Someone had to ask, right? After dealing with this several times now, actually TWO blasted times just today (what can I say, I've a real eye for a damn plagiarizer, even if it is only "inspiration.")
Today, I noticed one of those reviews you see every so often -- vague, nothing different added to the review that didn't come from the other 2-3 reviews, no photos, but definitely some inspiration from others' reviews.
I have a trained eye for plagiarism, so I definitely know for sure when something is plagiarized or not. I also happen to know when someone hasn't actually plagiarized and stolen work from you, but has without a doubt gotten inspired by your review. It happened to me just tonight, but of course, if it's "inspiration" and not full-on plagiarism, well, it's not plagiarism so nothing can be done really.
Do you ever use a specific... way to describe a product and later see that another person said the exact same thing and you *just know* they got that inspiration from you? How did you deal with that? Care to share about the experience.
See, the thing is, you can tell if you look close enough, whether or not a person just happened to have the same thoughts as you or not. I mean if I have a pink vibrator with a realistic head and I say in my review "this is pink, with a realistic head and smiley face!" and another person says "the vibrator looks like it is smiling at me. It's pink too." That is a totally different story. It's not plagiarism or inspiration from my review, it's a person describing in their own words how a toy looks. Right?
Then you have something out of the ordinary like say, a massage candle. Say I'm reviewing a massage candle, and in the packaging section I mention how I thought it resembled a tin that icing from a cinnamon roll comes in.
Answer me this, please:
If you saw THAT (the icing tin thing) and later saw another review on the product that said the SAME thing, would you be a little suspicious or would you think, oh of course every person would describe a tin can as that!
Now, when a review has such a... distinct description like that and suddenly another review pops up and describes it that way and also offers nothing else at all that has not already been noted from others, would you be suspicious?
I am. And quite frankly, it's upsetting. Does this type of thing upset you or is it just me? Also, if this continued to happen really frequently, would you lose a little of the desire to continue reviewing? This question is especially for those of you who like me, work extremely hard and provide extensive information for every review you write. Would you guys feel less of a desire to continue on? Perhaps less passion if it happened over and over?
Not that it's happened over and over to me, only 3 times in my entire time of being here actually. But still. I'm starting to feel like what the F is the point in me trying SO hard and being my own unique self when someone will go behind me and steal that from me? Maybe this is a personal thing with me though.
Not to mention editing. Holy dangit! I remember my round of editing. Talk about mind blowing. I was so shocked at how many reviews came through that were copied word for word, and then some would just copy one paragraph from one review, another paragraph from a different review and so on. It's ridiculous. Thankfully though, I've had myself a little partner in crime you could say, who gives me advice when I need it, but I would like to address this. Either I am the only one noticing it (and yes, I've noticed it with other reviews, not just my own, like I said I noticed one totally copy/pasted section from a review today!) or I'm the only one annoyed enough to ask this.
Of course I know we should send plagiarized links to JR when we see them, but like I said, inspiration is a different story. Taking someone's personal thoughts from their review and not doing a lot of copy/pasting is not plagiarizing. So... what does everyone else think?
Today, I noticed one of those reviews you see every so often -- vague, nothing different added to the review that didn't come from the other 2-3 reviews, no photos, but definitely some inspiration from others' reviews.
I have a trained eye for plagiarism, so I definitely know for sure when something is plagiarized or not. I also happen to know when someone hasn't actually plagiarized and stolen work from you, but has without a doubt gotten inspired by your review. It happened to me just tonight, but of course, if it's "inspiration" and not full-on plagiarism, well, it's not plagiarism so nothing can be done really.
Do you ever use a specific... way to describe a product and later see that another person said the exact same thing and you *just know* they got that inspiration from you? How did you deal with that? Care to share about the experience.
See, the thing is, you can tell if you look close enough, whether or not a person just happened to have the same thoughts as you or not. I mean if I have a pink vibrator with a realistic head and I say in my review "this is pink, with a realistic head and smiley face!" and another person says "the vibrator looks like it is smiling at me. It's pink too." That is a totally different story. It's not plagiarism or inspiration from my review, it's a person describing in their own words how a toy looks. Right?
Then you have something out of the ordinary like say, a massage candle. Say I'm reviewing a massage candle, and in the packaging section I mention how I thought it resembled a tin that icing from a cinnamon roll comes in.
Answer me this, please:
If you saw THAT (the icing tin thing) and later saw another review on the product that said the SAME thing, would you be a little suspicious or would you think, oh of course every person would describe a tin can as that!
Now, when a review has such a... distinct description like that and suddenly another review pops up and describes it that way and also offers nothing else at all that has not already been noted from others, would you be suspicious?
I am. And quite frankly, it's upsetting. Does this type of thing upset you or is it just me? Also, if this continued to happen really frequently, would you lose a little of the desire to continue reviewing? This question is especially for those of you who like me, work extremely hard and provide extensive information for every review you write. Would you guys feel less of a desire to continue on? Perhaps less passion if it happened over and over?
Not that it's happened over and over to me, only 3 times in my entire time of being here actually. But still. I'm starting to feel like what the F is the point in me trying SO hard and being my own unique self when someone will go behind me and steal that from me? Maybe this is a personal thing with me though.
Not to mention editing. Holy dangit! I remember my round of editing. Talk about mind blowing. I was so shocked at how many reviews came through that were copied word for word, and then some would just copy one paragraph from one review, another paragraph from a different review and so on. It's ridiculous. Thankfully though, I've had myself a little partner in crime you could say, who gives me advice when I need it, but I would like to address this. Either I am the only one noticing it (and yes, I've noticed it with other reviews, not just my own, like I said I noticed one totally copy/pasted section from a review today!) or I'm the only one annoyed enough to ask this.
Of course I know we should send plagiarized links to JR when we see them, but like I said, inspiration is a different story. Taking someone's personal thoughts from their review and not doing a lot of copy/pasting is not plagiarizing. So... what does everyone else think?
