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Sunday, April 12th, 2015
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3:22 pm - Food Babe Vs Science Babe
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sockyskullhead
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Vani Hari, who's made a name for herself in recent months by spearheading several health initiatives, including one to take out a chemical from Subway bread that is also used in yoga mats, is known as Food Babe.
Many people have claimed Hari's work is simply junk science (and her work is frankly fairly easy to debunk; the chemical she wanted removed from the Subway bread, for instance, is extant in all kinds of baked goods simply as a result of the cooking process). Thus the rise of Science Babe and HER blog dedicated to debunking Food Babe.
Science Babe posed an article on Gawker decrying Food Babe, and Food Babe has fired back. Amd the rest of the science community is popcorning.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, April 6th, 2015
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8:13 pm - Beauty Box Wank
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sockyskullhead
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(Courtesy of the mousie on WR)
Karsyn Dupree (sister-in-law of the siblings who make up the indie band Eisley) is the owner of Bliss Branch, an online boutique. The shop sells a subscription box, BlissBox, that advertises itself as "a very special personalized package made JUST FOR YOU!" where buyers are required to answer an in-depth questionnaire that supposed allows Karsyn to pick out items specifically for each customer. So far, so good. Ok, so the returns page has "NO RETURNS OR EXCHANGES ON BLISSBOXES!" in large bold fonts, but since Karsyn picks out the items just for you, why would you need to return things anyways?
Turns out that no, she really doesn't. The all "personalized" boxes that's supposed to contain 5-6 personalized items that were sent out recently contain 4 of the exact same items, with the only different item being the fifth item. And as far as taking the detailed questionnaire into account, a few people received items they specifically mentioned they did not want. When a customer writes a negative review of the box on the subreddit BeautyBoxes, Bliss Branch follows the Lime Crime model by flouncing to the official instagram to complain about haters and internet trolls. Sadly, those posts seemed to have been deleted, but you can find copies of the text in the reddit posts.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 8th, 2014
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11:55 am - I was so astonished that I forgot a post title
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cleolinda
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BEHOLD: A fantastically terrible tale of plagiarism that involves a mysterious man who gave the plagiarist and her writing group a manuscript, then "died" in a "car" "accident"; a "niece" of some random lady who threatens "a campaign on the sidewalks letting Seagull Book patrons know how you handle problems," before being repudiated as totally imaginary by her supposed aunt; a completely different alleged "niece" of the original author who simultaneously claims she has "verbal permission" to reuse the novel for her own book; the assumed threat of excommunication from the Mormon Church; and, I am 99% sure, at least two sockpuppets. Possibly three.
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(14 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, June 21st, 2014
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11:49 pm - Cake cooling question causes comment combustion!
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| Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
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6:44 pm - It's November! And we all know what that means!
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ladylauren
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Yes, my lovely wankas, it's NaNoWriMo time. I don't believe I brought you the wank news last year, as I was dealing with in-person blowups in my region (remind me to tell you the one about the girl who believed that demons lived in Tarot cards... and announced as much at a bookstore that also hosted Tarot readings), but I am back with some of the usual odds and sods and some new wank.
Pretend entry tags: nanowrimo, mark leach, marienbadmylove, words mean things, paragraph breaks mean nothing, writing, not editing, plagiarism, the one plagiarist who makes cassie claire look good
Mark Leach, our headline artist, is on Twitter. If you think that the 140 character limit curbs his tendency to ramble, think again. Earlier this month he posted a beautiful trio of Tweets:
1. Since '08 I've been a #Nanowrimo overachiever, consistently producing in excess of 1 million words –& making a lot of enemies along the way.
2. Plagiarism, fraud, theft, falsification, uncreativity, unoriginality, illegibility, appropriation –quickly & easily produce 1 million words!
3. Boredom, valuelessness & nutritionlessness is my ethos. My #nanowrimo is built on aplastic, objective & entirely non-writing procedures.
Congratulations, Mark. You're really owning what you're doing there! Instead of, you know, owning what other people do, which is his usual M.O.
The Writer Formerly Known as Alan Holman has gone incognito, but word on the street is that the mod of his area knows who he is and has her eye on him. More news if it is forthcoming; with luck it won't be, because that mod sure could use a break!
And a new addition to the wankroll this year is carmeniris, whose rant... well, I'll need to cut it to save your friends lists, gentlewankas, because it's a big 'un.
( Here be rant. )
That's the best of the wank so far for this year. I'll be sure to keep you updated if anything else blows up. <333
current mood: On Top of the World
current music: P!nk -- "Walk of Shame"
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| Saturday, October 19th, 2013
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5:21 am - Pop! Goes the Business!
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anthologia
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Kaylee Bakes has an amazing offer, just for you! For the low, low price of $10, you can have one inexpertly frosted Halloween cake pop. Estimated delivery: November 2013! BUT WAIT! Order now, and you can have CHRISTMAS CAKE POPS TOO!! (Just don't ask for more than one, or you'll be getting them next year.)
Kickfailure is understandably amused.
But hark! What light through yonder Kaylee Bakes? It is the feast! And Kaylee Bakes is the sun!
"This better be removed. I have your address ANDY."
"You all can stop hating because I am a certified chef. Also, I’m not selling I’m advertising. And I’ve been running my business for over a year making hundreds of dollars so you can stop talking about someone you don’t know."
Also, it's pointed out that she needs a license to sell food products outside of her state and a Health Department-certified kitchen to bake them in. BUT KAYLEE BAKES HAS A PLAN!
"I’m not SELLING, I’m SENDING complimentary cake pops to those who funded me. SO THERE."
Sounds legit.
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(66 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
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11:20 am - UPDATE on Amy's Baking Company...
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| Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
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11:32 pm - I AM NOT STUPID ALL OF YOU ARE. YOU JUST DO NOT KNOW GOOD FOOD.
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loopywafflehead
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Amy and Samy Bouzgala, of Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro in Scottsdale, Arizona, appear on Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. Aside from the incredibly poor service and food, they lie about baking the cakes they sell, and most of the photos they use on their Facebook belong to other people. Even worse, they verbally abuse customers and staff, and they keep their employees’ tips for themselves. Ramsey gives up on them, saying, “After about 100 Kitchen Nightmares, I met two owners I could not help. It is because they are incapable of listening.”
The owners didn’t listen because they didn’t want help. They only wanted Ramsey's compliments and praise in order to show up the ‘haters’ and ‘bloggers’ on Yelp and Reddit who are obviously out to get them.
Of course, that didn’t happen and the owners had an epic meltdown on their company’s Facebook page.
( I am keeping note of all names here. We will be pursuing action against you legaly, and against reddit and yelp, for this plot you have come together on. )
The drama made it to Buzzfeed, where you can find plenty of screencaps in case their Facebook is taken down.
Amy has also been convicted of fraud for using someone else’s social security number and taking out a loan.
People swarm to their Yelp page after watching the episode but most of those reviews are removed. However, it’s easy to see from reviews left before the programme was aired that the owners have always behaved this way.
A poster on Reddit submits the theory that the whole place is actually a money laundering operation. [ETA: Post has since been deleted. I'll try to get it from my computer's cache but if anyone finds a screencap in the meantime, let me know. Found a copy of the text on another Reddit thread, copied to the comments here.]
The full episode can be found here on YouTube. This post on eater.com contains a summary as well as a couple of clips from the show.
And ONTD speculates on the most important issue: what Gordon Ramsey would be like in bed.
( Previous ETA's now under the cut )
ETAx5: This is the latest post on their Facebook:
Other Side of Amy’s Baking Company Controversy in Scottsdale To Soon Be Told
SCOTTSDALE, AZ. MAY 15, 2013 -- Amy’s Baking Company will host a Grand Re-Opening on Tuesday night, May 21, following unflattering portrayals on national television.
Customers will be able to decide who is correct: a famous celebrity chef or the marketplace that has supported the small, locally-owned business for six years.
When re-opened, a portion of proceeds will benefit a charity organized to bring awareness to cyber bullying.
Seating is limited. Reservations may be made by emailing sjones@rosemoserallynpr.com.
Diners will also have the opportunity to meet, and judge for themselves the character of owners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, who have devoted their lives to and earn their living from their small restaurant. The Bouzaglos have been married for 10 years, after Sammy emigrated from Israel.
The owners will likely be holding a press conference before the Grand Re-Opening and answer falsehoods depicted on a reality television show, including assertions that the restaurant confiscates tips from servers.
In fact, wait staff is paid $8-$14 per hour, two and half to nearly five times the standard hourly wage for servers.
Questions will also be answered about what happened to their Facebook page.
Amy’s Baking Company was recently featured on the hit PBS show “Check Please” and has received A+ reports from CBS 5 for kitchen preparedness.
“We are very upset by what has taken place, apologize about the acrimony that has ensued but now must fight back to save our business. We hope and believe much good can result from what has transpired. We ask the public to keep an open mind as we begin to tell our side of the story,” Samy Bouzaglo said.
For more details, please contact Michael Saucier.
I can't decide whether I want Michael Saucier to be a real person or someone who is just leading them on.
In more pleasant news, Katy Cipriano, the waitress who was fired on the show, has participated in an AMA on Reddit. She does have other employment and is doing quite well.
ETAx6: Press conference is off, grand reopening is still on, and future updates can be found in this post.
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(202 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 11th, 2013
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3:18 pm - Woodsy Owl: A Beautiful and Cosmic Story
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tiye
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Okay, this wank is small, old, and played out over a period of several years, but it's too beautiful (and cosmic!) not to share. It came to my attention when Josh Fruhlinger of The Comics Curmudgeon fame posted about it on Facebook.
So Woodsy Owl is a cousin of Smokey Bear. Woodsy is a mascot for the US Forest Service whose original slogan was "Give a hoot -- don't pollute!" (It has since been updated to the not quite so owl-relevant or metrically sound "Lend a hand -- care for the land!") The official story seems to be that Woodsy was created in 1970 by a marketing agent named Harold Bell, who developed the mascot with a couple Forest Service employees.
Cue outrage on Woodsy's Wikipedia Talk page from not one, but several people who are convinced that they personally created Woodsy when they were kids, as part of some kind of national contest. Others claim it was a spouse, a friend, or a relative.
( Her mother was a heiress,her father was a billionaire! )
There's also some bonus wank in there about South Park and some kind of government sanctioned Woodsy costume burning. Plus people have started trolling the talk page (I'm assuming they came from Josh's post on Facebook).
ETA OMG you guys, OMG! Someone has been tampering with the Wiki talk page. Giveahootdonpolute's entries have been bahleeted, as have the more recent trolly entries mentioned above. Also, there's more of this madness here, with yet more people claiming that they, or friends/relatives/acquaintances created Woodsy. This just gets weirder and weirder.
ETA 2 This article from the Forest History Society attempts to explain the bizarre "I created Woodsy" phenomenon (see the grey box on the last page).
current mood: *sporfle!*
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(49 comments | comment on this)
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9:39 am - "'Only two people?' I asked"
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| Sunday, March 24th, 2013
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4:11 pm - Common thought, or COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ZOMG? Regardless, it's dumb.
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jrs1980
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Don't think this qualifies as fandom, so OTF_ it is.
Blair is the blogger/proprietor of STFU, Parents, a user-generated blog that culls parents oversharing on Facebook. It's been around since February '09. (Featured on this comm last August.)
She posted on Facebook this morning about a slapped-together article on msn.com, "15 Things Moms Overshare on Facebook", with obviously fake statuses. (Statii?) STFUP blurs out last names, but the msn.com examples have no space for last names, and I'd like to see a real baby announcement (#5) with zero likes on it.
While Blair is very upset about this, her readers are extremely mixed. 250+ comments so far, fairly evenly divided between "call a copyright lawyer, down with this sort of thing" and "it might be a coincidence, I missed the part where you are the only one who can do this sort of thing". Blair in the comments as well, getting snotty as time goes by, which is always fun.
"I never said anyone has to agree with me. But I would never tell someone whose page and blog I read for free that they're "whining" over a corporation stealing ideas. That's rude and unsupportive." [cite] (I personally would have thrown in a "buy my book!") "I do not have a monopoly on the concept of mocking parent overshare with biting criticism. I invented the concept. If someone steals my exact ideas, that's stupid. I am allowed to be annoyed about it." [cite] "Does calling me a foolish whiner have a purpose? Or are you just trying to hurt my feelings? Just checking." [cite]
And to hit the Bingo, there's definitely a bit of deleting going on in the comments. (Marshall Lilly who?)
Good times.
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(28 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 6th, 2012
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9:54 pm - A Loki wank
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mosellegreen
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NOTE: This should go without saying, but it doesn't, so: this is not intended to disparage anyone's spiritual practice. My own is so eccentric that I am hardly in any position to denigrate anyone else's! This is about the wanky squabble amongst certain Heathens who took it upon themselves to offer unsolicited advice to other Heathens about the One True Way [TM] to worship the Norse god Loki.
So on September 4th, a Lokean - a Pagan who reveres the Norse god Loki, not a Tom Hiddleston groupie - called w00lopt posted a photo of a dessert to zir tumblr with the caption:
Afternoon offering to Loki. Sponge cake, fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
necroticdoom, who has unsurprisingly deleted or renamed zir tumblr since this, replied:
um……what? Strawberry shortcake as an offering? to Loki??? WHAT? needless to say that is absolutely ridiculous in a myriad of ways. *bangs head*
Response was swift.
( Read more... )
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(125 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, August 27th, 2012
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6:31 pm - It's a ladies pen, for ladies
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loopywafflehead
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Many thanks to the anon on wank_report for this one!
Bic have released Bic For Her, a line of pens for just ladies. They are your everyday ballpoint pens except that the outer casings are in pink or purple, so that is how you know who can use them.
The first customer review is from Andrea, who is a very clearly a Bic employee:
OK - so I admit it, I have a pink diary, pink laptop and even a pink phone. But now I have a really good quality pink pen!! - It is really comfortable to use, writes smoothly and lets face it, it is great to have a pen that is distinctive. It stops your friends from pinching it as you immediately recognise that it is yours!! (although as it comes with 11 others, I have given my BFF one! Great price for 12 pens of this quality.
She gets called out for being a plant. Reviewers then proceed to have lots and lots of fun in the comments. A small selection of reviews:
( I am a huge fan of the gender binary. Without it, it's very hard to work out who to oppress )
ETA: The people on Metafilter are also having a jolly good laugh over this.
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(200 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, August 16th, 2012
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12:46 pm - STFU Parents vs. The New York Times
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tiye
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STFU Parents is a blog about parents who overshare or otherwise wank it up on social media, especially Facebook. It's a snarky but relatively gentle sort of blog, for the most part.
The trouble starts when the NYT posts an article about Unbaby.me, a Chrome app designed to replace pictures of babies on Facebook feeds with pictures of . . . other stuff. The Times article mentions various "anti-baby" sites and blogs. It also quotes the STFU Parents tagline ("You used to be fun. Now you have a baby.") with no citation of any kind. No link to the blog, no mention of the blog's name.
B., the owner of STFU Parents, is not pleased. After posting about it on Twitter and Facebook and writing to The Times (which results in a hilariously wanky exchange of emails between B. and The Times' "Senior Editor for Standards"), she makes a lengthy post summing up the whole debacle on the STFU Parents blog.
The Times' excuse? They couldn't possibly publish or even link to an acronym that includes the word "fuck" in The Times, which is a CLASSY newspaper.
Salon and The Atlantic Wire have weighed in on the issue.
The comments on the STFU Parents post are pretty sane for the most part, but there is some entertaining Internet Lawyering (including a lengthy debate about whether B. needed permission to post the emails from the NYT editor -- kind of a moot issue, since she had his permission) and trolling. My favorite in the latter category: "I personally also think you should just get over it. Who cares, he just said the tagline. Do you own the tagline?" Followed, of course, by a small dogpile of "Yes, yes she does."
current mood: Wiped
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(20 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, June 18th, 2012
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2:05 pm - Oatmeal vs. Funny Junk
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dreamworld
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Copy-pasta of the Dear Author article, because it's comprehensive, and Jane gave permission for it.
The Oatmeal is a satiric cartoon site run by Matthew Inman. About a year ago, he noticed that his content was being uploaded without attribution to a site called “The FunnJunk.” The FunnyJunk is a site that contains user generated content. This means that account holders post things that they like from all over the internet. Maybe a pre-Pinterest sort of site. The Oatmeal writes to the FunnyJunk requesting that the information be removed. FunnyJunk took down the comics but proceeded to create a mirror image of The Oatmeal’s website. The Oatmeal responded by asking his readers what to do. ( Read more... )
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(54 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
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2:26 pm - Author wank, oh boy!
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seiberwing
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(Thank you to a mouse on wank_report for the following post which I am plagiarizing)
Self-published author Michael Robb Matthias make a self-promotional post in the forums of Fantasy Faction. Fantasy Faction is perfectly okay with authors promoting their work, provided they do it in the proper place, but moves said post into the "self-published and small presses" category where it belongs.
Robb duly takes this for the TERRIBLE INSULT that it is.
I am not a small press. I am an author with 18 titles for sale. That is more titles that some big publishing houses. I have advertising currently running in Locus, Publishers Weekly, Fantasy and Sci Fi, and Revolver magazines. I have blog advertising across the entire blog-o-sphere. I am not a small press or even self published. M. R. Mathias' books are PUBLISHED by Michael Robb Mathias Jr. and should be treated no differently that any big named publishers title. WHY? Because I do my job as a publisher too. Please quit sending my posts into the self published/small press thread. My titles are neither. I have 92k twitter followers @DahgMahn and 10 titles in their genre bestselling list. There is nothing self pubbed, or small, about books written by M. R. Mathias.
Thank you,
M.R.Mathias' publisher, Michael Robb Mathias Jr.
Commenters point out that this is... not really the best way to go about things and are accused of e-bullying, being sick, petty, and "jelous".
The mods close things despite the protests of a crowd of gleeful spectators on Twitter who aren't ready for the drama to end yet. Fantasy Faction posts a follow-up the next day, including a summary of the events on the forum, some mildly worrisome self-glorifying tweets, a few reviews indicating these glorious works of fiction are less than glorious, and Mr. Robb's claims of how we're all just jealous.
The fun continues on Twitter, where among other things, Mr. Robb calls Fantasy Faction Nazis and complains of censorship. He has at least four aliases on Twitter: @Michael_Robb @BookReTweeter @MrStubbs @NocturnMP3. But don't worry, they are, he informs people, all "licensed". Are your twitter handles "licensed," peons? I THINK NOT!
https://twitter.com/#!/dahgmahn seems to be where most of the action is -- but at one point, NocturnMP3 (admitted as being another sock) steps into defend...himself:
@fantasyfaction You suck, but only for banning M.R. He did NOTHING WRONG!
This entire conversation is comedy gold, of course.
@Gollancz I wanted to market my books to faction readers not indie authors. Its basic buisness. I dont want to now. Faction is all BULLIES!
Further highlights include this, to author M.D Lachlan:
@mdlachlan Ah you have publishers? 5th draft? You must suck as a writer. My #bestseller was wriiten with a pen in a prison cell. Two drafts.
WITH A PEN IN A PRISON CELL.
For your pleasure, you may also marvel at the spinning skulls and note the name of the main character of his latest book on his website.
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(134 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, January 15th, 2012
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8:48 pm - wank, glorious wank.
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gun
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So, the last few years of fandom lurking have spoilt me for quality drama to the degree that my everyday life is now serene and calm and completely devoid of any kind of wank or fuckery. For 99% of the time, that's great, but occasionally, the fanging for some good old fashioned dramz just gets the better of me.
What I really want, I think to myself once in a while, is a real-life wank that has *everything*: phony deaths, a bit of sympathy-scamming, easily verifiable lies, outright batshittery, and it preferably has to happen in Australia so that I have an 'in' on the context.
And like a beautiful, delicate snowflake falling upon the most virgin of blossoms, that wish was bestowed upon me. Not only in Australia, but in my home town, of all places!
Meet Clint Acworth, a some-time teacher now facing the banhammer with the Department of Education for spectacular falsehoods worthy of inclusion in the Msscribe story some creative life writing. His adventures included:
*Inventing a tragic family car accident that left him caring for three orphaned relatives, and being gifted with money and supplies afterwards by his co-workers to help raise the youngin's!
*Inventing a beautiful cop girlfriend who was shot on duty, and according to the Queensland Police, never existed!
*Falsely and publicly claiming to be a counsellor earning $85k per year on the Kid's Help Line - even though they'd never heard of him!
And plenty more!
Former students and classmates are corroborating the spectacular web of lies on reddit (trigger warning for typical homophobic fuckery as one might come to expect over there). I suspect there will be more to come over the next few weeks.
And the funniest/most depressing part? Not a shred of remorse or self-awareness.
Whats even more interesting is that he posted last night that there was some stuff written about him and that it's not true. And I quote "Sadly though, a former fb friend of mine has decided to stab me in the back when I am already down". This is after he deleted all the posts about his dead girlfriend and removed the pic. I think he will continue the charade for as long as he can. Quite sad really.
*Sniff* I salute you, fallen wanker. I salute you.
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(28 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 13th, 2012
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11:08 am - Apostrophes: Serious Business
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| Monday, January 9th, 2012
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9:55 am - His reviews, let him show you them
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| Saturday, January 7th, 2012
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9:56 pm - 'I didn't make it up, beyotch! I had a friend who faked her own kidnapping!'
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loopywafflehead
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Many thanks to the anon on wank_report for this one.
Julie Halpern is an author of YA books. She discovers the following review of her book, Don’t Stop Now:
I had high hopes for Don’t Stop Now by Julie Halpern. Y’all, it is a road trip book. Enough said. I love road trip books. Several of my favorite YA contemporary roads involve them. Needless to say, I was hoping to add Don’t Stop Now to that list. Unfortunately – it let me down in a big way.
The plot of Don’t Stop Now is totally weird. Lillian finds out that her friend Penny has faked her own kidnapping. She decides to track Penny down because the police and FBI are all over the situation. Lillian is freaked out. Can I just say – uhhh. The entire Penny debacle was kinda ridiculous. A plot line made up so that a road trip could come into play is what I got out of it. Lillian recruits her best friend Josh (and Josh’s car and credit card) to take her to Oregon – and Penny. Totally throwaway.
Anyway, putting all that aside. Lillian isn’t the smartest gal I’ve come across. For reasons other than heading out to find Penny herself instead of just telling the FBI where she is. She is wondering whether or not she and Josh should be more than friends. Well, I can take that one: NO.
To be frank (and slightly mean), Josh is a sorry excuse for a male MC. He is a total jerk. (Take my word for it. I’ve already given my copy of Don’t Stop Now away so I can include specific examples.) Lillian was funny, mostly intelligent (other than in her choice of friends) and incredibly nice. Girl: you can do better. I promise.
So, I don’t really much to say about this one other than the negative. The plot and characters completely let me down. Even if you’re normally a fan of road trip books – I don’t recommend Don’t Stop Now. If you have read and enjoyed it – make sure and let me know what I missed! I love talking to people with different opinions.
Enjoy the author's mature and professional response under the cut!
( Google Trash )
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(155 comments | comment on this)
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