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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Tyler, TX
    Posts
    720

    Default Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    Just got back from an inspection. The seller meets me there and hands me the past two inspection reports. I know of both of the inspectors. One of them I see frequently at C.E. classes. As I'm reading his, I realize that I'm reading parts of my own report!!!

    He's gotten a copy of one of my reports and is using my boilerplate paragraphs and descriptions for common problem items.

    Flattery or Plagiarism?

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    Member Benefits1
    Bruce Thompson, Lic. #9199
    www.TylerHomeInspector.com
    Home Inspections in the Tyler and East Texas area

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Columbus GA
    Posts
    3,747

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    Quote Originally Posted by JB Thompson View Post
    Just got back from an inspection. The seller meets me there and hands me the past two inspection reports. I know of both of the inspectors. One of them I see frequently at C.E. classes. As I'm reading his, I realize that I'm reading parts of my own report!!!

    He's gotten a copy of one of my reports and is using my boilerplate paragraphs and descriptions for common problem items.

    Flattery or Plagiarism?
    Flattery or plagiarism, does it really make any difference?
    Copy and paste is acceptable by almost everyone.
    Don't even give it any concern.

    ' correct a wise man and you gain a friend... correct a fool and he'll bloody your nose'.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
    49

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    If you use 3-D or similar report software many user's report may be similar.


  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Tyler, TX
    Posts
    720

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    Quote Originally Posted by William Kievit View Post
    If you use 3-D or similar report software many user's report may be similar.
    Nope. Having an English degree, I like to wordsmith my own crap.

    I use other guy's ideas (changed the wording) from other regions, but I've called them first.

    Bruce Thompson, Lic. #9199
    www.TylerHomeInspector.com
    Home Inspections in the Tyler and East Texas area

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Santa Rosa, CA
    Posts
    3,154

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    Obtaining permission is professional. Would have been nice if they had given you the courtesy. If someone likes my comment, I let them know it's fine to use it, but if they improve it, I ask that they share it back.

    Department of Redundancy Department
    Supreme Emperor of Hyperbole
    http://www.FullCircleInspect.com/

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Lake Barrington, IL
    Posts
    1,367

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    Bruce, Certainly it would have been a common courtesy to ask you. If I was using an out of the box report I wouldn't really care. However, for my own reports, I rewrote virtually all the text and I would care if someone copied it without asking. In such a situation I'd simply mention to him his lack of courtesy and lower my regard for him. Going beyond that would seem to be fruitless.

    Eric Barker, ACI
    Lake Barrington, IL

  7. #7
    Ted Menelly's Avatar
    Ted Menelly Guest

    Default Re: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

    I scan other folks comments all the time. I rarely ever use them. If I do it gets changed so much that it would not be recognized. Evryone of my reports is almost compltetly different from the next as each home has a slightly different situation about the same concern. If I di usesomething I find like I said it gets changed, a lot. By the time I get to the fifth inspection it has either changed so much it hardly has a smae word in it or I have wound up deleting it all together.


    Almost all of my reports are typed out for what ever the concern is from the first page to the last page nowadays. I have almost canned boiler plates altogether other than example pics and some very very basic items on grading and drainage or drop down stair insulation and such.


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