Duplicate content

[ZeeshanParvez]

I do not know how hard this forum tries to rank in the search engines.

If it does then duplicate content is a no go. Copy pasting from other websites does not help SEO.

Additionally, copying links for an entire thread does not fare well.

So, for the users here I would urge them to rephrase what they read and then share it with the source.

That way you avoid the duplicate content penalty the forum could suffer.

I know the users here want to see the forum succeed and the best way to do that is to help it by providing content which is not an exact duplicate.

[Mandy]

Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is SEO??

Also, isn't it good that people provide full reference without modifying it?

[ZeeshanParvez]

Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what is SEO??

Also, isn't it good that people provide full reference without modifying it?

SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization.

Duplicate content is bad because Search Engines look upon your website or forum as a place which harvests the content of others instead of providing original content.

As a result, it does not rank your website well. So, when people search a topic, your website never gets shown in the results.

Let's face it. Most of the websites we find are by means of search engines.

When you re-word what someone has written, you have not changed it. You have just re-worded it.

When a search engine sees this, it does not consider it duplicate content. And you get a good ranking so people can find your website.