Increasing Plagiarism

Very well written :)

1) Yes, people often plagiarize older programs intentionally as it is easier to get away with. I know from experience as, as of 2 years ago, I had plagiarized too! Modern day, I've deleted those programs. Others feel that a simple yet somewhat hidden (made by _) or (code by _) will suffice but that is false.

2) Actually, I may have been plagiarizing up till this day if it weren't for a little incident. Basically, I released "Flappy Bird Hardcore" (this was after I had cut plagiarizing but there was no incentive to stop). Suddenly, three programs appeared on the bottom of the hotlist each the exact same, just with comments removed and a green theme added. It was ridiculous and made me feel really bad. That truly taught me what it feels like. Plagiarizers need to feel remorse.

3) Plagiarizers and violators should be given a few chances. On a more positive note. They need to learn their lesson, yet not be banned. Everyone needs a chance on KA and deserves one. These people may or may not understand / read the guidelines, yet a reminder and a nudge in the right direction can prove well. Whilst it better I don't mention names, in my 5 years on khan I've seen some big names whos first programs were plagiarism.

I totally agree, except I have no sophisticated speech.

I have created a post mentioning solutions, but it is pending approval. 

Well said, TDJ!

A plagiarism detector sounds like a great idea. And there are definitely ways to do it.

Very Well said! Thanks for trying to take a stand against it :)

This is a great post, and I love your suggestions. Another solution could also be a random team of coders who don't do much but have some influence in the community to work against plagiarism. 

Really good suggestion! It's worth noting that plagiarism from other websites, such as Codepen, is a big problem. Also, there's a chance crafty copiers might plagiarize from hidden and/or deleted programs.

Don't you guys think you're overreacting a little bit? Yeah, there are people out there that just Copy/Paste other people's programs to get Votes, but they're not real programmers. Maybe we should just leave them be, and focus on our stuff.

Yes, I've noticed plagiarism becoming more and more of an issue.

I think TDJ's first suggestion would work well. I remember when I first started coding courses, the idea of a "spin-off" wasn't very clear to me and wouldn't be until later that I realized what it was. In one instance, I remember a friend once asking to creating a new program to copy and paste code from a tutorial because they weren't sure how to save it. Luckily, I managed to tell them about spin-offs before they could accidentally plagiarize.

Boosting awareness of how to not plagiarize and the possible alternatives (spin-offs, giving credit/directing linking to the original, etc.) is what I would say is the most effective option. At least this way, the chance of accidental plagiarism is somewhat reduced.

I think a plagiarism detector would be neat, but, albeit, hard to implement. The community system of flagging programs is fine imo. If I were to make a suggestion, maybe programs with something like 5+ (just throwing a random number out there btw) flags for plagiarism (or really any issue) would be temporarily hidden from the hotlist/public, until a guardian can review it.

Sage,

Even if they're not "real programmers" for right now, these habits can carry into the future if they don't understand the consequences. It's better to deal with things on a smaller scale right now than to wait until later when things escalate and bigger problems occur. Obviously, accidental plagiarism is not as big of a deal, which is why I would recommend raising awareness about it first before implementing a plagiarism detector of some sort.

These are just my ideas on what I think should happen, but I'm up to hear what others say. :D

Of course, but even with a plagiarism detector, there are still going to be people out there that are deceptive. Adding a feature to Khan Academy that will stop people from taking credit from other people's work is not going to permanently stop them. Remember: where there's people, there's sin. Deceptive people naturally want to take credit for things that they didn't do. The best thing we can do is not to be those people.

And of course, i'm not saying that I'm alright with them stealing (essentially). I'm just saying, there might not be much we can do considering we have 8.5 billion people on our planet, and they're still going to find a way around it.

Sage I agree for sure we can't stop them. But shouldn't we at least try? But the best way might just be flagging them. KA's system is probably the best. As long as people flag them. The only problem is only a few people might know.

I honestly think we should just let it go. Yes, it is pretty annoying when others take credit for something they never accomplished, but that's just life. Even if we do manage to get people to stop, there will always be someone out there that's trying to be deceptive.

I do think a Plagiarism detector would be the best idea for new projects, but perhaps only run through recent and top projects. There's millions of projects out there, and short-lined projects could have a high chance of being similar. Maybe the project detector could record what was copied/pasted, and if a large portion (More than 10-ish lines) was pasted, or smaller portions were pasted quickly in chunks, it could be plagiarism. However I find myself commonly doing this in large games (Collision functions, sprites, etc.) so I would keep this in the intro course projects, where Plagiarism seems to be most common. 

Another thing I would propose is some sort of Plagiarism search feature that would allow people to quickly search thumbnails and code snippets on Khan Academy. 

I would highly disprove of adding this plagiarism detector to projects in general, however. If any mistakes were made, innocent projects could be hidden from the hotlist. This could really discourage new programmers in the community. Maybe instead of hiding it from the hotlist, it would auto-flag it as possible plagiarism. Guardians could then deal with the situation there.

Ummm, why aren't the Guardians responding? 

As others say, well said TDJ. I'm actually surprised a plagiarism checker wasn't still a thing.

I think that

1. There should be a three-strike rule or something similar to that. Most people copying other people's codes don't know about this.
2. There should be a tool for collaboration, given that the current system only allows collaboration to happen using complex spin-off and copy-pasting. Git integration sounds suitable for this.
3. Since people could come up with more elaborate ways of stealing, Guardians will still need to patrol and show dignity. So, I think they need to have a badge displayed after their usernames (like guardian_username🛡️)

Edit: typo