Good-bye to In My Mailbox

I like the concept of In My Mailbox. I really do. The idea of giving an acknowledgement to the books that have come in, whether I’ve bought them or gotten them free or borrowed them or been sent them for review, is a neat way of acknowledging the authors and titles, even for stuff I might not be able to review.

I can understand why Kristi Diehm at The Story Siren thought it was a neat idea when Alea of Pop Culture Junkie originally inspired it. It’s been a very popular and successful meme at The Story Siren.

448 Blogs linked to In My Mailbox on April 22, including this one.

In the future, I will not be among them. I will miss the connections that come from linking to In My Mailbox, but I can’t in good conscience be a part of it any longer. Because I can’t condone the behavior of the blogger.

Plagiarism is wrong. It is not an accident. It is a mistake, and a deliberate one (Someone said there is no such thing as sleep copy and pasting).

Swift acknowledgement of that mistake can bring forgiveness, but that’s not what happened here. Instead there was a denial, then a cover-up and a plea for everything to be handled “quietly”.

This continuing saga has been covered, in detail, on multiple blogs, including at Smart Bitches, Trash Books, Smexy Books, Parajunkee’s View and Book Savvy Babe. This story is as compelling as any book you might review. All the more so because it took place in our own backyard.

As bloggers, our identities are made up of the words we write. If someone steals our words, they’ve stolen something precious.

 

10 thoughts on “Good-bye to In My Mailbox

    1. Diana, thanks for the tip! Mailbox Monday looks interesting. There are a couple of others, too. It’s such a neat idea that alternatives are popping up like spring flowers.

  1. Though I will miss it, I completely understand what you are saying. I would most likely do the same thing in your shoes. Maybe you will find another one as Diana suggested. 🙂

    1. Tina, I’ll say that I never watched the video, but I did look at other blogger’s links, especially the blogs that stopped by here and linked to Reading Reality. So that’s the part I want to keep! And it’s looking like so do a lot of other folks.
      This week certainly hasn’t been dull. I just wish it had all been for something good…

  2. I have to agree with you, especially in this case, plagiarism was NOT an accident, which is part of what makes this entire debacle so sad. I hope that all bloggers and writers can learn from this

    1. There are definitely lessons here. It’s one thing to borrow a clever phrase, that’s how catch phrases become catch phrases and cliches. But entire posts? This is sad because it didn’t need to happen.

  3. I didn’t know about this until I read you post. I had already posted a IMM for this week but will look for another option if I want to continue sharing the tons of books I keep collecting. Redshirts by John Scalzi was the only book in my mailbox this week.

    1. Jo, I want to know how you got Redshirts! I really want to know. That’s the one I’m dying for over here.
      But yeah, the whole situation with IMM is just sad. Because it didn’t have to happen. A link to the other blogs” content with attribution would have taken care of everything.

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