Martin
Active Member
My Statement
First the most important part - what they accuse me of in the above thread is true. There's no sense in denying it (nor would I have denied it in the first place). As this is an infringement on article 3.3 of the Membership Agreement, I deserve a warning and I fully expect to receive one.
As I said, what they accuse me of is true, and being in the middle of getting my degree in English Lit, no one has to tell me how severe this is. I know, believe me. I've been told many times, and I've even seen examples of people having to face the nasty consequences of plagiarism in the academic community.
This is not an academic community.
When I started writing my reviews, I wrote them solely for me. My plan was to capture my overal opinion of the book in a short and concise review, for personal use. At that point I saw no problem in taking lines and even paragraphs from existing reviews that matched my personal opinions, because I wasn't going to publish them in any way.
But I did, and I got lazy. Paraphrasing can be a very difficult and timeconsuming thing to do when you've got a pretty good review on your screen already. And it seemed to work out - these reviews expressed my views on the books excellently, and I wasn't making money off of them, or getting them graded, so I saw no harm in it. In fact, I resorted to other people's reviews for my following reviews, too. Call it laziness, call it stupidity, but it's there now. That said, as soon as the delete-option is working, I will remove all the reviews.
A blindingly stupid, but all in all innocent mistake, for which I sincerely apologise.
Now, the other side of this issue. When I logged on tonight, I saw the thread in Website Feedback. I ignored it at first, not knowing it was about me, and I skipped it to go read some other threads first. But there was no getting around it - the thread was about me.
I got scared, I really did. I'd seen that the Plagiarism-thread was 2 pages long and I knew I'd get slaughtered in it. And I did. I felt absolutely and utterly gutted after I read through it, and I was ready to log off and never return again. A few very friendly people kept me from doing that.
My point is this; I've received a very repeat very harsh treatment for what I did. Of course this should be addressed as soon as it's found out, but not like this. I've been publicly castigated and, well, humiliated for something that should have been dealt with in private, and I do resent that fact (But, it's my own fault; I brought this on myself, etc, etc.).
The first feeling that popped into my head after I read the thread was this; I felt like I'd been caught molesting a child. Publicly. I really did. And that was wholly unnecessary.
To sum up - I know I was wrong, and I sincerely apologise for that, but this wasn't completely fair.
This thread will be closed after I post this message, but if you want to continue expressing your feelings on this issue, feel free to contact me, or any of the mods, though PM's, as you should have in the first place.
Cheers
First the most important part - what they accuse me of in the above thread is true. There's no sense in denying it (nor would I have denied it in the first place). As this is an infringement on article 3.3 of the Membership Agreement, I deserve a warning and I fully expect to receive one.
As I said, what they accuse me of is true, and being in the middle of getting my degree in English Lit, no one has to tell me how severe this is. I know, believe me. I've been told many times, and I've even seen examples of people having to face the nasty consequences of plagiarism in the academic community.
This is not an academic community.
When I started writing my reviews, I wrote them solely for me. My plan was to capture my overal opinion of the book in a short and concise review, for personal use. At that point I saw no problem in taking lines and even paragraphs from existing reviews that matched my personal opinions, because I wasn't going to publish them in any way.
But I did, and I got lazy. Paraphrasing can be a very difficult and timeconsuming thing to do when you've got a pretty good review on your screen already. And it seemed to work out - these reviews expressed my views on the books excellently, and I wasn't making money off of them, or getting them graded, so I saw no harm in it. In fact, I resorted to other people's reviews for my following reviews, too. Call it laziness, call it stupidity, but it's there now. That said, as soon as the delete-option is working, I will remove all the reviews.
A blindingly stupid, but all in all innocent mistake, for which I sincerely apologise.
Now, the other side of this issue. When I logged on tonight, I saw the thread in Website Feedback. I ignored it at first, not knowing it was about me, and I skipped it to go read some other threads first. But there was no getting around it - the thread was about me.
I got scared, I really did. I'd seen that the Plagiarism-thread was 2 pages long and I knew I'd get slaughtered in it. And I did. I felt absolutely and utterly gutted after I read through it, and I was ready to log off and never return again. A few very friendly people kept me from doing that.
My point is this; I've received a very repeat very harsh treatment for what I did. Of course this should be addressed as soon as it's found out, but not like this. I've been publicly castigated and, well, humiliated for something that should have been dealt with in private, and I do resent that fact (But, it's my own fault; I brought this on myself, etc, etc.).
The first feeling that popped into my head after I read the thread was this; I felt like I'd been caught molesting a child. Publicly. I really did. And that was wholly unnecessary.
To sum up - I know I was wrong, and I sincerely apologise for that, but this wasn't completely fair.
This thread will be closed after I post this message, but if you want to continue expressing your feelings on this issue, feel free to contact me, or any of the mods, though PM's, as you should have in the first place.
Cheers