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okay, I while back I wrote a Magnolia review and was much annoyed to see that the koala had already posted one that seemed remarkably similar... On looking through this mysterious poster's reviews the range of language and variance in styles gave rise to a number of concerns. So I investigated....
Using the google search and picking out key phrases in each review I was able to source almost every review to a different film site, for anyone who was piiped to the FAD post here's a few examples:
Magnolia review:
http://www.gary.gray.clara.net/reviews/magnolia.htm
Romeo must die:
http://www.mightybeastman.homestead.com/files/RomeoMustDie.htm
Both of these reviews among others, Erin Brockivich, American Beauty and Three Kings, are written by a person named Joseph C Tucker, who happens to live in America, wonder why he's trying to win region 2 DVDs?
The Gladiator Review can be found at:
http://www.apnaguide.com/review/22719
This one is written by one Rahul, or loverboy4u as his user name appears to be.
Finally a third alias enters the fray, one Norman Chan, author of the Black and White review:
http://www.game-guru.net/reviews/blackandwhite/index.shtml
Maybe this is a mean, vindictive thing to do but plagiarism should not be tolerated. Some people have spent a long time writing intelligently, only to be deprived by someone else who copies the reviews of an exceptionally talented reveiwer who lives in America. This copying appears to be systematic and is entirely deplorable.
Atomic_Koala, if you live in America and do this for a bit of a laugh, or write at different sites under different aliases then hey, I'll buy you a DVD myself to make up. If you are someone who trawls the net looking for other people's reviews then never underestimate the power of the google search engine and try not to vary the language so much between the masterpiece of the Billy Elliot review and the slightly dodgy prose of the Gladiator review. Oh yeah, and never refer to your 'editor' telling you to finish a review... bit of a give away...
Using the google search and picking out key phrases in each review I was able to source almost every review to a different film site, for anyone who was piiped to the FAD post here's a few examples:
Magnolia review:
http://www.gary.gray.clara.net/reviews/magnolia.htm
Romeo must die:
http://www.mightybeastman.homestead.com/files/RomeoMustDie.htm
Both of these reviews among others, Erin Brockivich, American Beauty and Three Kings, are written by a person named Joseph C Tucker, who happens to live in America, wonder why he's trying to win region 2 DVDs?
The Gladiator Review can be found at:
http://www.apnaguide.com/review/22719
This one is written by one Rahul, or loverboy4u as his user name appears to be.
Finally a third alias enters the fray, one Norman Chan, author of the Black and White review:
http://www.game-guru.net/reviews/blackandwhite/index.shtml
Maybe this is a mean, vindictive thing to do but plagiarism should not be tolerated. Some people have spent a long time writing intelligently, only to be deprived by someone else who copies the reviews of an exceptionally talented reveiwer who lives in America. This copying appears to be systematic and is entirely deplorable.
Atomic_Koala, if you live in America and do this for a bit of a laugh, or write at different sites under different aliases then hey, I'll buy you a DVD myself to make up. If you are someone who trawls the net looking for other people's reviews then never underestimate the power of the google search engine and try not to vary the language so much between the masterpiece of the Billy Elliot review and the slightly dodgy prose of the Gladiator review. Oh yeah, and never refer to your 'editor' telling you to finish a review... bit of a give away...
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Atomic Koala tut, tut. He should be locked under the stairs with no tea although barring his ISP and unplugging his playstation would hurt more.
Seriously plagarism is a pain in the a**e. It denies the real writer his/her credit and is unfair competition for people who are posting their own reviews. Besides all of which there is an element of trust that has been violated. Through peoples reviews and other posts you get to hear their "voice" without attempting to sound too crit lit about it. You build up a mental picture of the person posting the reviews through what they say. To then discover it isn't their work but the hard work of some bloke in the states is a violation of trust.
One of the joys of the net is you can say what you like. Nobody knows who you are, what you look like, your history etc. It doesn't have the same social obligations as the "real world". This doesn't mean that there are no obligations. Plagarism is lazy and decietful.
On a more positive note for those writing reviews - which in my experience takes bloody ages there are a couple of brilliant sites to help you "legitimately" with your endeavours. www.imdb.com and mrshowbiz.com are search engines with everything the keen movie buff would want to know on them.
My only word of warning is give it a bit of time between researching using these search engines and starting to write your own reviews. I've found myself picking up turns of phrase or expressions that aren't mine. If you have a brain sponge like qualities give it a bit of time for your own voice to filter that of what you've just read.
I personally enjoy writing reviews. It helps to clarify my thoughts and feelings on what I've just seen. There will always be those that go for the lazy options. Do it for yourself.
Seriously plagarism is a pain in the a**e. It denies the real writer his/her credit and is unfair competition for people who are posting their own reviews. Besides all of which there is an element of trust that has been violated. Through peoples reviews and other posts you get to hear their "voice" without attempting to sound too crit lit about it. You build up a mental picture of the person posting the reviews through what they say. To then discover it isn't their work but the hard work of some bloke in the states is a violation of trust.
One of the joys of the net is you can say what you like. Nobody knows who you are, what you look like, your history etc. It doesn't have the same social obligations as the "real world". This doesn't mean that there are no obligations. Plagarism is lazy and decietful.
On a more positive note for those writing reviews - which in my experience takes bloody ages there are a couple of brilliant sites to help you "legitimately" with your endeavours. www.imdb.com and mrshowbiz.com are search engines with everything the keen movie buff would want to know on them.
My only word of warning is give it a bit of time between researching using these search engines and starting to write your own reviews. I've found myself picking up turns of phrase or expressions that aren't mine. If you have a brain sponge like qualities give it a bit of time for your own voice to filter that of what you've just read.
I personally enjoy writing reviews. It helps to clarify my thoughts and feelings on what I've just seen. There will always be those that go for the lazy options. Do it for yourself.
Atomic Kaola has been banned for this already
I'll be honest with you now, some of that stuff you just mentioned I don't have a clue what your on about. But anyways I see what you mean, last week some bloke copied a review from another site and didn't change a single word of it and they weren't even banned which was a disappointment.
I just took a look at your reviews and found them to be of a very high quality and when people like AK come along with a copied review and win when someone like yourself has spent such a long time in writing it then I can't blaim you to be annoyed.
I find things like using '' with words involved to be a bit of a give away, you might use them to say something along the lines of. I found that the film 'Saving Private Ryan' was based too much around 'Blah Blah Blah' but then you still don't need to use them there.
I just took a look at your reviews and found them to be of a very high quality and when people like AK come along with a copied review and win when someone like yourself has spent such a long time in writing it then I can't blaim you to be annoyed.
I find things like using '' with words involved to be a bit of a give away, you might use them to say something along the lines of. I found that the film 'Saving Private Ryan' was based too much around 'Blah Blah Blah' but then you still don't need to use them there.
I did this because plagiarism annoys me a lot. When I see a copied review next to that of someone who has spent time think about and writing an analysis of a film, it makes me a little angry. Also the fact that you are not even acknowledging the real reviewer's efforts. If I point you to a site and say there are great reviews there then that's a wholly different thing, but if go to that site and copy them into this one solely to win a prize then I hardly think that is commendable.
Somewhere, someone has to draw the line. It seems that the koala has a list of sites, of reviewers even, that he frequently steals reviews off. That isn't right is it? Not only is illegal but it's completely unethical. Those are the people who deserve Atomic Koala's ill-gotten gains.
On a side issue; it didn't take long, it's not as if I spent an hour putting together a case. I read a post by Kitty who seems to write really interesting, intelligent things, so I read one of her reviews, of Billy Elliot, and saw Koala's beneath it. Just have a look at that review. It's one of the most prosey reviews I have ever seen. Complete with words like assiduously and protagonist that didn't appear in the Magnolia review. Now, when I write a review I tend to use the same style in each reveiw, I usually start with something snappy and end with something snappy, and inform in the middle. Koala's reviews vary enormously.
Anyways... being a private eye for 10 minutes beats writing an essay on the extent to which Louis XI was a Machiavellian 'Prince'.
Somewhere, someone has to draw the line. It seems that the koala has a list of sites, of reviewers even, that he frequently steals reviews off. That isn't right is it? Not only is illegal but it's completely unethical. Those are the people who deserve Atomic Koala's ill-gotten gains.
On a side issue; it didn't take long, it's not as if I spent an hour putting together a case. I read a post by Kitty who seems to write really interesting, intelligent things, so I read one of her reviews, of Billy Elliot, and saw Koala's beneath it. Just have a look at that review. It's one of the most prosey reviews I have ever seen. Complete with words like assiduously and protagonist that didn't appear in the Magnolia review. Now, when I write a review I tend to use the same style in each reveiw, I usually start with something snappy and end with something snappy, and inform in the middle. Koala's reviews vary enormously.
Anyways... being a private eye for 10 minutes beats writing an essay on the extent to which Louis XI was a Machiavellian 'Prince'.
I meant similar as in I had read it somewhere before
How intresting, but the thing I don't understand is how come the review was just like yours? Does that mean that you are also copying reviews? AS otherwise they wouldn't be the same, or is it just me misunderstanding?
Why would you go to these lengths to prove this though? There is nothing that can be done now and seems pointless to me, but nonetheless well done.
PI Happy
Why would you go to these lengths to prove this though? There is nothing that can be done now and seems pointless to me, but nonetheless well done.
PI Happy
okay, I while back I wrote a Magnolia review and was much annoyed to see that the koala had already posted one that seemed remarkably similar... On looking through this mysterious poster's reviews the range of language and variance in styles gave rise to a number of concerns. So I investigated....
Using the google search and picking out key phrases in each review I was able to source almost every review to a different film site, for anyone who was piiped to the FAD post here's a few examples:
Magnolia review:
http://www.gary.gray.clara.net/reviews/magnolia.htm
Romeo must die:
http://www.mightybeastman.homestead.com/files/RomeoMustDie.htm
Both of these reviews among others, Erin Brockivich, American Beauty and Three Kings, are written by a person named Joseph C Tucker, who happens to live in America, wonder why he's trying to win region 2 DVDs?
The Gladiator Review can be found at:
http://www.apnaguide.com/review/22719
This one is written by one Rahul, or loverboy4u as his user name appears to be.
Finally a third alias enters the fray, one Norman Chan, author of the Black and White review:
http://www.game-guru.net/reviews/blackandwhite/index.shtml
Maybe this is a mean, vindictive thing to do but plagiarism should not be tolerated. Some people have spent a long time writing intelligently, only to be deprived by someone else who copies the reviews of an exceptionally talented reveiwer who lives in America. This copying appears to be systematic and is entirely deplorable.
Atomic_Koala, if you live in America and do this for a bit of a laugh, or write at different sites under different aliases then hey, I'll buy you a DVD myself to make up. If you are someone who trawls the net looking for other people's reviews then never underestimate the power of the google search engine and try not to vary the language so much between the masterpiece of the Billy Elliot review and the slightly dodgy prose of the Gladiator review. Oh yeah, and never refer to your 'editor' telling you to finish a review... bit of a give away...
Using the google search and picking out key phrases in each review I was able to source almost every review to a different film site, for anyone who was piiped to the FAD post here's a few examples:
Magnolia review:
http://www.gary.gray.clara.net/reviews/magnolia.htm
Romeo must die:
http://www.mightybeastman.homestead.com/files/RomeoMustDie.htm
Both of these reviews among others, Erin Brockivich, American Beauty and Three Kings, are written by a person named Joseph C Tucker, who happens to live in America, wonder why he's trying to win region 2 DVDs?
The Gladiator Review can be found at:
http://www.apnaguide.com/review/22719
This one is written by one Rahul, or loverboy4u as his user name appears to be.
Finally a third alias enters the fray, one Norman Chan, author of the Black and White review:
http://www.game-guru.net/reviews/blackandwhite/index.shtml
Maybe this is a mean, vindictive thing to do but plagiarism should not be tolerated. Some people have spent a long time writing intelligently, only to be deprived by someone else who copies the reviews of an exceptionally talented reveiwer who lives in America. This copying appears to be systematic and is entirely deplorable.
Atomic_Koala, if you live in America and do this for a bit of a laugh, or write at different sites under different aliases then hey, I'll buy you a DVD myself to make up. If you are someone who trawls the net looking for other people's reviews then never underestimate the power of the google search engine and try not to vary the language so much between the masterpiece of the Billy Elliot review and the slightly dodgy prose of the Gladiator review. Oh yeah, and never refer to your 'editor' telling you to finish a review... bit of a give away...
Page: