Forum policy regarding posting of content sourced from other sources (common sense really)
Sushubh
Admin
Staff member
I guess you have not turned on responses by mail.
I am going to delete any thread that contains an article in its entirety (or majority) from a third party source.
If you want to post something from another source. Post excerpts of the important bit. One or two paragraphs would suffice.
Keep formatting clean. Add an image or two if required. There is really no point is copy pasting the entire shit here.
I also deleted an earlier thread started by you for the exact same reason.
Also. I am sure, you are perfectly capable of creating a thread title on your own right? Instead of copy pasting it as well from the external source?
As a content creator, I would personally hate my entire articles getting ripped off by a forum or another blog. Respect the content creators please.
I am going to delete any thread that contains an article in its entirety (or majority) from a third party source.
If you want to post something from another source. Post excerpts of the important bit. One or two paragraphs would suffice.
Keep formatting clean. Add an image or two if required. There is really no point is copy pasting the entire shit here.
I also deleted an earlier thread started by you for the exact same reason.
Also. I am sure, you are perfectly capable of creating a thread title on your own right? Instead of copy pasting it as well from the external source?
As a content creator, I would personally hate my entire articles getting ripped off by a forum or another blog. Respect the content creators please.
Hardik7
Aparigraha
Forum is also the stage for sharing the content. Most of the shared content which is being posted here is ripped from third parties sources like Youtube, Engadget, Techcrunch etc. There's no content creation in that. We are simply sharing the information.
About posting few excerpts from any article, you are right. Because it's easier to read. But sometimes there are articles which cannot be understood with few lines here & there. There needs to be more than few paragraphs to conclude the point of any article and if users find the article interesting, they will be going to the given URL to read the entire article to that particular third party website only.
I am changing the formatting to highlight the punch of the article. I would keep it clean then if it helps. And as long as we mention the source URL of original article of third party website, I don't think we're ripping anything. They too offer the option to share their content on various social websites & all. There's no copyright applies over the information & news. Their point is to attract more traffic towards their portal.
And what's wrong with keeping the same title? I am not trying to post the content as my own by modifying the title. Anyways I would stop as it's your site, your policies.
About posting few excerpts from any article, you are right. Because it's easier to read. But sometimes there are articles which cannot be understood with few lines here & there. There needs to be more than few paragraphs to conclude the point of any article and if users find the article interesting, they will be going to the given URL to read the entire article to that particular third party website only.
I am changing the formatting to highlight the punch of the article. I would keep it clean then if it helps. And as long as we mention the source URL of original article of third party website, I don't think we're ripping anything. They too offer the option to share their content on various social websites & all. There's no copyright applies over the information & news. Their point is to attract more traffic towards their portal.
And what's wrong with keeping the same title? I am not trying to post the content as my own by modifying the title. Anyways I would stop as it's your site, your policies.
Sushubh
Admin
Staff member
YouTube has proper embed tools. As for other sources, I stick with excerpts in quotes which makes it clear that it is not something I am writing but I am quoting someone else.
When you are posting an opinion piece from another source, it is better to read it in its entirely on the original content page. The links you shared had too much excess information and it was an opinion piece better understood by reading it on AppleInsider itself. Opinion pieces are not news. They are opinions.
Cool. Ask any popular blogger what he thinks about this. I do not call myself a professional blogger and I do not track people copy pasting my content anymore. But any one who spends a lot of time on creating original content would not agree with your point of view.
So, what happens when you share a web page on Facebook or Twitter? Does the entire article gets replicated on Twitter or Facebook? They want you to read their content on their own domain. Excerpts are acceptable because they give you an idea about what you are going to read. If you like it, there is a higher possibility that you would click the link and read the rest of the content.
It's bad because of how Google and other search engines behave. Duplicate titles and content gets penalized by Google as it considers them copyright violation.
Do not get me wrong. These are not my policies. These are just standard web etiquettes. I am not sure if you visit other forums or not but if they allow complete copy paste of third party web content, it's a very bad policy to have.
Navjot Singh
Admin
Staff member
As a blogger if you are going to share my article in its entirety even if you are quoting back the link, I will consider it as stealing. Why? Because Google gets confused at times in deciding which is the original and which one is copy. Worse is when the copied articles start ranking above the original. Google won't care whether you are quoting me beneath the article or not. Please don't make it a practice. Also go to any popular news blog/news paper site. Read their TOS. Almost all of them mention that you can only share excerpt of an article on other site. Copy pasting is not encouraged anywhere.
Read the full artcle and try to highlight few points here by quoting them. I am sure with most of the articles that can be done easily. If not, then just try to post a gist in your own words. And yes please try to rewrite titles as well.
Read the full artcle and try to highlight few points here by quoting them. I am sure with most of the articles that can be done easily. If not, then just try to post a gist in your own words. And yes please try to rewrite titles as well.
Sushubh
Admin
Staff member
Yup. The problem is magnified if you break a news and you are not Engadget or TechCrunch. The way Google rank domains... Once your 'breaking news' is posted by popular sites like Engadget or TechCrunch, your own blog post would probably not appear anywhere on the front page for the relevant keywords 
Sushubh
Admin
Staff member
Right. Wikipedia allows for full replication of their content with proper attribution. But most web services do not.
In fact, a lot of news organisations keep on targeting Google for showing an excerpt from their web pages on search results and in Google News. Can you believe it?
In fact, a lot of websites have made news over the years for prohibiting LINKING to their website.
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The biggest problem with the threads you created was that you did not use quotes at all. It was hard to see if you were quoting someone else or you were writing it yourself. Use quotes for quotations! And avoid pasting more than a paragraph or two (three would be fine if the original article is super long I suppose). Add your own views outside the quotes to express why you decided to share it and what you think about it. Makes for a good conversation starter.
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It pains me when I see pages like this: http://india.gov.in/link-us
Also worth mentioning here. AP made news few years ago when they implemented a policy for quoting their content. The prices were quite insane. They wanted you to pay USD 12.50 for quoting FIVE WORDS. They seem to have discontinued the policy as I cannot find it anymore.
In fact, a lot of news organisations keep on targeting Google for showing an excerpt from their web pages on search results and in Google News. Can you believe it?
In fact, a lot of websites have made news over the years for prohibiting LINKING to their website.
--
The biggest problem with the threads you created was that you did not use quotes at all. It was hard to see if you were quoting someone else or you were writing it yourself. Use quotes for quotations! And avoid pasting more than a paragraph or two (three would be fine if the original article is super long I suppose). Add your own views outside the quotes to express why you decided to share it and what you think about it. Makes for a good conversation starter.
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It pains me when I see pages like this: http://india.gov.in/link-us
Also worth mentioning here. AP made news few years ago when they implemented a policy for quoting their content. The prices were quite insane. They wanted you to pay USD 12.50 for quoting FIVE WORDS. They seem to have discontinued the policy as I cannot find it anymore.
S
Sandman!
The one thing I would totally swear to is 'Not using the same title'. It would be a competition of traffic between two sources( the real article and the copy-pasted one).
Completely unfair for the original post's blogger. Just like Navjot mentioned that it won't matter if you paste the actual source of information at the end of your post.
Completely unfair for the original post's blogger. Just like Navjot mentioned that it won't matter if you paste the actual source of information at the end of your post.
