Here are the posts, in order, be aware that at some point he went through and changed her real last name to Krishna at the student's request. I advise reading all the way through before passing judgement on Nate. Feel free to judge the plagerist all you want.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
It it interesting reading through these comments because there seem to be two primary schools of thought. One is that what the blogger has done is good, and that Laura K. deserves whatever is coming to her. The other is that Nate is a horrible human being who is using her one little mistake as an excuse to flay her.
I have to say that at first I was a little hesitent about Nate's actions. I agree that Laura had what was coming to her but learning a lesson that plagiarism is bad will hardly help her when she gets kicked out of school (as this is what I had always heard the punishment was). As I read more of the comments many people claiming experience in the matter said that expulsion is rarely the punishment for a first time offender. A failing grade and a tarnished record were more likely. This seemed far more appropriate. When it turned out that Nate had never actually notified the college, and only intended to if she did hand in the paper, and didn't agree to confess, I gained more respect for him. Unfortunatly for him, and the incredibly stupid student, the blog was linked from some of the most visited websites. People, for some reason beyond my comprehension, decided it was appropriate to track down what school she went to, and call her and her school. This ruined Nate's plans by notifying the officials that were never supposed to be notified in the first place.
Now I happen to think that both of the fringe arguments about the morality of Nate's actions are wrong (as most fringe philosophies tend to be). The bloodthirsy of Nate's "supporters" (who largely complained when they learned of the mild finale) is proof that they have completely missed the point. What was supposed to happen was that she was supposed to be frightened into think her college career was over and then given her "second chance." It wasn't meant to sadistically ruin her life.
The other side who seem to think that Nate is evil and using the suffering of this "innocent girl" for his own amusement are even farther off. Innocent?! This woman is in her third year in college, she has no excuse to think this is okay. Lets go through the story and examine her so called "innocence."
Nate did not ask to write her paper, he in no way implied he did that for anyone, and he didn't even claim knowledge on the subject. Meanwhile this woman has asked a complete stranger to write a five page paper (FIVE PAGE! I CAN PULL THAT OFF IN TWO HOURS!) on Hinduism because his profile mentions that he "eats Hindu statues" as a hobby. Not just lazy, but stupid as well. Then she lies about paying him for the job she thinks he has done (with every intention of not actually following through)(1 lie). She then takes the paper he has written (purposefully designed to be a joke and get her a failing grade) and hands it in without reading it. But her folly doesn't end there. She lies about her school (2), as well as her name (3) and avoids his preferred payment method. He contacts her later and she pretends to be someone else (4), poorly. Meanwhile a reader has notified her college, and she has talked to the Dean, and lied to him. Apparently she did nothing wrong, this random stranger is out to ruin her (5). He gets in contact with her again and she asks for his help. They get in phone contact and he offers to talk to the dean and try to lower her punishment, she says no thanks. She asks him to remove her real name (done, but pointless as it is now posted all over the internet) and then to lie and say it was all a hoax (6). He doesn't agree to that. He continues to offer to help her case with the Dean, and then learns that she actually lied to the dean. This woman seems to be a compulsive liar but if I didn't already despise her enough, she puts on her mother.
Her mother is what one calls an 'enabler.' Nate is under the impression that she is nice. I get the feeling that she is merely a typical mother who mistakingly believes her children are perfectly good. She was also a more succesful manipulator then her daughter. She got Nate.
She also swore to Laura's diligence as a student, and knew that I was not lying about the plagiarism.
She is convinced that her daughter has never tried anything like this before. I on the other hand, have trouble believing that Laura's first time plaigerizaing was on a small five page paper, and that she would go about it by randomly IMing someone and scamming them. Just a hunch. Mother can convince Nate to trust her by saying she trusts him. This obviously isn't completely true when she follows it up with
She asked whether this was for money or personal reasons, and I told her what I told you blog people, which is that I was legitimately offended on behalf of all the people I know who take their education seriously.
She hints at buying him off. She cares more about making sure her daughter goes unpunished, then allowing her daughter to learn her lesson. And if it wasn't clear enough that Mother didn't understand the real problem here...
She expressed her dismay over the thousands of dollars this was costing her every semester for her daughter, and I agreed that that was a shame.She completely misses his point about how her daughters actions cheapen the educational system. Unfortunatly instead of seeing that said mother is manipulative, and willing to hide the problem, instead of fix it, Nate only sees her as "being nice." I'm willing to bet that she is the same sort of Mother who would call and complain, at the request of her child, when a teacher gives a deserved bad grade. I am certainly making assumption off little information, but what I have seen is infuriating, and shows where Laura gets her morality problems from.
The way I see it, Nate acted with good intention, and his plan ws decent. There was no way he could have predicted that his post would be so popular, and there was no way it would work if he didn't post the story and his written paper online, as he intended that the teacher would search for her paper online and find his blogpost, showing that she had plagiarized. He wanted to urge her to confession, which would lead to her punishment, a possible lesson learned, but a saved school career. Sound logic. Unfortunatly the blog became incredibly popular and the Dean was notified before Laura could be talked to. Laura, not realizing how deep she was in, lied about plagiarizing. I think that Nate was manipulated into being nicer in his conversation then he needed to be, and I believe he misjudged the mothers charecter, but I think that his actions were sound and had the unlikely not happened, thinks may have turned out okay for Laura. I honestly believe that her getting expelled and having a ruined career is preferable to her getting someone else to write a paper for her, and not getting caught.
-Brandon
