Hey, that sounds familiar ...

We've all heard the dilemma doctors face when they're asked medical questions in a casual (read, not office) setting. The savvy ones know that they can just deflect the question by advising the inquirer to "give my office a call and we'll set up an appointment and look into it." Sometimes a request for your professional knowledge isn't so easy to dismiss. Case in point, just a few weeks ago I was casually asked (via email) a question about a computer related matter. I happily (and freely) replied to the emailed question with an email of my own offering a somewhat detailed response. After all, it was just one professional seeking the opinion of another; one hand washes the other and that sort of thing. Needless to say, when I later saw my words (verbatim, no less!) online elsewhere, it got my hackles up. Not only was I angry, but I felt I had been taken advantage of. It would have been perfectly all right had the words been properly cited as mine (or at least some tiny bit of credit to me), but I wasn't mentioned anywhere! All I can say is, it really soured me to answering anyone's questions at all. Perhaps from now on I should caveat every email I send with a reminder warning against plagiarism or inquire more deeply.