Carl, I had a quick comment to make regarding the article in an online publication. In my opinion, any reason for allowing it to remain is minor. If you had a stolen car in your driveway, would you be concerned that it had 'suddenly disappeared' after the police impounded it? I would certainly think a correction/retraction would be in order, along with the removal of the offending piece. It is causing 'active harm' to the reputation of the website by it's mere presence. Perhaps a link to the original material would be appropriate.
I realize that you have no control over this, nor have I visited the site in question, but only wanted to comment on your post here.
Take care,
zube

I stopped buying Bonsai Today and ABS journal because it publishes content from authors of questionable integrity. I wonder if Bonsai Europe (soon) will publish these articles as well knowing they are suspect.Might I suggest International Bonsai, I feel it has higher standards.

Hmmm, interesting as this same subject has come up several times at my other site. A few members have questions and issues as to whether or not they wish to continue there subscription with Bonsai Today albeit there are other reasons for doing so aside from the obvious issue being discussed here.
I'm a firm believer in what goes around comes around. Lies usually catch up with one in the end. It make take awhile but it will certainly happen someday. The Mea Culpa's eventually ware very thin when the fault continues.

Best, Phil

Be advised, the following is my opinion based on the information I've been exposed to as of 9/17/06: I reserve the right to change my opinion in the future as more information is revealed to me

This has been an interesting saga. Of course I'm relatively new to BT but I think I've read enough to have a basic understanding of why so many people dislike Will. I've tried not to form an opinion of the man since I have never met him. However, it is hard not to form an unfavorable opinion after seeing some of the childish responses he has given to others. Of course, I understand that I'm probabling seeing only one side of the story.

I've also viewed his MySpace page which seems to be a shameless "I Love Me" self promotion piece. He really seems to focus on the fact that "his work" has been published and that this somehow legitimizes him as a Bonsai expert. There are many smart people out there who understand marketing and work very hard at creating an "image" for themselves. It definitely seems that Will suffers from severe narcissism. Interestingly many people with this inflated view of themselves succeed in convincing many others that they really are what they attempt to project. They also do not have very many close friends because close friends will discover their secret.

I really don't see a need to strike Will's contributions from BT. In many cases the material that Will has plagiarized is informative and useful. By blantantly plagiarizing material Will is simply displaying his lack of knowledge in certain areas and being lazy. Knowingly publishing someone's elses material as your own says a lot about Will's character. Perhaps adding a disclaimer to each of his posts informing the reader of why Will was banned would be useful.

For myself, in the future I will read any material from Will with the knowledge that it most likely is not his own thoughts and that it is simply a summary of what he has heard or read from other people. Unfortunatley for Will he will have to fight this stigma for the rest of his Bonsai "career". In a way I feel sorry for him.

My only suggestion to those of you whom Will has offended or attempted to harm with childish words is that by appearing to crusade against him you may only appear to be "haters" and inadvertently help him to become what he wants so desparately to be "Famous".

As the editor of any medium I would have a difficult time continuing to publish material from a known plagiarist.

As a reader I will have no choice but to question the judgement of any editor that chooses to publish material from someone who has obviously plagiarized in the past.

I think this quote from Buzz Light Year of the movie Toy Story truly captures this whole situation. Buzz doesn't yet know he is really just a toy...

"Buzz: You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. ...
Woody: What chance does a toy like me have against a Buzz Lightyear action figure? "

Zube,

It's tricky, isn't it? These are exactly the sorts of issues we've been working through as we deal with digital publishing in the academic world. There are good arguments in both directions. I tend to place a lot of importance on creating an immutable permanent record and I like the "causing active harm" distinction -- but there are certainly good arguments in both directions.

With my best regards,
Carl

----

Ron,

I agree entirely with you about the journals. Taking this out on the editors of the journals is misdirected. It is impossible for an editor to thoroughly check every paragraph of every piece against the entire body of written human knowledge for any possible evidence of plagiarism. Thus these sorts of things happen to the big publishers, to the academic publishers, and in magazines such as those we are discussing. As you say, the important thing is how the editors choose to handle the event.

With my best regards,
Carl

If I'm not mistaken, and I frequently am, I read the original chopsticks article on ArtofBonsai. I am pretty sure it was moved to KofB.

Is this correct?


This is from the bottom of the KofB website:

Copyright 2006-2007 The Knowledge of Bonsai Forums.
All rights reserved.
Forum Concept by Carl Bergstrom, Will Heath, Hector Johnson, Walter Pall, Candy J. Shirey,
Attila Soos, and Paul Stokes

Al

Not, it is not correct. AoB never published the chopsticks article.

We did receive it as an article submission. I personally rejected the article as inappropriate for AoB. (I did not realize that it contained plagiarized material, but I didn't think it had anything to do with the artistic foundations of Bonsai).

Since you were an editor at AoB at the time, you must have seen the article submission in the private forum for the AoB editors.

Best regards,
Carl

ah that must have been it.

Well it seems that this issue is being actively pounded by very capable hands, I will go back outside and work on real trees now.

thanks for the info and corrections, Al

Al,

This is presumably a courtesy acknowledgement based on the fact that the KoB project took part of its inspiration from the hard work that a number of us not otherwise associated with KoB (as best as I know) --- Candy, Walter, Attila, and I -- put into developing the concept and structure of AoB.

Since you seem intent on dragging all of the dirty laundry out here, let me further clarify my relationship to KoB. I antagonized a number of my own editors at AoB by refusing to allow them to use the graphical content and layout styles from AoB for the nascent KoB forum. I did this because I did not want a formal association between the two sites, on the grounds that I do not have the time and energy to involve myself with that forum and maintain its standards at the level that I feel that AoB requires.


Sincerely,
Carl Bergstrom