New Trend? "Interesting Facts" Hubs

1. 87

   GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

   I have seen numerous hubs published over the past few days that begin with the term "Interesting Facts."  The ones I looked at appeared to be well researched and some of the authors are really knocking out a large quantity - one of them has published 120 in a couple of months - I wish I could be that productive! 
   
   Is beginning hubs with this term a new trend? 
   
   ht tp://garethmoore.hubpages.com
   ht tp://marinnebilla.hubpages.com
   ht tp://meetdoctor.hubpages.com
   ht tp://profangel.hubpages.com
   ht tp://callystashira.hubpages.com
   ht tp://risqa.hubpages.com

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   1. 74

      brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Congrats on your follow through on this issue.. A little detective work is worth it to rid the site of copied material.

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      brakel2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Gareth Moore from the list is the name of a writer with books on Amazon.

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   3. 84

      Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Major KUDOS to you for spotting this problem, Ginny.  Good job!

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2. 87

   GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

   I missed a few from the last week:
   
   ht tp://premanasia.hubpages.com
   ht tp://allisaroberts.hubpages.com
   ht tp://stevencoconut.hubpages.com
   ht tp://etaniamalia.hubpages.com
   ht tp://deanandrea.hubpages.com
   ht tp://angelastewart.hubpages.com
   ht tp://biofacts.hubpages.com
   ht tp://elisacute.hubpages.com
   
   Another common phrase to start the hubs is "Physical Feature"
   
   http://hubpages.com/search/include%3Ahu … ?sort=Date
   
   I didn't go back more than a week...

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3. 87

   GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

   ht tp://dentistandrea.hubpages.com
   ht tp://samanthagretchen.hubpages.com
   ht tp://jessicasteve.hubpages.com
   ht tp://laurengeorgia.hubpages.com
   ht tp://hendradwi.hubpages.com
   ht tp://etaniamalia.hubpages.com
   
   Ok --- Now I will quit for the night.
   
   Most of them are formatted very similarly and are probably doing quite well on their ebay sales!
   
   If this is the same person, it is pretty impressive!

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      Justsilvieposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      They are interesting.

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4. 95

   SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

   Hmmmmm....... yes, very interesting. Good find.

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5. 87

   GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

   I don't understand these.  How can someone publish so many so fast?

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6. 87

   IzzyMposted 11 years ago

   Something is very wrong here.
   
   Check out the profile of one of them - http://profangel.hubpages.com/
   
   In case anyone misses it, it says "im an pretty girl. i like traveling,shoping and also writing."
   
   Yet the hubs are fine and full of 'interesting facts'.

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   1. 94

      FatFreddysCatposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'm getting the same vibe - there's something fishy/spammy about these.

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      1. 90

         LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I'm currently searching through a library database of encyclopedias to see if I can find a match.

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   2. 76

      Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wow! I just checked this profile and the Hubber is absolutely new and has the ability to produce thorough, high quality hubs, 2 at a TIME? Something is not right.

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      1. 84

         Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         There are indeed several Hubbers (many) who can produce numerous, well-written hubs at a regular and breathtaking rate. And many of those people published quite a few hubs as new members here.
         
         But when we see someone whose profile reads like they can't even write one sentence, something is wrong.  Productive Hubbers (the ones who churn out a lot of content) take pride in their work, including the content on their profiles.

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         1. 76

            Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I absolutely agree. It just appears that the Hub Page/Profile was created in a day.

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7. 95

   SmartAndFunposted 11 years ago

   I put sentences from a couple of them into Google and nothing but the HP article came up. Perhaps they are copying them from print publications? Or maybe it is content they have purchased from writers who have a better command of English than the profile holder.

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8. 61

   laurageeposted 11 years ago

   I agree, this is sketchy. I looked at each of the profiles in that first set, and every single one of them was ungrammatical (except the one that was blank). Some of the titles are wrong, too, but the articles are pretty clean.

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9. 84

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

   It's usually a big red flag when the quality and style of writing in a profile differs noticeably from the hubs.  Hope staff & mods are reading this thread.

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10. 80

    Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years ago

    Has anyone reported it?

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       ExpectGreatThingsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I'm not really new here, I just am still trying to learn things How do you report them? Do you mean flagging it or is there something different?

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          SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          It would mean flagging, but in the cases of these writers and articles, I don't know that they have actually done anything wrong. They are indeed "fishy" but I don't believe that is enough. Anyone?

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          1. 84

             Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             It would be interesting if someone has some really old editions of Britannica or another encyclopedia and can look up a few of the topics we are seeing. Out-of-print encyclopedias or magazines are probably good sources of articles to copy.  Unfortunately, I got rid of all my oldies several years ago.

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                SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I guess that would probably a smart way to go about it, and cheaper than paying someone to write for you. I doubt anyone would bother trying to find all this stuff in print. It would also be impossible! These articles on "interesting facts" are themselves very interesting!

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             2. 90

                LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I suspect they are all copied from books.  I've dug around in my library database and I think I know where the "Flat Kite" article comes from. 
                
                Catch the Wind!: All About Kites
                (ISBN 10: 0316309559 / ISBN 13: 9780316309554 )
                Gibbons, Gail
                
                I can't find a copy of it though but I'm looking.  But I found a reference in another book and it seems to be leading to that. 
                
                My guess is they have out of print books or library books and are copying in pages.
                
                I dislike plagiarism.
                
                As I'm looking I keep coming back to all the topics being in World History Encyclopedia (keeps popping up on internal library search).

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       2. 84

          Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Flagging is generally the method for reporting - but there's not much to report.  At least two of these new 'Hubbers' have poorly written profiles, but the writing in the hubs is good. I searched for a few hubs by using specific phrases & only got the HP results - so there's no proof of duplicate content.  But something is wrong. Any experienced editor, and most longtime writers, can tell the profiles and hubs are not the same writing style.
          
          All the hubs read similarly - like academic entries in an encyclopedia.  Or, in some cases, a travel journal.  It's very fishy when someone can't construct a literate sentence in their profile (or uses the type of language you'd text with on a cell phone), but has sophisticated writing in 'their' hubs.

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11. 90

    LCDWriterposted 11 years ago

    Maybe bought articles?

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    1. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I thought the same thing - or possibly from very old magazines or encyclopedias that are not on the Internet yet.  Something is wrong, for sure.

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          ComfortBposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Judging by the rate at which the hubs are being posted. Could it be a writer who is dissatisfied with another writing platform and he/she is moving already written articles here to HP. But it does look fishy.

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          1. 84

             Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             The problem is that the writing (quality, style, everything) in most of the profiles is incompetent, and yet the hubs are written very well.  In many or most of the examples posted by the OP, content in hubs appears to be copied from someone else's work.

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                ComfortBposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I get it now. I see. Thanks for clarifying that. Some of them don't even have any thing on their profile. It's possible they are plagiarizing other writer's work.

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          2. 90

             LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             I've already found one that is copied from a book.  The liklihood is they are all copied.

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12. 90

    spartucusjonesposted 11 years ago

    If they are bought articles, and the user owns the right to them, then there really is nothing that Hubpages can do about it. Of course if it is copied from print publications, then there could be a definite issue. But if it is from old out of print material it might be hard to find.

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13. 90

    Judi Beeposted 11 years ago

    Perhaps jobs like this are part of the puzzle:
    
    ht tp://www.freelancer.com/projects/Data-Entry/Manually-type-old-books.2509355.html

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    1. 90

       LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Bingo guys:  I found the hawk article by going to Amazon preview: 
       
       Birds of Prey (Peterson Field Guides: Young Naturalists) [Paperback]
       Karen Stray Nolting (Author), Jonathan Latimer (Author), Roger Tory Peterson (Illustrator)
       
       Age Range: 8 and up
       Paperback: 48 pages
       Publisher: Sandpiper (April 26, 1999)
       Language: English
       ISBN-10: 0395922771
       ISBN-13: 978-0395922774
       
       I will go flag it now.  They are all copied.  We know that.  They look like they are all copied from children's books so that is the best place to look and is what I am doing.  Then, if you go somewhere like Amazon, paste a phrase from the article into the book previews they have, you may get lucky. 
       
       I had to go to each children's book on hawks until I found it.

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          Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Good work!

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             SmartAndFunposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Yes, good work! I said that finding these would be impossible, leave for an hour, then come back to find that not only was it possible, you found this stuff in about half an hour! Great work, actually!

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             1. 90

                LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                Thanks.  I'm going to give up my obsessive hunt for now but I know that this has to be what they've done.  I included the suspicion along with the flag of the hawk article.

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          ExpectGreatThingsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          You are my new hero. I am seriously impressed! Thank you for taking the time to do this.

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             Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             +1 on the hero award. Thank you, thank you!

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    2. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Somebody needs to contact them(Freelancers) and ask if they've considered this abuse of the system?

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14. 84

    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    You guys ROCK!!!!  So glad you thought of out-of-print books, and had a way to find them. Yay!

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15. 84

    Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

    One of you needs to write a hub on "Interesting Facts about Plagiarists" - any takers?

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16. 90

    spartucusjonesposted 11 years ago

    "Interesting Facts about Plagiarists" that is an awesome idea for a hub! I just might if no ones beats me to it! I wonder if there is an out of print book on that subject that I could copy from.

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       ComfortBposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       lol ha ha ha. And I might just flag it too.

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17. 87

    GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

    How do these get stopped?  By all accounts, they are fairly well written, made it through QAP and passed the duplicate content filter.
    
    Checking the eBay ID might help, but it makes me wonder how many others there are on HP where the authors were smarter in their hub naming.

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    1. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Several of us tried to search for duplicate content the 'regular way,' through Google, but it appears at least one clever 'Hubber' here is copying content from old children's books that are on Amazon.  Those were discovered by someone painstakingly searching through ALL the children's books and looking for tell-tale phrases.
       
       The regular QAP process would not find these.  Also - the QAP process sends hubs through in a 'blinded' fashion - so the reviewer would not be able to compare the profile to see if there are red flags.
       
       Thanks for  spotting these - I'm guessing it's just the tip of the iceberg.

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18. 87

    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    It would be nice to think that HP staff will read this thread and just delete all those new hubbers and their copied work, but they are caught between a rock and a hard place just now and need all the quality content they can get.
    
    Can't get much better than that from published authors!
    
    Just a pity a contingent from a subcontinent will now be allowed to not only steal someone's hard work, but to earn from it, because unless a team of us got together and tracked down each and every hub that has been copied from a book, it will be ignored and left.
    
    A lot of really valuable urls will be lost to the rest of us too.

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    1. 87

       GinnyLeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I wonder if they are getting it from a digital copy somewhere.  There are a couple of spinners that take sentences, or fragments of sentences, and pulls together the entire article.  In fact, a few of the articles have the spacing issues that come from sloppy spinning.
       
       
       
       One of the common side effects of the use of those spinners is the elimination of spaces after periods and commas.  If they don't go back and check their work, these will sneak through.  When I see a lot of that in an article, it is indicative that the author used one of those spinners.  Of course, you can't prove that and the author should be given the benefit of the doubt in most cases...but, when added to all the other hints here, it makes you question it even more.

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    2. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Maybe we can somehow alert Amazon that books on their site are being copied here?  They have the ability to scan all of their content faster than we do. I feel certain we are seeing page after page from the same sources.

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19. 87

    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    No they are not spinning.
    
    The lack of spacing is a classic side-effect of using the copy/paste technique.
    
    I simply do not have the time to go through every potential book on Amazon, but if you click on the 'Look Inside' feature over most Amazon books, there is the opportunity to see quite a bit of the text of the whole book.
    
    You can also use the 'search box' function or use Ctrl+F to look for a particular piece of text.
    
    I kinda worked it out after finding out how to - http://www.amazon.com/Search-Inside-Boo … e=10197021
    
    LCDWriter said something to this effect earlier in this thread, and that using she found some copied content this way. Least I think she meant this way. I have never clicked on 'Look Inside' before to see.

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20. 87

    GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

    I am sure your students are all over 18, otherwise these various accounts would be in violation of HubPages TOS.  http://hubpages.com/help/user_agreement
    
    They have done a truly unbelievable job in formatting each hub virtually identically.

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    1. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       That's a great point, Ginny!
       
       I'm astounded.  Truly astounded! What exceptional students.  You're right - I do hope they're all 18 years old.  And not stealing content - that would be good, too.

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21. 87

    IzzyMposted 11 years ago

    These articles were brilliant. Mr Moore should be proud of his students, although it gets me a little that Marcy is dead right - they were very similar in style, and written very professionally, suspiciously professionally really.
    
    I think there are a lot of questions here, and am actually astounded to see someone speak up on their behalf - their teacher of all people.
    
    If they are original - and what really deep down makes me think they aren't is that they lack SEO. What a beautiful way to describe a seagull by saying something along the lines of "it swooped down upon the churning seas and returned with something in its mouth". Those weren't the exact words, but at the start of a hub, drew the reader in.
    
    Internet searchers however, would not be searching for that, and the whole paragraph would have been relayed to later in the article, not on the first line.
    
    The same author wrote about the supercontinent, something I am deeply interested in.
    
    The words used were poetic, factual, informational and interesting.
    
    It is probably the best article I have seen on the web, but what might be original to the web does not make original to print.
    
    Genius students!
    
    We should be encouraging more of them.
    
    But, you know, as Mr Moore has pointed out, if it doesn't violate TOS, it will all stay.
    
    Basically, prove him wrong, because he did say he will remove any that are not original.

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    1. 87

       GinnyLeeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I don't know what it is, but something isn't right. The grammar from the "teacher" in his forum postings is not as eloquent as the grammar in his or his students' hubs.
       
       I would expect the "teacher" to have a higher mastery of English than the students, but I am not seeing that here.

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       1. 87

          IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Yup.
          
          Still have to prove him right though, otherwise all articles will remain.
          
          Ask HP staff to intervene - they have better software than us.

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       2. 84

          Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          There are numerous errors in his forum posts - and it's yet another style of writing from the hubs, and the other profiles (which aren't even as literate as his posts here).  Yes, there's something wrong, and I think we all have a good idea of what it is.
          
          Maybe HP can assign some MTurkers to do indepth research. Google probably has the ability to sift through web pages we can't see through regular searches, and if we are right in our suspicions, the large number of hubs involved here could affect the rankings of the whole site.
          
          Either that, or we all take one of the 'writers' listed and start digging through Amazon. I have done the 'take a look inside' peeks at books, but it sounds like you have to go through every single book and run the traps individually.

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             Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             I would like to add; like a murderer, "Mr. Moore" pleads his innocence by asking his crime to be proved. He says, “Show me wrong, show me proof, show me evidence”. I ask that he prove the contrary. I ask “Mr. Moore” to prove they are legitimate, I ask that he prove these articles come from these students. I ask that he prove these students exist. I ask that he prove he holds any kind of teaching position at any school. Instead of us proving his guilt; he should prove his innocence.

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22. 80

    Healthy Pursuitsposted 11 years ago

    While checking "My Activity" for a few of these so-called hubbers, I found that they add the hubs several at a time. No more than a day has passed between any two groups.

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       Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       It's too bad that fraudulent accounts like these will be the downfall of a legitimate website/community.

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    2. 64

       jcmayer777posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I don't know what to believe and frankly, I don't know that I care that much.  However, the fact that several are added to the account at one time, as noticed and commented on here, would support the teacher's claim the students write and the teachers edit/post.  If you have, say, 25 student articles to add to the site, surely you won't add one at a time.  Most likely, if you had 25 to enter, you would add several of them in one sitting.
       
       Not saying I buy it, not saying I don't.  I get how/why people get so whipped up about this, but I cannot say I'm a fan of flaming people in public like this, regardless of the intent.

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    3. 84

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       How do you check 'my activity' for accounts other than your own?  I am still learning the techie parts here.  Thanks!

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       1. 90

          Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          Go to the hubber's profile - on the right hand side of the page is a box (above accolades) - below "My Content" is "My Activity" - click on it and you see a list of what the hubber had been doing on the site.

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             Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Ahhh - thanks, Judi - I've never checked those parts of profiles!

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23. 59

    MelissaBarrettposted 11 years ago

    Or if you guys really wanted to "take him down" you could just report the pictures on his/her/their hubs to the people that they so nicely attributed the photos to... but likely didn't get permission from to use...
    
    If you wanted a slightly easier route than reading every book ever.

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    1. 90

       LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Melissa is right about this. The pictures are not attributed. There are no sources for the articles.
       
       Many remind me of old social studies textbooks.
       
       I, however, don't see any way to flag articles for not using sources (even though sources would clearly be needed in the case of these hubs.

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24. 90

    Millionaire Tipsposted 11 years ago

    This snippet from Google Books:
    
    "Encyclopedia Americana - Volume 30 - Page 250
    books.google.com/books?isbn=0717201392
    Scholastic Library Publishing - 2006 - Snippet view - More editions
    Stewart Springer U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service DOGGER BANK, an extensive area of sandbanks in the North Sea, about 100 miles (161 km) east of the coast of Northumberland, England. It is approximately 160 miles (257 km) long and 70 ..."
    
    reads very much like the hub "Interesting Facts About Bell Rock, Dogger Bank, and Grand Banks" written by GarethMoore.hubpages.com
    
    "Dogger Bank is an extensive area of sandbanks in the North Sea, about 100 miles (161 km) east of the coast of Northumberland, England. It is approximately 160 miles (257 km) long and 70 miles (112 km) wide"

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    1. 90

       Judi Beeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Yes - also found the first sentence of "Facts about Seas, Lakes and Rivers in Europe":  "The coastline of Europe is more fragmented than that of any other continent" and several other sentences turn up in the section on Seas, Lakes and Streams in the same Encyclopaedia on Google Books.

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    ilscherzoposted 11 years ago

    This is exactly the same mindset that is so horribly backwards. It is precisely the same thought pattern that produced tragedies like the Crusades.
    
    "I ask that he prove the contrary. I ask “Mr. Moore” to prove they are legitimate, I ask that he prove these articles come from these students. I ask that he prove these students exist. I ask that he prove he holds any kind of teaching position at any school. Instead of us proving his guilt; he should prove his innocence."
    
    This? I thought this mode of thinking had died out long ago. This is drivel. Completely revolting. Then would you arrest a man you found at a murder scene with his hands stained with blood, and send him to the gallows just because you were too lazy to prove him guilty?
    
    "Oh, he's got his hands dirtied with blood. There's a body next to him. Isn't the conclusion obvious?"
    
    And I had believed we were a forward-thinking society.
    
    You might ask, why am I so worked up over this? I am a student at the National University of Singapore. Singapore isn't a part of China, by the way. It is in Southeast Asia, and is probably Malaysia's demographic/cultural twin, as close as two countries can be. I can understand why a teacher or professor would be less eloquent than a student.
    
    "I don't know what it is, but something isn't right. The grammar from the "teacher" in his forum postings is not as eloquent as the grammar in his or his students' hubs.
    
    I would expect the "teacher" to have a higher mastery of English than the students, but I am not seeing that here."
    
    I read the above, and it really baffles me how somebody could be so close-minded. I'm not sure if you realize this, but in many places in Asia, the older generation was educated in their own mother tongue. Many of my professors, great men and women in their own right, regularly contribute to peer-reviewed journals in their respective fields. Yet most of them were Chinese/Indian/Malay-educated. Many of them only began studying English well after their teenage years. My writing skills (and most of my friends too, in fact) would easily compare to theirs. If you think everybody started off studying your oh-so-awesome English from birth, then please get off your high horse.
    
    Many of us students sometimes joke about our professors' ridiculous accents. I admit it. Sure. I am guilty of it too. But even so, we realize that how well a man speaks is not indicative of how well-read or how intelligent he is.
    
    I don't care who the author claims he is. I don't even care whether he is who he says he is. I am just amazed that you are unable to comprehend the existence of a world immediately outside of yours. Whether or not your witch hunt proves correct means nothing to me, because, arriving at a correct conclusion from an incorrect assumption is fallacious. Any reasonable logic class would fail you for thinking so.
    
    I'm done here. Thank you, and good night.

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       Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Since you directly quoted me, I feel the need to defend myself. You haven't been involved in this forum from the beginning so perhaps you missed some important information. It is quite possible that someone is abusing Hubpages and if that is the case then they need to be called out. I don't care where someone comes from or what language they speak, but abuse is abuse and I will fight against it every time!

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          DrMark1961posted 11 years agoin reply to this

          cantheaermescream I too was amazed that you would tell that person to prove himself innocent! Why should he?

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          1. 76

             Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             All we did was raised question if there were some spammy/scammy hubs here on HP. I am new here and would like to think that this is a legitimate site. I wasn't referencing anyone in particular and only responded to Mr. Moore after he was brought into the forum by someone else. If there is fraudulent activity going on then I feel taken advantage of and obligated to inquire about it. I felt very much like he was simply saying "Prove it!"; well that might be hard to do and it is certainly above my expertise. I really don't understand how I would have offended anyone by looking out for the HP community. I am not trying to simply attack people. Quite frankly, I'm frustrated with all of the schemes and scams floating around the internet. I spend as much time in a day trying to weed through fake to get to real.

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                ilscherzoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                I won't disagree with you on that. There are many scams out there, and I am just as frustrated as anyone else. I have no problems with stopping fraudulent activity. My issue was that you were advocating mob rule by saying that he's guilty until proven innocent. Moral panic is not a good thing.

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    Judi Beeposted 11 years ago

    Found another source from Google Books:
    
    New Book of Knowledge 1992
    Volume 10 of The New book of knowledge, ISBN 0717205207, 9780717205202
    Author    Grolier Educational Staff
    Contributor    Inc Grolier
    Publisher    Grolier, Limited, 1992
    ISBN    0717205231, 9780717205233
    
    Seems to have been where Colonial and Modern Latin American Music was lifted from.

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27. 87

    GinnyLeeposted 11 years ago

    Those darned 'students' ...

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28. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 11 years ago

    ++  This is a sad thread on the HP forums.  I didn't want to even post here, but I'm going to agree with the above.  If something needs to be flagged, flag it.  To drag it into the public forums and make assumptions is 'cringeworthy'.

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I will be emailing the HP team with the http of this thread so that they can take a look at what's going on and then decide whether they wish to pursue this issue or not.

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          LCDWriterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          I believe that you are right.  There is nothing more that can be done on this thread.  The pages in question are noted and it is up to HP now to decide if any course of action is needed.
          
          I am sorry that some felt that it was malicious.  I can see where it could be construed that way.  I know on my part, I'm only interested in plagiarism (and whether or not it is provable, even if it is likely). 
          
          I had no notion of where the hub authors in question were from (until they joined the discussion) and hold no opinion for or against anyone from any country.   
          
          My only thought is for the quality of work on all of hubpages and the fact that if there is plagiarism, it definitely needs to be addressed.  I can see where the thread may have gone too far once the initial questions were raised and the initial trends were questioned.
          
          I do think this forum brings up an interesting question (regardless of the outcome of these particular pieces):  Is there a way to insure that media only found in print does not make its way to someone's hub without proper credit?
          
          I think the answer for now may be no but as more and more information is digitized, it will probably be harder and harder for this to happen.
          
          I will continue to work on my own hubs and insure to the best of my ability that I adhere to the high standards.

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29. 65

    ilscherzoposted 11 years ago

    So says every self-styled freedom fighter. If everyone had their way, and could bash on people without definitive proof (or worse, put the onus of proving otherwise on the accused), then we would have anarchy. It might sound tempting to try and be a hero, but all that will get you is a facade of self-righteousness. Noble ideals, but impossible to implement without giving people the ability to hurt one another's reputation directly with virtually no consequence.
    
    I always read every thread before I post, so your concern on my prior knowledge of the matter is appreciated, but unnecessary.
    
    I'm sure it's frustrating, but leave it to the authorities, and to Google if he's monetizing the stuff. Their knowledge on plagiarism probably runs rings about yours, and they have the greatest incentive in the world to stop him.
    
    Money.

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    1. 76

       Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Honestly, I don't believe I ever "bashed" anyone nor did I ever attempt to be offensive. I was addressing a legitimate question. Quite frankly, I think your tone is more offensive than the majority of the thread.

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          ilscherzoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

          "I would like to add; like a murderer, "Mr. Moore" pleads his innocence by asking his crime to be proved. He says, “Show me wrong, show me proof, show me evidence”. I ask that he prove the contrary. I ask “Mr. Moore” to prove they are legitimate, I ask that he prove these articles come from these students. I ask that he prove these students exist. I ask that he prove he holds any kind of teaching position at any school. Instead of us proving his guilt; he should prove his innocence."
          
          How unfortunate that you consider my tone offensive. However, on my part I have not made any personal attacks on people that actually liken people to the worst of criminals.

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             Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

             Okay, to any and all that I have offended. I am not trying to attack anyone. These are RESPONSES, these are not just New Discussions that I am starting. My intentions were good; trying to protect HP, maybe my approach isn't perfect but I never thought I crossed any lines, sorry to any who feel otherwise.

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                ilscherzoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                You had good intentions, so I hold nothing against you. Thank you for standing up for everyone, even if your way of saying it was a little harsh.

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                1. 76

                   Cantuhearmescreamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                   I really didn't mean to come across harsh. I don't want to be taken advantage of and I also feel some responsibility to the HP community. Maybe I'm out of place, maybe I'm too new to be speaking up. I have been investing a lot of my time here and I don't want it to be wasted on a site that is full of scammy/spammy hubs.

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                   1. 65

                      ilscherzoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                      I do not think you should be afraid of speaking up. You should continue to say what you think is right.

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                   2. 52

                      bajinganaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                      "I have been investing a lot of my time here "
                      
                      Cantuhearmescream Cat
                      Joined 7 weeks ago from New York. Last seen 7 minutes ago.
                      
                      <personal attack removed>, shame on you.

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30. 85

    dailytop10posted 11 years ago

    @bajingana Are you an account simply created to oppose Cantu's noble cause? I think you misunderstood. She doesn't mean time spent here on Hubpages but on investigating and providing us clear information regarding this issue. I think what you've said is below the belt. This thread is meant to solve an issue not criticize other hubbers. I've read all her replies here and never did she said offensive words even while defending her point.

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