Today we received a comment from anon-a-bus reminding us of something very important:
I was wondering if you guys are going to do some kind of anniversary post. I think it would be interesting, mainly because a lot of the bullies thought this blog, and what is written about and discussed on this blog, would disappear like most of the other firestorms we’ve seen on the Internet up until now. But it’s been almost one year since you started posting about the bullies like Jane Litte and Ann S. and I think people are still as passionate about the topic now as they were a year ago…if not more passionate. I also think this blog has been underestimated by those like Foz M. and others who slammed it a year ago. There’s obviously a strong need for two sides of the so-called story and this blog has provided many, many people with a place to go when it seemed like there was no hope left. I think that’s important, among many other things.
And then Goronwy’s:
I concur. You guys have had an incredible impact, and I think we should celebrate.
Anon-a-bus and Goronwy are correct. It has been a year and as we here at STGRB celebrate the 4th of July and our independence as a nation, we are also reminded of the need to celebrate our one-year anniversary, marking one year of our readers’ independence from the oppression and abuse inflicted on them by those known as the GR bullies (also known as the Amazon fora trolls.) What we mean by that is that for a year now, our readers have enjoyed the freedom to come to our blog, which is bully-free, and tell their story, unloading all their pain and frustration, anonymously if they choose, without the fear of retaliation or damage done to the work in which they’ve put so much of their time and energy. STGRB is a shelter, if you will, a place where they can come take a breather and speak easy. At this time of year, we here at STGRB are reminded of the poem on the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
And as G. Faso so cleverly put it:
So, what’s this year been like?
Let’s recap, shall we?
We first started this blog at the very beginning of July last year after we witnessed some horrific events, mainly horrible things that happened to several authors who either had done nothing wrong, were trying to make amends, or who spoke out against author-bashing reviews on GR. When we started writing our posts, we weren’t planning on announcing our blog or publicizing it until we had gathered enough information and at least covered the basics of what was happening. On July 11, 2012, our blog wasn’t even finished and we hadn’t even set up our sitemap for Google yet when, only after a week of going live, somehow Ridley and co. found out, word spread like wildfire, and we suddenly had over 10,000 blog hits in one day. Since then, we get thousands of hits every week and our list of followers keeps growing, especially after any particularly nasty bully attack. Following that day, we were featured in the Huffington Post, USA Today, Forbes, and The Passive Voice.
And what did the bullies do? Well, they tried to do to us what they do best: bully people into silence. If we had a nickel for every nasty, hate-filled comment and email we received in the first six months, we would be very rich indeed. Did it stop us? Hell, no! Athena just deleted the emails and our moderators deleted the comments, of course recording each name and IP address of the bullies who were stupid enough to leave their electronic footprint on our blog. Once the bullies saw that they couldn’t bully us into silence and that they would not be tolerated on our blog (as they are not tolerated on PG’s), they resorted to dirtier, more underhanded tactics like reporting Athena to our hosting company for a fake name and address (which she proved was real and then just had the blog locked down), reporting us for alleged copyright infringement (which was protected under fair use), and they even tried to hack into our hosting account (see Bully Crime). When all of these failed, they tried targeting specific authors they thought were involved with our site so that these authors would turn around and put pressure on us to take our blog down.
And yet… and yet… unbeknownst to the bullies, the silent stream of support kept flowing in (see Thank You Messages). Even the authors who became major targets of abuse because of us sent us emails basically saying:
Don’t worry about it. Keep on keepin’ on!
It was said that we wouldn’t last. It was said that we would get sued or shut down. It was said that we were a bunch of authors running this site who would eventually turn on each other due to the pressure. We were berated by people like Foz M. (who eventually went silent when we showed how she and Lucy threatened an author) and Ray Garton:
And . (who also told lies about Eve Thomas saying that she attacks reviewers, which is nonsense. The real story is that Eve was attacked for trying to apologize after attempting to promote her book on GR. For more on Eve, see Apology Not Accepted):
Then, we were scolded by John Scalzi with his ridiculous post called Bad Reviews: I Can Handle Them, and So Should You.
And… posts like this one from the bully butt-kisser herself, Stacia K., who said:
I don’t need you to avenge me, thanks.
Our response to her post?
That’s fine, Stacia, because we’re not. You’re not one of the victims. You’re one of the bullies. Big revelation for you, we know.
So, you see, everyone, what these simpletons have failed to understand this entire year is that this is not an author-vs-reviewer conflict. This is a bullies-vs-the-rest-of-us conflict. Statements and articles like theirs are beyond moronic because not only are they hopelessly misguided, they completely miss the point and come nowhere near the heart of the matter. And that is the abuse that went largely unnoticed for years, that has happened (and is still happening) to unsuspecting victims, author or reviewer, at the hands of the GR bullies. Our site has nothing to with bad book reviews. It never has and it never will. It has to do with the bullying of other people on the internet, in particular, on the GR and Amazon fora and other places that are linked to them.
We have given countless examples of this bullying on our blog, but this excerpt from our post, More Bully Lies, will provide a good summary:
There is a HUGE difference between a bully review and a negative review (otherwise known as bad reviews, or critical or unfavorable reviews). A negative review focuses on the book and addresses the issues the reader has with the BOOK. A bully review usually uses profane language and always focuses on the AUTHOR. See the difference? Bully reviews are usually written as personal attacks on the author in order to deliberately cause damage to said author and his/her career.
Unfortunately, these bully reviewers don’t stop with just their reviews in their bullying behavior. And when we talk about their bullying behavior, this is what we mean: cyber stalking, harassing, libeling, hacking into private accounts, personally attacking, threatening (click both here and here), leaving psychotic comments, contacting their charities, contacting their bosses, or people with which they have interviews or auditions. The bullies have done all of these things.
In addition to this, we even recall a time when the bullies tried to libel Dougie Brimson and then Emily Giffin on their Wikipedia pages (using Wikipedia as a weapon), only to be slapped on the hands by the Wikipedia moderators (see Minerva Gets Burned.)
And yet after all of their shenanigans, after all their bullying attempts to silence us, we’re still here, aren’t we? Why? Because of exactly what anon-a-bus said. People are still passionate about it. People need a refuge to turn to when they are silenced and discarded:
Something Rotten at the Core of GR
We are still here in short because people need us. And that is why we do it. That is why we started our blog and although our lives are filled with family, work, and social obligations, we take time out of our schedules to bring our readers news from various sources and to support those who’ve been mistreated. We also would like to give credit to those readers who’ve been our eyes and ears in addition to our sources. Thank you! And thank you to our readers who have steadily been there all year, reading, listening, and offering advice.
As for the bullies, what has happened to them?
Well, we’ve seen a few snake fights, haven’t we? As is the nature of all serpents, they inevitably turned on one another.
First, it was Kat and Archer vs. Ridley and Jane in the GR Bully Meltdown, Part 1 and Part 2. Then, it was Jane vs. Ridley and Looney in Ridley Goes Nuts. Then even Looney and Ridley had a falling out.
And then Angela turned against her friends/followers both here and .
Are we surprised by this? Not really. We were expecting it.
Now, we can’t help but notice how many of these bullies (our Biggest Offenders) have gone silent this past year:
1) Have we heard a peep from the Holy Terror after we showed how utterly nasty and vicious she is by trying to “ruin the career” of an author? Nope. Of course, this could be due to some of the claims that she is actually Minerva and there is some merit to that theory. But for the most part, she’s kept the public eye turned away from her real identity (Shannon D., The Holy Terror.)
2) How about Wendy Darling after we exposed her nasty hate campaign against an author? Nope.
3) Or Archer after we showed everyone that he cursed out a fourteen year old girl with Blythe H.? Nope.
4) Or Lucy ever since we exposed her lie about being stalked and her vicious threat against an author? Nope.
5) How about Kat ever since the GR Bully Meltdown and ever since we showed our readers what utter crap her reviewing “facts” are? Nope. Well, at least not about us anyway. She still smears people on her blog every week (post to come).
6) Or even the big bully herself with her Dear Author blog (see Why Jane Litte Was Banned From RWA, Beautiful Blunder: Dear Author Strikes Again and J.S. Cooper vs. Jane Litte). Jane obviously hasn’t stayed silent, but has made a rather transparent attempt this year to change her Internet persona into this “kinder, nicer” version in order to try to avoid negative media attention. Has it worked? Nope.
7) And you’ll notice, more surprising than this, even Looney has managed to shut her gaping hole. Haven’t really heard a word out of her, have we? Nope.
And why?
Is it because we went over into “their spaces” and bullied them into silence? Or because we’ve retaliated by sending our people in to attack their books? Or because we hunted down their PII and threatened to publish it (like Lucy did)?
Of course not. We have never and would never do that. All we’ve done is report on their behavior by taking screenshots of already publicly published material and stating our opinions on it. (Notice the word public — key word there.)
So why have they been so quiet?
Because they know people are watching now. They know that we’re taking screenshots and showing them to the world. The bullies know that they are embarrassing themselves publicly. And every time they speak out against what we do, they end up embarrassing themselves even further with the verbal diarrhea that comes out of their mouths.
I remember someone comparing them to cockroaches who have had the light shone on them and have gone scurrying frantically into hiding, back under the rocks of their to discuss their next plan of action. Cockroaches is an apt description.
So, that’s it in a nutshell, folks. I know we’ve skipped a lot, but really, there is just too much to be said about these people to put into one post.
And this is why we are celebrating! Because for the past year, we’ve put it all into one blog (that we hope to expand this year, btw, to include forums for our readers.)
STGRB is a blog for everyone who has either witnessed or been a victim of the cyber abuse and bullying by the people known as the GR bullies.
Happy Anniversary, Everyone!
