I have noticed in the past couple of days odd miscommunications and widespread crankiness among many of my colleagues - not necessarily directed towards me, just general touchiness. Since many are in the NYC area, perhaps it is the effect of nearly three weeks of rain. I also considered Mercury in retrograde, but it has actually just returned.

I received an odd message accusing me of being behind a jealous cadre attacking a neophyte blog journalist, and perhaps also orchestrating a virus attack, a full-blown "psy war." Since I respect the writer's work, I tried to counsel her - and I was eventually ordered to refrain from all contact.

I do not usually make my infrequent flame wars public, but this one is truly irrational:

To: "rgoya@yahoo.com"
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 9:56:33 AM
Subject: Please post on your screed site.

Randall:  

If you think being vindictive and malicious is the correct behavior to exhibit when someone drops you from their Linked In connections list - well, what can I say? You are showing the world that you are not a gentleman.

 

I would appreciate your correcting two glaring errors in your epistolary exhibition, however.

 

First of all, calling someone who has written for major magazines for 35 years or so a "neophyte blogger" is absolutely idiotic - as everyone who knows me realizes. I've published over 3,000 magazine articles. How many have you published?

Second, printing my "fifteen years of harassment" note to you without annotation is utterly dishonest.

 

As most know, I was among the very few fighting the good fight against massive domination of financial discussion sites by highly-organized cadres of mostly very young short-sellers and their big money backers.  

 

For our trouble, those of us involved in this effort were treated to a constant stream of viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malware, not to mention verbal harassment, defamation of character, and even overt death threats.

 

You would think that after these evil, nasty little so-and-so's contributed - more than most think - to the near-destruction of the world economy, such behavior would be banned from the Internet forever.

 

Apparently not so! Because we are now seeing the same sort of malice utilized by organized groups of kiddie hackers on certain social networking sites like Twitter.

 

That is what my note to you referred to - and you know it.

 

Regards,

 

(Dr.) Ellen Brandt

To: "rgoya@yahoo.com"
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 11:06:32 AM
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

Never contact me again.


From: Randall Goya
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:47 am
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

The kiddies are going to grow up. We are going to grow older.
The world turns.

The 60s are over and the so are the generation wars

Our president says it's time for new blood

IMO the older generation can be valuable mentors passing the torch

I find the large red font hysterical
 
Randall Goya 

To: "rgoya@yahoo.com"
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:58:32 AM
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

The kiddies are going to lose. We are going to win.
 
Or rather, the Kiddies are welcome to interact with each other in THEIR world.
 
Those of us over 40 are creating our OWN Internet, in which OUR standards will apply.
 
You have chosen your side - which I happen to think is the Dark Side.
 
But that's your business. You finally figure out what I'm saying is true, feel free to contact me, and I will gladly reinstate in Adult-World.
 
Ellen


From: Randall Goya
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:46 am
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

gosh, Ellen, your attitude is hurting you

as for no experience, I wrote for the Brown Daily Herald

I also have my own self-hosted blog that gets over 400 views
per day ( http://websiteoutlook.com/www.netsperience.org )  -
nothing to brag about but well above average, I think, and
more than your Stiletto Vultures - and you never responded about my
"Chassidic Wedding Mosh Pit" title

I take "constructive criticism" from whoever offers it - it's
then my choice what to change, if anything - if a lot of
people are saying the same thing, perhaps there is something there

I think you are a smart and talented writer - but web
journalism is very different from what you know about print

The standards for web journalism (in some circles) are
http://gawker.com and http://assme.org (I met Drew Grant at
Internet Week - smart, young)

sometimes, my dear, you just need to take a chill pill, get
drunk, meditate or whatever gets you grounded
 
Randall Goya
 
To: "rgoya@yahoo.com"
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:22:20 AM
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

It's very serious journalism.
 
I'm not interested in "constructive criticism" from people who have never worked as journalists and don't know what the heck they are talking about.


From: Randall Goya
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:12 am
Subject: Re: jealousy, sanity, and reality

yes, there may be some jealousy - journalists are
notoriously competitive backstabbers

however, I think there are some valid points raised in the
Getting Ink blog post

there is a fine line between marketing and spamming - I send
email "blasts" to nearly 200 of my contacts (as you know), 
and often someone indignantly says "remove"; more often I get
positive responses: thanks for sharing, cool etc.

I also noted that the faux headlines are funny, but real
headlines with the same wit would be better - in the end,
finding out that it is a "hoax" can be disappointing

I'm not sure what you mean by viruses - do you mean links in
comments are listed as malware sites? that happens all over,
some blog sites try to prevent it

I was (I thought) a valuable member of a forum community
about web stuff. I answered a lot of questions and helped n00bs
with code issues for free. I had followers who read all my posts.
But the owner and a mod started to attack me. I think there was
some jealousy. Perhaps I was also a bit arrogant sometimes, but I
also apologized for that. In the end, I stopped visiting the
forum (after making over 1500 posts) - to paraphrase
Groucho, "I don't care to belong to a forum that would have me as a member"

you certainly have a good network on LinkedIn that
understands and appreciates your humor - I'm not sure why LI members view it as positive, but it is not appreciated at some elsewheres - it's a question of Jungian psychology, or perhaps cultural anthropology

I think that may be the key - to make more clear that it is
"humor" and "satire" - and not "serious" journalism. It's
obvious to you, and most of your readers, but there are
always the "literal" thinkers.
 
Randall Goya

To: "rgoya@yahoo.com"
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 11:31:43 PM
Subject: Re: ?????

http://gettingink.typepad.com/getting_ink/2009/06/was-this-the-stupidest-tweet-ever-probably.html

Yeah, "imagined." My Stiletto-Vultures blog has gotten 2500
hits its first week, which is unheard of! for a non-celebrity blog.

That means this story ALONE could get to 10,000 monthly hits
-
and Ellen Interactive, with even one or two more little
stories, let alone several, WILL easily hit the 10,000 per month
 mark, at which point book deals and all kinds of good stuff almost
always starts to happen.

But that's only Ellen Interactive! I'm also starting the
almost BOUND to be hot Baby Boomers-the Angriest Generation series this week AND the new Media Revolution group at Linked In, which I am not going to allow to be run like a garden-variety Linked In
group. It's going to be truly useful, serious discussions about how Little Media can benefit directly from the implosion of Big Media.

There are several book projects in that!

So, of course, I'm arousing incredible jealousy for being
smarter and more creative and more clever about attracting
traffic than 20 little kiddies combined. They just have to
strike back to try to stop me.

I can't believe with your background, Randall, you are not
hearing rumors about who is doing this to me. It is an
organized campaign of sniping and viruses combined. It's just evil,
and somebody has to have the decency to help me stop it.

Ellen    


From: Randall Goya
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:27 pm
Subject: Re: ?????

Ellen,
 
I count you as a friend and I am definitely not sending
psy war notes or viruses or worms. Anyway, a lot of malware is
distributed by botnets that hijack computers and send
emails without the owners knowledge.. I can assure you that I
have excellent protection and I am not infected.
 
I responded to your email personally and - I hope - wittily.
 
I do not think you have found the correct tool for your
emails. I have noticed the generic use of my name followed by a
comma in the subject - pretty obvious it is generated automatically
from a list. I can't suggest one, either, I do not get too
involved in mass mail campaigns.
 
You need to differentiate your friends - like me - from
your enemies, whether real or imagined.
 
I have noticed other people being cranky too - chalk it up
to 3 weeks of rain (in NYC) or the beginning of summer or
something in the air.
 
Randall Goya

To: Randall Goya
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:54:36 PM
Subject: Randall,

After what I've put up with today, I am not interested in
any more psy war notes from you or anyone.

Fifteen years of this sadistic crap already.

I work and I work and I work and I work, and in ten
seconds, it all gets torn down by malicious little bastards with their
viruses and their worms and their complete immunity from
prosecution for any kind of slander, no matter how
malicious and how untrue.

With your background, you have to be right in the middle
of it or know exactly who is.

If you are on my side, fine.

If you're not, just be honest enough to tell me so, and
I'll remove you from my network.

I've suffered more than enough.

Ellen

From: Randall Goya
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:24 pm
Subject: Re: FROM ELLEN TO HER NETWORK

thanks Ellen,
 
I started to listen to the blog panel but found it boring - maybe I never got past all the branding and introductions. I prefer my webinars lean and punchy, like this one on WCM by Acquia on Ziff Davis http://netsperience.org/content/blog/replay-acquia-eseminar-ziff-davis-demise-web-content-management
 
Speaking of provocative titles, what do you think of
 
I Survived a Chassidic Wedding Mosh Pit
 
(true story, http://netsperience.org/content/blog/i-survived-a-chassidic-wedding-mosh-pit )
 
Best wishes and happy summer-
 
Randall Goya


To: "rgoya@yahoo.com" <rgoya@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 6:30:34 AM
Subject: FROM ELLEN TO HER NETWORK

Dearest Network,
 
After wasting the last five days of my life attempting to transfer my entire mailing list to Microsoft Live, of course, it doesn't work the way I want it to, is totally permeated with illegal cookies, and won't even allow me to get receipts back. Microsoft's sole reason for existing is clearly to maim and mutilate the human heart, soul, and spirit in evey way possible. I just may stab myself with stiletto heels and voluntarily let the vultures eat my liver.
 
If that reference went past you, you have not yet read my "serious humor" blog out about a week ago. It is doing fabulously well statistics-wise, and I hope you will read and enjoy it, if you haven't already:
 
http://elleninteractive.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/i-dont-like-what-you-wrote-you-should-be-poisoned-garrotted-stabbed-with-stiletto-heels-thrown-off-a-tall-building-and-have-vultures-eat-your-liver/
 
The main reason I am writing you this note, however, is to invite those of you who are interested to join my brand-new Linked In Group, Media Revolution, which I am opening for membership today.
 
I have long believed that such a group was very much needed at Linked In. Most of the existing groups dealing with media are too large and difficult to manage, which is why they are, in fact, badly managed. They allow in non-media people who have no business being there. They permit bullying and sometimes malicious poster-upon-poster attacks.  The bulk of the discussions are generally silly, rather than meaty. Group managers dominate the visible Discussions and Overview pages with their own selfish presentations. And the News feeds are often dominated by Big Media, instead of being populated exclusively by group members' own articles, blogs, and other presentations, which is what I would want to see in a Linked In media group.
 
Media Revolution will be a group for senior, experienced journalists, publishers, and academics who want to discuss and debate what is happening in the media right now and how we can help each other navigate through these chaotic, difficult, but ultimately exciting times, in which our sector is transforming itself literally minute-by-minute before our very eyes.
 
I fully expect the work we all do within this new group will quickly gain attention not only within Linked In, but throughout the media sector. Please join me in this exciting enterprise!
 
Search in Groups for Media Revolution, and you will now see it, with my name listed as the Group Manager.
 
A couple of other quick items:
 
If you haven't listened to the wonderful panel I participated in the other day at Jon Hansen's show from Ottawa, please do tune in to the archived version at your leisure. The label says Future of Blogs, but in fact, this was a wide-ranging discussion on the Future of Internet Media.  Jon was a fabulous moderator, and I haven't come across anyone who has listened to this panel who hasn't come away impressed.
 
http://tiny.cc/J0JjW
 
Finally, some of you may have noticed that I took down the four-entry "Thank You For Clicking!" series, with which I slaughtered the competition - due largely to my network's help! - in Community Marketing's Great Blog-Off.
 
I did this because I am going to integrate the four articles into my existing "Preparing for the Blog-Off" site, along with a brief case-study on my effective link-to-link-to-link-to-link strategy for encouraging both page views and interactivity.
 
Adding stats for Community Marketing to those I amassed at the "Preparing" site, my total 4,000-plus clicks in about a ten-day period equaled more than the page views for all the other contestants in the Blog-Off combined. And the 200-odd comments the series received at "Preparing," the Community Marketing site, plus several Linked In groups, produced a view-to-comment interactivity ratio about three times higher than Internet averages. So a very good showing all around.
 
You will hear from me soon about additional stories at Ellen Interactive, my new blog site, plus the imminent launching of Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation.
 
I have to steel myself for the latter, because it's bound to be controversial. I think I'm going to fortify a closet against home invasions by Ninja assassins.
 
Thanks for your support and help. I adore you all!
 
Ellen