Beware Forum Trolls! (one last bit of the Ugly)
I think this is the last little bit of energy I'm giving this issue. There's a lot of work to do, and it's time to move on, but this all got me to thinking back on why I was checking on the IPA in the first place.
A troll is a guy who posts on a forum basically to disrupt the dialog. They can be simply inflammatory and malicious, or try to simply draw attention to themselves, or turn the discussion to their own interests.
My first encounter with L. was his request to connect on LinkedIn, and after checking his profile and seeing that we had one contact in common, I accepted. I then recieved an email from him with several names in the CC field, promoting himself. My first response was that I'd been had, and that he was simply using LinkedIn to gather contact names, rather than for its intended purpose- to network among colleagues.
I actually tried, rather diplomatically, I thought, to advise him that this was not appropriate, hoping that it was simply an innocent mistake. Thus began a long, drawn out series of increasingly ugly posts on a thread on LinkedIn's Photography Industry Professionals group.
On that group, and another group on LinkedIn, L. consistently posted self-serving comments and posts linking back to his own site. If someone posted a question about something, his response was to say, "...go to my site, see the work we've done, etc." He did that, not only on his own posted discussions, but every discussion he joined. It is the very definition of a forum troll- the point of forum discussions is to contribute to the discussions, not to take the discussion to your site. And, yes. Every time I saw it, I called him on it. This is why he considers me a bully.
L. then began posting duplicate discussions on the two groups I was a member of on LinkedIn, a classic, and important breach of online forum etiquette. I began realizing that his behavior was not so innocent or naive.
When I researched his online credentials, I found his posted profiles were tailored to suit the context- for example, on Lightstalkers, his profile was listed as a Photojournalist (in a group of professional journalists). I was aware that his background was essentially marketing. The pieces started fitting together, and I started asking questions about the company he runs, the IPA, and I asked these questions in a professional community (one that he mocks, by the way, in his blog post).
Long story short, after we seemed to have settled this reasonably amiably, a few days ago he found that post of mine on Lightstalkers asking about the IPA. He could have simply sent me an email... a polite one would have been nice, an angry one would have been tolerable, but he sent me an email threatening me with legal action. He then got on the thread and posted an inflammatory response, bumping the thread back to active status, and re-opening the discussion.
It was perfectly in character- the polite email would have made the issue go away, the bump brought him more attention.
I feed into this, even now, by continuing the discussion. It's a weakness of mine, when I see someone abusing a community for their own purposes, I call them out, and when I am insulted and attacked, I react defensively. In a delicious bit of irony, the name of his blog is an implied threat in and of itself, he's complaining about me being a bully... and each time he re-edits the post it gets further from the actual truth.
Ah well... they say there is no bad press, clearly L. understands that.
His latest breach of forum etiquette was to post a note on the LS thread from one of his members, addressing the group, even insulting them. Either join the group and post, or don't, you can't have it both ways. This is precisely the purpose of requiring registration to post. Of course, L. sees the resulting comments as uncivil, when his own breach of acceptable behavior precipitated those comments.
Just for a taste of what he says out of (what he thinks is) the public eye, have a look at this. Yes, L. is responsible for the bulk of that. Very gentlemanly. He's also started "friending" my friends on Facebook, just as he did on LinkedIn. Nice.
The IPA is what it is... and the photographic community sees it for what it is. I hope that amateur photographers, considering sending them their $200/year ultimately see it for what it is, too. I have been getting tons of private messages, all from working photographers, writers and editors, but the most eloquent came yesterday, simply:
"Oh, Those guys. A decades long scam in my book."
Decades long? The truly ugly bit is when you go to the "Wayback Machine" and see what the sites he runs were ten years ago... but let's move on, now.
A troll is a guy who posts on a forum basically to disrupt the dialog. They can be simply inflammatory and malicious, or try to simply draw attention to themselves, or turn the discussion to their own interests.
My first encounter with L. was his request to connect on LinkedIn, and after checking his profile and seeing that we had one contact in common, I accepted. I then recieved an email from him with several names in the CC field, promoting himself. My first response was that I'd been had, and that he was simply using LinkedIn to gather contact names, rather than for its intended purpose- to network among colleagues.
I actually tried, rather diplomatically, I thought, to advise him that this was not appropriate, hoping that it was simply an innocent mistake. Thus began a long, drawn out series of increasingly ugly posts on a thread on LinkedIn's Photography Industry Professionals group.
On that group, and another group on LinkedIn, L. consistently posted self-serving comments and posts linking back to his own site. If someone posted a question about something, his response was to say, "...go to my site, see the work we've done, etc." He did that, not only on his own posted discussions, but every discussion he joined. It is the very definition of a forum troll- the point of forum discussions is to contribute to the discussions, not to take the discussion to your site. And, yes. Every time I saw it, I called him on it. This is why he considers me a bully.
L. then began posting duplicate discussions on the two groups I was a member of on LinkedIn, a classic, and important breach of online forum etiquette. I began realizing that his behavior was not so innocent or naive.
When I researched his online credentials, I found his posted profiles were tailored to suit the context- for example, on Lightstalkers, his profile was listed as a Photojournalist (in a group of professional journalists). I was aware that his background was essentially marketing. The pieces started fitting together, and I started asking questions about the company he runs, the IPA, and I asked these questions in a professional community (one that he mocks, by the way, in his blog post).
Long story short, after we seemed to have settled this reasonably amiably, a few days ago he found that post of mine on Lightstalkers asking about the IPA. He could have simply sent me an email... a polite one would have been nice, an angry one would have been tolerable, but he sent me an email threatening me with legal action. He then got on the thread and posted an inflammatory response, bumping the thread back to active status, and re-opening the discussion.
It was perfectly in character- the polite email would have made the issue go away, the bump brought him more attention.
I feed into this, even now, by continuing the discussion. It's a weakness of mine, when I see someone abusing a community for their own purposes, I call them out, and when I am insulted and attacked, I react defensively. In a delicious bit of irony, the name of his blog is an implied threat in and of itself, he's complaining about me being a bully... and each time he re-edits the post it gets further from the actual truth.
Ah well... they say there is no bad press, clearly L. understands that.
His latest breach of forum etiquette was to post a note on the LS thread from one of his members, addressing the group, even insulting them. Either join the group and post, or don't, you can't have it both ways. This is precisely the purpose of requiring registration to post. Of course, L. sees the resulting comments as uncivil, when his own breach of acceptable behavior precipitated those comments.
Just for a taste of what he says out of (what he thinks is) the public eye, have a look at this. Yes, L. is responsible for the bulk of that. Very gentlemanly. He's also started "friending" my friends on Facebook, just as he did on LinkedIn. Nice.
The IPA is what it is... and the photographic community sees it for what it is. I hope that amateur photographers, considering sending them their $200/year ultimately see it for what it is, too. I have been getting tons of private messages, all from working photographers, writers and editors, but the most eloquent came yesterday, simply:
"Oh, Those guys. A decades long scam in my book."
Decades long? The truly ugly bit is when you go to the "Wayback Machine" and see what the sites he runs were ten years ago... but let's move on, now.
posted by Ted Dillard at
6:26 AM
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