Why is it?

Question

Why do some people cut and paste answers from the web and claim to know?

Answer 1

The lower box is there to cite your sources. If a person does take information from a website or other document, it is proper to give credit where it is due.

Sometimes copying and pasting information is more thorough than a brief synopsis, some questions are very sensitive and deserve a thoughtful response. I will cut and paste if the information is important enough, but I will put quotation marks around it and note where I got the info from. And I explain what I'm saying.

If you've gone to college you know you MUST cite your sources otherwise you are plagiarizing. This is standard research and Yahoo Answers seems to support that with the "Know your source" box.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

This is really annoying. I also ask questions in the food section, looking for "tried and true" recipes. If I wanted some random recipe, I could very easily get it myself. Most of the time, I'm looking for old family recipes that people have made a hundred times and they KNOW is good. I end up getting a recipe that's obviously cut and pasted. Why even bother? When I answer questions, I WORK for my two points!

Answer 3

I think when people ask questions it makes others want to go and find the information for them in search for an answer that they may not even know. So, when they do find that info, to save time, they cut and paste the info, with the intention of trying to help the person out with their queston on here.

Maybe the person asking the q doesn't mind and is grateful someone found what they couldn't find. Isn't that the whole point of why people ask questions on here?

Answer 4

Maybe they already know, but they found a more detailed answer with facts and references.

Plus, be glad that there are people at least researching, and thinking before they call out an answer. There are a lot of morons on here who give crappy advice that is based on no scientific evidence whatsoever, just hearsay. At least the people who Google answers are giving something correct.


Example:

Question: Uh, hay guyz, where is Vietnam located?
A: I think it's South America
A: Europe, my dad told me
A: lolz its located in ur mom
A: Uh der, isn't it a city in China or something
A: (copy-pasted from Wikipedia) Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia blah blah blah...

See how good that copy-paster looks next to all those morons? I see examples like that every day on here....

Answer 5

When people cut and paste long explanations, I rule them out as best answer. I would much prefer original thought. Not those flippant one word answers, either.

Answer 6

That want to be perceived as the smart one because they know the answer.

I always put my own thoughts and if I know there is a better source, I will paste it with my answer, but I put it in quotations to show its not mine and I put the link in the box below this one.

Answer 7

Easy!

Because we put up with cheating in so many ways and places, young people have been tacitly taught that clipping from other sources, even outright plagiarism, is "just as good" as having dredged up the information, yourself.

P.S. POLLY, this doesn't mean you; you cite your sources, as responsible people do.

Answer 8

I do that to make it easy. Some questions you know the answers but don't know how to explain it or it is too long and windy. Especially when people ask how do I install XP (step-by-step instructions) or questions like that.

Answer 9

The only thing they actually know is how to use a search engine. It is most certainly not a feather in the cap of their intelligence.

Answer 10

Because most of the time the person asking the question doesn't seem to know how to.