Landon School Scandal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff it's silly to go through all this detective work to track down a poster who simply wants to remain anonymous. Besides there is no difference between a single poster who makes 50 posts and 50 individual posters from the same institution who work in conjunction with one another to accomplish the same purpose.

Come on Jeff lighten up and besides you're taking too much personal satisfaction from being a detective.

The difference is that one poster was pretending to be different people in order to inflame the situation.

[Anonymous]

Jeff's attempts to police the forum suffers from clear selection bias. Not very smart but nothing new here. This is DCUM after all --- very low expectations.

[Anonymous]

I think what he is doing is great! Keep up the good work, Jeff! I love your tracking this stuff down and letting us know what is going on. I, too, don't care a fig about Landon but am fascinated to find out about the sock-puppeting-for-hire business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff it's silly to go through all this detective work to track down a poster who simply wants to remain anonymous. Besides there is no difference between a single poster who makes 50 posts and 50 individual posters from the same institution who work in conjunction with one another to accomplish the same purpose.

Come on Jeff lighten up and besides you're taking too much personal satisfaction from being a detective.

The difference is that one poster was pretending to be different people in order to inflame the situation.

No, the difference is the presence of a paid poster who was getting paid to post as multiple people, likely with the intent to flame

[Anonymous]

Too bad the admin person picked a Landon thread on which to exert his authority. Pretty damaging to his credibility, in my opinion. So many other threads warrant intervention. I think the Landon supporters can take care of themselves. They take care of their own pretty well.

[Anonymous]

I disagree. Doesn't damage Jeff's cred at all. I wish he did more to police the BS.

What I wonder is this: Who would pay someone to attack Landon on these boards? A lot of people here seem to enjoy trashing Landon, but I can't imagine them paying someone else $5 per post to do it. (that's pretty good money by the way!)

So who would be behind it? My guess is it's the lawsuit plaintiff or his lawyers. Seems to me that Landon should subpoena the Texas troll for a depo as one of the first steps in its defense. If the plaintiff's lawyers were behind this, it could result in sanctions from the Maryland Bar.

[Anonymous]

9:33 you are silly

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Too bad the admin person picked a Landon thread on which to exert his authority. Pretty damaging to his credibility, in my opinion. So many other threads warrant intervention. I think the Landon supporters can take care of themselves. They take care of their own pretty well.

Every single post on this forum has a button that says "report". If you come across any thread that you believe warrants intervention, simply click that button and the "admin person" will review the thread.

When I hear people associated with schools complain about "haters", I always think they are exaggerating. Who really cares about schools with which you are not connected enough to hate them? But, then I see posts like this and have to concede that there is quite a bit of irrationality out there. Let's review exactly what is going on here:

1) Timothy Harrison files a $2 million lawsuit against Landon;
2) The law firm representing Harrison sends out a press release;
3) An anonymous poster posts a link to the press release here;
4) The same anonymous poster then returns and posts multiple messages drawing attention to past scandals that somehow involve Landon;
5) Someone then hires pinkcherrypie to post messages attacking Landon at $5 a pop (http://fiverr.com/pinkcherrypie);
6) Someone also hires fit2fight to also post messages attacking Landon at $5 a pop (http://fiverr.com/fit2fight);
7) I have evidence that at least three other individuals associated with fiverr.com have visited this thread, though I can't link them to specific posts;

Does this look like an attempt by an individual to "simply remain anonymous" as a previous poster suggested? Not to me. It looks like a reasonably well-funded attempt to generate bad publicity for Landon. I have no idea whether Mr. Harrison is connected to any of these posts, but it sure looks like an attempt to put heat on Landon in hope of generating a settlement.

As for credibility, I have a hard time understanding how discovering what can only be described as an organized conspiracy can damage my credibility, but be that as it may. I'll take the hit. But, I think the biggest damage to credibility has been suffered by Landon critics. Nobody will ever be able to post anything negative about Landon without there being suspicion that the poster is a paid troll. To make matters worse, people like the poster I am quoting are coming out of the woodwork to create the worst impression imaginable of Landon critics. Do you really think I should ignore a thread generated by sock puppets and paid trolls -- a thread that is a total abuse of DCUM -- simply because the target is a school you don't like? Talk about situational ethics.

[Anonymous]

Wow.

[Anonymous]

What about the posts that specifically call out doctors or lawyers? What about the posts that seemingly talk about child abuse? Why don't those warrant intervention?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:What about the posts that specifically call out doctors or lawyers? What about the posts that seemingly talk about child abuse? Why don't those warrant intervention?

Please start a thread in the Website Feedback forum with these questions rather than hijacking this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too bad the admin person picked a Landon thread on which to exert his authority. Pretty damaging to his credibility, in my opinion. So many other threads warrant intervention. I think the Landon supporters can take care of themselves. They take care of their own pretty well.

It has nothing to do with Jeff, his "authority" or his credibility.
For reasons only understood by your therapist, you hate Landon... whatever... you have a right to your opinion.
By stepping in, Jeff is "exerting authority" to maintain the integrity of the forum, not Landon. If this becomes a site full of paid trolls no one will want to visit and any opinions, advice, etc. will be suspect.
The fact it happened on a Landon thread is inconsequential. Just in the past few weeks, Jeff has shut down threads harmful to Beauvior and some doctor at Fairfax. I think he's pretty equal opportunity about these things.

[Anonymous]

Funny. I don't know anything about Landon other than what I have read ( pretty damaging), but I do think their defenders on this site are over the top.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Funny. I don't know anything about Landon other than what I have read ( pretty damaging), but I do think their defenders on this site are over the top.

Also, funny. Earlier in this thread you wrote, "I think the Landon supporters can take care of themselves. They take care of their own pretty well."

Now, you "don't know anything about Landon other than what I have read..."

So, should we assume that you are just talking out of your ass?

[Anonymous]

Cheers, Jeff . Reading about Landon certainly is an indication that supporters take care of their own. I think I spent too much time here this morning. Best wishes.