Plagiarism

[Jay Furr]

I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said, is anyone out there?

I got emails today from the staff at snopes.com informing me that snopes himself has gotten in major hot water for plagiarizing lots and lots of news stories and not giving credit, and that he's been suspended from all creative access to the site.

I'm surprised and disappointed. I was wondering if others had any more profound or interesting reactions.

[Mark Shaw]

Jay Furr <jf...@furrs.org> wrote:

[reformatted for linefeeds]

> I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said,
> is anyone out there?

Yep, a few of us.

> I got emails today from the staff at snopes.com informing me that
> snopes himself has gotten in major hot water for plagiarizing lots
> and lots of news stories and not giving credit, and that he's been
> suspended from all creative access to the site.

> I'm surprised and disappointed. I was wondering if others had any
> more profound or interesting reactions.

It's been in the news. I'm also a bit surprised, but it is what it
is.

The downside is that, despite the (somewhat deserved) popular
perception of bias on the part of snopes.com, they've been pretty
well consistently a gold-plated source for details one can cite to
combat {d|m}isinformation. This event will damage their credibility
in the eyes of many. This is a pretty bad thing, in that it will
introduce even more friction in the machinery of internet discourse.

--
Mark Shaw moc TOD liamg TA wahsnm
========================================================================
"All of my mistakes are giving me ideas." - Natalie Lileks

[Don Freeman]

There's a few of use lurking around, mostly just filtering out all the
bullshit postings but responding when one of the actual members speak out.
I heard about the problem with snopes, and hope it doesn't destroy their
credibility, we need more combatants against disinformation, not less.

[The Real Bev]

It always bothered me that they were consistently and considerably less
vigorous in their condemnation of liberal "missing-context" items than
in conservative "pants-on-fire" items.

--
Cheers, Bev
People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's
safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs. --Unknown

[Michael Trew]

On 8/16/2021 4:18 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
> On 08/15/2021 11:00 PM, Don Freeman wrote:
>> On 8/13/2021 7:10 PM, Jay Furr wrote:
>>> I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said, is
>>> anyone out there?
>>>
>>> I got emails today from the staff at snopes.com informing me that
>>> snopes himself has gotten in major hot water for plagiarizing lots
>>> and lots of news stories and not giving credit, and that he's been
>>> suspended from all creative access to the site.
>>>
>>> I'm surprised and disappointed. I was wondering if others had any
>>> more profound or interesting reactions.
>>>
>> There's a few of use lurking around, mostly just filtering out all the
>> bullshit postings but responding when one of the actual members speak
>> out.
>> I heard about the problem with snopes, and hope it doesn't destroy their
>> credibility, we need more combatants against disinformation, not less.
>
> It always bothered me that they were consistently and considerably less
> vigorous in their condemnation of liberal "missing-context" items than
> in conservative "pants-on-fire" items.
>

I agree. It seems that everything has a political lean now.

[Lafe]

I'm here, and I'm even new. I used to lurk here long ago, and decided to
see how NNTP was doing again.

I'm afraid I don't have anything else to offer as far as a reaction to
the news.

Lafe

[Lee Rudolph]

On Friday, August 13, 2021 at 9:11:01 PM UTC-4, Jay Furr wrote:
> I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said, is anyone out there?

I'm out here. I may or may not be essentially dead. And I too would be interested in profound or interesting reactions...

Lee "NMI" Rudolph

[Drew Lawson]

In article <slrnsi111...@lafelet.lafes.net>

Lafe <la...@lafes.newlafe.net> writes:
>On 2021-08-14, Jay Furr <jf...@furrs.org> wrote:
>> I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said, is
>> anyone out there?
>>
>> I got emails today from the staff at snopes.com informing me that
>> snopes himself has gotten in major hot water for plagiarizing lots and
>> lots of news stories and not giving credit, and that he's been
>> suspended from all creative access to the site.
>>
>> I'm surprised and disappointed. I was wondering if others had any
>> more profound or interesting reactions.
>
>I'm here, and I'm even new. I used to lurk here long ago, and decided to
>see how NNTP was doing again.

NNTP is going gangbusters these days.

Unfortunately, and appropriate to this thread, that is mostly
copyright violations in alt.binaries.*.

>I'm afraid I don't have anything else to offer as far as a reaction to
>the news.
>
>Lafe
>

--
|Drew Lawson | Mrs. Tweedy! |
| | The chickens are revolting! |

[Hastings]

On 13 Aug 2021, Mark Shaw <ms...@panix.com> posted some
news:sf7eql$5gr$1...@reader1.panix.com:

> Jay Furr <jf...@furrs.org> wrote:
>
> [reformatted for linefeeds]
>
>> I know that alt.folklore.urban is essentially dead, but that said,
>> is anyone out there?
>
> Yep, a few of us.
>
>> I got emails today from the staff at snopes.com informing me that
>> snopes himself has gotten in major hot water for plagiarizing lots
>> and lots of news stories and not giving credit, and that he's been
>> suspended from all creative access to the site.
>
>> I'm surprised and disappointed. I was wondering if others had any
>> more profound or interesting reactions.
>
> It's been in the news. I'm also a bit surprised, but it is what it
> is.
>
> The downside is that, despite the (somewhat deserved) popular
> perception of bias on the part of snopes.com, they've been pretty
> well consistently a gold-plated source for details one can cite to
> combat {d|m}isinformation. This event will damage their credibility
> in the eyes of many. This is a pretty bad thing, in that it will
> introduce even more friction in the machinery of internet discourse.

Indeed it has.

From: Nadegda <nad31...@gmail.invalid>
Message-ID: <sn9jg3$njg$1...@dont-email.me>
Injection-Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2021 01:37:08 -0000 (UTC)

"I searched Snopes high and low for any reference to this and found
nothing."

That isn't proof, kook.

From: Nadegda <nad31...@gmail.invalid>
Message-ID: <snbk6h$cmu$8...@dont-email.me>
Injection-Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2021 20:01:22 -0000 (UTC)

>> SMH... snopes is run by former usenet trolls.
>
> Proof, kook?

Rookie troll Nadegda's lack of Usenet historical knowledge and inability
to use Bing or google noted and recorded.

In 1994 David and Barbara Mikkelson created Urban Legends Reference Pages,
an urban folklore website that was later renamed Snopes.com.

David Mikkelson had originally adopted the username "Snopes" (the name of
a family of often unpleasant people in the works of William Faulkner) as a
username in the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban.

[Kyle Rittenhouse - NOT GUILTY!]

In article <XnsADE8E27...@0.0.0.0>

Lol!

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[Brian Gordon]

I lost faith in Snopes a few years back. The Democrat National Convention had
no US flags on stage on day 1. I watched part of it live and there were no
flags visible. When Snopes was asked why they were missing, the answer was
that they were NOT missing and an image was shown as proof. The image, however,
was of the stage on day 2 - I watched that, too. Months later, that had still
not been retracted or corrected, and I had to downgrade my opinion of Snopes.

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| Brian Gordon -->bri...@panix.com<-- brian dot gordon at cox dot net |
+ bgo...@aol.com Bass: NSC Frank Thorne +
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Mark Shaw]

In alt.folklore.urban Brian Gordon <bri...@panix.com> wrote:

[Non-AFU groups blasted; I mean, c'mon]

> I lost faith in Snopes a few years back. The Democrat National Convention had
> no US flags on stage on day 1. I watched part of it live and there were no
> flags visible. When Snopes was asked why they were missing, the answer was
> that they were NOT missing and an image was shown as proof. The image, however,
> was of the stage on day 2 - I watched that, too. Months later, that had still
> not been retracted or corrected, and I had to downgrade my opinion of Snopes.

The bias is there, certainly. For example, if you check Snopes for
"Rittenhouse" today (topicality alert) you'll find a bunch of news
stories (why Snopes feels it's necessary for them to report the
news and not stick to ULs is beyond me) and some debunking of minor
claims, but nothing at all about the lies that were reported and
repeated about Rittenhouse himself or his motives.

This is a shame, because there are some questions outstanding. I
originally went there not so I could make a point here, but rather
to check on something I'd seen on social media: that the property
he went to Kenosha to protect was owned by his grandparents. I
still don't know if that's a credible claim or not.

What it means in the larger equation is that Snopes is not the
one-stop shopping it once was. However incomplete their offering
is, however, they still do good work and I'll still check them
first for most questionable claims I see out in the wild.

[Lee Ayrton]

I too seem to be not yet dead. I may even start reading here semi-regularly.

[Thomas Prufer]

On Sun, 19 Dec 2021 15:45:26 -0800 (PST), Lee Ayrton <layrt...@gmail.com>
wrote:

I'll post the AFU eggnog recipe. Or is that reference enough already?


Thomas "internym" Prufer