To the point of plagiarism, I have often thought of downloading a program like @Ken Anderson has which, when plagiarism is suspected, can take one to the actual original piece that it was copied from. As it stands, if my sense of curiosity does beg me to look around for an original piece, I type in a few key words to some search engine and see what comes up. Mind you, it isn’t the most accurate way to do things and I generally do not care if something is copied and pasted but when someone is suddenly writing a doctoral thesis when they were previously having difficulty drafting a single sentence, sometimes I do try to see where the article really came from so that I can read the entire piece and take note of the real author. To the other point of plagiarism, if someone copies someone else’s work and uses it to gain notoriety or money, that person needs to watch out for a law suit. That said, to simply paste an article that supports one’s own opinion on a forum such as this, if the original writer or piece where it came from is mentioned then I see no harm in it at all.
Now that I think about it, I may have posted entire articles one or two times when the source is behind a paywall that non-subscribers cannot access. But I include a lead-in explaining what I'm doing. Having worked in an industry where software piracy was rampant (even between the large players), I find the wide-spread plagiarism on the web to be somewhat infuriating. Almost every time you do a web search, the Results Page is full of site summaries that are identical. So many websites are nothing more than content stolen from others, and you have no idea who the originator of the information is so as to only click on their site and ignore the thieves.
I don't see anything wrong with always posting only your opinion, as long as you make it clear it's your opinion, and not necessarily fact. For example, starting sentences with "I think" or ending them with, IMO.
Well, you have all caught me. All those jokes and memes I post are not my original work. So now my secret is out.
I will refer to the internet to check spelling and be sure I have my facts straight, especially when it comes to something historical. If a subject is long and complex, I'll post part of what I find on the internet, and follow with a link. A professional writer could say it better than I in most cases. If a subject is strictly about myself or what my thoughts are, I myself will be an expert on that.
Yup. I bet 99% of the stuff I say is unsubstantiated opinion. Whether here or elsewhere, when someone puts forth a "fact," I figure the person is repeating what they have been told or what they've read. Not many of us have 1st hand observations on the things we put forth.
Yet when I look up OANN New Network there I get this: "One America News Network ( OANN ), also known as One America News ( OAN ), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable news and political opinion commentary channel..." I love objectivity. I wonder what they were before Trump ran for office.
As a piggy back on that, if one so chooses to plagiarize from Wikipedia, they really need to fact check what they’re stealing. Since anyone can come along and change the supposed facts, one may end up with a very false statement as a backup for their opinion which will make that person a very ill-informed thief. It is one thing to be ill-informed and something else to be a thief but to be both carries a label akin to that of an ignoramus.
But if you cite Wikipedia as a source, at least the reader can take that into consideration. When you just state something and don't say it is your opinion, it can be misleading. Some people have the talent, or a learned ability, for saying things in a convincing way. Even easier in writing.