Close shave

Yesterday I posted a reply to a post I came across; It was a reasonable comment, not judgemental or aggressive, simply pointing out that plagiarism is not acceptable here.

The user is new and on delving deeper I found he (assuming it is a he) had only posted several times since January. The post I read was a cut and pasted post, confirmed, as I found the website it had been taken from.

I replied that plagiarism isn't welcome here, nor is vote-begging-comments which is how I'd come across the user in the first place. The reply I received from them had a challenging tone, and the second was overtly aggressive.

That second post asked who I thought I was, who put me in control, why I was looking at other people's posts and suggested I should mind my own business.

This sort of fired me up a little, I'll be honest.

Plagiarism is a short-cut; Cheating in fact. It seeks to cheat the community into voting, or engaging with, a user who has not put in the effort to create their own content. It is disrespectful to the community. It is also disrespectful to the person who legitimately created that content.

So, I got a little fired up at that second reply and was in the middle of writing my own tersely worded reply to that user when a third message came in...This one was apologetic and asked for my help. Hmm, seemed a pretty quick turn-around.

I wrote a lengthy reply dot-pointing several tips on creating a post and another list on some basic do's and do not's on the blockchain. I haven't got a response yet, and guess I probably won't.

I understand it's difficult to know what to do here, that it is complicated. It's for that reason my initial reply was simply a suggestion rather than a downvote. However I don't understand the logic behind a new account wasting an opportunity to engage with a larger, and more established account, with an aggressive or challenging tone. It's not very productive.

Human nature is a strange thing...That account probably thought aggressive behaviour would make me leave them alone, but is leaving them alone really what's needed here? I didn't think so obviously, which is why I stepped in to help, or at least direct that user.

I think that person had a fairly close shave today. Had someone else come across their post they maybe have found themselves downvoted rather than have the chance to learn something. Maybe they would have found themselves on a blacklist and then maybe would have simply drifted away after having every post downvoted to oblivion.

I don't know if my assistance will make any difference to that new user; For all I know they will continue to plagiarise, get little to no reward and engagement then fall away like so many others. I hope not though, because we need people to stay, which is why I threw my two cents worth of advice down on my initial reply to that user.

Should I have minded my own business and not tried to address this user? Was it intrusive of me or is it everyone's responsibility to help new people to keep the blockchain free of plagiarism and to do what we can to help people stay around?

What would you have done?

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Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
_{An original post written by a human
Discord: galenkp#9209} 🇦🇺