Some Housekeeping
Not my house. Those Cheerios can stay there until I darn well feel like vacuuming them. And I think Nyx is doing a fabulous job of sweeping up all that glitter. Plus, everyone still has clean underwear, so the laundry can still wait. No, this is blog housekeeping–clearing up a few things.
First off, The Plagiarist: I found her because I was checking out technorati links after reading about the latest scraper over at Mary P’s. There was a link to her blog, and if you’ve ever linked to me, you know that eventually I figure it out and show up to say “Hi!” So I wandered over to check it out, and low and behold, an entire post of mine, cut and pasted into her MySpace and passed off as her own. Not cool.
Even less cool was deleting the comment I left asking about it and setting her blog to private, all the while ignoring me. As if I was going to go away. Thus began a rather heated exchange.
Her first position was this:
i told you i did not go to your blog and copy what you wrote… even if i was to give you credit for it i would even know what to put cause i don’t know you nor have i even been to ivilliage…
After I provided a PDF of her plagiarized site and a link to my post, proving that it was mine, her tune changed a little:
i have decided to remove your words from my blog… i do see that you posted it and appologize that that your work was copied… but i see nowhere on there where you have copywritted your work…
While I essentially got what I wanted–for her to stop stealing my content–I had a few problems with that response.
1) She “decided” to remove my words for her blog. As though she’s doing me a favour and not because she got a violation of TOS notice from MySpace and a sternly worded email from the iVillage lawyer.
2) She “sees that my work was posted and apologizes that my work was copied.” Notice how she never takes responsibility? How she implies that magical beings must have come in the night and c&p’d my content into her site–sort of like the blogger equivalent of the Shoemaker and His Elves.
3) She “sees nowhere that I’ve copyrighted my work” Because that “all rights reserved notice”down at the bottom applies to everyone but her, apparently.
So, essentially, the whole thing irritated me. And I don’t know why you would would want to irritate a blogger, because you know the first thing they’re going to do is blog about it.
Now, The Bookclub….Here’s what I’m thinking:
In about 3 weeks, I’m going to do a post about Single Mom Seeking. What I thought of it, what questions and issues it brought up for me, that sort of thing. Then, if you have a blog, you post your review on your blog, and leave a link to it in my comments. Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog (although, seriously, what are you, the last person on earth without a blog???) ; if you don’t have your own blog, you can post your review, thoughts, and questions here in the comments.
I’ll give everyone about a week to post–that’ll let you slackers out there who never finish the book on time to have a chance to participate. I’m sure Rachel will be reading along, but after the week’s up, I’ll gather up the questions and Rachel and I will sit down and have a chat (and maybe a beverage). Then I’ll write up the interview and post it.
What do you think? Personally, I’m kind of excited. And if it works out well, I’d be willing to consider making bookclub a regular feature (Rachel’s writing a sequel, you know!).