Evolving.
Have you ever taken the time to write a pretty well-thought-out article, only to have someone steal it and rewrite it on their blog? It's a little irritating. Not bad, but kinda like a fly in the room that won't leave irritating. In the literary world it's called "plagiarism" but I wouldn't describe it as such in the blogging world.

That happened to me a couple months ago. The offending user replied to my article, then someone addressed her/his comment, and rather than responding to that on my thread, the user wrote his/her own article and any discussion that might have ensued on my blog was taken to her/his. The user didn't go off on a tanget, which IMO would be justified--s/he simply regurgitated what I said, adding a few profanities along the way. I wasn't particularly upset--I don't think it was done maliciously--and there's no way I want to control what people can write. But it crosses some imaginary line (and I'm probably the only one imagining it) of courtesy.

I have nothing against someone's blog inspiring you to write another blog--that's how writers' groups work. And accidents will happen--two people write similar blogs independent of one another--and we'll end up beating some dead horses unrecognizable. But maybe just try not to regurgitate what you know someone else has already recently written. That's all.

Respectfully and not-pointing-fingersly,

Angloesque (who might well have done this same thing at some point but as such is unaware of it)

Comments
on Sep 30, 2004
I was going to write a really relevant and Insightful comment here... But then I decided I could just go write my own article about the same exact thing without adding anything new...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sorry, I just had to... Honestly, I don't think I've experienced this yet, but I think it would bother me, too. I agree there's nothing wrong with being inspired to write something after reading a blog. But regurgitating (or worse, cutting and pasting) something that another person has already written is going a bit far.

Nice post... Very Insightful, I'd say...
on Sep 30, 2004
I was going to write a really relevant and Insightful comment here... But then I decided I could just go write my own article about the same exact thing without adding anything new...


*begins soapbox*

Ya know, it's people like YOU... *sputters indignantly* When I was your age, boy .... *sputters again*

*runs out of steam*

*takes nap*

Thanks for the reply.

-A.

on Sep 30, 2004

I hope you aren't referring to the feminism article (which actually WAS a tangent, and was meant because I expected a lot of flame from the person who opposed me and didn't want it drawn out on your thread). That was a couple weeks, not months ago, though, and looking back, I did avoid profanity, so I don't think it's what you're discussing.


The only reason I'm sensitive to it is I have been criticized before for alleged blog stealing (although the person did apologize when I pointed out that only a very small percentage of my blogs could even remotely be considered "spinoff" blogs), and I try to self analyze so as not to be any more of an ass than i am by nature...lol

on Sep 30, 2004
Nope. That was a tangent. I was afraid you'd think so. I promise that wasn't it.

-A.
on Sep 30, 2004
Great observation, Angloesque. I think sometimes new people come in and start a clone article unintentionally because they don't know that the issues has already been debated to the point of insanity, and that's forgivable (in fact, if I've done that, please forgive me). However, a blogger stealing someone else's content (even if they rework it a bit) in order to drive the original poster's traffic to their site is a really low thing to do.

Shame on you, unnamed blog-stealing bastard!
on Sep 30, 2004
Coincidences can happen I think, but views and styles can't be exactly the same.

on Sep 30, 2004
I think sometimes new people come in and start a clone article unintentionally because they don't know that the issues has already been debated to the point of insanity, and that's forgivable (in fact, if I've done that, please forgive me).


I think we've all done that. There are a lot of articles and it's just too hard to read all of them. So you'll have to forgive me, too.

-A.
on Sep 30, 2004
many times I have been instpired by someone's blog to write. But then I step back and wonder if I am just blowing off steam, or really adding something new.

So far, I have only posted one article that was not truly mine, but it was from an anonymous poster and I credited it as such. I wish I could have written it, but since they were anonymous, I knew they could not start one, so I copied their post and credited their Nom de Plume.

I hope that if I ever do post a thread that is a steal from someone else (known or unknown) that I will be called upon the carpet for it. I am sorry it happened to you. I dont think I know the thread, but hope you can at least find satisfaction in knowing you have inspired plagarism! (just kidding).

on Sep 30, 2004
I dont think I know the thread, but hope you can at least find satisfaction in knowing you have inspired plagarism! (just kidding).


Heh, that's funny 'cuz one of my best blogs (well, one that I got a lot of points for) was the one where I talked about failing a student for plagiarism, and someone asked me to go through JU and check it, too.

I don't care to dredge up the thread or get in a tit-for-tat fight with the author who stole it from me. That's why I waited a long time to make this post. Funny how obscenities can incite comments, though....

-A.
on Sep 30, 2004

I find very little plagiarizing here; there's nothing wrong though for somone to be moptovated to do a spin off--in fact, it;s flattering.


Of course, there is a good deal of hijacking going on in comments that lose the original intent of the blog, but what the heck, that's just blogging and free wheeling expressions.

on Sep 30, 2004
When someone inspires me to write an article, I usually name check them....

I've had a few instances where there have been two articles, posted around the same time, that have to do with the same issue, but in those cases, I thought it was just coincidence.
on Sep 30, 2004
Heh, that's funny 'cuz one of my best blogs (well, one that I got a lot of points for) was the one where I talked about failing a student for plagiarism, and someone asked me to go through JU and check it, too.


I take it from that you are a teacher. I know this is OT, but given the resources of today (the Internet), I would find it very hard to not plagarize if I was in school and had to write papers. In my day (you know, slates, dinosaurs, Fred Flintstone, etc.), It was easy not to. because we had to manually do the research.

But of course with the Internet, while it is hard not to plagarize, it is also easy to get away with it if you are clever (TMI).

So, my question is: How do you figure it out? I am 48, so I am not looking for dodges. I have 2 children in college and 2 soon to be, so I am just curious. Any replies are held in the strictest of confidence (the kids got better grades than me any way, so why would they listen to me?).
on Sep 30, 2004
Stevendedalus, I agree. Gideon's feminism thread is an example of a spinoff that I don't mind at all, and the fact that he had altruistic reasons behind spinning it off was nice, too. As fo hijacking, I'm sure I do that--and then there are times when I get around to reading an article and the comments are so far off from what I want to talk about that I just don't comment. I probably should, but it sort of feels like interrupting.

History, you're right-- there are lots of coincidences, especially in politics and current events. I was one of about a million people to write about Mel GIbson's "Passion" and about the Dean scream, so I know I've been a part of them, and they ended up among my top articles. (As far as I know I was first to post my articles on both of those, but I was fairly new at blogging and might not've checked thoroughly.)

I also think that it's fine to expound on a subject if an another author doesn't do their research, or just complains about something and then you take their idea and put thought and research into it. It might not work so well in the literary world but in terms of education, that's how we learn.

-A.
on Sep 30, 2004
Dr. Guy,

I taught college freshman comp this last year. Currently I'm gainfully unemployed, though that might be looking up. As for plagiarism, due to the fact that teenagers read this, I won't disclose some of my methods. The main one, however, I freely admit:

I had about 30 students in each of my classes. On the first day I had them write whatever they wanted for about 15 minutes--and that's not an easy thing to do for some kids. But it's very telling about the students: it gives me an idea of how creative they are when it comes to writing, how quickly their ideas flow, and the quantity that they can put out for an assignment that doesn't involve researhc. Best of all, it lets me hear their writing voice: everyone uses language differently and by the end of the term, I could pretty well tell one writer from another not based on their name, but based on what they sounded like. It's like a fingerprint, I suppose.

At any rate, when they deviate from that voice--word choice, sentence length, the amount of work put into it--I look into it more closely. I am seldom wrong, and have unfortunately caught far too many plagiarizers in spite of the zero tolerance policy we talk about the first day of class. Professors with larger classes, or professors whose readers do most of the work, are the ones who have a harder time catching it (though there are tricks for them to use, also).

The mantra I tried to imprint on my students was, "If in doubt, cite your source." I suspect that a few JUs could do with that advice.

-A.