TheAgitator.com
This Is Getting Annoying
Thursday, February 26th, 2009Now someone at Fark has plagiarized my headline on the Kathryn Johnston story.
NOTE: No, this isn’t that big of a deal. And if these people were linking back to my site, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. I do think it’s a little crappy, though, to take my headline word for word (and in this case, several blogs linked here mostly because they thought the headline was clever), then submit it to a social networking site as your own, linking to the source material, and never acknowledging who wrote the actual headline. Basically, the people submitting these stories are getting karma points for headlines someone else wrote.
Well, it was a good headline. :)
At least someone in that threat chastised the submitter for plagarizing your headline.
Imitation is the sincerest form of FLATTERY!
I really want to see the story of Hayne and West on the front page of these blogs.
It’s time people knew the dirty truth of our “justice system”.
While annoying, it is a great compliment, and maybe you can take some satisfaction that your great headline is drawing people into the story.
I get that it’s annoying, but in this case it really is because it’s a hell of a good headline.
They will even sell you a T-shirt of your headline Radley
http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/ordershirt.pl?IDLink=4234802
I think that if I were in Radley’s position, the most annoying and mind-boggling part would be the people who stole my headline and didn’t even link to my coverage of it. Though I guess then the submitter’s wouldn’t even be viewed as so clever.
“Money is the sincerest form of flattery.” - R.A. Heinlein
#8 Aresen
Really? I would have sworn that R.A. Heinlein would have said sex is the sincerest form of flattery!
Seriously though, Radley. I ran into the problem when I stumbled your expose of “Dr.” Michael West that it wanted a headline and I really couldn’t come up with anything more attention grabbing and concise that what you’d already written. I’d take it as a compliment, as well.
Exposure is good, Radley. As long as someone in the thread points out that the headline was stolen (which they did), it gives you exposure and generates interest.
Radley, is it really that big of a deal? Really?
This kinda reminds me of the fuss you made over someone writing your college days fraternity affiliations on your Wikipedia page. The more fuss you make, the worse it gets.
I understand that you’d like to get the traffic, but what you write isn’t news, and these social bookmarking sites are geared towards the original story.
Be glad anyone is reading your stuff to begin with!
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger Radley. Remember the college that PLAGIARIZED another college’s PLAGIARISM STATEMENT?
LMAO…Now that was a hoot!
what you write isn’t news
Bread and circuses are that way. Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
Radley, I see you license your work under a CC license, so technically your complaint shouldn’t be about the reuse of your material but rather the violation of the license which requires attribution among other stipulations.
I think the news aggregation sites should have plagiarism policies in place to reprimand or bar users that plagiarize or violate licensing agreements.
I use other peoples’ headlines fairly often. Sometimes, there’s no better take on the matter at hand.
I always put it in quotes, and you’ll never catch me doing it without a link. This is only obviously proper courtesy and protocol.
Fuckin’ disgusting slugs.
Maybe you should post your displeasure under the comments. Perhaps something like this might work:
Look, you low life scum sucking mass of malignant fecal fungi. Please stop stealing my headlines and grow a little web etiquette before I put out a contract on you and your family, wipe out your credit rating, and start rumors about your ties to Al Queda.
Being the upbeat personality that I am, I toned it down by leaving out the part where you anonymously report them as having a grow operation, but you could add it back in if you think it lacks teeth without it.
Aresen (#8) beat me to it.
@jet (#9) — c.f. “Notebooks of Lazarus Long” in “Time Enough For Love.”
Like I’ve always said, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Except when it’s plagiarism.
(Did I get it right?)
I submit your stuff to Fark on a fairly regular basis. If I can’t come up with a better headline, I use yours. But I tend to give credit.
The problem is you can’t submit a link twice, unless you know to add something like “?fark” at the end of the link. I think I actually submited this story when it was first posted, and it stayed red. So it could simply have been they couldn’t find a link to the original story that hadn’t already been submitted.
I put in a ‘Bad Subby’ with links as soon as I saw it. Hopefully mine and the other links drove some traffic back here.
#20 – Subby, that you?
Hey if you stopped making so much sense, maybe people would be less inclined to present your ides as though they were their own.
Rhayader.
Though your point is correct, I am giving it negative karma. I want Radley to keep on making sense.
“I always put it in quotes, and you’ll never catch me doing it without a link. This is only obviously proper courtesy and protocol.”
Hear, hear! In fact, I do this SO often, my site’s members have accused me of developing an unsettling obession.
But, hey – At least there’s absolutely no confusion about the target of that obsession!
(Kidding, of course. Obsession’s not really my style. I’m too west coast for all that.)
Enough of this; let’s just kill them! Man, where’s Cynical when you need rousing of the rabble? Probably xeroxing his manifesto, or something.
It’s chicken shit behavior. What can you realistically do? Nada.
I agree that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but please, people SHOULD be linking back to this site. It’s one of the very best these series of tubes have to offer. More Americans need to see what is happening in the (former) land of the free, home of the brave.
I don’t think it’s asking too much of this site’s readers to head on over there and point out that the headline hasn’t been properly cited and provide a link back here.
Radley, e-mail Drew Curtis and make a note of it. The mods can/will change headlines and it was noted in the comments that the headline was stolen from your site.
“…Look, you low life scum sucking mass of malignant fecal fungi. Please stop stealing my headlines and grow a little web etiquette before I put out a contract on you and your family, wipe out your credit rating, and start rumors about your ties to Al Queda…”
NOW THAT’S A FUCKN HEADLINE!
No, they’re not, Radley. They’re losing karma points. That’s how karma works.
How do you go about getting a Agitator submission tag? Thats what you really need to look into. Then just submit your own stories and beat the fuckers to the punch.
Why does it matter Radley?
If it is the dissemination of information that you are concerned with you should be happy that your ideas are getting out there and reaching a greater audience.
If it is showing everyone how witty you are, and wanting to make sure everyone knows how great you are then maybe I see your point.
I think you should be taking more of a macro looking view of information. It is a good thing that this stuff is getting out there, even if someone is “plagiarizing” your idea.
How I see it, you are a vocal advocate for fairness and exposing corruption. I wouldn’t be so concerned if someone “stole” my ideas if the end result was my ideas being spread around being exposed to more eyeballs in turn leading to less corruption.
Keep on keepin’ on…