Today’s Blog Blow Up

It’s all rather confusing, actually.

Sarah at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books explains at Plagiarism and The Story Siren allegations of blogger plagiarism. The Story Siren is a very well known blogger; I’ve mentioned one of her most popular series, In My Mailbox.

I’m not going to rehash what Sarah says; she includes links and images, and links to blogs with more details.

Now, read the comments there. Take a look, also, at what is being said on Twitter: I’m not going to link to any particular Tweet, but searching thestorysiren or “story siren” will get most of it.

Some people go beyond the issues at hand: plagiarism, what was or wasn’t done, etc. A further exploration of this “kitchen sinking” is over at Stacked at Who are we and what do we do.

Kristi at The Story Siren responds at An Explanation and An Apology.

I’ll be honest: my head is spinning and I’m not quite sure what to think. Plagiarism matters; it’s significant. But, on the other hand, I’m also bothered by the reactions Stacked refers to. People were waiting for Kristi to to respond; now she has. (People wondered why she didn’t respond sooner. As someone who, like Kristi, works full time and blogs after work, I can imagine that at work she cannot drop everything and blog or tweet. She needed a bit of time.).

Anyway, that’s that. I’ll be glass half full: in a world where bloggers are “everything”, writer, editor, publisher, marketer, these things and how we handle them as bloggers matter. It does need to be talked about and discussed; because if we don’t, who will?

Edited to add: The Story Siren has a second post up, Clarification. Personally, I think its a better apology than the first post, in that there is more ownership.

Edited to add: Leila at Bookshelves of Doom has a great link round up, including the latest posts about this from the fashion blogs who discovered this.

Updated: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books provides an update on the type of vitriol going on as a result of this.

Filed under: Reviews