I was looking at "Traffic sources" in the Statistics section of my blog and saw that I'd gotten a number of referrals from a blog called Coming Out of The Crazy Closet. When I looked at the blog, it turned out that its proprietor, one Connie Stevy, had copied some of my posts word for word without giving me credit. The reason I had gotten those referrals was that in a few of the posts she copied I had inserted links to previous posts of mine.
In fact, 26 of Stevy's last 51 posts (including 4 of her last 5) are simply direct lifts from this blog. (Click on the above link, you can see for yourself.) It's flattering in a way, but it's also infuriating. It's nice to be reproduced or linked elsewhere, but this is the first time I know of where someone has simply tried to pass my words off as her own.
She seemed to favor the prison pen pal posts and various posts on Obama, along with a smattering of others. When she's not lifting my material, she mostly posts about interior decoration; I have no idea whether those posts are original or not. In a couple of posts she references and posts pictures of herself; she's quite pretty -- if those are actually photographs of her.
I was going to write the following comment on her blog, "Love your blog -- it's brilliant! Where do you get all your ideas?" But she didn't set her blog up to allow for comments.
There are also no dates on the blog (other than months without years). The last month listed is December, and her latest posts are mostly lifted from December 2012 on my blog, so it seems she's stopped "writing."
If she starts another blog, she really ought to title it, Coming Out of The Plagiarism Closet.
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- John Craig
- Virtually everyone who knows John finds him completely tactless and insufferably opinionated. He sees himself as refreshingly honest. That said, this blog is still an excellent way to kill time while putting off work. If you're a newcomer, you might find browsing through the older posts an amusing waste of time as well. John is the author of "Holy Bible Part II: Heaven" under the pseudonym John Morgan.
12 comments:
Admit it: You will laugh your ass off when she plagiarizes this post.
Anon --
Ha! I'm laughing right now at the very thought.
Actually, I've wondered how she will react; I think the most likely reaction is that she will simply take those posts down. Maybe I'm supposed to cut her a break since the title of her blog (Coming out of the Crazy Closet) is basically an admission of insanity. Plagiarism generally isn't a function of psychosis, it's a function of dishonesty.
It has occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't judge too harshly given that I use others' photographs on my blog. But I never try to pass those off as my own work, so there's a pretty big difference.
I questioned if the lady realized that she was plagiarizing other peoples' posts. She had some posts about a hippie couple (aka New Age), discussing the birth of their baby boy (talking about chakras, etc.), displaying a photo of the child immediately after birth (not interested in seeing this myself, thinking that it was too private of a moment), plus the parents, an older man and a younger wife (looking mismatched age-wise). Personally, I thought that the women's blog was not very interesting, bland, lacking order.
-birdie
Birdie --
Well I thought her posts on prison pen pals and on Obama were pretty interesting!
On a more serious note, yes, I wondered too if she fully realized what she was doing. There's no discernible theme to her blog, but I certainly can't cast stones about that, given that my own blog is basically ADD writ large. Or, to put it more kindly, my blog has several themes, not all of which relate to each other. But I do have to say that my themes relate more to each other than prison pen pals and interior decoration.
This woman -- Connie Stevy -- also wrote early on about how her husband had cheated on her; not entirely sure that's suitable blog material either. Even I would draw the line there.
If I'm going to evaluate the woman's blog - it's lacking, not organized very well. I read about the lady meeting her husband (a foreigner), the premature birth of their own son, the impending adoption of a foreign child, and lastly about the hippie family (who by the way have a CUTE looking baby boy). Her blog seems to be thrown together (that's my impression of it). I really felt like the woman was possibly unaware (ignorant of the fact) that she lifted other peoples' writings, not giving credit where credit is due.
Anon (Birdie?) --
That's entirely possible, though it would entail a pretty high degree of naiveté.
Of course, the posts that she had on her blog (that were written by you) were DEFINITELY interesting! You're right about that (feeding your ego).
-birdie
Birdie --
Thank you, you have guessed correctly that my ego is always hungry.
I wrote the comment posted 4/15/14 @ 10:40 a.m. - I forgot to sign off on it. Since Connie Stevy seems to have an interest in sociopaths, I just hope that she doesn't learn about them the hard way, in her personal life.
-birdie
Birdie --
Figured it was you…The fact that she has been at least reading -- if not "writing" -- about sociopaths indicates that she is not as naive as you and I were years ago. In the meantime, though, I think she also has her own issues to sort out.
(I certainly don't know enough about her to say, but I'm not entirely convinced she isn't a sociopath herself, given her penchant of plagiarizing; you've been giving her the benefit of the doubt, which she may deserve, but there is definitely still some doug there.
As I get older, I have become more suspicious of people (due to my own life experiences). What I thought was that I hope that Connie hasn't discovered that her hubby is a sociopath. He came to this country because he married her, possibly using her to get here. He cheats on her. It doesn't sound like Connie's hubby has the best character - not a totally trustworthy man. Thus, her interest in sociopaths. I hope that I'm wrong.
-birdie
Birdie --
What you offer is certainly a plausible scenario. I haven't read as much of her blog as you have, but it's entirely possible he used her to get his citizenship; that happens all the time.
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