UPDATED! |Discussion| Plagiarism is WRONG

(update is at the end)

I have held my peace ever since I found out that Kristi Diehm @The Story Siren had plagiarized some blogs but today I decided to take my own advice to other people and speak out.

Long story short, Kristi plagiarized Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible. When confronted about it she said she's innocent and when showed clear evidence that she did plagiarize them, she asked for everything to be kept in the dark. But now a few months later, everybody knows what she did and shockingly, some people are siding with her! It baffles that in this clear, obvious scenario, Kristi is NOT the victim.

If you want a drawn post about exactly what happened: Smart Bitches Trashy Books does the honors of doing so. A clarification post from Grit and Glamour and a clarification post from Beautifully Invisible.

What is plagiarism?

Now we understand that plagiarism is not only straight out copy-pasting, but also the the theft of one's ideas is considered plagiarism.

• There has been some people arguing that Kristi didn't even plagiarize original content anyways since she plagiarized blog posts on blogging-how-to and such and that's been recycled so much, it's hardly considered original so Kristi is innocent. WRONG! Kristi got her ideas for posts from Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible, she based of her post from their post and she flat out used Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible words without ever crediting them, that is PLAGIARISM.

Okay now, this all heart breaking and terrible but Kristi is human and human make mistakes. She deserves a second chance, no? But what Kristi did is NOT A MISTAKE. She knowingly plagiarized and she kept on doing it, she lied about it and tried to cover it up. Kristi's actions are not mistakes but they were done on purpose on her part while fully knowing they were bad actions.  

Why is Kristi at fault & why are her actions unforgivable:

Because read these words from Kirsti herself (she tactfully deleted this post, but you can find it HERE)

Kristi HERSELF said that there is NO excuse for plagiarism, taking the central idea of a post (no matter what it is) IS plagiarism and that no body plagiarizes unconsciously without meaning to. Yet in her clarification post and so called apology, Kristi says:

Kristi is flat out lying and trying to dig herself out of the mess she put herself in but I refuse to believe she's sincere. She makes a post that's "plagiarism know it all" but now she's trying to say she had no idea what she did is wrong, even after she addressed the plagiarism issue and sounded very NOT ignorant about it. She lied and she keeps on lying. If I ever thought she deserved a second chance and truly thought she has accepted her mistake, it flew out of the window when I learned about this hypocrisy and lying on her part. A hypocrite plagiarizer? This cannot get worse!

If a lesser known blog has been the face of this debacle, she/he would have been shut down within the hour and it angers me that Kristi is getting special treatment. Sure if she wants to keep on blogging, that's on her but I wish people can read the facts and see that's Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible are the victims, not Kristi. I also understand she has friends and a big readership. If my friend plagiarized I wouldn't drop their friendship but I would straight out tell them:

You messed up and wronged who you plagiarized. You better apologize sincerely and know your at fault.

Yet Kristi hasn't done any of those things and now people are trying to bury the issue. Why bury the issue when it hasn't been solved? If you plagiarism in an academic environment, you fail and you will most likely get kicked out of the school. Plagiarism is not an issue to be taken lightly and yet some of Kristi's supporters say that this has blown out of proportion and plagiarism is NOT a big deal.

I think everyone needs to step back and imagine how they would feel if Kristi plagiarized them.

I dare anybody say they would be anything but angry and unhappy. Plagiarism is a big deal, it does need to be taking seriously and I will stand my ground and say Kristi is at fault. I believe she does not deserve getting off easily the way she is and it sickens me how people are willing to brush this off so easily and kiss up to her. The fact that The Story Siren is such a big blog in the YA book blogging community makes me ashamed, what happened to integrity? People will know think that if Kristi got away with it, so can they.

However I also do not condone bullying. Going to Kristi and being hateful does no good, if you really want to make a difference, take Parajunkee's advice:

You snub the offender by not letting them be heard, you don’t read their blogs, you don’t enter their contests, you don’t follow them on twitter and you do not participate in their memes. You definitely do not click on their advertising or support their advertising or affiliate links. Without a platform that blogger goes from a media outlet, to a personal blogger.

So if you want to put an end to this, do not support Kristi. Do not follow her blog or any other social media outlet, this is the consequence to her actions. The fact that Kristi has supporters saying she's innocent shocks me. Humanity shocks me! This just makes me sick to be honest. How can people follow and support a liar and a thief who implied that she does not care about her followers anyways?
If Kristi was really sorry wouldn't she have stepped up and told her supporters that she really did fault the blogs she plagiarized? Yet  Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible are getting hate for speaking out and she's not doing anything to make it clear that she's the one at fault. I wish Kristi would own up to her mistake and I wish people can see who the real victims are.

Some eloquent post on the matter:

• Rachel @Parajunkee
• Lea @LC's Adventures in Library Land
• Ashley @What's Your Story? 

Ashley saying it how it is, no mercy like it should be:

• Ashley @Bookish Brunette 

So now you know that I will no longer participate in the In My Mailbox meme and that I'm disturbed by Kirsti's and her supporters actions. In a clear case like this, I wish everybody can see who the real person at fault is: Kirsti Deihm. People should be supporting Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible and boycotting the plagiarist, not the other way around. Is it time to drop the subject? No. This needs awareness because plagiarism is a serious subject and Kristi has faulted Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible and the blogging community BIG TIME.

Also, don't hold your silence! Speak out if you have something to say. Don't censor yourself.

Updated:

Smart bitches, Trashy Books have posted about how Kristi's supporters are bullying/hating Grit and Glamour and Beautifully Invisible. This shows you that Kristi is backed up by a bunch of bullies who just like her, claim but clearly don't know what's right from wrong. And has Kristi done anything about it? Nope. No surprise there though. But Sarah made an amazing point that everyone needs to keep in mind:

What more can those of us who understand plagiarism and its consequences do about situations like these?
Keep talking.
Refuse to back down when we're told we're mean and cruel for saying that plagiarism is wrong.
Keep talking and keep talking some more. Otherwise, the theft continues.

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