MattW
Administrator
Several months ago, PlanetCricket implemented a mandatory three month ban on people found to be committing plagiarism.
Unfortunately, while it has possibly deterred some people from plagiarising, we are still getting frequent complaints of it happening.
While the majority of this is from new members, who seemingly don't understand that you can't just take patches from other people and call them your own, there is still a few cases of more established members.
On reflection, some of the bans have been unnecessarily harsh considering circumstances. The punishments applying equally for acts of plagiarism, no matter how old.
To give a chance for reform and allow members to admit to things without being given a ban, there will be a month grace period for all past plagiarism offences.
Any new plagiarism committed within this month will still be subjected to the 3 month ban rule, however it is an opportunity for people to check through their downloads, and have plagiarised content either removed, or backdated permission given.
The process for this will be relatively simple, members will look through their download or graphics threads and try and see that all of it was made by them, or think back to times when they weren't completely honest about using other people's work, no matter how little, without permission.
Then, you can contact the maker of the things you took. They have the option of either granting you permission or asking you to take it down.
If they fail to respond within the month, then you are to assume there is no permission given, and to take the downloads down.
If permission is given, just edit the old post to mention this, and make a public apology about it. If it isn't, remove them and make a public apology.
After doing this, let staff know (they can see your edited/deleted posts, you can't really hide it). Your name will be placed on a list of people who removed/legitimised their downloads as part of this process.
The only repercussion of being on this list will be if you commit plagiarism in the future, in which case the 3 month ban will be doubled (to 6 months, if you can't count).
Following the grace period, there will be a crackdown on it by staff, in a bid to clean up what is left.
The month will start today and end at the end of the month.
Any questions, feel free to contact me or any other staff member,
PlanetCricket Forums.
Unfortunately, while it has possibly deterred some people from plagiarising, we are still getting frequent complaints of it happening.
While the majority of this is from new members, who seemingly don't understand that you can't just take patches from other people and call them your own, there is still a few cases of more established members.
On reflection, some of the bans have been unnecessarily harsh considering circumstances. The punishments applying equally for acts of plagiarism, no matter how old.
To give a chance for reform and allow members to admit to things without being given a ban, there will be a month grace period for all past plagiarism offences.
Any new plagiarism committed within this month will still be subjected to the 3 month ban rule, however it is an opportunity for people to check through their downloads, and have plagiarised content either removed, or backdated permission given.
The process for this will be relatively simple, members will look through their download or graphics threads and try and see that all of it was made by them, or think back to times when they weren't completely honest about using other people's work, no matter how little, without permission.
Then, you can contact the maker of the things you took. They have the option of either granting you permission or asking you to take it down.
If they fail to respond within the month, then you are to assume there is no permission given, and to take the downloads down.
If permission is given, just edit the old post to mention this, and make a public apology about it. If it isn't, remove them and make a public apology.
After doing this, let staff know (they can see your edited/deleted posts, you can't really hide it). Your name will be placed on a list of people who removed/legitimised their downloads as part of this process.
The only repercussion of being on this list will be if you commit plagiarism in the future, in which case the 3 month ban will be doubled (to 6 months, if you can't count).
Following the grace period, there will be a crackdown on it by staff, in a bid to clean up what is left.
The month will start today and end at the end of the month.
Any questions, feel free to contact me or any other staff member,
PlanetCricket Forums.
