Awesome new author for George R. R. Martin fans

[sologdin]

hat would have been really funny (more, perhaps, that this thread has already generated) was if people around here reacted with implied-sarcastic praise and kept the ruse going for a while. Who would know what gems KurtR would have posted? How many s

genius. a counter-art against the socks.

[MinDonner]

Truly, I would have thought that ANYONE knows it's bad form to pose as a "fan" and try to sell your own wares with fake recommendations; it's not just an arcane internet-etiquette thing, it's a grown-adults-functioning-in-society thing. The fact that Kurt had already assembled his sockpuppet army replete with multiple different accounts on Goodreads for the purpose suggests that this isn't just a blunder but an active attempt at deception. No sympathy here whatsoever. Thus perish all con-artists!

[all swedes are racist]

....

and I always have the sneaking suspicion that many of you other board members dont actually use their own name or even species when posting.

Is that a hint of.... animus envy I'm detecting there, tree?

[sologdin]

didn't we learn from rothfuss that articulate trees are in fire with hate?

[Larry of the Lawn]

Ok, so next time so there's a sockpuppet we all play along and take the bait: hook, line, and sinker, and grab some shovels and help the author start digging.

@HE, the author could still waltz back in here and own this thing, post a slow clap or some crazy stunt, and totally redeem himself. Or better yet he could return as the true Mike Miller, totally on fire with hate.

[Maltaran]

Is animus envy something to do with Assassin's Creed?

[Lupigis]

Honest question: does the welcoming message to new members make it clear that KurtRs behaviour is discouraged?

I ask because I honestly feel for the guy. He made blunder that just happens to be seen as a major offence on this board. But he cant knowthe morality of anonymity on the Internet is unclear at best, and I always have the sneaking suspicion that many of you other board members dont actually use their own name or even species when posting.

Honest answer:

I agree that the question of the morality of anonymity on the internet in general is quite unclear and hotly debated. But that is not true about the specific type of anonymous behaviour being mocked in this thread. In fact, I can't think of one single situation, on the internet or off it, where sock-puppetry is not frowned upon. Pretending to be an impartial consumer endorsing a product, when you are in fact the person manufacturing and selling this same product is generally regarded as unethical. Can you think of a counterexample, in any domain?

Hence, if you engage in this behaviour, you have yourself to blame for being mocked.

[all swedes are racist]

Is animus envy something to do with Assassin's Creed?

Isn't it the name of a Harry Potter character?

[MaybeMike]

Talk about hook, line, and sinker. Y'all've had me laughing my ass off. Mike Miller is a Stanek wannabe that spams every list with his drivel and 5 stars himself with obvious sockpuppets all over goodreads (and no I don't feel bad about my prank - he deserves it). I just wanted to pull one on you guys and y'all didn't disappoint. I only hate that peterbound didn't jump in on the action but I guess he's deployed or whatever. I was going to let it go on for a while but the fun's sort of sizzled. Oh well. Happy Thanksgiving everyone and remember, buy my......I mean his books.

[all swedes are racist]

Hahahahahaha holy shit no way

This just gets better and better!

[Lupigis]

Talk about hook, line, and sinker. Y'all've had me laughing my ass off. Mike Miller is a Stanek wannabe that spams every list with his drivel and 5 stars himself with obvious sockpuppets all over goodreads (and no I don't feel bad about my prank - he deserves it). I just wanted to pull one on you guys and y'all didn't disappoint. I only hate that peterbound didn't jump in on the action but I guess he's deployed or whatever. I was going to let it go on for a while but the fun's sort of sizzled. Oh well. Happy Thanksgiving everyone and remember, buy my......I mean his books.

Wow! The I'm a real author -> He's a real author -> It was all just a joke revisionism is guaranteed to turn this thread into a minor board legend!

[MaybeMike]

I was going to go with jealous guy dating Mike's ex-, ex- finds account and outs jealous guy, he's really a great guy and doesn't deserve it........but the work is becoming too much.

[MinDonner]

:lol: I haven't been this excited about a big reveal since the Lies of Locke Lamora!

Well played, ser.

[Ixodes]

This twist is like one in Lies of Locke Lamora.

ETA: Dammit, Min beat me to it.

[3CityApache]

Oh boy. I want more! It's really going to be a legend around here.

[Lady Winter Rose]

Honest answer:

I agree that the question of the morality of anonymity on the internet in general is quite unclear and hotly debated. But that is not true about the specific type of anonymous behaviour being mocked in this thread. In fact, I can't think of one single situation, on the internet or off it, where sock-puppetry is not frowned upon. Pretending to be an impartial consumer endorsing a product, when you are in fact the person manufacturing and selling this same product is generally regarded as unethical. Can you think of a counterexample, in any domain?

Hence, if you engage in this behaviour, you have yourself to blame for being mocked.

Honest addition - this mockery is still disgusting, IMO, sorry.

[kuenjato]

I was going to go with jealous guy dating Mike's ex-, ex- finds account and outs jealous guy, he's really a great guy and doesn't deserve it........but the work is becoming too much.

Slow clap. You're content was suspected pretty early (see post #4 on this thread) but remained pretty damn hilarious too. The editing I-to-He after several people had quoted it was brilliant.

After catching up on the thread last night, I mused on it and decided to write a short story from the pov of an author reduced to sockpuppets and astroturf. Not sure what to call it yet.

Edit: LWR, fraud is disgusting, mockery the natural retort. If not for board standards & practices, there would be more of this crap, clogging up lit.

[Happy Ent]

The seamless transition of agonies—from the Himalaya’s of the 1950 to now... The pain of an injured ego, lost face, meaning contorted by the wrong distribution of his words. At first Mike didn’t realize he was awake. It merely seemed that Fitzsimmon’s face had transformed into the inhumanly beautiful face of David Bowie.

“Ah, Mike,” Bowie said, “it’s good to see you seeing—things in this world at least. For some time we feared you wouldn’t awaken at all. You were very nearly killed, you know. The board was in such a turmoil... Sarcasm, attempts a wit, meta-irony—simply because of your stubbornness. How Stanek must howl in the Outside. All his poor books.”

Mike was gagged, naked, and chained, wrists above his head and ankle to ankle, so that he hung suspended over a great mosaic floor. The chamber was vaulted, but he couldn’t see the ceiling’s peak, nor could he see the terminus of the walls that framed the silk-gowned entourage before him. The surrounding spaces were lost in gloom. Three glowering tripods provided light, and only he, hanging in the confluence of their circles of illumination, was bright.

“Ah yes...” Bowie continued, watching him with a thin smile. “This place. It’s always good to have a sense of one’s prison, no? An old IP Board instance, by the looks of it. PHP on top of SQL, I suppose.”

Suddenly he understood.

The Westerosi Literature forum! I’m dead... I’m dead.

Tears welled down his cheeks. His body, beaten, numb from hanging betrayed him, and he felt the rush of urine and bowel along his naked legs heard mud slap across the mosaic serpents at his feet.

Nooo! This can’t be happening!

Bowie laughed, a thin, wicked thing. “And now,” he said, his tone jnanic and droll, “some moderator also howls.”

There was uneasy laughter from his retinue.

Seized by animal panic, Mike writhed against his chains, hacked against the cloth in his throat. Spasms struck and he went limp. He swung in small circles, punished by wave after wave of pain.

Yeti...

“There’s much certainty here,” Bowie said, holding a kerchief to his face, “don’t you think, Mike? You know why you’ve been taken. And you also know the inevitable outcome. We’ll ply you with our wit, and you, conditioned by years of toiling as an unknown author, will be unable to lose face and come clear. Your budding authorship will wither and die, and your biggest impact on the world will be this thread. This is the way that it’s supposed to happen, no?”

Mike simply stared in blank horror, an anguished pendulum slowly swinging to and fro, to and fro...

What Bowie said was true. This had happened to Stanek and ruined the careers of Bakker.

Think, Mike, think! Please–please–dear-God–you-must–think!

“But here,” Bowie was saying, “in these tumultuous times, the past need not be our tyrant. Here, your torment, your literary death, isn’t assured... Here, nothing is for certain.”

Bowie walked from the others—five graceful, measured steps—and came to a stop very near to Mike.

“To prove this to you, I’ll have your gag removed. I’ll actually let you speak, rather than ply you, as we have your fellow self-promoting authors in the past, with endless Mockery. But I warn you, Mike, it will be fruitless to try to assail us.” He produced a slender hand from the cuff of his glyph-embroidered sleeve, gestured to the mosaic floor.

Mike saw a broad circle, painted in red, across the stylized animals of the mosaic floor: the representation of a sockpuppet scaled by pictograms and devouring its own tail.

“As you can see,” Bowie said mildly, “you’re chained above a Uroborian Circle... To even begin a creating another account will invite immeasurable pain, I assure you. I’ve witnessed it before.”

The Literature board of Westeros, it seemed, possessed many potent poetic devices.

[Lady Winter Rose]

Edit: LWR, fraud is disgusting, mockery the natural retort. If not for board standards & practices, there would be more of this crap, clogging up lit.

So mockery is natural retort? You know shitting is natural, just like it's lion eating little lions is natural, but combing your hair is not?

Sorry, but I feel disgusted by this mockery (which I said repeatedly), and I find no excuses for it. If you find offended because someone try to trick you, why do you give that man attention? You could just ignore him.

[MinDonner]

And if you are offended by mockery, you, also, are free to ignore it.