By: Daniel
Plagiarism on the internet is growing. And this worries me,
a lot. Why? Because it people don't start getting original,
the sm community might greatly diminish. It's really a
miracle that there still are sites coming up, since sm
ended in Japan, and in most places in the US.
But plagiarism stinks. It shows that you have no
creativity, no intelligence, and above all, no honesty. And
since this is happening more and more often, I've developed
a guide that will hopefully help you cope with people
stealing your material.
1 - First thing to do is to not panic. I mean, don't run
around signing EVERY guestbook and message board you know.
Why? Because sometimes the person did not mean to
plagiarism. I know this sounds idiotic, but sometimes you
see an idea and it hangs around in your head for a while.
And that person uses the idea. Actually, most people will
remove the plagiarized material as soon as you contact them
and ask them to.
2 - If the person deletes your comment from the guestbook,
write again! Put your comments in a .txt file so you don't
have to constantly keep writing. Note: this ONLY if the
comment doesn't contain "bad words".
3 - Don't flame. And by flaming I mean name calling and all
that. It's ok to use SOME bad words, once or twice, but
don't get personal. Don't use 'your mamma' jokes (=P). And
if you've reached a point where it's absolutely necessary
to flame, and you cannot stand yourself anymore, try to do
it by e-mail. If not, use the message board (if available).
If that doesn't help, then don't flame at all.
4 - If you still cannot talk sense into the person through
e-mail and one or two message boards, start publicizing.
Put up a message in your index page, contact people like
the Amazoness Quartet or the SM Police
(sailorstars.net/smpolice). This person has to realize it
is NOT good for yourself or your page to plagiarize.
5 - Change your site. But don't stop talking
to/annoying/harrassing the plagiarizer. Link to the
plagiarizer in your page, explaining the situation. Find
proof that you did NOT steal from them, but that THEY stole
from you.
6 - Ask your visitors to sign the plagiarizer guestbook
and POLITELY ask this person to stop. This usually works.
7 - Comment the person's site on web message boards
available.
Comments on this article can be sent to:
Daniel.
