Over the last few days I've noticed a few accounts that have been earning $ from plagiarized material. Obviously being an original content creator myself I wasn't happy about this. So I went on a bit of a one man crusade to bring this to the attention of the community. Plagiarizm isn't a big problem on Steemit as the bots and community are pretty good at filtering it out but sometimes a post or 2 does slip through the net. But I suspect that as more and more people join Steemit every day thinking they can make easy money plagiarism will surly grow. So I thought it was a good time to bring it up.
One particular person I took issue with this week had cut and pasted an entire article, pictures and all, into a post which he then claimed as his own. That post is currently up to around $70 dollars. After I bought this to the attention of the community and calling him out in the comments for plagiarism he eventually edited the post to include his own words. This was a positive action but the problem is the rewards he got for the original, unedited stolen content remained. I feel this is deceitful and misleading and not something the community should tolerate.
TIPS AND ADVICE
Before thinking about plagiarizing someone elses content take into consideration the consequences. Ask yourself if it's really worth taking the chance to earn a quick buck for the sake of your reputation? It may be worth it in the short run but you will inevitably get caught out, and once you are on the radar of some of the bigger whales here your reputation dead. I've seen some accounts go from 50 to -6 in minutes. At the end of the day good quality, original content will serve you a lot better in the long run. Not only will you feel satisfied with yourself but you will also gain the trust and respect of the community.
Before flagging a post you suspect is plagiarized copy and paste a few lines into a search engine and see if returns and results. Usually if it is stolen content it will show up in more than one search result.
Call them out in the comments section. If you have located the original article post it in the comments section with a warning to others that the post is stolen.
Summon @ Cheetah or @ Steemcleaners bots. These are automated Steemit bots that help to stop plagiarized posts. You can summon the bots buy including there names in the comments section under the post you suspect of being plagiarized. The Cheetah bot does not flag the post but it will leave a comment letting the author and others know that the content in the post can be found elsewhere on the internet. This is essentially a gentle warning to the author and people reading the post that the content could be plagiarized. You can read more about Cheetah bot here. The Steemcleaners bot is the one with all the voting power that will flag you. This account has a lot of reputation and Steem Power and has the ability to flag a post out of existence. If you would like to keep up-to-date with what they've been up to both the Steemcleaners and Cheetah accounts give weekly reports on all the accounts they've caught stealing content, including descriptions and reasons.
Cheetah Report - 2017.06.21
Steemcleaner Report - June 20, 2017
- Tell the community buy joining one of the Discord chats. Find the person on Facebook or Twitter and call them out, let them know that plagiarized content has no place on Steemit. Here is a great post by @beowulfoflegend that shows how the community rallied together to stop a plagiarized post from paying out.
Since joining Steemit 4 months ago I've built up a lot of respect for Steemit and the community and have learned a great deal about the world of crypto. This is why I felt the need to write this post. The main lesson I've learned during my time here is the community rewards good content. So spending a day or 2 putting together a really well thought out post that gets $5 or $10 will be worth more to you long term than a stolen post that nets you $50 or $60 now. Since I've started I haven't earned a significant amount of Steem but knowing that I've been rewarded for my own original content makes me feel very satisfied with myself.
For anyone doubting themselves or Steemit, don't. The best advice I can give is to not worry about how much you might earn, worry about the quality of your posts. Don't expect miracles over night, it takes time but eventually if your posts are good they will be seen. For me it's been an amazing journey and one that you wouldn't find on any other social media platform. Thank you @steemit.
Remember that we can all play our part in curbing the ever increasing threat of plagiarism.
FURTHER READING
- Plagiarism Guide By Steemcleaners
- Tag Spam & High Frequency Posting Guide By Steemcleaners
- A history of plagiarism (not my own work) by Stephen Moss
- Plagiarism - Wikipedia
- plagiarism.org
