Three words that passed from mouth to mouth, and spread rapidly through the corridors of thousands of institutions. Three words that crossed borders, even continents, and forced many teachers to finally enter the 21st century. Rincón del Vago took its first steps as a mix between an isolated project and an act of rebellion, but it became one of the largest collaborative efforts on the Web, with millions of monthly visits, and a new dimension for the expression "headache" among professors.
How it all started
The story began in 1998 when two friends from Salamanca, Javier Castellanos and Miguel Ángel Rodero, found themselves obligated to prepare and present a paper on religion... while studying computer science. Beyond the characteristics of the institution they attended (the Pontifical University of Salamanca), such a request seemed absurd, because they were already struggling with a study program that was effectively obsolete. That's where the idea of the "exchange", so to speak, arose.
Both had a significant amount of material accumulated from their time in the Business Administration program. Their proposal was to offer all that online, free of charge, and in return other users could upload their own notes/papers/projects. Legend has it that the name Rincón del Vago was coined by Rodero, while the choice of the vulture as logo was natural. The portal went into action during the month of February, with the first works uploaded from Castellanos's home, always in the afternoon (1998, we lived and died by dial-up and flat-rate).
Fame and the leap across the Atlantic
At first, the number of daily visits did not exceed 40 people. But over time, those three magic words escaped Salamanca, entered other high schools and schools, and multiplied the user base. Added to that was the rage for the Internet at the end of the 90s: Very few knew exactly what it was, but everyone was talking about it. Within just a couple of years, Rincón del Vago had reached newspapers, radio, and TV. Its popularity allowed it to cross the Atlantic, adding millions of Latin American users with the same goal: Exchange notes, save time, "get by".
With fame came offers, and Rincón del Vago changed hands, so to speak. The first link in the chain was EresMás, then Wanadoo got involved, and finally the telecommunications giant Orange appeared, which still owns it through its subsidiary Orange Horizons Latina. Castellanos and Rodero remain at Orange exploring artificial intelligence and robotics areas, but their definitive departure from Rincón happened in 2017, with the sale to Mexican investor Ulises Vázquez.
Rincón del Vago: Iconic cases
One of the most interesting aspects of Rincón del Vago is that its conflicting nature was not limited to the relationship between students and teachers. With more than twenty years online, the site's content gave rise to some scandals that exploded in the media:
The judge and the TNT formula
On November 3, 1995, the Military Arms Factory of Río Tercero (Córdoba, Argentina) exploded in the early morning, causing the death of 7 people and wounding 300 others. Against all expert reports, Judge Diego Estévez ruled in December 2006 that the blast was the product of an accident, and to justify his conclusion he had extracted material on the properties of TNT and other explosives from Rincón del Vago, copying complete paragraphs. Within weeks, the judge was removed for multiple irregularities.
The senator and the "copy-paste"
In November 2014, Colombian senator Juan Diego Gómez from the department of Antioquia of the Conservative Party had presented a bill with designation 082, which proposed the creation of a code of ethics and disciplinary regime for officials in the diplomatic career. However, his proposal quickly bit the dust, due to the detection of "at least 11 pages" that were extracted from Rincón del Vago, and other similar portals. The senator admitted using the site and offered public apologies (via Twitter), but did not hesitate to shift part of the blame onto his advisors.
The education director
Concepción Canoyra served as director general of Concerted Education of the Community of Madrid on August 28, 2019. Less than two months later, she had to leave it. Why? Because the ABC portal explained in great detail that the official plagiarized a significant part of her doctoral thesis, taking material directly (read copy-paste) from Wikipedia and Rincón del Vago, among others. The time between ABC's publication and Canoyra's resignation was just one hour.
The security secretary and the "maras"
If one looks up the meaning of the expression "mara", the most likely is to find something simple like "gang", but in reality it is a broader term, encompassing entire organizations of gangs with international reach. In September 2016, the then Argentine Secretary of Interior Security Gerardo Milman tried to expand through his Twitter profile the functioning of the maras. The problem was that he copied his definitions from Rincón del Vago, without changing a period.
In summary
Loved, hated, and why not, revolutionary. Rincón del Vago was born as a critique of the modern education system, which essentially depends on mechanical memorization and resists any kind of update, privileging obsolete content. Of course, teachers today have advanced resources to detect mass plagiarism (without forgetting that their instinct serves them well when it comes to detecting dubious work like a corrupted document), but after 22 years, the corner has not gone anywhere, and probably never will, reminding us of the need for a deeper change in education. Have you ever used it? Leave a comment!
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Source: El Confidencial
