Fair warning: I'm going to scam Steemit this week. Over the next seven days, one of my posts is going to be plagiarized content.

Why I'm doing this

Simple - it's an experiment, to see just how good Steemit is when it comes to detecting plagiarism. While we're off to a great start when it comes to automated scam detection bots like @cheetah, we need to do better. That's why I'm doing this.

How it's going to work

I'm going to find original content that's already been published somewhere, and I'm going to repost it here, passing it off as my own. Since I'm a copywriter by trade, I'll be altering it enough so that it won't get flagged by bots - but rest assured I'll be ripping off someone else's content. I'll also be writing original posts as well during this time, so you'll have to look carefully to see if you can detect the fake.

What happens if it makes money

This whole experiment is to see if plagiarized content will slip through the cracks and generate revenue. I'm not interested in keeping any of the proceeds; while I can't do anything about the Steem Power the post generates for me, instead I'll transfer half the Steem Dollars the post makes - if any - to the first Steemit user to blow the lid off the plagiarized post. The other half, if possible, will go to the original author of the post.

What I hope to accomplish

Downvoting plagiarized content is one way to deal with it, but since it's an inherently altruistic action - you get no reward for it, and in fact it consumes voting power - there's nothing in it for the average user.

Instead, incentivizing plagiarism detection by offering a monetary reward may be the best way to encourage Steemit users to be more vigilant when it comes to rooting out scammers and fraudsters. I hope to start a precedent with this experiment and encourage others to do the same or similar ones in the future. If this is successful, then perhaps we can lobby @dan and @ned to implement a bounty system for people who prove a post is plagiarized. This would likely galvanize the community, acting to increase self-policing and scrutiny by a major margin.

Good luck! Hope you're able to catch me.