Beware of Comment Thieves
When your comments on someone’s article disappears see what sometimes happens.
Most writers worry that someone will steal their article and pass it off as their own. However, do you know that there are those on Triond that steal comments? You might say “Why do people need to do that for?” I will give two incidents to illustrate my point though I will be a little vague at times so as not to give away the perpetrators.
(1) Last year I came across an article on Relijournal and the topic is one of my pet topics so I decided to leave a comment. The comment ran into a great many lines full of statistics and Bible references. I told myself that I should probably make that into an article instead of posting it as a comment because it was lengthy. I could easily add a paragraph or two because I had done most of the research before commenting. However, in the spirit of goodwill I thought that I would just comment without expecting remuneration of any sort. I checked the article the next day and lo and behold I could not find my comment. I went through the article again to make sure that it was the same article and there it was – all my ideas, statistics and references, in the body of another person’s article without the slightest reference to my comments. I commented again on the article confronting the “writer” and he said that he mistakenly deleted my comment and admitted to adding my information saying it was useful. That sounded too convenient and there still was no reference to my input.
(2) In November of 2011 another writer, this time one of the many top female writers in Triond, wrote an article on Writinghood that necessitated some research concerning certain writers in Triond but she had not done much before publishing her article. She was basically asking for people to say which writers fit a particular category. I commented three times almost back to back – yes, three times because I wanted to give three live links and apparently Triond only allows one in each comment. Each link pointed to an article by other writers that would answer in detail the question she had asked. I went back to the page the next day and realized that she had thanked me and that comment has remained even to this day. However, I noticed that one of my comments with one link of information was missing and it was now within her article. Today I stumbled upon the page again and there is absolutely no comment by me found on that page but the information those links pointed to is in the article. The page now looks better researched but the only evidence that I ever commented is the comment where she says thanks for the information and includes my username in the “Thank you.” Anyone reading through the comments would wonder why she said that since my comments are nowhere to be found.
My advice is therefore to be careful with how much information you put into your comments. It is sad to have to make that remark because personally I like to be helpful. My advice to writers is to give credit where credit is due because it is the right thing to do. You will also ruin your own reputation if you do otherwise.
For information about different aspects about Triond see Shelpeare’s Guide to Triond as well as Shelpeare’s Triond History Compendium.
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June 13th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Wow… that is unbelieveable… thank you for pointing it out.
June 13th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Wow–I had no idea—-
June 13th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
I am new to reading your articles, but I like your work. I ,too, have given addition helpful comments to writers I thought would help. I hadn’t thought of it like how you described. I will be more careful. Good article. Thanks.
June 13th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
I’ve just logged into Triond and this article caught my eye! Excellent!
I will be careful in the future. Usually I don’t have much time and just comment with “interesting” “informative” etc.
June 13th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Thanks momofplenty, Audrey, Fleur D and Pastor Pete.
June 13th, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Very interesting.
June 13th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Wow. I’ve seen plenty of people plagiarize articles, but I’ve never seen anyone steal comments before. I guess people really were running out of article ideas and had to take other peoples’ ideas for their own. I tend to post lengthy comments, but I guess I won’t do that so much anymore! Thanks for the tip man. Hope you don’t get comment-jacked again!
June 13th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
This is disturbing. who knew?
June 13th, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Thanks agrant10, briantaylor1992 and smokychristine.
June 13th, 2012 at 11:02 pm
I did not realize that people did this sort of thing. Thanks for the info.
June 13th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
I had no idea that people did this. I do often leave long comments, adding what I know about the topic, and sometimes I decide while I am writing the comment that I should just take what I have written and write an article of my own in response. Then I will leave a shorter comment on the other person’s article. But to take a comment that another writer has left on my article, delete it and integrate the material into my article – that’s just wrong. Thanks for the warning.
June 14th, 2012 at 12:01 am
we have to be careful
June 14th, 2012 at 1:46 am
Amazing what people do. Now comments can become articles! Thanks for the warning.
June 14th, 2012 at 1:51 am
No tengo ninguno idea! Muchas gracias!
June 14th, 2012 at 2:11 am
its unbelievable. we all have to very careful about this one.
June 14th, 2012 at 3:36 am
It’s the new menace which you have pointed out.Really disgusting to know about this.
June 14th, 2012 at 5:12 am
how strange
June 14th, 2012 at 7:34 am
great share, people are unbelievable – thanks for letting us know
June 14th, 2012 at 8:45 am
I had no idea that people do that here either, but then I hardly go back to the articles after I comment. I will be more careful now.Thanks for letting us know.
June 14th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Thank you, Shelpeare. I tend to get long winded in my comments too, especially if it is a topic I feel passionate about. I cannot say that I have had the sideways compliment of having someone steal one yet.
June 14th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
Thats bad………..thanks for raising the concern.
June 14th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
You’re welcome everyone. We all need to be aware of this.
June 20th, 2012 at 1:50 am
I guess, I’ll try to comment as short as two sentences only. Good article.
July 25th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Sometimes comments don’t get recognized at all. I’m thankful for them and pray that honesty follows them.