Anything you post under Humor would be assumed to be a joke that you received via email or one that you recently heard. I am always posting jokes that I get from friends,sometimes I say that I received it via email, sometimes I forget to. I do not think it is plagerism at all.
There are some here that look for anything to start a flame war over Mason. I ignore them and do not get involved in their idiotic antics. You and Doc were accused of plagerism over the same joke... that's how idiotic the charge of plagerism is.
Post away and let the rest of us get a good chuckle out of your jokes.... the idiots don't have to read them.

Well, it kind of put the damper on the humor of the joke, IMO. How necessary is it to put a disclaimer/credit for something like this? For a humor section, I wouldn't bother to do it. I would have thought that it's not the same thing as taking credit for a challenging paper, or thought provoking opinion peice. Like you, I wouldn't think that sharing the funny is something to be called on.

I read once though, about a story of an up-and-coming comic who was disheartened after hearing a joke he had come up with on a late night tv show. This person had spent many long hours working and re-working his own material, and then saw all his hard work stolen by more lazy, and more powerful people.

I never thought to even understand how a funny joke is created, rather, just enjoyed the experience of one.

How Many Forum Members... made me smile, as do you, Mason.
Take care.

Thanks Mano and Nicky. While I feel it was "nit picking", it is a somewhat valid point just the same.

I think you both see it pretty much like I did. It honestly just never occured to me before, but I can't totally dismiss it as invalid.

As for the comic, now you're getting into what I would consider true humor theft as those people do it for a living.

it is a somewhat valid point just the same.

Once I made the mistake of posting an article as my own that I took from a local speech made in Jerusalem. THAT was plagerism. It was wrong and I was embarrassed when it was discovered. I never did it again with serious articles...but JOKES???? Calling that plagerism is a joke in itself.

As for the "flame war" comment, I've seen enough of her "flame" posts to know that wasn't what she was trying to do. She was voicing an opinion, which is perfectly acceptable in my book. If she wants to flame someone, they know it

I don't know Mano, I think she had a good point.

I agree that jokes fall into a category of their own. Very few people originate jokes worth re-telling, and it's widely understood that unless you specifically claim credit for a joke, you are most likely just re-telling one you heard.

Just about anything else, though, should be attributed.

I agree that jokes fall into a category of their own. Very few people originate jokes worth re-telling, and it's widely understood that unless you specifically claim credit for a joke, you are most likely just re-telling one you heard. Just about anything else, though, should be attributed.

That was pretty much my take on it as well. But how do you define a joke? Is it a one-liner? A paragraph or so? The one I posted was quite long. Where does one draw that line?

Perhaps a simple "Something from the web" disclaimer is the best way to avoid misunderstandings?

I don't know. I always thought "humor is humor" and not in the same category as serious writing. Looks like some others feel the same way.

Generally, (though not always) I think jokes and other items posted in the Humor section are assumed to be a second-hand item. However, there ARE posters (like Dr.Guy, ParaTed, and SPC NBS) who post original humorous works.

If it's just a joke...well...how often do you actually know who wrote it? It would be difficult to give attribution, although indicating where you came across it (my mother-in-law told me this one, I got it in an email, it was on the back of the package my toilet paper came in, etc.) might be a move that would avoid any confusion about authorship.

Most people are bright enough to know whether something was an orginal work or not without attribution. However, for those who don't catch on, and who reply to the poster as if he or she is the author...well, that's when the poster needs to clarify instead of allowing readers to continue to assume that the poster authored the piece.

I agree, too, that it wasn't a flame. Hehe. You'd definitely know it.

Well put TW, and I agree completely.

I agree, too, that it wasn't a flame. Hehe. You'd definitely know it.

No doubt.

I do draw a distinction between humorous writing and a joke. Generally there's a fairly clear line of demarcation; jokes have setup and punchline, while humorous writing is basically a story, told in amusing fashion. P.G. Wodehouse is a well-known master of humorous writing, for example.

for propriety's sake, include a disclaimer noting that you didn't create the offering you are posting...It takes all of 30 seconds to add a line.."i got this in email today" or " I found this surfing" or...if you're truly lazy...'author unknown."

Makes perfect sense to me.

I have no interest in continuing this so called flame. He did what he did, he knows what he did, (twice, even, and maybe even more if anyone cares to dig,) and I've said what I had to say.

Twice? Huh? I certainly hope you don't mean me. I looked back through my articles and the humorous one in question is the only one I could find where I didn't think to mention that I had found it someplace else on the web.

I agree that the simplest thing to do is say "I found this on the net and thought it was pretty funny." While it really never occured to me with regard to humor, now that the topic has been broached, it seems like the best approach.

Stealing someone's serious work... But what about old jokes, even long ones?

I'm kind of... displeased... by this characterization. To me jokes are serious work. I write all my own material, and in the rare instance I repeat a joke heard elsewhere, I always acknowledge it by giving credit if I know where it came from or at least an "I stole that!" if I don't.

As for the assertion it would dampen the humour... just put it afterward.

This guy walk into a bar... OUCH!

hehehe, I always loved that one... don't remember where I first heard it.

Really, how hard is that?

Anything you post under Humor would be assumed to be a joke that you received via email or one that you recently heard.

That's just asinine.

I think this is just an exageration. In a place like this a joke is a joke and I don't believe people are looking to get a reputation for making jokes here. Not unless they specify it at least. I personally have never questioned whos the author of a joke, why? It's the joke that matters. And people shouldn't compare a joke to, say, a car as if the car is all that matter not the maker. It's not the same. JMO. I believe this is the reason the world is in such bad shape, worring too much about little things that are not really that important but not moving a finger to fix what really needs fixing. Like I said JMO.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Duh... Geez, I think Lincoln wrote that. Bad as I'd like to take the credit...