TIPS TO AVOID PLAGIARISM
Translations:
Hi everyone,
Plagiarism is one of the worst things in real world, and in the forum, it is the thing that all forum members should avoid. It is not only because to maintain our moral values, but also to avoid strict punishments on plagiarism from forum rules. We should not steal other words/ documents to earn money, then simply saying "
I am sorry" and think that everything will be fine!
There is the rule #33 of the forum, it states that:
Plagiarism, when found with proofs, by forum mods or by reports from forum members will result in permanent bans, definitely. The opportunity to get acceptance from admin or forum mods to lift perm-bans is extreme low. Such perm-ban users have to demonstrate a lot of things, their contributions to the forum, forum community, and their intention behind plagiarised posts (but in fact they have to prove not only plagiarised posts, but also through all their post history) to convince admin, or forum mods lift their bans. In a summary, there are less than five (I don't remember, but maybe not more than five users get such chances to lift their perm-bans).
Theymos' and staffs' statements:In general, I'm all for being lenient. There are users who have been temp banned many times but still haven't been permabanned because their contributions outweigh their misbehavior. I
actively disbelieve in the idea of a "rule of law" where hard rules exist and are strictly applied across the board as if we're all robots. Every case should be considered individually in the context of the forum's mission.
Plagiarism is what gets people permabanned, not just copying. Plagiarism is copying with the intent of passing the work off as your own. In essentially all cases, plagiarism deserves a permaban because it usually proves definitively that the person is here for the wrong reasons: to fill up space in order to get paid, not to actually discuss or contribute. If someone was able to convince us that they were plagiarizing just to eg.
impress people rather than to fill up space, then a lesser ban of a few months might instead be warranted. But this has never happened AFAICR. (Arguments based on plausible deniability aren't going to work; we don't need to
prove that you had the motive we see in your actions.)
If you treat posting as a job, a chore, then you must live in fear, since the forum is not made for you. In this case, you need to blend in as someone who actually cares, but plagiarism will immediately out you, and producing a mountain of useless posts will also eventually be noticed, if more slowly. If you do actually care, then this will be obvious in your posts (and probably your merit score), and you will have nothing to fear from moderators; even allegations of plagiarism will be doubted when seen in the context of your other posts.
in extreme cases could be copyright theft?
Plagiarism is almost always a copyright violation which could conceivably get the poster in a lot of trouble, but it's not a bigger legal issue
for the forum than anything else. (Using the forum to violate copyright is never allowed, though.)
when copying and pasting from the net can it lower google rankings? and internal copy and past could do the same thing?
That's not a particular concern of mine.
even memes may soon constitute copyright theft
Only in the EUSSR.
- Plagiarism: If you copy some text from somewhere, then you should have a good reason for it, and you must link to the source. Doing otherwise is plagiarism. Changing a few words around doesn't matter. If we find that you plagiarized, then you absolutely will be permanently banned, even if we find it years after you did it.
You can't plagiarise yourself. Copying the same post into another or multiple threads would at worst get you a temp ban if it was deemed spam.
Posters who made multiple posts by copying and pasting their own posts do not obey that rule
Posts are reported to moderators who check out the report. If the poster needs to be banned, the moderator sends a ban report up to a global mod or admin. The global mod or admin handles all of the ban reports they get at around the same time. Either the admins or global mods don't need to check every account because they trust the moderators to have already done so, or they check quickly because every such report contains references and links to the plagiarism post and to the source text so checking takes little time.
Second chance after get perm-banned:Get ready for the grave jumpers:
You should not hope too much when your account get permanent ban.
There's been no policy change. redsn0w wasn't permanently banned due to several factors which made me think that permabanning him would be a net negative for the forum. Nobody is banned strictly because of "the rules"; it's always handled case-by-case, but almost always, plagiarists deserve to be permabanned.
If you think that a ban should be ended, make your case in a new topic from a "good for the forum as a whole" perspective.
A few people have their bans removed for numerous reasons. It's not plagiarism if it's your own work and if you can prove that then the ban should be lifted in those cases.
There is a discussion topic on
Alternatives to Permabans for plagiarism, but once again, you should be a very constructive user and have a good reputation over long history to have second chance.
Contributive factors on second chances of perma-banned usersYou actually can take your second chance with temporary ban and signature ban for one or two years. You can get it or not, depends on your past activities (things presented below are not mine, I describe perspectives of global mods that I read during the banwave in many appeals). There are some factors:
- Total posts that you plagiarised.
- Percentage of plagiarised posts / your total posts (more than half - 50% - will wipe out your second chance, surely)
- Time points of your plagiarism (before or after the rule on plagiarism applied in the forum)
- Your past contributions.
~snip~
Everyone whom got permanent ban will feel happy with a reduced sentence for sure. However, whenever you are back from vacation, you can make the appeal better (that somehow increase your chance) by collecting and presenting posts or threads that you thought are most constructives from your past (before your ban day).
Updates from perma-bans in May of 2019:Global mods were given the ability to ban signatures only yesterday. Do you think we can get through all the appeals in one day? Be patient.
Globals can now issue sig bans so it'll happen more often but isn't going to be a let off for everyone (so if half your posts are copy and pastes then forget about it but people who are getting banned for one or two posts from years ago will likely be shown some mercy).
Therefore, avoid permanent bans by plagiarism is the utmost things that all forum members should know. It is valuable for all ranks of users.
There are some reasons that lead to plagiarism:
- Copying and pasting contents from other sources (outside the forum, such as articles, websites, etc.) without source links
- Copying and pasting contents inside posts/ topics of other forum members without quotes or source links
- Copying and pasting contents of projects' documents without source links [for developer team]
SolutionsNow, let's move to method to avoid plagiarism. I will sort it out in orders of three reasons mentioned above.
1. Copying and pasting contents from other sources (outside the forum, such as articles, websites, etc.) without source linksSolutions:
It is very easy, you simply have to copy and paste the source link of the article, website, or anything from which you censored part of their contents for your discussion.
I give you an example when I want to use a definition on plagiarism from Wikipedia, but you can apply the same for anything else from internet sources.
The definition is:
"Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work.[1][2]"
Please note that if I simply leave the definition like this in my post, I plagiarise and then perm ban will come to me later (even years later). So, how to avoid this?
There are three ways:
1.1. Leaving the source link behind the content (definition of plagiarism, in this example)"Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work.[1][2]"
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism1.2. Using quote block without exactly original sourceUsing this method when you don't remember exactly where is the source of the content you post, or you simple write it down from your memory but you doubt that you might plagiarise somehow.
OP forgot to describe that the 1.3 solution can be used when topics from which writers pick up a post were locked. Therefore, writers can not directly quote which posts they want to mention. This time, using author option is great alternative.
[quote author=link to post inside locked topic]Copy & paste content of referenced post here[/quote]
Long time ago, I did not how to quote such posts in locked topics.
2. Copying and pasting contents inside posts/ topics of other forum members without quotes or source linksTo avoid this, you should use quote button to create quote block. There are some ways to quote a posts:
Official guide of forum:You can also make the website name itself clickable using the following code:
[quote="[url=www.example.com]Website name[/url]"]Text[/quote]
Which gives this result:
Text
3. Copying and pasting contents of projects' documents without source links [for developer team]Methods to use are the same. However, please remember that even you are developers of the team, if you post your contents from whitepaper, websites, etc. to the forum topics, without sources, you plagiarise, and might get perm-bans.
So, please remember to apply those methods above if you don't want to see any kind of troubles, especially permanent ban, come to you later.
I give you a case of LOKI developer, whom opened ban-appeal days ago. I don't know the guy will get chance to see ban-life or not. Let's see.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/lokiproject-account-ban-appeal-5132663
Some stories from users whom got perm-bans lift. If I missed any case, someone who know it, please leave missed case here, and I will add it to the list.
1.
ChiBitCTyEven perm-ban lifted, signature currently displays as "Banned from displaying signatures until March 09, 2020, 08:24:44 PM"
2.
Limx Dev3.
redsn0wRemember that it is usually too late for you to say "I am sorry/ I don't know/ Can I have a chance? or whatsoever" when your account get permanent ban.
Plagiarism ClassificationI will classify types of plagiarism into two main categories:
1. Unintentionally plagiarsimIt does not mean that people who plagiarise in any type of plagiarism listed here mean that they plagiarise unintentionally. It means they can not plagiarise, then use my topic, and the part of plagiarism classification in order to prove that they violate the rule on plagiarism unintentionally.
1.1. Copy & Paste without source link
1.2. Copye & Paste part of Whitepaper, Roadmap, Specifications, announcements from projects' documents, websites, other forums that totally managed by teams of projects without source link. This type is only for developer team, who post announcements on progresses of their projects in the forum, and sometimes they unintentionally plagiarise their own documents. In fact, they don't plagiarise based on theymos' opinion on plagiarsim, but when they get bans due to this, they have to prove their ownership of original documents and their roles in such projects. So, it's better to always leave source links, even you are developers, and owners of those documents.
1.3. Translating topics of others into your local languages without ask for permission
Personally, I think that it will be fine if translators translate topics of other members into whatever languages they want, with source link.
However, it will be better if they ask for permission of authors and actually get acceptance to translate. It is better for two reasons:
- In moral aspect: By asking for permission, they will show their respect to authors.
- In potential conflicts of interests: When such conflicts occurs, it takes time to solve, and I don't think anyone of us want to face with such problems, especially we start with good purposes.
2. Intentionally plagiarism2.1. Fake Paraphrasing
It is a lowest level of plagiarism when people usually change just a few words from original texts/ posts.
2.2. Text Spinning
They intentionally use posts of others, and over paraphrase them using softwares.
Text spinning/disguised plagiarism2.3. Translation Abusement
They intentionally use posts or part of posts of other members, such as from English, then using Google Translate in order to automatically translate those texts into local language, such as Russian or any local language they want; and vice versa.
New sort of plagiarism
Some tools:1.
Grammarly2.
Small SEO tools
Sources:Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ (mprep)
Tips for newbies, who want to avoid over-quoting (tbct_mt2)
Some documents to edit the OP later (when I read them all, and have time to edit).
Alternatives to Permabans for plagarismNew sort of plagiarismText spinning/disguised plagiarismAlternatives to Permabans for plagarismis it plagiarism?Report plagiarism (copy/paste) here. Mods: please give temp or permban as needed
Contributors:I appreciate all kinds of valuable contributions from users below, whom help to improve my topic.
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