In response to Kathy Sierra.

Having been a party to all that went on at both Meankids and Unclebobism, and observing the fallout therefrom, one thing is as clear as crystal to me:

You are going to use the publicity of being an innocent victim of a hate crime to sell more books and dishonestly and unfairly besmirch a literary rival.

I have to hand it to you, Kathy, you know an opportunity when you see one. It's just a shame you have to resort to lies because you've seen an opportunity to get rich quickly.

I would take this opportunity to remind you about how those who rise quickly on nothing but hot air fall well below their point of origin, but I think you might consider that as my threatening to rob you after the checks start rolling in.

Well, I live in Australia and I wouldn't waste one cent on you, your books or trying to bring you undone. I am, however, going to enjoy watching yet another flash-in-the-pan fade into nothingness just like Helen Darville.

You might also care to write to Liz Tay and remind her that Mediawatch has eyes in every newspaper and mine are on her and I have an active account with the ABC.

You should also take up writing for The Watchtower. That's about how honest and objective your work is, Kathy. It gives me a headache which worsens with every line I read.

Sincerely,
NOT Anonymous - Paul Ritchie,
Australia.

Posted by: Paul Ritchie | Mar 27, 2007 4:59:05 AM

She should apply to the liars team for the position of Biggest Liar.

I have received a response from one of Kathy's readers...

TO: Paul Ritchie
RE: You Were There?

"Having been a party to all that went on at both Meankids and Unclebobism, and observing the fallout therefrom..." -- Paul Ritchie

Was that image there?

Who posted it?

How long was it there before the person who operates/sysops the UncleBobisms blog removed it? If they removed it?

Did the sysop make comment on it?

Did the sysop have a disclaimer?

What were the sysop's terms of service?

Enquiring minds want to know?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. -- George Bernard Shaw]

P.S. What's your beef with WatchTower?

Posted by: Chuck Pelto | Mar 27, 2007 5:21:32 AM

Chuck, in the words of a Meankid as was: Fuck off. You're too stupid to be on the internet.

At drumsandwhistles.com...

I troll around quite a few blogs and by and large, I treat the content as being the opinion and sentiment of the author and that's just fine and dandy.

If the author uses their blog to make money, more power to them.

When they blog and pretend to be an authority on blogging - I tend to gag a bit. Kathy Sierra makes me gag a lot. Her vision is narrower than that of a keyhole peeper with cataracts.

She is just another L Ron Hubbard of the blogosphere - full of bloated nonsense - which she passes off as being something akin to the elixir of life.

What offends me is that she makes money selling books that are essentially worthless to gullible and vulnerable members of the public.

Yes, this sort of thing happens a lot in blogland and most of us just shrug it off with "some you win, some you lose" and we move on.

Kathy Sierra has not only lied her lily white butt off and besmirched a superior author who references everything he writes, but she's used technorati as her mouthpiece and will doubtless increase her profit from cancelling her gig by a factor of 10.

She's just offended that not everyone takes her word as gospel and actually had the means and the temerity to say so.

I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about Kathy Sierra or any of her ilk. I feel sorry for everyone who spends their hard-earned on any of her pathetic books. She's shallow, she's a liar, they are her victims.

NOT hiding behind anonymity,
Paul Ritchie
Australia.

And to some journo from Computerworld Australia...

Dear Liz,

I was a party to all that was going on at both Meankids.org and Unclebobism on Wordpress.

Though I didn't post the material which so offended Kathy Sierra, I did find it funny but considered it at that stage to be more of an inside joke since Unclebobism had only been live for 3 days and had less than a dozen members, myself being one of them.

I also weighed in on the Henry Ford debate at Tara Hunt's and in both cases, what this boils down to, firstly in Tara Hunt's case, she had given half a story on Ford which Chris Locke augmented in pure objective and academic style, for which reason I still can't understand she deemed contrary to her purpose. When asked for the basis upon which she made her assertions, Ms Hunt went silent and would not even address the questions.

I haven't taken the opportunity yet to weigh in on the Kathy Sierra story, but having been a party to what was going on at Meankids and Unclebobism, I can not only state unequivocally that Kathy Sierra is lying, but over the next couple of months will undertake to define her lies and general dishonesty. An off-colour joke is not a threat, inducement or encouragement to murder as she states. She is a slick marketer, but so are Jehovah's Witnesses.

I am hopeful your story will focus more on the nature of blogging spats rather than a character study of one party or the other. We weren't angels at Unclebobism, but nor did we pretend we were ever going to be. Kathy Sierra, on the other hand, claims to be some sort of blog afficionado yet she has amazingly publicly cancelled a speaking gig over something that appeared in a 3 day old communal blog on Wordpress?

She's also an author. I suspect this will make it to television in the U.S., get picked up by the networks and blown right out of all proportion and she will, in one fell swoop, have besmirched a literary rival and gained a huge amount of free publicity and her books will rocket off the shelves making her an instant millionairess and all on the wave generated by her own dishonesty which will come to light in due course.

I trust you - being Australian - will see through it.

I shall look forward to reading the next edition of Computerworld Australia.

Yours sincerely,
Paul Ritchie
Melbourne, Vic. Au.