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Plagiarism

I'm a bit late to the party, but as most of you know, there's been a recent scandal regarding a well-known book blogger who plagiarized some posts. I won't say who even though that knowledge is easy to find, but she has been receiving quite a lot of flak for what she did.

And I will say this: what she did was wrong. This was undeniable. And yes, in her apology posts, she tried to make excuses for what she did and claimed that she didn't know she did something wrong. This was obviously not true because she had written a post on plagiarism that actually made it quite clear what is and what is not plagiarism. So, she knew what she was doing, and it was wrong.

I'm definitely not excusing those actions. But I have seen a lot of people say that they chose to unfollow her, or stop participating in memes that she started, on principle of what she did. Of course, everyone is free to make their own decision regarding what happened and I would not want to try and control that.

But I do think that maybe some people are taking this a little far. She made a mistake, and yes, it was a bad mistake, but we wouldn't be human if we didn't make mistakes. I still value the rest of her blog's content and her reviews, and she has been one of the most influential book bloggers for me, especially in the early development of my blog.

Where do you stand on this issue? [Note: please refrain from stating names or any other identifying information in the comments section. I know it's publicly available, but I'd feel more comfortable without her name being spread on my blog.]

5 comments:

We Heart YA said...

For us, the issue really comes down to community. And in a community of readers and writers, there is almost nothing worse that you can do than take someone else's words and claim them as your own. We have to feel safe sharing our ideas, our posts, our writing. There's no shame in quoting from someone and giving them credit -- in fact, that can be quite flattering. So why plagiarize?

On the other hand, communities are supposed to build each other up, not tear each other down. When people make mistakes, our response should be to correct, educate, forgive, and move on. Not gossip, condemn, or hold grudges.

Two wrongs don't make a right. Two wrongs just mean nobody wins.

Rebecca Christiansen said...

I agree with you. I believe that what she did was wrong, but I'm not going to stop following her or watching her vlogs (which I enjoy).

Izzy said...

We Heart YA, I couldn't have said it better myself. :)

Becca, I'm completely with you. Her vlogs and blog posts are great, and the fact that she made a mistake doesn't change that.

Vee_Bookish said...

Look at this way - she and other bloggers have closed down blogs for plagiarising and bloggers are just sitting there saying, 'Oh she made a mistake'. NO. A mistake is spelling happy as hapy. She spent an good hour copy and pasting, that's not a mistake. Taking it a little far? Just because she's far up the blogging hierachy doesn't mean she should get away with stuff other bloggers would be shut down for. That's just saying that it's okay for other bloggers to and we're telling publishers that we believe it's okay too, it just sends out a bad message. Now, I still follow certain bloggers that post IMM but I won't read it, I just delete it. I'm all for Stacking the Shelves however.

That's my two cents. I've posted a lot about this and I'm very outspoken... :)

=^.^= ComaCalm's Corner =^.^=

E. said...

"She made a mistake, and yes, it was a bad mistake, but we wouldn't be human if we didn't make mistakes."
I think this sums everything up. I didn't follow her blog on regular basis to begin with, but I'm not gonna shun her now either.
"I still value the rest of her blog's content and her reviews, and she has been one of the most influential book bloggers for me, especially in the early development of my blog."
And now you're being an inspiration for others... :)

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