Giving myLot Users the Boot
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
United States
December 19, 2015 2:04pm CST
Recently, on myLot, I stumbled upon a short one sentence post with an image. The written part of the post was nothing but an unoriginal bible verse. The image was nice, but the attribution simply noted a name without appropriate usage information.
Though it was just my opinion, I felt this post offered nothing new, nothing of value and therefore did a disservice to myLot. I expressed this opinion in the comment section of the post. Another user took issue with my position, suggesting that that I was out of line and that new folks should be encouraged, particularly when their posts have a pleasant message.
I generally have a low tolerance for this sort of poster, because having served as a moderator of a couple online sites in the past, I have have seen far too many people plagiarize, steal and find other ways to try and cheat.
I did report the post and I am glad I did, because the very next day the poster wrote another inspirational post. Sadly, this post was 100% plagiarized from another person's book. It was nothing short of blatant thievery. I intend to report that post too. I hope @GoAskAlice will not only delete both of this poster's posts, but will boot this user off of myLot.
Ann LeFlore AKA @poehere also wrote about a similar situation that she observed.
I had to look twice, clean my contacts and look again to make sure I was awake and seeing what I saw. Around midnight, here on the islands, I was waiting for a...
17 people like this
19 responses
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
19 Dec 15
I disagree.
Purely from what i've seen people who cheat here get removed.
3 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@Mike197602 thanks for sharing your perspective.
2 people like this
@akalinus (43196)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@HanVanMeegerin You just answered with a one sentence post. I won't report that, but I rest my case.
1 person likes this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@akalinus thank you for comment. I didn't realize we were discussing the length of comments.
2 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@jaboUK thank you for your support.
4 people like this
@allknowing (136413)
• India
20 Dec 15
Reporting is a habit with me but I never create posts saying that I have done that
4 people like this
@allknowing (136413)
• India
21 Dec 15
@ataboy Or rather you should try to find out what they mean? Because I know the meaning and that is why I have used those words.
1 person likes this
@ataboy (737)
• United States
21 Dec 15
Hey @allknowing, that's pretty funny! I do get it!
But maybe you should ALSO think about checking a dictionary for the meaning of the word "habit" and "posts"!
I don't want to spell it out for you, let's keep this a little exciting!....But are you sure that you NEVER do that? Hmmm....
@ataboy (737)
• United States
21 Dec 15
@allknowing - here's all I was implying...
So a habit is not something that one does "habitually" as in a regular reoccurring pattern or as a normal practice, IOW a habit is something one does commonly/regularly, no?
And a post in the context of myLot can be used to describe either a reply or comment OR a discussion. It's something that is posted, no?
So if reporting is a habit with you, then you must somewhat regularly report baddies, right? (thx for that BTW!)
Thus:
(1).you have just posted a comment "saying" (i.e. writing/typing) that reporting is a regular habit of yours
Next you say:
(2.) "...BUT [you] NEVER create a posts saying that [you] have done that [reporting]"
(1) and (2) contradict one another! 
You can't expect a reasonable person to accept unreasonable logic - It seems that:
you've created a post that says that you report people BUT you never create posts saying that you report people 
Does that make sense to you somehow?
Please enlighten me - and I don't mean to stop you from smiling! 
I again thank you for reporting people that feed off of the website! Most members don't take the time to do so!
You can't expect a reasonable person to accept unreasonable logic - It seems that:
you've created a post that says that you report people BUT you never create posts saying that you report people
Does that make sense to you somehow?
Please enlighten me - and I don't mean to stop you from smiling!
I again thank you for reporting people that feed off of the website! Most members don't take the time to do so! 
@Raine38 (12250)
• United States
20 Dec 15
If they really like to share someone else's work, at least credit the author. Passing it off as their own with intentions of getting others to comment and make it popular is not ethical. It is something that must not be encouraged at all.
3 people like this
@ataboy (737)
• United States
21 Dec 15
LOL! @HanVanMeegerin - what are we guessing now?! I say 99 44/100% chance of cloudy skies! (meaning 1 in 200 chance of clear skies above) I'm still working on determining the confidence!
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@Raine38 thanks for your comment. How likely do you think it us for someone to do this and not know this is wrong?
1 person likes this
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
20 Dec 15
I know who you're talking about. I saw that "post" and your comment. No surprise to hear that the poster offended again. I don't know why, but Bubbews was overrun with people who copied from religious websites and books, and I'm hoping this doesn't happen here.
3 people like this
@marijuana (570)
• Tel Aviv, Israel
20 Dec 15
Many times it is better to read a post with broken English than those stolen ones.
3 people like this
@marijuana (570)
• Tel Aviv, Israel
21 Dec 15
@HanVanMeegerin LOL! If they were to steal, why don't they steal ones with good English :)
2 people like this
@marijuana (570)
• Tel Aviv, Israel
21 Dec 15
@ataboy LOL! I'm glad you find my statement funny Kidding aside, there are post with broken English yet one can understand what they were trying to say and they are saying things with sincerity.
About the danger in Tel Aviv. It usually looks worse in the news than the actual :) Unless you live near the borders.. near the bad guys who throw bombs when ever they want 
Kidding aside, there are post with broken English yet one can understand what they were trying to say and they are saying things with sincerity.
About the danger in Tel Aviv. It usually looks worse in the news than the actual :) Unless you live near the borders.. near the bad guys who throw bombs when ever they want 1 person likes this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
20 Dec 15
I have never written a one sentence post in my life on either old mylot or new mylot as I'm more wordy than that. I might report a few but I do not as a rule write about it either.I tend to use most of my time to try to improve on my own posts. I really do not spend all my time checking of wrong doers as there seem to be enough of us doing that. Im not saying its wrong which it is not of course. I just get defensive as on bb a lot criticized me for my good morning or good evening posts yet I had plenty of responses and I feel go on bye if you do not like my posts as I obey all the rules and I do no feel guilty at all.;
2 people like this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
20 Dec 15
@HanVanMeegerin I was going to report this one that as 4 or 5 posts all in foreign language but could not find it again so i must hae been found b y the admins
3 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@Hatley thank you for sharing your experiences. I haven't reported much here, just a few posts that seemed blatantly against the rules.
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
21 Dec 15
One liners should be reported and no one should say otherwise. We should be willing to help admins here.
2 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
21 Dec 15
@LovingMyBabies thank you for sharing your opinion.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
21 Dec 15
obviously it is up to admin what action to take - you were right to report it though - quotations with no context are not a post, be it from the Bible or any other source
2 people like this
@pgiblett (6524)
• Canada
19 Jan 16
@HanVanMeegerin Even on a site like this which is about discussion you need something to get your teeth into. I think of it this way - if I provide five different sentences that may offer 5 possible separate routes for discussion, use three paragraphs and suddenly you have more than 50 things to discuss - make it 300 words and the options for discussion could run into the thousands.
I have many times responded more than once to a good discussion, with each response going in a different direction.
1 person likes this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Jan 16
@pgiblett it's hard to make a one line post worthwhile.
1 person likes this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Jan 16
@pgiblett I probably won't write too many lengthy pieces here, because the rewad doesn't justify the time, but one sentence posts don't do anthing for me here either as an initiator or as a reader.
2 people like this
@bookbar (1609)
• Sudbury, England
19 Dec 15
Good for you, they creep in everywhere, under whatever plagiarised banner they can get away with,don't know who that commenter was, but they should be more aware that spammers/scammers are not devout about anything,other than ripping sites off... so well done you!
We all benefit from contributors who are alert to the danger,that grows like a cancer, and has been responsible for the demise of many sites
2 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@bookbar when you use Bible verses, use the name of Jesus or try inspirational phrases it makes one look so sweet and innocent. The bottom line in this case and in many others the person was a blatant plagiarizer and cheater..
2 people like this
@ataboy (737)
• United States
20 Dec 15
Let me know if anyone if not willing to report a Bible verse, @HanVanMeegerin, I'll take one for the team! I already know I'm headed in a very Hellacious direction in the afterlife! 
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@bookbar if not attended to, they can infest a site. Some dive in right away. Others test the waters first. I've spent a lot of time helping and/or editing the writing of others only to be burned when I discovered they were just plagiarizing the work of others. I've grown sick of it. Often even when you show them the evidence they still deny it or claim they didn't understand.
2 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
19 Dec 15
You did the right thing. I have zero tolerance for plagiarism, and I have a low tolerance for one line posts, especially when they post 35 of them in a row.. Anything i see that I wonder about I was told by a friend to go ahead and report and Alex will look at and decide if it stays for goes. I don't do it often but I have no guilt when I push report.
3 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate thank you for your support. In retrospect, perhaps next time I should just report the person rather than get sidetracked by a user defending, encouraging, and welcoming cheaters.
3 people like this
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
19 Dec 15
I think i know what you're on about though i've not been around for a few days.
With images it's easy...they need to be either yours or you need permission to use them otherwise it's wrong.
Permission can come from the person who made the image or from the fact that it's on one of those public image sites where owners say it's ok to use their image.
If something is nothing new or offers, in your opinion, nothing of value it may well still be ok for the poster to post it.
The guidelines are too vague on here at the moment and need firming up in my opinion.
Obviously blatant cheating and copying is wrong but sometimes hard for a moderator to pin down as if the person says they wrote xxxxx under a different name it's hard and time consuming for a moderator to get the truth.
That's why i believe mylot wants original content not stuff that is up elsewhere...much easier for a moderator to deal with as if it's up somewhere else they remove it here...simple.
When we get into the realm of "ideas" that's where it gets hard.
I could see a discussion, get an idea from the topic then put my own discussion up.
As long as it approaches the subject from a different angle that should be ok.
You can't just reword someones discussion as that's cheating.
2 people like this
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
19 Dec 15
@HanVanMeegerin I get what you're saying.
my opinion is avoid the post and report it and let admin decide.
I've got into things on here i'd no need to do and as i've found admin very good i intend to avoid this sort of problem and simply report the post.
3 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@Mike197602 that is a good approach. I have been doing just that. In this case, why I got involved was because the commenter basically complimented the poster for the post. There can be lag time for admin to deal with reporting issues. Thus sometimes when people see posts up that are not valid and have people complimenting them they can get the wrong impression that they are actually okay and thus create some of their own which then creates more reporting, more admin work and a circle that becomes tougher to break.
3 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
19 Dec 15
@Mike197602 by nothing new and nothing of value, I meant simply by providing a quote and nothing more as a post.
4 people like this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
20 Dec 15
I love how quickly myLot responds to this type of mess. I am clueless when it comes to plagiarism I never seem to know when it occurs. Glad there are people like you who can spot them and report them. Would love this site to remain clean. Have seen to much mess like that on other sites, and it ruins them.
2 people like this
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@fishtiger58 thanks for comnenting. Yes, it can ruin sites if not combatted with vigor.
2 people like this
@Bluedoll (16773)
• Canada
20 Dec 15
There are some members in myLot that are not just stumbling on posts. They are making an effort to look for posts they don't like. Personally one sentence posts don't bother me. I look at the people side of things. What is the person trying to say? Though I will always agree with admin when posts get removed I can not agree with this post. Banning a potentially good member for making a small mistake early into their myLot experience is not very friendly.
The reason I feel this way I've expressed more here...
Certainly many posts are created by spammers and do meet with a death sentence. They should and do get removed by the administration on most websites. The...
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16773)
• Canada
20 Dec 15
I agree with reporting spam. It does help everyone and shows people care about the site. Also citing properly is very good practice and its good to help members so as to educate. We all can learn something @HanVanMeegerin everyday, mistakes can happen because some of us do need reminders from time to time. Perhaps not everyone is on the level when it comes to good posting skills? If we can help each other perhaps we can all prosper from that action.
I do agree some serious spammers don't want help and are not innocent with their spamming.
@HanVanMeegerin (1161)
• United States
20 Dec 15
@Bluedoll In my case, it was stumbling. I have only reported a few members that deserved to be reported. Plucking a quote from someone's book and posting it as your own is something that seems odd to do without knowing it's wrong.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
20 Jan 16
I think you did the right thing. I don't even bother with a comment I just report them and let Alex decide if it is okay or not.
@lokisdad (4226)
• United States
18 Jan 16
the one line post with nothing but a pic and not even an original one line stolen from some other place piss me off and I don't interact with them and flag the posts not so much for being short but more for not even having the decency to write the one measly line themselves. Nobody is that dumb that they can't even think of one line. Even this is more respectable: I want to write a post and don't have the slightest idea of what to talk about anybody have any ideas to help me out here?
1 person likes this
@ataboy (737)
• United States
19 Jan 16
I said almost the exact same thing, (twice, somewhere up above..LOL! Seriously!) It's like they aren't even pretending to try! They've lost interest in their fully-plagiarized post even before they get to complete submitting it, or something! Maybe they have no 'original thoughts'; that was one theory of mine. 
IDK what else would keep them from writing something....I've read some pretty weak posts, so there's not to high of a threshold to meet, and I might even give them a chance if they wrote something like what you mentioned! Beyond that it's just like 
Ahhhhh...Report!
IDK what else would keep them from writing something....I've read some pretty weak posts, so there's not to high of a threshold to meet, and I might even give them a chance if they wrote something like what you mentioned! Beyond that it's just like Ahhhhh...Report!1 person likes this
@lokisdad (4226)
• United States
19 Jan 16
@ataboy yeah you almost wish you could go through the computer monitor and shake the crap out of them. hit them with a book to try to knock some sense into them lol. I can even appreciate the horrible writer not that i consider myself to be a great writer by any means I consider myself to be a mediocre writer at best but at least i write something that is mines.
1 person likes this
@ataboy (737)
• United States
19 Jan 16
@lokisdad Yea but then all the pixels fall out and you have a mess! LOL! You seem like a perfectly fine writer, vivid enough to get a chuckle out of me over such numskulls! But of course, I am desperately looking for a word or two in the margin that I might have missed or something...NOTHING! At least you seem to have a head that's properly aligned on your shoulders, I'm truly glad to have crossed paths with you for the first time that I recall! And hope to do so again, Robert!
1 person likes this
