Hi Friends,
Our apology for the delay in providing a detailed response to
ATTENTION-Against plagiarism!*WayToTrackWorkPg39. As Jot has mentioned previously, the moderation team has done the best to counter this massive plagiarism issue to the best of our ability and are working on better means as well. We have further discussed with our Admin Vijay in regards to this and wish to address the following!
Please read them in between the members' demands (in Red) .
1. Immediate temporary ban of post and quick review to determine whether the accusation of plagiarism against that author in that particular piece of writing rests true or not.
This will allow the accused enough time to defend themselves, and allow the MODs to determine whether the story was actually plagiarized or not.
A temporary ban will prevent any sort of communication with the particular member, including access to PM service by the member. This will be very inconvenient as the investigation involves communication with the member who is 'suspected' to have plagiarized. Furthermore, a temporary ban will hide all the posts, making the development team search for the individual chapters delaying the process in determining if the content is plagiarized or not! It would require the DTs to quote each post, while comparing the chapter to the original story from which it was plagiarized from. Secondly, it would not be ideal to ban a member prior to collecting solid evidences that confirm plagiarism. Any false accusation may only lead to unnecessary issues.
As a result, the FF DTs have opted to close down any suspected threads during the process of investigation with a notice of plagiarism so members are aware that the particular FF has been flagged by plagiarism. This would allow us to conduct a proper analysis and the appropriate measure would be taken as per IMP: Severe Penalty for Plagiarizing!.
2. Immediate ban and deletion of all post if accusation is proved to be correct along with a clear note in the subject line which conveys to the reader that the work is one of plagiarism. This will result in the username no longer being allowed to post their work, and will send a message to the rest of plagiarizers how strict IF is in dealing with this offence.
As per the new set of rules thread, IMP: Severe Penalty for Plagiarizing!, as soon as an FF gets reported the thread will be flagged by a note of plagiarism and closed off for investigation. If there is enough evidence that the member did indeed plagiarize, depending on the severity of plagiarism, their warning level will be raised (which have further restrictions associated with them as per new rules), the entire plagiarized content will be trashed and the member will be temporarily banned. However the second time a member violates, they will be subjected to permanent ban from India-forums.com
3. Noting down of IP address/Ban of IP address.
Stop people from making MIDs.
A new stringent system against MID has been implemented recently, which will allow us to identify MIDs. As such, any MIDs will be banned right away even if no posts are made from the ID. The original ID will also receive a warning level raise of 20% per violation, as per
India-Forums.com- Participation Guidelines & Rules. The tech team will slowly implement new features to betterment the system.
4. Letting readers know via sticky topic.
As a new reader to a story, nobody checks whether the author has a history of plagiarism, and may encourage the author to write (resulting in more plagiarism). By sticky-ing it for a few days or so, you let the readers of the forum know why the story was deleted and what the author had done. This is necessary as a lot of readers are left in the dark as to why a story has suddenly stopped - and continue to encourage the writer to plagiarize by asking for updates.
The new rules are rather stringent and would put the member in spot light to an extent that any reader of their plagiarized story would come to know immediately after, as we do post a notice of plagiarism and close the thread while the investigation is going on (with the title indicating the page of the plagiarism note). However, we may not be able to sticky any such threads as sticky option is used for other purposes!
5. If plagiarism done outside forum but by a member of the forum, then a strict reprimand be sent to the erring member with a WL increase and a warning that any repetition of such offences will lead to IP address ban. A lot of stories are plagiarized on Myedunia and other websites. By doing this, you will be stopping a lot of people from copying our work and posting it elsewhere.
The Development Team members are responsible for taking action against all violations occurring on India-forums.com, as such any member who plagiarizes another IF member's story that is posted on our platform (India-forums.com) either directly on IF or in another blog/ site will be subjected to the rules posted on IMP: Severe Penalty for Plagiarizing!, as long as there is SOLID EVIDENCE that the plagiarizer is a member of IF! The member(s) who report MUST take the RESPONSIBILITY of providing the evidences and the development team WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR FINDING ANY EVIDENCES.
6. Removal of newbie accounts within a month if there is no activity via posts through the account.
This is very necessary! A lot of newbies with 0 posts have been members for ages and only have accounts to silently stalk the MembersOnly posts, which is highly unfair to the writer. By doing this, you will encourage the members to participate in the forum, and you will weed out those potential plagiarizers who have no intention of ever commenting.
As per the latest upgrades to the system, any multiple ID with zero post will be permanently deleted. As for other newbie accounts, one general concern is some 'legit' members take time before they make their first post. However, we can surely consult Admin Vijay regarding having Newbie accounts that have remained inactive (including not having logged in) for prolonged period of time removed.
7. Copyright registering of their work by authors. his will be done to make the writers feel safe to post their work here on the Fan Fiction forum.
Copyright Registration has to be done by the author with a publisher. However, India-forums.com is a free entertainment portal and it would be the member's responsibility to register for copyright of their work! This will restrict the authors from posting their work on free online platforms.
8. A no copy code for every page, one which works across mediums of accessing IF.
The 'NOCOPY' right now is highly defective. We need one that actually works. Please look into this, ASAP.
A better No Copy feature has been requested and we hope to have Admin Vijay address and implement a new system to prevent Fanfictions and updates being stolen from India-forums.com.
Once again our apologies for the delay in addressing the concerns, however, we kindly request all our members to inform the Section DTs as soon as they come across a plagiarized story (which is applicable to the entire forum), so we can do the needful at the earliest of having the thread(s) locked off with a notice of plagiarism before its looked into.
Last but not the least, India-forums.com WILL NOT tolerate plagiarism at all, and if members continue to indulge in such activities, they will be dealt with severity, leading to permanent ban!
We hope to have everyone's understanding and continuous support.
Thank you,
Best Regards,
IF Development Team
Debate Mansion
Parineeti
Chakravarti Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan
