IMPORTANT! Posting WotC articles wholesale...

Morrus · May 13, 2008

Hey folks,

A lot of people have been pasting articles by WotC wholesale into threads and posts recently. We do understand that there are people with troubles viewing the original articles, but I'm afraid that we need to ask you to stop doing this.

What is OK

It's OK to post a snippet, some intro text or to summarize the contents of an article. As a rule of thumb, I'd keep any copy/pasted text to one paragraph or so.

I and the moderators will be keeping an eye out and removing any such posts from now on (we're not going to go back over old threads and hunt them down). Please don't create extra work for us, and if you see someone doing it, feel free to report the post so that we can get to it!

Thanks for understanding!

Fiendish Dire Weasel · May 13, 2008

This is due to the fact that those articles are supposed to be a perk for only those with DDI accounts, as oppsed to ENWorld staffers being horrible human beings, correct?

cferejohn · May 13, 2008

Well being a DDI member *is* free for the time being, so I don't see what the big deal is.

One presumes that someone from Wizards asked Morrus to stop letting people post entire articles.

Engilbrand · May 13, 2008

Or it could be that people take a long time to change. In a few weeks, it won't be allowed at all. If they just said, "No more." people would continue to do it. By stopping it now, the posts will gradually slow until nobody is doing it.

Charwoman Gene · May 13, 2008

They need to stop so that when Wizards DOES start charging, they don't have to shift the board culture quickly.

TerraDave · May 13, 2008

Ya, thats it.

This does make "scooping" a little easier.

billd91 · May 13, 2008

Fiendish Dire Weasel said:
This is due to the fact that those articles are supposed to be a perk for only those with DDI accounts, as oppsed to ENWorld staffers being horrible human beings, correct?

Actually, US copyright law should be the primary reason. Copying a whole article does not constitute "fair use". Excerpts in review do.

Boarstorm · May 13, 2008

TerraDave said:
Ya, thats it.

This does make "scooping" a little easier.

How so?

Beckett · May 13, 2008

Boarstorm said:
How so?

Scooper posts only link, but people are expecting the whole article here. So the scooper needs to copy and paste the whole thing, and then stick it in sblock tags so their post isn't huge.

Now the scooper just needs to put up the link, and that's all that's expected.

Lanefan · May 13, 2008

Beckett said:
Scooper posts only link, but people are expecting the whole article here. So the scooper needs to copy and paste the whole thing, and then stick it in sblock tags so their post isn't huge.

Now the scooper just needs to put up the link, and that's all that's expected.

Assuming, of course, that the link is accessible to us to-be-non-subscribing paeons...

Lanefan