Policing Steemit, Should You Do It and How to Do It
I'm sure that this is a bit of controversial topic with all the no censoring thing going on Steemit, however that does not mean we should be fine with Plagiarism on Steemit. This is simply because it is really NOT OK to steal somebody else's work, present it as yours and get money for that stealing and lying. This is not the community that we all should want Steemit to become, unfortunately there are quite a lot of people already that are in for the quick buck and they are copying another's work being photos, texts, videos and are earning rewards for that. We need to stop that trend before it has grown too much to be able to be stopped and not encourage people like that in any way.
Recently I have written a Blog post about the problem with images and photos on Steemit and how people can find and use Creative Commons Zero as well as Public Domain photos from different sources to make their texts well illustrated without committing plagiarism (intentional or not). That article did not get much of attention, but I would recommend that you read it as it can be really useful, especially for new users on Steemit: How to Find and Properly Use High Quality Photos for Your Posts on Steemit
When you are using somebody else's work and you are posting it on Steemit you must clearly state that this is not your own work (must be sure first you can actually use it), so citing a source of a text or linking to the image's original URL is a thing that you need to do (unless not required by the license the work is released for reuse with). Don't just go copy pasting somebody else's texts and images and not mention where you got them from. Use just some quotes and mention where the quotes are from and then continue with your own words commenting or analyzing what you have quoted... this is actually much more valuable than just copy/pasting something, but a lot of people do not seem to get that. You can base your own author text on a quote from somebody else and end up with something original and maybe even better than the text you used as an inspiration.
Unfortunately some people are getting the wrong idea even about that, so instead of making something original themselves they just go and copy/past pieces of information from different sources, stitch them together and make something "new" up that is still not original and think that it is Ok. Mentioning or not mentioning sources for their copy/past work doesn't make much difference if you are still only copy/pasting from other's works and there is nothing original from you. Use quotes and mention sources, just like academic publications for example do... they use different sources for some data and cite the sources, but don't just copy other's work entirely.
Things get even further worse when somebody stiches a copy/past article from sources from different language, then applies some translation to English (usually automated) and then gets really "original content". This can also be caught, it is just harder, especially the part where you prove that the content is indeed stolen and not credited. Just translating something does not make it your own work, and most certainly not when you do word by word copy and translation via an automated service such as Google Translate. It seems that a lot of Russian guys are doing just that, using articles written and posted in Russian language, then doing some copy/pasting, and translating them to English, throwing some random photos and trying to earn rewards for that. Really not the way to do things on Steemit...
I've also noticed that some people have started posting just videos on Steemit, videos from Youtube that are not their original creations (there is nothing bad in sharing videos). However don't just start spamming with tens of video posts an hour in hope of getting a Whale vote and a reward for 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 posts. This is again trying to cheat the system and spamming is not really what we want to encourage here, instead it can get you some flags of your posts when people start noticing what you are doing. You found a nice video that you want to share, no problem, do it on Steemit. Post the video, but also add a sentence or two below it to explain why you are posting it and what the video is about, don't just expect people to start watching the video to see what it is about.
Anti-Plagiarism Measures on Steemit
There are already a number of ways Steemit is fighting with Plagiarism. One is the automated Cheetah Bot that tries to find directly copy/pasted works and first warn the user and then if needed apply countermeasures. This can sometimes cause temporary problems for people that are reposting some of their works posted on a Blog or Website they own or operate, but that can easily be resolved. Unfortunately "content pirates" are getting smarter and are using different ways to try and avoid the Cheetah Bot catching them...
So here comes another solution for the problem, the SteemCleaners initiative where a number of actual Steemit users are trying to find and fight against the use of plagiarism, copy/paste, spam, scams, and other forms of abuse on Steemit. You can also help the SteemCleaners by reporting any suspicious posts and users in the steemitabuse-classic chat channel on the Steem Chat, so that it can be checked.
You as user of Steemit can also help by finding and flagging, reporting or even just by not voting for posts that clearly are just trying to profit by abusing the Steemit platform instead of trying to contribute and make it a better place. It really depends on us all what place Steemit can turn into as it continues to grow and we should encourage only the people that are actually making it a better place and discourage the ones that try to abuse it for their own profit!
Unfortunately sometimes flagging an abuser or leaving a comment that reveals that fact can result in that person revenge flagging your posts. This is often a reason for users to be afraid to do it and as a result they tend not to do anything. In such cases it is best to just report the post or the user and let "the professionals" handle it, so you will not get downvoted and have problems with flagged posts or your reputation level endangered. Do not use that as an excuse, at least make sure you report the post to people that can check and deal with it. There are already some measures to fight against revenge flagging users as well, such as the Seraph Bot.
If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.
Did you like what you have just read? Check my other posts on steemit @cryptos
Your title asked "should you" and you offered helpful ways and suggestions "how to".
I agree as a community we don't want and shouldn't reward plagiarism, but how do collectively deal with that?
When I come here as, "social media", to post and upvote things I like, I don't get paid to police, nor do I have the time and energy to correct when "someone is wrong on the Internet".
I am not saying doing nothing is a good idea, but why should I or you do something?
Thanks for bringing up this important issue.
You are not required to do anything, but if nobody does, then Steemit may just turn to a place where you will not be willing to come at all as the kind of content you will find will not be worth checking out... The least thing everyone can do is not to encourage this kind of behaviour by not voting for such users and posts.
Let us say you are a witness fo a crime, should you:
a) Do nothing and just let it go watching idly from the sides.
b) Go all out and try to prevent the crime from happening yourself.
c) Call the police and let them do their job and handle things professionally.
I guess there are people that can do any of the three options above. Wen we relate that to Steemit and plagiarism as being the crime... just that going for A may not be the best thing to do when compared to the other two options and nobody says you should go for B either when there is the option C also available.
IMO, the Russian posts google-translated in English are the plague of the moment... Thanks for summarizing all of this!
OK what about this? I have done blogs in the past, but under a pseudonym. Some of the articles I would like to share here also, and they could earn a few steemits. So how do I go about that? Do I preface it with this explanation? Why should I, it is my work? But what if someone found out the same words on what they believed was someone else's blog?
Ideas?
You just need to provide some sort of verification that the blog where the posts you are republishing is yours and that should most likely be fine to avoid possible problems...