How To Sniff Out Plagiarisers
By M.-L.
@MALUSE (69413)
Germany
September 16, 2020 3:45pm CST
This post is meant
a) as a reminder for oldies not to become lazy and lenient but to go on reporting plagiarisers and
b) for newbies who must learn to become vigilant. It's not so difficult to train one's eyes so that one can spot plagiarised posts.
Re a) Many oldies ask themselves why they should do unpaid work for the site. It must be technically possible to insert a programme which spots plagiarised posts. So why do myLot HQ not do it? Shouldn't they be interested in keeping the site free of cheats who steal the site's money? This is a valid argument, of course. I've pondered it for a while but have decided to go on hunting baddies. Let's be honest, there's also a sportive element in this. It's either them or me. Of course, I want to win!
Re b) How do I sniff out plagiarist 10 m against the wind (a colourful German expression)?
- When there are posts under Most Recent Discussions which have 'Benefits of . . .' or '5 (or 10) ways of . . .' in their titles. You can bet the content of your piggy bank that they're copied.
- Many posts are on a topic with which the member very clearly has no personal connection. For example: dozens of capital cities / the highest mountains of the earth / the longest rivers / the most expensive racing cars, etc. You get the picture. You'll never find the word 'I' in such a post because the member has never been in one of the cities or up a mountain. Such texts always come from the internet.
- You see an exotic user name and a title full of spelling and grammatical mistakes. You click on the post and find a text written in perfect English. Plagiarised! No further explanation necessary.
- As a former teacher of English as a foreign language I know in which countries English is taught well and where this is not the case, at least in Europe. Am I prejudiced? Prejudices are bad, aren't they? Should I have qualms of conscience? I don't think so if my suspicions are confirmed. I can find a flawless title from a member of a country whose educational system I don't trust much when it comes to foreign language teaching. I check the text of the equally flawless post and more often than not find another plagiariser.
Yet, not only members from countries where English is a foreign language plagiarise. Occasionally, also members from countries where English is the native language do that. You find them if they choose the topics I've mentioned above.
12 people like this
12 responses
Oops! LOL
@kobesbuddy (74571)
• East Tawas, Michigan
16 Sep 20
Why people insist on cheating, is beyond my comprehension. Earning a little money, isn't worth committing a crime! One girl was copying posts on one site, then posting it as her own, on another site. Then, she'd reverse this process and do the same thing. Certain writers were very upset about this!
4 people like this
@kobesbuddy (74571)
• East Tawas, Michigan
16 Sep 20
@MALUSE Yes, and on Bubblews(where it happened) the members worked hard, to write a very interesting article. We had some very excellent writers!
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
16 Sep 20
@kobesbuddy But in the end of bubblews there were also lots of plagiarisers. I remember that there were whole villages in Asia whose inhabitants worked in this field and flooded bubblews with plagiarised posts.
4 people like this
@akalinus (40440)
• United States
16 Sep 20
A writing site once said I plagiarized a sentence in an article. It was about the DR and Haiti sharing the island of Hispanola. There are only so many ways to state that and I, unfortunately, said it the way someone else did. I did not even read the article that they said I got it from. Some plagiarism is completely unintended.
I do understand your point. I used to report whole articles lifted from Wikipedia. It was on another pay chat site that is no longer there. It is maddening to find these articles posted by people who think they are making money but are really getting themselves banned.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (205753)
• Walnut Creek, California
16 Sep 20
@MALUSE I wonder how many Americans know what it means. Perhaps 15%? I'm still interested in the nuances of Schadenfreude. If I slow down to see what body parts became detached at a car accident scene, is that Schadenfreude? If I take pleasure in justice being served on a plagiarizer or criminal, is that Schadenfreude? I take pleasure in justice being served upon the "bad," but I try not to take too much pleasure on others' "suffering." I want people like Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian (and your garden variety Vietnamese plagiarizer) to be "exposed" for what they are, but I want them to learn from their experiences. Not suffer.
@JimBo452020 (42629)
• United Kingdom
16 Sep 20
I would have offered you a job when I was head Mod at Morachat.
2 people like this
@psanasangma (5884)
• India
17 Sep 20
Once, I signed up in Morochat and I do not know what is going on? later on gradually I ended up not visiting the site.
..
..1 person likes this
@JimBo452020 (42629)
• United Kingdom
17 Sep 20
@psanasangma
It was simple to understand.
Follow the rules,
And it was good.
1 person likes this
@psanasangma (5884)
• India
17 Sep 20
Your points are directing us to be more original and creative.. Points to be noted. On the other hand, I was not bothering much about other users copying the contents from other sites.
As for me, I always run out ideas, therefore I end up reading others topic which are connect to me and easy to read.
@jstory07 (134460)
• Roseburg, Oregon
17 Sep 20
It is more fun to just make up your own discussion why copy someone else.
@LadyDuck (458091)
• Switzerland
17 Sep 20
I have found several users from English speaking countries plagiarizing. Why to use your brain when you can copy an interesting article from another site, use a "text spinner" and republish here? There are many sites offering article spinner and text rewriting and they are free.
@RasmaSandra (73444)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Sep 20
My online writing jobs always require me to use Copyscape and Grammarly and I always make sure my content is original if I am writing about something I discovered or saw online. I don't think I have picked up on anything plagiarized recently but I did once on another site. I had been thinking about writing from an article online but had not gotten around to it. Suddenly I was reading an article that seemed to be familiar and then I checked and realized it was copied from the same one I wanted to use. I informed the admin on that site,
@lovebuglena (43077)
• Staten Island, New York
17 Sep 20
Some can copy content from the net or your own content and just change a few words here and there thinking no one will know they've plagiarized. Happened with my own stuff that was stolen from HubPages. I think I was able to get that removed.
