A smart person once said, with great power comes great responsibility. God (Universe-for non theistic) gave me the power of writing. (Correct me if I'm wrong) And nevertheless, I did write quite a few articles here and there. Thing that bothers me the most, plagiarism, yet I can't figure out why do people do it? It amazes me how communities can easily become destroyed and lose their credibility by a minority that plays their trust recycling the content they took from someone else.
How to stop plagiarism?
Honestly, it can't be stopped, it can be treated, but never stopped. When I say that it can't be stopped, I mean it. It's similar as spam, you can't stop it. There will always be people with different agendas trying to go the easy road of success. By that I mean people that copy other peoples work and post it as their own. Gaining other peoples trust by breaking the rules and dogmas of the modern society.
How to treat plagiarism?
I will take Steemit for example, as it is the platform where we write, read, upvote, resteem, etc. (Our community)
For starters, there are great anti-plagiarism bots here called: @cheetah and @Steemcleaners (Click for more info)
If you find a post that looks suspicious to you, or you found out that it is work of plagiarism you can always go to http://steemit.chat or PAL Discord channel to report it.
If you are one hundred percent sure that the post you found was copied from another source without mentioning the source or permission, flag it and report it.
I am here for all the help. If you are afraid of reporting or flagging someone, fell free to contact me through comments on this post and I will be glad to do it.
What should be the punishment for plagiarists?
My humble opinion is simple, punishment should be permanent ban from this community. It may sound harsh or a bit too rigorous, but if you let people go without punishing them, they will gladly do it again. (Lowering of reputation points won't do the trick with those people)
As I am aware that once something is written in the blockchain it can't be deleted, permanent ban is impossible, so my opinion doesn't matter at this point. Another form of punishment is public humiliation, flagging and acknowledging that the person is a plagiarist. (The least we can do)
Conclusion
Together we could say what is right and what is wrong, only together! Lets build ourselves a clean and honest community with people we can trust. Say NO to plagiarism! It should be banished from this beautiful network full of ambitious authors from all countries. I believe in this community with all my heart. If you have any additional questions or suggestions feel free to comment and I will gladly reply.
“People who copy you will always be one step behind.”
Wayne Gerard Trotman
Have a nice day fellow steemians, and a beautiful year ahead of you.
Images used in this post are royalty-free (https://www.pexels.com)
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