With thanks to @doctoraicha on Twitter--

I'm just going to link to what is already a very thorough writeup, but let's just say that when I got to

she talked a lot about her boyfriend, Jeff, and her best friend, Lexie, and both of them actually had occasionally-used FF accounts and would sometimes participate in AIM chats with the rest of us

I knew exactly where this was going, and I think you will too. (With a bonus Facebook twist!) Commenter irishmizzy dubs it "CATFISH 2: EXPECTO PATRONUM," which is about the way of it.

Hey Fandom Wank! Tired of Diana Gabaldon's fans not understanding the difference between fanfic and plagiarism? I know I am!

So let's have some real plagiarism!

Meet kittystrife. Her entire LJ, from fannish to personal posts, right down to the profile, appears to have been lifted from an assortment of other fans.

I am too lazy to link all the instances so far, but it all started here. Other links are here, here, and here.

Like musesfool, I swear those BSG ep reviews aren't hers, but I don't know who they belong to. I'm sure there's lots of other lifted stuff I don't know either. See anything you recognize?

Also, shall we start the countdown to deletion? 5...4...3...

ETA: Thank you, onetimeoffer for doing all the work!

ETA 2: And cesare wins the bahleetion pool at 12:01 pm EST! Um, I've got some gum for your prize, okay, Ces?

ETA 3: mpoetess has more screencaps here. Good wankas help! :D

Lost in the comments of the last post, julian_black tells us that idiomagic has spit out the kool-aid.

The evil twin is yesterday's news, people. Now there's an UNDEAD SHAMAN-WIZARD.

Yeah, I'll repeat that: UNDEAD SHAMAN-WIZARD.

I don't even know. Does it top channeling fictional hobbits? You decide.



ETA: HOLD THE PHONE: UNDEAD SHAMAN-WIZARD EMAILS HERE! All personal info redacted, of course. Thanks bacon_lover!

Also, idiomagic would like us to know that She never drank the kool-aid. She was *cue dramatic music* THE MOLE!

I dunno, there's a reason Deep Throat's identity was never revealed...





Reminder: please use male pronouns when referring to VB/thanfiction, and leave the transfail in the other post, thanks.

A certain well-known person in the Hikaru no Go (Aja aka bookshop, whom you might remember thanks to other kerfuffles she's been in) claims that some BNF's had their fics plagiarised. And posts about it in her journal. Citing excerpts of the fics by both "victims" and "culprits" (which, in this repoter's opinions, aren't THAT similar) and a *very* wanky call to fandom.

So, yeah, SHUN HER, discredit her, go forth and spread the word. Let the trumpets of indignation sound!

And people start commenting about it. Some excerpts are here:

- What a skeeve. Can't you use your BNF to make ppl troll this journal?

- "She deleted her DW!" "that's the power of the BNF lol"

- The author tries to defend herself. And is hatepiled on. Errrr...

- "Please understand, I'm not implying that *any* of these fics are plagiarized, I'm saying that I'm not sure but I suspect..."

- A post on it by one of the supposedly plagiarised authors

One of the so-called "culprits" accused has had it, though! And she's NOT gonna take it! Watch as Aja keeps insisting that there was plagiarism, pretty much making an ass outta herself, and people come to umareawareru's defense.

... And finally, Aja snaps. And SCREAMS.

( HNG fandom. Please leave me THE FUCK alone. Kthx )

Thank you so much, mousies from wank report!

ETA: mischif tells us that Aishuu has written about the subject. Thanks to ya too!

Information culled from an anonymouse source on wank_report.

Daddy's Little Cannibal was a Twilight fic writer, and apparently quasi-BNF enough to merit at least one interview, with 43 stories to her name that garnered multiple awards. Her most popular story was Cigarette Burns, which her twin sister is now posting for her posthumously.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. Daddy's Little Cannibal died on May 8, 2009, after being involved in an accident with a drunk driver.
( Tragery! Or something else? )

The end! ... or is it?

Is it a social experiment? Attention seeking? Was she just tired of flitting from xanga to xanga and craved a more dramatic way to disassociate herself from her previous activities? And who is the anonymous source on wank_report - grudge? overzealous detective wanting to show off their leet snooping skills? or one of the wankers, trying to garner more attention? Only time - and possible ETAs - will tell!

ETA: I found a single now-deleted flame c&p'ed by other authors on FF.net.

As those of you who haven't been living under a rock may know, a new Star Trek movie just came out. Over on fanficrants, roq is upset about this. Apparently, TEENAGERS are now WRITING in HER fandom! Quelle suprise!

She has some choice words to say about it.

( Wank long and prosper )

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?

Here's a very small but absolutely delightful fic wank courtesy of the mousies of wank_report. I will say now that, to the best of my knowledge, all involved are 18+, though not all of them had ages posted so I can't be sure.

ravenette2506 is am member of the small Alex Rider fandom (Alex Rider is apparently some teen spy book series I'd never heard of, but the wank is good anyways) and the yassen_alex community. She posts a fic of this pairing in her personal journal. frayer shows up to give some constructive criticism (or "concrit," apparently? You kids and your crazy portmanteaus). To paraphrase: "your fandom tends to do a lot worse but this isn't bad, oh and this line bugged me." A little harsh, perhaps, but not overly nasty. But it's on a personal journal, right? If the author objects they can just deal, delete, screen, whatever.

Or not.

( 'The Mod Signal! Quick Boy Fapper, to the wankmobile!' )

ETA: Bahleetion! Luckily, harumph has provided a cap for your entertainment. Also whoever linked them here is FAIL.

ETA deuce: OH NOES TEH HAXORS

ETA god my poor thesis: More cappage courtesy of _goblin_! And may I repeat: mousie who trolled the wank, you are a failure among failures. (Now with the original "concrit" courtesy of killer_gopher and sisterelwood)(AND MORE!)

ETA FOR FUCK'S SAKE IT'S ONLY BEEN LIKE TEN MINUTES SINCE THE LAST ONE: Not content to rank among the mousies, SuperMod has appeared to slaughter us all with his/her/its passive-aggressive smilies! :)

ETA of genuine interest: This shit's getting weird. OK, so, we had bahleetion, then some helpful mouse showed up with a link to a cap which turned out to be capped by Yaseanne and was promptly deleted. The twist?

The "helpful mouse's" IP

abrandnewboom's IP

Yaseanne's IP

So...either these two are in collusion to both keep the wank alive and try to act all superior about it being trolled or we've got some crazy-ass sockpuppetry and IP hiding going on. Yeah. I don't even fucking know.

ETA FTW: And this, ladies and gentlemen, is good modding. *salutes*

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.

Disclaimer: I'm peripheral in this, Everything I know I know from watching. I've never had contact with the parties involved. This might belong in Unfunnybusiness, but, y'know, His Wife? A Horse...

If you're a fan of Furry Artwork, then you've probably heard of Seux, AKA Zeriara. If you haven't, you're lucky. But your luck is about to run out because I am going to educate you!

Zer has been known to 'lose' her commissions in the mail, and behave rudely to people with whom she is doing business. She's a regular staple of furry drama, art drama and even has her very own Dramachan board. But recently, Zer had been behaving and appeared to have cleaned up her act.
( cut because girl makes out with a hot dog. ). We'll see how far this goes.

 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. 

PART IV: ATTACK OF THE 404 ERROR

The rebel forces at MLL got their bus ads (at least two of them, which is like 5%) Notice I'm linking to the images at BWP, because the Death Star forums at MLL have mysterious gone down.

There are rumors and speculation that Sleezer and Kate are in the MLL chat and kick out everyone who tries to pop in.

Kayspleen who donated all the money for the ads was banned from MLL as were JTF, evilyn, and lila. Mod Reuben quit and was replaced by pantiesinawad bunchesoffun.

There is a fun philosophical discussion on the nature of hate over at BWP.

Will the forums come back up? Will we ever find out how much the ads actually cost? Will we learn if the kind of bus the ads are on makes a difference? Will we find out if Sleezer actually ate any of those pagan babies? Stay tuned...

ETA alpha: rijane has more dirt on Sleezer deleting a huge chunk of the forum late last night.

ETA beta:: Leeser caught lurking at BWP??

ETA gamma: Ex-MLL mods offer pretty damning evidence that Sleezer skimmed $10k off the 2008 con money.

ETA delta: rijane explains about lawyers filing charges in this mess.

ETA epsilon: More con $$ shennanigans.

ETA zeta: SLEEZER SAYS MLL FORUM DOWN FOR GOOD!
edited to remove link to chat transcript because it violates F_W rules. You can find it if you dig around at BWP, but I am suspicious of the empty brand new journal.

ETA eta: I smell bullshit. I'm not the brightest bulb in the hallway, but this reads like one of Sleezer's supporters pretending to be a mouse and "leaking" info to us. YMMV.

ETA theta: www.lisagerry.com/ includes lots of MLL caps and all sorts of fun and damning evidence!

ETA iota: BWP has gone to registered users only for the off-topic forums. So none of these links work now. YAY? I think that concludes this wank unless Sleezer brings the forums back and explains it was a social experiment or something.

disclosure: I registered over there because I wanted to ask the site owner to take my user name off of lisagerry.com. FTLOG. Thank you!!

( resources below cut )

Because this wank keeps getting wackier and weirder, we've moved on to post #3.

In episode one, we were witness to the dramatic tension on the Moonlight Line forum when kaysspleen demands to know where the $11k she donated for bus ads back in July was. See the first wank report over here, brought to you by the fabulous and possibly masochistic cleolinda.

In episode two, the drama continued as the forum itself is sabotaged, IPs and users are banned (but rise as ghosts!) and posts suddenly vanish. See the second wank report here.

In tonight's episode, we have flash backs to a time that Leeser may wish she'd remembered to get rid of. You see, Leeser has not always been a PR wannabe and Head Vampire of her own forum. Oh no, she's been a very busy little bee, unbeknownst to our beloved, plucky MLL forum members.

Leeser is not just the Head Vampire, she's also the head of her own church. She also ran her own school, which suffered from some of the same problems others have complained about. Things like, never being able to actually contact her and providing substandard material. Oh, and let's not forget... disappearing with the money. She is also providing virtual life services (whatever that is). And she takes paypal, btw!

In total, she's been spotted with dozens of websites of varying schemes. From MLL forum admin to notary, to virtual life host, to online web host, to webpage designer, to pagan priestess (Reverend even!) to head of her own online school for homeschooling pagan children, to ... pardon, my head is spinning. She's used at least 4 aliases in all these dealings, to boot.

Redwinter, from MLL, also provides a very nice timeline for those who feel like they are drowning in this sea of wank.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... the MLL folks are still in an uproar over all the discoveries. Though with all the revelations, even the most stalwart Leeser defenders are starting to retreat.

(Discliamer: Some links show her real life name and address, which is why they are not displayed here. But to the discerning and plucky F_W detective, it's easy to find. She's plastered her real life name, phone number and address everywhere, it seems.)

And now the March of the ETAs.

1. Well, most of the Snowflakes are waking up... except for elizabuff.

2. Moonlight Line is due to be renewed at the end of the month. But don't worry. Several FW members have been mad capping.

3. Leeser makes the claim (somewhat with contradictions) that it costs around 100-200 a month to host the MLL board. Yet she's told some of her former mods that it costs her nothing.

4. Wait... she just renewed the website to her former school.

5. Shocking! The vials actually did arrive!

6. Also, Leeser wants your babies. I mean, to let others adopt them. Really.

Quote: Are you a pregnant Pagan looking to place your child for adoption?
Are you a Pagan looking to adopt?
Free adoption referral services.

Previously, on Moonlight: Busgate 2008:

In the last episode, the Moonlight kerfluffle, (reported here in the original wank report) we had $11k missing and people demanding answers for it. For a dramatic week, people wondered if there'd ever be an end to it all.

Finally, we get some relief as Leeser's payment goes through and kayspleen reports that she is satisfied.

But it's not over yet... dun dun dun!
( Read on, for more! )

Will rijane and the other winners ever see their vials? Will the board implode under the weight of all the drama? Will Leeser ever cough up any explanations for anything? Will Kate post again on any other non-issues? Will the fanfic writers gain access to their fanfic again?

Stay tuned, true believers, for the next episode of Moonlight Line: Busgate 2008, Electric Boogalo!

Disclaimer: There is no way one can possibly write this up and get ALL the links available on this. I cherry picked what I thought were the best tidbits of this on going drama that's getting huge enough to rival Godzilla.

ETA the first!: Even the Germans are smelling something foul.

And let's not forget the propeller story, for it has tasty details as well. Thank you killer_gopher.

ETA's mother: Quick, everyone, look busy, we've been spotted!

Many thanks to Lila from the MLL board for providing details on the ghosts of Eris. So far, we have MyImaginaryFriend, gandhhi, BooBerry, Chaos, Inara, Addiecurly, and CaptainJackMorgan.

ETA's mother's cousin: Rijane's revenge has been enacted.

ETA's mother's cousin's best friend: Moonpies? No seriously, MOONPIES?

ETA's mother's cousin's best friend's ex-girlfriend: The Fleur de Lis reference explained.

ETA's mother's cousin's best friend's ex-girlfriend's dog: Thanks to ari_o, we now have the Moonlight Bingo Card.

ETA's mother's cousin's best friend's ex-girlfriend's dog's chew toy: Flashback scene! Leeser apparently tried to run her own church and PRE-SCHOOL.

ETA So what does that make us?: Ads are up!

ETAs galore. cleolinda, how in the world did you keep up with this?

Another flashback to a time when Leeser was more godlike.

The proposed ad itself.

Another mod flees from the board.

Some of the snowflakes have realized the error of their ways.

Rijane is in a car accident, and we blame Leeser somehow.

More questions that likely will never get answers.

Today's ETA is... elizabuff goes right back to wanking. Anyone surprised?

And another large ETA: Leeser's school was apparently just another scam.

What follows is an account written by swsa, a friend without a JF account, and it is such a classic take-the-money-and-run story that I present it to you unaltered (well, okay, I threw in some links).


In Moonlight fandom, their high priestess of campaigning is named Leeser. Leeser's status in the fandom grew and grew as she organized fan cons, did the leg work for their Variety ad, etc. She is absolutely beloved and a hero of their cause. Which is why another fan apparently felt secure enough to give her $11000 in order to pay for bus ads to run in L.A. ( This ends about as well as you might expect )

ETA ∞: I was waiting to update until the supposed Leeser-vindicating deadline this afternoon, but it looks like... I don't even know what. So:

The donor updates:

The ad agency has stated they cannot confirm whether the funds are available or not. The New York office is placing at least a 3-5 day hold on Lesser's account in order to verify funding with the bank, however it may be longer. They are now hoping to be able to post this account on Friday. The ads have arrived and are waiting in the warehouse. Lesser is aware of this. I am so angry at this moment I dare not say too much more. One thing I must say though is to Lesser: Shame on you! To put me through this is one of the most unconscionable deeds I have experienced in my life.

Also: Homophobia on Leeser's board? Convention money shenanigans? Sockpuppetry? (Note: the Blue Whale Pub board seems to be down at the moment.)

ETA ∞ +1: And now about $8K in convention funds cannot be accounted for. (More.) Yes, we are pretty sure this is not VB on the rampage again.

ETA ∞ +2: I think dhaunea called this one...

ETA ∞ +3:: The ads are going up on Monday?

ETA 9/29/08: Y'all, please somebody take this over and do a new entry or something. I can't keep up with all the board shenanigans now.

Remember this wank (also known as this wank) about death threats over Transformer porn?

lady7jane, you were right.

( Cut because this is getting damn long. )

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.

Meet Argyle the sock.
( Read more... )

Over on LJ, caras_galadhon posts about a case of plagiarism in LoTRips fandom and why isn't anyone saying anything? Turns out not only did the author -- one namarie120 plagiarize Jane Eyre for LotRips fandom, she also published it professionally.

In response, koulagirl666 makes some interesting statements, including "The plagiarism standards in fandom are obviously markedly lower than IRL, else none of the movie-based fics or book-based fics would exist."

caras_galadhon rebuts her argument, koolagirl666 insists that no, no, it's differently, really! And that people have approached namarie120 privately, so no one should say anything. (Never mind that the private approaches didn't work). readgeekeasy rushes into ask so why are you being sooo MEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN????????!1111


And finally, belle_lestrange wants us to leave great writers alone

ETA: More about this on telesilla's LJ post.

ETA 2.1 : namarie120 has deleted flocked posts on her LJ.

ETA 3: She'll never write again and it's ALL YOUR FAULT!

ETA 4: Caveat emptor.

As an offshoot of the Lexicon wank, it appears Melissa wank has arrived.

As part of her "impartial" coverage of the lawsuit, Melissa Anelli of TLC apparently felt it necessary to qualify Steve Vander Ark's (signed under oath) statement that the advertising on the Lexicon "covers the cost of running the site" by reminding people that "The Leaky Cauldron houses and runs the Harry Potter Lexicon for zero charge, and has since it came under its current domain name. That is true as of this posting." However, on Feb 11 she admits to denying a request for the transfer of hosting.

This prompts SVA to release more detail than anyone wanted to know about the finances of the Lexicon. Quote: "If there was any income to me, it wasn't much, especially by comparison to the income other websites have earned." The "other website" he specifically mentions is MuggleNet, whose owner claims a "six-figure income" from the site. SVA doesn't mention TLC, but Melissa goes crazy.

A bit of digging reveals that TLC's finances have been discussed before over on I was a Leaky Lounge Mod. In May 2007, a mouse says: "I know for a fact that Melissa used Leaky money to buy herself a new laptop." In September 2007, Gina raised suspicions about who paid for Melissa's New York apartment ("the web provides a TON of information about purchase prices of condos which are pretty darn high to not have jobs *koff koff*") Over Sep/Oct 2007 the subject was raised again, and another mouse said:

"To take Melissa as the main example, as has been pointed out she lives in New York. That place is very expensive, not just real estate but the cost of living as well. She is in no way living off the advance on her book because let's face it, even if all her fangirls and boys buy it it's not going to be a huge best seller. The time has been and gone for that. She has left her full time job and therefore she must be taking at least a 5-6 figure salary from Leaky. If she is doing this and has deliberately registered it in a way that doesn't mean full disclosure, then that is appalling."

The matter was pretty much put to rest until Melissa forced SVA's hand. Ex-staff are pissed. Highlights:

There will continue to be no transparency about Leaky income. They've claimed for far too long that they make no money. I can only say that I actually know this to be total BS. I'd love to tell you my proof, alas I'm not able. Steve threw some stones but Melissa opened a door that, IMHO, that now begs the question of well, so, what DOES Leaky earn then?

and:

Since Melissa is bringing up money herself, she really should answer. If she is going to criticize Steve for trying to make this a full time job that she should be above that same criticism.

Arianhrod marches over to Leaky Lounge with this:

But since it doesn't appear that anyone else is going to ask the logical question, I will.

Just how much does Leaky make from all of this--in profit? Is this considered a hobby by the IRS, or is it a major source (or even sole source) of income?

And before anyone questions my audacity, Melissa has laid it out on the line and brought the subject of hosting and ad revenue costs into the open. It's no longer a private matter--the whole world now knows about it and as such this is a valid question, especially if TLC has been or gets dragged into this lawsuit.

I don't expect an answer--I do expect to get ripped to shreds, and that's fine. But at least I'm not afraid to ask.

Melissa ignores the question. Arianhrod calls her on it ("With all due respect, Melissa, that is avoiding the issue.") Melissa gets defensive.