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TR is in grave danger of being branded by Plagiarism!

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by older mycroft 1 view

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On the Eve of Christmas this year, a little rat crept into our midst - carrying the most dangerous form of verbal leptospirosis known to any Forum on the internet - PLAGIARISM.

So far [b][u]technocrat25[/b][/u] has [i]contributed[/i] 7 posts to the Discussions Forum and 39 posts to the Questions Forum.

Having checked out his contributions, out of his 39 Answers I have so far found 26 of them to have been lifted, verbatim, from other sites. To be honest, I really can't be bothered checking the rest since I have no doubt whatsoever what I will find!

Of his Discussions, all 7 of them are someone else's views lifted from other sites.

Rather than post a LINK for the OP to read/refer to, this little scrote is purveying the stuff off as personal product.

Now, this is not the first time I have witnessed plagiarism within the Hallowed Halls of TR. Often it would appear to have been recognised but no further action taken. On occasion a few members have even been accredited with Thumbs for their blatant plagiarising. However it has never been on a constant incessant streaming basis (as far as I've witnessed).

But the bigger danger with this occurrence is that it is so easy to spot. Any idiot, looking for answers on Google - cannot fail to notice the duplication - over and over and over again. TR's entry in Google is years after the original genuine article.

It's not gonna take hellish long for the word to get round!

[b]This has GOT to be stopped before the name of TechRepublic is turned to utter shite![/b]

18 replies

by older mycroft

By the time I had checked a half dozen (without commenting on [u]any[/u] posts initially) it was obvious that the 'originals' were both trans-gender and multinational.

Quite a few of the instances are lifted straight from Microsoft - that's what first alerted me to this scam.

One of them plagiarised Greg Shultz and another was from a TR blog.

But they are identical to their sources, right down to the odd typo.

Edit for typos.

by slayer_

I was the first person ever to use the word "THE". Everyone else has plagiarized it. It's epidemic!

by older mycroft

In Orthodox-Russian there is no such word as [b]THE[/b]. That is the only place on planet Earth that does not feature that word within its native tongue.

Therefore, for your claim to be believable, you'd have to swan around saying "Yesshh" a lot, look like Sean Connery in his role of Captain Ramius, and be capable of pronouncing [b]ОПРЕДЕЛЕННЫЙ АРТИКЛЬ.[/b]

^^ Russian for [i]OTHER[/i] - closest word in meaning to [u]the[/u]. ^^

Otherwise it's just another scam. ;)

by boxfiddler

why you're not marking them as spam and collecting six points each for nailing the plagiarizing spammer. B-)
His link goes to a fee for support website, doesn't it?

by hal 9000

They are copies of others work/writing that are posted as answers to Questions.

The person coping the posts is passing off the answers as their own word for word. Just the sort of thing your would appreciate from your students. ;)

Col

by boxfiddler

to come in for repairs. :0

He's posting a link with each of his stolen answers, the link being to a fee for support site...

by older mycroft

It wasn't me that marked (most) of these posts as SPAM.

Another peer had clocked the [b]Link[/b] before I'd noticed the plagiarism.

Maybe it's just me, just the way I am, but this sort of thing just gets on my t|ts, bigtime!

by Tammy.Cavadias

..as it's taken me a while to research on my end.

As of earlier this morning, this member is no longer allowed to comment within the boards.

"Quoting" (I am using this term as it runs parallel with plagarism) is allowed as long as it's no more than a line or two, anything more is considered to break copyright, unless credit is given where it is due (along with links). However, even when credit is given where it is due, this too can break copyright if more than a line or two, unless permission is given to quote in full.

-Tammy [_]3

by older mycroft

I'm under the impression it probably does since [b]john_techno[/b] popped up late yesterday through today, but currently appears to have also been removed from view.

Clearly this particular individual is without morals, and as such is likely to continue to appear. Perhaps his IP could be blocked?

Thanks Tammy - I'd sent my thankyou email before I realised this discussion post had been updated by you.

:)

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