The other day I had a Xangan tell me that my
6 things you should never say to a woman post had been plagiarized. Naturally, I was pretty pissed. (It even listed 6 items but was titled "5 things you should never say to a woman." That was MY mistake, thief!) I was even more angry because I was using Xanga on my phone and couldn't quite do any blog sleuthing. I'm guessing a couple of people might have mentioned seeing the post on my page originally because the plagiarizer took it down before I had a chance to confirm the accusation.
A very well-known Xangan who loves decorating cakes as much as I do (I'll never say who it is!) wrote a post about someone else plagiarizing on Xanga a few months ago. The accused didn't steal the Cake Xangan's work, but they stole another story and used it as their own. I did some internet investigating and found this story on another website belonging to another person. All in all, the Cake Xangan was correct; the accused
did plagiarize.
It's not the fact that they stole something that belonged to someone else and passed if off as their own that bothers me so much. It's the fact that the person who plagiarized still shows up in my inbox when someone recommends him. It honestly bugs me. I want to message the rec'er and tell them, "Dude--he plagiarizes. How can you trust that he really wrote that?" But then I realize that not everyone cares if the material is genuinely theirs. Some people are just looking for entertainment.
What bothers me the most is that every time I see this persons name, I say to myself, "he probably didn't write that." All because of ONE incident. I'm I being too hard on the guy or are my feelings justifiable?
I guess I'm just a one-strike-and-you're-out kind of girl.
Comments (65)
Don't blame you a bit. I feel the same.
His credibilty would naturally be in doubt. (damn now I want cake!)
Your feelings are justifiable, but you may also be being too hard on the guy. Heh, ambiguity probably doesn't help you out too much. But I'm very curious as to this blogger's identity... *shifty eyes*
ouch, that sucks... And I think your feelings are justified... I'd think he/she was plagiarizing everything they wrote too.
No, I don't blame you for feeling like that.
It's kind of sad when someone steals someone elses work. Of course there really aren't a lot of topics that haven't been covered by someone at sometime somewhere left to blog about so an occasional "nearly the same" post would be understandable, to an extent; but they shouldn't be a word for word copy. Have you adressed this issue with him? I think that would be the first thing I would do if I thought someone copied my work. I would ask them about it in a private message first and ask them not to do it again. If the person continued to steal work after that I would probably out them.
I think your feelings are justifiable on this. And what a sad person to have to plagiarize something on for Xanga. Seriously, if you can't even be creative enough to come up with your own posts, why bother having a blog? That's just a waste of Xanga space.
And the chances are if he did it once, he's probably done it before. And he will probably do it again. And so you really can't trust what he writes.
However, you're right. Not everybody cares. Its not usually viewed the same as plagiarizing a published book or something. But, really, you also have to take into consideration that not everyone will realize he plagiarizes.
For example, your post that was taken. I'll bet a lot of people didn't realize it was your post originally. If they don't realize that, how can they know plagiarizing has occurred? And not everyone reads the comments. Many just read a post, rec or don't, scroll to the very bottom and make their own comment, then leave the page and move on to something else.
But, its kind of hard to prove he/she plagiarizes if they quickly take down the post. The evidence, then, is gone. :p
I wonder if there's something on the Xanga TOS that prohibits this sort of thing?
@Ampersands_Anonymous - That's true. :p And they can't police the whole site looking for plagiarisms. That wasn't what I meant. Flagging is good enough, because it alerts the Xanga team that something's up. I've never had to flag anything, so I don't know if they ask you to describe the problem or not, but most sites that have flagging options do that. So, either way, they get to know something's going on. That's why the flagging option is there, so that if the Xangan community notices something amiss, we can alert the admins. :p Kind of like those tip hotlines that they give out to the public and ask you to call in if you have any information about a crime. :p
I'm glad that it was flagged, though. I mean, that way the next time it happens (and I'm sure there will be a next time) the admins might realize that this person has been flagged for something before and pay even closer attention.
I'd friend him
You have every right to be ticked off. If someone did that to me, I'd do a post about it and expose the lousy snake that did it. I don't have to worry about that though. I can hardly make any sense out of what I write anyway.
write a poem and have your own personality or style of writting. No one can take that away from you lol
@lmaoo8 - I do write my own poetry with personality and style. I don't want any of it stolen. It's not cool of someone to do that.
A good reason to block someone. You might comment on his site but probably better to blow it off. Writers contend with that all of the time.
This happened to me once. At first because it was a rather hot topic, I thought it might be just someone covering the same topic. However, my footprints showed the person visited my blog just the day prior to writing theirs and they were almost word for word the same. I just blocked them and that was that.
I guess if someone wants to write a similar blog, at least ask first? I mean, a lot of us write on the same topics but we all do it in our own way. This happened to me twice, and this person copied my post and titled exactly. Ugh...i was so annoyed.
I know how you feel!
She walks in beauty, like the nightI wrote this especially about you:
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Keep your eyes on the road.
Oh... I think I read the posts about him before.
Can you honestly tell me that this person copied your post word for word to piss you off?
maybe they actually LIKED what you wrote and wanted to share it?
stop being stupid and open your mind to the possibilities.
sorry that happened. plagiarism is such a dirty word to me. it makes me livid when someone steals written work. it is sacrosanct to me, what people write.
i'd think the same thing
Someone used to copy and paste every single post that I wrote on their site and never mentioned me. I just commented on the person's site and answered the question at the end and never mentioned it. At one point, I gained a few extra readers and a few of the people saw the person's post and gave the person crap. So the person shut down. I felt bad when the person shut down.
@fortune121 - are you smoking the crack? ...if someone copied my writing word for word and people went to their site and commented on MY work, praising THEM for their wittiness and how good the post was, I'd be livid. I'm sure she put a lot of thought and effort into the post, and SHE deserves the praise for her work, not someone who has mastered the art of copy & paste.