Archive for the ‘Posts by Nile’ category

Possible Fanfiction.net Hoax?

February 27th, 2010

I got an email in my Facebook inbox that right away I just had to click on. In fact, I was concerned because this means that in the past few days Fanfiction.net has been prey to a hacker sending out mails to various people. My thoughts were that this was a hoax and I hope the main administrators can do something about this, whether issue a response saying that this “James” person is indeed a mod at the site, or that he is not and a solution like fixing the problem that led to the site’s infiltration.

However, I could not let AngstGoddess003′s message go unheard and had to share it. Of course, this was done with her permission.

Hey, I am better known in the Twilight fandom as AngstGoddess003. Lately, all of us in the fandom have been receiving suspicious email replies and citations from someone named James at support@fanfiction.com. He is unable to prove the validity of his employment there, and often to replies to emails snarkily, and with some of the poorest English I have ever seen. He refers to sexual content as “smut” and his emails are usually so laughable that one wonders if he’s 12.

The IPs and email headers on these do not match up to previously received replies from fanfiction.com. Very suspicious stuff.

I’ve been investigating him, since people are giving out info to him through emails (sigh… I know.. not smart!), but you know how it goes when contacting FFn. All support emails go to him, which means he’s either a troll that’s hijacked the address, or is just a new, dumb ass employee. Either way, I’ve been in contact with former staffers who confirm that James’ emails are far from the protocol they’ve known. They personally believe him to be a troll, and can’t see FFNET allowing his behavior.

Sadly, emails sent to the other two addresses provided (reportabuse@fanfiction.com and categories@fanfiction.com) are going frustratingly unanswered. Of course, this is the FFn we all know and love.

BUT, no one can verify James’ place on the staff there, and if he is a fake, then he is somehow getting members’ personal contact information, which is quite worrying. And if he IS, in fact, a legitimate member of the FFNET staff, then I feel like we should have a superior or colleague to report his verbal abuse to, something he himself is completely unable or unwilling to provide to me.

The fact of the matter is, he is sending out hundreds of emails per day, and I can’t seem to officially confirm or debunk anything whatsoever. Hence, people are still talking to this man through support@fanfiction.com, and even possibly giving him information under the guise of keeping their stories live.

I want to get to the bottom of it, but am having some trouble reaching out to other fandoms to document their experiences with this person.

The first leg of my investigation can be found here: http://angstgoddess003.livejournal.com/26810.html

You can find me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/AngstGoddess003

I know you post often at a very popular blog (Fan History), and was wondering if you’ve heard anything of this sort from other fandoms, or could offer me any advice or information about past activity from support@fanfiction.com.

For the last month or so, James has been answering all questions sent there. I actually, no lie, got a response the other day within five minutes of sending an email. Unheard of, yes? It is all very weird. I’m just hoping someone there can tell us something. Any info or advice you could offer would be truly invaluable. Perhaps if you even knew of a way that I could reach out to other fandoms on a broader basis than singular LJ comm posting, lol. That’d be awesome.

Thanks for your time. Sorry for bothering you!

Highest Regards,
AngstGoddess003

What are your thoughts in this matter? Do you think it is a hoax?

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Posted in Fandom, fandom news, Posts by Nile

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Nick Simmons Plagiarism Fail

February 26th, 2010

Not surprising to see another celebrity’s child stir up legal troubles. This time it is Nick Simmons, son of the Kiss’s frontman Gene Simmons.

Who did Nick plagiarize? Fans were quick to point out the similarities between his graphic novel Incarnate and the well loved anime Bleach. Some of the pictures in the article Gene Simmons’ son Plagiarizing Bleach? by by karenai prove that this is no false accusation.

In fact, the anime fandom seems to be popping up with articles about this fiasco from LiveJournal and even DeviantART.

The similarities are so obvious. How did Radical Publishing fail to see this when Bleach is seen by millions every day. Radical’s response in regards to Incarnate on their Radical Publishing Official MySpace site‘s blog was:

We at Radical Publishing, Inc. and Radical Comics, Inc. are quite concerned to hear the news surrounding Nick Simmons’s Incarnate Comic Book. We are taking this matter seriously and making efforts now to contact the publishers of the works in question in an effort to resolve this matter. We have halted further production and distribution of the “Incarnate” comic book and trade paperback until the matter is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. Rest assured that Radical is taking swift action regarding this matter and will continue in its efforts to maintain the integrity and protect the intellectual property of artists throughout the world whose creative works are the bedrock of our Company and the comic book industry.

This is actually re-published from their Radical Publishing official site’s blog.

This is not good for any company and there is no need to ‘investigate allegations’. This should be pulled from the shelves as it is a blatant plagiarism.

But who knows, some celebrities and their children only walk away with minor wounds to lick.

What are your thoughts?

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Posted in Fail, Fandom, Posts by Nile

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Fanfiction.net Fail – Ads

February 19th, 2010

Now, I am aware the fanfiction giant, Fanfiction.net needs funding. I also know it brings in quite a bit of money. However, I am just wondering if the site might actually grow up and out of their table phase and more into Web 2.0 where they could offer better advertising.

Better advertising by which means ads that do not interfere with the scrolling of the site and ads that totally direct people off of the site. This happens way too often. There has to be a better way for Fanfiction.net to integrate a better advertising system.

Their advertising system is a complaint I have heard over the last decade other than extreme adult material on the site that still remains even though they have policies toward such material. I think most people can deal with the primitive design, but the advertising is an annoyance. Where some fanfiction and fandom sites are upgrading into 2.0 and climbing in rank and traffic, Fanfiction.net has stayed the same for the last six months, according to Alexa.

So even if Fanfiction.net never changes their normal system, at least fix what system is currently installed. It is a total fail unless the point was to totally push users onto their advertisers’ sites.

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Posted in Fail, Posts by Nile

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Who Can Save Mediaminer.org From A Slow Death?

January 26th, 2010

For several years, I have been a member of Mediaminer.org. The site is a place for users to share their fanfiction and fanart, as well as connect. The site has not changed much design-wise. Some of the backend is broken as the database often fails to connect to user profiles.

And, the moderators seem non-existent. How do I know? I tried contacting them over a false incident of plagiarism that they failed to look into. In fact, the only response was being informed of the incident in a very unprofessional manner. This site has a lot of users that have signed up, but looking at the Mediaminer’s statistics through Alexa, this site is going toward a slow death. Even on Alexa, the site’s description is “Xxx Movies.” That is a serious factor that the site is crying for serious attention to be updated.

The Mediaminer forum is a serious reflection of this slowly dying site as the forums once thrived with thousands of new threads a day and now dwindling to at least a dozen.

Mediaminer is actually a potential hub for great fanfiction. The amount on anime fanfiction is great, almost third to Fanfiction.net, and Adultfanfiction.net.

The problem is that there are a lot of factors against them:
- Lack of moderator presence (including looking into serious accusations before making rash decisions)
- Lack of community
- Needing a major upgrade to fix the bugs, glitches, and database errors.
- More efficient and user-friendly design, including a far better front page than gobs of bordered tables and text
- Focus on encouraging the community to interact

However, the scariest factor is knowing the site of its size is just not properly moderated. If Mediaminer wants to encourage people to actually purchase space or attract more advertisers, they may want to pay more attention to the site.

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Posted in Posts by Nile, relationships in fandom

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Ninja Assassin- Surprisingly Was Good

December 30th, 2009

I went to see Ninja Assassin recently and I actually went without expectations. I did not read any reviews. The only thing I knew were from the trailers I had seen online and on the television.

Short Movie Summary:
The movie is about a boy becomes part of a clan that trains children to be ninjas. The child, named Raizo, eventually rebels against the clan and goes off on his own, vowing one day to have revenge. Eventually the murders of people assassinated by these ninjas draw the attention of Europol and involve Mika, one of their investigators. She and Raizo meet while the clan is trying to kill her.

My Review:
The movie was definitely action packed. I know my boyfriend enjoyed it immensely for the fighting scenes. Ninja Assassin was very violent and bloody. The plot was okay as it was easy to follow. There were no ‘Matrix’ moves, but there were a lot of great martial arts. Some of the effects were a bit lacking, like the shadows, but I believe they were dramatized. It was kind of cool seeing the ninjas come out of what seemed nowhere. In reality, most people would at least see an outline of the body. So, the movie did emphasize on the mysteriousness of ninjas to a point.

If you like martial arts and do not mind the blood, then I definitely recommend seeing the movie.

Have you seen Ninja Assassin? What did you think of it?

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Posted in Posts by Nile, reviews

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FanLib Rehashed?

December 19th, 2009

I stumbled across the article Disney purchased FanLib in May/June 2008, two months before FanLib’s “closure.” which basically grumbles (sounded a bit bitter at least) about how FanLib was bought out by Disney two months before the site owners announced the site’s closing, all the while letting the community to speculated the reasons.

First off, as a web developer and web designer who has sold websites, there are several factors in these type of transactions. If the buyer invokes a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) then the seller cannot say anything other than what the buyer permits. The website owner reserves the right to release or not to release what information they wish to the public.

There really should be no debate, nor banning people because they do not agree with the topic. (which happened to me. No idea as I was stating a fact. Unfortunate I stumbled in a loony bin of megalomaniacs.) In fact, the whole ordeal with FanLib it is OLD news. Time to move on.

Websites are bought all the time. It is unfortunate when a popular site is closed and may be difficult to get over, but it is not to cry about. It is to get over it, learn from the experience, and create a better community. And EVEN if that community were to be bought too, there is nothing to say that another site like it either does not exist. There are plenty of communities that do exist.

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Posted in fandom news, Posts by Nile

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Copyright Issues In the Air For Halloween?

October 29th, 2009

Through the years, many individuals and companies have been come face to face with cease and desist orders over copyright infringement. Zazzle, a type of CafePress website for users to be able to create their own designs and sell them on various bobbles and clothing was sued by Summit Entertainment for selling Twilight swag.

Courthouse news mentions it in their article Moviemakers Sue Site Over ‘Twilight’ Swag

Though the main event this Halloween season seems to be Ms Marmite Lover.

Then Warner Bros sent their own ceast and desist letter to a blogger by the name of Ms Marmite Lover who wanted to have a Harry Potty Dinner in her home for the cost of recooping the fees of the meal. She has placed the ordeal on her site and changed the name of her party, but still drew up drama to try to get support for her idea. Her blog entry, Generic Wizard night illustrates the issue, but also boiled over to Guardian.co.uk in her article – Harry Potter and the chamber of lawyers. It was even mentioned in the BritishBlogs.co.uk site in the article Muggle lawyers ban Harry Potter feast

Some of the commenters tried to tell her through her site and the Gaurdian site that if her feast had been not for profit, it would have been no problem and there was no reason to pitch a fit to the public if she changed the name already. Yes, even if it might sound ridiculous, it is unfortunate that society has come to horde anything in the name of money.

Some reactions to Ms Marmite Lover and the Case of Copyright Infringement:

‘Screw You, Mrs Marmite Lover’
Warner Bros. to fan: No Harry Potter dinners for you!
Harry Potter themed dinner banned for ‘infringing copyright’
Harry Potter dinner disappears

You might have to wonder if Halloween just might end up ruined with all the greed amok…

written by Nile Flores (@blondishnet on Twitter)

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Posted in fandom news, legal issues, Posts by Nile

Tila Tequila, Just Getting Attention on Twitter?

October 5th, 2009

Tila TequilaSinger, model, and television personality Tila Tequila recently wrote on her official Tila Twitter account what seems like frightening dark messages and suicide tweets. These messages are entirely different from her usual mood, which is outgoing, positive, and loud. However, she is not staying quiet through this ordeal and has been responding with her fans over the social network stream. It leads fans, the media crowd and those just curious about Tila’s plans for the future. This comes not long after her apparent choking by San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman in early September, as according to CNN‘s article NFL’s Merriman arrested, accused of choking Tila Tequila.

Tila Tequilas scary messages

Many fans replied back and she responded to some, and even retweeted some of the messages. Is this another attention ploy from Tila. A couple months ago, Tila had been playing with her fans with her official Tila Ustream channel, giving them a skin tease. This is nothing unusual for the attention seeking girl, and nothing new as celebrities are turning to live streaming and twittering. Example: 50 Cent, the music artist – though his live streams do not show any skin.

The examiner asks in their article Tila Tequila frightens fans with tweets on suicide: ‘It woulda been tonite I ended my life’:

What do you think? Could Tila’s sudden talk of suicide have anything to do with her issue that she ran into with boyfriend, Shawne Merriman?

Regardless, it is stirring up a lot of responses in the Twitter community (Just look up Tila Tequila in the Twitter search). Here are just a few:

Twitter Reactions
Twitter Reactions

So, is this really a suicide watch over a breakup or because of racism, religious fanatic talk, stress from her career, or just bluffing? Regardless, this should be enough to put Tila on suicide watch. Hopefully something is figured out as Tila has been a top trend in Twitter off and on since June 2009 and ReadWriteWeb confirms her as quite the active user in their article Twitter’s Most Active Users: Bots, Dogs, and Tila Tequila.

What do you think?

—-
post written by Nile Flores of Blondish.net. Follow Nile Flores on Twitter.

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Posted in fandom news, Posts by Nile, social networking

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After Lawsuit Threat, LyricWiki Is With Wikia

September 23rd, 2009

Written by Nile Flores (@blondishnet on Twitter)

A recent article in The Register called US music publishers sue online lyrics sites. TechDirt also covered this in their article Music Publishers Now Suing Lyrics Sites And Their Execs. One of the sites included was LyricWiki. Basically this lawsuit would shove the site in with those who burn and sell music without a license.

Also, recently Wikia acquired LyricWiki. As explained in their LyricWiki:Wikia Migration FAQ:

The dream will live on – Yay! Wikia has arranged a licensing deal so that royalties can be paid to music publishers, which will avoid the nasty risk of the site being sued out of existence. It’s good to know that our years of hard work won’t be evaporating any time soon! This is a gigantic relief for me and I’m sure many of you as well.

It is unfortunate to hear such things have to happen to some sites. I am willing to bet it was more for the money to sue in these economic times, rather than to stick it to another for copyright infringement. With so many sites out there that involve lyrics.

No offense, but when I go to a lyrics site, I am usually thinking of a tune or maybe a friend asked and here I am searching to find the song. Not all artists print their lyrics within their albums. I know, I have quite a few CDs on my shelf to prove that. So – these lyrics sites are really useful. Some of these lyrics sites I have gone to for years have been open for over a decade. How is a .ORG site (which technically by definition means the site is not really for profit) actually profitting from this?

As Michael Masnick said in his Techdirt article about his opinion on these lyric sites being sued.

I’d really like to see them prove that. These sites aren’t profiting off the backs of songwriters, they’re helping more people find and understand the lyrics of songs they like. That gives fans a closer connection to the music and more reason to buy things which will actually bring songwriters money. It’s stunning how shortsighted and backwards the music publishers are being here.

Although it has been said years ago that it was indeed illegal to do such, these sites have been harmless. Anyway…

For me to LyricWiki, I guess it kind of was a forced move to go to Wikia. Myself, I probably would have done the same if faced with being sued and the licensing price alone was insanely expensive. Sorry to hear about it – may Wikia not kill your site.

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Posted in legal issues, Posts by Nile

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