What questions constitute plagiarism on this site?

Answer 1

It is actually a little bit difficult to decide what is plagiarism in the online world. Generally, copied and pasted material without proper sourcing is going to be plagiarism. However, that is not the only rule. Sometimes, people have permission to use certain materials, the material is up for free use, or there can be other factors.

Questions asking for copyrighted can be tricky as well. If a question is asking for something like a motto, it is okay. That is something publicly used, and there is nothing wrong with answering that sort of thing. "What is the motto for Kraft macaroni and cheese? Smooth, Creamy, Mmmm..." That is information the company wants spread. They just copyright it to keep other people from profiting from it. They want you to hear that motto, and think just of them. You are simply sharing the information. However, some people copyright to keep their information from hitting the public. "What are the answers to the Jones test number 452?" This question is looking for an answer that the schools deliberately hide. On top of possible plagiarism issues, it just isn't the type of thing that should be on the site. Those questions are trashed as they are spotted. We are all about learning, but not about cheating yourself.

To play it on the safe side, we strongly discourage the use of copied and pasted materials. This is not only because of plagiarism. They aren't looking for chunks of something they saw on Wikipedia 10 minutes previous. Material from other sites is great for certain things. People read over it to get an idea or even very detailed information, but when they ask a question on a wiki type site, they usually want personalized answers. If you do find an answer on another site, it is perfectly fine to answer the question with it if it fits. Just be sure to put it in your own words and add the URL to where you found it in the related links.