Question

The copy paste from yahoo/wikianswers syndrome.
What shall we do about it?

Answer 1

the copy-paste questions should laso be broguht up..i mean the people who when they dont get an answer (i mean when people try to help but dont give answer) they'll just keep reposting the question until someone does :/

Answer 2

Yeah , infact I've come across many questions which were similar to yahoo/wiki queries. This might help in boosting their smart score but is unfair to those who genuinly remain involved with OS.
Hopefully mods would come up with a solution soon.

Answer 3

I doubt anything can easily be done about it :/

Answer 4

yeahh we cant just suspend and ip ban them..theyll just keep coming back :/ this is a tricky problem

Answer 5

No, it's that we have to googl eevery problem :/

Answer 6

Wait, I have the perfect troll answer.

Answer 7

Make (xxx) mod and they will deal with it! lool

Answer 8

Yeah indeed a tricky one. But then suspension and ip ban , might bring good results as @lgbasallote said.

Answer 9

So, we are just going to ban veryone? :S

Answer 10

But suspension has to be framed such that it averts the future default possibility.

Answer 11

but the user inky has in mind has been suspended twice already

Answer 12

I don't have any user in mind, LOL. Wait, you mean Chad?

Answer 13

My problem more important than anjali problem and I bumpy bumpy muahahah

Answer 14

@inkyvoyd thats what I mentioned , that just banning wont help, so banning or any other such alternative has to be designed/framed in such a manner so that the resulting punishment would inflict some kind of penalty on the user.

Answer 15

And yea this reloading is really getting on my nerves now :-(

Answer 16

maybe, each time you cheaty cheaty, we take a level off?

Answer 17

huh ? lol

Answer 18

I mean, every time you cheat, admins or something could reduce an entire level from your smart score for cheating

Answer 19

Cheating should be reflected in one's smart score.

Answer 20

But then tracking each person would be difficult.

Answer 21

Exactly.

Answer 22

what abt a suspension will automatically decrease your level?

Answer 23

also a legit abuse report

Answer 24

So some general way , which could track the defaulters

Answer 25

Well, only manual suspensions

Answer 26

@cshalvey once told me about the automated suspension system from getting reported, but, someone (as I predicted) once got unfairly banned from abuse of it.

Answer 27

haha i think i know who you mean ;p

Answer 28

grr?

Answer 29

uhhh no..grr was the one i meant that you meant that copu pastes yahoo answers..the one who got banned for that..is a different person

Answer 30

I don't know that person...

Answer 31

Hey everyone - I see your point here @lgbasallote regarding the devaluing of people's contributions by simply copying and pasting from outside sources. Of course, sometimes this is perfectly acceptable (definitions for example) - the issue arises when that is the *only* communication between an asker and answerer.

I will look into this and let you know our proposed solution when we come up with one, thank you all for bringing this up though - much appreciated!

Answer 32

I don't see any problem with referencing an outside source, if it's a good explanation. Heck, often times I read some source and know that I can't explain it any better. I do prefer giving a link to actually copying and pasting the text though.

Or is that the kind of thing you're even talking about?

Answer 33

hmmm i sometimes link myself too :p hahaha

Answer 34

But, what we're seeing is just an answerer googling the question, and giving the exact answer from yahoo answers. No thought involved, no citation involved. Maybe you should add a clause to the CoC

Answer 35

For example, we used to think this one 13 year old knew calculus, but it turns out he just knew how to use google more than us..

Answer 36

I mean, it could be a plagiarism issue... but if they're helping people, I don't see the problem, besides that.

Answer 37

Besides getting credit from blatant plagiarism?

Answer 38

They can answer snipe with it, and they get medals even from experienced askers because they are pre-written and faster and complete...

Answer 39

tbh, the reason I made this post was because I was raging over answer sniping with yahoo answers.

Answer 40

Haha well. You do rage about answer sniping a lot. You have a strong sense of justice.

Answer 41

No, I just want to get to 70 :/

Answer 42

It never bothered me that much because I don't care that much about medals =/
But I can see how it's annoying and morally questionable.

Answer 43

But, what makes me rage is when someone that's a higher level than me gets a medal for copy paste sniping.

Answer 44

It's alright if they snipe @lgbasallote , because he's a scumbag. But they can't snipe me, i'm *perfect*!

Answer 45

Are there that many questions that can be answered via google?

Answer 46

lol

Answer 47

Well, let's just say that every online coursework question that I didn't know and cheated on was googled.

Answer 48

with an 80% success rate

Answer 49

In fact, the only reason that people can tell half the time when it's copy pasted is because the answer looks a little funny.

Answer 50

Why don't more teachers make up their own problems? It's totally not hard. Heck, change the numbers and that'll stump 95% of googlers.

Answer 51

Well, I'll explain.

Answer 52

Online coursework is multiple choice mostly. In fact, it's a monopoly.

Answer 53

ONly a few major companies are responsible for giving out these "test problems"

Answer 54

The companies rarely change their problems. IN any case, a gogle search gives the almost (or exact) same question, yet it could be used in two different commercial courses.

Answer 55

This phenomena actually happens in Asia much worse than in the US. But for online work, the US is pretty bad.

Answer 56

If a course for a certain subject has maybe 200 questions associated with it, and only 25 cheaters, that's only 8 questions per cheater. Most answerers don't realize they are helping on a test, because some homework is multiple choice.

Answer 57

This problem has been showing up rather a lot lately and the mods have been taking an exceedingly dim view of it. I and a couple other mods I could mention but won't have handed out a few of the harsher suspensions given on OpenStudy for it. It is really remarkable for us to hand out suspensions for an offense which is technically not covered by the Code of Conduct, although adding it has certainly been proposed.

Thus far, the harsh suspensions have been satisfactory and effective - if you see a user copying and pasting without citing, report abuse with that in the explanation box and we will deal with it accordingly.

Answer 58

And you might think 25 cheaters is a lot. It isn't. If that company provides 3 different courses to other educational companies, you could easily have 20-50 classes at any one point in time that all use that knowledge base of 200 questions.
FInally, the compnaies never change the questions. The questions that I've cheated on are 5 years old sometimes. Just tells you something... @SmoothMath

Answer 59

We try to give askers as well as answerers the benefit of the doubt, but I think as much blame lies with people who post questions just for answers as with people who copy and paste answers from other sources.

Answer 60

The problem with the CoC is that when it gets too long, no one reads it :S

Answer 61

@cshalvey has put it very well- " Of course, sometimes this is perfectly acceptable (definitions for example) - the issue arises when that is the *only* communication between an asker and answerer. "
Indeed copy-paste of answers is not as such bad , because many a times we come across answers which are much better or equally good as our answers. So whats the point of writing the same thing and wasting time , because during that "writing" time , the user can answer some other question as well. You see , opportunity cost rises.
What I have posted in my previous replies is regarding "questions" being copied from yahoo/wiki. Many people at OS do not follow the "COC" honestly and genuinely. Taking OS just like any other social-networking site , all they do is "copy-paste" questions, so as to boost their smart score and thereby also remain active at OS. That"s really sad , as it completely contradicts the foundation of OS , where people from all over the world, work so diligently.