I've noticed a few cases of plagiarism within the Proof Of Brain community over the past couple of days. One of them was a cross-post after further inspection but the other was blatant and after commenting there were edits made (didn't really help at all).
Surprisingly, or maybe not, the same author has posted again after I commented and yet again it's blatant plagiarism with shoddy attempts to differentiate the content from its origins.
I'm not going to share the post or the author, I just wanted to make a brief post here to bring up the fact that it's present and it won't be the last case. Be vigilant and responsible with your votes.
My thoughts on the matter are that we will more than likely see a majority of plagiarised posts here in POB that are informational articles in nature. We've had multiple discussions about how the name of the community can give a sense that intelligence is the focus. This is not necessarily the case.
I've shared this before but I think we need to come up with a better copypasta since I would rather not quote the STEEM bluepaper all the time;
Proof of Brain: Smart and Social Tokens
Token systems that reward users as they contribute to a token-based community system require mechanisms for establishing and evaluating content’s social value: we call this “Proof-of-Brain.”
The POB tag can ultimately be used on any post, how it's received and appreciated is another story. The community is going to determine what they want to see more of and what they do not. I think we can all agree that we don't want to see content stolen from others.
Use your head, don't steal other people's shit, point out other people who are for the community.
I've not been downvoting any content, just commenting with links to the copied posts so others can see clearly. No idea what the next steps would be, I'm not the police.
If you have the time, please drop by to this post by @madstacks. He's sharing some ideas about tags here on POB and I think it's something important to discuss and get involved with.
Thank you. I think I see the one you're referring to. I see you commented. I am going to go ahead and downvote them. I am going to need people to point these out. There will be much more of this to deal with, but if we are vigilant and nip it in the bud, we can keep it under control.
Not a problem, no thanks necessary. It'll take regular reminders to try and get people on the same page about it but I think it'll make a big difference if people are getting called out for it early on. I dropped a comment onto @lamboreviews post and he changed the content to something they wrote themselves which is good to see.
Yes I am sure together we can get things together for sure.
I just muted about 10 accounts (one of them is who you are talking about I think). They all posted about 7 hours ago, all joined April 2021 thru leo finance, none of them were following anyone, multiple daily posts, etc.
They just seem a little suspicious.
I know exactly the ones you're talking about lol. I forgot there was a mute button, time to get out the metaphorical sock and duct tape.
Yeah, I was looking for POB posts to curate this morning and saw all these new names. I thought, wow, this is growing fast. Then I noticed how close together they posted and when I looked at their profile pages they were all eerily similar. I don't have enough VP for all of them. :)
I need to find this mute button. I think I know where it is, but never used before. I did a fast scoop this morning too and saw some new names, I even voted on one that looked like a true writer, just to find out that is was a scam of brain. I'll be looking out for this now.
It is usually on their profile page somewhere. I am not sure if it works across platforms though.
Bravo for the vigilence, @calumam!
Make sure you are doing the same!
I might never do it. Because I have a generative focus on creating content and only vote for those articles that seem genuine. If they're not, I am sure someone will notice. On the other side, my health requires 80% of my daily attention. So time is very limited and highly important to me.
That is very fair. I think it's easy enough to see the disingenuous posts, just sometimes they can be deceiving. You just go with your own flow and keep on keeping on.
Downvoting is there for this exact reason. If it is just content you don’t like then I don’t vote on it, but if it’s blatant stealing, hit that downvote button!
Very true, I think I've been too cautious with the downvote because of all the crazy shit that went on back in 2018. Gonna drop the pussy footing and will be downvoting the thieving motherfuckers lol.
Thanks for shouting out my post @calumam, appreciate that!
I guess the problem is the price of POB token has grown dare i say it way to fast, this platform is now extremely attractive for exploitation. I am also on the look out for plagiarism and will be glad to call out and downvote when I see it.
No worries mate, hopefully, it can get some more attention and we can discuss it further in the comments on your post.
You're not wrong but it's not the worst problem to have that's for sure. If anything it's a good way to see who is actually paying attention at this stage, I think that can be a valuable lesson.
I'm not going to share the post or the author
Well that doesn't help much, now does it? lol
pass it on to me....
I knew you'd be on here asking lol. I'm not against sharing them, just didn't want to on the post since it was really a call to everyone to be on the look out in general.
The person I was referring to in the post is @addictivecryptos
Ok, cheers!
Any good garden had many weeds pulled... all the time.
Wise words, this is very true. I'm not much of a gardener but I'm sure I've heard that some weeds are helpful for the ecosystem of a garden as well, everything has its place.
We have lots of smart people here. Can't somebody program a bot, that scans and googles posts for this kind of stuff, to comment a plagiarism warning?
That is definitely an option. There was a plagiarism bot on STEEM (not sure if it came over to Hive) called Cheetahbot. I have heard that it was becoming a nuisance because of cross-posting but I don't really see that as an issue. It's very handy having a comment below an article showing where it originated, especially before you use your vote.
I remember the Cheetahbot. No one wanted a comment from the Cheetahbot. 🤣🤣🤣 That could be an option and I don’t think I have seen it on Hive.
It’s so disappointing to hear such issues on the blockchain. I think @hivewatchers would be able to help out on such things
It's just one of those things that always happens no matter what community it is. I hope the community responds to it in the right way.
I hope so too .
I think the spam rate is alarming these days
Yep, this is happening really fast, and now many people will try to come here and think "Hey, let me just ctrl c this and here, my proof of brain!"
I also just saw 2 posts that looked weird, one of them you as called the person out, the other I had to take out my vote because later I saw that it was also plagiarism.
I'll be more careful when curating fro now on. Good thing you raised this issue here! I'll go check out the post from madstacks.
Keep posting and keep shining my good friend! Thank you for all your hard work!
Totally, the hilarity is that they probably could have used even less of their brain by writing something legit and off the top of their head. Changing words to fit others and make it still make sense must surely take more time than that.
Sadly it's nature of beast when rewards are focus. Lots of people constantly work8ng to stamp this out ..It's just a never ending constant battle.
I know, it's a story as old as time lol. It really just comes down to people being aware of what they are voting on and hopefully people who are plagiarising will see the platform as a lost cause and they'll move on. I'm not going to hold my breath though
I've been holding my breath for years - I live on hope! It's okay though - having fun whilst I'm here. I just laugh it off now - pay attention to the good and sigh at the bad and move on.