To the author, a reward; to the non-author, nothing but a fig with butter. Update 27.07.2011
Hello, friends.
It's time to remind you all how much I love creators and original content, as well as to sort out some aspects of our social media life together. Part of what follows will be a repetition of my notes from my personal blog; you can consider this the mother of teachings and an official announcement that changes aimed at encouraging creativity are now in full effect.
So, over the past month, several important changes have taken place, making the benefits of independent writing evident to the naked eye.
So,
- copy-pasting that has reached "silver" status grants the user only 10 XP (three times less than an original post - 30 XP);
- copy-pasting cannot attain a status higher than "silver" ("golden", granting 60 XP per post, or "diamond", granting 150 XP);
- copy-pasting does not appear on the main page of Gamer.ru.
In each user's profile, next to the number of posts appears the number of copy-pastes.
By following the link, you can see the full list of copy-pastes for each author. Additionally, next to the title of their non-original post, each user can see the notation "Copy-paste" and take action regarding it.
Definitions
An original post is considered to be one that is 80% made up of unique text. The remaining 20% can consist of quoting others' thoughts - this happens all the time, it's a normal occurrence.
A translation is considered an original work.
A rewrite (i.e., text rewritten in one’s own words) is regarded as an original post if 80% uniqueness is achieved.
The quality of translation or rewriting is not taken into account when determining originality. You must vote for quality with your upvotes and (spicy) comments. The editorial team does not interfere in this process (almost).
A post with low uniqueness (less than 80%) is considered copy-paste. Copy-paste includes texts copied from other websites; collections of screenshots, artworks, and videos (exceptions: original photographs and artworks; videos from video hosting platforms that are marked as created specifically for gamer.ru).
Even if you are the author of the text, but you posted it somewhere else first and only then on gamer.ru, then that text will be recognized as copy-paste. A post published first on gamer.ru and only after a day on your personal resource will not be considered copy-paste, as gamer.ru will be regarded as the primary source in this case.
To check uniqueness, we use the Advego Plagiatus program, which extracts all borrowed fragments from the text and gives a uniqueness score. The program is free, feel free to use it to monitor the uniqueness of your texts.
Just in case, let me clarify: we handle the sorting of posts manually. In any process involving human factors, errors are inevitable. I am ready to acknowledge these errors; there have been known cases when a copy-paste that became "diamond" lost its status, and the author lost their experience. There are also known cases when a post mistakenly recognized as copy-paste was returned to original status.
A situation may arise where an original post from gamer.ru is copied to another resource. This situation can be resolved quite simply by comparing publication dates: where the date is earlier, there is the original. Since publication dates can be changed, we conduct a control check using Google search.
What to do if your post is marked as copy-paste?
Run it through Advego Plagiatus. If the uniqueness is above 80%, it is worth informing the moderator @Advert, and they will correct the situation. If it is lower - don’t bother the administration, it won't help.
Rewrite the post - that is, retell its content in your own words, preserving the essence. This will help clear your karma and improve your stats :)
Collections of screenshots and videos: for the post to be considered unique, provide it with original accompanying text of 500 characters. These can be captions for screenshots, annotations for videos, etc. You are the authors, get creative with the topic :)
The benefits for creators of original texts do not end here; within a month we will launch something new, interesting, and creative.
Request for formatting texts
This is a request, but it should be taken seriously as everything in a good post should be perfect - both thoughts and the "body". This has been proven in practice :)
Please avoid using prefixes in your post titles. For example, "[translation] How I Met Your Mother" or "Original Post! Review of the Game "Psycho Circus". First the essence, then the "technicals".
Links to sources, links to related posts, and acknowledgments to other users are better published at the end of the post.
Do not build Giza pyramids out of tables, dividers, and headers; know the measure. Pay special attention to tables, as one unclosed tag can ruin not only the post but also the comments beneath it.
Pay attention to the post's preview image - the reader will understand what awaits them inside by it. Do not start a post with a table or divider - such things look intimidating on the main page. Remember that there is a cut tag, which can trim the preview where you need it.
How to get the "Recommended by the Editorial Team" medal?
Write a good, competent guide, manual, or walkthrough for a game, in a blog where similar guides are not present.
Format it properly (see above).
Check it for errors at least a couple of times (and avoid the embarrassment of mixing up "-ться"/"-тся").
Send a request for the medal in a personal message to @Advert. If he likes the result - he will assess, reward, and praise it.
What else can you do to shine on the main page?
Write original news about games in a news (not blog) format, like what is accepted in standard media. All these news items will get into our RSS "Important News", will hang on the main page in a special block, and will please us. You need to show them to me for them to make it into "Important". If you don’t understand what "news" format means, ask the top users.
I hope all of the above will make our lives much more appealing. Good luck, I look forward to your achievements!