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I was editing the tag wiki for . The Eclipse Marketplace website describes the Eclipse Marketplace as:

Eclipse Marketplace - An App Store for the Eclipse Ecosystem Eclipse Marketplace is the source for Eclipse-based solutions, products and add-on features. Thousands of developers visit Marketplace on a monthly basis to find new and innovative solutions. Solution providers are encouraged to list their products on Marketplace to gain exposure to the Eclipse developer community.

I think this description is great because it's correct and it's their wording. My concern is plagiarism: Can I just copy some text off of a corporate or organization's website and paste it into the tag wiki with just an attribute to the original site?

For I reworded the description, but am feeling uncomfortable with that, too.

What's the right thing to do here?

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"Eclipse Marketplace defines itself as....." –  Ben Brocka Sep 5 '12 at 19:47
    
I like that a lot. –  Chris Gerken Sep 5 '12 at 20:37

1 Answer 1

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I would not suggest to entirely copy all the text used in the definition given from the official site: There are parts in that description that are not needed, such as, "Thousands of developers visit Marketplace on a monthly basis to find new and innovative solutions."

You could simply describe Eclipse Marketplace using the following text:

Eclipse Marketplace is the source for Eclipse-based solutions, such as products and add-on features.

That is a copy of a minimal part of the text used in the official text. You could also use different words to express the same concept, but I would not copy the full text for the simple fact the text reported in the official site focuses on what is important for that site, while a tag excerpt should focus on what is important for the users who are choosing tags for their questions. For example, if a tag keeps to be misused, the tag excerpt could suggest the users another tag, or suggest them that the question they are asking (if it needs that tag) is probably going to be closed because it is an off-topic question for the site.

If then you can provide some helpful links to the tag wiki, those can be added. Some tag wikis report the list of the most useful questions asked on Stack Overflow; you could do the same, if there are very good questions asked about Eclipse Marketplace.

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Thx. I wasn't some much interested about that exact set of text, but rather whether I could copy it verbatim into the tag wiki. –  Chris Gerken Sep 5 '12 at 13:41
    
You asked if you should plagiarize, or re-word. My suggestion is re-wording. If you use the same words, then copy just a minimal part of the text. –  kiamlaluno Sep 5 '12 at 17:23
    
Thanks. No one seems to be taking the other side, although it does bother me to be coming up with my own description of a company or group. –  Chris Gerken Sep 5 '12 at 17:53

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