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?