man-man Posted:

International Earth Destruction Advisory Board

The International Earth Destruction Advisory Board is an independent scientific institution which monitors the current status of the Earth and the number of times it has been destroyed. Also under their purview is the thorough research into, and categorisation of, the possible methods by which the Earth may be destroyed.

Topics: Geocide, Prevention, and Research

The idea is a total ripoff of Sam Hughes’s How to destroy the Earth site.

Hell, even the forum name and description is an exact, word-by-word copy of this page.

Sam Huges Posted:

International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board

The International Earth Destruction Advisory Board (IEDAB) is an independent scientific institution which monitors the current status of the Earth and the number of times it has been destroyed. In the event of the Earth being destroyed it will be the IEDAB’s job to relay this information to people who need to know and provide advice on how to proceed.

The IEDAB is funded entirely by charitable donations.

So, unless man-man is actually Mr. Sam Hughes, I think he has no right to submit this idea, let alone to win it.

Ideas are also flooding in awfully quickly within minutes, including the forum logo. Just yesterday, Illuminati Job Board was in the lead (a silly idea, but still… ) How are those entries submitted so quick? Who sent them in? This is suspicious. Perhaps we have another case to investigate.

Even without other illegal tactics, it’s still wrong. A parody is one thing, a copy is another. Does ForumWarz want to bumociate itself with idea theft? Are we allowed to steal jokes and submit them in the future?

Kittysan Posted:

A parody is one thing, a copy is another.

Taking it word for word is pretty bad

Vague?

man-man Posted:

International Earth Destruction Advisory Board

The International Earth Destruction Advisory Board is an independent scientific institution which monitors the current status of the Earth and the number of times it has been destroyed. Also under their purview is the thorough research into, and categorisation of, the possible methods by which the Earth may be destroyed.

Topics: Geocide, Prevention, and Research

Sam Huges Posted:

International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board

The International Earth Destruction Advisory Board (IEDAB) is an independent scientific institution which monitors the current status of the Earth and the number of times it has been destroyed. In the event of the Earth being destroyed it will be the IEDAB’s job to relay this information to people who need to know and provide advice on how to proceed.

The IEDAB is funded entirely by charitable donations.

Catt although Posted:

Taking it word for word is pretty bad

Plagiarism is a serious crime.

Sarcasm Inc Posted:

Yeah. There’s a big gap between parody and wholesale plagiarism.

I agree. Most of the forums in Forumwarz are a direct parody of something, but don’t lift text word for word, and some combine two ideas (like Scientology and Dragonball Z for the Church of Sayiantology)

Kittysan Posted:

I reported an idea theft, and now I’m a sore loser?

You’re also a hypocrite.

You claim to be good at submitting styles, but most of your styles are near carbon copies of styles that were already doing well for several days before mysteriously getting a surge of downvotes right before the forum gets posted.

...

As far as man-man’s submission goes, I think he could have done a better job at paraphrasing, but for the most part I don’t consider it plagiarism to keep good chunks of sentences intact. This is because paraphrasing can often obscure the reference, and if people don’t have a clear idea of what the parody is it’s not likely the idea will win, and if it does it’s not likely it’ll make a good forum.

That said though, I don’t like the idea of making hypothetical forums for existing organizations. Like with the “Arrogant Bastard Forums”, what happens if a real Arrogant Bastard Ale Forum comes into being? Even if the build preceded it, it’ll be seen as a poor parody at best, a cheesy ripoff at worst.

mterek Posted:

As far as man-man’s submission goes, I think he could have done a better job at paraphrasing, but for the most part I don’t consider it plagiarism to keep good chunks of sentences intact. This is because paraphrasing can often obscure the reference, and if people don’t have a clear idea of what the parody is it’s not likely the idea will win, and if it does it’s not likely it’ll make a good forum.

If something needs to be plagiarized in order to make it clear that it’s being parodied, then perhaps it’s not a good target for the parody in the first place. And yes, keeping significant portions is one form of plagiarism (there’s lots more than simple copying).

mterek Posted:

As far as man-man’s submission goes, I think he could have done a better job at paraphrasing, but for the most part I don’t consider it plagiarism to keep good chunks of sentences intact. This is because paraphrasing can often obscure the reference, and if people don’t have a clear idea of what the parody is it’s not likely the idea will win, and if it does it’s not likely it’ll make a good forum.

That said though, I don’t like the idea of making hypothetical forums for existing organizations. Like with the “Arrogant Bastard Forums”, what happens if a real Arrogant Bastard Ale Forum comes into being? Even if the build preceded it, it’ll be seen as a poor parody at best, a cheesy ripoff at worst.

I don’t think you know what paraphrasing is. And plagiarism is “keeping good chunks of sentences intact.”

One more thing. Your hypothetical situation is the exact opposite of this and not really comparable.

mterek Posted:

What I meant to say is, “I think some online plagiarism is alright if it’s clearly intended for parody”. Parody has to imitate the original to some degree to preserve the reference, but some parodies have to go further than others.

I’m only advocating this in general, though. I don’t think it applies to this case.

Maybe this is what you mean by “this case”, but this isn’t a parody of that site, it’s a copy.