I hate plagiarism with a passion.
I call "thieves" and I mean it to all those who steal other people's content from all medium.
As a writer, copywriter and content creator on steemit, I live by this motto:
[ I think @jesta said it in a comment a few weeks ago and it stuck with me. if i'm wrong please correct me in the comments and I will edit].
I do believe that when the interface and accent on steemit will be on HOW important content - GOOD content - is, we will finally see the boom we know it's coming.
We mobilized bots + the whole steemit community to fight plagiarism and that's amazing. Seeing how united and interested in solving this problem the community is makes me feel humbled even be part of it.
I am doing as much as I can. It's hard to always catch them, but it's sweet when we do. Why? Because one mistake is all it takes for the cheater to lose all credibility. With the new reputation system to come, that could be a costly mistake.
Still, one thing remains unclear:
Is reposting an old post of yours from steemit without any[ or barely any] change frowned upon? Not encouraged? Unethical?
I have thought about this and on the one hand, a good article should net you payout for a long time.
I see bloggers that put out good content day in day out for years before they gathered a following and old posts that are quality but had 1 comment in 2012, have now hundreds. This is similar to what happens on steemit right now. A lot of yet undiscovered content creators put out good articles and they get 2$ or even 100$ for posts that maybe will net them thousands in 2 years.
On a platform like wordpress, this happens organically, as new people discover someone they like they go back to read his old articles and leave comments and gather him "views" <--- this is basically money for them.
As it looks now, it's very very difficult cu to go back too much, and then if you do the post will get nothing if it's over 4 weeks old. Is that fair to the writer?
Should we/they be allowed to re-post?
One counter-argument would be that creating new content is the most important thing and as long as one can find a read old posts, the rewards are secondary. Another might be that this could lead to a lot of re-posts and laziness and would lower the quality of content.
Personally, I think this won't be the case... we're all hungry to write new stuff, like it or not.
Yet, no official position on this has yet to be taken and I believe it's important.
I am all for re=posting but again, I'm only asking the community and the devs, what do you guys and gals think?
Can one plagiarize himself? Is it cheating to re-post old posts? Should we be flagged or allowed to do it?
Comment below!
@razvanelulmarin It's impossible to plagiarize yourself. Reposting old content is the norm in the content creation industry especially while a popular figure is out on vacation.
New rules mean that after 30 days your content no longer generates revenue anyways which also mean's it's likely to be pruned and lost forever.
Therefore, wait 30 days and repost if it was popular.
It's your content, you made it and shared it. You didn't give it and you didn't sell it.
If any of the spam detection bots start seeing it as spam, like @anyx said, the community can always flag the misbehaving bot and it will be taken care of accordingly.
That's one of the issues for me, I don't want to be flagged for nothing. But it's true that the community has been very responsive to abuses.
Thank you for your input!
It's a pertinent question that I already have made to myself sometimes. And I did it once to try out, and a post that had 0$ on the first try, made 15$ on the second... although an edited a little bit the article but I think the right way to do a repost is to do an extend or revised post, where the author adds more content to the original one.
Agree. More content -> repost -> why not
I'm with @Brunopro - if you repost, add some more value to the original content. Reflect some on what you wrote, or include a new introduction, something like that. Kinda like what they do with many reprints for books.
I'd also add that a "this is a re=post" at the end or somewhere should make things clear. maybe even the link to the original post? Could help some confusion and preventing new people from stealing old content directly from steemit - i can see them do that. There's not limit to maliciousness...
I agree, I think it is okay but a good idea to revise and extend the post.
My outlook on this:
As of right now a lot of really good posts are going unnoticed. That is because the platform is still in its infancy and the "whales" are up-voting the things that they think will get more people to adopt Steemit. Good on them.
I don't see an issue with re-posting an old post. If that article has intrinsic value, and people recognize the value of your content, then you should be rewarded for that, regardless of it being "old". If you want to repost an article of yours that you feel is important when more people begin to flock the network. Then, by all means go ahead!
Just as somebody who writes a book can advertise their book even if they wrote it 10 years ago. Somebody may not have come across an article that they really like if it is buried in the archives of your blog.
I think the important thing to recognize here is that you should not plagiarize others work! And definitley don't spam an article over and over again!
Thank you for bringing this up! Good read! @razvanelulmarin
Unless they give back the edit and delete buttons, people will be forced to repost old content just to fix broken links and outdated information.
Reposting could be reduced if a tip button is added. If a user can post something once (and keep it updated, correct, and working), and continue to earn from it via tips, there will be no need for reposts. These old posts would become the showpiece of their blog, and reposting would just diminish their value.
If you want to reduce the incentive to repost, ask for the addition of a tip button and the ability to maintain old posts.
I think plagiarising yourself should be fine because, in the end, it is your content and you haven't stolen it from someone. While I do like the term, I don't think repurposing your content really is plagiarism (because of the aforementioned reason).
Repurposing content is an established technique used by content creators (albeit mostly done by converting content from one medium to another. For example, from article to video).
Diversifying the media through which you send your message can help you get a greater reach. The audience on each platform may not be following you on the other platform.
Also, while the reposted content is not new in general, it is still new to that platform. Hence, you populate that particular platform with new content, thus helping it sustain itself.
It may be hard to find time to create brand new content every time for each of the different platforms.
So reposting it in different places can be a great tool to maintain consistency and keep readers on those different platforms engaged, I feel. :)
Great perspective and I totally agree
What's the half-life of new readers? I suspect that in three months more than half the readers will have never seen anything that has been published to date. How will they get to see great content if it is not posted again?
I think it's reasonable to repost every time the Steem readership doubles.
Isn't that the original concept behind the Blog page? To organize and display your finest past articles, so new users can easily look through your past works and follow you if they like your style.
If not, it could be very easily. All that needs to happen is to let users select what gets displayed on their Blog page.
I've considered doing it with 2 of my articles that got virtually nothing due to the intense downtime and hacks two weeks ago (haven't done it so far). I'm not generally opposed to the principle.
thank you for your input!
I think we talk too much about monetizing the articles and why the bloggers must create an average revenue for they posts ... no re-post old content.
If you are a good content creator the people will follow you and that will repay in long term, if you think your work is underappreciated because you received 100 upvotes and didn't received a good payout, that is not a good start.
On a blog if 100 people see your post with a 2% click ads rate you will get an average of 0.10$ - 0.40$, depending on the kind of ads that you display. So think at this next time when you post with 200upvote receive a 200$ payout and continue to create new and original content. Don't be lazy .
that's a fair argument. Thank you for contributing to the discussion!
Yes i agree. Heres me Necroing an old post from a year ago.
But then again theres the point of you investing time and money in a post or video in my case and you just dont get any recognition. The investement seems pointless and is discouraging. So do i repost or just make something new and try again.
TIme and money are valuable assets.
Especially when it comes to making music: surely reposting makes sense, we all would not mind hearing your playing again! It's not just about the money. Some things just go the extra mile.
Hehe. One of my first comments on Steemit. I dont know how you found it. 😁
I don't know if it's unethical to anyone else but I do know I feel dirty when I engage in this kind of behavior. Good post. Up voted.
I do feel like i'm cheating but also feel that it's my content, isn't it?
A dilemma.
thank you!
This is a good question. Strangely, though, the answer is yes! I once got penalised on a university paper for doing just that - I used a section from a previous assignment that was also relevant for the current one. Although I protested, the logic was clear in that I had plagiarized existing content and tried to pass it off as new content.
However, unlike university, there's no real rule against doing that here. As a self-policing community we ought to vote with our feet on this one. Personally I don't see anything wrong with reposting old content, as long as the privilege is not abused by reshuffling old posts on a weekly basis at the expense of creating new content and adding further value to the network. As a kind of honour system, it would also be good if people made it clear when they're reposting, either in the title or perhaps as a new tag.
great answer. a honour system i can believe in :)
Maybe it will be more fair to link your old posts on a new post.
Or maybe to post the old blog but update to the current time if possible or if something had changed to the topic of your post.
plagiarism don't exist , if is your work ..
read
Google Web crawler , copyright Law ,business , link BOT , web page property STOP HUNDING LINKS
https://steemit.com/copyright/@accessvirus/google-web-crawler-copyright-law-business-link-bot-web-page-property-stop-hunding-links
Steemit has encouraged the sharing of old work. When it's posted on Steemit previously it becomes a different question. I personally experimented with this by reposting a photo/blog, Uptown No More, one that I felt was very good, but was first posted on the crazy day of July 3rd before the first Steemit payout was made.
Not long after editing of posts past-payout was disabled, imgsafe.org decided to straight up delete a lot of the images I had hosted there. One image, important for the blog post, went 404 and I didn't like having that in my blog history incomplete. It received less than $1 in votes and I thought it was much better than the pictures and blogs that made much more. When I reposted, I explicitly said it was a repost and gave the reasons why. If there is no plan to reintroduce edits to old posts, I think I will repost the other blogs with missing images that I like the best, using ipfs.pics as an image host, so that hopefully they will keep their images for a long time.
I can understand your point and in this case, it's almost necessary to repost! But what about writers?
For example, i have some nce stuff that got 3 upvotes. Some of my first articles. I'd like to give them a bit of a spotlight if possible.
Thanks for commenting!
It will be an option on Steemit at some point to cap or entirely disable post rewards (it's already in the Steem code). Reposting then will be less of an issue, if the feature is used.
I think the best thing to do would indicate that it is a repost... But I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with it. I think it can become an issue if you are reposting many articles in an attempt to get more money without creating any new value. But that's a very grey area.
GREY! indeed. I just wish there were an official take from hq. it would sucks to get flagged for reposting your own content..especially in a steemit world where reputation will matter and a flag could destroy it...
I think that can be avoided if you identify it as a repost.
I totally think it is alright but am really Kenny to see what others think. I have some cracking posts from when I first joined that I think could get much more traction now!!!
exactly. but i don't want ti to change in a money-grabbing bleahfest either...
I have three running stories in fiction; planning on adding a section at the bottom of new articles to route readers to the previous entries. Here is the opening quote from Wikipedia: 'the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work' (emphasis mine).
Well yeah but you know after one month you won't get "rewarded" for new readers. is this fair for you? but I agree. it should not be a problem to repost but who knows...
You can post it again but if it didn't get rewarded the first time at least do some improvements. I did this, on my first post got a few cents, on the reposted post got 1200 USD. I did it again today, and will keep modifying my article to make it better till it gets the love it deserves.
reuse of the product of one's own labor cannot be plagiarized because it is owned by the creator of it. if there is a rule about reposting,then there is a rule. the product of your own labor is your own. i came here to be free with myself and the product of my own labor. not to aggress against someone else, and tell them what to do with the product of their own labor. is there a rule? if i want to stay i will follow it. is there a rule about what i can do with the product of my own labor. i can feel how unpopular i'm getting right now. are we free? i thought this was a den of voluntaryists. it would be aggressing to try to jam up the system by posting something 100 times in a row. that, i would agree to flag. poets have long used repetition as part of their art. maybe you've seen something like that recently? not trying to piss anyone off but to make a point. yeah, it seems to mess with the payout thing. maybe mark it a repost and disable the upvote for people who have voted on it before? do new people get a vote on old content? is something that was of value still of value? if i went to the police and tried to press charges against myself for stealing from myself, what would they do? what would the judge do? they would probably put me under observation, a psychological hold, say 48 hours. no, you can't steal from yourself. any argument that says you can, sounds like sophistry. it is something to think about very seriously, though. if steemit is as successful as i hope it will be, can you imagine having one tenth of one percent of one billion people reposting once a week? mind blowing. it kind of reminds me of pool, the game, when you play on a coin operated table, the rules change. you can't pull balls back out of the pockets. so, that is where capitalism meets the rules of a game of pool. maybe a repost channel with limits that include disabled voting. i don't know am i just being annoying? anyone?
I think that reposting and old post that did not get the recognition that you were hopping or monetization should not be done. But if you manage to add new content and link the two articles together, there should not be a problem.
I found your post on steemit.chat bro, and up-voted, we can recycle our articles in one condition I think if we delete the old one and be sure that no body copy your content and the post not make any money in Adsense or other way of motorization , I think this the right way to do it .
That is the curse of the blockchain though! You can't delete your articles! As far as I know... If you have found a way to delete them, I would love to know. @ben99
I have reed a post couple days a go about plugin that delete old posts the guy give his proof , but since that day never see him again but he will show up soon I think , there is always a way bro ;)
I'd rather not see lots of re-posts. Maybe if the "Blog Section" of a writers profile could be organized like a forum, we could organize discussions, but keep the reddit feel.
why not?
I think the value in re-posting is archival.
I think the value of the "Front Page" is original content.
Is customization of the blog section of your profile customizable / organizable?
but isn't content that got like 10 cents and 2 upvotes be considered "original" for all intents and purposes?...
There is only one way to find out: since we are free to do what we want, we can at least try and then see how the swarms react to it.
That, then, is "law" (for the time being).
Personally, I would find no issue with a post that clarifies it is a repost for one reason or another and links back to the original so I can decide whether to uptuck this time (because you were treated unfairly back then) or no (because you got 50,000 for that one the last time) or at least comment (because it was a timeless topic deserving what we called a "bump" on the Bulletin Boards of old).
i agree. clear clarification and the link to old post and people can decide based on what the post made in the past and it's "value" if it's worth another upvote.
HArd to say if it's ok to take the same upvotes twice....?
I think it is OK to repost if it did not receive much support and you would like to try a different tag. Also it is acceptable to add changes and post, but I think if you are not going to make changes, you should at least let people know that you are reposting an old post. If people wish to vote for it and have not seen it before and may be beneficial then share I say. But when people post the same thing multiple times in a row in a short period of time, it should be frowned upon
It's not clear. I hope we'll get an official response!
My idea would be that you should only repost after those 4 weeks are pass not like day after day. that should be totally flagged as it is spam!
Thanks a bunch for your contribution.
U are bringing up very valid questions.
@razvenelulmarin, I was just checking steemit with clarification on plagiarization and I stumbled on your blog.
well this blog is close to an year old now and I am just 3 weeks in steemit. But I have a question to ask the seniors yere.
I am also including @cheetah in this query.
I have a blog in which I have written a few blogs (5 or 6) about a couple of years back. I believe a couple of them are of good value and I intend to post it here in steemt.
Is that allowed or I shall be caught by @cheetah for plagiarizing my own blog? I can as well as forget the blog. But it is quite a nice blog and I don't find any reason to rewrite the whole stuff again in a different language and tone to avoid @cheetah. It seems ridiculous to me to do that.
so what is the steemit policy on reposting one of my article from my blog page? I can give credit to myself in the blog here with the link and say that I am the original owner of the blog and stuff like that. Will that suffice and acceptable?
I do not wish to be in @cheetah's list nor jeopardize my just budding reputation here. So what do you suggest?
Following. I want to know this too @topdog!
Can you repost this so I can upvote?
Interesting article @razvanelulmarin. I have just joined Steemit and put my first post up a cuple of houurs ago. I have joined because I love writing, and of course the idea that you get paid for publishing good quality work wiht no restrictions is amazing.
I'd like to know what you think about when steemit accounts publish complete articles (more or less) from other sites but reference the source at the top of the article. Would you still class this as plagiarism?
Not plagiarism, but downright theft! However, your question is not as straightforward as it may seem.
What about videos of performances (live gigs), posted here first time? Or even carried over from YT orFB? Technically speaking, the blogger makes the content of the blog (filmed, edited, posted) and plenty of their time went into it, including spotting the event, concert etc and attending it. What else does a journalist do? A photographer? Or a channel hosting contestants or a talk show? Then again there are hefty deals involved in broadcasting soccer matches and live performances - may all the sponsorship be factored into that.
So what about the tiny, local performing artists? OR that blogger who might get cited (almost) enrtirely and unwittingly? Can't we put up excerpts of Moby Dick? Analyse the sutras of Patanjali? Joe Bloggs (what's in a name) might benefit from the exposure, but did they give outright permission? Are they getting the RIGHT kind of context? In any case, it makes for a very patient waiting game for anything to get back round to them, if ever they were to get a lucky break ... but that's showbiz, I guess! On the whole, however, I think the uploader is saying something about their life rather than representing themselves as an agent, or exploiting a gold-mine. It only becomes a real concern if they were to earn loads over the back of another deserving content-maker (here on Steemit or not). One would like to think there is this thing called personal honor that kicks in naturally.....and that in a brave new wordl the rest is shared and common intellectual property (and clearly history - never to be retrieved- within 3-7 days). Present replies excepted! (This post deserves a repost! But who knows it may be trending anew today... Are you going to do the research on that....pffff?)
I personally see all of Steemit on a more subtle (energetic) level, and find the same old, same old. I find gross flaws on an inter-connective or community level. Referring to outside sources and using third party material (videos of others) seems to be getting some people into some nasty trouble (flagged, downvoted), while I encourage encorporating anybody else's work (cited, credited) since it broadens out the field and is the best prevention to corruption in-house.
We are trying to be holistic (not to mention sometimes naively idealistic) on Steemit, but then you would, ideally, not mind if your piece was claimed even by somebody else (it could be conceived as a compliment!). Providing you opted in for the ideology of Steemit you would have to trust it would pan out ok. But the money in the mix changes much....
Here, it seems, we are still being "hired" (for the daily paper that Steemit approaches most of all) for who we know, the trending tag we signed up, for or some kind of starlet wow-factor, not paid on an hourly basis nor rewarded for original or intelligent content. The market principle seems bitterly unfair to me and there are too many Steemians who have to suffer the life of a misfortunate African cocoa farmer who is missing the right paperwork (hence overlooked).
Hi, my wife has a wordpress blog and i talked to her about steemit and told her she could post here too the articles from her blog but i am not sure how it has to be done in order to not penalize the existing blog SEO rank and neither the reputation building process on steemit so i am here to ask what has to be done when publishing on steemit an already existing post being the post's author?
Is enough a link to the steemit post in the original post? please enlighten me.
not sure I have the ultimate answer to this...I think you can just post here some of the articles without any penalty of any kind. I do not know how SEO ranking works though...