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Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon ([info]vasaris) wrote in [info]fandom_wank,
@ 2004-03-03 19:14:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood:*Snarl*
Current music:None -- I should find something to soothe the savage breast
Entry tags:fandom: lord of the rings, person: turimel, person: victoria bitter

Everloving Goddess, the Hobbitwank Never Ends
Mostly this is just an update for those of us who were so amused by the fake C&D order sent to Turimel by Amy Player/Jordan Wood and Abby Stone.

Turns out that a) our faint hopes that it could be considered extortion have been squashed and b) the crooked accounting used by said ladies is even worse than previously believed.

Here's to hoping that the Oregon Attorney General puts his/her butt in gear to go after BoE as a fraudulent charity because, even as an uninvolved bystander, I'm personally getting pissed off by our injustice system.


(Post a new comment)


[info]judyhazeleyes
2004-03-04 06:10 am UTC (link)
... this one's just too weird for me.

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Icon nonsense
[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-04 03:53 pm UTC (link)
*points at your icon*

I need to get one of those for myself.

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Re: Icon nonsense
[info]judyhazeleyes
2004-03-04 05:41 pm UTC (link)
[info]fwank_icons. help yourself :D

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Re: Icon nonsense
[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-05 08:47 pm UTC (link)
Thank you!

I've taken the one I'm using in this post, and the Radiohead one.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]gaisce
2004-03-04 06:51 am UTC (link)
What Harry Potter produces in five-hundred plus comments, LotR fandom comes right back with abso-whatthefucking-lutely crazy shit. It's like kismet, only more depressing.

(Reply to this)


[info]crickets
2004-03-04 06:55 am UTC (link)
Un. Real.

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[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-03-04 07:21 am UTC (link)
I don't know, I'm hesitant to point my finger at the Oregon Attorney General and scream "DO SOMETHING". I've never worked in law, but I've worked in places that were underfunded, understaffed and overworked, and it's not pleasant -- sometimes there's just not enough time to do everything in your job description.

It's possible that he really does have his hands full with other, more serious cases, and has to prioritize.

/wank

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So unfortunately true
[info]vasaris
2004-03-04 07:34 am UTC (link)
Having lived with members of law enforcement all of my life, I do get that but... I was raised to be something of an idealist about what government can be and achieve.

This is a place where they've got a chance to put a dent (one hopes even a halt) in a behavior.

I'm not going to march south (I live in WA) and demand that Oregon's AG do something, but I hope he does, because, historically, if you let people get away with stuff like this now, they will try again in the future and more people end up defrauded and hurt.

Even worse, it makes it harder for real charities that might rise out of fandom (because you have to admit, it was a fabulous ideal) to gain recognition and legitimacy, the financial and emotional harm to to individuals aside. That, in my view, is the real tragedy.

Which is why I said... here's to hoping that an overtaxed system can, in fact, do what should be done.

/spooge, extra squishy off

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: So unfortunately true
[info]eiviiaru
2004-03-04 08:19 am UTC (link)
The danger, I think, is that the damage has already been done -- that even if they get a conviction, the BoE precedent is going to make celebrities shy off fan charity events, and more importantly, it's going to make more fans gunshy of the support necessary for these things.

Before all of this came out, I honestly respected BoE more than I did virtually any other LotR fansite; I admired the fact that they were giving back to the community and passing along the gift of literacy in a fandom that was quickly becoming illiterate. I think, for me and all of us, this entire wank has been the end of innocence.

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[info]bubosquared
2004-03-04 04:27 pm UTC (link)
Even worse, it makes it harder for real charities that might rise out of fandom (because you have to admit, it was a fabulous ideal) to gain recognition and legitimacy, the financial and emotional harm to to individuals aside. That, in my view, is the real tragedy.

Ditto on that. I really liked the idea of BoE, the idea of fan groups getting together and doing something charitable, especially if that's also connected to the fandom, like the reading garden project was. I hate to think that Those Two probably made it a lot harder for things like that to happen again.

</wank>

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


(Anonymous)
2004-03-05 04:54 am UTC (link)
Actually, I know of one other fanbased Charity that's doing very well. (And is actually real.) Baen's Bar's (the web board for Baen Books readers and authors) "ReadAssist" program, for instance. They're doing fairly well, last I heard...


OtherCat

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[info]resmiranda
2004-03-04 07:37 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I gotta agree with you on this one. The bureaucracy? Not so much with the chop-chop, or the time, money, and staff. At this point I'm just kind of hoping for the Karma Stick to give out a good beat-down in any way possible; it may cometh from the Attorney General, or it may ironically cometh from a large armored truck full of money clipping them as they cross the street, but hopefully it shall cometh.

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[info]ladybirdsleeps
2004-03-04 10:28 am UTC (link)
Your icon makes me smile.

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[info]moonjaguar
2004-03-05 03:34 am UTC (link)
Please let me be there to catch all the money that goes flying out of the truck that clobbers them, please?

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[info]ruby_falls
2004-03-04 03:05 pm UTC (link)
You're absolutely right. I've worked in county DA's offices, and an $1,800 theft wouldn't even be a blip on their radar. That amount might not even qualify as a felony in their office, and misdemeanors get no attention, comparatively. If they consider this along with everything else, rather than as an isolated incident, it might have more weight for them.

It's sucky for the people who donated or were taken advantage of. Maybe the organization that collected the money could sue them in Small Claims?

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[info]guinevere33
2004-03-04 03:55 pm UTC (link)
Oh, it's hella more than $1,800. [info]turimel alone was ripped off for $10,000, and that's just one airplane ticket. And many, many others were involved in giving money to various projects that never saw the light of day.

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[info]ruby_falls
2004-03-04 04:26 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I knew this was just one incident in a much larger series of things. By itself, it's not much (at least not from a prosecution standpoint; I know it's big to the people involved). Hopefully, if the AG looks at everything together, they're more likely to do something.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

On my state's, Oregon, funds
[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-04 04:06 pm UTC (link)
You're right. We've got almost no money at all.
At one time it looked like we didn't even have enough to keep our law enforcement running.

I agree with [info]vasaris, though. If something can be done, it should be.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]fictionbya
2004-03-04 07:42 am UTC (link)

OMGWTF!

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[info]psychofangirl
2004-03-04 08:59 am UTC (link)
My god, this is all unbelievable.

I wonder what thet 1800 dollars was spent on...

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[info]kijikun
2004-03-04 09:51 am UTC (link)
Wasnt that the sum donated to the X-files movie campgain? Not saying there's a connections its just odd.

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[info]psychofangirl
2004-03-04 10:09 am UTC (link)
Oh, I honestly don't know about that. Sorry.

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[info]kristenk2
2004-03-04 03:51 pm UTC (link)
BWA!

Oh, if only there WAS a connection...*g*

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[info]snacky
2004-03-04 03:59 pm UTC (link)
I, personally, am very suspicious of this coincidence. Hmmmm...has Endgame died and resurrected as the opposite sex, I wonder?

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[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-04 04:13 pm UTC (link)
Well, it is X-files fandom. One would think that weird shit like that happened all the time to y'all.

But who am I to talk, I'm a Millennium fan.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]phosfate
2004-03-04 04:50 pm UTC (link)
This is who we are.

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[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-05 08:20 pm UTC (link)
*grin*

I still haven't decided weather I'm a Rooster, or an Owl.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]phosfate
2004-03-05 11:31 pm UTC (link)
I'm a mocker. [/beatlesref]

(Reply to this)(Parent)

EndGame
[info]rubytramp
2004-03-04 05:14 pm UTC (link)
FYI, I heard from a little bird that the money from EndGame was received - guess that means it wasn't a scam, just stupid.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]eatsomepi
2004-03-04 05:37 pm UTC (link)
this is just...I have never seen anything on this level in *any* other fandom. thank god.

(Reply to this)


[info]melange
2004-03-04 09:15 pm UTC (link)
The more I hear about this, the more it sounds like a bad made-for-tv movie. It's just so incredibly insane, I can't really believe it's all real.

(Reply to this)


[info]sagralisse
2004-03-04 11:03 pm UTC (link)
icon

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[info]kijikun
2004-03-05 06:06 am UTC (link)
Aparently they showed up at oscar parties too. Damn these girls need serious help (And jail time)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/turimel/49563.html

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]crickets
2004-03-05 07:19 am UTC (link)
Our own Shireling Sue went to the "Into the West" party, however, and was astounded to see Amy, Abby and Cherie walk in, all dressed up, with Amy in her Jordan costume.

Okay, that? Boggles the mind even further. Going to the party in costume and chatting up Bit of Earth, still? Karmic debt must be reaching critical mass by now. Please.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bishounenhuntrs
2004-03-06 01:51 am UTC (link)
Hells bells! That just takes the bloody cake!
The intela-cock(sp?) has some big old brass balls, thats for sure. O.o

(Reply to this)(Parent)

There aren't words...
[info]pfeffermuse
2004-03-05 07:34 am UTC (link)
to describe the level of shock I've felt after reading much of the history of this debacle.

I don't mean to sound rude to anyone involved who lost money from being scammed, but didn't anyone suspect anything? This kind of behaviour just doesn't happen one time. As has been well-documented by Turimel, this was a repeated pattern of abuse of trust and total irresponsibility, which, based on the historical links, looks like it has been going on for at least two years.

If that wasn't enough to get someone's radar buzzing, the use of fan names in business transactions should have been worrisome. While it's cute to be called "Mr. Frodo" in LOTR fandom, not using your real name (or at least something that doesn't sound fannish) in business dealings -- whether that means calling publicists, booking celebrity talent or making charitable donations -- just sounds...wrong.

I will never again think that any of my fandoms are weird -- you've got us beat by a parsec.

Pepper

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Re: There aren't words...
[info]kijikun
2004-03-05 04:35 pm UTC (link)
I belive she used the name Jordon Wood, when contacting people. MrFrodo was simply the screen name

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[info]mauralabingi
2004-03-06 04:27 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, but that "Jordan Wood" thing should have set off its own alarms. Elijah Wood's full name is Elijah Jordan Wood. And here you have someone who dresses like Elijah, apes Elijah's speaking voice and mannerisms, wears blue contacts to make her ordinarily brown eyes look more like Elijah's, and who just happens to have two-thirds of the same name as Elijah (plus claims to be his cousin.) Ding ding ding -- and the needle of the bullshit meter flips firmly to the red and stays there.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

  
   
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