On the whole, the Merit System seems to be working as a double-edged sword:
- On the one side, less people are ranking-up (and Im not just talking about the younger members), and at a slower pace too. Those that do rank-up, put quite a bit of effort into it, so from the Forums content perspective that is something favourable.
- On the other side, numbers are pretty low, and even worse if we dissect the profiles of ranked-up members and determine that a large amount are DT tagged or suspicious to say the least.
Talking about suspicious cases of merit abuse and plagiarism, as can be seen on this thread and multiple around, we can encounter endless loop situations where by one is detected as suspicious and reported multiple times overtime for the same facts, even if the case is cleared or, at least, not proven wrongful without a shade of doubt.
Here again, we have the double edged-sword:
- If they are not re-reported, they may be left aside as unresolved and thus remain exempt.
- If they are re-reported its easier for them to be looked into, but innocent cases could incur in the endless loop situation.
Since there is no "global ledger" with the cases and their status of resolution, and a protocol that is guided by its use, endless loop situations will occur. But because there are no crystalline rules on how to proceed, so will the abuse continue as a means to bypass the difficulties of getting merited.
So plagiarism would be the wrong word. Copyright infringement ? I agree it is newsworthy and clicking links is a pain.
As shahzadafzal stated, the posts your quote always reference the article source, so there is no real issue here. Most of the news sections do the same, or even sections like "the wall observer" where it is often done in a graphical manner. Informative posts that cite the source should be that, informative, and could lead to getting good debates in motion.