Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Hyde Schools => Topic started by: Anonymous on January 31, 2007, 02:29:03 AM
-
Hyde has "flooded the market." Dozens of Hyde web sites --- all launched by Hyde --- dominate the opening pages of Google. No matter how visited Fornits is, Hyde need only continue creating new web sites to push Fornits into obscurity. A new anti-Hyde web site is not a practical solution.
Does a counterstrategy exist? Is there any way for Fornits to rise in the rankings, say by affiliating itself with another server or web site? It would be nice to see Fornits given the prominence it deserves.
-
I googled "Hyde School" and got a lot; some of these sites were reviews (newspapers, boarding schools, etc.). There is also a site called urban dictionary that actually had 3 negative entries re. Hyde. These could use some company?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... yde+School (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hyde+School)
-
That is the only way Google works. If you spell out the entire name of the person of whom you are referring on fornits, it can be picked up by a Google search. If you search Joe Gauld it is on the first page under a fornits post. To increase visability if everyone referred to their subjects with the entire name, ie Henery Milton, instead of hank, Henry, or sasy spell out "Hyde School" instead of just nut-job cult ect...the post will be found by google when someone by chance searches for the name...
-
sorry for the typos...spell out the names people will search possibly for and the posts will be more likey found by google
-
I plan on writing an article about Hyde. Anyone who would like to be interviewed, with a pseudonym if necessary, can e-mail me.
The account of my experience at Hyde, THE JEKYLL SIDE OF HYDE, is also available through the ISAC site.
Gary Eskow
www.garyeskow.com (http://www.garyeskow.com)
PS- looking for families who had positive experiences at Hyde as well as those who encountered problems.
-
YOUKNOW ive thought about the same thing..
a relly halpful thing would be to change the name of this forum to something like
"troubled teen "school" abuse survivors forum"
this way every parent who types in troubled teen teen and school
would be directed here first.
also, jourbalists, legistators, survivors etc.
Unfortunetly otherwise, fornits will remain obscure. It doesnt really announce itself, and unless you are a survior who knows what to look for and dedicates themselves to finding mentions of the school and abuse THEY PERSONALLY were abused in, its going to remain obscure.
If you just have a general uninformed sense of this industry or are a survivor who thinks their experience is an isolated event- pehaps something they imagined- its hard to find named as it is
what do you think?
-
Here's a little experiment for you.
I am a regular on the Hyde Schools forum. Fornits used to appear prominently on the first page when I Googled "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" (former headmasters of Hyde School). Recently, however, Fornits has stopped appearing altogether in their Google ratings. It is as if Joe Gauld and Ed Legg discovered a way to prevent those embarrassing Fornits links from appearing on Google. Only when I do an advanced Google search does Fornits appear on the first page of "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" as before. Try it yourself.
Is this just my computer or is it a global problem? It seems there is a way to censure and suppress Fornits on Google, thereby rendering it completely ineffective in terms of bringing Hyde to the public's awareness.
-
Here's a little experiment for you.
I am a regular on the Hyde Schools forum. Fornits used to appear prominently on the first page when I Googled "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" (former headmasters of Hyde School). Recently, however, Fornits has stopped appearing altogether in their Google ratings. It is as if Joe Gauld and Ed Legg discovered a way to prevent those embarrassing Fornits links from appearing on Google. Only when I do an advanced Google search does Fornits appear on the first page of "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" as before. Try it yourself.
Is this just my computer or is it a global problem? It seems there is a way to censure and suppress Fornits on Google, thereby rendering it completely ineffective in terms of bringing Hyde to the public's awareness.
Google has a proprietary page rank algorithm, that they are constantly tweaking. They change it to keep a step ahead of the web site folks that are gaming their sites to gain page rank.
There are acres of Russian CS majors that black box google on a full time basis. They ask deep questions like this:
http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-th ... girls-649/ (http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-the-most-spice-girls-649/)
I would guess that Hyde's web lackeys are savvy enough to game google.
Lime Ratenight
-
Here's a little experiment for you.
I am a regular on the Hyde Schools forum. Fornits used to appear prominently on the first page when I Googled "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" (former headmasters of Hyde School). Recently, however, Fornits has stopped appearing altogether in their Google ratings. It is as if Joe Gauld and Ed Legg discovered a way to prevent those embarrassing Fornits links from appearing on Google. Only when I do an advanced Google search does Fornits appear on the first page of "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" as before. Try it yourself.
Is this just my computer or is it a global problem? It seems there is a way to censure and suppress Fornits on Google, thereby rendering it completely ineffective in terms of bringing Hyde to the public's awareness.
Google has a proprietary page rank algorithm, that they are constantly tweaking. They change it to keep a step ahead of the web site folks that are gaming their sites to gain page rank.
There are acres of Russian CS majors that black box google on a full time basis. They ask deep questions like this:
http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-th ... girls-649/ (http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-the-most-spice-girls-649/)
I would guess that Hyde's web lackeys are savvy enough to game google.
Lime Ratenight
What does it mean "to tweak a proprietary page rank algorithm," "to game a site," "to black box Google," and "to kill a Spice Girl"? I bow to your superior wisdom.
-
Here's a little experiment for you.
I am a regular on the Hyde Schools forum. Fornits used to appear prominently on the first page when I Googled "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" (former headmasters of Hyde School). Recently, however, Fornits has stopped appearing altogether in their Google ratings. It is as if Joe Gauld and Ed Legg discovered a way to prevent those embarrassing Fornits links from appearing on Google. Only when I do an advanced Google search does Fornits appear on the first page of "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" as before. Try it yourself.
Is this just my computer or is it a global problem? It seems there is a way to censure and suppress Fornits on Google, thereby rendering it completely ineffective in terms of bringing Hyde to the public's awareness.
Google has a proprietary page rank algorithm, that they are constantly tweaking. They change it to keep a step ahead of the web site folks that are gaming their sites to gain page rank.
There are acres of Russian CS majors that black box google on a full time basis. They ask deep questions like this:
http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-th ... girls-649/ (http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-the-most-spice-girls-649/)
I would guess that Hyde's web lackeys are savvy enough to game google.
Lime Ratenight
What does it mean "to tweak a proprietary page rank algorithm," "to game a site," "to black box Google," and "to kill a Spice Girl"? I bow to your superior wisdom.
Google page rank is determained by factors like how many other pages like to your page. So when people figured that out they deployed thousand of web pages that link to their page. Google figured that game out. They changed the algorithm to judge the quality of the links. The webmasters figure out how they calculate and game again. Google changes how they calculate , webmasters guess ....... ad infinitum.
Black boxing is treating something as entity as an unknown and figuring you what it does by applying stimulus and observing reactions.
Two guy are running away from a Grizzly bear. First guy says " I don't think we can run faster then that bear" Second guy says " I don't have to. I just have to run faster then you." Hyde does not have to be as smart as google. They just need to be smarter then you.
The spice girls thing is just an example of the minutia that the guys that black box google get into "why does google sub 'kill' for 'fuck'? When will it do it?" One would assume they are trying to get rank for porn sites.
-
Google page rank is determained by factors like how many other pages like to your page. So when people figured that out they deployed thousand of web pages that link to their page. Google figured that game out. They changed the algorithm to judge the quality of the links. The webmasters figure out how they calculate and game again. Google changes how they calculate , webmasters guess ....... ad infinitum.
Interesting stuff, really. Sounds like the nexus between game theory and theoretical computer science, especially complexity theory.
Two guys are running away from a Grizzly bear. First guy says "I don't think we can run faster than that bear." Second guy says "I don't have to. I just have to run faster than you."
Believe it or not, you have just improved my understanding of Inferno XIII. Many thanks.
-
Two guys are running away from a grizzly bear. First guy says, "I don't think we can run faster than that bear." Second guy says, "I don't have to. I just have to run faster than you." Hyde does not have to be as smart as Google. They just need to be smarter than you.
I take it that the two runners in your polite analogy are the Hyde webmaster and the Fornits webmaster. How does the Hyde webmaster suppress Fornits on a simple search (but not on an advanced search)? Any tips for the Fornits webmaster?
-
I take it that the two runners in your polite analogy are the Hyde webmaster and the Fornits webmaster. How does the Hyde webmaster suppress Fornits on a simple search (but not on an advanced search)? Any tips for the Fornits webmaster?
Is this a battle between webmasters? Could one even "suppress" certain searches for other than "inappropriate material" reasons? Interesting that Google deems "kill" less offensive than "fuck."
-
I take it that the two runners in your polite analogy are the Hyde webmaster and the Fornits webmaster. How does the Hyde webmaster suppress Fornits on a simple search (but not on an advanced search)? Any tips for the Fornits webmaster?
Is this a battle between webmasters? Could one even "suppress" certain searches for other than "inappropriate material" reasons? Interesting that Google deems "kill" less offensive than "fuck."
Google "Ed Legg" on a simple search. Fornits does not appear. Now Goggle "Ed Legg" on an advanced search. Fornits appears on the first page. Let me know if your results differ from mine.
This is indeed a battle of the webmasters game. The question is whether Fornits' webmaster can adopt a more successful strategy than that of Legg's webmaster.
The stakes are Fornits' visibility on Google. (Legg's reputation is a secondary issue.)
-
I google "Larry Dubinsky sexual assault" (no quotation marks needed) and the IsacCorp site comes up as the #1 pick. Fornits not 'till page 3.
I google "Ed Legg" (no quotation marks) and Fornits does not show up within the first ten pages. I google "Ed Legg" (with quotation marks) and Fornits shows up on page 3. Used to be page 1 when you used quotes. The algorithm has indeed changed. Maybe it also depends on what country you are googling from.
-
I google "Larry Dubinsky sexual assault" (no quotation marks needed) and the IsacCorp site comes up as the #1 pick. Fornits not 'till page 3.
I google "Ed Legg" (no quotation marks) and Fornits does not show up within the first ten pages. I google "Ed Legg" (with quotation marks) and Fornits shows up on page 3. Used to be page 1 when you used quotes. The algorithm has indeed changed. Maybe it also depends on what country you are googling from.
Interesting. I don't get Fornits on any page in a simple search of "Ed Legg" in quotes, but I get it on page one in an advanced search. Fornits ceases to exist for the casual surfer for "Ed Legg" in my country.
-
Interesting. I don't get Fornits on any page in a simple search of "Ed Legg" in quotes, but I get it on page one in an advanced search. Fornits ceases to exist for the casual surfer for "Ed Legg" in my country.
What do you stipulate for 'Advanced Search?'
-
Interesting. I don't get Fornits on any page in a simple search of "Ed Legg" in quotes, but I get it on page one in an advanced search. Fornits ceases to exist for the casual surfer for "Ed Legg" in my country.
What do you stipulate for 'Advanced Search?'
Nothing. And, I leave all the settings alone, e.g., "any language," "anytime," etc. Maybe my settings for a simple search are different from my settings for an advanced search, although I've never changed the default settings of either type of search. Do you know how to check the settings for a simple search?
-
Never mind. Figured out how to change preferences. Now I get Legg on page 3, like you. But there's still the discrepancy of getting him on page 3 in simple search and on page 1 in advanced search.
-
What do you stipulate for 'Advanced Search?'
Nothing. And, I leave all the settings alone, e.g., "any language," "anytime," etc. Maybe my settings for a simple search are different from my settings for an advanced search, although I've never changed the default settings of either type of search. Do you know how to check the settings for a simple search?
Check Google's 'Preferences' (underneath the option for 'Advanced Search').
I did not get Fornits 'till page 7 when I did an Advanced Search for "Ed Legg" (with quotes). Interestingly, Google prompted me with: Did you mean: red legged legg" for that search!
It may also be that your 'Advanced Search' particulars change a bit according to Browser... Emil's the expert on that one. You'll have to wait until he gets up.
-
Interestingly, Google prompted me with: Did you mean: red legged legg" for that search!
He's in some hot water.
-
click on RED-LEGGED LEGG (http://http://www.psychochicken.com/music/sounds/Psycho_Chicken.mp3)
-
Here's a little experiment for you.
I am a regular on the Hyde Schools forum. Fornits used to appear prominently on the first page when I Googled "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" (former headmasters of Hyde School). Recently, however, Fornits has stopped appearing altogether in their Google ratings. It is as if Joe Gauld and Ed Legg discovered a way to prevent those embarrassing Fornits links from appearing on Google. Only when I do an advanced Google search does Fornits appear on the first page of "Joe Gauld" and "Ed Legg" as before. Try it yourself.
Is this just my computer or is it a global problem? It seems there is a way to censure and suppress Fornits on Google, thereby rendering it completely ineffective in terms of bringing Hyde to the public's awareness.
Google has a proprietary page rank algorithm, that they are constantly tweaking. They change it to keep a step ahead of the web site folks that are gaming their sites to gain page rank.
There are acres of Russian CS majors that black box google on a full time basis. They ask deep questions like this:
http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-th ... girls-649/ (http://www.ayanev.com/who-has-killed-the-most-spice-girls-649/)
I would guess that Hyde's web lackeys are savvy enough to game google.
Lime Ratenight
I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence.
Forgetting that happy people don't spend a lot of time writing posts on biased websites. And let's be clear, this whole website is not designed for good and bad comments, regardless of the lipservice paid. The home page and tenor of the entire site is about the "troubled teen industry".
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
Watching the same folks year after year regurgitate the same crap, including wild and for the most part, unsubstantiated allegations....pretending to know stuff as fact....glossing over the real details and never looking within (this of course will hopefully get me a response from someone about me being brainwashed and using "hydespeak" -- which is what anyone who writes a pro-hyde comment on here gets, lol).
Anyway, I logged in today for my annual amusement and see the same folks spending a good part of their lives still looking as delusional and paranoid as ever.
Is there no even, no circumstances that you all don't see a conspiracy behind. Hey, here's an idea....maybe (just one of 500 possibilites) Hyde wants to be first in Google because statistically over 50% of searchers will only click on the first or second link to a search. Maybe they just want to do effective marketing the exact same way every other freakin company in the world wants to.
No for the scariest thought...what if they actually don't give a shit about you and this site? I'll bet that would probably raise even more issues of relevance and self-worth for you all...
Did you miss the comment about the HB1's in the mansion. That was your basic Jon Stewart sarcasm that was funny because its really the logical extension of your theorys. "Outfoxing Fornits". Yah, that's right. They have daily meetings on your latest posts and how to deal with this site.
Rumor has it that they are calling for all parents and students to actually avoid the internet all together because they realize soon this will be out of their control.
Please folks, many of you still need therapy. Personally, I don't mind logging in once a year to just shake my head and feel empathy for a family of origin (hyde-speak?) that leaves you all in such a state that you feel this is the best use of your energy.
Of course, its not about you....you just want to save the rest of the world from suffering the same fate. In this Fornits cult, obsession, paranoia and delusion go by the names courage and magnanimity.
Here's the real question -- what happens when you come to realize all this writing was only for you, because you are the only people who come here, and it was all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?
Maybe then you will have some peace anyway. Personally, I wish you had it now, not because I want to protect Hyde, but because I hate to watch suffering, especially when someone doesn't actually know they are suffering!
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
-
I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence.
Forgetting that happy people don't spend a lot of time writing posts on biased websites. And let's be clear, this whole website is not designed for good and bad comments, regardless of the lipservice paid. The home page and tenor of the entire site is about the "troubled teen industry".
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
Watching the same folks year after year regurgitate the same crap, including wild and for the most part, unsubstantiated allegations....pretending to know stuff as fact....glossing over the real details and never looking within (this of course will hopefully get me a response from someone about me being brainwashed and using "hydespeak" -- which is what anyone who writes a pro-hyde comment on here gets, lol).
Anyway, I logged in today for my annual amusement and see the same folks spending a good part of their lives still looking as delusional and paranoid as ever.
Is there no even, no circumstances that you all don't see a conspiracy behind. Hey, here's an idea....maybe (just one of 500 possibilites) Hyde wants to be first in Google because statistically over 50% of searchers will only click on the first or second link to a search. Maybe they just want to do effective marketing the exact same way every other freakin company in the world wants to.
No for the scariest thought...what if they actually don't give a shit about you and this site? I'll bet that would probably raise even more issues of relevance and self-worth for you all...
Did you miss the comment about the HB1's in the mansion. That was your basic Jon Stewart sarcasm that was funny because its really the logical extension of your theorys. "Outfoxing Fornits". Yah, that's right. They have daily meetings on your latest posts and how to deal with this site.
Rumor has it that they are calling for all parents and students to actually avoid the internet all together because they realize soon this will be out of their control.
Please folks, many of you still need therapy. Personally, I don't mind logging in once a year to just shake my head and feel empathy for a family of origin (hyde-speak?) that leaves you all in such a state that you feel this is the best use of your energy.
Of course, its not about you....you just want to save the rest of the world from suffering the same fate. In this Fornits cult, obsession, paranoia and delusion go by the names courage and magnanimity.
Here's the real question -- what happens when you come to realize all this writing was only for you, because you are the only people who come here, and it was all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?
Maybe then you will have some peace anyway. Personally, I wish you had it now, not because I want to protect Hyde, but because I hate to watch suffering, especially when someone doesn't actually know they are suffering!
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
I would be most interested to hear your defense of Hyde. That's what it's all about, dear. For starters, how would you defend Hyde seminars? How did they help you?
-
I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence.
Forgetting that happy people don't spend a lot of time writing posts on biased websites. And let's be clear, this whole website is not designed for good and bad comments, regardless of the lipservice paid. The home page and tenor of the entire site is about the "troubled teen industry".
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
Watching the same folks year after year regurgitate the same crap, including wild and for the most part, unsubstantiated allegations....pretending to know stuff as fact....glossing over the real details and never looking within (this of course will hopefully get me a response from someone about me being brainwashed and using "hydespeak" -- which is what anyone who writes a pro-hyde comment on here gets, lol).
Anyway, I logged in today for my annual amusement and see the same folks spending a good part of their lives still looking as delusional and paranoid as ever.
Is there no even, no circumstances that you all don't see a conspiracy behind. Hey, here's an idea....maybe (just one of 500 possibilites) Hyde wants to be first in Google because statistically over 50% of searchers will only click on the first or second link to a search. Maybe they just want to do effective marketing the exact same way every other freakin company in the world wants to.
No for the scariest thought...what if they actually don't give a shit about you and this site? I'll bet that would probably raise even more issues of relevance and self-worth for you all...
Did you miss the comment about the HB1's in the mansion. That was your basic Jon Stewart sarcasm that was funny because its really the logical extension of your theorys. "Outfoxing Fornits". Yah, that's right. They have daily meetings on your latest posts and how to deal with this site.
Rumor has it that they are calling for all parents and students to actually avoid the internet all together because they realize soon this will be out of their control.
Please folks, many of you still need therapy. Personally, I don't mind logging in once a year to just shake my head and feel empathy for a family of origin (hyde-speak?) that leaves you all in such a state that you feel this is the best use of your energy.
Of course, its not about you....you just want to save the rest of the world from suffering the same fate. In this Fornits cult, obsession, paranoia and delusion go by the names courage and magnanimity.
Here's the real question -- what happens when you come to realize all this writing was only for you, because you are the only people who come here, and it was all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?
Maybe then you will have some peace anyway. Personally, I wish you had it now, not because I want to protect Hyde, but because I hate to watch suffering, especially when someone doesn't actually know they are suffering!
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
::roflmao:: ::roflmao:: ::roflmao:: ::roflmao:: ::roflmao::
Oh, PahLEEEZE... go suck an egg! If you're really here just for the laughs, how come you spent THREE screenfuls getting your petty little points across? Truth hurts, eh?
If you really bothered to actually read the material you so handily malign, you would realize that some people have been here longer, and some others have not. I certainly was not here a year ago for your so-called annual review, and I doubt very much that my posts sound a lot like anybody else's, thank you very much, citizen Kane!
Yeah, right, I really do need some therapy, and personally speaking, I think Hyde should pay for it! 'Cause pretty much most of that shit all stems right back to what happened to me in that hellhole.
SO WHAT if it happens that we "come to realize all this writing was only for {us}, because {we} are the only people who come here, and it {is} all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?" That, in and of itself, is reason enough for this gift and this effort, even if naught else.
People generally have a variety of reasons for coming to this site, and getting something out of this site, and guess what? It isn't all about maligning Hyde! Whoa!
You need to get over your bitterness, girl, and get a life! I don't see anyone here coming into your little Sunshine City trying to rain on your parade!
-
I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
Hey it is good to hear from you again
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence.
My opinions are purely my own. I just listen to the voices in my head and do what they tell me.
Forgetting that happy people don't spend a lot of time writing posts on biased websites. And let's be clear, this whole website is not designed for good and bad comments, regardless of the lipservice paid. The home page and tenor of the entire site is about the "troubled teen industry".
I am perfectly happy. I come here to play with Mr Bear and Mike
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
Well there is the pot calling the kettle black. What do you call it when you are constantly hanging around your old high school? "Arrested development?" For myself, I do not hate Hyde. I am interested in the Truth, just like Joe and the community.
Watching the same folks year after year regurgitate the same crap, including wild and for the most part, unsubstantiated allegations....pretending to know stuff as fact....glossing over the real details and never looking within (this of course will hopefully get me a response from someone about me being brainwashed and using "hydespeak" -- which is what anyone who writes a pro-hyde comment on here gets, lol).
Hey if you know any real details please share them. Like I said I am interested in the truth. As John Lennon said, "just give me some truth. all I want is the truth"
Is there no even, no circumstances that you all don't see a conspiracy behind. Hey, here's an idea....maybe (just one of 500 possibilites) Hyde wants to be first in Google because statistically over 50% of searchers will only click on the first or second link to a search. Maybe they just want to do effective marketing the exact same way every other freakin company in the world wants to.
I don't think I suggested that Hyde was seeking page rank in reaction to fornits. I was pointing out the very thing you say, Hyde has people that do SEO. They do it for the same reason any business would do it: say ahead of the competition and out distance the critics.
No for the scariest thought...what if they actually don't give a shit about you and this site? I'll bet that would probably raise even more issues of relevance and self-worth for you all...
It does not bother me one way or the other. My reference point is internal.
Did you miss the comment about the HB1's in the mansion. That was your basic Jon Stewart sarcasm that was funny because its really the logical extension of your theorys. "Outfoxing Fornits". Yah, that's right. They have daily meetings on your latest posts and how to deal with this site.
That was H 1 B visa people. I posted that. Pretty funny no. I am an equal opportunity mocker.
Please folks, many of you still need therapy. Personally, I don't mind logging in once a year to just shake my head and feel empathy for a family of origin (hyde-speak?) that leaves you all in such a state that you feel this is the best use of your energy.
No doubt mental health is an issue for many who have passed through the Hallowed Halls of Hyde, including the founder.
Of course, its not about you....you just want to save the rest of the world from suffering the same fate. In this Fornits cult, obsession, paranoia and delusion go by the names courage and magnanimity.
Here's the real question -- what happens when you come to realize all this writing was only for you, because you are the only people who come here, and it was all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?
I am only here for my own amusement. I think Mr Bear is on a mission from God as Jake or Elwood said.
Maybe then you will have some peace anyway. Personally, I wish you had it now, not because I want to protect Hyde, but because I hate to watch suffering, especially when someone doesn't actually know they are suffering!
Peace to you too.
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
Jeez I answered most of your questions and now I see you will not read them until next year. I will see you in Bath when Mike goes to pick up his diploma :-) Seriously it is good to hear from you and I hope you are doing well. I like most of the people I went to school with including you.
-
Ah, yes... I am reminded....
I am on a mission... from G O D ...
::unhappy:: ::unhappy:: ::unhappy:: ::unhappy:: ::unhappy::
-
[quote"Guesty"]That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.[/quote]
Sulphur, my dear... becomes you.
:evil: :evil: :flame: :flame: :evil: :evil:
-
Ah, yes... the rotten egg aroma of "Guesty's" farts of ill will... Although I presume that was meant to connote "troll-ness." My apologies!
(Have I said "Ah, yes..." enough times in the past few minutes? How time flies when you're having fun! :lol: )
-
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
From: http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=17301&start=29 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=17301&start=29)
Let me know what ya'll thought, but of course I didn't need to ask for that.
Perhaps a generation specific form of speech?
-
I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence.
Forgetting that happy people don't spend a lot of time writing posts on biased websites. And let's be clear, this whole website is not designed for good and bad comments, regardless of the lipservice paid. The home page and tenor of the entire site is about the "troubled teen industry".
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
Watching the same folks year after year regurgitate the same crap, including wild and for the most part, unsubstantiated allegations....pretending to know stuff as fact....glossing over the real details and never looking within (this of course will hopefully get me a response from someone about me being brainwashed and using "hydespeak" -- which is what anyone who writes a pro-hyde comment on here gets, lol).
Anyway, I logged in today for my annual amusement and see the same folks spending a good part of their lives still looking as delusional and paranoid as ever.
Is there no even, no circumstances that you all don't see a conspiracy behind. Hey, here's an idea....maybe (just one of 500 possibilites) Hyde wants to be first in Google because statistically over 50% of searchers will only click on the first or second link to a search. Maybe they just want to do effective marketing the exact same way every other freakin company in the world wants to.
No for the scariest thought...what if they actually don't give a shit about you and this site? I'll bet that would probably raise even more issues of relevance and self-worth for you all...
Did you miss the comment about the HB1's in the mansion. That was your basic Jon Stewart sarcasm that was funny because its really the logical extension of your theorys. "Outfoxing Fornits". Yah, that's right. They have daily meetings on your latest posts and how to deal with this site.
Rumor has it that they are calling for all parents and students to actually avoid the internet all together because they realize soon this will be out of their control.
Please folks, many of you still need therapy. Personally, I don't mind logging in once a year to just shake my head and feel empathy for a family of origin (hyde-speak?) that leaves you all in such a state that you feel this is the best use of your energy.
Of course, its not about you....you just want to save the rest of the world from suffering the same fate. In this Fornits cult, obsession, paranoia and delusion go by the names courage and magnanimity.
Here's the real question -- what happens when you come to realize all this writing was only for you, because you are the only people who come here, and it was all one big personal catharsis that had no impact on Hyde and flies completely under their radar?
Maybe then you will have some peace anyway. Personally, I wish you had it now, not because I want to protect Hyde, but because I hate to watch suffering, especially when someone doesn't actually know they are suffering!
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
I would be most interested to hear your defense of Hyde. That's what it's all about, dear. For starters, how would you defend Hyde seminars? How did they help you?
Spitting Image,
Have you nothing to say in defense of "the greatest experience of [your] life"? (Honesty) You will be the very first to rise to that challenge. (Leadership) Don't play possum (Courage). I know you're avidly reading our responses. (Curiosity)
Thank you for pouring out your vials of wrath on your former schoolmates. (Concern)
-
Feel free to respond. I know you will, though you might save time by cutting and pasting from the same comments repeated over and over here. I'll be sure to log in next year to respond!
From: http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=17301&start=29 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=17301&start=29)
Let me know what ya'll thought, but of course I didn't need to ask for that.
Perhaps a generation specific form of speech?
?
-
"I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence."
Perhaps you've seen my inquiries in other corners of this site; I'm a journalist and former Hyde parent who's looking to interview people who have had positive experiences at the school, particularly former students who are at least ten years removed from their time there. Let me know if you'd like to participate.
Gary Eskow
scribeny@aol.com
-
"I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence."
Perhaps you've seen my inquiries in other corners of this site; I'm a journalist and former Hyde parent who's looking to interview people who have had positive experiences at the school, particularly former students who are at least ten years removed from their time there. Let me know if you'd like to participate.
Gary Eskow
scribeny@aol.com
-
"I used to be offended by this site, because I was one of the LARGE NUMBER of people who got more out of Hyde than almost any other experience in my life.
I say large number giggling at how one of you will no doubt claim to speak for the majority to the contrary and how very few liked it....and use this board among other points of reference as your evidence."
Perhaps you've seen my inquiries in other corners of this site; I'm a journalist and former Hyde parent who's looking to interview people who have had positive experiences at the school, particularly former students who are at least ten years removed from their time there. Let me know if you'd like to participate.
Gary Eskow
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/let ... index.html (http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/lettertoeditor/index.html)
You seem to have a lot of valuable things to say about Hyde.
-
That is, the site may as well be called "Haters-Stuck-In-The-Past-Unite".... I mean really, you all just hate and then pat each other on the back, giving special credit to the most outrageous accusations and conspiracy theories.
I'm really a lot more concerned about theories of meat procurement and migration. Students facile in the art of "seminaring to stay on top" generally progress quickly to the core concept of skewering your opponent with character assassination. But keeping your 'brother' incapacitated via physical exhaustion and/or emotional duress 'till prey capture can be completed is essential for ensuring that your next meal is a-comin'.
(http://http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/956.gif)
-
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... l=hyde.edu (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=hyde.edu)
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... ornits.com (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=fornits.com)
And, just for shits and giggles
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traff ... l=fark.com (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=fark.com)
-
Interesting ....
There are spikes in hyde.edu traffic that echo fornits traffic. Maybe Mr Bear is right. People are finding this forum before they look at hyde. Coalition is not cause and effect etc etc ..... YMMV always wear safety belts, only drop acid with a friend
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting
-
Interesting piece in Forbes.com (http://http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/05/24/google-search-reputation-cx-tech_ag_0525google.html)re. manipulating Google for one's own interests:
Internet
Google-Proof PR?
Andy Greenberg, 05.25.07, 6:00 AM ET
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Google Scheff's name now, however, and the first few pages of results are far less controversial: They include Scheff's own sites about teen pregnancy, her upcoming book, and, until recently, recipes for broccoli casserole and pork chops.
That last one might seem strange to Scheff's friends, who know she doesn't cook. "The truth is, if it doesn't go in the microwave, I don't make it," she admits.
So who wrote the cooking advice at sue-scheff.net? Not Sue Scheff. That site, and many of the others in the first several pages of Sue Scheff's Google results, were designed by a company called Reputation Defender, which sells what its founder, Michael Fertik, calls "Google insulation." For a fee, Reputation Defender pads the Web with friendly-sounding content like flattering blog entries, personal sites and other positive pages, and then pushes those sites to the top of the Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) results for clients like Scheff, thereby hiding the online insults of her enemies.
And there's plenty of vitriol to hide. In 2004, she filed a defamation lawsuit against one of her critics, Carey Bock, in a Florida state court. Scheff won an $11.3 million verdict last year, but some negative commentary remained on the Web. Scheff says those comments were ruining her business, driving away more than half of her customers. "She had just slandered me up one side and down the other side of the Internet," Scheff says.
So Scheff turned to Reputation Defender. Founded last October, the company says it monitors what's written about clients online for a monthly $10 fee and will have specific content "destroyed" for an extra $30. The removal of content usually involves polite take-down requests that occasionally escalate into cease-and-desist letters and legal threats when necessary, says the company's chief executive, Michael Fertik.
But Reputation Defender recently began offering users a subtler approach: hiding unwanted Web comments with a barrage of positive, Google-friendly content, either created by the company or dredged up from elsewhere on the Web and optimized to appear at the top of search-engine results.
"Say you have 20,000 delighted clients and five clients that hate you," says Fertik. "We'll tell your story on the Internet and find press about you and start promoting that to the top of the Google chain. It's very Internet-specific PR, a very different game." For that labor-intensive service, officially called MyEdge, the company charges a hefty price: Fees start at around $10,000. Fertik says he has more than 25 clients for the service.
MyEdge's success is based not only in creating reputation-boosting pages but also in convincing Google to float those sites to the first few pages of results, the only results that most Web users ever see. But gaming Google can be tricky. The search giant, which declined to comment on Reputation Defender's service, spends significant resources trying to prevent Web site owners from pushing up their ranking artificially. And it will punish sites it thinks are cheating by pushing them into the back pages of search results. (see "Condemned To Google Hell").
Fertik won't reveal the details of MyEdge's tactics, but he says he's confident they don't break Google's rules or those of any other search engine. He also says his company draws the line at publishing lies about individuals or businesses--the cooking site created for Sue Scheff, he says, was an unfortunate exception, one that he removed after talking to this reporter. But Fertik sees nothing wrong with manipulating Google to focus on the positive aspects of someone's persona.
"Google is not God," he says. "It's a machine, a superb machine that benefits millions, but it's still just a machine. And what it turns up can have remarkably deleterious impact on hardworking people and businesses."
Some might still argue that MyEdge misleads Web users or that it muzzles them by hiding negative opinions. But Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Internet free-speech advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sees MyEdge as a healthy alternative to the usual angry-lawyer school of reputation management.
"As long as they're not committing some kind of fraud, I think this is the way to deal with bad speech," says Bankston. "This shows that you don't need to counter speech by attempting to censor it, but rather with better and more accurate information. As the truism goes, the best answer to bad speech is always more speech."
-
A related article (http://http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2007/04/29/sanar-google-skyfacet-tech-cx_ag_0430googhell.html):
Internet
Condemned To Google Hell
Andy Greenberg 04.30.07, 6:00 AM ET
Don't anger the Google gods.
That's the lesson Paul Sanar learned--too late--last year. Up until last fall, the 21-year-old New Yorker depended solely on the search engine to keep traffic flowing to Skyfacet.com, his online diamond business; Sanar says he sold $3 million dollars worth of jewelry a year. Then, he says, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) turned its back on Skyfacet.com, condemning the site to Internet obscurity.
Beginning in September 2006, Skyfacet no longer showed up on the first few pages of Google's results when users typed in search terms like "diamonds" and "engagement ring." The site's traffic vanished, and Sanar says his sales dropped $500,000 in three months.
What happened? Sanar isn't completely sure. But he does know that his site has been condemned to the supplemental index, a dreaded backwater region of Google search results that goes by another name in online marketing circles: Google Hell.
Google Hell is the worst fear of the untold numbers of companies that depend on search results to keep their business visible online. Getting stuck there means most users will never see the site, or at least many of the site's pages, when they enter certain keywords. And getting out can be next to impossible--because site operators often don't know what they did to get placed there.
Google's programmers appear to have created the supplemental index with the best intentions. It's designed to lighten the workload of Google's "spider," the algorithm that constantly combs and categorizes the Web's pages. Google uses the index as a holding pen for pages it deems to be of low quality or designed to appear artificially high in search results.
Those pages are scanned far less frequently than those in the main index, meaning that once a page is marked for Google Hell, it can languish there for as long as a year before Google even deigns it worthy of a reappraisal. And as Google tries to manage an explosively growing Web, more and more sites are finding themselves thrown into the search engine's digital dungeon.
If that makes the world's leading Web-crawler sound judgmental, consider Google's difficult position. The search juggernaut is faced with the endless task of reading and ranking the ever-expanding Web's billions of pages, the equivalent of putting the Earth's population in order from tallest to shortest every few minutes. Meanwhile there are growing numbers of pages filled only with junk text and advertising, designed solely to fool the engine. It's Google's task to sort out the trash from the worthwhile, and to do it better and faster than competitors like Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), or InterActiveCorp's (nasdaq: IACI - news - people ) Ask.com.
So how does Google decide what kind of pages get punished? That's where things get tricky. Google keeps the details of its decision-making a secret, since the company is trying to prevent sites from gaming the search engine. But it also means that site operators like Paul Sanar can offend Google and not know what they've done until its too late.
In retrospect, Sanar thinks he can trace his problem to a search marketing consultant he had paid $35,000 to improve Skyfacet's Google rankings. He now believes the consultant mistakenly replicated content on many of the site's pages, making them look like duplicate--that is, spam--content. But even after he reversed the consultant's changes, he couldn't get Skyfacet's pages out of Google Hell, where they remain today.
Other online businesses have similar stories. MySolitaire.com, another online diamond business, spent January to June of 2006 in the supplemental index. Amit Jhalani, the site's vice president of search marketing, says he figures that cost his business $250,000 in sales, and he says he still doesn't know why the site's pages got Google's thumbs-down.
"So many of the rules are vague," Jhalani says. But he admits that he tried gray-area tactics like buying links from more established sites to juice his traffic. "For a small site like ours, you have to stay right on the edge to compete with sites with bigger budgets," he confesses.
Jhalani says he removed the links that may have offended Google, but the site remained in Google's gulag. Jhalani wrote Google asking the search engine to reappraise MySolitaire; nothing happened. Since Google ranks sites partially by the quality of sites that link to them, he painstakingly contacted every site that seemed to be of low quality and linked to MySolitaire, asking them to remove their links, sometimes even sending cease-and-desist letters. Finally the site returned to Google's main index last June, though Jhalani has no way of knowing just what finally caused Google's algorithm to forgive him.
Chris Bartow is a search marketing consultant for Revenco.com, a real estate site that also saw the majority of its pages sent to Google Hell for six months of 2006. Bartow believes that some identical content on 90 of his site's property listing pages caused Google to mistake them for plagiarized spam sites. "I know they're trying to get rid of sites with no practical purpose," he says. " But when your pages get dumped, you lose half your traffic and a lot of money."
Bartow thinks his misfortune stemmed from a temporary glitch in Google's algorithm. But other search engine marketers say that Google Hell is only increasing in size and severity. "The supplemental index has been on the upswing for quite a while," says Aaron Wall, a search engine consultant and Google-watcher. "They've gotten much more aggressive about throwing pages in there."
Search marketer Michael Gray says he's seen the standards "tighten and loosen and tighten and loosen," but the last six months have been particularly brutal. "There has been a lot of collateral damage with some of these decisions," Gray says. He cites the growing sophistication of spam pages as one source of trouble. "Google's trying not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but it's kind of impossible. A spammer can very easily create something that resembles a legitimate site if he knows the right tricks," he says.
The criteria for which pages are targeted for the supplemental index remains a subject of guesswork. But Web designers have found that pages with duplicate content, few words or pictures, and a lack of links to other quality sites are the most likely to be pulled in. Most agree that newly created sites are especially vulnerable.
As for Google's own take on its supplemental index, the company is typically tight-lipped. Google's official page for Webmasters cryptically notes that Google is "able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index," a phrase that puzzles most search marketers.
In an e-mail, Google product manager Prashanth Koppula offers little more in the way of an explanation. Asked if the supplemental index is getting bigger, he responds that "new pages are constantly being added," but that the "algorithmic nature" of Google's spider makes it hard to measure the index's size or how fast it's growing. That's not a problem, Koppula says, because supplemental results are no less legitimate than normal results, and pages in the supplemental index aren't checked any less frequently by Google's spider.
But Jim Boykin, another search marketing consultant and blogger, doesn't buy it. "If your page is in the supplementals, it won't rank for any competitive search, and it can be really hard to get it out," he says. "That's why we call it Google Hell."
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not well-liked on Fornits?
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not too well-liked on Fornits?
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not too well-liked on Fornits?
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not too well-liked on Fornits?
Any parent who is thinking about Hyde and does an internet search will find the negative stuff before long. There's a lot out there now. Hyde's fancy self-promotion comes up first, of course, but anyone who's savy enough to know that Hyde is a mixed bag will find the dirt.
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not too well-liked on Fornits?
Any parent who is thinking about Hyde and does an internet search will find the negative stuff before long. There's a lot out there now. Hyde's fancy self-promotion comes up first, of course, but anyone who's savy enough to know that Hyde is a mixed bag will find the dirt.
The Fornits pages related to Hyde now shows up on the 4th page of the Google search. That's encouraging. Any parent who's eager for information about Hyde is likely to discover this web site.
-
Sue Scheff's business, Parents Universal Resource Experts, places troubled teens in reform schools--and generates a lot of controversy. Disgruntled clients have accused Scheff's company of sending kids to abusive programs, and the Web is full of complaints: A quick Google search used to reveal sites describing her as a "fraud," a "con artist" and a "crook."
Hey, if I am not incorrect, this broad is not too well-liked on Fornits?
That's because she makes horrendously erroneous statements about herself and her company. Like that she has an attorney on staff. Turns out, there's an attorney in the same building, totally unaffiliated with PURE, but she claimed in her advertisements that she had one on staff. She continued to refer kids to the Whitmore even after the Sudweeks (owner/operators) were under investigation for about 7 counts of aggravated abuse, WITHOUT even informing prospective parents of the allegations....even after she was specifically asked to do so (the allegations were later proven to be true and Whitmore was shut down). She exaggerates her educational background to the point of out and out lying.
From everything I've been able to read, she IS a liar, con artist and a fraud.
-
Interesting piece in Forbes.com (http://http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/05/24/google-search-reputation-cx-tech_ag_0525google.html)re. manipulating Google for one's own interests:
Internet
Related thread (Sue Scheff and Reputation Defender) in the Something Awful forums:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=2543707 (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2543707)
-
:rofl:
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Sue_Scheff (http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Sue_Scheff)
-
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 29, 2007, 11:27 AM PDT
Police Blotter is a weekly News.com report on the intersection of technology and the law.
What: A company claiming to remove defamatory comments about clients from the Internet is found liable for defamation and making death threats.
When: Arizona federal judge rules on June 21.
Outcome: Preliminary injunction granted against DefamationAction.com and ComplaintRemover.com.
What happened, according to court documents:
Companies like DefendMyName.com have recently been treated to a flurry of positive news articles describing how they help paying clients remove embarrassing information from the Internet. The Wall Street Journal refers to (http://http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118169502070033315-3PzMHMIbLz_n4N_IOACv2SSbVlQ_20070712.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top) "success stories of customers who have buried snippy blog comments" and an ensuing Slashdot thread (http://http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/06/13/2236255.shtml) was titled "companies that clean up bad online reputations."
A court ruling last week, however, revealed the dark side of how some of these companies work.
Arizona resident Ed Magedson is the manager of Xcentric Ventures, which operates RipOffReport.com (http://http://ripoffreport.com/), a clearinghouse where disgruntled customers can post freely about how much they hate a company, its products, or the people who work for it.
As you might imagine, RipOffReport has become something of a magnet not only for frustrated consumers, but also the reputation-defending services that can charge up to a few hundred dollars a year to try to clean up someone's name (or business name) online.
Magedson said, and a judge eventually agreed, that William Stanley (behind DefamationAction.com and ComplaintRemover.com) sent him a series of threats demanding that uncomplimentary information be deleted from RipOffReport. An example: "This letter is being sent to you in the name of more than 500 businesses. No matter where you go, we will cause you a problem. Your life is in danger until you comply with our demands. This is your last warning."
Stanley also made statements that, unless true, would be libelous including calling RipOffReport's Magedson: "one of the most notorious and prolific extortionists on the Internet today," a "scumbag," a "fugitive," a "wanted criminal...with a track record of fraudulent activity," a "con man," a "career criminal," and an individual who engages in "blackmail schemes." Stanley appears (http://http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/listing.lasso?-op=cn&spammer=William%20Stanley%20/%20Ironserver.com)on the Register of Known Spam Operations.
Also, Stanley is alleged to have targeted Xcentric's business partners, including Prolexic, which provides Internet security services, saying it would be sued and harassed unless it ceased doing business with Xcentric. The marketing firm Professional Media Group, used by Xcentric, was also drawn in, and the site PGMIsucks.com created. Some business partners terminated their relationships with Xcentric as a result.
RipOffReport's Magedson replied by saying he had hired the law firm of Jaburg & Wilk and was going to file a lawsuit. In response, Stanley created the Web site JaburgWilkSucks.com that calls the firm "Internet extortionists."
On May 11, U.S. District Judge Neil Wake in Arizona granted a restraining order against Stanley, prohibiting him from sending threats and harassing Xcentric's business partners. The restraining order also applied to the other defendants, Robert Russo (behind DefendMyName.com), the Defamation Action League, and the Internet Defamation League.
It didn't seem to make much of a difference. In a ruling on June 21, Wake said that "Stanley violated the temporary restraining order by knowingly sending spam e-mails that falsely disparaged...Jaburg & Wilk." Wake also noted that the site JaburgWilkSucks.com was created after the initial restraining order was granted.
In an ironic twist for Stanley's company, which purports to remove libelous statements from the Internet, Wake ruled: "Stanley committed the tort of libel by publishing online false statements that the attorneys at Jaburg & Wilk are 'partners in slime' and that Speth is an 'unethical attorney,' an 'Internet extortionist,' and a "partner in the ripoff report extortion scam.' The statements were published in at least reckless disregard of their falsity."
For good measure, Wake also ruled that Stanley sent unlawful threats to Magedson, unlawfully interfered with Xcentric's business relationships, invaded Magedson's privacy rights by placing him in a false light, and committed copyright infringement as well.
Excerpts from what Wake ruled was an illegally threatening e-mail message from Stanley in February 2007:
This letter is being sent to you in the name of more than 500 businesses. No matter where you go, we will cause you a problem. Your life is in danger until you comply with our demands. This is your last warning.
Your neighbors already know about your criminal dealings and how you are making many people loose (sic) their business. You will soon be beaten to a pulp and pounced into the ground six feet under with a baseball bat and sleg (sic) hammer. You will soon be sorry not just from what I am capable of doing to you, but what other members will do as soon as they know exactly where you are. Its (sic) just a matter of time until I get to you.
Here is what you can do to save your life. But you must act imidiatly (sic). Make what ever deal it takes, you must comply.
You have the previous list of companies that you need to remove from Rip-off Report. We know you hold the power. We know you have that list.
You were provided an additional list several hours ago. It's too late for anything that we discussed today. No more deal. No more playing Mr. Nice Guy. Now you must delete any of our members from your data base who have reports listed on any search engine.
If not, BVA will drop you with in 24 hours. We will make thier (sic) life misrable (sic) like we have with Prolexic and gigenet. They don't like you either. We now know who your host is and the IP address to your servers.
Those you do business with will be in danger and will be continusily (sic) be harassed till they stop doing business with you. We are contacting your advertisers.
We will continue to spam you making it impossible for you to read your mail.
Excerpts from a second threatening message sent the same day:
We warned you ed magedson. Did you hear the gun shots last night? Because of you innocent people will die. Your tenants, family members and those that work with you. Think we're joking? I told you that your site will be down and it is. That is all we want and we will not hurt anyone.
If ripoff report moves again to new hosting facilities you will not like what we will do next. Your home will burn. Those around you will burn. Do not expect any help from the police.
Once you have completed with our first list we demand you remove we will give you another list on Saturday and every Saturday from this day forward and you will have 6 hours to do the same from the time we give you that list on each and every Saturday. If the Links work after the 6 there will be a man hunt for you.
We know where you shop. We know where you bank. Greenfield and Broadway, Greenfield and Main. Are we getting closer ED? What about Basha's at Higley and Brown?
-
http://abcnews.go.com/icaught/story?id=3452908 (http://abcnews.go.com/icaught/story?id=3452908)
www.Caughtya.org[/url] publishes photographs of cars parked in handicapped spots. At www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com (http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com) people fight back against pesky cat callers. And accused cheaters might join the ranks of thousands of men who are posted on the popular Web site www.DontDateHimGirl.com (http://www.DontDateHimGirl.com).
Tasha Cunningham is the creator of the Don't Date Him Girl Web site, which has over a million subscribers and a fair amount of controversy. Cunningham recently won a lawsuit filed by one of the men posted on the site. She said the motto of the Web site is "Don't date him girl, until you've checked him out first," and suggests that the Web site should be used as a liberating tool for women, not a method of revenge. Although she will not step in to remove postings, she said there is a simple solution to avoid being posted on the Web site. "Behave yourself in relationships."
Simply behaving was not the solution for Sue Scheff, who faced escalating online attacks despite winning an unprecedented $11 million defamation suit against one of her Internet critics. Scheff decided to seek help outside of the courtroom and hired the new company Reputation Defender (www.reputationdefender.com (http://www.reputationdefender.com)) to clean up her smeared Internet reputation. "My whole goal with this project is to try to restore some control to your life," said Reputation Defender's founder Michael Fertik. "In 20 minutes, someone who knows what he's doing or she's doing, and is not that skilled a person, can destroy you," he said. "And it can take 200 hours to repair your reputation."
For $10 dollars a month, Reputation Defender will monitor what's being said about a client online, and for $30 an item will contact Web sites to remove negative content. The more expensive service, My Edge, attacks bigger problems like Sue Scheff's by pushing positive content up and negative content down the ranks of an Internet search. Fertik said that simply altering the placement of Internet search results can have a major effect for his clients. "If you get something down from the top of page one of Google even to the bottom of page one or to the top of page two, it's seismically different," Fertik said. "If it's the first thing that shows up, you don't get the phone call back. You don't get a second interview. You don't even get a first interview."
To Sue Scheff's relief, an Internet search of her name now results in prominent placement of her own Web sites, like www.suescheff.com (http://www.suescheff.com) and www.helpyourteens.com (http://www.helpyourteens.com). She said that a repaired image on the Internet has been nothing short of a life changer, and she hopes that people will "stop before they type" and think about the damage they may cause in other people's lives. "It ruined my life, I fought back. It destroyed my reputation but I fought back."
--------------------
Comments
Sue Scheff has been criticized for claiming to advocate against institutionalized child abuse while still using her organization PURE to refer parents to abusive "troubled teen" programs such as the Whitmore Academy, whose owners have been banned for life from operating a youth program in Juab County, and Focal Point Academy, with whom she now finds her self a co-defendant with in a suit alleging... fraud among other things. Ironically Sue Scheff was sued by The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools for the same thing she later sued a Parent for. She won the suit against the parent, a Katrina victim, because the Parent was unable to attend the trial... She won by default not evidence. Her use of RD seems to be more about silencing critics then defending her self against libel. Most of the criticisms against her have documented proof to back them up, so how can she claim defense against defamation or libel. I hope that parent gets a chance to defend herself in court, RD can't silence court transcripts. ABC keep an eye on this story