all in these discussions. I even made a response pertaining to this same thing in one of the discussions and got a comment that others have seen & or noticed the same thing. I liked all the discussions except for the fact it didn't offer any type of discussion with the poster as they had nothing to add of their own to the discussion. How do you feel about this type of abuse of this "earned" extra here? Should I report all that are clearly not any of this posters words? Let it slide and delete this individual? Thanks for all future feedback on this topic. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
10 people like this
25 responses
• Singapore
3 May 07
OH GOODNESS. Grandpa Bob, don't wait! You should report him right away! If he stole it from somewhere - ANYWHERE - as long as it is not original and he didn't acknowledge that he took it from somewhere, you should report it. This is for the good of all.
5 people like this
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
3 May 07
I may start checking the web for self help sites along the lines of these discussions and compare to be 100% sure its a violation. Thanks lord for your response also. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
4 people like this
• Singapore
3 May 07
Usually it would be quite obvious - just one look and you know it's stolen. These people deserve to be reported - they are stealing our money. We are working so hard here - and they are just stealing things from somewhere else. Not fair to us at all.
4 people like this
• Singapore
3 May 07
Don't be humble, cremechese. I've seen your writing. You don't write any worse than me. Just wait, a thief will say hi to you one day. LOL MUWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!!! :P
4 people like this
@nrnotrare (631)
• United States
3 May 07
Hello Grandpa Bob.... Those who just copy and paste are violators of mylot policies and should be reported. In fact, not reporting them is against mylot policies. On the do's and don'ts list mylot clearly asks us to report those that violate any of it's policies. Do not be afraid of rating negatively or reporting anyone. No one can see who makes those reports. If those kinds of posts and other crap discussions are left posted they earn the same as those who follow the guidelines and post quality work. HOW IS THIS FAIR ??? Tom
5 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
3 May 07
This does annoy me very much - I mean the fact is I post very few new discussions because I am struggling to come up with original fresh discussion ideas. If all I needed to do was copy something from the internet I would be earning a lot more money. Another point is as an author myself I would be really really upset if someone took my work, not give me credit for it, and turn around and earn money off my work - it plagerizing flat out. They copied it from some place it should give credit to where they got it from. Over the last month I have reported to myLot several people doing this - it's stealing from the original author, from myLot, and from the honest mylot members. What I do before reporting is take a key phrase from the discussion, go to Yahoo and in quotes " " do a search. That will bring up a web page where the original was posted. Sometimes it's more than one page but I just take the first page. When I report the myLot user I then include that web page address so staff can easily see that it was copied. Also shows I'm not just someone trying to cause trouble for someone because I don't like them. If I did find anyone on my friends list doing this I would not care to have them as a friend - first time ok but if they did it again they would be gone and I wouldn't feel bad about it at all.
4 people like this
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
3 May 07
Well what do you know? I can learn something new daily here. I had thought of typing "self help" or something along those lines to search. Now I never knew just a line from it would do the same. Probably a lot faster too I'd say. Thanks and have a great day. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
4 people like this
@sjohnson628 (3197)
• United States
3 May 07
OOps I am guilty of this. :( I copied and pasted a poem from an email I recieved and also a joke. Now that I realize I am wrong in doing this I won't do it again! What you are saying it very right. Give credit where credit is due and also I don't want to plagerize anyone. What are you afraid of happening if you do report this? No body knows who reports them. And as far as the referral links go I also found out a few weeks ago about them that we are not allowed to put referral links into discussions (I was guilty of that also I thought we could if people respondied and asked for it.) Thanks Grandpa Bob for starting this discussion. I hope some new members will learn something from it sooner than I did! You should report it (and you can report mine also) I wish I could delete them now that I know I did wrong. I feel bad.
3 people like this
@tammyr (5946)
• Etowah, Tennessee
4 May 07
I do believe if they ask you for a referral link it is okay. It would have to be on topic with the discussion and asked for.
1 person likes this
@pismeof (855)
• United States
3 May 07
Ok Granpa Bob 'You are probably correct in your copy and paste scenario ,But there are some articles that fall under the free domain category that any one can use .Did this person use this for a reference point of some kind in a discussion Like say quoteing some famous commentary or was this flat out plagarising ?
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
3 May 07
There was not one single refrence to any web site nor any credit given to who wrote it. Nothing said other than the words from the website it appears. No opinion from the poster and no questions asked either. It is like reading the web without knowing what wite I am reading. hahaha HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
3 people like this
• United States
4 May 07
Grandpa Bob, I feel they need to be turned in for coping and pasting straight from a web page. I do not understand why someone has to cheat to make money. I myself would be caught by the mylot law, LOL or by God. I responded to a friend of mine today who cannot copy or paste but he just give instructions on his discussions and could not figure out why his star number is low. I told him it was probably due to just giving info and not starting a discussion. This week I took a friend off my list because he stated in one of his responses that USA is evil and all Amerians are evil. I felt he could no longer be my friend. Bob, I feel if you are unhappy with what your friend is doing then maybe you should email him privately and tell him if he does not stop it you will have no choice but to turn him in. He may not know it is against mylot policies. I am giving him the benifit of doubt.
@maddog108 (3435)
• Australia
4 May 07
you will alway get some one who cheats and trys to beat the system.im sure my lot would like to hear about them send them an email to point it out
2 people like this
@juicemilk (2283)
• Australia
4 May 07
I would report it. I think it's up to the users to ensure that the guidelines are being followed as MyLot admin can't be everywhere at once! I have reported maybe 3 people during my time here, the last one was a person who had obviously pasted a copied response to one of my discussions. Then when I saw all the similar discussions down the bottom realised that they had posted the exact same response to all the discussion even remotely related to the topic. After reporting them, their post was removed :) I find it annoying when people try to cheat the systme, because it makes it harder for those of us who are here to have a good time and use the system the way it was meant to be used. I also recently deleted someone from my friends list because they would just start about 10 discussions a day on anything and everything (not saying thats a bad thing necessarily) but nothing was of any interest to me, and it was clogging up my friends page
2 people like this
• United States
3 May 07
I am guilty in copying and pasting recipes, some are my own creations and some are doctored up by me, adding here and taking away there, but to me it is a gift to those I choose to share my wonderful family recipes with. Have a great day Grandpa Bob~!
3 people like this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
4 May 07
Perhaps hust send this member a PM about your concerns. Or, do a 4response to one of these discussions, that indiucates your concern. If this person continues to violate My Lot rules, you may wish then to report him/ her, or just delete from your friends list. When I had a friend that was posting a lot of one liners, I just responded with a comment about what was appropiate.
@sigma77 (5383)
• United States
4 May 07
I can't blame you for deleting this member or reporting this abuse. The rules apply to all. I do not know who you are talking about, but they are breaking the rules. I really don't care one way or the other. When you start making exceptions, where does it end? Just my thoughts.
2 people like this
@susieq223 (3742)
• United States
4 May 07
I'm pretty sure that myLot doesn't intend for the copy/paste perk to be misused by copying word for word items for a whole discussion. If you know something has been lifted from another place, I'd report it and tell where you saw it.
2 people like this
• United States
4 May 07
if it's word for word from another site-i'd report it.they shouldn't be getting paid for that. that type of thing could end mylot eventually.
2 people like this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
4 May 07
You have to realize that you're going to have the bad apples here that will abuse the system....and it's a shame cause they obviously do this just to get the points...I don't know which is worse though, for a MyLotter to do a copy/paste thing from another website posting or a copy/paste of another MyLotters discussion--actually I think the latter is worse..and I had it happen to me...it happened to be a very sensitive subject I was discussing and this MyLotter copy/pasted it word for word--I wouldn't have known about it but I got a friend request....so I accepted..he wanted to contact me and alert me to the fact that this other MyLotters copied my discussion..and to that I'm grateful...tand yes I did report the copy cat..and so did many of my friends..and now the abuser's posting of my discussion is deleted.
2 people like this
@aidonia (4209)
• Greece
4 May 07
I know if a person is at friendslist is little more difficult to report ,but don't let him do these again and again.We are hard working here and a lot of us like me need work double as our first language not English.So when us we try and try for the best some others just want earn by cheating,not fair grandpa and you are a fair person so....you know what you must to do.
1 person likes this
@gapeach65 (805)
• United States
4 May 07
First let me say, good discussion! I feel like the people who do this are abusing all of us when they violate the guidelines. I try to be careful not to violate any myself. I too have seen too many people abusing the "privilege" to copy and paste. I wouldn't (and haven't) hesitate to report something as suspicion of guideline violations, if you report it and it's is in violation, they will delete it, if it's not, there's really no harm done. We're suppose to be helping mylot keep the guidelines in check, they can't read all the posts. I would go with your gut on each one that you think is a violation. I even go back and read the guidelines if I'm not sure, then I determine if I'm going to report them, I know sometimes it's a fine line and we can't always tell on our own.
1 person likes this
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
4 May 07
I know what you're saying, grandpa. I have a few friends on my list who kept posting about 8 discussions everyday and everything are obviously copied and pasted from another site. The problem here is that, there is no question to be answered. Like she will list down all the things one must do for a certain problem and how am I suppose to respond to that kind of threads. I have my own threads copied and pasted and some even tried to use my ideas and post their own discussions by paraphrasing all the words. I do not know what to feel about it. I simply skipped their discussions and move on to the next one that are original. If I'm not so lenient, I may start reporting this users. It is not easy to keep banging my head just to come up with a discussion only to be easily stoled by others. Phew...I apologize for ranting here. Anyway, keep posting grandpa.
@blackbriar (9076)
• United States
4 May 07
I'm sure you know what my answer will be, Grandpa Bob. REPORT!!! You are right. The guidelines are to start the discussion about something then add a link to the site they are discussing for further reading. I've seen this happend a few times and reported the person for doing it. One of them was a friend that recently added me to their friend's list. I since deleted the person.
1 person likes this
@Woodpigeon (3710)
• Ireland
4 May 07
I have someone on my friend list that does a bit of this but Ihonestly can't tell if she reworks articles, if they are typed in from elsewhere or just copied. I give the benefit of the doubt. I have done recipes as well, so hands up, guilty as charged. There's also the 'fair use' and have tried to figur out how much is allowable. It is a very confusing topic (not your, fair use).
1 person likes this
@joycer (498)
• Sri Lanka
4 May 07
This is a good eye opener. This topic of yours will serve as a reminder for all mylot members, because not everyone here knows all the rules, like me. I hope more topics will be tackled and discussed regarding the rules on mylot.
1 person likes this