The Lemures Files
  Guest Article: November 25th, 1998

How to Deal With Plagiarism

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.

Comments made on this page are opinions of the author. They are not necessarily shared by Tripod and the Amazoness Quartet.


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