UPDATE: Penny Arcade Smacks Down Shady PR Dude

[vansau]

Eh... it's a slow news day and Mike Krahulik is projecting like crazy in that follow up piece. Time to be the bigger man.

The guy sent some rude emails so now the vengeful internet will destroy his business and his life. Hopefully they'll back off before he ends up swinging from a ceiling beam somewhere, although I'm sure there are people out there who've blown this enough out of proportion that they'd think it was deserved.

The GoDaddy thing? That was good. That was the internet being a channel for a popular movement to take meaningful action directed at a big company that should have known better. This? This is just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored and he is an easy target.

No, I beg to differ. This is not "just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored." This is a guy who was took people's money and then was verbally abusive to them when asked for updates after he failed to deliver when he promised he would. Further investigation shows that he's a thief who would have continued to operate this way if he hadn't been caught.

This would have been news any day of the year.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I think you missed murder of the English language.

That died the second the internet was first thought of

But we've never had such a suspect before, especially one that will never wwebsite as on the Internet.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

This is just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored and he is an easy target.

A poor schmuck that committed multiple felonies; while GoDaddy is just supporting a criminally unconstitutional (and unenforcable) bill for their own corrupt agenda.

Perhaps you didn't read the multiple accounts of this guy breaking credit card legal requirements?

 

[Blind0bserver]

And they've swapped twitters again to @oceanstretagy. Can this guy spell?

@JDawgMadden It's a god sturdy product that works. It lets you rule at pew pew shooters.

@DarkMorgado Black list? I'm not black. Look at my picture idiot.

Yeah....

That's one of the fake ones that's popped up. They're still at @oceanstratagy

Damn...they've got a good impersonator then. Stratagy hasn't posted for hours now. Are we sure it's not him?

(And the original thread is locked from overuse I think? Can't get into it.)

I honestly don't know of this other account is a fake or not. Honestly, from the tweets coming out of it I can't tell of the writer is acting like too much of a raging jackass for it to be real or like enough of a jackass that someone jut can't make this kind of idiocy up.

Either way, LordKat has contacted that account offering to hear his side of the story on his show. Also, he's claiming that Pete Hines of Bethesda is one of his "bros" and "has his back". Take that for what you will.

I'm... I'm just going to sit back, bask in the afterglow of how absurd all of this is and just see how it all plays out...

 

[JenSeven]

This actually makes me wish LULSEC was still around, I think they could have some fun with this douche's website.

 

[Formica Archonis]

This actually makes me wish LULSEC was still around, I think they could have some fun with this douche's website.

His website's been revealed to be heavily plagiarized from other websites. Lulzsec couldn't possibly improve on such a testament to hubris.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I'll just leave this here


http://wwebsiteasontheinternet.com/

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I'll just leave this here


http://wwebsiteasontheinternet.com/

Holy shit, they got that one out quick.

Hilarious.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

People are review-bombing the n-controller causing bad publicity for the product this guy distributed, which doesn't really have much to do with him personally.

Hence update 4. And a number of us that have been pushing positive reviews of the Avenger.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see he finally got what was coming to him, but this might not have been the best course of action. Getting fired from the job and never working in the industry again is fine, but having death threats sent to him and his family is just uncalled for.

As Gabe said "It's out of his hands now".

Death threats just seem to be the equivalent of "hello" these days. I've had a few myself.

 

[vansau]

Eh... it's a slow news day and Mike Krahulik is projecting like crazy in that follow up piece. Time to be the bigger man.

The guy sent some rude emails so now the vengeful internet will destroy his business and his life. Hopefully they'll back off before he ends up swinging from a ceiling beam somewhere, although I'm sure there are people out there who've blown this enough out of proportion that they'd think it was deserved.

The GoDaddy thing? That was good. That was the internet being a channel for a popular movement to take meaningful action directed at a big company that should have known better. This? This is just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored and he is an easy target.

No, I beg to differ. This is not "just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored." This is a guy who was took people's money and then was verbally abusive to them when asked for updates after he failed to deliver when he promised he would. Further investigation shows that he's a thief who would have continued to operate this way if he hadn't been caught.

This would have been news any day of the year.

Actually vansau, thanks to the collective knee-jerk reaction that is the internet, the damage is being spread to other people who really don't deserve it. People are review-bombing the n-controller causing bad publicity for the product this guy distributed, which doesn't really have much to do with him personally. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see he finally got what was coming to him, but this might not have been the best course of action. Getting fired from the job and never working in the industry again is fine, but having death threats sent to him and his family is just uncalled for.

I wasn't endorsing those actions. I was responding to the claim that this was only happening/being reported on because it's a slow news day.

 

[Bostur]

He doesn't exactly seem like the most lovable person, but I can't help to feel that this kind of public lynching is over the top.

So he is probably a fraud, that seems to me to be more of a police job than a press job.

Having internet connections doesn't give one the right to administer personal judgement.

 

[JenSeven]

People keep forgetting that the nerds rule the internet.
People like Paul Christoforo can beat them up on the streets, but if they have anything on the internet (and who doesn't) the nerds can dig it up and make it public.
About half of a person's/company's reputation hangs on what they have on the internet, even more if their reputation/business depends on the internet.

So a LOT of people should learn not to piss off people, especially not nerds.

But I guess I can give better advice, just don't be a dick, online and offline.

 

[cthulhumythos]

while this has some fantastic flavors of comeuppance, and has been a very interesting read, i can't help but feel bad for everyone invovled. yeah the guy was an utter ass and in the wrong profession, but does he and his family deserve to be utterly ruined? sure n-control had made some bad decisions with who they hire, but does that warrant the review bombing and no doubt resulting massive drop in profit.

i don't no how this could've turned out better, but this retribution feels a bit disproportionate.

the internet has become scarily powerful if you ask me. enough to get people to lose their jobs. of course, they'd need to do something utterly ridiculous that probably warrants firing, but the idea that a mistake could haunt you via a simple google search is pretty intimidating. i think some redditor said this: "holy shit, we're the big brother" [paraphrased] which gave me pause.

anyhoo, interesting read, guy had it coming to him i s'pose, i just don't like it when bad things happen to people, even when they are dicks.

 

[tippy2k2]

From Penny-Arcade: "I will personally burn everything I.ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames."

...am I the only one who is just a smidge afraid of Mike at this point? : )

Samuel L. Jackson needs to give the "Bad-ass Mother Fucker" wallet to Mike at this point. Sorry Mr. Jackson, Mr. Krahulik now deserves the title.

 

[Snotnarok]

I honestly thought this was a past boss/client I worked for from the story, I'm surprised it wasn't actually these two and their office hooo the lies they spun.

 

[robert022614]

Come on this guy has an associates degree majoring in culinary arts. How the hell did he get the job in the first place?

 

[SmugFrog]

That Geico quote is AWESOME!

Which one is his real twitter?

"Paul Christoforo@oceanstretegy
@oceanstretagy @OceanStratagy time for me to go get some sleep. cant sleep until ive taken a hamspter apart with a staple remover"

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Eh... it's a slow news day and Mike Krahulik is projecting like crazy in that follow up piece. Time to be the bigger man.

The guy sent some rude emails so now the vengeful internet will destroy his business and his life. Hopefully they'll back off before he ends up swinging from a ceiling beam somewhere, although I'm sure there are people out there who've blown this enough out of proportion that they'd think it was deserved.

The GoDaddy thing? That was good. That was the internet being a channel for a popular movement to take meaningful action directed at a big company that should have known better. This? This is just some poor schmuck being persecuted because the internet was bored and he is an easy target.

Dude, did you read through his responses? I agree that the internet does tend to take things too far, but this man certainly doesn't deserve sympathy and he wasn't just being "rude". I read through all of this (Penny Arcade and the linked forum posts/blogs of other incidents) and it's pretty clear that this man is the dictionary definition of a scumbag. Identity theft, fraud, threats (From supposed customer service no less!), and possibly attempted thievery, as he charged a customers credit card when there was no clear indication of when their product would even ship, which is illegal.

And then as soon as he's caught, he sends half-assed apology emails. And no, I'm not just talking about the one at Penny Arcade, he did the same thing here [http://www.natesnetwork.com/Poor-customer-service].

This isn't just some random dude who had a bad day at work, he's a street thug that managed to con his way into the world of legitimate business. And now he's been caught red handed.

The only bad thing is that this has given bad press to an otherwise good product. One meant for DISABLED PEOPLE, no less.