Calling Out Unethical Bloggers!
By: Pamela D. Hart
I feel it’s important to conduct oneself in an honorable manner on the internet and I’ve behaved properly since my first social networking gig, which was MySpace back in the day. When I decided to begin blogging I knew I would continue my good behavior not only because I wanted to maintain my respectable on-line reputation but also because I didn’t want anyone I knew to read something unsavory written by me. I can say with confidence that after 3 years of blogging I have maintained my respectable behavior and will continue to do so.
I’m not proud of some bloggers who actively and knowingly tried to censor other blogs. You can read the story here. I’m a firm believer in our 1st Amendment and I’m ashamed that Conservatives have been named in this Digg scandal. It makes those of us who are respectable and noble look bad. I would like to go on record right now by saying that I denounce anyone, Right or Left, who engages in sleazy behavior. I also oppose bloggers here in our community who pose as Conservatives to disrupt dialogue and cause trouble and those who blog with an explicit agenda, like those on Digg, and will turn on you for being an independent thinker.
I and a few other Bloggers have had run-ins with Conservative-blogger-posers. They would come on our blogs and give us trouble because we conversed with Liberal Bloggers and visited Liberal Blogs and when we didn’t concede they called us names, blogged unfavo
rably about us and when those tactics didn’t work, they banned us. In one week’s time I lost 60 followers. I thought that was really odd, but now I know that these blogs are actually owned by a handful of people it explains why most of them haven’t been posted on in almost a year and why at least 30 of them have celebrity pictures or pictures from over-seas advertising sites as their blog profile pictures. I understand some people don’t wish to use their real picture on the internet therefore they use a photo of a pet or a cartoonish-type picture or even an avatar, but when a person uses a picture from an advertising site and allows commenters to assume it’s him/her—that’s deceitful and these Blogger-posers have done just that.
These bloggers have set up fake blogs and have gone as far as stealing the photos of REAL people for their profile page. Yes, they st
eal photos of real people from Facebook and other social network sites. This is a problem because these fake blogs have ideas and opinions posted all over them that DON’T match the opinions of the identities that the bloggers stole. This is IDENTITY THEFT and not only is it illegal but it’s also reprehensible. These bloggers also plagiarize by copying/pasting comments written by others onto their fake blogs but give no attribution to the original writer. They do this with comments also. Anyone participating in any of these behaviors should be ashamed of him/herself! And any blog that has been set up or used in a deceitful manner should SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY.
There is nothing worse than a person who has no integrity or honor and would stoop so low as to steal something—especially an identity. Even if some of these followers are real, I find it difficult to believe they would want to follow a fraud, a liar and a thief, therefore they must be one in the same person, OR these people have no character either. And if that’s the case then I wouldn’t want them to read my blog let alone follow it—I would much rather have a handful of loyal, honorable followers than one hundred fake, dishonest ones!
A blog, to me, should be informative, or at the very least, entertaining. The cookie cutter blogs with authors who rant and rave are a dime a dozen. I can turn on my radio to hear the “talking points”; I certainly don’t want to read them on blogs, too. Give me some substance. But substance is what these posers are sorely lacking because they lack moral character! (Not to mention English and Grammar skills!)
It’s too bad we can’t send them all into cyber-space… for real! The only thing we can do, fellow Bloggers, is what we’ve been doing—keep blogging and acting honorably. WE will prevail because these deceitful trolls have no stamina, no courage and no perseverance. So, hold true to your values and strong to your convictions and we will beat them.
I want to say thank you to Shaw at Progressive Eruptions for the work she has done at exposing these posers and thank you to Blue Pitbull, Infidel and The Swash Zone for supporting her. We may not all agree on politics, but we DO agree on principles and that’s because we know UNETHICAL behavior when we see it and DECENT people stick together.
Editors Note: Rational Nation USA authorized the preceding post on this, a
conservative site. The work done by Pamela Hart of the Oracular Opinion,
Progressive Eruptions, Bluepitbull, and the Swash Zone to further expose
the unscrupulous, dishonest, deceitful, and unlawful blogging practices of
this group deserves both support and admiration.
It is both desirable and necessary that differing opinions and ideas be
given the full light of day. Any individual, or group that would seek to
steal another persons identity, plagiarize their material, or attempt to
exert adverse impact on them is lacking any integrity whatsoever. Such a
person or group is deserving only of scorn. They represent perhaps the
most despicable and unsavory element of a person or group without class.
Rational Nation USA joins its voice with those who have already denounced
the activities of these characters. As Editor in Chief I encourage
Conservative and Libertarian blogs to join in a concerted effort to rid the
blogoshere of those who would give us all a bad name.
Les Carpenter III
Editor in Chief
Rational Nation USA
I’m not proud of some bloggers who actively and knowingly tried to censor other blogs. You can read the story here. I’m a firm believer in our 1st Amendment and I’m ashamed that Conservatives have been named in this Digg scandal. It makes those of us who are respectable and noble look bad. I would like to go on record right now by saying that I denounce anyone, Right or Left, who engages in sleazy behavior. I also oppose bloggers here in our community who pose as Conservatives to disrupt dialogue and cause trouble and those who blog with an explicit agenda, like those on Digg, and will turn on you for being an independent thinker.
I and a few other Bloggers have had run-ins with Conservative-blogger-posers. They would come on our blogs and give us trouble because we conversed with Liberal Bloggers and visited Liberal Blogs and when we didn’t concede they called us names, blogged unfavo
rably about us and when those tactics didn’t work, they banned us. In one week’s time I lost 60 followers. I thought that was really odd, but now I know that these blogs are actually owned by a handful of people it explains why most of them haven’t been posted on in almost a year and why at least 30 of them have celebrity pictures or pictures from over-seas advertising sites as their blog profile pictures. I understand some people don’t wish to use their real picture on the internet therefore they use a photo of a pet or a cartoonish-type picture or even an avatar, but when a person uses a picture from an advertising site and allows commenters to assume it’s him/her—that’s deceitful and these Blogger-posers have done just that.These bloggers have set up fake blogs and have gone as far as stealing the photos of REAL people for their profile page. Yes, they st
eal photos of real people from Facebook and other social network sites. This is a problem because these fake blogs have ideas and opinions posted all over them that DON’T match the opinions of the identities that the bloggers stole. This is IDENTITY THEFT and not only is it illegal but it’s also reprehensible. These bloggers also plagiarize by copying/pasting comments written by others onto their fake blogs but give no attribution to the original writer. They do this with comments also. Anyone participating in any of these behaviors should be ashamed of him/herself! And any blog that has been set up or used in a deceitful manner should SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY.There is nothing worse than a person who has no integrity or honor and would stoop so low as to steal something—especially an identity. Even if some of these followers are real, I find it difficult to believe they would want to follow a fraud, a liar and a thief, therefore they must be one in the same person, OR these people have no character either. And if that’s the case then I wouldn’t want them to read my blog let alone follow it—I would much rather have a handful of loyal, honorable followers than one hundred fake, dishonest ones!
A blog, to me, should be informative, or at the very least, entertaining. The cookie cutter blogs with authors who rant and rave are a dime a dozen. I can turn on my radio to hear the “talking points”; I certainly don’t want to read them on blogs, too. Give me some substance. But substance is what these posers are sorely lacking because they lack moral character! (Not to mention English and Grammar skills!)
It’s too bad we can’t send them all into cyber-space… for real! The only thing we can do, fellow Bloggers, is what we’ve been doing—keep blogging and acting honorably. WE will prevail because these deceitful trolls have no stamina, no courage and no perseverance. So, hold true to your values and strong to your convictions and we will beat them.
I want to say thank you to Shaw at Progressive Eruptions for the work she has done at exposing these posers and thank you to Blue Pitbull, Infidel and The Swash Zone for supporting her. We may not all agree on politics, but we DO agree on principles and that’s because we know UNETHICAL behavior when we see it and DECENT people stick together.
Editors Note: Rational Nation USA authorized the preceding post on this, a
conservative site. The work done by Pamela Hart of the Oracular Opinion,
Progressive Eruptions, Bluepitbull, and the Swash Zone to further expose
the unscrupulous, dishonest, deceitful, and unlawful blogging practices of
this group deserves both support and admiration.
It is both desirable and necessary that differing opinions and ideas be
given the full light of day. Any individual, or group that would seek to
steal another persons identity, plagiarize their material, or attempt to
exert adverse impact on them is lacking any integrity whatsoever. Such a
person or group is deserving only of scorn. They represent perhaps the
most despicable and unsavory element of a person or group without class.
Rational Nation USA joins its voice with those who have already denounced
the activities of these characters. As Editor in Chief I encourage
Conservative and Libertarian blogs to join in a concerted effort to rid the
blogoshere of those who would give us all a bad name.
Les Carpenter III
Editor in Chief
Rational Nation USA
If you cleaned up your list of followers to those who were actually real people and who did not plagarize you would be down to about 15 followers from 135.
ReplyDeleteBut that is also why I will read your blog and Pam's and thats about it on the right....
Not going to waste my time with a bunch of people who are fake and who fornicate the truth....
This is my first visit to this blog. I thank Pamela for this post and thank Les for his postscript.
ReplyDeleteFor historical purposes, here is a link to an article written about Pamela’s first ordeal with cyber-thugs, A BLESSED KRISTALLNACHT TO ALL. When I reread this article earlier today, I noticed that the names of Pamela’s tormenters were redacted; it seemed the polite thing to do at the time. In retrospect, it turns out that the redacted names have resurfaced in Shaw’s research. How ironic.
To borrow an analogy, whenever the Israelis and Palestinians start peace talks, suicide bombers start killing people to sow resentment and derail negotiations. To a lesser degree, cyber-thugs have the same goal in mind. They hijack bipartisan comment threads, disrupt conversations, sow anger and bitterness. They attack conservative and liberal voices in equal measure; they steal blogger IDs to confound and confuse. These people are terrorists, pure and simple.
In some respects, our country has turned into a partisan apartheid. Each side clusters in tribal fashion with their own kind; each regards the other with incomprehension; and each side gets their facts from different news sources. When partisans separate themselves from each other, they no longer share objective and reliable information, their views tend to become more extreme, and the partisan divide deepens further. That is what polemists, propagandists, and terrorists seek to accomplish. Do we really want to fall sucker to such tactics and divide ourselves even further?
Perhaps we should reconsider and return to the bipartisan table ... and put these thugs behind us.
As a victim of a year long campaign against my blog from the entire republican establishment, I just want to express my solidarity with you.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work.
I have no idea who is fake and who isn't. Les and I have talked on the phone, so I know that he's real and vice versa.
ReplyDeletePersonally, this smells like a lib red herring. I'm open to some facts, if someone can provide them.
This is liberal fantasists trying to convince themselves that the entire conservative blogosphere is one sweaty guy fooling everybody.
Deception and misinformation is everywhere, and certainly not the exclusive domain of conservatives.
Silverfiddle - I agree with your statement that there is deception and misinformation in many places and no one political ideology is exclusive in its practice.
ReplyDeleteHaving said this I believe there is some credibility in Pam's post and the "investigation" done by others.
The point is... " Any individual, or group that would seek to steal another persons identity, plagiarize their material, or attempt to
exert adverse impact on them is lacking any integrity whatsoever."
This statement applies to either the progressive or the conservative. Will this make a difference in the big scheme of things? Perhaps not. But to me sending the message that integrity is important and conducting oneself in like manner if what's imortant.
I hear what you're saying... Anytime I see a swarm of liberals building, it makes me suspicious.
ReplyDeleteSF, a police officer dies on 3/09 in the line of duty and on 7/09 someone lifts his picture from his obituary and uses it for a blog....
ReplyDeleteTHAT IS WRONG...no one knows who did it and no one pointed a finger at anyone in this case.
Right and wrong should not be determined by political ideology...if you suspect everything someone on the left says then you obviously do not question what someone on the right says...
That is not individualism but rather a cult....
TAO: I suspect everybody!
ReplyDeleteI agree that using that picture was wrong, and I'm sure you'll agree that the disrespectful tards who use pictures of flag draped coffins as avatars are also wrong. Right?
Give me a link to someone who uses a flag drapped coffin...
ReplyDeleteWe will go after them just like we go after the others....
They were pretty popular on sitels like Kooks and Criers and Politico back when Bush was in office. I haven't seen one lately, but I don't travel the blogisphere as widely as I used to.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you are also against that hideous practice.
"I agree that using that picture was wrong, and I'm sure you'll agree that the disrespectful tards who use pictures of flag draped coffins as avatars are also wrong. Right?" --SF
ReplyDeleteThere is no equivalency between the two. None. Nada. No matter how much you try to make it so.
Photos of flag-draped coffins on a blog site represent the tragedy of war.
Placing a photo of a dead policeman on one's blog and pretending to be that image is not the same thing, no matter how hard you try to make it so.
Your inability to make a principled stand on this issue and characterizing it as some kind of conspiracy says a lot about your slavish loyalty to ideology instead of decency.
I said as an avatar
ReplyDeleteDo you have a reading comprehension problem?