> Proposed resolution : Quoting cannot be called plagiarism. Any dictionary would 100% agree with that. I saw that you got suspended for quoting (since I saw your great [answer](https://superuser.com/a/1840669/116475) got deleted right before you got suspended) and I was outraged to see that mods defamed you by falsely accusing you of plagiarism. It's not even a matter of a "proposed resolution". If someone falsely accused me of plagiarism, that would be an easy day at the court (since in my work, this is a career killer). It's the same as falsely accusing someone of racism by redefining the meaning of racism (for more examples, just replace plagiarism/racism by any other word). See [Why was my answer deleted for plagiarism, despite mentioning the source?](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/421874/395857) for a similar debate on SO where people agreed that quoting is not plagiarism, or just look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism: > Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work [1,2,3]. which is supported by these dictionaries: > 1. From the 1995 *[Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language "Random House Dictionary of the English Language")*: > > > use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work > > qtd. in Stepchyshyn, Vera; Nelson, Robert S. (2007). *[Library plagiarism policies](https://books.google.com/books?id=OHamIn5dPR8C)*. Assoc. of College & Resrch Libraries. p. 65. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_\(identifier\) "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0-8389-8416-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8389-8416-1 "Special:BookSources/978-0-8389-8416-1"). > > 2. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#cite_ref-OEDdef_2-0 "Jump up")** From the [Oxford English Dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary "Oxford English Dictionary"): > > > The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft. > > 3. **[^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#cite_ref-3 "Jump up")** The American Heritage Dictionary (5th ed.), defines plagiarize thus: “To reproduce or otherwise use the words, ideas, or other work of another as one’s own, or without attribution.” Furthermore, quote-only answers [can be helpful](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/371472/178179): > There's no point in paraphrasing if the > quote properly addresses the question, which it does in many cases > because Internet contains many texts. I've asked a fair amount of > questions on SE and from time to time the answer was simply a quote. > Reasons to quote: > > 1. Human time is precious. > 2. Not adding some noise to the original text. > 3. A quote from a reputable source is more convincing than a paraphrase of it by some random Stack Exchange user. > 4. As the OP I don't want to read both a paraphrase and the original text. Waste of time, just give me straight the original if > appropriate. > 5. The point of SE is sharing knowledge, and a quote is a piece of knowledge.