There's this Tumblr called Escher Girls, which dedicates itself to critiquing flawed female anatomy in comics, often with various re-draws of a more human proportion.

One of their more popular subjects is the work of Randy Queen and his sex-bomb good-ol' down South girl of dreams and nightmares, DarkChylde. Oh, memories. I used to read DarkChylde when I was young and naive and looking for good comics with girls in them. Personally I used to think the art was beautiful, until I realized it was actually the colouring I loved. Sorry, I deviated.

Well, Mr. Queen wasn't too happy about this and filed a bundle of DMCA notices to have the critique taken down. Oh, and he also threatened to sue the woman behind Escher Girls for defamation.

Gail Simone and John Scalzi tweet their thoughts.

Randy Queen tries to clarify his position: "You're mocking 18 year old work. You think it's so bad, YOU make a comic!"

Rob Liefeld facepalms.

Full write up on The Mary Sue.

As of four hours ago, he apologized!

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to clear up a few things that happened this past week. I have been having a very hard time in my personal life with the loss of my mother and my marriage having fallen apart and found myself in a very vulnerable and fragile state of mind. There were posts on the web criticizing my artwork that were brought to my attention and added to my stress. I reacted without thinking it through, but have now stopped, realizing my response was the wrong one to take. I am doing my best, each day, to get myself back on my feet and getting my life in a better place and realize now that I have just try to move on and get back to my art, the thing I find the most joy in these days. I want to thank those professionals, friends and family who have been giving me their support, understanding and love.
Thanks for listening.
~ R

NB: This writeup was taken from a very helpful mousie who volunteered to update the original report, I've just updated the HTML.

Our tale begins with the launch of BBP, a publishing house based on a totally new model that no one has ever tried before ever ever ever: Publishing popular fanfic authors' original novels. The first step on this journey is a Kickstarter, set up to fund the first three of these novels. Not the press, mind you, because that would be against Kickstarter TOS; just the novels themselves.

Which goes over fine - the authors involved are Gyzym, Febricant, and Eleveninches, so anticipation runs high - until someone notices the $40,000 price tag and starts to ask questions. The answers are not especially satisfying.

Others begin to dig deeper into the BBP team's backgrounds. Turns out, nobody associated seems to be all that qualified for their gig, most notably their "recovering law-type person," who's experience seems to consist of a year or so of paralegaling it up. This is kind of important, given that BBP's assurance that the novels will be finished is riding on their 'legally-binding contracts.'

Yep, you read that right. The novels aren't complete yet. But they will be!

Further questions are asked. Further answers are not really given. "Details? Noooo, you don't want details, details are boring! Look at the shiny!"

And then there's the part where one of the $500 backer rewards is the completion of a WIP by Gyzym. Meaning fanfic is being offered for straight-up monetary gain here, no charity auction in sight. Which Aja - did I mention the part where Aja is the Submissions Editor for BBP? - then starts a pool for, in the hopes of getting another Inception fic out of all this.

The latest is a twitter campaign on the part of BBP to get exposure through celebrity retweets. So far, they've had success with Orlando Jones, and are now going after Amanda Palmer. Their attempt to go for Maureen Johnson backfires, however.

The authors all post links leading back to the kickstarter in their fanfictions on AO3, breaking the community's restrictions against advertising in fics-- a reporting campaign on FFA begins and the notes are taken down shortly after, but that it was done at all leads Franzeska to make a post denouncing them.

We've got several continuous ffa threads and counting, and a lot of passive-aggressive twittering to contend with, if you're into that kind of thing.

At one point Aja heroically posts unanon on ffa to play the martyr and completely miss the point let everyone know she totally isn't involved with BBP anymore but completely believes in the project.

Some further links of note: some pointed questions directed at Big Bang Press, which are deflected

People with small press experience point out that, among other things, BBP is promising an impossible timeline

Discussion starts on Absolute Write

Big Bang Press continues to deflect questions.

Febricant and Morgan Davis do a podcast, in which they explicitly refer to the fanfiction available in their reward tiers:

"I think the (reward level) we may actually get some traction with is Kady's Work in Progress folder. Which, is like, somewhere between 200 and 300 thousand words' worth of unfinished pieces of fanfiction in a PDF -- with like, annotations, um, of her explaining where the story was going to go. [...] There's a lot of stuff in there, like, massive quantities of stuff. So, um, if you want to give us a lot of money, uh, that (reward level) would be a good option."

Badfic.net questions Big Bang Press: for people concerned about Big Bang Press, Lies Big Bang Press have told Us

sepiamagpie takes one for the team to get a look at the FAQs, which are only available to backers.

Short version: Some bronies try to run a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan convention in Las Vegas. They do an extremely bad job of it. Guests aren’t paid; people are left out of pocket, kicked out of hotels and left stranded; and cheques have bounced, including one to voice actor Tara Strong. And they pissed off John de Lancie. Of course, it’s totally not their fault and they want fans to bail them out by giving them money for some as yet unspecified amount. Plus they totally witnessed an agent of one of the actors taking money from the con cashbox! More than once! Really! Oh, and they made up this fake money, told vendors they’d be paid with it during the convention and would be able to exchange it for real money at the end. And so much more.

Many thanks to Amatyultare on lj for providing links and updates on wank_report. I’ve made some minor adjustments but otherwise pretty much used all your wording in this post. Detailed version under the cut.

( Las Pegasus Unicon )


In conclusion, lol bronies.

ETA: Fixed a link and typo. Another vendor has come forward with their experience and hopsandbarley has created a far superior pony currency for us to enjoy.

Short, but sweet.

Stop_Plagiarism is a comm dedicated to *drumroll* stopping plagiarism. One day PolgaraWolf is brought to their attention. She's posted some Doctor Who fanfic that's got plagiarized bits in it, so the OP writes her about it.

The whole thing is Here but TLDR, Polagara wolf responds with:

"Listen, Lady, Mister, whatever the hell you are,

I spent six hours in a hospital last night with my dad and I am NOT in the mood for this shit. So let me make this very clear for you: THIS IS AN OLD STORY THAT HAS BEEN ON MY COMPUTER FOR MOST OF A YEAR FOR FANDOMS THAT I NEVER HAD ANY TIME TO REALLY TAKE PART IN, DUE TO MY DAD BEING OFF WORK AND IN THE HOSPITAL WHILE I WAS TRYING TO WORK FULL TIME AND WRITE SAID STORY AND THEN DAD WAS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER AND I STOPPED WRITING IT. Is that bloody well clear enough for you?

STOP EMAILING ME.

Oddly enough, this does not persuade people that she didn't plagiarize. People start digging and pulling out more instances where she'd plagiarized. So what do you when people start calling you out? Apologize? Delete and slink away? Call out the internet lawyers? The third one.

I don't know who in the heck you people think you are, but I DEMAND you take this thread down right now or that you at least be honest and brave enough to give me your contact info so for each and every one of you to the police for taking part in this crap, which is cyber harassment and libel.

This is even funnier when you realize that several of the main people involved aren't even living in the USA (one's from Norway). Perhaps PolgaraWolf intends to try her in the Hague.

From a mouse at wank_report .

For at least the last six years, a guy called Rob Granito has been going to comic book conventions and getting them to give him a free table as an official guest by showing his resume which includes various cartoons and DC and Marvel Comics.

Then some unnamed anonymous person noticed that his convention bio claimed "his most recent projects have been the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes". Say WHAT? Calvin and Hobbes, the comic that ended in the 90's and was produced singlehanded by Bill Watterson? This anonymous benefactor put Rich Johnston of comic site Bleeding Cool on the case.

And Rich didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to crack it - a few phone calls proved none of the comic book companies he claimed to be connected to had even heard of him.

Granito's rebuttal? He claimed he "was a ghost artist for most of the projects I did", despite the fact that Marvel and DC don't hire ghost artists. Also, he claimed to work with the famed DC Editor "Jay Diddilo" who... does not exist. Maybe he heard of DC head Dan DiDio and didn't remember properly? The mind boggles.

( Money, lies and plagiarism )

The background: Last year, after the giant trainwreck of the Katsucon Artists' Alley, artists were promised better & more transparent communication. The old Alley head Tex was replaced with Jasen, one of the old security people. Jasen seemed pretty open, the Alley applications went up on September 12th, and on November 10th Jasen sent out a non-BCC'd email which stated, "You will shortly be receiving instructions about payment and any further registration information we need."

What happened next? You guessed it: Nothing. So people started questioning what was up on the forums. The con chair popped up on page two to say they're really really really gonna work on their communication for next year, honestly this time you guys, and by the way, here's what artists should really be doing instead of waiting around.

Possible attendees were, as you might've guessed, somewhat unimpressed. Katsu's con chair responded by first pointing the proverbial finger at Jasen--then his wife followed suit by throwing Jasen under their bus, claiming he'd been actively ignoring absolutely everyone's emails. ETA: And the second post's been deleted, though there's mentions of its contents in later posts. :(

At this point user Studio Kitsu decided she was fed up with the inaction and took matters into her own hands. Since Jasen'd not BCC'd the artists in his first "Be with you soon!" email, she snagged their addresses and sent this:

( And for the tl;dr portion of our show! )

The next morning, Jasen crawls out from under the bus to point the finger in return . . . in an email sent to absolutely everyone.

( Oh, by the way, fanart is now banned in the Alley. )

User Dashi, though, has had enough, and goes from passive-aggressive to aggressive-aggressive faster than you can say IP law--and once again, sends their grievances to the entire list of artists.

( IP Law: It's like magnets, in a way. )

And for bonus giggles: Despite addressing the email to "Katsucon staff," the only staff member she actually sent the thing to is Jasen.

But this is the end, right? People who've worked with grouchy customers know there's a time to step back and look for a higher ground and . . . Oh, who am I kidding. I preserved the formatting and colors because I love you guys.

From Jasen: ( There's no fanart ban except for where there is! )


And finally! . . . Finally? Irony tastes like apples!

From: Poisoned Apple (email redacted)
Subject: RE: Attn: Katsucon Marketplace Artists
To: Everyone!
Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 7:52 PM

Stop mass e-mailing. No one wants to read this.

Did your inker mysteriously disappear from your totz awesome, no pay job? Need a new inker for free? Just ask yourself, what would Rob Tracy (a.k.a. quikthnkr) do?

1. Post your request on DA. In the Paid Job section.
2. Argue when people inform you of the rules. (Rules are like, opinions, man.)
3. Grudge against artists who want to get paid for their work.
4. Grudge against previous co-workers.
5. Argue with people who give you solid advice.
6. Insult possible volunteers.
7. Calmly explain that the poor economy means that artists should be grateful for no pay, dead end jobs.
8. When all else fails declare yourself the winner.

Thanks to anon's wank report.

ETA: Locked post at artists_beware (open membership). Cache for original post by issendai (deleted).
Also, previous wank from the same guy, courtesy of issendai.

No, not bad furry skunk art. Pokémon.

For those not in the loop or really not caring to be, Pokémon Black and White launched in Japan on the 18th. Naturally, fandom being what it is these days, the major sites are working their damnest to be the newest with all the 'Mon and such as. Pokébeach and Serebii were two of many sites getting their stuff up with a quickness, with tons of screenshots and images of the new games and characters and such. Anyways, at some point Pokébeach go on and admit on the front page that they are using a ROM to get all their images, and Serebii has gotten their images from Pokébeach.

Can you tell where this is going? Both sites are hit with a C&D notice telling them to take the images down.

Both sites do as they are told. Pokebeach, of course, takes this very maturely like a person should....

Since us posting images of Black and White "has the potential to cause substantial damage to Nintendo," we have obviously complied with their wishes. All recent images of the games have been replaced by Ditto, a Pokemon from 1996 who we feel will best represent Pokemon's current image. We've also taken the liberty to change the name of this site to "PokerBeach" since we figured using "Poké" also has the chance of causing substantial damage to Nintendo's property. We hope that all English-speakers will remove images of Black and White from their websites, forums, blogs, YouTubes, Facebooks, instant messages, e-mails, homes, and minds since under law Nintendo has the right to declare any media they want, on any website they want, illegal and out of the domain of fair use [luckily criticism isn't]. We hope everyone will comply with their wishes or Pokemon may end up in the gutter, since covering and advertising new games for free is obviously counter-productive to Nintendo's sales. I mean, images of the games will obviously cost more damage than minor Isshus like this. Why go after the big guys when you can waste your lawyers' time on small fan sites that only help your franchise?

....or maybe not.

Meanwhile, the fandom reacts up in arms. ElJay Com; Bulbapedia Forums; Pokebeach Forums.

And for those who don't care about the wank, there's 156 of the little buggers* this round. I'm a fan of the deer, the candle, the water otter, and the fire piggy.

*Image shows all 649 (!) of em.

ETA: Having been linked in the comment: Kotaku; IGN.

ETA 2: Pokebeach backpedals, WPM claims he didn't have ROMs (even though front page said so). only used ROMs for plot for a little while and so it doesn't count. Nintendo are Big Bad Bullyfolk kicking people in head. Shows maturity of Target Pokémon audience of 8-12 year old.

Pokebeach is a Pokemon fansite whose webmaster, Water Pokemon Master (hereby known as WPM), is currently living in Japan in order to cover news about the upcoming 5th generation of Pokemon.

This week the 13th movie in the series came out, featuring advertisements that revealed two new Pokemon. WPM took photographs of these new Pokemon during this showing and posted them to Pokebeach. Filming a movie in a theater is a serious offense in Japan, and members of the Japanese site 2chan were enraged at WPM's actions. They reported him to the Japanese police and are encouraging others to do so. WPM could face an $11,000 fine and deportation.

Bulbagarden, another Pokemon fansite, reported on the incident, with the note that: "After learning of Water Pokémon Master's act, many people, such as several of the administrators of Bulbagarden, have condemned WPM's actions." This is where the wank comes in. A post about the news story was posted in the Bulbagarden forums ETA: Now deleted. A couple pages into this post, a copy of WPM's response to the affair is shared in which he lashes out at Bulbagarden for condeming him:

( If anyone should pay a fine, it should be Pokemon and Nintendo to its loyal webmasters who have spent years out of their time and wallets promoting their products. )

This results in a back-and-forth between Bulbagarden staff and forum users on whether they're hypocritical for their opinion on WPM's actions considering they reguarly post leaked CoroCoro scans:

TTEchidna: "We weren't the ones who took the scans. As a news organization, what we're doing is no more illegal than a TV channel showing video of a murder."

WPM then posts a conversation on AIM between himself and the Bulbagarden staff on Pokebeach, and this is also posted by Sparrow on the Bulbagarden forums:

( I hope you know that until charges are pressed against me, your news story is stupid )

Before the deletion (after I made this post) there was 29 pages about the situation on the Bulbagarden forums. Supposedly there's more wank on the Pokebeach forums, but my work blocks that website (hence why I used the Bulbagarden forum quotes of what has been posted on Pokebeach rather than the site itself, apologies). If anyone has a link to that, it'd be appreciated!

ETA: Lots of caps here thanks to galateus!

Okay. This one isn't old, but it is about an old game; Tunnels and Trolls, the second role playing game ever published. It was a sort of simplified and sillier D&D, and while it had its enthusiasts, it more or less faded out of sight for a couple of decades.

Then came "the old school renaissance"; for one reason or another, people got back into the RPGs of the late 70s and early 80s. Sadly, I do not believe that they dress in period appropriate clothing while playing. So it's a renaissance, but not a faire type renaissance. Anyhow, T&T was one of those games which got a renewed surge of interest; the fifth edition of the game was published in 1979, and then there was a version 5.5 published in 2005.

Now, the company that originally published T&T was "Flying Buffalo", and they're still in business. But they weren't publishing much in the way of new stuff, so other people filled the gap. One such gap filler was "Outlaw Press", owned and operated by a fellow named James Shipman. T&T doesn't have an official 6th edition—it goes from 5.5 to 7, in part because Outlaw Press published an unofficial sixth edition, with the permission of the copyright holder.

So far, so incredibly boring, right?

But then ( things get interesting )

Once upon a time there was Kia, aka Angelica Caprice aka absintheminded aka kiastar67 aka AyahuascaDreams, a Wincest-shipping self-professed vegetarian vampire who feels she has been persecuted on the internets.

No, seriously.

Kia's problems with the internets started on buzznet.com, where some of her statements were brought into question. For example, there's the bit where she said the show Supernatural promotes factual interpretations of paganism and paranormal whatnot. (Her posts were deleted, but the bulk of them remain as quotes in other people's posts. Watch for kiastar67 or absintheminded.)

Also, she found herself the subject of mockery for discussing her vampiric and/or sanguinarian leanings. In a Question of the Day post about vampires, Kia took a question about the vampire bill of rights seriously:

Yes, it is called the Black Veil! It was written a while back by a Sanguinarian from House Kheperu and COVICA . It is a code of Ethics for the Vampire/ Vampyre/ Sanguinarian community!

And, when prodded further, proceeded to claim that author Charlaine Harris is secretly promoting the sanguinarian agenda.

Well, I'm SURE no one here knows exactly where she got it or her EXACT meaning or purpose.

And then, as if realizing she was burying herself, decided to bury buzznet readers. In text.

WHAT? Hell NO! I learn from YOU GUYS daily! I know a little about nothing. Its just called being sick and stuck so reading too much(until I ruined my eyes) and being, like that Astor Roth(?) song about college says,"can't i just stay in college? That's what I did...professional student. Also a weird assed childhood. LOLAnyway...I know THIS because I have been a Sang before they came "out of the coffins and into the light" of the media and books. There are some Sanguinarians and Swans on Buzznet but I would never out them (don't worry guys) That is just "being discreet" which is part of the Black Veil. They will speak if they feel comfortable. People do NOT want to speak out because of certain books or stereotypes (remember what you guys said about OTHER stereotypes before laughing about this) Hell yes you can have sex without that. Blood play is a dangerous thing nowadays and donors (swans) are screened and taken care. In blood-letting or "feeding' they do say it is best to separate sex and that aspect. You can take life force through many ways (energy vampyres) and even those that think they can take only through blood can get it through sex Prana and Chakras (separate from the blood) It is VERY dangerous if people do not know what they are doing,the person and what they might have , how to take it without infection or hurting the donor. It is NOT something I would suggest! Sex (if you are an adult I will say because i am being official) is great for energy work as the energy from this is IMMENSE when done properly to TAKE Prana! If a Sanguinarian tells you they can turn into a bat, live forever, not go out in the sun(some don't do well in DIRECT sunlight) and things like that...run.They are nutters! Did that help?

And then gets into an argument over whether or not she said vampires were sanguinarians, or whether or not she knows psychic vampire sanguinarians, or . . . Yeah. It goes on for just about ever.


Things stayed quiet for a little bit. Then, on November 19th, tumblr user focahontas posted a screencap of some of Kia's crazy. This post got reblogged by a few users, then by newageamazon, who added "Fun fact, folks: nobody cares if you wank to Wincest. But if you habitually make yourself look like an idiot in a public forum? That’s when people start to care."

Doing so, of course, was like throwing rocks at the proverbial beehive.

Kia responded by getting a little passive-aggressive on her twitter. She performed brilliant tactical ass-covering by cutting out letters of the names of people she felt had wronged her, thus rendering her invisible to the eye of the internets. No one ever saw her snarking against those internet meanies, or expressing at length her thoughts on her oppression.

Wait, that's not how it worked at all. Seriously, someone get this woman a livejournal. (Extra points for Godwin's, "I'm not anti-gay, I have gay friends," use of "feminist" as an insult, and a random PERSECUTION macro.)

Buzznet user bznetgossipgrl tried to inject sanity into the cause; Kia responded by ejecting a rainbow-tone dissertation all over her myspace. Dissenters shall be obliterated! Though . . . if you scroll down far enough on her myspace, you'll learn how to curse people in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit--you know, like they did in the Old Testament. Or how to summon your very own sex demon.

Her long-winded attacks on high-profile buzznet members--a mod included--eventually resulted in her being banned from buzznet. So, feeling extra-persecuted, Kia fired off a cease & desist to Buzznet staff. This cease & desist. Word for word. ETA: Original twitter links are gone, but other people are talking about it: 1 2 3 4 5


Kia's talking about internet lawyers and lawsuits. Some buzznet users are talking about Kia's talking about internet lawyers and lawsuits. I get the feeling this one's gonna be like C.S., only with more sex demons and possibly a tasty, tasty Sam/Dean center.

ETA 2--Holy Geometry, now we're speaking Sanguinarian!: Kia takes on Landover Baptist--yes, those guys.

Wow, people are very intolerant. Hey, that Ok, I will post the site on Buzznet and let people come and debate! I honestly doubt that any of you seriously know what a Sanguinarian is. Therefore, how can you speak on those people. Have you ever heard of the Yazidi people? I have a feeling 99.9% will say NO(even if they do worship angles) (...)

Also, her collegiate kid who's helping her start her hippietrancedojojuicebarclub was fourteen last year--but that's okay, she's a business-owning super-genius.

You make fun of people that are in need of med's? My daughter has Iritis and is 14 with a 170 IQ.She speaks Fluent Japanese and already has opened a business. She is slightly asthmatic and is on Coricoid steriods for a time. For the Iritis she takes eye drops. Even ON these meds she is 10 fold ahead of where you will ever be.She has apathy and compassion and offered her blood when her friend was in an accident,even though she is in deep fear of needles due to painful test. She is half Native American(her father and i are half) and also speaks 2 basically dead languages ,along with Latin and Sanguinese. \

ETA 3--She Comes From a Land Down Under (the ocean): Kia's people are from Atlantis.

Also, she knows more about "angles"--and everything else--than you do. Even if those biased close-minded Judeocentric meanies on the Supernatural boards don't believe her.

Well wait, first,these are olf Jewish "angles" and the kaball;ah is some serious S***. I have studied it for let's see, over 20 years ,and STILL have to keep many books to understand the higher issues ,KOS and HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT.
(...)
I have been dealing with magic, from vodoun, Palomayombe, Sanguinese (one you will NEVER see your entire life no matter what you do) Druidism, Paganism, most South American Animism and spirit believes,Enochian magic, Luciferianism,and so many many more since i was about 6. I own a magic gallery that sells items from antiquity some so rare we have found only one, many from dig sites, etc. Getting the picture? I grew up living with many different Indigenous peoples and learning culture and magic and it is sad when rubes like you have to put that down, can't understand.

And for the tasty Sam/Dean filling! You don't know Sam and Dean like she does, because of her cultural learnings. Wincest is okay because the Pharaohs did it, and because it's in the bible; and so, it's wrong for us to judge. I . . . I think I've been schooled, guys.

ETA 4--I'm on the internets, corruptin ur babeez: Either she's googling herself or has a myspace tracker; the f_wank post has been found. No matter her previous thoughts on being involved with internet drama, her response is as you might imagine: yet another endless twitter rant. Journalfen's users are losers and drama queens, and she knows her internet law. It looks like she's read my Strikethrough writeup and decided it means I'm a pedophile--and though she believes Wincest is all well and good, she feels her child is in danger from me. She also is pretty sure I'm Newageamazon. That's absurd. I'm caito. And tomorrow she plans to take this post and "show us the truth." I wonder if she can do it in tie-dye. Alas, no dice. But like the creepy mouthbreather hell-bent on handing their hardcore RPS fic to their fannish idol, we shall watch and wait.

Over on FurAffinity Kitara makes a journal about the theft of her tablet (the original journal is on the bottom half and the update is on the top half). She says she lent it to Recca_se_li and it was then either stolen by Razr or Recca lent it to Razr. Either way Razr refuses to answer any of Kitara's emails or text messages on the subject. Kitara then updates same journal (top half) when she manages to contact Razrs roomate/master/girlfriend/sockpuppet knowstobite. Knowstobite insists that the tablet was given to Razrs by Recca as a parting gift and that he will only return it once Kitara gives him another tablet of same or better quality.

Recca says Razrs has also stolen from him and owes him money

ICEman goes on Heidi patrol and internet lawyers

Kitara posts another journal where she shares a conversation she had with Knowstobite The conversation is tl;dr but the gist of it is Knowstobite thinks Razr has done nothing wrong by willfully accepting and keeping property he knows is stolen and again insists Kitara sends a new tablet to Razrs before she receives the original back.

Knowstobite shows up to share her two cents

Knowstobite also posted a journal on the subject of the tablet
The edited version
Screen caps thanks to Nightfurson of the original version in which knowstobite tries to raise money to buy Razr a new tablet.

Screen capt comments from Knowstobite's first journal where we find out Razr just made over $200 dollars on a commission and can easily buy himself a new tablet with that money.
the furbuy auction (half a NSFW picture)

At some point Recca also started taking donation money to buy Kitara a new tablet even though Kitara explicitly said she doesn't want a new one, she wants her old one back for sentimental value. Questions are raised as to what happens to the donation money after Kitara receives her old tablet back. Unfortunately I can't find the original post where Recca says this, just a comment referring to it.

There is much internet lawyering throughout. 

ETA: There appears to be a happy ending after all Kitara posts a new journal saying she got the tablet back.

In Part III, we saw what happened when Lady Sybilla tried to tangle with the Twilight Lexicon mods for the last time (they banned her), and watched in awe as Wikipedia users worked "around the clock" to get her Russet Noon article deleted. You can still find "The Wikipedia Wars" linked on the Russet Noon website, but you'll have to scroll down past...

The FanHistory Wars.A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

Artistic revolution (who, for reasons which will become blatantly obvious, is a suspected sockpuppet of Lady Sybilla) edited the shit out of the Russet Noon fanhistory page. Artistic revolution has a pretty one-track mind, it would appear. Or two-track, if you count Lady Sybilla as a separate topic.

In the midst of all those edits, there was no shortage of information about me, Sybilla's own favorite "stalkarazzo." (I know I'm her favorite, she says so herself on the Russet Noon website.) The following information is culled from the Revision as of 00:27, 21 April 2009 version of the page.

Although Caito posted the email text on one of her many Journalfen pages, her only acknowledgment of Sybilla's concerns was: "I'm totally over this email business. I have a spam filter and I intend to use it. If someone wants to continue discussing this shiz, she can do so in the comments like everybody else." Strange reaction given that Caito's Whois record for her site openly discloses her gmail address:

At this point, Artistic revolution somehow thought it was appropriate to include my mailing address and contact information. Yes, in the middle of the article for Russet Noon. But that's not all! She did go on. I bolded my favorite parts!

More recently, Caito provided us with a video example of how the attention-whoring for which she mocks Sybilla is more contagious than a disease. Ironically, while she spends her valuable time making fun of the ''Russet Noon'' author for trying to exploit Stephenie Meyer's popularity, Caito, too, seems to be riding the wave of the ''Russet Noon'' obsession. And she does so quite gracefully. If it weren't for Caito, ''Russet Noon'' would have never achieved taboo status.

... On April 3, 2009, LadySybilla emailed Caito and asked her to stop her "online stalking activities." On this email, Sybilla warned, "If you don't, I will notify as many administrators as I have to until they take action." Sybilla then contacted the Journalfen technical support team to ask how she could contact an administrator in order to report libelous accusations posted by some of their users. But, instead of responding to Sybilla's concerns, the JournalFen support team (if, in fact, there is one) forwarded a copy of the email to Caito. This incident may or may not prompt internet users to wonder about the legitimacy of Journalfen. Is Journalfen an actual company? If it is, who are the tech support staff and/or administrators behind it?

... Judging by the look of things, it won't be Sybilla who will be profiting off of ''Russet Noon'' sales after all. Let's see what happens when Caito and her BFFs at Twilight Lexicon get their hands on a copy of the novel in September.

All that has since been nuked from the actual FanHistory page, and replaced with more evenhanded material. People here at FW went a little flaily for a bit, as a software snafu made it appear as though FH mod Sidewinder had been the one to add my personal info when she'd really just meant to take it down.*

Then the mods brought the hurt down on Artistic revolution, who has been banned from editing the wiki for two whole weeks! She's really sorry, though, guys. Please stop throwing stones at her, and let her catapult boulders at others in peace.

But it's not like Artistic revolution has been the only one tooling with it, either. Some anons got in and tweaked it ever so slightly, like changing the story summary simply to "OH JOHN RINGO NO!" Editing the Russet Noon article is temporarily locked to admins, due to anon vandalizing and a neutrality dispute.

Personal notes:

1. I do not know what end anyone would hope to achieve by posting my address.
2. I'm not BFFs or even BFs or even just Fs with the TwiLex mods, but I sure do like them more than I like Lady Sybilla.
3. I have no clue how I would stand to profit from anything having to do with Russet Noon.
4. I have no idea who Lee Thomas even is.

*Aside to FanHistory folks: Thanks. I really appreciate what you did. Do me one more solid? I did respond to Lady Sybilla's concerns about my "accusations", but I guess it got lost in the epic wave of comments. Like I said before, Lady Sybilla is welcome to come engage me in comments, but as far as I know she has yet to do so. Muchos gracias.

ETA: Artistic revolution rides forth on teal deer to appeal to Laura's professionalism.

ETA 2: Laura responds!

ETA 3: The Russet Noon website is now basically a hate shrine dedicated to me and FH mod Sidewinder, complete with Photoshopped screencaps of me interacting with people I've never actually interacted with. Oh, and also my contact information.

You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that she doesn't take criticism very well.

ETA 4: From Artistic revolution's usertalk page:

I'm not interested in antagonizing you. You have been objective, but I still have to insist that Sidewinder, whoever she is, hasn't been. She might not have the same IP address as Caito, but her editing patterns are dubious. I have listed the evidence on my website because I'm blocked from doing so here. If I'm not allowed to edit the article, then at least Sidewinder should also be prevented from tampering with it any further.

All in all, as I said before, I'm not interested in antagonizing you. Based on your reasons for why Wikipedia blacklisted FH, I know you can understand how I feel in regards to Russet Noon. I have seen that your procedures reflect professionalism. This is why I appealed to that.

I sincerely apologized to both you and Tikatu, but never received a reply. At least at Wikipedia they lifted the ban. Sure, they deleted the article, but they were reasonable enough to lift the ban. I'm sorry if the procedure I followed to try to negotiate with you guys was not what you expected.

I would much rather have you delete the Russet Noon article altogether than to continue with this conflict. Once again, it is not my intention to antagonize you.

So, yeah, Artistic revolution is almost certainly Lady Sybilla.

ETA 5: The hate shrine is now down from the Russet Noon site. It's been replaced with a paragraph about how "the wars have ceased" and the rest is now ostensibly about the fanfic again.

ETA 4-24 7:22am Tokyo time: In case anyone was wondering how Lady Sybilla was taking the news about Peter David's community parody-in-progress, here's the reaction from her twitter:

# it's an honor even though it's a satire, because Peter David is a very seasoned writer
4 minutes ago from web

# many fanfic writers of the net will be uniting to write Potato Moon. The creator is comic book author Peter David
4 minutes ago from web

# let's hope this communal novel will inspire many more to come. I'd love to see a serious thriller or drama like this
7 minutes ago from web

# communal novels are a new genre, there are not many of them that I know of. I'm very curious to read Potato Moon.
8 minutes ago from web

# I'm very proud to announce that Russet Noon has inspired a very unique parody, Potato Moon. It's a communal novel
8 minutes ago from web

The Russet Noon website has also changed. It no longer makes mention of any "wars" whatsoever.

ETA 7: "You are invited to read our latest press release, "Lady Sybilla: The Darth Vader of Fandom."* It appears that Russet Noon has already achieved taboo status without having even been released yet. That's what happens when a Darth Vader figure like Lady Sybilla is created. And now she's found a worthy opponent: Peter David."

*That link goes to a c&p in my journal. To view the original (and give LS more hits) click here.

ETA 8: Her tweeting continues, c&ped here.

ETA 9: The first part of Potato Moon is up... I have a FanHistory page now, and actually I kind of like it, especially the graphic and its caption... and yes, my little lolcats, you can has more ONTD.

ETA 10: She just updated the Russet Noon site again (screencapped here), linking to the articles that appeared on Comicmix and IMDB. (Except her IMDB link actually goes here, where you have to scroll down halfway down the page the relevant blurb.)

ETA 11: Peter David's Potato Moon has its own Wikipedia page! It is a thing of true beauty and you will never, ever guess who started it. But to avoid the situation that occurred the last time she wrote articles on Wikipedia, she's asked another user to edit the Potato Moon article for her. And he is (adding links to the Potato Moon blog entries, at least)! He just wants to know more about who AV Paranormal is. This should go well, I think.

ETA 12: She's linked to something on the Wall Street Journal site now. What the lemonfresh hell?

Lady Sybilla put out another press release. She also showed up at the Twilight Lexicon again, since that went so well the last time. (When the formatting gets hard to read, check it here.)

(Fanhistory links are all nofollow.)

After her Wikipedia article was deleted (you can go to the Russet-Noon webpage for more information), Lady Sybilla edited the shit out of the Russet Noon Fanhistory page all by her lonesome (despire Laura Hale asking around on Bebo whether anyone else had anything to contribute).

And in case your blog entry about the whole affair shows up there, I'm sorry. Lady Sybilla farmed the Russet Doom Supplementary Links Collection and changed my format a little to make the attention seem less wholly negative.

Oh also I put together an entry in my journal with links to screencaps and transcriptions and things, for quick and easy reference. 

For those just tuning in:

Lady Sybilla wanted to put out Russet Noon, her tribute sequel to the Twilight Saga via sockpuppet publisher. Smeyer never drew her characters, so this totally wasn't copyright infringement. She put out press releases, a Youtube reading, and listed her book on eBay months and months before she intended to make it available.

Then, of course, the "massive hate campaign" began. Darn Earth logic!

I myself wrote no less than four separate versions of a wank report, as I tried to keep on top of everything (and eventually lost my grip on sanity).

Lady Sybilla did not take this well. She pretend-banned the russet-noon site, taking down its former glory, then changed it to goad voyeurs.

And what did I get for my efforts? Emails from Lady Sybs herself.

Now she's put up a message directing us to the interview she did at a Brazilian fan site.

In the words of Stephenie Meyer, "When a story demands to be written, there's no way to resist."

Yes, Sybsy baby, and your story demands to be put down. Um, I mean the reports on you, not Russet Noon. Your tomfoolery must be chronicled for posterity the lulz.

But wait, there's more! Aaaaaaand she's back to writing press releases. It's the Foforks interview with this blurb at the end:

AV Paranormal Publishing is an independent publisher in the Los Angeles area. We publish online books, digital art and paperback novels. No unsolicited manuscript submissions are considered. We accept query emails with a short synopsis. Email your queries to submissions@avparanormal.com

O rly? Also the Twilight Lexicon is back to smacking her down. Kisses, kids!

And guess what just came up in my Google reader? This post by Karen Knows Best! Which led me to go and check...yes! Lee Goldberg is back on the case!

( Now for the tl;dr... )

In other news, I'm totally over this email business. I have a spam filter and I intend to use it. If someone wants to continue discussing this shiz, she can do so in the comments like everybody else.
ETA: Yes, we can haz more press release.

 IBecause I, caito    , could not stand the heat, I decide to step out of the kitchen. The previous incarnation of this post was getting more negative attention than I could possibly cope with, so I have rewritten the content to remove any false or libelous accusations against anyone's websites or personal character (before someone files a complaint against me or contacts an administrator). Please enjoy the following tutorial; I hope that you find it instructive.

If you were one of those who were giving me gruff, you can expect an email shortly, in which I accuse you of stalking me, make a vague and passive aggressive threat, and link you to my most recent blog comments. Thank you.



Yes, I'm just taking the piss. After drinking one or five Zimas, it seemed like a good idea. For even greater lulz, please see the Russet Doom Supplementary Link Collection. 

Dear Author is a genre book review blog and this Romance Novel review is hilarious all on its own. (Completely NWS excerpts are posted as part of the review.)

But some commenters get a little tetchy and accuse the reviewer of OMG HATING THE AUTHOR! It's fairly polite as wanks go. Then there are some faily arguments about whether or not the author is using racial caricatures or not. (note: that wasn't the funny part.)

Enter Stevie who tells everyone they are interpreting it all from the wrong perspective and their arguments wouldn't hold up in court. No really. And don't miss hir witty zingers there are near misses on both Godwin's and Snacky's laws which are tongue in cheek.

And yet Stevie refuses to see anyone's point about "gentleman's bathrooms".

Seems that the scans_daily LJ comm just got nuked. Moderator Scmevil has the details User Crantz is squarely blaming writer Peter David for getting the comm shut down.

Mucho gracias to the folks over on wank_report. AND A SPOILER WARNING WITH EXTRA SPARKLES FOR TWILIGHT FANS. I suggest Twilight fans who actually care that much about being spoiled avoid this post like the plague.

( Why do I feel we've been through this before? )
ETA: Fixed the tag on the last link. Sorry, folks.
ETA3: A support request was entered by someone claiming to be from a law firm, claiming to represent the publishing group with a pretty much standard letter that has been going around like a strain of herpes to people leaking the book or even discussing spoilers (julian_black explains exactly why here). I don't think intellectual property laws work that way.

( text can be found here )


Other posts concerning the leaks can be found here and a twilight_news (thanks to hooloovoo_too). Possible confirmation of some of the spoilers has also sparked more wank over here.

There's some more fun over at ontd (the macros start on page 2). The OP itself only concerns the movie, but that doesn't stop people from wanking over the spoilers.

ETA4: system is love.

( Go System! )

And there's now been blurry confirmation on spoilers (thanks to miraba).

ETA5: Ok, guys, lay off the Mormons or I'm going to have to ask you to get out of the pool. I really, really, REALLY hate to quote mcity but plz no Mormon bashing. Let's have some class.

ETA6: SMeyer allegedly wrote a parody version of Breaking Dawn according to this EW article (thanks to greenconverses).

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.