Banned @Rafaella Leon for copypasta plagiarism.

phew.

Ah. Wondered about that. Something about a style that was too flamboyant.

Nice pick up.

All kinds of people burnout or whatever and essentially ban themselves. Just indicates some lack of self-control, I guess. — praxis

Or they realize they actually have a real life to attend to. ;)

Although now with the lockdowns, it's becoming hard to tell.

Banned Rafaella Leon for copypasta plagiarism. — Baden

Well, one could of course quote Olavo De Carvalho. I guess that wouldn't be a reason to be banned. (If it would, I'm really starting to worry about this site).

And we might get an heated debate about current Brazilian politics! That might be educative.

(Here's the site of Olavo de Carvalho , from which I assume Raffaella copied at least one message of her.)

Pretty sure it wasn't merely a quote and that Rafaella attempted to pass off others work as his own.

That's why the "one could of course quote..."

As the site guidelines say:

Don't start a new discussion unless you are:

a) Genuinely interested in the topic you've begun and are willing to engage those who engage you.

b) Able to write a thoughtful OP of reasonable length that illustrates this interest, and to provide arguments for any position you intend to advocate.

c) Capable of writing a decent title that accurately and concisely describes the content of your OP.

I am taking it as an obvious standard rule that we can quote others, because that applies to all writing, including academic writing. I would be The only one particular unsolved puzzle of all times is whether Shakespeare was the real author of all his works.

I had actually suspected plagiarism and had googled some of his comments to see if I could get a hit. I wasn't successful, but looks like others were.

I had actually suspected plagiarism and had googled some of his comments to see if I could get a hit. I wasn't successful, but looks like others were

Same for me, just checking out of curiosity.

No wonder the ops looked like a bunch of random sentences copied from various different places and tossed together into a salad.

I hear there's plagiarism bots which University professors use. Having been around for some time now, I imagine they're quite sophisticated, and have access to God knows what, using who knows what comparison techniques. As a flock, the less we know, the better. I'm sure Michael's got that all worked out though.

Yes, obviously you can quote. But you cannot plagiarise numerous OPs in their entirety from (as we've discovered now) more than one author, as Rafaella did. The distinction should be very clear.

(Another theory we have now is that she was one of those other authors and "Rafaella" was the fake identity. If so, hoist by his/her own petard. You cannot copypasta, even your own stuff, if it's already posted elsewhere. But for that, if we were aware, you would just get a warning.)

I hear there's plagiarism bots which University professors use. — Metaphysician Undercover

I used to teach at university and, yes, we have our means. :naughty:

I'm pretty sure that "Rafaella Leon" was just a pseudonym to the current banned user "Paulo Kogos" - the anarcho-capitalist guy - who is a extreme right-winged "philosopher" here in Brazil. He's a fervent supporter of Olavo de Carvalho and he normally quotes and practically plagiarize his writtings.

Thanks for the reply, Baden. This seems the case and may indeed be right, the signs are all there (lot's of OP's, not much interaction/defending your opinion after starting an OP and so).

Perhaps one sentence about this in the Guidelines would perhaps be good, if it leads to banning. There can be those that don't know as many of us do from the university, that copying text directly without quoting is serious cheating. Or at least in the How to write an OP, if the actual guidelines are kept short (which also is good).

OK. Adjusted to:

d) Starting an original topic, i.e. a similar discussion is not already active (and not a copypasta from elsewhere on the internet. Plagiarists will be banned). — Baden

Don't remember that guy. Was that the username?

Don't remember that guy. Was that the username? — Baden

It was @Scott the Woz

Ah yeah, I remember him now. Could be. Although email and IP are different.

Ah yeah, I remember him now. Could be. Although email and IP are different. — Baden

The guy - Paulo Kogos - is not a dumb one, but he appears more to be a conspiracy theorist than a philosopher. I think that if he was invested in the forum, he probably would create a different e-mail and maybe hide his IP (?).

Well, if it was him or not, both are banned, so yeah. It's a win to me.

:up:

I used to teach at university and, yes, we have our means. — Baden

On various occasions I have done searches for various phrases of at least several words, and it is surprising how often a particular phrase is--not totally but remarkably--unique. Take for example, "a particular phrase is--not totally but remarkably--unique" has not appeared in this or (probably) the previous PF. In all the world, it may not have appeared more than a few times.

So students who plagiarize experts in very well-plowed fields really don't stand a chance, sometimes even without bots.

I've previously spotted a few instances of what I now know is called 'copypasta' (great word by the way) but didn't realise it was outside the ToS - I'll report any in future.

:up:

Just remember, however, when suspecting someone of plagiarism, quod verum est, meum est.

Infinite monkey theory is the best defense against an accusation of plagiarism. I'm just a monkey typing random stuff, so what if it happened to be the same as someone else. Seat a bunch of monkeys at type writers, and eventually they'll find your phrase. I think it's a form of the principle of plenitude.

Randall Munroe, the author of the xkcd webcomic did a calculation on how many unique english language tweets there are. According to the calculation the answer is "more than you could possibly imagine".

Banned @Zenny for refusing moderation by repeatedly posting off-topic posts in the religion thread.