Plagiarism and Pasting Hundreds of Identical Responses are Wrong, Do You Care?
By kelly60
@kelly60 (4547)
United States
June 25, 2007 1:35pm CST
Yesterday I was reading discussions on migraines and came across several obviously plagiarized responses. The plagiarized responses were all identical, and all by the same member, so I looked at this member's profile page. I even went so far as to glance through his discussions replied to since his responses all seemed to be identical. Guess what, he had replied to 43 pages of discussions about insomnia in one day after finishing his kick on headaches.
I didn't go through them all of course, but I would be willing to bet that he probably did the same thing or something similar with about 430 responses to discussions about insomnia in one day, and before that it was who knows how many discussions about headaches, and who knows what came before the headache responses.
I wonder sometimes if I should bother reporting these. We all know that what he is doing is wrong. We all know that this member is only here for the money, and even if you do not realize it, he is taking money out of your pockets and stealing from the site by doing this. I did not bother reporting them all, but you can probably find out who it is pretty easily by reading just about any discussion on either migraines or insomnia and looking for a very long response. Just to verify, you might want to check two or three discussions on the same topic, just to make sure that the responses match.
Even though we all know that this type of dishonesty hurts us all, I have members attack me, telling me that I am wrong for visiting his profile if I have seen him plagiarize multiple times. I have had members accuse me of looking for someone to report. This simply isn't the case.
I try to enjoy my time here on myLot by posting discussions and responses, but I also believe in honesty. For those who do not, I am sorry for you. If I happen to come across your plagiarized posts while I am reading discussions, do not blame me for reporting you, blame yourself for being dishonest in the first place.
8 people like this
15 responses
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
25 Jun 07
Thank you for taking the time to report this cheater. You're efforts are undoubtly helping to make myLot a better place.
Hopefully, over time you will report many more.
2 people like this
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
26 Jun 07
It really upsets me when someone does that to my discussions. One time I thought this woman was doing a wonderful job on her comment. I even gave her the best response award. I then went to my next article and she had pasted the same comment on it. I went to several more and she had done it to most of them. I was really upset and I think this is just wrong.
@anonymili (3138)
•
26 Jun 07
Good for you that you have time to find out about people who are copying and pasting the same response many times. I don't have the time or patience to do that personally but that is a bit of a copout, we should all be doing what we can to make this site a better place. It's annoying to think that there might be people around on here that are constantly pasting the same response to many discussions, one would hope that there is something in the myLot system that would flag this and I'm sure it won't be long before people like that get caught. The site does not pay out funds willy nilly to members, it pays after the end of each month for the previous month if you have accrued enough funds, i.e. $10 or more. I am sure that people will be giving members like that negative ratings when they notice that they are just using the same text in all of their posts and hopefully myLot admin will pick up on this and take action against those users too. Don't worry about those who accuse you of going out hunting for cheaters, as long as you're honest and use the site fairly, I wouldn't worry too much about people having a grumble, you just stick to being honest as hopefully the majority of us here are :)
1 person likes this
@yuanchang (474)
• Philippines
25 Jun 07
well i do care. for the reason that i do not copy and paste responses and i do work hard in composing my comments. people like him should be guilty because he is not fair. but there is a different scenario though. like some people, because of their laziness, do not read previous comments for a certain discussion that is why some of the responses are coincidently are kind of the same substance one way or another(having the same idea) with other people's responses. well that is a different story and kind of innocent.
1 person likes this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
25 Jun 07
You are right, sometimes we may make comments that are similar to another, and that is not what I am talking about here. This member pasted the same exact response into many discussions. This is a violation of the guidelines, but not only that, but at least in the case of his headache response, the response was also plagiarized. I did not bother to check the insomnia one. It is a violation though, whether plagiarized or not.
@yuanchang (474)
• Philippines
26 Jun 07
people who plagiarized should be really be reported and banned from my lot :)
@forsakemysoul (519)
• United States
25 Jun 07
I actually completely agree with you. People like that shouldn't be allowed to do that. Or at least, they should be warned that what they're doing is wrong, and maybe they'll fix it. You never know.
1 person likes this
@kelly60 (4547)
• United States
25 Jun 07
They need more than just a warning... The posts need to be deleted and they need to be stopped from continuing. It is up to myLot how they choose to handle the matter, but to just let them keep posting and not report it is ridiculous. I don't understand any reason why any honest member would criticize me for reporting cheaters like this.
@forsakemysoul (519)
• United States
25 Jun 07
It depends. Some people truly don't know that what they're doing is against the rules. They're just ignorant like that. So a warning would be nice for those types of people.
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
26 Jun 07
I am not sure you are doing a good thing. You are paid for the time you spend on checking it all. I figure they get caught in time since the secret moderators go through all the discussions anyway. If they would find them theirself maybe some of innocents would then be safe since the moderators would be busy with real work. Anyway, I hope you get more people that express themselves without anger and I hope you can spend more time in real discussions and let the rest work themselves out. I too wish to make money mostly. Friends are the bonus.
@webeishere (36313)
• United States
25 Jun 07
This is theft and it hurts us all in the long run. These
people need to be reported. The more members reporting this
type if violations the more likely this site will get cleaned
up and back to how it was at it's start.
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~
@kareng (61855)
• United States
25 Jun 07
I think you are doing the right thing by reporting them! Afterall, they are breaking the rules. The rules and regulations are for all to follow. I hope mylot takes appropriate action and it wouldn't surprise me to see this member gone, gone, gone...very soon!
@freak369 (5113)
• United States
26 Jun 07
When I see someone cutting and pasting answers or topics I report them. I try to get as much info as I can and then submit it. So far the people I have reported have all been dealt with by lyLot - their accounts were either deleted or suspended. It's hard to tell if an account is suspended, you sort of have to wait and see if they post anything else.
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
26 Jun 07
I sometimes copy and paste a part of something that answers a question. I hope you don't just report me since I use it as a tool for each situation. If I get banned from here I will not be able to pay my Ebay fees and that would really hurt me. Let the moderators do their thing please.
1 person likes this
@roniroxas (10559)
• Philippines
25 Jun 07
it is really frustrating to find out members with that kind of character exist here at mylot. yes by reading your discussion i felt cheated. i work hard here, brain storming everyday for a good discussion... and as you know one of my discussion is about envying a discussion with a lot of response, realizying that there are people here who are just robbing or cheating.
i think it is not wrong to visit some people's profile because our profile is open for all. so everybody has the right to get in and out of someones profile.
and i agree on what you said why blaming people who are honest and playing fairly? blame people who are cheating and are not honest at mylot.
for me kelly you are doing the right thing, keep it up.
1 person likes this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
26 Jun 07
Well, I think you know my opinion on this - it's wrong, it's stealing from the original author and it's stealling from myLot. I've been limited on time available with the move and all but I would report as many as possible. I still think we should get compensated in some way for doing this though - you know it's saving myLot money.
1 person likes this
@dlkuku (1935)
• United States
25 Jun 07
Cheating just shows a lack of imagination and originality on the part of the cheater. And I agree it hurts all of us, and I really don't think it is necessary, there are plenty if discussions to respond to without cheating.
@cmsk2005 (1770)
• United States
25 Jun 07
Yes this specially hurts us who type line by line aching our hands and neck. I bother and bother as it increases his/her earning. who wont be happy to get a higher payout from somehere working so much hard and it is then very upsetting to see somebody is getting higher payout by doing something in wrong way. I enjoy the discussion but the earning is also a issue for me and I know many of such thing here too. I dont know if anybody cares for this
1 person likes this
@Kurokage (548)
• Albania
25 Jun 07
Well, the thing is that I say yes to one thing that could be the gal to accoplish out of this, and no to the other. If mylot members copy with a simple intent to raise their post count, then they should be banned. But it is still earning mylot for internet traffic money if they do this, so I am not sure what to say.
