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The recent question What was Eitri making along with Stormbreaker? was copied word for word from this reddit post, even the picture was taken from there.

After I pointed that out, the user simply added a link at the end. But the question still reads like these are his words, and without clicking on the link at the end, one would never know that this is a complete "copy&paste" job.

Obviously I could correct that myself with an edit, but should I?

I think that if a user steals something, it's up to them to correct their "mistake". If I do it for them, then it just means that they, and other users, can continue to "copy&paste" other people's work without consequences. Because even if they get caught, nothing happens. They don't even have to bother editing their post, someone else will do it for them.

So my question is:

  • How should we deal with "copy&paste" jobs?
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  • Another example would be this answer, in which two paragraphs were copy&pasted from this reddit post. I pointed it out in the comments twice, but was ignored.
    – Oliver_C
    Nov 13, 2018 at 10:15
  • I decided to check two other post by the same user and this answer borrowed from this Quora post and this answer borrowed from these Quora posts. I'll leave it to someone else to check for more.
    – Oliver_C
    Nov 13, 2018 at 21:14
  • Just my two cents. I wrote an answer about copy paste job in SE network a few times. This is from Meta Stack Exchange where I gave why copy paste answers are not useful. Others editing it is not a useful job. Should copy-pasted answers be deleted?. I think the best thing to do is to let the user know why it's wrong and dowvote the answer. If there's no improvement, flag for moderator intervention.
    – Nog Shine
    Nov 15, 2018 at 17:59
  • @Oliver_C in my case, I didn't ignored your comment, and I've updated my answer. I appreciate you pointing it out for me. however I had no intention on get credit for someone else's content.
    – Vishwa
    Nov 16, 2018 at 8:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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If you think an answer (I don't think this applies to questions but if you want I think the below would still apply) has been plagarized (copy & paste) without attribution or reference then this would be something you should...

Flag for Moderator attention

...giving details of the original link.

The mod team can then decide on the appropriate course of action and/or any required "punitive" action.

I would not recommend any editing on behalf of the OP. The mod team can encourage the user to do this or, if necessary, do so on their behalf (if the answer is not deleted etc).

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    Yes, absolutely. Often we delete such content, and contact the user with repeated incidences. It's usually found in answers, in this case a question already with answers we might give the user some (short) time to edit.
    – iandotkelly Mod
    Nov 13, 2018 at 12:36
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    @iandotkelly is there an official SE policy/guidelines regarding plagiarism?
    – KharoBangdo
    Nov 14, 2018 at 6:29
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    @KharoBangdo You can find it here
    – A J Mod
    Nov 14, 2018 at 9:15
  • @KharoBangdo from Meta: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/160071/…
    – Stephie
    Nov 20, 2018 at 8:43

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