Urgent!! How do I report plagarised content?
This is with regard to the 'Say no to chlorine' contest. One post I read was a direct copy from a pdf document available on the net. The writer had not even taken the pain to rephrase the content and express it in his own words. How do I report it to the Indiblogger team, a place where they will notice immediately.
I have reported the matter along with the details to Hemal Shah and Renie RavinA small suggesstion: Beside each post there exists a report button. By clicking on it we are able to select the reason from a drop down box but there is no provision to add additional details. I suggest that a text box should be present to input additional details.
The case is now solved and the blogger has included the reference link in the post.
My blog: A light hearted talk
Reason: Case solved
@Ranjith I have added you on my Network, you can add me back and send me the URL, Name of the Person, Blog URL, the PDF that you calim to be copied from (URL of the page where PDF is linked from) via IndiMail and we will have the Investigation complete.
Thank you very very very much for being this alert. I am sure this will help us track if something was really wrong.
Ouch. Not again.
What? So many plagiarizers in Indiblogger? What? Are they stupid?
you're right.
Hey Ranjith, please point us to the post in question and we'll do the needful pronto! Thanks! 
eww not again!
The case is now solved.
The reported user has added an apology note to this post, along with ref. links to original documents. For his sincerity, I gave him a small gift 
Guys, I think he should still run in the contest for coming clean the moment it was informed to him. Anyone has any objections?
What about the votes that he already got by people thinking that its his/her original post?
Do you mean to say that he is still eligible to participate in that contest with his post?
I have,cuz thats not his content right? posting someone else's content on your blog is fine as long as you have taken the permission but using that content in a contest,wouldn't be fair.
@Animesh tell me how do we take this forward then? We can give him only once chance, he did put up an apology note on the blog.
@Ranjith I am suggesting so that we leave a good example.
@Amogh yep, thats not his content, but he has collated infomration for a cause, and hence i think we should. No supporting Plagirism of any kind, and since corrective action has been taken, we can lead by an example.
@Hemal, in my personal opinion
- He/she has realised that it was a mistake and taken corrective action. Its brave of him/her. Putting an aplogy note on one's blog is not an easy step to take.
- However, mere apology should not become a benchmark as it becomes easier. In this case, some percnetage of votes can be cut down (not sure if I sound correct) as a penalty.
What say others?
Hmmm @Animesh that seems to be a positive answer.
lolzzzzz @animesh
Well done Ranjith. Thank you for bringing this to light. 
@Hemal, kudos to you for being very active here on indiForum. Keep up the good work .
Thank you. By the way, you look so cute in that profile picture. How old were you at that time?
@abhi thanks 
@Ranjith I was 3 @ that time.. and yep, the so many girls used to kiss me so so so so much... miss those times
I think it is a very dangerous precedent to allow people to participate in contests with content that is copied from elsewhere without credit. It is not OK to say "sorry, I made a mistake". If nothing else, that is the sign of a poor quality article and a poor quality blogger if he/she is not even aware of how to do research and source information correctly. Such a person has no business writing non-fiction.
Indiblogger would do well to send a strong signal by taking one line on this issue and sticking to it. Indiblogger is not doing itself any favours currently, looking a bit hypocritical.
Just wanted to add, everybody always says bloggers should write with authority and people will flock to your blog. Please go look at any respectable successful journalist/academic/blogger's non-fiction papers and articles. You will always find footnotes.
Exactly what quality of articles is Indiblogger looking for with these contests? Think about the basic writing style that should have been taught to all early on in school. Think about who deserves to win all that money.
Are these articles being published elsewhere? Think about how you want the community to be represented.
Valid Points @PC
I maintain that allowing anyone caught plaigirizing to participate in a contest, even if it is with new original content is a poor reflection on Indiblogger and demoralizes the rest of the contestants who turned in original pieces in the first go.
Again, I ask you what the hell is Indiblogger's problem? Why so hypocritical? Why do you want to penalize the honest original bloggers who are the only ones who truly deserve a shot at the prize money? Would Sourav Pandey be allowed to participate in the next Indiblogger contest?
Is this why Rohan left Indiblogger? Couldn't stand the hypocrisy?
I am cross-posting this message I just wrote on a previous thread related to this topic. http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?id=8509
-----
Jiska shaq tha woh sach lag raha hai.
Reading the thread on the chlorine contest post that was copied from elsewhere, Indiblogger community does not appear to desire a consistent policy on plagiarism. Much dishonesty and confused thinking and hypocrisy abounds.
Personally, I'm very glad I did not participate in the Chlorine contest, which is the first opportunity to participate in a contest since I joined. Going by comments there and silence from Renie on this issue, Indiblogger doesn't even want a fair playing field, forget the question whether or not they've picked appropriate experienced, skilled, intelligent mature people to judge these things.
Gouri is still waiting for answers, too regarding the case of Mohan. [Oh yes, I'm going to continue bringing it up until it is resolved]
Is this how Indiblogger wants to treat its quality members? Very disappointing. What exactly was I defending just a few days ago? Where is the Renie who took the right action re: Sourav Pandey? What is that Renie doing re: whoever cheated on the Chlorine contest?
Answer me, Inditeam or risk standing exposed as hypocrites and vindicating Suraj78 and member-moderator Rohan who presumably left the community over this.
Just updating my reply I posted on that same thread. Lets discuss it here instead.
@Pundit I dont understand what is Gouri waiting for and his issue crops up every where. From my point of view (which is not IndiTeam's PoV btw) that issue is solved when Mohan removed the post, blog altogether, got into a healthy discussion and answered questions by Gouri and others calmly. And no, I dont have any personal liking towards Mohan affecting this view, neither that he is a IndiPolice.
If you think injustice was done to Gouri, plese share your views about what should be done? Mohan's blog is already deleted, posts no longer exist. Mohan has apologized to Gouri on the forum and started his reply with an apology.
See Pundit, we are here to promote good. IndiBlogger has always been people driven, and always will be. The decisions here are jointly taken with Bloggers and the Inditeam. None of us have any personal grudges against anyone. When I wear the IndiPolice Hat, I follow ethics and facts but still be human.
When someone accepts his mistake, we have to give them a chance. As for Sourav, he never admited, never accepted his mistake, nor did he put up an apology and hence, the action. He went on a rampage and abusing everyone without looking at the gender and age which jusifies the action what IndiBlogger took.
About who ever cheated on the Chlorine contest, I myself spoke to that person and he, in his very first interaction, apologized. I am of the view that he should be allowed to participate given that this is a genuine cause, a natural at that. You can see my views on this post already : http://www.indiblogger.in/forum/topic.php?action=replied&id=8572
About Rohan and Suraj78, we are still not clear what had happened with them that they were forced to leave the community. There were differences of opinion between them and other members where neither IndiTeam or IndiPolice (other members) were involved. And can you please elaborate on your claim of "Risk standing exposed"?
You have a different view of course, about plagirism, no-tolerance. I appreciate your view, and welcome that. But then, you should do so to our view as well.
@hemal: Oh, I already replied on the other thread. Hadn't seen this yet. I go through threads in reverse chronological order when I log on. And I see you've already replied there, do you wish to continue there or here?
here... PC..
Word of advice to Inditeam:
The more you guys try to handle copycat cases one by one in this haphazard sloppy ad-hoc fashion, the more you look like hypocrites and the more respect I lose for you.
I wonder what it will take for you to heed the advice I gave during the Sourav Pandey case.
COMMUNICATE A CONSISTENT POLICY ON PLAGIARISM!
Pick something- anything, whatever policy you want - and then stick to it for all cases.
Let us then all be the judge of whether or not you deserve our attention, respect, support and hard work and participation on forum, indivine, contests etc.
Show some integrity for god's sake.
U knw, I cn so understand n relate 2 ur frustration here PC... nw I'm nt usually the type of person who gets involved into things tht easily (aah eureka! thats y my relationships never work !)
But just felt I needed to bring my experience with Indiblogger here: I think compared to other such sites, I think the Indi team is extremely responsive n I find their responsiveness extremely positive. They even hv a contact number (which I abuse liberally, btw :P) on this site which cn help u resolve issues in a jiffy. Its when u deal with other sites tht u learn hw much better IB is... fr example, I've been tryin 2 get just a reply to my hosting issues with another such site n I've been waitin fr 3 months nw...in IB, I gt it done in minutes.
I think the fact tht we cn address Renie n team on a first name basis tells a lot of the approachability the inditeam shares with us.
I'm sorry n I knw how it feels whn ur views n efforts r nt acted upon - I really liked ur thoughts in the forum n I totally concur, PC. I think we must just wait, PC..at least, things seem 2 b goin in the right direction, despite of the speed...:)
Havin said tht, I can understand ur frustration on the plaigarism wave we seem to be havin.... but I'd like to keep this blind belief ( judging frm my interactions with the Inditeam) tht inditeam might just be workin on sumthin in this direction…. I'm a contestant fr this contest, so I'll reserve my thoughts on this for later …
I like 2 think tht in this issue, things at the inditeam's ghar may be dher sahi, lekin andher nahi..;)
Keep the faith, PC :)
@R-A-J
I didn't see a single comment from you on all the previous threads on this topic in the past few weeks. So I don't know whether or not you are aware of the sequence of events. If not, please go back and read
(1) Gouri's thread on catching his posts on Mohan's blog.
(2) Blog post presumably written by Renie flushing out rampant plagiarism by Sourav Pandey and all the reactions thereafter.
(3) Pramod Lohia's thread regarding the Sourav Pandey case.
(4) My thread asking, for the fourth time, (twice in private email, once in PL's thread) for a consistent policy on plagiarism.
Thanks for stepping into the conversation despite your natural instinct not to. I appreciate it.
By the way, please note I have no dog in this fight (don't know sourav pandey, did not participate in chlorine contest) and am not "frustrated" but I fight for all of us who may find our articles stolen in the future.
Hey PC, u're rite, I hvnt gone thru any of those posts u mentioned... n i guess I mit shud hv b4 commentin :)
No offences meant, really :)
Yes, its in works. SO please wait till we finalize details and let everyone know what is IndiBlogger's policy on Plagiarism.
@R-A-J
Thank you Raj, for appreciating my message and recognizing the wisdom of getting caught up with the sequence of prior events that bring us to this point and then continuing the rest of this discussion.
@hemal:
first you say, please wait while we prepare a policy. then later in this same thread, you start an ad-hoc vote for whoever happens to look at this thread by chance? 
damn confusing, man. 
we need the inditeam to thrash out a single comprehensive policy if it doesn't already have one (how is it possible this issue has not cropped up until now) and then allow the community to discuss it for a proper length of time with prior notice? that allows us to make informed decisions regarding the degree of our participation on this forum.
the Ad-hovc voting is to take a an understanding how where and how others react. the voting turnup wil be shared with IndiTeam and collectively we will take a decision.
@Arti valid points.
That's no excuse at all. If the community agrees with your advocacy of low standards, it does so at its own risk. That's no way to grow and attract quality bloggers into membership. That's the way to lose existing members.
First of all, if a blogger does not have knowledge, preferably personal knowledge and opinion of a subject matter, why is he/she writing on it? That violates one of the core principles of blogging doesn't it? That is serious disrespect to the contest and your own readers. Why should anybody read you if you don't know what you are talking about?
Second, if you are conducting research on a non-fiction topic out of your expertise, like any proper scholar or journalist, you would already know all about footnoting and you would never copy-paste and you would never forget to mention your source. You have no business writing anything if you do not know how to do it properly. And Indiblogger has no business condoning low quality work for corporate contests.
Third, it is a very dangerous precedent to allow a content thief to get away with an apology. How exactly do you know it is sincere? And what does that matter? What comfort is that to the honest people who sent in original work for the same contest and surely deserve a shot much more than this copycat, no matter what the quality of their original work actually is?
I repeat I was very surprised to see Mohan get off with an apology and Gouri has legitimate grounds for a grouse with Inditeam now that he has observed them treat Sourav Pandey in a totally different manner.
Hypocritical behaviour to the core.
@Pundit
- IndiBlogger network is for blogger, irrespective of whether the blogger is of quality or not. IndiBlogger brings in a platform where an Quality Blogger can help/assist a novice Blogger. It has been IndiBloggers' stand since its begining and I think we still have a lot of quality bloggers around.
- If a blogger does not have knowledge, he is willing to learn. If he is spending time to find out facts and use the same as evidence in his post, I see that as a learning curve. Not everyone is born to write.
- About Footnote. Lets face it, there are so many people here who dont even know what to write in a footnote. Not everyone is a professional. I see so many novice, young bloggers who have a lot to learn themselves. If they dont know, we cant stop them from blogging but then we can help them to know its importance, right?
- IndiBlogger goes in with the Trust factor. Yes, that same trust factor that caused us hurt when we found out Sourav Pandey was involved in Plagiarism. But because of one rotten apple, we dont wish others miss the trust factor IndiBlogger puts in each of its bloggers.
- I already replied to you about Gouri's issue and have done so time and again, repeating it once more. Mohan's Blog is deleted altogether, and the post along with it. And though it was already deleted and he already apologized, the case is closed. What Sourav did was, he never accepted his mistake nor apologized. He too was given a choice, to apologize to all of his Fans and Readers, and also asked to return the prize money he won using the Plagiarized posts. He never accepted his mistake, and all we were expecting was an apologitic behaviour. I hope everyone here will agree, that his replies and abuses on the forum via Fake Ids and on the IndiBlogger forum stand testimony for this.
You are really doing a good job Pundit and thanks for keeping the IndiTeam and IndiPolice on toes. Your replies will help us build a stronger community.
@Hemal
- I speak of writing quality, not technical expertise or blogging know-how. Indiblogger is a forum, just like any other bloggers community, to learn the latter two skillsets, not the first.
- "Not everyone is born to write" - and these people who can't write should be allowed to participate by hook or by crook in indiblogger/indivine/writing competitions, by stealing posts and copy-pasting and not crediting sources and what not? Good god, man. Are you hearing yourself? Have you no love and respect for the written word?
- Wrong. See point one.
- I don't really understand what you're trying to say here. Trust factor??? Do you mean that despite the promises just a week ago, if Ranjit had not discovered the copycat, you would have carried on with this precious imagined Trust Factor and NOT CHECKED all the submissions of the contest??????? WHAT?????
- I refer you to Gouri's questions on Pramod Lohia's thread. The key is consistency, my man. Do unto x as you would unto y.
Vote for the action to be taken from the following choices. No one will make any comments on this voting reply, but can continue posting on this thread as new replies.
- Punish the Plagirizer with reduction in votes.
- The Plagairized post to be deleted and a chance for a new post be given and run the contest
- Stop the Plagirizer from participating in this Contest
I wish to see all people vote for this here.
Note: To vote for your choice, just copy paste the one point from above three choices. No two choices please.
The Plagairized post to be deleted and a chance for a new post be given and run the contest
Stop the Plagirizer from participating in this Contest
The Plagairized post to be deleted and a chance for a new post be given and run the contest
In the above voting that has been invited, in case of a tie, IndiPolice will vote and then the action will be taken. I hope you all will agree to that? If not, please come up wth alternatives.
see, this is what i mean about making stuff up on the fly. you didn't set a time period for this voting. you didn't send out an email to the entire community to weigh in on such an important matter that affects one and all, especially the ppl who participate in contests. oof...i could go on and on.
I know i didnt. Its not as if I dont care. But this is the best I can do with the limited access I have. The forum is a open place, every one can come here and comment. this action will only lead to further developement in the future. Btw, since the contest is ending today and winner be announced later, we have 3 to 4 days till we finalize what we want to do.
Oof.
Rushing through something so important does no good. The votes of very few bear no legitimacy for the entire community.
PC, you need to be considerate on how we are handling this issue. I agree all your view points are valid and I am only trying to is best that is possible from my side, with all that I can do right now, and take these points to the policy that is being made.
"you need to be considerate on how we are handling this issue"
Everything that you suggest on this thread is reactionary (to my questions), half-baked and not carefully considered and planned. Inditeam could have avoided hearing these words if Inditeam had taken the opportunity provided by Sourav Pandey brou haha to put heads together and start to formulate a policy or even start an official thread requesting inputs from the community.
I waited a full 2 days, if I'm not mistaken after the brou haha before I started the thread myself. I didn't see any action being taken or considered by Inditeam.
Was Suraj78 right to compare Inditeam to Government of India? Please don't let that be true.
Just to add, touch wood, I have no direct personal experience with plagiarism so the only purpose to start the thread was to make sure the momemtum is not lost and people continue to think and talk and do something - people with far greater experience and knowledge on these matters than I.
Framing a policy takes more than two days @PC.
Its in works already and will be out sooner than later.
@hemal:
"2 days"???
Didn't Indiblogger start 2 years ago? What exactly has it been doing all this time? No wonder a monster case like Sourav Pandey's came to be. This is utter negligence on the part of the Inditeam. Don't tell me people who created Indiblogger were not aware of plagiarism before last week.
So basically, we should never expect Inditeam to formulate any policies to ensure smooth operations on anything, not even if the problems are 100% predictable and routine in this field? And not even if several cases have already occurred, including one that they chose to ignore and one that they chose to throw up and make a big splash.
What lovely low expectations for a forum.
@PC I dont know how to make you understand that IndiTeam is already working on it. IndiTeam does not have any joy in facing all the predictable problems. Why are you still under the impression that IndiTeam is sitting ducks on thsi issue?
@hemal:
This comment makes reference to animesh's comment.
I fail to see exactly why this issue was not addressed earlier in the last 2 years. When SP case happened, I assumed IndiTeam has plenty of experience with tihs kind of thing. The reaction from everybody else and the failure of Renie to take action and share a uniform consistent internal policy immediately surprised the heck out of me.
How hard is it for Renie to write down a few words saying this is what I believe, now can we have the community's input for the next 1 week/2 weeks/1 month whatever so that we can formulate a solid plan of action for all cases, no matter if it's a senior Mohan or the latest newcomer.
Again, ignorance is no excuse.
Just because people don't know the first thing about qualitative and/or quantitative research or writing non-fiction but managed to open up a blog does not mean Indiblogger should be validating that ignorance with lax policies.
@Pundit you are not ready to listen to me and keep coming up these things, I dont have an option but stay mum over this.
One last time: whatever happened in the past, the lax in their approach towards Plagirism is because of the trust factor towards Indian Bloggers in General. You wont understand these terms @PC as much as I have learned from our conversations.
We trust Renie will come up with the apt thing to do. No more questions, and lets not push it too hard.
Thank you.
HI all
Iam new into indiblogger. Very new. And soon I found out about the "crusade against chlorine" and have participated in it too. After reading this and few more forum discussions like "stop shamless self promotions' did I realise that yes, we are from democratic and corrupted India. I cant stop laughing.
Where are we heading? I thought this was a genuine place to handle our writing talents and exhibit and expect worthy appreciations.
Cheers.
Sush
Welcome @Sushma
Dont be worried of what is happening on the forum since you are new. Whatever has happened on the forum has only happened in last two weeks. Yes, even you can and very much welcomed to the discussions and share and take views of others.
We are heading to formulaize a Anti Plagirism policy and all these discussions, some heated, other worthy points, will help the IndiTeam to formulaize the policy.
This is very much a place for Writing Talents and not so talented as well. Dont let the recent events take your notice over what this platform has beautifully created and help others here.
@sushma:
Thank you for providing the perspective of a brand new member, Sushma.
It is not true that the matter of plagiarism has cropped up out of the blue. In the short 3-4 weeks I have been here, I remember digging out old threads pleading for help and guidance. Coincidentally, a member named Gouri discovered a theft of his post as well 3 weeks ago, by none other than a very well known member of the forum who is also an Indipolice member. Nobody from Indiblogger responded to that thread despite Renie himself providing a PR5 link and official sanction to that copied post. Thus, thanks to Renie's action, Gouri's blog was considered the copying one by Google and penalized. Till date, nobody from Inditeam has come forth to offer an apology, explanation or compensation to Gouri.
Regarding Sourav Pandey, his is the monster case of rampant plagiarism that went on undetected for lord knows how long. He even managed to win cash money from contests.
These are only the cases I know about in my short time here. There is no telling what has happened before because threads are deleted by unknown police/mods without explanation here.
I SENT GOURI A MAIL TO ASK HIS VIEWS AND HE IS YET TO RESPOND.
EVERYONE HERE HAS THEIR POINTS, EVERYONE HAS THE LIBERTY TO SAY THEIR VIEWS.
@ Sushma, do not doubt about the credibility of the forum. There are some really good discussion in the sub forums (categories) realted to content, ethical blogging and so on. And there are a few thraeds in the General stuff category that will amke you laugh. Heed on to the remaining part.
True Hemal. Yes the platform needs to be guarded by policy like the "spam" of the web sites!
@Sushma:
Inditeam is currently understaffed thanks to losing a moderator (presumably over plagiarism or internal mod policy issues), nobody knows officially why as he left without explanation.
Thus, there is nobody here to effectively "police" the forum.
Animesh, who spends a great deal of time, on Inditalk, has to watch ppl drop a link all day long on the chat. I applaud his patience.
Arti, who does a wonderful voluntary job of welcoming and helping out newbies, has to watch the forum for similar messages of introduction from new members in the wrong categories. I applaud her patience.
I believe the situation was a lot worse some time ago when Inditeam was away for a month and members were free to abuse anyone.
@Pundit request you not to comment on things that you are not really aware. Inditeam is not understaffed. And about loosing the Moderator, IndiTeam does appoint moderators from the members, and a moderator (IndiPolice) is not a part of IndiTeam. He has left without an explanation I agree, but that does not mean that is only problem coz of Internal policy issues of something. That person never shared his views of what problem he was facing with either IndiTeam nor IndiPolice.
So PLEASE REQUEST YOU NOT TO SHARE INFORMATION WHICH YOU DONT KNOW. YOU ARE FLAMING NOW, BY TAKING PERSONAL COMMENTS ON ANIMEH AND ARTI.
I AM THE INDIPOLICE HERE, WHO IS VERY MUCH ON THE FORUM AND HAVE BEEN ANSWERING YOUR QUERIES.
PUNDIT, REQUEST YOU: PLEASE DONT COMMENT ON THINGS THAT YOU DONT KNOW.
@Sushma:
Just to add, you are right to be concerned and to express that concern regarding the repute and value of this forum. I hope Inditeam is paying attention to this thread.
@Pundit, this certainly is not appreciated. Tell me what yuo are expecting to be done? only listen and do as you say?
Dont we have our views? Cant you stand that and appreciate it?
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