Four days ago I published a quick piece on Citi’s new Access credit card. I hadn’t seen this product mentioned anywhere before, as there had been no grand announcement from Citi.
Today, I happened to see this on the BoardingArea.com home page:
Great! Somebody else noticed the card, I told myself. Let’s see if they have anything of interest to say.
Except when I actually read the post, it sounded very familiar to me. Not only did I not see anything new, I just saw everything that I had written, no more.
The tip-off is right at the very beginning:
For the the last 20-something years, Citi has sponsored an AT&T Universal Card, which essentially gave you 10% off AT&T services (think of it like a gas station card where you receive 5 cents off every gallon).
I don’t think it’s common knowledge that the AT&T Universal Card is 20 years old. I know a lot about credit cards, but I only knew this because I worked for AT&T Universal Card for a couple of years in the late ’90s.
Additionally, author James Larounis adds a factual error with his intro: Citi has not sponsored the AT&T card for 20-something years. They bought the entire operation from AT&T in 1997, and if memory serves that deal closed in early 1998. I can’t say for certain, but it looks for all the world as though he introduced this error into his post when rewriting my post to sound like his own.
There are other similarities between the posts. He devotes a paragraph to Citi’s definition of retail websites, as do I. He even closes his post with a gratuitous reference to Amazon Payments, as do I.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that there’s plenty of idea-borrowing on the internet. There’s only so much to write about and we all read each other. It’s inevitable, and I’m okay with that.
There are two things I’m not okay with, however: Failing to give a hat tip to the original source, and repackaging somebody else’s content as your own. It appears to me that both have taken place here, but I thought I’d run this by my readers. What do you think?
I don’t think so. I’ve seen plenty of similar content across the blogs before. Don’t overdramatize something petty. I personally don’t think your argument has any merit.
While I like to stay out of many controversial things, I need to back my buddy here.
How about another example? This same blogger, on January 2nd posted a 9k targeted offer. I’m stressing, this again It’s a targeted offer.
How do you get a targeted graphic email? You take it without properly citing your references. Here we have the original poster, our friend Trevor who writes on Tagging Miles:
http://saverocity.com/taggingmiles/check-e-mail-british-airways-visa-credit-card-spend-bonus/
I’m no computer forensic scientist, but that image of the offer that Trevor made is created using a snipping tool of some sort. Thus, it was hand drawn with certain dimensions. In fact, the image dimensions from Trevor is 741 x 341 pixels. The blogger in question has the same dimensions at 741 x 341. How can a hand drawn screen be 100% identical?
Do you still think PFDigest doesn’t have any merit now?
I’d be careful accusing him of plagiarizing, since that’s a false accusation. Are the posts on your blog not re-wording of other sources? your post is click bait and I fell for it
Attributed quotes are not the same thing as rewording someone else’s content and presenting it as your own.
That offer was already posted on FT so you know. Saw it way before it went on Trevor’s blog. Lol
i still think this is all clickbait. at most maybe a hat tip is due for a courtesy but to accuse someone of plagiarizing is over the top.. half the stuff posted on saverocity is copied from somewhere else..
if it’s any help for the guy your accusing – blog posts from saverocity, boarding area, million mile secrets and others are posted on sites like flyer talk and mile point – just the text and images. So it may be possible that he found the info there and not directly on your site. Users on FT and MP copy text in all the time to share info and after a while it’s going to become whisper down the lane and there’s not going to be any source or attribution. Id suggest deleting your blog post about it because its not right to accuse someone like that in the open if u yourself don’t have all of the info
Totally agree. Readers really don’t care about this stuff. We don’t read for hat tips or to hear bloggers try to make more drama out of something so boring.
For grins I googled the following (note: quotes are important find exact phrases):
AT&T Universal Card “20 years”
and
AT&T Universal Card “20 something years”
It seems clear the phrase “20 something years” wasn’t copied from FT or another blog. Where else would it come from other than this blog?
I agree with John. People don’t care about blogs that post filler posts like this. There’s no content here and it makes me want to read boarding area more. I don’t see any plagiarism. PFD has his panties in a bunch. The other blog did nothing wrong. PFD needs to spend more time writing legitimate posts and less time on nitpicking on a few words.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
All I’m going to say is, if you’re going to fake comments, do a better job.
Ok – I will stand corrected if you find me what’s posted before December 19.
Using exactly what HikerT mentioned below using quotations in a phrase “9000 bonus Avios” AND using “site:flyertalk.com” to look up only FlyerTalk
I see 3 things on FlyerTalk 2 are not relevant and 1 is completely out of date:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1542701-chase-ba-targeted-offer-9000-bonus-avios-4500-spend.html — out of date
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1536545-ba-american-express-credit-card-2014-master-thread-31.html — non US offer and not relevant
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1106796-chase-retention-bonus-fee-waiver-reports-all-cards.html — not relevant because people wanted a retention offer
And how do you explain the screenshot dimensions that were exactly the same?
The blogger, in question, at the very least needs credit his sources.
Disagree. SOME of us believe in holding bloggers to ethical standards. Because the usefulness of any information they post is tainted when it’s stolen without attribution.
Maybe you’re just in it to grab the points/miles/cash back and run. Me, I want to be tottering (Hmmm. Make that “striding”) onto the plane to go see my grandkids when I’m 80, and know I didn’t pay for the ride in biz or first.
I can’t do that if there are too many bloggers who pimp info they grabbed from someone else without even the courtesy of a “thanks, Other Blogger.”
PFD,
When I started my blog a year ago, i copied some material from other authors. Then one of the authors wrote a post kinda like yours and at first I was defensive kind of like John and Travel Nerd(although they are probably the same person). It took a couple of months for me to realize that I was plagiarizing their material even though I was presenting it in another form. I wen’t back and added their site info to my posts and gave them recognition. I realized that my mindset of thinking of others as competitors was silly and that I needed to respect their work and acknowledge what they had done and it turn they would probably acknowledge my site for some of my unique articles and it would be a win win. Either way ‘John’/’Travel Nerd’ are idiots, you’re post was obviously copied because there are no new good deals out recently and he needed to write a quick post so he copied yours.
John, Sarah and TravelNerd all agree because they are all the same person. If I was that person I’d stop commenting here for a while, think about what they did, and then just start writing original content and attributing better.
I know there seems to be pressure to produce content, but really, if you can’t get your own stuff out there then this isn’t a better alternative. It’s actually perfectly OK to go a week, month, or more without posting something.
I put this down to a silly mistake, and a hatchet job trying to cover it up. Best to own up to these things, or at the very least, don’t add insult to injury by editing the original post and making up fake accounts to try and discredit someone.
For the record, “re-wording of other sources”without attribution is considered plagiarism. See the following excerpt from:
http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/
“…All of the following are considered plagiarism:
– turning in someone else’s work as your own
– copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
– failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
– giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
– changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
– copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not…”
I hope the above quote formats properly, because, as the quotation marks indicate, it’s a copy and paste job from the another source!”
Looks like he’s now added a hat tip to FT? I did a search on FT on “universal” and nothing comes up. Too funny.
did you confront the blogger directly? what did they say? if they dont respond could you try getting some mediation from whoever runs boarding area? plaigerising is not cool but i dont know that publically shaming the guy is either.
I can’t believe anyone is defending this guy, it’s obviously plagiarism. Presenting something as your own that is not. All the blogger had to do was cite the source.
Don’t people agree that you’ve got no integrity or credibility when you copy without attribution and pass it off as your own? It’s lying and it’s far different than multiple newspapers covering the same news story. This is no different than copying an article from one newspaper and passing it off as your own work in your own newspaper. It’s unethical and likely violates copyright laws.
I agree with Elaine and Bryan. I work in academia, and if a student doesn’t cite their source, that’s plagiarism. In the real (travel blogging) world, a world which I’m learning is surprisingly small, if you don’t cite your source or give a hat tip, then you’re just being a dick.
Additionally, I think if this blog wants to question another author and has reasonable suspicion, it’s absolutely his place. If anyone has ever read and obtained one useful piece of information, then pdf earned that right.
I actually noted this just today and assumed that Saverocity had plagiarized BoardingArea. Which makes what the BA blogger did all the worse.
I agree that it is plagiarism, but not only that.
It’s pure laziness that anybody can just copy another blog as if it is their own work.
If you don’t have something new and interesting to write, then just don’t bother.
At the very least give credit to the source.
Ouch. Hadn’t thought about that angle, thanks.
Yes, I have. More on that later.
Wonderful comment Bobby, thank you so much.
Hmmm. It seems the boardingarea.com plagiarist is following the script. First step is ginning up fake accounts and comments to deflect criticism and muddy the issue. The next step is likely on the way and involves penning to PF Digest a private, carefully worded non-apology that sidesteps the issue of plagiarism completely and attempts to shift an imaginary burden onto you for seeking “credit” for your work (which you have not done) and desiring to make common cause with you (which you likely would not do). I’m wagering this is in the works or has already occurred.
Perhaps a simple “I’m sorry” with a link to your site would have been enough?
Thanks to Matt for alerting us that he was able to determine that the comments criticizing PFDigest were from the same person. One of the reasons I posted about plagiarism is that, sadly, similar comments are been made for real in high schools, colleges and universities. While some students knowingly commit plagiarism with hopes they will get away with it, others simply do not realize that what they are doing is indeed considered plagiarism.
In this case, I expect the blogger did knowingly copy from PFDigest’s post. He is not an inexperienced blogger and he should be called out on it.
Ever since Watergate, we’ve seen example after example of the cover-up being worse than the crime. Sure, James Larounis plagiarized. That’s obvious, in terms of timing, word choice, you name it. It would be preposterous to argue that it’s a coincidence. Everybody makes mistakes or occasional lapses in judgment. It’s probably just a one-time thing, not some pattern.
The right thing for Lorounis to do is just to say sorry, I messed up, my bad, won’t happen again– not deflecting responsibility by blaming the victim or insisting that “everyone does it.” It’s easy: You apologize quickly, and people forgive. You deny the obvious, and it becomes a much bigger brouhaha, and people start to ask a lot more questions.
Which route will James Lorounis choose?
Uh. No. You’re wrong. I’m not posting under any other alias. Whatever. Just more clickbait and another reason to stop reading. Plenty of other blogs that actually post useful topics. Bye. Enjoy your made up drama.
The plagiarist slinks away. No way this guy was an Eagle Scout.
Funny I also remember reading that other post on ba and thinking hmm..where have I read that before!
I don’t hang around finance sites that much, but since James Lorounis copied a post from this site and used it as his own, the entertainment value has shot up and I might just become a regular visitor! I’ve browsed, found some cool tips here, and I don’t blame PF Digest one bit for protecting its intellectual turf from impious encroachers.
Carry on!
It’s later now. Can we have more on that? I noticed the offending post has been removed. Clearly the actions of an innocent person. Did he even bother to apologize?
He has steadfastly refused to apologize or admit guilt. Discussions are ongoing with various parties, and that’s all I can say right now.
Well, that about sums it up, right?
I didn’t do anything wrong!! and yet the plagiarism disappears.
*john* is really only one person (who writes like a bot, complete with repeated use of the word “clickbait”), and yet Matt can see where posts here come from. Sorry, *john* you are busted. I wonder if you blog will be shut down, hmmmm?
Good point Elaine. If you ran it through “turnitin” (the plagiarism software teachers use) I’m sure the software could catch it. Using a thesaurus and changing the structure of sentences does not mean it’s not plagiarism. It means its deceitful, premeditated plagiarism.
You know what site is actually filled with click bait James Larounis? Yours. (which is ironic considering how many times your aliases use the words) I looked through the last two days of posts on your site and half the posts (being generous) were click bait. I particularly loved “There’s Hyatt Diamond and then Hyatt Diamond Premier.” (those are quotes, you should try using them some time) and “Why is Amex marketing the Centurion Lounge to me? It’s a waste of money.” COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME ARTICLES! And then there’s your silver car post today. You plagiarized from Million Mile Secrets Post from yesterday. Apparently you just don’t learn or you have no morals.
If you are actually an Eagle Scout, which I agree with El Fuerte that the odds of that are slim, I’m sure you memorized the Oath. You know, the one where to promise to keep yourself morally straight.
James, going through your blog is like reading high school term papers. There are no original thoughts, and the content is blatantly lifted with poor attempts at obfuscation.
What’s the latest on the James Larounis plagiarism case? Any resolution to the issue of Larounis plagiarizing material off your site and presenting it as his own? Has Larounis fessed-up to plagiarism . . . or not?
We’re currently waiting to hear back from Boarding Area owner Randy Petersen. Apparently he’s taken a hard line against plagiarism in the past and booted a blogger or two from his network, so I’m optimistic that justice will be done.
Hello, PFDigest! Has the James Larounis plagiarism case come to trial yet? I know it was a big deal for a while, as plagiarism is surely a taboo in the blogosphere (though borrowing with attribution seems kosher). I know from your careful documentation that the James Larounis plagiarism case drew much attention from boardingarea.com. But it seems to have settled down.
PFDigest, have you seen where plagiarist James Larounis has surfaced on television as a talking head?