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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The Unwritten Rules

There are many different types of bloggers in the blogosphere, particularly the J-blogosphere. Some people are funny, some are intellectual; some are serious, some are personal. Some are writers, some are pundits; some are original, some are linkers. I like to think that this blog is a combination of many types of blogs, but of all the types, I tend to be a linker. As many have noted over the past couple of days, as Jews we like to say:
Kol hamoer davar b'shem amro mevi geulah l'olam - All who say a matter in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world. (Megillah 15a - thanks to Ariella and Robert)
For whatever reason, I have always felt that this was one of the more important ideals in life. If a person is the originator of a thought or idea, it is only right to accord them the credit they are due. More importantly, it is disingenous to present an idea as if it is one's own... when in fact, the idea was taken from another. It is a plea for respect which one does not deserve.

In high school and in college, I would often run into a problem with my teachers. They would inform me that my extensive quoting of others was unacceptable, and that I needed to have more original material on my papers. I felt that the authors and writers had already said perfectly that which I would have liked to say, and there was no need to add to it; but the teachers felt I needed to do more of my 'own work'. I slowly learned to cut down on the quantity of material I was citing, and to expound in my own words on the ideas they presented - or even my own. This has manifested itself nicely on this blog, where I often cite a few lines from other bloggers or articles and then give my own take on the issues at hand.

This week was a dark one for the J-blogosphere. A noted anonymous J-blogger, DovBear, was found to have plagiarized a number of articles by another anonymous blogger going by the name DovWeasel. DovWeasel sent an e-mail to 53 e-mail addresses, including some 40 bloggers or so (some names, such as my own, were listed under 2 e-mail accounts). DovBear sent an apology to those bloggers within a few hours. The following is a list of some of the posts and events that took place in the days following, for those who wish to understand the full background:
Plagiarism is terrible and inexcusable. If an onymous blogger such as myself or many others would do such a thing, we would be risking our jobs. A college student would be failed or expelled. My friend was in a class last summer, and related a story to me. In his class, his professor announced that she would allow all those who plagiarized for their paper an opportunity to walk out of the class and drop it, or she would fail them. If I recall correctly, the first week, seven of twenty students were failed. The next week, four students walked out.

As bloggers, we do not have such stringent standards. Nobody's actions in the J-blogosphere have a terribly far-reaching impact in the real world. Nevertheless, we must have standards. Plagiarism cannot be accepted, it cannot be merely shrugged off. We cannot excuse or minimize deplorable acts of dishonesty that bespeak a lack of integrity. Our standards should be - nay, must be - much, much higher.*

One of the most troubling aspects of this incident were the responses that were seen across the J-blogosphere. Commenters all over, both on DovBear's blog and others, rallied not only to support DovBear but to go a step beyond even the forgiveness he asked for, actually minimizing what had been done and shrugging it off as if nothing had happened. Some went so far as to claim that there was no problem with his actions whatsoever, and attacked DovWeasel for bringing the charges to light in the first place.

These reactions are mind-boggling and saddening. While it is obvious to most reasonable bloggers and readers that plagiarism is terrible, it seems to be less obvious to some that obfusication, hypocrisy, and minimization are horrible as well. This is not something that can merely be shrugged off. This is not something that we just turn the other cheek to and pretend it never happened. As a community, we must both look out for each other and help keep an eye out both on and for one another.

"Forgive and forget", people like to say. We can always forgive, as long as a person is truly remorseful and is sure to never make the same mistake again. But we must never forget. We must always be aware of what we do and what goes on around us, and ensure that some things never happen again. We can forgive. But we cannot ever forget.

* Thanks to all those who helped with the writing of this post, including I'm Ha'aretz, PhD for that line specifically.

29 comments:

  1. The delay in the writing of this post was due to numerous factors, including my being away for the weekend, my desire to fine-tune what I wanted to write, and waiting for some of the dust to settle. This is not meant to kick the dust back up, so please do not turn this comments section into a war zone. This is not the blog for that - thanks in advance.

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  2. Ezzie wrote: "One of the most troubling aspects of this incident were the responses that were seen across the J-blogosphere. Commenters all over, both on DovBear's blog and others, rallied not only to support DovBear but to go a step beyond even the forgiveness he asked for, actually minimizing what had been done and shrugging it off as if nothing had happened. Some went so far as to claim that there was no problem with his actions whatsoever..."

    C:
    I think this is a very important point. When I was in college with other frum girls, handing in someone elses paper, having a family member/friend write a paper for you, and getting a paper online were common practices.
    It was so prevalent that few tried to hide it.
    I can't be sure this is rampant, but this was my experience and friends have shared similar experiences.
    Of course, this is not merely a problem in frum circles. In a few of my graduate classes where the majority is not frum, the teachers' require that all papers be submitted electronically through 'turnitin.com', a program designed to detect plagiarism. (In fact, it's quite possible that Dovweasel scanned in DovBear's posts to this or a similar program.)
    I would submit, though, that perhaps the rationalizations given by those in the frum world should be looked at more closely. For example, quite a few of my friends claimed to have gotten a heter from their rav/father to do this, since the purpose of school was to get a job to support their future husband, not to perfect writing skills.

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  3. My gosh, people are taking blogging way too seriously. The fact of the matter is that a blog is not a professional job, a college paper or a paid endeavor. Most of the time, unless it's a news or political blog where facts really do need to be backed up, most blogs are just personal peregrinations like diaries and while, it's good to cite and/or link to the source (for more information) if available, since blogs can be read by others who might not know that an idea is not the blogger's, people are just not going to be as careful about citing in diary-type meanderings. It's human nature. In this case, the approach of DovWeasel was pretty awful. If he felt something of his had been lifted, he should have just brought his issues to DovBear's attention in an email or something, assuming the best that the neglect was unintentional, and asked for the posts where citing was neglected to be updated with a citation. Something along those lines would have been a better approach, I think.

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  4. When I was in college with other frum girls, handing in someone elses paper, having a family member/friend write a paper for you, and getting a paper online were common practices.

    That's pretty bad if it's true. When I was in school, none of my friends, including myself, would have even dreamt of plagarizing a paper or having someone else write it for us. It was beyond the pale of the possible. Of course, I'm an older person from the secular world too, so maybe things are different nowadays.

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  5. C - Wow. That's pretty sad and pathetic. And to claim there's a heter is ridiculous - no self-respecting rav would ever claim such a thing.

    Liorah - I disagree, though that's somewhat off-topic. The main point here, however, is that it's not just "good to" link to sources; it is absolutely necessary unless the person is clearly noting that the thoughts are not their own. Passing off someone else's thoughts as one's own is terrible. You note that none of your friends would have done such a thing for a paper, which is great; I don't understand why the standards for a blog should be so much lower. It's the same concept.

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  6. He's only a blogger, true, but he benefits financially (minimally) from ads on the blog. So there is a little more at stake here.

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  7. I don't think that blogads are a big factor, though obviously they are. I don't think the gain someone gets is what's important; it's the action itself.

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  8. I was just pointing out that some blogs *are* a paid endeavor, and not trying to minimize plagiarism even if they aren't.

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  9. Understood. I was just clarifying my position, as the limited amount earned was used as an argument elsewhere.

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  10. Ezzie - I hear your points, and I'm with you on the seriousness of plagiarism. I think there is a major problem in the frum community concerning the attitude that these kinds of things are justifiable - to hear the excuses makes me kind of ill.

    I find it ironic that at a frum university many people I know attended, plagiarism and helping one another cheat on exams was par for the course, whereas in first the secular and then the Catholic universities where I attained my degrees, it was not contemplated by anyone I ever knew.

    However, Ezzie - your last paragraph is where you lose me a little bit. The severity and repetition of the language you use about never forgetting - - to me, that's terminology best reserved for things waaay more serious than blogging, or even stealing.

    I know your intention was to exhort us to all be very vigilant. I just don't think the wording really applies here. (I know it's not really the same, but) If someone robbed a bank, I would not be so concerned that we never forget. Plagiarism is criminal, but this almost implies that it's a crime against humanity, and that's going overboard. For me.

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  11. RM - Granted. It's one of the drawbacks of writing in a haze at 2am. :) But I think you summed up what I was trying to do well: We must be vigilant. We can't just say, "Oh, that's bad" and then pretend it didn't happen. We have to remember what happened and keep it filed away in our minds.

    Perhaps a better terminology would have been to focus on the remembering as opposed to the "never forgetting", which probably subconsciously makes people think of the Holocaust. That thought actually crossed my mind as I was finishing up, but I liked the way it sounded to me at the time.

    What happened was severe - on a blogging level. Not in the grand scheme of things.

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  12. Plagiarism is serious, whether it's in blogging or in classrooms or in the media. I was friendly with one of my professors who caught numerous students lifting whole essays and papers from the internet. And it was obvious that it wasn't their own work. The thing is, especially in the situation of school, the person who really is hurt is the one who doesn't do their own work and doesn't learn anything from it. And fine, you can say that students won't need those skills in the future, but when will they learn to think for themselves and process what they have learned? Those are the kind of skills that most people do need in life for jobs. And for students to learn that it is fine to steal the thoughts of others and pass it off as your own teaches the wrong values, and I don't understand how it could possibly be encouraged by any rabbi and/or parents who want the best for anyone.

    Ok, blogging is maybe not so serious, but it's the same principle. Stealing ideas and passing them off as your own is wrong. And because the blogging community has become such a big part of life, often reporting the news before other mediums, it's important that we hold ourselves to high standards. I don't know that I agree with how DovWeasel chose to expose DovBear, but I think it is important to get this issue out in the open and to hold people accountable for what they write and say is their own.

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  13. Actually, it's the reverse. I originally wrote oponymous (though it should have been eponymous), but when I checked it up it seems onymous is the write term. I'm referring to those who are NOT anonymous (such as myself).

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  14. Wow. Okay, so driving my friend at 5:15am so he can go to Bermuda after going to sleep at 4:15 has its drawbacks...

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  15. Wait, you mean, lack of sleep does have an effect on you? That's funny.

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  16. Only because I went to sleep. :P (I was wondering when someone would pick up on that...!)

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  17. I think intentions matter a great deal. If, as he claims, although it seems unlikely, he was simply "lazy" rather than consciously trying to pass off others' work as his own, it's not that bad. It is just a blog, after all.

    If he was really trying to pass others' work off as his own, that's pretty bad.

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  18. >I wouldn't accept it unless I found it in a real dictionary. I'll try to check it up in the OED.

    On the contrary; the OED is the ultimate descriptive dictionary. Citing it as an authority on what words ought to mean, rather than what they do mean is a complete inversion of that purpose of that august dictionary.

    The OED's chief method of word gathering has always been to scour the literature and see what words were used and how they were used and simply document it.

    If onymous is used and it has a meaning it most certainly is an English word! If it hasn't yet made the OED--I wouldn't know, I didn't look it up--that's meaningless. Because it will, as soon as OED takes notice of it and can prepare an entry.

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  19. Hey, S. - thanks! You learn something new every day...

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  20. I think what makes the blogging plagiarism still more serious is the fact that the readers are being misled.

    I think I may want to address some of the legal issues later on in a separate post, because this incident raises a great deal more questions that just DB's credibility.

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  21. If he was really trying to pass others' work off as his own, that's pretty bad.

    Which is what it sounds like especially from that quote on Jewschool or at least it brings up the possiblity that it was not so accidental

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  22. Ezzie,
    Great post and a sad situation. It's things like this that make me wonder where the Jblogosphere is headed.

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  23. This is for C:- you said ...."since the purpose of school was to get a job to support their future husband, not to perfect writing skills." hate to break it to you, but whatever job they would get, they wouldnt be supporting their husbands for to long, as any job they took, would, under NO circumstances accept plagirisim or the like in the work place. (If they worked in a Jewish place and that place accepted it, then they arent following the Torah, which states "dina d'malchuta, dina".

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  24. ezzie and kishke (but not miss. fred :))

    my unabridged websters international, 3rd ed., has an entry for the word.

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  25. "...hate to break it to you, but whatever job they would get, they wouldnt be supporting their husbands for to long, as any job they took, would, under NO circumstances accept plagirisim or the like in the work place."

    Again, just my personal experience, but most of my friends have gotten married and are working mostly in jewish environments in special ed, pt, ot, and speech therapy.
    They do seem to take their jobs seriously, and what little writing they have to do (progress reports etc.,) they do themselves. Somehow, they felt justified in plagiarizing/handing in work that was not their own in the process of getting there.

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  26. Plagiarizing lies is worse yet, showing two kinds of poor judgment.

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  27. I agree with you Ezzie. Good middot are shown by the little things as well as the big ones - and plagiarizing is stealing.

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