Fired

[Crazyace]

I no longer write for GotApex because they fired me. They fired me because I mentioned the fact that buliywyf Mike Stone copied an article from another web site during his review. I also complained that people should know whats going on, and voiced some opinions. For more information about the fraud, check out http://www.voodooextreme.com

You can contact me at [email protected]
They deleted my email and all access, without even formally telling me.



[Edited by Crazyace on 05-29-2001 at 05:49 PM]

[sbp]

from http://www.voodooextreme.com/#15836

"First of all, we would like to apologize to John Apps and Ianag, as upon further investigation, Mike Stone did appear to take some of the content from its Radeon VE review, and posted it as his own.

We have permanently removed the article in question and have let Mike go from Voodoo Extreme.

Again, we are very sorry for this and it will not happen again..."

[TheLoneGunman]

<scratch head>

I am confused...

<puzzled look>

[pennypinch]

Umm.....riiiiiiiiiight.

Could someone who knows what the hell the above means please state it in clear English?

[ironchef]

*chef steps out and taps his foot on the ice*
hmmm, looks kinda thin, but i'll see what i can add here..

Yesterday evening, Crazy posted some information regarding the brouhaha (god, i hate that word) happening over at Voodoo Extreme with Buliwyf's review of the Radeon VE(?). I'll be candid and say it was a little too flippant of a post by Crazy. I'll not go into details cause I haven't spoken with the rest of G|A? gang about it, but it's probably sufficient to say that it's a screwy situation, hence the quiet coming from my higher-ups.

What exactly happened with Crazy is still unknown to me, so I've been basically sitting on my hands waiting to hear. I'm assuming that's what LPM was speaking of on the front page this morning, so hopefully some info is on the way.

[LPMiller]

To an extent, yes. More will be said when we get a handle on everything. Things got goofy, out of hand, and we were rather were blindsided on about 200 fronts. Let us catch our breath a bit.

[Crazyace]

I dont want be a jerk or nothing, but Ironchef you really need to stay out of it, you really dont know what went on, and further more I dont appriciate your opinions about the post.

This is what happend.
I posted news updating the status of a review written by voodooextreme (mike buliwyf). I simply stated that he needed some support. Those are exact words. I DID NOT state an opinion on the matter.

The post was deleted. I questioned the deleting of the post (and voiced that I was unhappy about some things), and I was banned from the site/email accounts. A few hours later, I was told that my accounts were frozen.

During this, I spoke to a friend of the incident. He posted some stuff around the web, and bam, it was on some front pages that I was fired because of the post. I thought I was fired. I didn't know that I wasn't fired, because NOBODY spoke to me about delelting my access. NOBODY notified me of this. I DID tell my friend that I was fired. I told him exactly what I am telling you now. Later, LPMiller stated that I was fired because of "poor spelling and bad attitude" (at voodooextreme). He later, appologized for saying those statements, in which I accepted.

Sum things up, I thought I was fired because of posting news about Buliwyf that was negative, and because I voiced my opinion on some issues of general content on the site. Those issues do not need to be discussed. I wasn't actually fired, all of my accounts were just frozen, which they still are today. That is really it. Not really that big of a deal, but things just get outta control somtimes.

My thoughts? Well, I dont think Got/Apex should have deleted the post, I was trying to let the readers know about news, news around the web like always. I do not own the site, so it's not really my judgement call. I think they were just kinda sitting on it for a little bit to see the outcome before any type's of posts were made.

That's the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
Crazyace
[email protected]

[pennypinch]

Jesus, you're doing a pretty lousy job of garnering sympathy. Re-reading ironchef's post, I don't see anything expressing an opinion beyond calling your posts flippant (certainly not a new tally under your column). So chill the fuck out on that tip.

Furthermore, considering how non-sensical and rambling the above two posts have been, maybe it's a better idea that you not be an editor. Crikey!

I'm just waiting to hear the official (coherent) explanation from the GA crew.

Hey, here's a conundrum: how the hell do you make the vertical line character?! I've been trying to do it for a while now...

[m0j0]

Originally posted by pennypinch
Hey, here's a conundrum: how the hell do you make the vertical line character?! I've been trying to do it for a while now...

the pipe (|) is on the backslash key (\). so just shift+backslash

i use it all the time when i have to ps ax | grep netscape cuz it's hanging....lol

[pennypinch]

Thanks!

[IntegraTypeR]

i hope that someone can clarify things (eventually) b/c this whole matter has my head spinning

[Apex]

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....80#post1615680

Here's basically what's going on. I'll cut and paste it below, but reading the entire thread there might be helpful. I do take full responsibility for the 75 minutes between when CrazyAce's account was temporarily frozen and when I contacted him via email. In the intervening time, his friend took the opportunity to slander us on messageboards across the internet. Luckily, most people are intelligent enough to not believe that kind of stuff. Anyhow, here it is:

Here's as good a place as any to clear up any misinformation and misunderstandings.

First off, I spoke with CrazyAce at length tonight about what happened and we've cleared up many of the misunderstandings about what happened. I also offered to let him save face by posting here what really occurred, but he wanted to go to sleep because he has to get up early for work tomorrow.

We did NOT fire him today, and absolutely did not and would not fire anyone for posting a rumor. This afternoon, I received an email from someone on my staff about some issues CrazyAce had with GotApex in general and other staff. I asked them what this was about, and they responded that it was about the issue of plagiarism with respect to Mike. I decided to then temporarily stop CrazyAce's news and email access, so that I could read up on all of the pertinent information, as well as talk directly with CrazyAce and get his side of the story. This made the most sense with the information at hand. This was the first I had heard of the issue of VE and plagiarism.

Let me get this clear, right from the beginning. At the time I temporarily froze CrazyAce's account, the issue with Mike was still a largely unsubstantiated rumor. Regardless of whether or not it was a rumor however, obviously no one would get fired for posting once thing like this. I'm sure CrazyAce knew this, as I know him to be an obviously intelligent individual with a firm grasp of common sense.

Between the time I temporarily froze his account (4:52pm) to when I spoke with CrazyAce (6:17pm) was when RIPDOTCOM decided to post this misinformation all over the place.

Where does it stand now? I told CrazyAce basically what GotApex is doing with news and what we are trying to accomplish, sitewide. I told him that it would be his decision whether or not he wanted to post news for us. He said he did not think he would have as much fun posting with so many rules, but would consider it and get back to me later. On our side, I take full responsibility for not having a news policy written up earlier. I know much of the misunderstanding could have been avoided if I had had this done.

We never tried "covering up the fact that Mike stone works for" us. Why? Mike posts news for us every week, week in and week out. Trying to cover this up would be stupid and futile. Besides we are not planning to cut ties with Mike. Yes, what he did was wrong. However, I can tell you that I've screwed up many MANY times in my life and could not and would not in good conscience axe someone for something like this.

I'm not going to touch the issue of "censorship" and deciding "what's news and what's not" because it is unnecessary. That has nothing to do with the situation with CrazyAce; it is a completely separate issue. I think most people are smart enough to realize that Brent is telling the truth about how media is handled in a business setting.

[Crazyace]

RIPDOTCOM is an excellent source for information across the inernet. He is perhaps one of the best if not the best source for any type of Socket7 tweak, and very credible.

What made both me and Rip a little ticked off was the fact that it seemed GotApex was hiding from this news, and did not want to involve themselves with it. They should have taken action just like VE. Who knows, has Buliwyf been stealing news posts? His credibility is destroyed, and will be for a long time.

Truth is, Buliwyf is a thief. It's proven. He committed one of the sacred rules of reviewing products. I would have to characterize what he did similar to Pete Rose and baseball. When you do such a thing, it is really never excusable in anyones eyes. Their is a certain line of tolerance, and copying someones review is just ridiculous.

Also ridiculous is trying to hide from the truth. I was informing GotApex readers of the news, nothing more. I was not taking sides. The hour or so in between freezing my email account and talking to Apex was just bad thinking. It also showed a lack of respect towards myself.I can let things go. I still enjoy writing news, and I do it for fun. Nothing more, just fun. And I also believe that I deliver original news, some of the best on the net.

Most of this was a misunderstanding I assume. But, their is one thing I cant let go. It's Apex's choice to keep Buliwyf. Anyways, the readers are most important to me. Any feedback would be appriciated.

[Edited by Crazyace on 05-30-2001 at 06:35 PM]

[TheLoneGunman]

I am not a big hardware hacker and tend to skip over that sort of news. I also have never read Voodoo Extreme except for that link that was posted and a brief skim of the other articles.

HOWEVER, what caught my attention was the comment about Pete Rose by CrazyAce

I would have to characterize what he did similar to Pete Rose and baseball. When you do such a thing, it is really never excusable in anyones eyes.

Pete Rose was NEVER shown to have bet on baseball in any situation where he had control about the outcome. He was simply a prolific better. This is the same thing you can say about Michael Jordan who regularly bets and loses LARGE sums.

Editorializing in the news is a serious problem. Look up William Randolph Hearst and the subject of "yellow journalism" The US went to WAR (the Spanish-American war) because the line between factual reporting and emotional editorialism was blurred. Sure, copying someone else's words over the performance of a piece of hardware is wrong, but I think turning the news section into biased editorials is at least as wrong.

We have a forum where people are free to post opinion (as we all are doing here). On the other hand, since only a select few can post "News" I feel it should be unbiased and factual. As soon as it ceases to be such, I feel the site loses credibility.

Just my $0.02

Kinda sorry if I raise a new ruckus (although m0j0 [and my mom] think I like kicking up a mess)

[LPMiller]

don't confuse the "news' page with NEWS. Don't do that with 99 percent of the sites out there. It's a big ass column with links.

[pennypinch]

Originally posted by LPM
don't confuse the "news' page with NEWS. Don't do that with 99 percent of the sites out there. It's a big ass column with links.

Ya damn right. It reminds me of that Daily Show ad, "Statistics show 70% of the American population get their news from late night talk shows like us. Our message to you: STOP IT! WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING!!"

While I'd like to credit the G|A crew with a little more competance, we're not talking about goddamn CNN here, folks. It's merely interesting stuff and links to reviews. They have no responsibility to be even-handed or even reverent.

That said, Crazyace, you're grammer is appalling.

[psycho-]

Originally posted by pennypinch


Ya damn right. It reminds me of that Daily Show ad, "Statistics show 70% of the American population get their news from late night talk shows like us. Our message to you: STOP IT! WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING!!"

Hehehe, I remember that show. Daily Show is great stuff!

While I'd like to credit the G|A crew with a little more competance, we're not talking about goddamn CNN here, folks. It's merely interesting stuff and links to reviews. They have no responsibility to be even-handed or even reverent.

I'm sure you love my pointless posts. But, that fact aside, I'm sure most of my news is pretty irrelevant to most people

That said, Crazyace, you're grammer is appalling. [/B]

AMEN, but I bet you meant "your", not "you're"
(Though I got chewed out by him for correcting his spelling)

[Edited by psycho- on 05-31-2001 at 11:54 AM]

[pennypinch]

Reverent, psycho-. Not relevant.

[psycho-]

Originally posted by pennypinch
Reverent, psycho-. Not relevant.

Yah, I'm random..I'm talking about something else. I got ya though.

[Crazyace]

sorry man, but I really have better things to do then rash on people about their grammer. it's content that matters. really, get a life.