Beware the Plagiarists Under Your Nose
Recently I've been checking random websites for plagiarism and the results were really quite shocking.
Copyscape allows you to paste in a url (yours or someone else's) and off it goes to check for copies of content that are identical, and I mean I.D.E.N.T.I.C.A.L in all caps.
Unbelievably, some members here at Wealthy Affiliate are going to our websites (could be yours), copying and pasting whole sections of content and creating their own content this way.
One such example this morning when I checked was a member here and their jaaxy review.
They went to 7 different WA members' sites and just STOLE whole chunks of content for their own review of Jaaxy.
I was surprised at who it was, also...no names mentioned, you all know who you are.
STOP THIS - IT IS A DISGUSTING PRACTICE
It is cheating, it is lazy, it is HARMFUL for you and potentially harmful for the original creator.
HOW DARE YOU!
OMG!!!
Jimbo
PS. I've gone and commented on the offending member's blog post which was plagiarized asking....
How do you feel about plagiarism (name of site owner)?
She won't approve that comment, will she?
oops, I've said it's a she....now we've cut the guessing down to 50% of members, thereabouts...
oops!
Recent Comments
120
Yea this is disgusting. This happened to me too. A member of WA literally stole my content and pasted it on his review on several occassions. Confronted him several times and he dared question me and not look at his faults instead. I had to ask kyle for assistance to contact that person and tell him to stop doing what he was doing.
It was a frustrating period for me.
Did Kyle contact the person in the end Kumar!? if so, maybe this could happen in other cases going on :/
Yes, kyle told me he will talk to him about this. Currenly i haven't had any issues apart from that. Maybe i didn't pay too much attention either. I just create a post then move on.
I used to check on every post that i wrote to see where it ranks and the competition but not i don't.
This is horrible!
How can a person write if there's no enjoyment or ideas?
I'm one of the ones slow in website development.
Still learning about writing, and getting psychologically fit to generate ideas.
Because I want to e n j o y what I do......
Thanks for the heads-up and warning......
I know a lot here have their websites removed from their profile, for this reason, I don't want to lose trust and keep them on my profile, but I do think I am going to stab proof a few, I have the feeling my FAQ will come out this proof as nicked a few times
You mentioned that it will prevent us somehow if we remove our sites from the listing below our profiles. What is your opinion when we request for comment? I've found a lot of exactly the same contents when I do research but what is more surprising is that they are mostly on first page of Google!
removing your site from your profile will not remove your ability to get comments, or site feedback. click your profile, and beneath your big profile picture, scroll down and (if you've added it) your site is visible in your links. There are 7 placements for sites, most people put in their social profiles there in the other 6.
What I want to point out is that - if we ask for comments, there is a big chance for our contents to be copied as well....I'm not sure, I'm just thinking.....
yes you're right, because members from WA will see your site.
It's a risk.
use copyscape, enter each of your individual urls into it, and it will search the internet for copies of that post.
If and when you discover a plagiarist, then deal with him or her...
Doesn't even necessarily mean it's a WA member, could be anyone online copying.
Just so shocking that I discovered this one woman's post on jaaxy was copied from 7 other posts (page one of google, likely)
blatant rip off!
That is a bit of a shock, Jimbo, just goes to show how shallow some people are if they can't do their own stuff. The rest of us put in a lot of work and time into our creations. At least they should credit the original author.
At least I have another tool now, thanks.
Great Job, Jim-Bo, and whoever is copying someone else's stuff is horrible and whoever you are should be ashamed of yourselves. Learn how to form your own thought and blog on it or if you are incapable of doing that because you are a lazy, pathetic,and disgusting human that should not be a part of this community. Jim-Bo if you know people that are doing this then you should tell Kyle about it because that's not fair to the people who are busting their ass to create their sites and I am sure that is not the type of people he would want representing WA. Sorry for the rant but that just really pissed me off. Thanks for sharing that, it is something we all should be aware of.
Carol
Is it still plagiarism if you give credit to where the info came from?
when I research for my posts I try real hard to put everything in my own words because I really think it adds more credibility to your own site.
Thanks for bringing this to the forefront, Jim-Bo
You still need to get permission from the original author because they may not like the site you are using it on.
No problem with that at all. I actually did use material from another website with acknowledgement but have since done my own post in my own words and deleted the other.
Even though I gave credit, (website, author and?), I still wanted it to be ME so I rewrote. Seemed like the right thing to do.
Thanks for the advice.....Wayne
Jim,
Say something to Kyle or Carson so that they can check this out for you.
This should be stopped and these people should be kicked out of WA.
I agree with you, they are disgusting and really they should be kicked out of WA.
Please contact Kyle or Carson so they know.
Thanks,
Shane
Well, this just pulled me abruptly out of my WA "honeymoon" phase. Thank you for finding this Jim-Bo. I am very sorry this has happened to you and others.
I find this very disappointing. In the least, I will definitely be checking with Copyscape in the future. Thank you to Lance and Tanja for your great tips as well.
This is just sad and makes the "offenders" appear very small.
Margy
See more comments
Yeah, Jim-Bo it sucks. I know that many members here at WA have similar contents on their websites, especially for Wealthy Affiliate reviews. And for example, someone can have 2 or 3 sentences in their texts that can be exactly the same like mine. And i am ok with that. But when you spend for example 2 or 3 months working on your website and somebody simply copies your content on his website, you feel deceived, cheated and betrayed, because you did all the work, and someone copied YOUR content in 20 seconds on his website and took all credit for YOUR hard work. It is truly disgusting. I agree with that 100%.