Smoking blunder – 2
More from Linoge and Miguel, both of which win the SayUncle 2012 Gun Blog of the Year Award today. I know, it’s early but never fear. Tomorrow, I’ll give out more SU12GBOTYAs as I see fit! I need a badge. Something with a stolen copyright that they can put on their sites.
And I am far from howling mad. Just mildly annoyed.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:07 am
We can be cranky together.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:17 am
Yeah, well I’m waiting until next week to get the 2013 Gunblog of the Year.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:27 am
I nominate them for the 2012 Gunmart Blog of the Year Award. This award goes to the blog that shows it hasn’t learned what happens when you mess with Breda.
February 22nd, 2012 at 11:57 am
It’s funny, he came into my blog last night acting like I was mad and upset only at the fact he’s making profiles.
Ok, you’re making profiles, you’re doing some shady shit there with them, but you’re making them. What really irks me about him making profiles though isn’t that someone’s doing it, it’s that he’s doing it to a bunch of bloggers after berating and insulting them.
He is trying to claim he’s the equivalent of a fair and impartial review site, yet he biased the whole damn thing from the get go. Not to mention their “generated profiles” are noted in fine print that is placed in a specific manner so that skimming a page will render it unnoticed, and even then the fact they’re generated isn’t noted in the search listing.
Maybe Robb can make a graphic you can “steal”?
February 22nd, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Like Barron said, they’re going far beyond just “creating profiles” If you go to the site and are not a “member” the immediate implication is that Oleg, Breda, Caleb and all the other bloggers they have listed are “active members.”
They imply that bloggers signed up for the site, created profiles with their links and pictures attached, and are actively using (and endorsing) Smoke and Thunder.com when nothing could be further from the truth.
Frankly, when you have to make profiles with other people’s personal information in order to make your site look “hip” “cool” or “popular” you’re doing it wrong.
February 22nd, 2012 at 12:39 pm
“Knucklehead”…er, Bubblehead Les here. Now something tells me that someone is thinking that they are Smarter than they are, and they think they can get away with it. I remind them that there was that case about a year ago where some outfit was claiming that “Fair Usage” didn’t apply, and was suing newspapers left and right . I believe that a Federal Judge shut them down hard.
Also, don’t they realize just who they are messing with? My God, you are talking about messing with people who have Alan Gura’s and Alan Gottlieb’s Private Phone Numbers on Speed Dial!
Right now, I think they can get Busted for Identity Theft, or have to pay out a Big Chunk Of Lawyers Fees to defend themselves in Court.
And they claim that they plan on reshaping the Gun Blogging World into a Billion Dollar Industry like Yelp, so their Public Pronouncement says they’re in it for the Money.
Nothing wrong with making some Bucks, but one isn’t allowed to do so by Shaking Down the Competition.
And THEN they are Ragging Facebook and Twitter. Boy, wait until those guys Lawyers hear about this.
I’m getting some Soda for the Popcorn. Anybody need anything?
February 22nd, 2012 at 12:43 pm
I’ll take a cold IPA Les. I’ll be happy to see these fools take a beating.
February 22nd, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Cold IPA indeed.. remind me to NEVER, EVER get crossways with gunbloggers.
February 22nd, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Tango is taking that motherfucker to task in the comment section http://smokeandthunder.com/cranky-blogger/
February 22nd, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Too late, SGB. I already gave it to myself.
February 22nd, 2012 at 2:48 pm
I look at the action of creating “placeholder profiles” in the very same way that I look down on Stolen Valor.
The bloggers that I follow do something FOR the gun community, they don’t take FROM the gun community.
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Very well said North. I was going to say something similar. I don’t have a clue about what is legal in terms of fair use and creating profiles, but at the very least it is not morally upstanding. If one feels they have a good product or service, why not stand on that alone and not try to build himself up, by bring others down and if all of these gun bloggers are so awful, why on earth do you feel the need to “use” their names to gain credibility. Just do your thing and if it is good, it will thrive. I wrote a little letter once talking about the gun community and who they are, the kind of character they posses…I don’t think this gentleman has it.
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:32 pm
This isn’t about “fair use” no matter how many times S&T tries to make it the focus of the argument.
See, I don’t give a crap about fair use. Have at it, debate the issue until you’re blue in the face. What bothers me (and should you, too) is that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of S&T, let alone an “active member” – because I would never voluntarily be associated with any site like S&T. I have long been against any site that gives even the slightest indication attempting to take advantage of bloggers’ hard work for personal gain. Many of these sites get a pass from the gun community because they are somewhat gun-related or tangentially connected to gunbloggers.
But because the 2A community is more visible than ever, these predatory and parasitic attempts will happen with increasing regularity and will become even more despicable. So where is your line for getting used?
Hell, I don’t even BLOG anymore – want to guess as to one of the reasons why? – which makes S&T even more laughably ignorant and desperately obvious. He’s never been one of us and now…he never will be.
Knowing your enemy is rule one – and this guy’s picked the wrong battle. If bloggers can help expose and bring down Fast & Furious, Michael of S&T should be a walk in the park.
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Along the lines of what Breda said, if they continues with this “business model” they’ll eventually piss off someone who’ll then dig up all kinds of personal info on S&T folks and plaster it all over the internet.
I’ve seen it happen before, and while I don’t condone it, if they run around doing this shit and acting like collosal dicks to everyone eventually someone will expose them in very unflattering ways and post information they’d probably not want posted. It’s karma.
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:49 pm
mike w. – Already done, I’m sure.
Ace in the hole, and all.
February 22nd, 2012 at 5:01 pm
As breda says, this is not about “fair use” (although Blunder’s legal exposition of fair use is crap). This is about claiming that other people are “members” or endorse his site when that isn’t true. That’s actionable under state tort law and Federal Lanham Act section 43.
February 22nd, 2012 at 5:50 pm
And using Caleb for a bogus “profile”? That’s really a dumb idea, as Caleb has a great argument regarding the value of his image given his tv celebrity status. Easier to quantify damages there.