The Writer's Pulse

Ad hominem is one of the most frequently used forms of propaganda. In Latin, it means “to the man,” and occurs when a person overlooks the substance of an argument and instead attacks its source. Here’s an example:

“I think it’s best to decrease the amount you travel during the swine flu outbreak,” said Joe.

“Yeah, well, you’re an idiot.”

Is Joe an idiot? Even if that’s true, it doesn’t address the claim of his argument and is therefore fallacious. It doesn’t matter.

Any time a person “rebukes” an argument with claims against the individual making it, they are using ad hominem propaganda: they are trying to divert attention away from the argument itself.

In fact, this is usually effective, for better or worse. In the case of a political campaign, for example, it might be fair to point out an opponent’s past political decisions as a rebuke against one of their proposals. It would be, in that sense, relevant to the overall discussion of who would make a better representative.

In most debates, however, you want to stay as far away from ad hominem attacks as possible. Not only does it take the focus away from the argument, it also decreases your own credibility.

To counter ad hominem propaganda, always respond to arguments with logical, reasonable claims. If someone uses ad hominem attacks against you, ignore them and move on.

For more information on ad hominem propaganda, click on over to the following:

• Mission: Critical (Ad Hominem Introduction)

You’ve always been told that you shouldn’t plagiarize, but what are you supposed to do when someone steals your work? Don’t worry: I’m here to help.

I assume most reading this article are concerned with plagiarism on the Internet, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on. In fact, plagiarism in print media is actually easier to deal with: the articles don’t tend to linger, and it’s much easier to zero in on the plagiarists themselves. Plus, it’s usually a career ender.

On the Internet, things can be somewhat more difficult.

Precautions

Before I even get into the aftermath of having your work plagiarized, I think it’s important to consider what you can do before it happens. Of course, no matter what you do there’s always a chance that someone will come along and snatch up something you’ve created, but it’s always better to plan ahead.

Here are a couple of easy steps you can take to give yourself the advantage:

Let people know how they can fairly use your content. Under the Fair Use policy, anyone can make partial use of content without requesting permission. The problem arises when they overstep their bounds, so it’s a good idea to set limitations and state them clearly beforehand. Provide a concise copyright notice (for example: Copyright © 2009 My Site Name) and create a page explaining the acceptable use of your content.

Get a license. You don’t need a license; once you create something, it’s yours. Still, it can never hurt to have something more or less official backing up your claim to ownership. Check out Creative Commons (which provides limitations while still allowing others to copy and share your work) and iCopyright (for something more restrictive).

These, of course, are just deterrents. The existence of splogs and content thieves on the Internet is an epidemic that will probably never cease to exist. Luckily, you have a number of ways to deal with them.

Courses of action

So, you’re browsing the Internet, you’re checking your ping-backs, you’re reading your e-mails, and you find that someone is taking your content and putting their name on it (or otherwise not making it clear who the original author is). What do you do?

1. The first course of action is to contact the plagiarist. Send them an e-mail requesting that the content in question be removed from their site. Sometimes, however unlikely it may be, the person copying your work simply doesn’t know any better. Other times, they’ll want to avoid further confrontation.

2. If that doesn’t work, take it to the next (and more brutal) level: contact their web host. If they’re hosting their blog on WordPress.com or Blogger, or any other free blogging service, shoot the owners (in this case the WordPress team or Google) an e-mail explaining the situation.

For example, last year one of my articles was picked up by a splogger (in this case a human manually adding posts, not a feed-scraping bot). I sent him an e-mail and contacted the WordPress team. The situation was resolved within 24 hours. In the interest of full disclosure, it’s much easier to handle plagiarism when it occurs on blogs that are on free hosting.

If they’re not on a free host, you can do a Whois search or visit WhoIsHostingThis to learn which host they are using. No host likes to be affiliated with content thieves (or anything illegal), so you can expect some action to be taken.

3. Consider contacting advertisers. If you see Google Adsense ads, that would be a good place to start, as plagiarists would be in direct violation of their Adsense policy. Other advertisers have similar policies, so be sure to notify them of the problem if necessary.

4. If what you’re dealing with turns out to be a Splog, head over to SplogSpot and enter it into the database. Splogs are the scourge of the blogosphere, and most are actually feed-scrapers that automate the information gathering process. These are the reason many bloggers opt to not allow their full articles to appear in feeds. Here’s an interesting article about it (read the comments for extra fun).

Resources

The sad truth is that, no matter how hard you try, content thieves aren’t going anywhere. You may win one battle against a splog or a plagiarist, but sooner or later you can bet that another will probably come along.

So keep an eye out. There’s not much else you can do.

If you’re looking for more information on plagiarism, be sure to check out these other resources:

• Plagiarism.org
• What to do if you’ve been plagiarized
• How to Deal with Online Plagiarism

I don’t play Everquest II anymore (it used to be my MMO of choice, but that’s a whole other story), but it looks like things in Norrath are about to get a little more interesting. Or at least a bit more cultured.

An upcoming game update will implement a feature that allows players to write and distribute their own books within the game world:

Essentially the process is simple: nip to your local crafter and buy a blank book. Once you start writing, that book becomes tied to you the author. According to Rothgar [an Everquest II developer], there’s no limit to pages but there is to words. – Everquest II lets you become an in-game author

Commenters at Massively point out that this is not the first instance of user-created, in-game books, as they’ve also appeared in Ultima Online and There, but any step towards improving immersion and giving players a chance to be creative is definitely a good thing.

Marc Gunther recently found out first hand the negative, albeit unintentional, impact Twitter can have on journalistic integrity.

In his article, “Why Twitter is bad for journalism,” he reflects on a recent incident that occurred during Brainstorm Green (a business event focusing on the environment) in which he miscommunicated, via Twitter, an announcement that “allowances under a cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions should initially be given away.” This was, as it turned out, not what was actually said.

According to Gunther, this issue is particularly controversial, and so his tweet caused a good bit of dissension among environmentalists following the event. Here’s what he has to say:

The real mistake, though, is trying to cover a story in little live bursts. You can’t concentrate, you can’t think, you can’t convey a complex idea, you can’t persuade or explain. That’s why Twitter is bad for journalism–or, more specifically, it is not the right vehicle within which to do journalism.

The article, which can be found here, is definitely worth a look.

Here’s an anecdote:

“Hey,” said Jimmy, “I don’t want to go to school today. Everyone’s skipping class!”
“And if everyone jumped off a bridge, you’d jump too, right?” said his mother, “Right?!”

The bandwagon appeal is put to use when you want your audience to feel like they’re missing out, they need to be a part of an experience, or they are on the losing side of a particular battle. It’s peer-pressure, really.

Advertisers use it all the time to pull you in (“Everyone agrees, our product is the best!” or “Watch Blah, the hottest new show of the season” or “Over 99 Billion Served”), but bandwagon appeals can go well beyond simple persuasion in advertising.

Think of the Red Scare, pet rocks (and any other fad), or, as a more contemporary example, the “go green” movement. Everyone is “going green” — including multi-billion dollar corporations looking for some good PR (you can tell by how they turned their logos green, oh yeah) — and you should, too. It doesn’t matter if the cause is good or not; they’re using bandwagon appeals so you’ll feel that you want to be a part of the majority.

Today’s Earth Day, by the way. Happy Earth Day.

If you use a bandwagon appeal, you’re tapping into your audience’s desire to fit in. Make them feel excluded, in the dark, at a disadvantage. Alienated, if they don’t join the crowd. If done correctly, they’ll want to do whatever it takes to fix that.

How to avoid the bandwagon

It’s clear that the bandwagon appeal is a logical fallacy: just because a majority (or perceived majority) is doing something, that doesn’t mean they’re right. So, there is one thing an individual needs to do before drinking the kool-aid: research. It’s the downfall of most forms of propaganda.

Want to learn more? Check out this webpage for further analysis and more examples of the bandwagon appeal.