This post updates an earlier post I wrote, Blogcritics.org: Where Gremlins and Loonies Roam,
about my frustrating and distressing experience as a Blogcritics author. I wrote a post there (first published in my own blog here as Presidential Biopics: Primary Colors and the Reagans). My goal was to refute the Reaganite contention that the Reagan film was deceitful or lied because it ‘made up’ dialogue that neither Reagan actually spoke (which of course any biographical film must do).
As I chronicled in my earlier post, silly, inane and just plain off topic comments flooded my Blogcritics post. I asked for them to be edited or removed without success. After reading my complaint about Blogcritics Comments policy, Eric Olsen, site co-owner ONLY THEN wrote a site policy (none existed before). Afterward, he pointed me to the policy, stating explicitly that I was not the cause of his writing the policy; and implicitly that the Comments policy existed BEFORE I complained (it did not). Later, Philip Winn pointed out Olsen’s deception by berating me as the culprit who forced Olsen to create the Comments policy.
After Olsen told me that no comments would be edited or removed, I informed him that I intended to blog here about my dissatisfaction and also that I intended to remove the post from blogcritics since I did not wish my post to be associated with what I call ‘the silly circus.’ Eric wrote to me and asked to me to reinstate my post.
As I was considering his request and writing him an e mail reply, I noticed two deeply troubling developments:
1. Philip Winn, a Blogcritics site co-owner, visited this blog, read the Blogcritics post I wrote and left a stinging, insulting and patently false comment on my post.
2. Winn and Olsen removed my blog from the blogcritics site without informing me before or afterward (well, they might’ve tried to inform me afterwards–but certainly not before–but I banished all future e mails from them to my Junk Mail folder since Winn’s attacks on my blog left me tremendously agitated).
I’m left with the unfortunate conclusion. that Winn and Olsen are not merely incompetent site adminstrators, but less than candid individuals at least as far as my treatment at their hands. My post remains up at Blogcritics against my will [update–Olsen removed my posts in early December, 2003, but only after receiving a lawyer’s letter RS]. Olsen-Winn’s contention is that once a Blogcritics author posts to their site, Blogcritics owns the post and the author no longer has any control over it (beyond minor editing).
So Blogcritics authors beware, you may think you own your posts, but not at Blogcritics. Those guys can do pretty much whatever they want and you’ll have little or no say over your posts or the comments of their wacky readers.
I have written a Help ticket at TP requesting that they look into blog site security in order to prevent unwanted commenters or visitors from accessing a site. I received an encouraging reply from Brenna. Although I have banned Winn’s IP address here at my blog (which only means that he cannot post a commment), he still has access to the site. If he accesses my site from another computer with a different IP address, then I have no control and he STILL may comment here at my site. While I admit that not many TPers will (hopefully) ever have to deal with the aggravation that I have, unfortunately we bloggers and TP will have to anticipate the kinds of bad behavior exemplified by Winn. You may think my problems are obscure, but God forbid it should happen to you. After experiencing what I’ve gone through, you won’t think I’m crying wolf.
