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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Drama over The Story Siren

Last night I came home from a hard workout and got on my laptop to check my blog. In my sidebar, a post by The Story Siren caught my eye. She was offering an explanation and an apology for something. I read it and immediately thought, "What the heck is she talking about?" Kristi a.k.a The Story Siren wasn't clear on what exactly she was apologizing for. I did a Google search and the results were surprising. A post by Sarah from Smart Bitches Trashy Books offered clarification.

Kristi committed plagiarism. Some of her blogging advice articles were lifted from a couple of fashion bloggers. She was confronted with the evidence in January, and worked with them to resolve the problem. At first she denied the allegations but eventually took down the content. It was kept quiet between them until Sarah stumbled on another blogger's post about the incident. Given Kristi's prominence in the YA blogging community, it's surprising this was kept under wraps for so long. I personally was shocked. I looked to her blog for advice on dealing with publishers and fellow bloggers. Why? Why would she do it? Why would someone so popular in the community feel the need to do this?

She has often preached on the evils of plagiarism, so it's very ironic that she gets caught doing it. Many of her readers and fellow bloggers are defending her. They don't believe the evidence. But do a little research and the victims in this case have some very convincing evidence. They have IP logs, complete with the amount of time Kristi spent on their web site. Just a few days after the original posts, Kristi posted hers. There are a lot of similarities in the posts.

Perhaps if she had owned up to her actions in January, Kristi wouldn't be facing the amount of blacklash that she is now. Do a little Google search and you will see A LOT of posts about her. People on Twitter are calling for a boycott of her blog. Some people are taking it too far. Some of the comments are getting nasty and unnecessary. Some are forgetting that she is a person first and a blogger second.

People are human and they make mistakes. I give her credit for posting not one but two apologies. But what Kristi did seems like more than a mistake. One article could be chalked up to a mistake, but not 4-6 articles as is the case with Kristi. It makes me question how much of the content on her blog is actually hers? I'm not a fan of Kristi's reviews, but I do like a lot of the features (IMM, Books to Pine For) on her blog. So it's hard for me to completely abandon her blog. What does everyone else think?

8 comments:

  1. Honestly, I only ever went to her blog to participate in IMM - I ignored everything else because her reviews and stuff never interested me and she posts way too often. I deleted her blog from my Googlereader a month or two ago, because I didn't care for anything but the IMM. I just didn't get a good vibe from her.

    So I'm not really surprised that this has happened. But I do hope that people stop thinking she's the goddess of book blogging, and I think I'll looking for another IMM-esque meme to participate in.

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  2. Here's a post on a letter to an eleven year old that Kristi sent that was really disturbing. I remained pretty impartial in my Story Siren post and I basically went over the same things you did. One thing I noticed after reading this is that you're right about Kristi. I don't really like her content that much because all she posts are book promos and interviews and a review every three weeks. With all the books she gets, she should have reviews going up at least twice a week, maybe once. I post everyday, and I don't even have that many books that I get per week. Maybe it's because I do a book and song review layout, and that's why I post so often, but I believe that Kristi should be posting reviews more often.

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  3. I'll be honest, I don't like her "reviews" either. To me her reviews lack depth, most of them are taken up the summary from Amazon. If a lesser known blogger had done this, they would most likely wouldn't be blogging anymore. But because of her popularity, I think she will weather the storm. I'm curious to see what she does going forward.

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  4. New follower!! And I love your post...I felt completely disappointed, I really looked up to her...and I read her reviews because they were short...but now that I think about it...you're right...why don't she post more in-depth reviews?? hehehe and agree with Bookangel, I bet that if it were someone else...the poor book blogger wouldn't even be given a chance for 2 'apology' posts... But I love her IMM idea...so while I've deleted her button from my fave bloglist I still want to host that meme and maybe later on I'll go back to her site and check out what she came up with after all this...
    But I never for one second think she made this unintentionally and just by mistake...she knew what she was doing...
    And she failed to us-I really liked stalking her- and to herself after having posted a Plagiarism-Hate post...she did what she condemned the most...
    ^_^
    Anyway...on better news, I'm looking forward to your blog :D
    I'm a rookie blogger but you're welcome by ---BookPics--- anytime you'd like to drop by ;)

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  5. Wow! I had no idea this was going on! I do the IMM every week, but maybe I should figure something else out. It surprises me she gets so many books if she doesn't post reviews that often.

    (new follower - I'm at heathercim.wordpress.com)

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  6. Great post! I'm a new follower of your blog because of this post. I agree with you that people are taking this too far. I for one am not so much angry as I am EXTREMELY disappointed. The part I'm really having difficulty with is the theft...because that what plagirism is...theft.

    I'm not a real big fan of her content either. Though I did participate in IMM. But because of this situation and because I'm still floundering with my feelings on it I've decided that for the time being I'm not participating in The Story Siren's blog at all.

    Maybe somebody will come up with an alternative to IMM...Who knows?!

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  7. {new follower here}

    I have read so much about this in the last day or so. Thank you so much for sharing your point of view in the matter. I agree with you - I have more or less excommunicated myself from her blog site. I don't think I can honestly deal with knowing she had done that and just look past it, I thought I could at first but in all honesty I just can't.

    {http://www.justonemorechapter.net}

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