Volleyball Plagiarism

OmniSpiker · **Volleyball Plagiarism -** 05-18-2007, 02:34 PM

How does a person feel about volleyball plagiarism?

What goes on in the minds of people who literally copies and pastes something and then proceed to identify that as if they originated the thought? It's easy to as far as the internet goes as content are publically free. We all learn in school that writing should be original individual thought process and copying other's work is a serious offense. Even when you source other's work, you cite your source.

There are lots of books on volleyball. There are plenty of Answers site available on the internet as well as public forums too. I think that people can have parallel ideas but some wording needs to be changed much more than grammatical correction. Afterall how can there be a discussion if the person who plagiarized is a fruad on the content of discussion.

strazzere · 05-19-2007, 08:51 PM

As I cross my fingers hoping that I remembered to quote all my sources in previous articals/posts....

It's not something that anyone should knowingly do, you should obviously quote, link or give reference to the work that you based your idea or got direct wording from.

With that in mind, as long as intentions are good (you might be reproducing someones post, instead of a document sold for monitary value) someone should be shot on site. Hopefully they where just trying to help someone, and forgot to quote a source in thier hectic day to day life... And a nice little nudge would help them remember to do it correctly in MLA format...

Though if they wanna sell the information or are trying to boost thier reputation...

Burn in hell.

StephieJean18 · 05-20-2007, 11:19 PM

hey omni, nice typo - "fruad"? at least we know you didn't plagiarize your post about plagiarism...

look, it's freakin volleyball. and free information about freakin volleyball is available to anyone who goes looking. so, if someone (maliciously or accidentally) doesn't cite a reference - i really don't think it's the end of the world. of course people deserve credit for their original ideas, but for god's sake... can we save the public floggings for something a little more worthy?

OmniSpiker · 05-21-2007, 11:00 AM

StephieJean18,

It's that kind of mindset that misinforms the public. Citing a reference is the least bit of dignity to say something was copied. I didn't realize that spellcheck is part of a necessity to grammatically post. I just type and hit submit, but I'll keep that in mind.

Public online discussion is basically a public conversation. If person A says says, "blah, blah, blah, bingo." Then person B shouldn't copy, "blah, blah, blah, bingo," and pass it off as if it were own original thought. That's also to say that if a person goes searching on the net and found free information (it's there free), does it imply that it's free for someone else to assume authorship of it? Does it imply that anyone who copies and pastes is assuming authorship of it? No, but it does create the perception that anyone who posts on online discussion forums are actually posting for the sake of posting a discussion. Otherwise people wouldn't participate in a discussion and can simply copy and paste information regardless of how manytimes it's been duplicated. It would be way too hilarious to see 10 different people tell a story of wearing a pink hat and being the best beach volleyball player against all odds or being the gab about beach volleyball and posing for a photo spread. Therefore it is just as silly for anyone to assume they know the original thought of the person who posted online for whatever reason(s) they may have and be unable to hold a discussion. No discussion means a dead thread. No amount of copying and pasting can keep a discussion thread on subject with willing participants. Well I could be wrong about that...

mycena · 05-21-2007, 11:31 AM

I’m going to add a few things to this in response to Steph’s posts. Please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors I may make. I may not have a degree in English but I think I have a few valid points.

First, this is an online forum where people are posting and reading information about volleyball. Mostly we discuss volleyball related themes but I think it is well within the scope of any online forum to discuss how such forums should be run. New ideas may be generated that in the end add to the credentials of the site. I think a discussion of plagiarism holds some weight toward improving the forum.

Second, The subject of the material being written has little to do with the appropriateness of claiming information as your own. We could be discussing nuclear energy but the points would still be the same. I don’t the exact laws behind borrowing posts… but I would assume without a copyright it’s free access. But just because there aren’t written laws or rules that guide this doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some unwritten rules or decorum. By the way, I would assume that some forums have copyrights that actually protect anyone posting on that site too.

Personally, I think that if you are borrowing a specific idea or flat out copy and pasting something from another site, you should cite a reference. Sometimes there is just stuff that you have learned along the way or has been taught to you repeatedly from different sources, probably doesn’t really need to be sited. I won’t hold it against anyone who doesn’t cite their preschool teacher for teaching them how to share. ;-)

So, Go ahead and put the information out there, go ahead and take it from other sites and spread the wealth of information, just tell us where it came from. Besides, think how silly someone would look if they got caught out for stealing it in the first place.

EGOLDEN · 05-21-2007, 12:04 PM

Please take MY advice:

I’m going to add a few things to this in response to Steph’s posts. Please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors I may make. I may not have a degree in English but I think I have a few valid points.

First, this is an online forum where people are posting and reading information about volleyball. Mostly we discuss volleyball related themes but I think it is well within the scope of any online forum to discuss how such forums should be run. New ideas may be generated that in the end add to the credentials of the site. I think a discussion of plagiarism holds some weight toward improving the forum.

Second, The subject of the material being written has little to do with the appropriateness of claiming information as your own. We could be discussing nuclear energy but the points would still be the same. I don’t the exact laws behind borrowing posts… but I would assume without a copyright it’s free access. But just because there aren’t written laws or rules that guide this doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some unwritten rules or decorum. By the way, I would assume that some forums have copyrights that actually protect anyone posting on that site too.

Personally, I think that if you are borrowing a specific idea or flat out copy and pasting something from another site, you should cite a reference. Sometimes there is just stuff that you have learned along the way or has been taught to you repeatedly from different sources, probably doesn’t really need to be sited. I won’t hold it against anyone who doesn’t cite their preschool teacher for teaching them how to share. ;-)

So, Go ahead and put the information out there, go ahead and take it from other sites and spread the wealth of information, just tell us where it came from. Besides, think how silly someone would look if they got caught out for stealing it in the first place.

BHitterDPasser · 05-21-2007, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EGOLDEN

Please take MY advice:

I’m going to add a few things to this in response to Steph’s posts. Please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors ...

Quite humorous, EGOLDEN.

EGOLDEN · 05-21-2007, 12:52 PM

I figured I'd lighten the thread with some subtle humor....

OmniSpiker · 05-21-2007, 01:24 PM

okay we got two down, can we get eight more...LOL's

StephieJean18 · **whoa, nelly... -** 05-21-2007, 01:43 PM

firstly, i was kidding about the spelling thing. it was a joke. when i was in high school, kids used to copy/paste papers and then add in some spelling errors to make it look authentic. i thought i was being funny. my bad.

second, wow. i was not at all saying it was OK to plagiarize. what kind of person do you think i am? i was simply saying that it happens, that it's not a good thing, but that it's not something i would kick a member off the site for (because it sounds to me like that's where this is going).

PEOPLE SHOULD CITE REFERENCES.

American Heritage Dictionary says...

dis·cus·sion (dĭ-skŭsh'ən) Pronunciation Key
n.
Consideration of a subject by a group; an earnest conversation.
A formal discourse on a topic; an exposition.

notice, that definition in no way calls for an original thought. in fact, how often do we have original thoughts? forget the forums for a second, how many conversations have you had with people where you've regurgitated something you saw on tv, read in the newspaper, heard on the radio...? did you cite those every time?

BUT, PEOPLE SHOULD CITE REFERENCES.

and by the way, if someone copy/pasted one of my posts and tried to pass it off as their own... i'd feel proud that someone out there thought my comments held that much validity for them to forge. what ever happened to imitation being the highest form of flattery?

BUT, PEOPLE SHOULD CITE REFERENCES.

if a poster doesn't cite, i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they had forgotten, or, and i know this is a difficult concept for some people to grasp - maybe they just didn't know any better. maybe this is their first discussion forum. maybe some people on this site don't have the educational background to know HOW to cite a reference, or even that they SHOULD. are we now penalizing people for ignorance? this is, after all, a VOLLEYBALL website. there was no iq or degree requirement to sign up. we're talking about SPORTS here.

HOWEVER, PEOPLE SHOULD CITE REFERENCES. unfortunately, there's a great divide between what people should do, and what they actually do.