This tale begins on one of my favorite blogs- Read Write Web. At the end of last year many blogs were posting “top 10 lists”. As with many other multi-author blogs, I have my favorite authors at Read Write Web- Jolie O’Dell is one of them. Jolie wrote an article in which she described who, in her opinion, deserved to be on the list of 10 worst failures of 2009.
I personally find such lists entertaining, and Jolie’s list especially delighted me. But, as you may may have already guessed, not every one finds such lists funny nor entertaining. Some one claiming to be “Steven Vaughan” was really upset with the article and went on with a personal attack against the author Jolie O’Dell:
Of course Jolie’s response answers why the initial comment by “Steven” was removed:
So what does this “Steven Vaughan” and I have in common? Evidently this “Steven Vaughan” is following my tweets. So he decided to pay a visit to my business blog:
Of course Steven has no idea that I always disclose to my clients that English is not my native language. Plus my terrible spelling and grammar has very little barring on my work – I perform live interpreting, and in most instances (such as courts, testimonies, deposition and even doctors) my work is digitally recorded and is available for anyone who wants to question the quality and/or accuracy of my work. But I doubt Steven understands the nature of my business and visited my website only to spew his venom just as he did attacking Jolie O’Dell.
Steven’s comment on my blog of course were marked as spam. Steven Vaughan has never used my interpreting services therefore his opinion on whether or not I am good at my job is nothing but hateful attempt to damage my reputation.
But this is not the end of it. I knew I will be equivalent to “feeding the troll” but I did e-mail Steven telling him he is making a mistake and also expressed my concern about the company who’s reputation he may be damaging. That of course resulted in an exchange of about 26 e-mails- which I plan to publish next.
I am aware that this Steven has left similar hateful comments on number of of other blogs. It appears he leaves his comments using following e-mails: stevenvaughan1212@gmail.com and trumpzors@yahoo.com and operates from IPs originating in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also believe this Steven has operated a Twitter account “@idiotzapper”, which was deleted not so long ago probably because the account was used to attack reputation of another blogger and friend of mine. I also know that this individual often visits Contra Costa Public Library, in Pleasant Hill, CA- but not to read books, to use library’s computer to do his dirty work. If you have any information about this individual, I would appreciate your help. To get in touch with me, follow me on Twitter or Facebook.
I also have last minute advise for “Steven”- stop hiding behind the veil of anonymity and don’t ever write anything that you are not comfortable to put your real name on.
Of course if you are interested how this tale ends, make sure to subscribe to my this blog.
Interesting. I did not realize that my troll was still alive and well. I shall follow this with great interest.
Matt, I am certain he is still alive. How well is he can be debated. I would rather describe he existence as alive and desperate :).
You beat me to it Vlad, I was going to say he doesn’t sound too well.
When you find him you might like to pass his details on to guitar aficionados, I don’t think they’ll appreciate the name of one of the greats being used for trolling.
Kate,
Thanks for stopping by. To be completely honest I hate this sort of things. I would rather be doing something more productive. But I guess there is no one to blame for this but me.
I would not recommend dealing with trolls in this manner. It only ad negativity to your blog. However there are exceptions sometimes- this I hope to be one of those exceptions.
Thanks for stopping by!