April 5, 2009

  • Favoritism on Xanga

    Earlier this week, there was a little controversy on xanga when John from the Xanga Team wrote a post saying he was taking a post down from featured content that xanga had determined was critical of me.  Here is his post:  Link

    (The guy who wrote the original post and I have been in contact and everything is good between us.  We have kissed and made up and are expecting our first child together in 9 months).

    After John posted that post, he was attacked by some people on xanga accusing him of showing favoritism toward me. 

    A post was written by Antisoccermom and I want to address that post.  Here is the post that she wrote:  Link

    I do want to say that I like Antisoccermom and we talk on IM frequently.  I do think there were things in her post that I would like to see clarified by her.

    In her post, Antisoccermom wrote:

    “Anyone can say anything they want to say about me, as often and for as long as they want to. Anyone, regardless of the level of medication they are on. When I am attacked it is free speech. But when someone says that Dan “isn’t a writer” or some other nonsense that was A: not offensive if taken in the correct context and B: an opinion that was neither hateful nor said with bad intentions, the post gets removed from being featured and John himself issues a formal apology?

    Let me say first this isnt about Dan. Dan is a good person a solid xangan and an excellent mentor. He brought me from a baby blog with no readers into the blog you see today. (or saw yesterday I suppose) Dan deserves respect. But so does everyone else on this site, and xanga doesnt see that. You are not as important as he is. Neither am I.”

    I want to focus in on one part of this post.  It is her statement that “Dan deserves respect.  But so does everyone else on this site, and xanga doesn’t see that.  You are not as important as he is.  Neither am I.”

    What Antisoccermom has communicated is that xanga has respect for me but not everyone else on the site.  She has communicated that you are not as important as I am.

    Now Antisoccermom tries to prove that point in her post.  She wrote:

    “Let me see if I have this right. You don’t care what anyone says about anyone else, unless it is Dan?
    You have featured posts several times with slander against yours-truly but when someone says that they don’t exactly care for his style of writing, he gets apologized to? REALLY Xanga?”

    Antisoccermom communicated that xanga does not care what anyone says about anyone on xanga except if it is in relationship to me. 

    Antisoccermom then goes on to prove her point with the words “You have featured posts several times with slander against yours-truly but whn someone says that they don’t exactly care for his style of writing, he gets apologized to?  REALLY Xanga?”

    So Antisoccermom is making a claim that I want you to focus on.  She is saying that Xanga has “featured posts several times with slander against” her. 

    Now this is what I want to focus on.  Antisoccermom is claiming that I am favored in a way that no one else on xanga is favored.  She points to the idea that xanga has featured “several posts with slander against” her.

    So I talked to Antisoccermom on IM and asked her if this was true.  I asked her if xanga featured posts that slandered her.  She said “Yes” and said it happened several times.  She repeated what she said in her post.

    So my statement to Antisoccermom is this:  Show us the links for the posts that xanga featured that slandered you.  I want to see the links.  You said there were “several posts.”  I want to see all the links. 

    Here is the problem that is lost in all of this.  John made a post.  Antisoccermom made statements saying I was favored.  She supported those statements with specific statements saying that xanga had featured “several posts” that slandered her. 

    Anyone having the problem that I am having?  When have you ever seen a post that was featured that slandered Antisoccermom?  I just want to see the links.  If “several posts” have been written about Antisoccermom that xanga featured, then I want to see those links so I can be mad too.

    So I asked Antisoccermom to show me the links.  She responded with something like:  “Believe me, they exist.” 

    Here is the thing.  I want to see them.  I want to see the links of the posts that xanga has featured that were slander of her.  I want to take them to John and demand that he apologize to Antisoccermom.

    Here is the problem.  Antisoccermom will not share the links.  She will not even produce one of the “several posts” that slandered her. 

    Antisoccermom also wrote a mock apology from the xanga team and said,

    “We are really sorry for featuring those posts with the not so thinly veiled threats on you, they just used your real name it wasnt like they attacked your screen name. . .”

    So Antisoccermom is claiming that xanga featured posts with “thinly veiled threats on” her.  She also said they used her “real name” instead of her screen name.

    So once again I ask Antisoccermom, Show me the links of the featured posts with thinly veiled threats on you.  Show me posts that xanga featured with your real name used in that post.

    Notice she has written as if this has happened several times.  Does anyone remember a post that xanga featured that had a “thinly veiled” threat or used Antisoccermom’s real name?

    I don’t either.  But the next day I did see people saying stuff like “If what Antisoccermom is saying is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), then this is an outrage.”

    I guess the people on xanga are not smart enough to just ask Antisoccermom to show them the links.  There are several of them.  I want them sent to me.  I will post them and demand an apology from John and the xanga team.

    Now I think we all know the difference between Top Blogs and Featured Content.  Top Blogs is not edited by xanga (except for porn).  Featured Content is edited by xanga.  They hand select the posts to be featured on their front page. 

    You have all read posts that were critical of me on Top Blogs.  I have recommended half of them that make it to Top Blogs.  So that part is unedited by xanga.  So if you see a post on Top Blogs that is critical of you, me or Antisoccermom, realize that you are being treated the same as me.

    Realize also that I have had people post on their site my home address.  I have had people create multiple sites to harrass me.  I had one lady create 70 sites and spam my site with thousands of comments a day every day for two weeks.  (Many of you can remember that lady).  I had another lady create 20 sites in my honor and then went on to leave me multiple creepy messages.  She told me what my home address was and the name of my wife and the name of my three children.  She also told me she was standing outside my house.  What could xanga do about that?  There is really nothing xanga can do about that.  If someone is stalking you or harassing you, you should call the police.  What can xanga do?  Nothing.  Can they shut down their site?  Yes.  I don’t ask xanga to do that because in my experience there is nothing worse than a troll that has just had his site shut down.  That will make them angry.  (Footnote:  In general, avoid making negative remarks about fat women in posts.  Apparently some of the most passionate trolls of all time are fat women).

    See the reality is that it is pretty easy to start a new site.  Xanga can not do anything when someone is willing to create 20 sites to harass you.  You should call the police if you think they are a threat to you.  If the police can’t do anything, why would xanga be able to do anything?  It has been suggested that xanga should set up IP blockers.  This is brilliant.  My son knew how to change proxy addresses when he was 9. 

    But lets move back to the central issue.  I don’t want to start drama but I want to return to the issue at hand.  Antisoccermom said “Dan deserves respect. But so does everyone else on this site, and xanga doesnt see that. You are not as important as he is. Neither am I.”

    Antisoccermom indicated that you and her were treated differently than me.  She said that the evidence of this was “You have featured posts several times with slander against yours-truly but when someone says that they don’t exactly care for his style of writing, he gets apologized to? REALLY Xanga?”

    I want Antisoccermom to produce those links to those sites that slandered her and the post was featured.  Now xanga has featured people who have been critical of me.  In fact, I recommended a post for xanga’s featured content after a woman told everyone that she had unsubscribed to me.  So she spoke against me and I turned around and told xanga she wrote a good post.  So xanga will feature people that have been critical of me and even them. 

    But that is not what Antisoccermom is claiming.  She is claiming the “several posts” that contained slander were featured by xanga.  We all know that Antisoccermom knows the difference between Top Blogs and Featured Content.  She complains that she is not featured enough.  She talks about Top Blogs all the time.

    But Antisoccermom is claiming that she is treated differently than me because xanga featured “several posts” that “slandered her.”

    So this is what you need to do.  If you are friends with Antisoccermom, feel free to bring this up on her site.  If she posts, don’t comment on the issue.  Ask her directly in the comment section to show the “several posts” that xanga featured that “slandered her.”  Then when she answers you, give them to me so I can demand an apology from the xanga team.

    If the links are not produced, we must ask ourselves why.

    To make this true Antisoccermom style:

    Please rec this for your friends.