Can you plagiarize yourself? Should we repost steemit articles after payout? Let's discuss.
I hate plagiarism with a passion.
I call "thieves" and I mean it to all those who steal other people's content from all medium.
As a writer, copywriter and content creator on steemit, I live by this motto:
[ I think @jesta said it in a comment a few weeks ago and it stuck with me. if i'm wrong please correct me in the comments and I will edit].
I do believe that when the interface and accent on steemit will be on HOW important content - GOOD content - is, we will finally see the boom we know it's coming.
We mobilized bots + the whole steemit community to fight plagiarism and that's amazing. Seeing how united and interested in solving this problem the community is makes me feel humbled even be part of it.
I am doing as much as I can. It's hard to always catch them, but it's sweet when we do. Why? Because one mistake is all it takes for the cheater to lose all credibility. With the new reputation system to come, that could be a costly mistake.
Still, one thing remains unclear:
Is reposting an old post of yours from steemit without any[ or barely any] change frowned upon? Not encouraged? Unethical?
I have thought about this and on the one hand, a good article should net you payout for a long time.
I see bloggers that put out good content day in day out for years before they gathered a following and old posts that are quality but had 1 comment in 2012, have now hundreds. This is similar to what happens on steemit right now. A lot of yet undiscovered content creators put out good articles and they get 2$ or even 100$ for posts that maybe will net them thousands in 2 years.
On a platform like wordpress, this happens organically, as new people discover someone they like they go back to read his old articles and leave comments and gather him "views" <--- this is basically money for them.
As it looks now, it's very very difficult cu to go back too much, and then if you do the post will get nothing if it's over 4 weeks old. Is that fair to the writer?
Should we/they be allowed to re-post?
One counter-argument would be that creating new content is the most important thing and as long as one can find a read old posts, the rewards are secondary. Another might be that this could lead to a lot of re-posts and laziness and would lower the quality of content.
Personally, I think this won't be the case... we're all hungry to write new stuff, like it or not.
Yet, no official position on this has yet to be taken and I believe it's important.
I am all for re=posting but again, I'm only asking the community and the devs, what do you guys and gals think?
Can one plagiarize himself? Is it cheating to re-post old posts? Should we be flagged or allowed to do it?
Comment below!
@razvanelulmarin It's impossible to plagiarize yourself. Reposting old content is the norm in the content creation industry especially while a popular figure is out on vacation.
New rules mean that after 30 days your content no longer generates revenue anyways which also mean's it's likely to be pruned and lost forever.
Therefore, wait 30 days and repost if it was popular.
It's your content, you made it and shared it. You didn't give it and you didn't sell it.
If any of the spam detection bots start seeing it as spam, like @anyx said, the community can always flag the misbehaving bot and it will be taken care of accordingly.
That's one of the issues for me, I don't want to be flagged for nothing. But it's true that the community has been very responsive to abuses.
Thank you for your input!
It's a pertinent question that I already have made to myself sometimes. And I did it once to try out, and a post that had 0$ on the first try, made 15$ on the second... although an edited a little bit the article but I think the right way to do a repost is to do an extend or revised post, where the author adds more content to the original one.
Agree. More content -> repost -> why not
I'm with @Brunopro - if you repost, add some more value to the original content. Reflect some on what you wrote, or include a new introduction, something like that. Kinda like what they do with many reprints for books.
I'd also add that a "this is a re=post" at the end or somewhere should make things clear. maybe even the link to the original post? Could help some confusion and preventing new people from stealing old content directly from steemit - i can see them do that. There's not limit to maliciousness...
I agree, I think it is okay but a good idea to revise and extend the post.
My outlook on this:
As of right now a lot of really good posts are going unnoticed. That is because the platform is still in its infancy and the "whales" are up-voting the things that they think will get more people to adopt Steemit. Good on them.
I don't see an issue with re-posting an old post. If that article has intrinsic value, and people recognize the value of your content, then you should be rewarded for that, regardless of it being "old". If you want to repost an article of yours that you feel is important when more people begin to flock the network. Then, by all means go ahead!
Just as somebody who writes a book can advertise their book even if they wrote it 10 years ago. Somebody may not have come across an article that they really like if it is buried in the archives of your blog.
I think the important thing to recognize here is that you should not plagiarize others work! And definitley don't spam an article over and over again!
Thank you for bringing this up! Good read! @razvanelulmarin
Unless they give back the edit and delete buttons, people will be forced to repost old content just to fix broken links and outdated information.
Reposting could be reduced if a tip button is added. If a user can post something once (and keep it updated, correct, and working), and continue to earn from it via tips, there will be no need for reposts. These old posts would become the showpiece of their blog, and reposting would just diminish their value.
If you want to reduce the incentive to repost, ask for the addition of a tip button and the ability to maintain old posts.
I think plagiarising yourself should be fine because, in the end, it is your content and you haven't stolen it from someone. While I do like the term, I don't think repurposing your content really is plagiarism (because of the aforementioned reason).
Repurposing content is an established technique used by content creators (albeit mostly done by converting content from one medium to another. For example, from article to video).
Diversifying the media through which you send your message can help you get a greater reach. The audience on each platform may not be following you on the other platform.
Also, while the reposted content is not new in general, it is still new to that platform. Hence, you populate that particular platform with new content, thus helping it sustain itself.
It may be hard to find time to create brand new content every time for each of the different platforms.
So reposting it in different places can be a great tool to maintain consistency and keep readers on those different platforms engaged, I feel. :)
Great perspective and I totally agree
What's the half-life of new readers? I suspect that in three months more than half the readers will have never seen anything that has been published to date. How will they get to see great content if it is not posted again?
I think it's reasonable to repost every time the Steem readership doubles.
Isn't that the original concept behind the Blog page? To organize and display your finest past articles, so new users can easily look through your past works and follow you if they like your style.
If not, it could be very easily. All that needs to happen is to let users select what gets displayed on their Blog page.
I've considered doing it with 2 of my articles that got virtually nothing due to the intense downtime and hacks two weeks ago (haven't done it so far). I'm not generally opposed to the principle.
thank you for your input!
I think we talk too much about monetizing the articles and why the bloggers must create an average revenue for they posts ... no re-post old content.
If you are a good content creator the people will follow you and that will repay in long term, if you think your work is underappreciated because you received 100 upvotes and didn't received a good payout, that is not a good start.
On a blog if 100 people see your post with a 2% click ads rate you will get an average of 0.10$ - 0.40$, depending on the kind of ads that you display. So think at this next time when you post with 200upvote receive a 200$ payout and continue to create new and original content. Don't be lazy .
that's a fair argument. Thank you for contributing to the discussion!
Yes i agree. Heres me Necroing an old post from a year ago.
But then again theres the point of you investing time and money in a post or video in my case and you just dont get any recognition. The investement seems pointless and is discouraging. So do i repost or just make something new and try again.
TIme and money are valuable assets.
Especially when it comes to making music: surely reposting makes sense, we all would not mind hearing your playing again! It's not just about the money. Some things just go the extra mile.
Hehe. One of my first comments on Steemit. I dont know how you found it. 😁
I don't know if it's unethical to anyone else but I do know I feel dirty when I engage in this kind of behavior. Good post. Up voted.
I do feel like i'm cheating but also feel that it's my content, isn't it?
A dilemma.
thank you!
This is a good question. Strangely, though, the answer is yes! I once got penalised on a university paper for doing just that - I used a section from a previous assignment that was also relevant for the current one. Although I protested, the logic was clear in that I had plagiarized existing content and tried to pass it off as new content.
However, unlike university, there's no real rule against doing that here. As a self-policing community we ought to vote with our feet on this one. Personally I don't see anything wrong with reposting old content, as long as the privilege is not abused by reshuffling old posts on a weekly basis at the expense of creating new content and adding further value to the network. As a kind of honour system, it would also be good if people made it clear when they're reposting, either in the title or perhaps as a new tag.
great answer. a honour system i can believe in :)