I've seen a bunch of topics where people argue that there should be some leeway given to long-time members who've plagiarized and have been banned because of that.
Examples:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5145434.0 (Improving the current ban situation)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5144084.0 (Any managers lost good posters due recent mass ban?)
Instead of replying to those topics and arguing why I personally don't agree with the soft-handed approach they're suggesting, I thought it was a better idea to start a dedicated topic about it.
Plagiarism is not a simple mistake in most cases, it's a conscious decision that people make in order to increase their post count and make money off of that.
Frankly, anyone who engages in copying other people's work without giving proper credit for it, should get banned immediately without any exceptions.
We've all seen the excuses in the recent mass ban appeals, first they claim to have no idea why they were banned and then they claim it's 'such a hard punishment' for a 'simple' mistake.
I say bullshit to that, everybody should know that you don't just copy someone else's exact words and pass it off as your own.
There's not a single good reason why long-time members who've plagiarized in the past should be given a second chance. (in my opinion at least)
Mind you, I've made some stupid posts myself when I was still a newbie, but it never crossed my mind to just copy/paste stuff to increase my post count.
Most people don't plagiarize, because they're just decent persons, so I'd highly recommend not giving any free-passes to those who do plagiarize.
Heck, I'm actually also against the signature bans (instead of banning them) that Bitcointalk gives to high-profile members who've plagiarized, but offer value to the forum.
I do have to add that some people might actually 'plagiarize' by accident and those cases should be treated differently.
By that I mean, someone adding a quote from a website to their post, but forgetting to add the source.
Something like that is pretty easy to spot, if they've also added enough unique content to their post and placed the quote in actual bbcode quotes.