SoloLearn – 1M Downloads. What we expect?

Question

So, today there's a good news and also a bad news for us.

Starting with the good news:
SoloLearn's Android app now reached 1M downloads on the play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sololearn

Bad news:
One of our community member well known as a mod - @Agus Mei has left SoloLearn due to the increased rate of spams and Plagiarism.
So, let's start a petition against these plagiarism by commenting some of the useful ways of preventing spams, scams etc...

Answer 1

Copy ideas :
Not codes!

Be innovative :
Not imitative!

Give credits,
where it's due.

Answer 2

Hiding code? Obfuscate code?
THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A LEARNING PLATFORM.
If you are afraid that your code is being "stolen" keep it private.

The fact is that many people are more interested in showing off for some likes and some badges.
That is legittimate as Solo Learn promotes this and the trade off is that it leads some other individuals to try and do it the easy (copy-paste-edit attribution) way.

I saw sometimes complaints for "stolen" code by the author on SL that actually copy/pasted it from CodePen/Github/... without attribution (even codes of yhe day).

Honestly, all I have learned is due to people that made their knowledge public and I'll always be grateful to them.
If somebody copies my code it means he REALLY LIKED it and/or found potential in it to get some "likes"/badges: I'm fine with it.
Another one may not be fine with it and he can send an email to SL to fix the situation.

Pls stop being hysteric, it's so ridiculous.
You're jealous about your code being copied: don't make it public!

Answer 3

Hey guys! SoloLearn here:) It's great to see our concerns are aligned.... and the greatest part is that you guys are also searching for solutions to problems that come up as we grow. We are currently working on automating the process, yet, happy to hear some great fresh ideas... We all want SoloLearn to remain a friendly and just community that supports the learning path of every individual, be it a total beginner or an advanced user. Keep rocking, SoloLearn community!

Answer 4

I am against plagiarism but wouldn't, only output being visible, eliminate the purpose of the app which is to learn.
Because of few people.. why should other people be suffering from a situation like not being able to see a code.
Also for sharing the codes.. that power would lie with the dev and everytime someone wants to see your code you would have to accept some stuff which will eventually become annoying maybe..

Answer 5

Wouldn't it be really easy to just prevent publishing code from a different creator? If another user chooses 'save as...' the option to set code to public is disabled?

Answer 6

There is a difference between "copy to learn" and "copy to gain fame while doing nothing".

All that plagiaristic thing isn't a reason to leave SL.
Scam-adv threads are annoying but they can be reported.

Putting captcha changes not much, providing only output eliminates "learning" part of SL, removing vote system and badges changes even less than captcha.

I don't say: "do nothing bc all that is senseless" I say: "think of it not as a problem but as a challenge we need to solve. yet anyway we'll have some unaccounted "variables" that don't behave as they should".

Answer 7

Mods should get their powers! They should be authorized to delete, report, and prevent the spam questions in the Q&A Discussions. This app should have some better security features like a captcha verification before logging in so that the spam bots won't be able to verify and or login.

Answer 8

Sololearn must introduce a watermark system to embed creator id/name, date, and why not code id in a code playground project, wich should not be modified by saving the code ( even if it is kept private ) and could be displayed as 'original code creation information' beside code creator information... Maybe it could be deleted by the right owner?

Answer 9

@Dayve
It's never good for the community when an active user left. Agus was good member. If my other good friends who are very active in this community stopped it then there is no reason using it.

I'll keep using it but now not interested in challenge and with submitting question.

Answer 10

@seamiki, @Gami It's not about being histerical. I myself have published the labyrinth code which was not my idea. I ported it to Python from Ruby, but the concept was not mine. I still got the likes and glory here :)

BUT! I mentioned the author in the header comments and left a link to the guy's original code - he made an effort to publish his work so guys like me could learn. I can't pretend it's mine and spoil his generosity...

Tashi is right - open source means you can use it freely. But you can't call it or claim it your own :)

Answer 11

Taking someone else's work as yours and signing under this work is a theft. No additional copyrights, license issues or legal constraints are needed here - a theft is a theft.
Watermarking won't solve the problem - you can easily copy the whole code, start a new program and paste it. Only adequate sanction will solve it.
As a moderator, I would suggest introducing another option as a reason for submitting a report - "This account does plagiarism". Reporting by three mods should remove the account, permanently.

Answer 12

For PLAGIARISM: Codes should be categorized like this to help us finding original authors:

- My Codes (our own published as public or private)
- Saved Codes (someone else's code that shows and links to their profile)
- Liked Codes (history of the codes we have upvoted)

For SPAM: Well @Yeva just pointed out that they are currently working on it to automate the process. In the meantime let's keep reporting them.

-------------------------------------------------------
I can't believe @Yeva wrote here 😍

Answer 13

I am against plagiarism but I do agree with @seamiki... Some people, like the "Matrix Background" by Adrian Marin Gheorghe has been stolen from Codepen and got 3k likes... There are so many others, and they do complain because "their" codes are stolen... If you do not want to be copied, do not post it public...

And for @Agus, I am really sorry they left... I am gonna miss them (I am using "they" cuz I do not know if they are a boy or a girl)...

Answer 14

They should make a notification type system like as in challenges the guy who wants the code should ask for the author's permission and if the authors confirms he can do it and if he declines he could not

Answer 15

<copied from Agus byebye thread>

there has to be an easier way though.

what is the motivation for the theft? If we can understand that maybe we have a chance.

Is it fame they seek?

I do not think it is learning, as many do not change the code. Just remove names.

Does the COTD feature need to go? Do we remove the like system from codes.. maybe remove the coder badges?

I dont know.

But I do know that unless we can understand why the behaviour occurs we will always be fighting a losing battle..

Answer 16

Topic of the Day... with meme! I hope that more people can see this thread for write their opinion here! I already wrote my opinion on Plagiarism in more occasions.

Great work @Davye!

Answer 17

@Kuba. here we face another problem: differentiating plagiarized code from original one. +many simple codes are basically the same. so who is original author then???

Answer 18

@Nikhil No. You just couldn't publish it as easy as now. You could keep it private for learning purposes.

Answer 19

Suggestion:- The real creator of the code should tell which codes can be open-source and which not

Answer 20

I don't think mods should be able to delete posts that they think are spam or irrelevant.
This community is so diverse, there can be very many misunderstandings because of the language.
Or they might think that something is spam where others think it is not.

The only thing that should be there in my opinion, is a filter that checks if a question with the same words got asked before. And people should only be able to make a thread every 5 minutes. A new person should only be able to make 1-2 threads and then they have to reach a certain level to make as many threads as he likes.