Cheaters are Losers
As you probably know, since you're in the verbal intercourse section
already, I put papers that I write up on my website. I do this
because I believe in the free exchange of information, and I hope that
my writing can help someone think about a topic in a way they haven't
before. Obviously, though, this brings with it the possibility for
someone to copy my work and turn it in. I think the positives outweigh
that risk, but this exchange is evidence that sometimes cheating does
happen. I present it here as entertainment and a warning against
copying.
Names have been changed to protect the guilty. My name is changed because I have a gaim alias set up.
---- New Conversation @ Tue Nov 13 11:50:21 2001 ----
(11:50:21) John Doe: hi
(11:50:21) Me <AUTO-REPLY> : I'm in direct contact with many advanced fun CONCEPTS.
(11:52:01) John Doe: eric please IM me back when you are done with all your many advanced fun concepts.:-)
(12:05:59) Me: hello
---- New Conversation @ Tue Nov 13 12:10:01 2001 ----
(12:10:01) John Doe: hello
(12:10:04) Me: hello
(12:10:14) John Doe: i liked ur web page
(12:10:26) Me: thanks
(12:10:30) John Doe: how old are u?
(12:10:51) Me: 19
(12:11:28) John Doe: are u at to SC
(12:11:31) John Doe: opps
(12:11:35) John Doe: are u at SC?
(12:11:56) Me: yep... MT Deuce
(12:12:22) John Doe: what inspired you to make that web site
(12:12:41) Me: which one?
(12:13:27) John Doe: "which one"....lol....i only say the eWrold.ericrichardson.com one
(12:13:42) Me: ah. you must have found it off google...
(12:13:51) Me: only google likes eworld.ericrichardson.com
(12:13:51) John Doe: ya yahoo
(12:14:17) Me: so who are you?
(12:14:21) John Doe: sorry
(12:14:31) John Doe: my name is *****
(12:14:35) John Doe: i'm from CA
(12:14:48) John Doe: and i go to ****** *********
(12:15:06) Me: cool
(12:15:26) John Doe: so what made u want to make a web page
(12:16:04) Me: i started making one ages ago... it probably would have been '96 or '97
(12:16:11) Me: back then i did it just to do it
(12:16:18) Me: things just sort of went from there
(12:17:01) John Doe: thats impressive, so how often do u up date it
(12:17:34) Me: ehhh... it varies. right now i've been lazy and haven't posted too much
(12:18:24) John Doe: so how long ago did u read st augustine's confessions?
(12:18:38) Me: a month ago, maybe
(12:19:05) John Doe: its very informative, did u read all 13th books?
(12:19:48) Me: no
(12:19:53) Me: the first 9 or so
(12:20:05) Me: then i had to move on to other books
(12:20:10) Me: i want to finish it sometime
(12:20:19) John Doe: for my theology class we read the first 8
(12:21:15) Me: most other people in my class didn't like it, but i thought it was good
(12:21:20) Me: it was just slow reading
(12:21:42) John Doe: the reasson y i IMed you is becuase i used some of what you said and i wanna found out about ur source
(12:21:53) Me: ok
(12:22:21) John Doe: which book did u read, i know u mentioned it, but i couldn't find it
(12:22:32) Me: let me find it...
(12:24:05) Me: ok, the edition is by Hackett Publishing
(12:24:18) John Doe: i got that
(12:24:30) Me: published in '93, i think
(12:24:45) John Doe: 93 is the ed. i couldn't find
(12:25:07) John Doe: i just don't understand some of ur quotations, it seems like you are quoting 2 different sources.
(12:25:14) Me: where?
(12:28:11) John Doe: when the begininng when u quote something its in plan english, at the end of ur essay your quotes have a different tone, for example :"Who than should deliver me from the body of this death, but Thy grace only, through Jesus Christ Our Lord" ...Its werid b/c you source uses "thou" and "Thy"
(12:29:07) Me: the translation uses different English depending on what Augustine is doing
(12:29:15) Me: yours should too, assuming it's the same translator
(12:29:38) Me: i think he used the Thee and Thou and such when Augustine was talking to God
(12:30:27) Me: my edition has a translator's note that talks about this
(12:30:46) John Doe: did u use this Essay for school
(12:31:07) John Doe: brb in 2mins
(12:31:26) Me: yeah, it was for my medieval civilizations class
(12:31:29) Me: ok
(12:35:41) John Doe: i'm back
(12:35:49) John Doe: so what grade did u get on it?
(12:36:16) Me: ummm... i think a B, because it was too short
(12:36:38) John Doe: a B? that was come really good stuff
(12:37:11) Me: i thought so too
(12:37:27) Me: but it was the first essay, and the TAs were grading hard
(12:37:29) John Doe: y aren't u sure of the Ed. do u not have the bok
(12:37:31) John Doe: book
(12:37:49) Me: i have the book right here
(12:38:20) John Doe: did u use help from any other sites?
(12:38:28) Me: no
(12:38:53) Me: actually... i think i did find a different edition online that i used for searching for keywords
(12:39:01) Me: but then i'd have to fidn the same quote in my edition
(12:39:15) John Doe: see i'm having the same problem
(12:39:24) Me: yeah
(12:39:27) Me: it's a pain
(12:39:44) John Doe: so u remember the site where u got the qotes
(12:39:49) John Doe: quotes*
(12:40:04) Me: no
(12:40:12) Me: it was a pdf file of the whole book
(12:40:30) John Doe: pdf? what is that
(12:40:37) Me: i pretty much went through the entire book looking for places where he talked about sin
(12:40:41) Me: adobe acrobat file
(12:40:58) John Doe: o ya
(12:41:27) John Doe: do u think u can find it
(12:41:43) Me: just search for augustine confessions or something like that
(12:41:59) Me: it's an old enough book that there are several translations floating around online
(12:42:18) John Doe: what are some keywords
(12:42:40) Me: i went through looking for sin and grace
(12:44:32) John Doe: the real reason y i'm tlaking to is because i need to find sources because i used ur esssay and my teacher wants me to tell him where i found mysources
(12:44:51) John Doe: so until then i'm fucked
(12:45:08) Me: hehe
(12:45:26) Me: if you're that bad off, come over to the USC bookstore and buy this edition
(12:45:34) Me: i'm sure they still have it
(12:45:48) Me: other than that, that's your problem to deal with
(12:46:18) John Doe: i understand
(12:47:12) John Doe: hey i g2g eat, it was nice talking to you. I really liked ur WP
(12:47:27) Me: thanks. good luck
(12:47:44) John Doe: i'll tell u how it goes
(12:47:47) Me: ok
(12:47:49) John Doe logged out.
---- New Conversation @ Wed Nov 14 15:24:20 2001 ----
(15:24:20) John Doe: eric can i ask u for a favor
(15:24:50) John Doe: u are goin to think i'm crazy....
(15:25:28) John Doe: before i say anything more. Are u there?
(15:28:08) Me: yeah
(15:28:13) Me: i was down the hall
(15:28:44) John Doe: its all good.
(15:29:29) Me: you can ask whatever you want. i can't promise anything, though
(15:30:03) John Doe: hey would it be possible to close your essay on st. augustine for a week. i'm afraid i'm teacher is goin to find it and i'll even pay u money
(15:31:38) Me: heh... let me think about that for a second
(15:32:41) John Doe: I don't know too much about making website , but is it very difficult? i can help u with other stuff too
(15:33:40) Me: my issue with it isn't technical, it's moral. i really don't believe in helping other people copy papers, and taking it off would be pretty explicit support
(15:33:56) Me: also, google wouldn't update the changes, and the paper would still be in the google cache
(15:35:20) John Doe: how is that possible that it would still be in googles cache, the link won;t work, would it?
(15:35:32) Me: the google cache link would
(15:35:37) Me: google cache rocks like that
(15:36:12) John Doe: can we try
(15:36:56) Me: i really don't know that i can morally do that
(15:37:23) John Doe: i understand, hopefully u can feel compassion for me
(15:37:42) John Doe: have u seen "fight club"
(15:37:57) Me: yeah
(15:38:49) John Doe: well i just saw that yesterday, and that fixs to my situation right now
(15:39:13) Me: how so?
(15:40:44) John Doe: remember that seen when brad pitt gets in the car accident, well before that he tells, norten that people need a reality check and i thik u can give me one
(15:42:24) Me: i don't know.
(15:42:51) John Doe: how long does it take to do this?
(15:43:31) Me: to take it down? 10 seconds. technically it's not an issue (except for google cache. i can't do anything about that).
(15:43:39) Me: it's a moral issue.
(15:44:15) Me: i really don't agree with copying papers, and i can't support that by being an accomplice
(15:45:15) John Doe: well i really didn't cpry your esssay i used ur quotes and whwn u type the qutoes in google , your essay shows up
(15:45:46) Me: and that's not going to change, even if i were to take the paper off right now
(15:45:53) Me: it takes a while for google to respider
(15:47:01) John Doe: can we please try
(15:48:09) Me: i don't think so. i can't morally defend that.
(15:48:26) John Doe: please don't think of it as a moral issue
(15:49:21) Me: isn't this a theology class? shouldn't they be pushing morals all over that?
(15:49:44) John Doe: i know its ironic, thats y u have the power
(15:51:32) Me: pulling the paper relegates me to the same status as sites that sell papers. that's not what i put stuff up for. i put things up because i believe in a free flow of information
(15:52:32) John Doe: so let me get this right. Your essay is on another website
(15:52:43) Me: eh?
(15:53:44) John Doe: after what u just said about "pulling the paper relegates me to the same status as sites that sell papers" means that other sites are using ur essay?
(15:55:05) Me: not that i know of. my point was that those sites provide essays for people to cheat. i post my writing because i believe in sharing information
(15:55:28) John Doe: you scared me
(15:58:20) John Doe: Eric can we please at least try
(15:59:28) Me: no. i can't be part of that
(16:03:04) John Doe logged out.
---- New Conversation @ Wed Nov 14 16:06:36 2001 ----
(16:06:36) John Doe: opps my computer frroze
(16:07:18) Me: the fun of windows
(16:07:52) John Doe: funny, can i pay u?
(16:08:01) Me: no
---- New Conversation @ Wed Nov 14 16:12:47 2001 ----
(16:12:47) John Doe: Eric i really need ur help, i know what i did was wrong, and i'm not asking for to much. I don't think u understand how much power you really have, my faith is in ur hands
(16:15:01) John Doe: i have to go, but can u please think about it eric
(16:15:13) Me: i'll think about it, but i really don't think i'll agree
(16:15:42) John Doe: please be compassionate, i will talk 2 u later...thanks for hearing me out
(16:16:12) Me: yep
(16:16:22) John Doe logged out.