Journal Seth Finkelstein's Journal: Michael Sims "goatse'ing" censorware.org letterfest
I just sent twenty-eight of what I think of as the Michael Sims "goatse" letter. That is, a letter to a webmaster telling them that Michael Sims has hijacked the censorware.org domain for his rants, and that he's maliciously redirecting them from the information they thought was at the domain. I'll probably be smeared as a spammer for all those letters, though every one was hand-sent with personal feeling in it. My eyes hurt. My wrists hurt. How the hell does he get away with it all? The Power Of Journalism probably means that my effort at cleaning up his vomitus will get me more "stalker/harasser" points. It's amazing.
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Update 4/16: More about What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
Somewhat repetitious, this weekend, I sent out around another twenty such Michael Sims "goatse" letters (a letter to a webmaster telling them that Michael Sims has hijacked the censorware.org domain for his rants, and that he's maliciously redirecting them from the information they thought was at the domain). My wrists hurt more. Probably more "stalker/harasser" points for me for shoveling the elephant-dung. I've gotten some webmaster responses, all positive, all fixing their web pages. I'm still bothered by how the hell he gets away with it all. It seems to be that a few dozen webmasters having a very negative opinion of him is a joke compared to the The Power Of Journalism.
Update: So, to whom do I write, to fix references to the goatse'd censorware.org domain, in pages such as this one?
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Update 4/18
My folder of Michael Sims "goatse" correspondence has now passed 100 messages. This is including replies to me, my acknowledgements, etc, to what I've sent.
Somebody on Slashdot objected to my refering to what Michael Sims is doing as "goatse", apparently thinking it's too extreme a term. I believe it's absolutely appropriate and a wonderful description. A person is looking for an anti-censorware report, or a censorware case legal archive, or a censorware-related essay. Suddenly, they find themselves redirected to an utterly obnoxious page. And it's done willfully, maliciously, with the hijacked link intending to have that effect. That's what the trolls do with goatse'ing links. And that's exactly what Michael Sims has done, an uberTroll. Except there's no-one to mark him as (-1, Troll).
Bow down to The Power Of Journalism.
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Update 5/5
I heard that a little while ago, someone submitted an Ask Slashdot question about the goatse'ing of censorware.org. I must confess to being amused.
