Plagiarized Discussions and Other Site Abuse... Do You Report It?
By kelly60
@kelly60 (4547)
United States
May 7, 2007 10:47am CST
I spent a lot of time yesterday and today tracking down and reporting close to 50 plagiarized discussions from one myLot member. Out of the first three pages, I found no more than one or two discussions per page that I did not find sources for. This does not mean that they are not breaking the guidelines just that I did not find a source that they had been copied from. Perhaps I would have found sources if I had spent the time to search for those not easily spotted.
I am not yet finished because there are pages and pages more to go. Sorry for any points and/or earnings this may cost any of you, but I do not tolerate plagiarism, and will report it whenever I see it. I hope that others will join me and keep your eyes open for plagiarism as well as any other myLot violations. They are easy to report, and only take a minute.
If you find someone who is violating the guidelines and you do not report them, you have nobody but yourself to blame when your earnings go down. The cheaters and site abusers are hurting us all.
5 people like this
7 responses
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
7 May 07
Wow - I've never done that many in one day, I usually get buried out around 10 or 15, it's just so depressing for me to see how lazy people can be and will cheat others the way some of these people do. I do know that myLot acts on it though when cheaters are reported - one day I almost watched as plagerized discussions were being deleted from one cheater.
In answer to your question - yep I certainly do report.
3 people like this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
8 May 07
I probably would have quit much earlier, but one particular post had me so upset that I had to keep going. When I read her post about being the victim of rape, and all of the sympathy she was getting, only to find that she had copied it from someone's blog, I was so mad that I guess the adrenaline just kept me going.
1 person likes this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
7 May 07
LOL - maybe that's why they don't plagerize my work - all the typos and spelling errors such as I don't 'get buried out' - I get burned out :)
2 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
8 May 07
Oh my, I think if I had come across that I would have done the same as you. That has got to be the lowest of lows - not only stealing a person's words but their pain, sorrow, symathy... That's the same as steeling an identity. Makes me want to go find that person and do some reporting myself.
2 people like this
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
7 May 07
First, I agree with you, I report discussions as well. Actually I don't bother reporting all their discussions. I just put in the box that "This user has many plagerized discussions you need to look through the discussions to delete them." I just don't see why I am going to report every single discussions when they can just go to the user's page and view all his/her discussions.
Yes, I know how if feels, my discussion was plagerized by another user. I was not happy that someone just copy and pasted my discussion on here. And didn't even give me credit or even ask for permission. Since I try to follow the myLot rules and regulations I think it is not right.
You may want to look at these discussions that are on the same topic:
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1041583.aspx
http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1058540.aspx
3 people like this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
8 May 07
When I found another user plagiarized my discussion I reported him. I checked his profile and reported a couple of others. When I saw a pattern, I reported a large group all at once. I did the same for another plagiarizer on the same day. I checked back several days later and only the ones I had reported individually had been removed from either account. I determined that in order to get them removed I must need to report each one individually.
This was a couple of months ago. After reading your post I just went back and checked the profiles of these two members. At this time it appears that many, if not all of those posts have been removed, and neither member has logged in for the past two months. This would have been around the same time as the discussions were reported, so maybe I just got impatient and quit checking back to see whether myLot dealt with the issue.
1 person likes this
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
8 May 07
Well, actually I didn't report it. One of my friends on here reported it and sent me a message. Yes, I will be definitely reporting plagiarized discussions as well :)
2 people like this
@squrrly26 (556)
• United States
7 May 07
Not trying to disrespect you but it sounds like you are taking this site way too seriously. I mean we are all here to try and earn a few extra cents a day and have contact with people from all over the world. Its not like this is a site where you can earn a living by posting and replying to discussions. If it was a site where you could earn a substantial amount of money a day then I would back you 100% but since its not then I just feel you have way to much free time on your hands and you need to find a new hobby. Just my opinion.
3 people like this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
7 May 07
callarse1 I agree with you totally - I haven't that I know of had any of my discussions stolen but I am a writer and I would be very very tee'd off if I saw someone else earning money (even if only a few cents) off my hard work.
squrrly it doesn't matter if it's for fun or for earning, making a living or not - stealing is stealing and that is exactly what plagerism is, stealing from the original author.
4 people like this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
7 May 07
If I were as worried about those few pennies as you seem to think, I would have been spending my time posting discussions and responses rather than worrying about thieves and liars. Personally, I have had my work stolen and posted by one of these plagiarizers. Maybe you do not mind thieves and liars, but I wasn't raised that way. I was raised to take a stand for what you believe in, and in my case, I guess that is honesty.
3 people like this
@ntejani17 (742)
• Pakistan
7 May 07
No man because no use to report these kind of website. Nothing matters.
1 person likes this
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
7 May 07
Yes, certainly. If I come across them, I will report. I don't deliberately seek them out unless something looks suspicious. myLot should make you a moderator or something.
2 people like this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
8 May 07
I do not start out looking for them, but sometimes they are so obvious that you cannot help but notice. Once I find one, I usually go take a glance around though to see if they are making a habit of it. Usually they are. I am not sure I would want to be a moderator, but some days I would love to just start deleting these things and get it over with, especially when I find people like this.
1 person likes this
@LordGregoroftheSith (667)
• United States
12 May 07
I don't go looking for it. But I have found 2 or more people that I HAD to report. I try not to report someone unless they just really need to be reported. One person was spamming questions across the board as posts and trying to make a quick dollar. The other 2 were people that were really just not even giving an opinion anymore. They were just flat out being RUDE and abusive. As I said, if you feel they need to be reported do so with good reason. People like that is what is going to keep mylot down. We want it to stay up :)
1 person likes this
@maruti800 (353)
• India
7 May 07
I will be greatfull, if you mention from which website youhave copied such a lenghty article..
Thanks for sharing your info in mylot...
