Backfiring in a Big Way
Man buys hundreds of papers, but secret gets out
The Epic Adventures of Ceciliantas
Guy gets arrested. Guy's picture makes the front page of the local newspaper. Embarrassed, he buys every copy he can find, so people won't see it. Five or six hundred copies.
And then... the newspaper does another print run, of course... to meet the sudden demand.
And then... the story of his desperation to hide his arrest spreads wildly across the land, via the magic of the Internets! You're reading it right now, because technology is wonderful.
I can't say it's NEVER a good idea to try to cover up misdeeds. I'm sure it's working right now, for lots of wrongdoers we don't know about. (*cough* dubya *cough*.) But sometimes it's better just not to comment.
Consider the sad case of Ceciliantas. (If you haven't heard of him, that's good... He's just some Everquest player, and there's no reason you should have. Everquest is an online role-playing game. People play for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.)
The guy develops a "relationship" online, through the game, with a girl. (No, really, it actually was a girl.) So they're boyfriend and girlfriend -- but only in the game. In real life, they were both free to develop actual relationships with other human people. Ha ha ha! No, you know what I mean. They could... if they weren't big Everquest geeks. And if they actually KNEW other people.
Anyway, the bozo hits on this girl in the game who's actually a guy (don't ask) who's in a group the bozo has been harassing. (He's been harassing them because of his being such a bozo... he just can't help himself.) The girl-guy is vastly amused, conspires with the other members of the group to set him up, and they trap him "cheating" on his girlfriend.
Basically, the girl and Cecel... Celic... the bozo go into his room in a virtual inn in the game, and they kneel together atop the bed. (I don't think you can lie down in the game. Not that I'd know.) Then, he proceeds to babble on and on and on, spinning this involved little fantasy, while she says: nothing. Not a damn thing, really. Oblivious, happy and satisfied three minutes later, he thanks her and they leave.
The group busts him out in a message board they all frequent. And that would have been the end of it. But you already KNEW the guy is a bozo. He didn't just leave it alone... He had a fit. He denied it up and down. To his chagrin, screen shots started appearing... The more he denied it, the more people talked about it, mocked him, and spread the story. Now, his girlfriend has broken up with him, and he can't find any friends to play with online.
And, worst of all, the people in those dratted blogs just won't quit making fun of him. Damn them!
The Epic Adventures of Ceciliantas
Guy gets arrested. Guy's picture makes the front page of the local newspaper. Embarrassed, he buys every copy he can find, so people won't see it. Five or six hundred copies.
And then... the newspaper does another print run, of course... to meet the sudden demand.
And then... the story of his desperation to hide his arrest spreads wildly across the land, via the magic of the Internets! You're reading it right now, because technology is wonderful.
I can't say it's NEVER a good idea to try to cover up misdeeds. I'm sure it's working right now, for lots of wrongdoers we don't know about. (*cough* dubya *cough*.) But sometimes it's better just not to comment.
Consider the sad case of Ceciliantas. (If you haven't heard of him, that's good... He's just some Everquest player, and there's no reason you should have. Everquest is an online role-playing game. People play for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.)
The guy develops a "relationship" online, through the game, with a girl. (No, really, it actually was a girl.) So they're boyfriend and girlfriend -- but only in the game. In real life, they were both free to develop actual relationships with other human people. Ha ha ha! No, you know what I mean. They could... if they weren't big Everquest geeks. And if they actually KNEW other people.
Anyway, the bozo hits on this girl in the game who's actually a guy (don't ask) who's in a group the bozo has been harassing. (He's been harassing them because of his being such a bozo... he just can't help himself.) The girl-guy is vastly amused, conspires with the other members of the group to set him up, and they trap him "cheating" on his girlfriend.
Basically, the girl and Cecel... Celic... the bozo go into his room in a virtual inn in the game, and they kneel together atop the bed. (I don't think you can lie down in the game. Not that I'd know.) Then, he proceeds to babble on and on and on, spinning this involved little fantasy, while she says: nothing. Not a damn thing, really. Oblivious, happy and satisfied three minutes later, he thanks her and they leave.
The group busts him out in a message board they all frequent. And that would have been the end of it. But you already KNEW the guy is a bozo. He didn't just leave it alone... He had a fit. He denied it up and down. To his chagrin, screen shots started appearing... The more he denied it, the more people talked about it, mocked him, and spread the story. Now, his girlfriend has broken up with him, and he can't find any friends to play with online.
And, worst of all, the people in those dratted blogs just won't quit making fun of him. Damn them!
posted by annekat at
9:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home