Terra Nova Aftermath

In keeping with the general reason for creating this blog, I thought I'd wrap up the Terra Nova banning by pointing to a few relevant URL's and pointing out something I find interesting.

First off, for the sake of reference since I've not previously provided one, here's a link to the thread that started my little back-and-forth with Catherine A. Fitzpatrick (aka Prokofy Neva, etc):

Clickable Culture: "Linden Lab Lays Down Law: Give Your ID, OR Give Up Adult Content"

It's basically useless now. It's unfortunate Tony Walsh over on Clickable Culture has decided to hide all the comments, but oh well. That's his decision, even if it makes no sense to me at this point.

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Second, to bookend the relevant links, here's one to the rather tame rant by Catherine / Prokofy regarding our banning on Terra Nova where she takes some swings at the "eggheads" (but don't stay too long, it's nasty over there):

Second Thoughts: "Terra Antiqua"

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Now, because I think it's pretty interesting to see how the learned Terra Nova regulars are reacting (Catherine does get a few things right in that final rant), it's probably now worth pointing something out: it's pretty clear that Catherine intended to drag my name across as many blogs as she could in order to get me to back down. Including Terra Nova, if necessary.

Okay. So where is the basis for this assertion?

Follow along.

Start by taking a look at my previous entry - Link - where I list all the places (of which I'm aware; there are probably more) where Catherine / Prokofy is freaking out and using my name as much as possible. That's a lot of hatred being spewed in a short amount of time.

What's behind all that?

Well, Catherine lets it slip in a comment on the Second Life Herald where she talks about what needs to be done about people like me:

needs to be restrained by the only thing that can restrain someone like him who has no belief in God or anything higher than his own ego and coding abilities: the fear of ruin of his reputation by his peers. ( Link to comment of June 02, 2007 12:43 AM )

So basically, she was already trying to spread my name around so that I'd back down for fear of having my real name associated with a distasteful topic.

Only she was being careful.

I suspect she thought she was safe to rant on Clickable Culture and felt free to unleash her mouth over there, so when Tony banned us that probably came as a surprise (based on all the calls she put out for people to protest). I'm guessing she expected a warning, at least.

Well, the ban hammer wasn't lifted on CC. But on her blog she's safe, so she ranted there.

She's also safe to spew on the Second Life Herald, because Peter Ludlow / Urizenus Sklar is her guardian angel. Her insane rants, profanity, and aggressive towers of text are the ongoing car crash that gets people to surf to his website. Without Catherine A. Fitzgerald's crazed dialogue, the Herald is just another blog.

So she dragged my name onto the Herald.

What Catherine / Prokofy didn't want to do was get into it with me on sites she values: Raph's blog and Terra Nova. As much as she rails against them, she desperately needs their attention. Just look at her Twitter page; she engages anyone and everyone who has a "name" (e.g. Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel, Eric Rice, Jeff Barr, aso). There's probably some deep psychological thang going on here, but all I know is she's careful around them. She'll argue with them, but she treads much more lightly. You aren't going to see many comments like "you fucking retarded idiot" out of her on sites she values; and certainly nothing even close to that behavior, I imagine, when using her real life identity, Catherine A. Fitzpatrick the Russian translator.

So she avoided them and spit her venom where she could do so without concern (good example of Ms. Fitzpatrick's offensive behavior here: Link)

Only something must have gone wrong. You see, I bowed out. Here's the comment I made on the Herald thread:

Well folks, my time on this issue is done. ( Link to comment of June 04, 2007 at 03:41 PM )

That should have been it. She'd "succeeded". Done.

Only I suspect she was so inflamed and worried I'd contacted the authorities* that she simply couldn't stop when I did bow out.

She wasn't ready to stop. She didn't want to stop. She hadn't done any damage to my reputation, and she needed to do some damage. So when the opportunity presented itself on Terra Nova, she decided to risk it:

In fact, I've already been targeted by this troll -- Csven Concord (Link to comment of Jun 04, 2007 10:42:21 PM)

Note the timeframe.

I leave the debate on SLH at 03:41PM of June 4.

Catherine / Prokofy then does what is suggested by her earlier comment: she tries to drag my name somewhere else. Somewhere I can't as easily ignore.

Terra Nova at 10:42PM of June 4.

Had she not dragged my name onto Terra Nova I'd not have engaged her, and she knew that. She probably didn't expect me to ask that we both be temporarily banned, but I doubt she cared at that point.

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So, in closing, what we have is someone who used Terra Nova as a means to attack me. Of course I knew that, but the lawyers of Terra Nova didn't; Dan Hunter, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at Wharton, didn't. But that didn't stop him from taking action.

As the only perceptive person on TN, Candy, noted:

I think removing the quantitative limit on word counts and the removal of bad apples are both a step in the right direction.

At the same time, those actions essentially validated the assertions made in the earlier heated posts (okay, rants) from the recent banees. - Link

I agree with Catherine on one thing at least: Terra Nova has become increasingly irrelevant, for me at least. And when only one individual recognizes something is off and speaks up, it doesn't say much for the rest, afaic.

{*Note: I did, in fact, call the FBI and direct them to her blog; that was an interesting phone call to be sure}