China rights 'worsen with Games'

The Amnesty site makes for compelling reading :

Internet censorship in ChinaIn China, US corporations such as Yahoo! (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), and Google (GOOG) are contributing to human rights violations, directly or indirectly. Learn more and take action to demand these companies stop aiding repression, censorship, and violation of fundamental freedoms.

JN Designz, this rarely happens, but even though I originally thought this story was Good Stuff, I now have some questions. Did you reveal all your sources? I also wanted to confirm that you actually witnessed the event, or that you added information that you research on your own.

Sorry, I am with Cao here! 

JN Designz, this rarely happens, but even though I originally thought this story was Good Stuff, I now have some questions.  Oops... did you write any of this on your own?  Or was it the BBC?

I saw your comment.

Yeah, exactly, I really need some guidance.

OK, Rene, a couple of notes here.

1. If someone is copying and pasting or doing something else not acceptable by normal ethical or legal standards, and not acceptable to the community here, how do you propose that they get the message without someone telling them? Psychic messages in their Cheerios?

2. Mentoring and teaching should be the job of the paid stff members. Period. Catching these things, and teaching others should be the job of the paid editors. So if they are GS'ing things that are copied and pasted, or have other problems, what do you think the community should do? Just go along with it?

3. As you can see, Paschen has mentored this new member, privately.

4. How do you personally feel about being a member of a site that in discussion elsewhere is often called "Now Plagarized" or "Now Pirated." I don't like that--but it's often very true. How do you propose that this image that's developing be changed unless copy and paste is stopped?

Perhaps you could open up a Forum topic for us to discuss how we feel about copy and paste (again) and how it should be handled.

Frankly, I think it needs to be handled by the paid staff members. The membership shouldn't have to be the ones catching 90% at least of what's pirated, and then having to deal with the flack from the person who did it, now and then someone else, and the flack from the staff, who tend to get back at people who catch this stuff. The membership shouldn't have to be the ones in the middle and catching the crap. It takes guts to step out as some have done here to try and make this a better place.

One more note--how do you feel about staff favorites who copy and paste what's outside the highlight box and still get GS flags from every staff editor around? When it looks like there's original commentary but every single thing in the post is copied, even if part isn't attributed? How do you feel about staff favs who post a couple of highlight boxes and in between, in the white space, have "commentary" but that commentary is pirated from another story that isn't attributed?

I have edited my post.

Thanks a lot for your comment.

Rob, while I'm sorry that this upsets you personally, I have some issues with this stance.

First, you staff editors are getting *paid* to edit. That's your job.

Second, it's actually very easy to pick up the copy and paste stuff. Really. Now, answer this--why is it that members can easily pick it up but you say that you don't have the time?

Here's how you pick it up, since you say that it's just too burdensome a job.

First, if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true. If someone new comes along and suddenly is publishing polished prose that's very professional, look again. Click a link to see how much is copied.

Look at the person's profile. Look at what they present as a bio, look at how they present it, and if you read around the site, look at how people comment. If their prose in the post sounds different from their bio and comments --that's a clue!

Go to the member page and look at the bio. Look at their comments. They're all right there, and you can click on a string of comments.

Does the piece "sound" professional? Professional journalism has a distinct sound. And, often some MSM actually have their own sound, a different beat to the rhythm.

Before GS'ing something that sounds oh-so-good, just check things out. It doesn't take but maybe 2 or 3 minutes, and that's *if* you have to go outside the site to check. Usually, just looking at the member's bio and prior comments gives you enough info to tell you if you need to go outside to check on it.

No, you don't have to check out every news site in the world. You can check anything out in seconds by using Google. Just copy a small section of the post from somewhere in the article (I don't use the lead-in sentence because many shrewd copyists will alter the first couple of sentences slightly) and slap it into a Google search box in quotes.  

As I said in my comments to Rene, members shouldn't have to be carrying the load on this--and catching the *crud* that ensues. Even worse than the crud from the offender is the payback from staff. Ya'll tend to get very upset when people find members who are plagiarizing and call them on it. Once upon a time you had some good GEs who basically did a lot of your job for you. That era's long since past.

BTW, how come someone who is now routinely copying-and-pasting the material outside the highlight box, in the area that's supposed to be original copy, is now routinely getting multiple GS flags from many staff editors? While you're upset because people are saying "paid staff needs to edit", many good NP members tend to get upset because plagiarized stuff will shoot ahead original material they've worked hard on, just about every time.

And as I told Rene, I don't really like being in discussions about CJ, or citizen involvement, and hearing NP repeatedly referred to as "Now Plagiarized" or "Now Pirated." Is that how you want your brand to be known? There are people out there watching. Really.

I have edited my post.

It would be nice if you could have a view on it and comment it again.

Thank you.

Thanks for putting in the effort and changing your post! If you have any problems in the future, please let me know!

Good for you! Anyone can make a mistake, but owning up to it and improving is what's important in the long run.