Pet Peeve About Copying and Pasting!
By JC1969
@JC1969 (1224)
United States
December 27, 2006 4:39am CST
Okay, now I am really glad that myLot has tried to put and end to those less than desirables who think they can plagiarize, copyright infringe, and basically steal the words of someone else and pass them off as their own by copying and pasting. I've been a pretty big advocate of having these people axed from this site.
However, I have a pet peeve with the new "can't copy and paste" feature. I normally write my discussions using word. I do this so I can check for errors in grammar, spelling, and so on, because I like to take pride in my writing. I use this forum to practice my craft. Well, now I can't copy and paste my discussions from word to here because of this feature.
Oh sure, I can wait till I hit a rating of 500, but doesn't that make this new feature pointless? How many of the "less than desirables" who were engaging in plagiarism had already reached 500 and more and have not been axed because they have yet to have been caught.
Okay, enough ranting...I am just curious how many of you out there normally take the time to write a well thought out discussion using word or other program, and now can no longer copy and paste it here? Does it bother you? Do you think this feature will actually cut down on those who steal other people's words or will it just punish those of us who are honest and use the feature honestly? Also, do you think those individuals who were use to copying and pasting prior to this feature, will go back to doing it once they hit 500? Last, how many think that mylot needs to add features like spell and grammar check, edit feature, and other elements that may help us who care about our writing maintain our standards?
2 people like this
9 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
31 Dec 06
Most of us were delighted at the great reduction of copying and pasting other members' responses or articles from other sites, but I must agree that it has become a little unfair for the honest members that have a rating below 500.
I would have difficulties if I could not copy and paste, because I often copy my response before submitting it in case the page fails to load. This happens occassionally and it would mean having to compose the whole response again.
I agree with others who have posted here that the option should only have been removed for someone who has abused it.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
31 Dec 06
I realise that Mylot are slow at removing cheaters, but it is a busy site and they probably spend quite a bit of time ensuring that a person is a consistant cheat before doing so.
I think the admin are doing a decent job because the site is improving, so these people will eventually be caught.
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
31 Dec 06
I think they are doing the best they can, with respect to the fact that this site has a large membership. However, they are going to need to come up with a more effective way at removing these members faster, because they are paying out money to many of them who are in violation of many of their rules.
I think they need to have stricter penalties that they make you agree to at the time you are signing up. You know an area that makes you put a check mark next to all the rules you agree to, and acknowledging that you understand the penalties. Penalties need to be stricter, because they have alread paid out large amounts in some cases to these scammers, they need to implement a penalty of having to pay back what they already earned if it is found out that they cheat at anytime during the course of their membership. I think this may scare many members who came here with the sole idea of scamming for money. Think about it, would you want to owe money to myLot if you were caught cheating and violating their terms agreement?
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
31 Dec 06
Thats what I also do, because myLot still has some glitches, and I can't tell you how many times I go to submit a post and it gets hung up and doesn't go through.
Here's another problem that I have noticed and am not to happy with myLot about, and that is the fact that many of those that were scamming by copy and pasting from other sources and no citing credit, is that many of those people were scamming for a while and already reached well over 500 rating. Now, myLot expects us all to police the site for them, yet they are very slow with removing these people from here.
I think it would be easier if myLot came up with a "red flag" symbol that goes next to the (-)(+)(!). If a person receives like 10 red flags for a discussion that alerts myLot and they immediately check it out and if that discussion or response is plagiarized then the account is deleted. I also think the penalty should be stricter, meaning that instead of the person losing all earnings, myLot should make them pay back whatever has been previously paid out to them as well. Because think about it, if they got caught doing this once, chances are they were engaging in the violation the whole time they were members, and myLot paid them to cheat.
@freesoul (3021)
• Egypt
31 Dec 06
I realize that taking a good privilege that you use in the right way is frustrating, it's like these anti-terrorism laws that restrict the actions of good citizens and do very little to real terrorist :(
Spell check was the least that mylot can do when they implemented the no copy and paste policy, they should be aware that better spelling give the site more value and we are actually been paid for "quality" content, I hope they can add a few more improvements and they do more efforts to clean the site from all abusers, my word for everyone, always report abuse, I can only guess that multiple reports get an abuser banned sooner, don't say someone else must have reported it, even if they did you should also report as long as it wasn't removed yet.
1 person likes this
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
31 Dec 06
That's always been my rule of thought, you can never be sure that someone else reported a violator unless you do it yourself.
I know there is a yahoo group that was started with the hopes of working together to pool a list of those cheating and scamming on mylot, and to discuss ways to improve mylot and make it a quality community.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReportTheCheaters/join
@soldenski (2503)
• United States
30 Dec 06
I really don't give it much thought. If there is a discussion that I don't like or think that it was copied, or even complaining, I just skip it. If we all just skip those type's of discussion's then eventually they will stop posting them, because they got no replies. Sound's like a good idea to me.
1 person likes this
@momofvma (71)
• United States
27 Dec 06
For me it doesn't make much of a difference because I don't have the time to write everything down and then copy and paste all over. LOL I am the type of person who just goes with the flow and sometimes I may spell things wrong but it is not often a huge mistake and by taking it away it does stop people from cutting and pasting from others posts on here. Which I have seen is a pretty big issue.
1 person likes this
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
28 Dec 06
Unfortunately, these same people that got the feature taken away from everyone, will almost definitely go back to doing it once they reach 500 rating. The problem was that many of those that were abusing copying and pasting already had well over 500 as their rating, and myLot expected us to police them and turn them in. But lets be realistic, I am sure those of us that did police the site did not get everyone.
I just think that mylot should look into some features that would assist in the quality of writing such as editing tools right here where you post. Sort of like when you make an entry at LiveJournal--there are features which allow you to insert html links, do spelling and grammar checks, and so on.
See, I don't find anything wrong with someone who wants to reference a snip of something they read somewhere, and then base their discussion around it, as long as they give the author, and or link where they got the original text. However, that is not what was going on--and there are those who have over 500 still doing it. As it stands now, if I want to leave someone a link to valuable information, I have to type out the whole web-address, and I can't tell you how many times I've made an error in typing it and the link fails to work. There's no editing tools, I can't go back and edit once posted either.
You are right though I am sure, there are many people here that were not refered to myLot through a writing forum--and are here for the purpose of fun and communication.
@re08dz (1941)
• Australia
31 Dec 06
Like you I have a problem with those that copy/paste entire articles (or other's responses etc) without giving proper credit.
I have many articles scattered around the internet and I would be absolutely devastated if I ran across someone using one here and claiming it as their own (not to say they're that brilliant or anything but still) and in fact I'd be very quickly finding out what other action I could take, besides just reporting them here.
But in truth that copy/paste thing doesn't work anyway - or at least it doesn't stop everyone - only yesterday I ran across a person in about four different discussions who only had a rating of 80 odd (at that time) who had copied different responses from other people. And to be honest I'm not even sure reporting them helps - I know the admin could very well be working over time to eliminate these people, but there's also a good chance that many will continue to get away with it, until such time as someone actually has some form of legal action taken against them (which is entirely possible - hell they're copying stories and all sorts of things) it seems to be one of those 'I know it annoys you but we'll get to it when we get to it type of things.'
Oh and I've had no problems pasting a link etc into my responses. As for the spell check stuff, yes it would be good but as an Aussie when I use that type of thing on a site from America I get told all my spelling is wrong :-)
1 person likes this
@Sabidega (318)
• Italy
31 Dec 06
"Copyng and pasting" for me it was and he is indispensable; they are un Italian and I speak English badly, but with a translator on-line, at least I succed translate in English my thoughts. Unfortunately the limitation of "copying and pasting" puts to me in difficulty.
1 person likes this
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
31 Dec 06
This is so very true. I'm an American and live in Italy and I am forever using my online translator. It is unfortunate that those of us who don't abuse the site are penalized while more often than not the ones that were abusing the privilege are still abusing it.
@hockeygal4ever (10021)
• United States
4 Jan 07
I read one girl's post though that says you can no longer "paste" on the site, it gives you an error message and says that pasting is not allowed to prevent spamming. I'm sure there's always a way around it though.
Personally, I could care less what others do. I worry about me, enjoy my time here on the site and that's it. If you spend time being angry about others it's worthless. Eventually it will catch up to them.
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
27 Dec 06
oh I would love spell check when writting I just cant remeber how to spell some words . So I go back and put another word in that make since to me lol
I think if they keep copying and pasteing after 500 they need to have account takin away
@JC1969 (1224)
• United States
27 Dec 06
I hate that I can't copy and paste from word to here anymore--well, till I reach 500. I used the feature honestly with my own words. I personally don't think it will stop those that steal other people's words from doing it once they reach 500.
I do wish they would put in some editing features then since many of us like to check what we write before posting.
@nhtpscd (1416)
• Australia
27 Dec 06
I have a diary of thinks I keep on my computer of usefull tips and things that have happened in the past that I would like to share one day. I can feel for those who use the copy feature for a good reason. It should be granted back to those who want it on merit who have never cheated. I hope you reach 500 soon.
1 person likes this
