Why don't you speak for yourself, Brainglutton?

[Captain_Amazing]

(With apologies to Patricia Mullins)

Brainglutton,

I like your posts for the most part. You ask interesting questions, and you look at things with a mindset that’s really different than my own, so you expose me to ideas I wouldn’t have thought of. However, you do one thing that annoys me. A lot of the time, your posts are just copied off someplace else. You’ll have one line of your own opinion, and follow that with a 10 paragraph quote you’ve gotten from some website.

For example, see here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5379509#post5379509

and here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5378958#post5378958

and here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5375757#post5375757

Not to mention a vast number of posts that are just cut and pastes from Wikipedia. I do appreciate that you’re trying to bring in cites and evidence, but nevertheless, it does sort of get on my nerves a little.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Captain Amazing

A lot of the time, your posts are just copied off someplace else. You’ll have one line of your own opinion, and follow that with a 10 paragraph quote you’ve gotten from some website.

I agree!

@Reputable Source

blahblah blah-blah, blah-BLAH-blah, blah-blah-blablablah…

[Guinastasia]

Question-are Wikipedia’s rules for reprinting articles more lax than other sources?

Because those all represent a pretty large chunk of text there.

[Squink]

@Guinastasia

Question-are Wikipedia’s rules for reprinting articles more lax than other sources?

The goal of Wikipedia is to create an information source in an encyclopedia format that is freely available. The license we use grants free access to our content in the same sense as free software is licensed freely. This principle is known as copyleft. That is to say, Wikipedia content can be copied, modified, and redistributed so long as the new version grants the same freedoms to others and acknowledges the authors of the Wikipedia article used (a direct link back to the article satisfies our author credit requirement). Wikipedia articles therefore will remain free forever and can be used by anybody subject to certain restrictions, most of which serve to ensure that freedom.

Grin ;j

[Metacom]

@Captain Amazing

Not to mention a vast number of posts that are just cut and pastes from Wikipedia. I do appreciate that you’re trying to bring in cites and evidence, but nevertheless, it does sort of get on my nerves a little.

It doesn’t get on my nerves at all.

I think using the opinion of someone who’s actually qualified to give one is a superb way to start a GD thread. I like BrainGlutton’s threads.

[Revtim]

As long as proper credit is given, I think it’s cool. Why re-invent the wheel?