The reason I opened it is no longer valid.
It could still be worth discussing the general case, so I'll leave this thread open a bit longer. I'll lock this thread soon.
TL;DR: he's guilty!
I'll start with a short time line:
August 11: Hero Member SHAWN-MIDWAYS gave me 5 Merit for a post which among others says: "any self respecting university has zero tolerance for plagiarism".
August 13: SHAWN-MIDWAYS committed plagiarism.
August 20: the plagiarism gets reported.
August 22: Newbie Shawn_Alter opens a thread to saying he believes other users edited their post to frame him for plagiarism. He wasn't framed.
September 1: Shawn_Alter sends me a PM asking if I can help him. He's sure it was a mistake quoting on his side, and shows an example of another mistake in a quote. He says he sometimes makes this mistake typing on a phone.
September 2: I told Shawn_Alter:
This subject has been on my mind for 2 days, because it doesn't feel like justice to ban someone for what could be a honest mistake. And that's why I open this topic.
Don't get me wrong: 99.9% of the users getting caught in plagiarism are guilty and should be banned. But imagine those 99.9% wouldn't exist, and we'd only have honest users on this forum. Without the massive plagiarism, I'm pretty sure nobody would get banned for an incidental mistake. He would get the benefit of the doubt.
Update: one thing has been bugging my mind: if he truely did this by accident, and his first reaction was that someone is framing him, that means he thinks he really typed that text. This is weird, how can he not remember he didn't type those 80 words, just 10 days later?
Related: allow me to show a (shortened) quote from myself:
). In this case it's more obvious it's a mistake, but it's one "[/quote]" away from being clear plagiarism.
For what it's worth: dealing with quotes and BBCode on a phone is terrible, and makes it easy to make mistakes. Snipping a quote and adding a link to one word (example) takes me a few minutes. It's easy to imagine you can make a mistake while doing this.
It could still be worth discussing the general case, so I'll leave this thread open a bit longer. I'll lock this thread soon.
First: ~ I've got many accounts banned for plagiarism, and none of them will be missed.
But what about users who make honest mistakes?TL;DR: he's guilty!
August 11: Hero Member SHAWN-MIDWAYS gave me 5 Merit for a post which among others says: "any self respecting university has zero tolerance for plagiarism".
August 13: SHAWN-MIDWAYS committed plagiarism.
August 20: the plagiarism gets reported.
August 22: Newbie Shawn_Alter opens a thread to saying he believes other users edited their post to frame him for plagiarism. He wasn't framed.
September 1: Shawn_Alter sends me a PM asking if I can help him. He's sure it was a mistake quoting on his side, and shows an example of another mistake in a quote. He says he sometimes makes this mistake typing on a phone.
September 2: I told Shawn_Alter:
I do believe in rare occasions users commit plagiarism by mistake, and they're banned just like the spambots who do nothing else than copy/paste. Especially on a phone editing quotes is very annoying. You could create a general thread about it in Meta, at the risk of being banned for ban evastion.
This subject has been on my mind for 2 days, because it doesn't feel like justice to ban someone for what could be a honest mistake. And that's why I open this topic.
Don't get me wrong: 99.9% of the users getting caught in plagiarism are guilty and should be banned. But imagine those 99.9% wouldn't exist, and we'd only have honest users on this forum. Without the massive plagiarism, I'm pretty sure nobody would get banned for an incidental mistake. He would get the benefit of the doubt.
Related: allow me to show a (shortened) quote from myself:
~
Lack of sleep, worries and stress can temporarily cloud someone's judgement. I don't generally care for sob stories, but I do know it takes its toll on you in real life.
I'm always thinking: what if it happens to me someday? I must have embedded some images I found on Google in some of my old posts. The reference is in the URL, but not in the post.
Recently, I was typing jibberish and totally messing up quotes when I had a fever, and as a family with young kids and busy days I suffer from a continuous lack of sleep. I'd hate to lose access to my favourite forum if I ever mess up one way or another.
~
But the rules do allow exceptions:
I found another failed quote from another user (please don't ban him Lack of sleep, worries and stress can temporarily cloud someone's judgement. I don't generally care for sob stories, but I do know it takes its toll on you in real life.
I'm always thinking: what if it happens to me someday? I must have embedded some images I found on Google in some of my old posts. The reference is in the URL, but not in the post.
Recently, I was typing jibberish and totally messing up quotes when I had a fever, and as a family with young kids and busy days I suffer from a continuous lack of sleep. I'd hate to lose access to my favourite forum if I ever mess up one way or another.
~
But the rules do allow exceptions:
NOTE: This is meant to serve as a reference/educational/informational thread, NOT a rock solid list of rules.
~People who get caught copy and pasting should have their signature removed for a year or something. See if they stick around and contribute something worthwhile and if they do then they get it back. That way you can still contribute but you can't earn and having the signature removed for a year is better than indefinitely with a ban.
This will be a waste of time for a generic shitposter who commits plagiarism. But I'd be in favour of this as an exception for good posters who slipped once. ). In this case it's more obvious it's a mistake, but it's one "[/quote]" away from being clear plagiarism.For what it's worth: dealing with quotes and BBCode on a phone is terrible, and makes it easy to make mistakes. Snipping a quote and adding a link to one word (example) takes me a few minutes. It's easy to imagine you can make a mistake while doing this.