

I don't understand what is wrong here. Shouldn't we be focused on building all the content and knowledge in a single place, much like Wikipedia does?


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What exactly is plagiarism?

In the context of Stack Exchange sites, any copying and pasting of any amount of text or code that wasn't written by you is plagiarism if you try, explicitly or implicitly, to pass it off as your own work. For a more detailed definition, see the Wikipedia article.

Why is plagiarism wrong?



But I only wanted to help!



I've been caught. How can I fix the situation?




How do I properly add attribution in the future?



As Peter Parker said in this answer,



Remember, you still have to write an actual answer, in your own words. A post that consists only of copied text, even when attributed, is not your work either. Use quotes sparingly, to support your own words.



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    @sorin what exactly constitutes plagiarism will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I don't think it's useful to try and pin down the exact amount in this context. If in doubt, the safest rule of thumb is "don't copy & paste anything". – Pekka supports GoFundMonica May 5 '14 at 15:53
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    Plagiarism should be defined as "the passing off of any idea as your own, where it was actually copied or reinterpreted from a source for which you show no attribution." Determination of this can be difficult, but moderators are entrusted to reach a decision that benefits the site. To avoid self-referential difficulties, I did not intentionally copy that quote from anywhere else! – j5v-exit Mar 26 '15 at 16:15
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    @j5v-exit I totally appreciate the sentiment, and I agree, but I'm not sure a standard that strict can work on a programming Q&A site like this one. After all, the right answer to most questions around here - the mundane, everyday ones - is not going to be an original thought, but something taken from a manual or received from someone else at some point. Plus it's going to be absolutely impossible to determine in most cases and the decision that benefits the site will most of the time be, "let the content stay in place".... – Pekka supports GoFundMonica Mar 26 '15 at 21:49
  • The "why is plagiarism wrong" part is almost entirely about the real-world definition of plagiarism (which requires passing said work off as your own) and not the made-up definition listed here. Everything about why plagiarism is bad in academia is fallacious as part of the argument against "stack exchange plagiarism" listed here. I added a little clarification, but overall this feels very "I want my internet points" whiny and not actually productive. – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 7:58
  • "Copying someone else's work without permission can also constitute copyright infringement, which is illegal in most countries." this is also not a blanket true statement. I also removed a link to the wikipedia entry for plagiarism because it's referring to the normal definition of plagiarism. If there needs to be rule about citing other works, that's fine, but it's disingenuous to pretend it's plagiarism. – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 8:40
  • @xaxxon that's why it says "can". I'm very open to suggestions how to improve this (including the definition of "plagiarism"), but the Wikipedia article seems broad enough to warrant linking here. – Pekka supports GoFundMonica Feb 28 '17 at 8:42
  • @xaxxon maybe there is a misunderstanding about the purpose of this FAQ entry. The kind of behaviour it was created in reaction to is typically the kind where someone copies a Stack Overflow answer (or some other piece of content on the web) and passes it off as their own. People do this all the time; sometimes, their entire track records consist of nothing else. You can call being opposed to that whiny if you want, I'm not sure what is so problematic about calling the behaviour plagiarism. Far as I can tell, it is plagiarism in the sense that the term is commonly used. Can you elaborate? – Pekka supports GoFundMonica Feb 28 '17 at 8:44
  • @Pëkka the wiki article talks about passing work off as your own. That is the primary reason why plagiarism is considered wrong. This definition has literally 0 such requirement. – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 8:47
  • @xaxxon indeed! You're right, that should be clearer. Not sure what thought process lead to the way it is currently done but in hindsight it's definitely misleading. Will try to improve – Pekka supports GoFundMonica Feb 28 '17 at 8:48
  • This whole post seems like it's trying to use the stigma against the dictionary definition of plagiarism to say why the stack overflow definition of plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is a very powerful word. Trying to use that "power" while actually referring to something else is what I consider disingenuous. It probably also confuses people as to what the commonly accepted definition of plagiarism is. – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 8:49
  • For example, if I am in school and I write something and say that I found something in a magazine but leave off the citation to the specific magazine, I'm not going to get kicked out of school. I might get decreased credit for it (or just asked to propertly add the citation) but it's a far cry from passing it off as my own original thought because it's not considered plagiarism – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 8:51
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    @Pëkka well, the only reason I'm here is because someone was quoting it in defense of what was literally posted here, not "dictionary" plagiarism. In the comments here: stackoverflow.com/questions/42500897/… I don't have a problem with requiring citations on copied code, I just don't like people abusing terms to get the generally accepted connotation without the generally accepted denotation. But it sounds like we're on the same page. – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 8:54
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    @Pëkka also it appears there are some less-cumbersome definitions of plagiarism which this definition would fall under (see wikipedia article) but some seem to define so much as plagiarism that a simple typo would make you a plagiarist. (no need for a reply) – xaxxon Feb 28 '17 at 9:04

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