Thread: Building a better Reputation by SOURCING your work!

This "tutorial" is meant to help members properly source any material used in the creation of new tutorials.

Sourcing means to add, either web links or an acknowledgement to your tutorial saying that you've used information from another source in order to compile the tutorial being posted and the work is not completely original. Even when creating a unique guide there are usually some sources that could be acknowledged because you inevitably pull some aspects of your information from someone elses posted work.

Before posting a new "Tips & Tricks" or "How To" tutorial there is one question that you need to ask yourself.

1. Is what I'm posting original or did I get this information from another website?

If you are not the originator of the material, meaning that the same information is easily found by others using Google, then you must source your work properly. Doing so shows the community that you are honest and trustworthy by not taking credit for someone else’s hard work.

Most T-I members are savvy enough to recognize that 8 out of 10 tutorials posted here are not originalworks. In the best case scenario they are typically paraphrased from someone else's tutorial or worst case scenario they are out right cut and paste copies, which is an offense that could easily get you banned.

We would always prefer that one takes the time to at least paraphrase a work rather than provide a lazy cut and paste copy.

Quality paraphrasing of work shows a couple of things:

· That you care enough to read, understand and rewrite the information rather than merely cutting and pasting it in order to improve your post count or gain reputation

· That you have at least a general understanding of the information and vouch for the quality of the tip or trick

· That you acknowledge the authors original content as unique and respect it by not copying it and calling it your own

Please note that even a paraphrased work should be sourced so that the originator of the work can be credited for his/her efforts.

You are far more likely to receive positive reputation from a quality tutorial that is properly sourcedthan you are from one that is not sourced at all. Reason being that it appears as if you are trying to pass off the work as original which we will all frown upon.


Here is what many posters don’t seem to understand:

If a properly sourced tutorial is of a high quality and contains useful information people will appreciate your efforts even when the content is not original! However when you fail to source, that same high quality tutorial can bring you equal, if not more, negative reputation making it very difficult for you to recover from your image as a plagiarist.

Plagiarizing someone else’s hard work makes you appear to be a dishonest cheat who is only trying to gain post count and reputation rather than being more concerned with being a good helpful community member. This can often cause long-term damage to your credibility and you may not be able to recover due to members not wanting to rep a known plagiarist.

In summary providing lazy tutorials reduces your credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of the community so please source your work[ properly so that we can see that you are an honest and trustworthy member of T-I and we will appreciate your efforts!