Whaddayaknow, Joe?
OK. First off, this is not a regular post from me. You'll get a nice fresh one tomorrow, maybe. I generally hate those 'blog wars' posts where I know what I'm talking about, and some of you might now what I'm talking about, but ,ost people don't have a freaking clue. I have never, ever written one before.
But.. well. Those of you who want the full background story can read both these posts by Sleepless Nights. For the short version, read this...
Blogger tweavesdrops on conversation between another blogger (her mum) and an online art gallery forum thingo. Blogger then screenshots Tweets and posts about it. Art forum thingo people get wind of this a month later- even after having this Twitter convo with the blogger the day after the original conversation- and gets very, very shirty. They threaten legal action. Things get nasty, people do lots of arguing.
I got in on the arguing. I normally refrain, but hey. I had PMS, and I was looking for something to sharpen my acrylic nails on. And these people, Joe and Cathy, commenting on Veronica's blog, were really starting to bug me. Just the hysterical shrillness of it all.
Your issues, guys. I reiterate what I said- I'm concerned for the emotional well being of Cathy. I'm being quite serious there. Patronizing and condescending, but serious.
Anyway. Veronica has stuff going on in her life, and closed comments. Fair call. She likes to moderate them, as we all do. And the conversation was going nowhere. It was a circle- copyright, an accusation of missing Tweets, accusations of nepotism. Etcetera, etcetera.
So, I think it's all over. Have a laugh, have a filthy dirty enjoyable cigarette. People are fun to poke, with or without a stick.
And then, today, I get an email from Joe. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Basically- I don't want to reproduce his email here, lest he sue me and my poor little blog with less than 500 hundred readers. Joe lives in France, I think. A multi-national, cross-ocean lawsuit. Awesomeness. Just call me Reese Witherspoon and give me a little dog in a handbag.
Anyways. Joe basically said that Veronica is withholding the screenshots she took of the original Twitter conversation. I doubt she still has them. I know, if it were me, once I edit something,I delete it, to free up space.
Joe is accusing Veronica of editing these screenshots to show less of the conversation than what actually took place.
Joe also said that Veronica has been lieing to people about Joe and Cathy contacting her web hosting service.
Firstly, I have seen a copy of the email sent by 'TAS Admin' (admin@totalartsoul.com) to Veronica, stating they had contacted her hosting company accusing her of copyright infringements.
Believe that, or not. I don't care. This is probably the time to disclose- Veronica is an online friend of mine. I read her blog, I think she reads mine. I am an administrator for a website she's involved in, but I was asked to do this by the other owner of the website, not Veronica. We've communicated a few times through email, spoken once during a conference call. She is not a blogger who I'd consider a 'close' online friend. But she's a mate of mine.
I'm not really so much doing this out of love for Veronica- although I do respect her, and I respect her honesty and integrity, and I don't like to see that slandered.
I'm more doing this because Joe seems to think I'm an idiot.
Joe, you have severely underestimated my stubbornness, tenacity and the amount of time I have on my hands today.
Here are the screenshots you're after. From @frogpondsrock side of the conversation. They are huge, everyone- click to see the larger size, sorry if they take forever to load. But I didn't want to risk cutting them at all, and being accused of dishonesty.
Two of them, because all the Tweets wouldn't fit on one. I also missed screenshotting this Tweet, which was tweeted late that day, then reTweeted by Veronica, and replied to by @totalartsoul.
Getting a screenshot of @totalartsoul's tweets was a bit more difficult. They had actually blocked me on Twitter, so I couldn't see their stream. After creating a new account (hello, Mrs Winterpepper, you tech savvy thing!), I spent two freaking hours scrolling down and down and down. Only to get to this on the 21st October.
Back to top. Damn you, Twitter.
@totalartsoul Tweet a lot, evidently. That's cool. But there is only so much Twitter will remember. You can all check out what Google has to say about it here. All the Tweets Veronica mentioned are there, verbatim, and also the one Tweeted later that day, which Veronica didn't screenshot- I'm assuming because it wasn't part of the initial conversation, and pretty much irrelevant. Correct me if I'm wrong, but @totalartsoul wouldn't have seen that from @frogpondsrock anyway. She was already blocked and banned.
As I am. Which, by the way, completely disregards this statement made earlier in the comments section of Veronica's blog, where all of us were invited to come join Total Art Soul.
So, that's it.
I think I'm proved my point. There are no missing Tweets.
Joe, you're annoying.
Now- no legal action, please. Everything here is my own opinion. Stated facts are supported by links to the relevant facts. The screenshots above are of Tweets made by @totalartsoul. The jury is still out on whether Tweets are copyrightable, but probably not. I claim absolutely no rights to the above Tweets whatsoever, and are reproducing them under the request of Joe, if that is his real name, who may or may not be affiliated with TotalArtSoul. Again, these Tweets aren't mine, I don't want them, and, depending on who Joe is, I may or may not have permission to use them.
No jellybeans were harmed in the writing of this blog post.