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Due to the amount of support this has received, I've posted a follow up: Stopping tag wiki plagiarism, Part II: Taking Action.

tl;dr: We have a problem with plagiarism. Let's make it clear to editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay, and that reviewers are expected to check for it.

 

Also, let's set a policy of temporarily review-banning reviewers who approve blatant plagiarism.

Stack Overflow has a problem with plagiarism in tag wikis (and tag wiki excerpts). How do I know? Well:

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

Plagiarism is Not Okay. We should do what we can to keep it off our site.

Therefore, I propose we take two actions:

1. Let's make it clear to both editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

Let's add some text to the "What are Tag Wikis" sidebar shown to editors when suggesting an edit specifying, in bold text, that plagiarism is Not Okay.

Next, let's make it clear to reviewers in the queue that they are expected to check for plagiarism. I'm actually considering proposing making reviewers confirm that they checked for plagiarism before approving a tag wiki. I'm not sold on the implementation, though - as long as it's text somewhere that reviewers will read.

2. Let's set a precedent that approving obvious plagiarism will get you a break from review.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

Reviewers that approve content copied verbatim from Wikipedia, a project page, or anything else the editor didn't write aren't reviewing correctly.

"Not reviewing correctly" is simply another term for "abuse". Approving these edits is actively harming the site. We can't tolerate that.

Let's set a precedent that anyone who approves obvious plagiarism (as determined by a moderator) is instantly eligible for an x-day review ban.

I honestly believe that this is the only way we can stop the influx of plagiarized content - our contribution filter isn't working, so let's fix it.

But I don't want to check for plagiarism, it's too much work! I completely understand - and you don't have to review tag wikis. It's that simple: If a user isn't willing to put in the work required to do a job correctly, there are plenty of others that are. You're completely welcome to skip the wikis, of course, which represent a minority of the reviews in that queue.

Thoughts?

Due to the amount of support this has received, I've posted a follow up: Stopping tag wiki plagiarism, Part II: Taking Action.

tl;dr: We have a problem with plagiarism. Let's make it clear to editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay, and that reviewers are expected to check for it.

Also, let's set a policy of temporarily review-banning reviewers who approve blatant plagiarism.

Stack Overflow has a problem with plagiarism in tag wikis (and tag wiki excerpts). How do I know? Well:

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

Plagiarism is Not Okay. We should do what we can to keep it off our site.

Therefore, I propose we take two actions:

1. Let's make it clear to both editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

Let's add some text to the "What are Tag Wikis" sidebar shown to editors when suggesting an edit specifying, in bold text, that plagiarism is Not Okay.

Next, let's make it clear to reviewers in the queue that they are expected to check for plagiarism. I'm actually considering proposing making reviewers confirm that they checked for plagiarism before approving a tag wiki. I'm not sold on the implementation, though - as long as it's text somewhere that reviewers will read.

2. Let's set a precedent that approving obvious plagiarism will get you a break from review.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

Reviewers that approve content copied verbatim from Wikipedia, a project page, or anything else the editor didn't write aren't reviewing correctly.

"Not reviewing correctly" is simply another term for "abuse". Approving these edits is actively harming the site. We can't tolerate that.

Let's set a precedent that anyone who approves obvious plagiarism (as determined by a moderator) is instantly eligible for an x-day review ban.

I honestly believe that this is the only way we can stop the influx of plagiarized content - our contribution filter isn't working, so let's fix it.

But I don't want to check for plagiarism, it's too much work! I completely understand - and you don't have to review tag wikis. It's that simple: If a user isn't willing to put in the work required to do a job correctly, there are plenty of others that are. You're completely welcome to skip the wikis, of course, which represent a minority of the reviews in that queue.

Thoughts?

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

Due to the amount of support this has received, I've posted a follow up: Stopping tag wiki plagiarism, Part II: Taking Action.

tl;dr: We have a problem with plagiarism. Let's make it clear to editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay, and that reviewers are expected to check for it.

Also, let's set a policy of temporarily review-banning reviewers who approve blatant plagiarism.

Stack Overflow has a problem with plagiarism in tag wikis (and tag wiki excerpts). How do I know? Well:

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

Plagiarism is Not Okay. We should do what we can to keep it off our site.

Therefore, I propose we take two actions:

1. Let's make it clear to both editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

Let's add some text to the "What are Tag Wikis" sidebar shown to editors when suggesting an edit specifying, in bold text, that plagiarism is Not Okay.

Next, let's make it clear to reviewers in the queue that they are expected to check for plagiarism. I'm actually considering proposing making reviewers confirm that they checked for plagiarism before approving a tag wiki. I'm not sold on the implementation, though - as long as it's text somewhere that reviewers will read.

2. Let's set a precedent that approving obvious plagiarism will get you a break from review.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

Reviewers that approve content copied verbatim from Wikipedia, a project page, or anything else the editor didn't write aren't reviewing correctly.

"Not reviewing correctly" is simply another term for "abuse". Approving these edits is actively harming the site. We can't tolerate that.

Let's set a precedent that anyone who approves obvious plagiarism (as determined by a moderator) is instantly eligible for an x-day review ban.

I honestly believe that this is the only way we can stop the influx of plagiarized content - our contribution filter isn't working, so let's fix it.

But I don't want to check for plagiarism, it's too much work! I completely understand - and you don't have to review tag wikis. It's that simple: If a user isn't willing to put in the work required to do a job correctly, there are plenty of others that are. You're completely welcome to skip the wikis, of course, which represent a minority of the reviews in that queue.

Thoughts?

Due to the amount of support this has received, I've posted a follow up: Stopping tag wiki plagiarism, Part II: Taking Action.

tl;dr: We have a problem with plagiarism. Let's make it clear to editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay, and that reviewers are expected to check for it.

Also, let's set a policy of temporarily review-banning reviewers who approve blatant plagiarism.

Stack Overflow has a problem with plagiarism in tag wikis (and tag wiki excerpts). How do I know? Well:

1. I just opened the suggested edit queue history and scrolled through looking for edits to tag wikis. The third one I found was this one. Guess what? It's copied from php.net.

2. My go-to technique for finding these: Writing a SEDE query to list all tag wikis and excerpts... then ordering it randomly. It should be much, much harder than this... but the plagiarism is everywhere.

Plagiarism is Not Okay. We should do what we can to keep it off our site.

Therefore, I propose we take two actions:

1. Let's make it clear to both editors and reviewers that plagiarism is Not Okay.

According to the privilege page for approving tag-wiki edits, reviewers need to "ensure" that "All the content is original or attributed properly". This means that they should, at least, copy a few sentences out of a tag wiki into Google (in quotes, for literal matching) before approving. Approving these is Not Okay. We'll come back to that.

Let's add some text to the "What are Tag Wikis" sidebar shown to editors when suggesting an edit specifying, in bold text, that plagiarism is Not Okay.

Next, let's make it clear to reviewers in the queue that they are expected to check for plagiarism. I'm actually considering proposing making reviewers confirm that they checked for plagiarism before approving a tag wiki. I'm not sold on the implementation, though - as long as it's text somewhere that reviewers will read.

2. Let's set a precedent that approving obvious plagiarism will get you a break from review.

I believe that the only way we can really curb this disease is to make sure reviewers are doing their job - remember the privilege page? "When approving these edits, ensure that: All the content is original or attributed properly"

Reviewers that approve content copied verbatim from Wikipedia, a project page, or anything else the editor didn't write aren't reviewing correctly.

"Not reviewing correctly" is simply another term for "abuse". Approving these edits is actively harming the site. We can't tolerate that.

Let's set a precedent that anyone who approves obvious plagiarism (as determined by a moderator) is instantly eligible for an x-day review ban.

I honestly believe that this is the only way we can stop the influx of plagiarized content - our contribution filter isn't working, so let's fix it.

But I don't want to check for plagiarism, it's too much work! I completely understand - and you don't have to review tag wikis. It's that simple: If a user isn't willing to put in the work required to do a job correctly, there are plenty of others that are. You're completely welcome to skip the wikis, of course, which represent a minority of the reviews in that queue.

Thoughts?