Plagiarism as a result of cultural differences

[Pmalek]

Warning is for newbies who don't read rules, don't know where to read rules or read but don't know the rule of plagiarism. With users are in the forum for a while and are Sr. Members, Hero members or Legendary members I don't agree they need warnings.

There have been cases where users of higher ranks have been banned for plagiarism offences that they committed 3-4 years ago, and at a time when they were still new at the forum. I am not sure if the plagiarism rule even existed back then.

Posting a photo without source, might have copyright consequences, but if you're not pretending the photo is yours, it's NOT a plagiarism offence

How do you determine the intent of why someone posted a photo. Lets say we are talking about the growth-rate of bitcoin in the last 3 months compared to lets say gold. And a user posts a graph that clearly shows how much bitcoin has gained compared to all precious metals.

He writes: take a look at this great graph that shows what gains bitcoin has achieved recently.
How can you determine and prove that he is claiming the photo is his or that he isn't?

[Zicadis]

I think plagiarism on this forum is more similar to being utterly lazy in your job than academic plagiarism.

And the truth was spoken!!!

On here, most of the members are from countries where this cultural difference doesn't apply as an excuse. Even if people come from a country where plagiarism isn't a common spoken theme. The fact that they're on here means that they know something, or at least they know how to imitate that they know something, and by definition alone this means that they're at least aware of plagiarism. NO excuse!

Most of those bounty hunters treat this as a source of income AND don't want to put effort into it.

For some bounty hunters this probably applies but for those who practice plagiarism, even their career as a bounty hunter wouldn't take them far. There will be no constructive comments or contributions, no new knowledge generated and in the end this is reflected in their merit.

[friends1980]

How do you determine the intent of why someone posted a photo. (...)
How can you determine and prove that he is claiming the photo is his or that he isn't?

If you want to apply a rule, you need proof that someone has broken it. With all due respect, surely this can't be the first time in your life that you realized an offence has to be proven??

That's exactly why mods are so careful before they ban someone for plagiarism.

If you need to know more, just search Google for "proof of intent", but this is turning into a (rather absurd) general legal discussion which has nothing to do with your OP and it's completely off-topic.

[Pmalek]

Bumping my old Plagiarism as a result of cultural differences thread due to the recent events.

[KingsDen]

Plagiarism as a result of cultural differences is real and has been happening. I however wish to discuss as it concerns the forum;
1. Culture can generally be called ideas, norms, behaviors including rules and regulations guiding a particular people. If the above is correct, it will also be correct to say that bitcointalk has its own culture and/or cultural heritage and should not be overridden.
2. There can be indigenous and foreign cultures. In which ever way, as regards to plagiarism, the most important is awareness.
3. The duty of a new user to a forum is to read her rules and regulations before joining. Also the duty of the forum to the user is to make such rules and regulations more available to them.
4. If the unofficial rules are translated and pinned at every local boards it will be good.
5. MOST importantly, I have a proposal that to every newbie, there should be a warning "Do Not Copy/Paste other people’s work without Citing". This warning will remain at the top of the newbies page immediately after the menu bar. Maybe until the newbie will become a Jr member before it can be removed.
6. With this, the newbie mistake at first post or claiming not aware of plagiarism rule would be curtailed.
Thank you!

[Pmalek]

1. Culture can generally be called ideas, norms, behaviors including rules and regulations guiding a particular people. If the above is correct, it will also be correct to say that bitcointalk has its own culture and/or cultural heritage and should not be overridden.

True. The rules of Bitcointalk are more important than what you know is applied in other forums or wherever you hang out. Users here are expected to adhere to Bitcointalk's local rules even though they are unofficial. If you come to my house, you take your shoes off. I don't care what you do at your place. Next time we go to your place, I will keep my shoes on if I have to or I simply won't come.

5. MOST importantly, I have a proposal that to every newbie, there should be a warning "Do Not Copy/Paste other people’s work without Citing". This warning will remain at the top of the newbies page immediately after the menu bar. Maybe until the newbie will become a Jr member before it can be removed.

Many good ideas have been proposed already, including welcome messages of various forms, but nothing is happening on that front.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

We can't always wait on the forum to solve our problems, I remember when getting notification was an issue on the forum, some skillful forum members step up and such feature is no longer a problem and they're always update coming in making the notification more appealing, same thing could be done about the plagiarism issue we have in the forum. The society itself is already lost and the member coming in fail to realized that stealing someone else works is a crimes.

As I have previously said, this days the Social platform has made it a norm to plagiarized as they aren't tacking this issue, users can easily cite other users words/article as theirs written on Facebook and other platform without giving reference and they'll get away with such crime.

In summary, I think it'll be a welcome development if this skilled users that once solved our notification, signature ad and movable avatar problem before theymos set in can come to the rescue again and do something again like having a bot or something on the forum that automatically sends the unofficial rules highlighting the no plagiarism aspect to newly registered account, this might go a long way.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I keep asking myself why such a warning still doesn't work? There is the red text: be careful with flag users, there is a warning about old themes. But there is no warning that plagiarism can negatively affect the future if the user commits it.

But if this has not yet been decided, then it is necessary to draw conclusions that the people who have come here should know about such violations? Isn't it? If you are interested in a forum, then interest comes from the person himself, why take something from others? By copying from other sources, the user understands that he is thus committing a deception. Therefore, the forum does not prohibit him from doing this, but simply informs him later that this is not acceptable on the forum. I see the forum here, as a living being, powerful enough, which can simply get rid of the swindler. No screams or warnings. This is power.

The lessons we learn make us stronger, not only in this forum but also in life. If we know that for each deception, its own portion of punishment will arrive, we simply will not do this everywhere.

[friends1980]

Not sure why people absolutely need to continue to keep this discussion alive. The definition of plagiarism does not change in other cultures or other forums. Its punishment does. Its definition doesn't.

Some of you are acting as if this plagiarism discussion is like a wine-tasting event, where everyone sips and swirls and feels the need to express his opinion. In reality, you're all drinking plain tap water.

"Posting something and pretending it's yours, is plagiarism. The rest is not." End of discussion.

And: "if you don't know the definition of plagiarism, then how can you tell your country (or culture? or other forums?) is flexible towards plagiarism?" ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?



I'm not going to write a new post about this every few months, so here's quoting myself:

(...) Posting something and pretending it's yours, is plagiarism. The rest is not. (Which doesn't mean that the rest might not be violating some other rule.)

There is however no difference between countries. Plagiarism is plagiarism and the definition of plagiarism does not change if you're in an other country.

Surely some countries have laws or no laws or flexible laws or unenforceable laws or whatever terminology fits you to try to act as if you didn't know you were breaking the rules. But even if your country doesn't punish plagiarism, the definition of plagiarism is VERY clear.

Because if you don't know the definition of plagiarism, then how can you tell your country is flexible towards plagiarism?


So I'd suggest everyone to quit the useless pseudo intellectual discussions about countries, cultures and definitions, and to get to the point:

1. you copy-paste something that's clearly not yours: a photo of Brad Pitt or Britney Spears? An article from the New York Times or Yahoo Finance? A Youtube clip of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean? If it's clearly not yours, it is common policy to post a source, and if you don't, it's generally frowned upon. You should do this especially for written posts and articles, because in general it's less evident that the post is a copypaste.
(for instance, in the case of images, virtually 99% of all photos posted on this forum are considered non-plagiarizing copypasting, and most of the time quoting a source is not necessary, simply because it is so obvious that you are not the original author of that content)
>> this is not plagiarism, but this doesn't mean your post doesn't violate any other forum rules like zero value, burstposting, spamming etc.


2. you copy-paste someone else's work and pretend it to be yours: this is plagiarism. By definition it's intentional. "Unintentional plagiarism" does not exist and is a contradictio in terminis. Your intent has to be proven and this explains why mods are very careful before (temp-)banning someone for plagiarism.


Sure, there may be differences between individual countries' legal approach, flexibility and punishment of plagiarism, but there is no difference in the definition of plagiarism. Therefore, your culture, country or origin never counts as an excuse or a justification for plagiarism.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

5. MOST importantly, I have a proposal that to every newbie, there should be a warning "Do Not Copy/Paste other people’s work without Citing". This warning will remain at the top of the newbies page immediately after the menu bar. Maybe until the newbie will become a Jr member before it can be removed.

Many good ideas have been proposed already, including welcome messages of various forms, but nothing is happening on that front.

I think KingDen's idea is a pretty good one myself, and suchmoon suggested something very similar recently:

If a simple sentence was added to the "Post reply" / "Start new topic" page next to the "Post" button, e.g. "don't make low value unnecessary posts and make sure to add links/quotes if you copied text written by someone else", I think that would significantly help users who don't really intend to plagiarize, but perhaps don't know (cultural differences and whatnot) that unreferenced copypasta is not cool, or forget to format it properly.

If either suggestion were implemented, newbies would have absolutely no excuse and no grounds for appeal if they posted someone else's words without crediting them.  And given that the problem is extensive and has been going on for so long and that it would probably be an easy thing to do, why not do it?  Seriously, how much coding would Theymos or whoever have to do to insert a warning like that?

[HaleyOccam]

5. MOST importantly, I have a proposal that to every newbie, there should be a warning "Do Not Copy/Paste other people’s work without Citing". This warning will remain at the top of the newbies page immediately after the menu bar. Maybe until the newbie will become a Jr member before it can be removed.

Many good ideas have been proposed already, including welcome messages of various forms, but nothing is happening on that front.

I think KingDen's idea is a pretty good one myself, and suchmoon suggested something very similar recently:

If a simple sentence was added to the "Post reply" / "Start new topic" page next to the "Post" button, e.g. "don't make low value unnecessary posts and make sure to add links/quotes if you copied text written by someone else", I think that would significantly help users who don't really intend to plagiarize, but perhaps don't know (cultural differences and whatnot) that unreferenced copypasta is not cool, or forget to format it properly.

If either suggestion were implemented, newbies would have absolutely no excuse and no grounds for appeal if they posted someone else's words without crediting them.  And given that the problem is extensive and has been going on for so long and that it would probably be an easy thing to do, why not do it?  Seriously, how much coding would Theymos or whoever have to do to insert a warning like that?

There are many solutions, I guess it will affect some of the rights, they do not welcome this kind of improvement.

There are always more solutions than difficulties. Bitcoin is derived from consensus. In fact, it is completely based on the trust in the Bitcoin white paper and economic model, as well as the underlying technology of the blockchain, but in the Bitcoin forum, don't test humanity.

As long as you are a person, you have selfishness. Don't say how noble you are, I won't listen.

For decentralized Bitcoin, there is also a semi-centralized Bitcoin forum. It is not difficult to formulate the rules of the game, the key is whether it affects the interests of some people. I don't want to mention the name. I hate them.

Ratimov once said that this forum only has 10% original content, including himself of course. The others are all quotes. This is not a small probability event, especially the quotes of some pictures. If calculated based on plagiarism, then the forum will be closed directly.

All the problems are only superficial. The essence is that because some people are more influential in the forum, they like the power in their hands, and they are not considering the problem from the perspective of the development of the forum. The forum’s freedom of speech is not real from time to time. I am not slandering their efforts, but I do not approve of their actions.