Chapter Eight - Msscribe Survives Challenges
The Ms.Scribe Story
An Unauthorized Fandom Biography
Msscribe Survives Challenges
March 2004 - Msscribe and the Former GTers
On March 1, 2004, Sporkify found a golden opportunity -- a chance to mock the former GTers, get attention for Msscribe, and give a little publicity to a fic Msscribe's friend Lissanne had written (though, from everything I've heard, Lissanne would have preferred to avoid the controversy). I'll quote his wank report:
Well "Fuck me", it's Harry Potter Wank!
lissinthecity writes a Harry/Ginny NC17 fic and posts it to a shipping site called Checkmated. In the smutlet, the phrase "Fuck me" is uttered.
It seems that some former GT'rs take issue and start leaving a few bad reviews. tartanboxers leaves the following review:
L said in his/her review: "I'm a H/G fan and find this story very dissapointing. Both Harry and Ginny are out of character.
I really hate it when people write smut for the sake of smut, without devoting any effort in developing the relationship or the characters themselves."
Unfortunately I have to agree with this assessment. It's a personal pet peeve of mine, perhaps, but I could never, ever see any of the HP characters using the word "fuck" in a million years, and using terms like that just cheapens the sex. I want a relationship along with my smut.
It doesn't end there. This phrase bugged tartanboxers so much that she felt the need to post a poll about it in her livejournal.
Here's where things get interesting. msscribe, a friend of lissinthecity takes off the gloves and decides to go on the offensive. Our favorite reply of hers to an annoyed poster who agrees with tartanboxers:
"My God, you should be paying your Betas"
We see posts from ivyblossom, ataniell93, to name a few. It's bound to get even wankier.
Wankity, wank, wank, wank.
ETA: The poll is now locked but you can see what was saved by ladylisse here. Even though it's locked, ladymaidmarian can't help herself from getting in on the wank.
ETA: You know it's a wank when they bring epicyclical and heidi8 into the game.
It's going to be a fun day in the fandom my friends.
I have to admit that this is a good wank report -- informative and lively, with comprehensive links, and the grudge mostly hidden. It was good luck for Msscribe that she caught tartanboxers behaving in a way that generally fit the negative stereotype of GT. Because of her friendship with Lissanne, the fic's author, Msscribe had a perfect excuse to waltz into this former GT Queen's LJ and give her some helpful advice about her sex life:
Tartanboxers: I know I don't do that in my marriage, and I don't have a perfect sugar-coated romance.
Msscribe: Pity that. You should try it. I bet your husband would jump up and down with glee if you said that to him.
She then had the fun of watching tartanboxers and her ex-GT friends boil with rage at their most hated enemy's effrontery, making the GTers look emotional and oversensitive to anyone who didn't know what was setting them off, and of posting about it on Fandom_Wank, admiringly quoting her own snark. It was also a chance for her to pursue the strategy of painting Imogen and her crowd as the villains while making (comparatively) nice with Tartanboxers and her crowd. One of her comments:
I certainly don't consider Anne my enemy. I thought Imogen was a complete cunt who I knew would end up screwing you all over, but thats a different matter.
"Anne" is Tartanboxers.
Msscribe was taking a risk that someone would bring up the old charges -- or perhaps she wanted them to? Anyway, it appears that she actually precipitated that herself. GTer starbuckx decided to post a rant about Msscribe in her own journal, with side swipes at Heidi and Cassandra Claire for good measure. Since tartanboxers had locked her post by this time, Starbuckx posted a link to her rant post as a reply to Msscribe, so she would get the email. Starbuckx quickly received a comment on her post, not from Msscribe, but from an anonymous commenter attacking Msscribe with the shocking charge of being a Harry/Hermione shipper:
I took a look at the wench's user info page...
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=msscribe
and found it rather interesting reading. Especially the fact that she's apparently a Harry/Hermione shipper (judging from her membership in thepumpkinpie, among other tidbits). Hmmm. Perhaps this can be pegged as yet another example of the irrational hatred that some opponents of the Harry/Ginny ship seem to have for H/G fans. Perhaps not. Something to think about, though, eh?
In any event, doesn't LiveJournal have some sort of policy against using one's LJ account to "deliberately and maliciously provoke other members with the intent to harass and otherwise cause harm," or something to that effect? Has Anne considered reporting the little brat for harassment?
The contentious discussion continued on Starbuckx's LJ, until Starbuckx compared IPs with Tartanboxers and discovered that the anon who had attacked Msscribe in the first comment seemed to be Msscribe herself! It seems she wanted to turn the dispute to ships, something the GTers were clearly trying to avoid. Starbuckx then responded to the anonymous comment:
The wonders of IP tracing ...
Is that when you compare the IP with a friend .....you realize this first post was actually made by msscribe's nanny! Or, her long lost cousin Fredo ...or maybe another distant relative of hers ..because, of course ...it couldn't be her!
This salvo from Starbuckx led to a skirmish that didn't do any good in terms of shaking anyone's trust in Msscribe and, in fact, probably did further harm to the reputation of the former-GTers. But from my point of view, as a historian recording Msscribe's story, it was a gold mine. Here is a screen cap of Msscribe's response, with her Livejournal now showing up as dejaspirit:
I was going to ignore you completely, because, well, you have the right to think whatever the hell you want to think but I had to call you on this one because you're lying your ass off and you know it.
Second, do you have any idea what happened last year? Clarabella wasn't just my Nanny, you misinformed cunt, she was the person who had to help me get dressed every morning because the entire right side of my body was too weak to do it. She was the person who had to take care of my infant daughter because I couldn't do it. I was in a serious car accident that caused a near fatal head injury and I started reading and writing in this fandom as a way to recover. I wrote a dirty story. I got stalked by a former online friend who we KNEW was communicating with Imogen. Clara decided to lurk on your message boards. She LIVED with me, you fucktard.
1. She flamed NO ONE.
2. She stalked NO ONE.
She was my friend. But yet, you people acted as if she had commited some act of treason and went after her so I defended her. Oh, and we took him to court, btw. He was expelled from school. Did you know that? This is why I'm good friends with a couple of fandom lawyers, asswipe.
And as for crossing lines, would any of you like to own up to bein gthe one who sent the anonymous letter to my employer linking them to my online activities. I have a couple of return postage stamps that I could have publically posted, but because I wouldn't want to point the finger at someone who is innocent (there is a lesson to be learned there...) I didn't.
So fuck you. You want to make jokes about my "Nanny", go right ahead.
As for what I said to Carrie? I never insulted her personally.
You're a twat. (See, now that was a personal insult)
I engaged in a debate with her and she replied with a "HOW DARE YOU!" response and I insulted her writing.
Big. Fucking. Deal.
And you know what tartanboxers, I didn't flame you once and you fucking know it. I thought we were engaging in witty banter, but I forgot the lesson that you can only engage with those who actually have wit.
As for watching her journal? Well, she's posted in a random entry of mine. I think it was about Howard Dean. How soon we forget those things....
And I don't believe for a minute that you didn't intend to go after Lissanne.
As for you, starbuckx ,whoever the fuck you are, I'm not going anywhere.
You think you people actually have any relevance to my life whatsoever?
*reapplies makeup*
Hardly, dear. Now please continue. You amuse me to no end.
There is so much material in this passionate diatribe that I will have to take it bit by bit:
Clarabella wasn't just my Nanny, you misinformed cunt, she was the person who had to help me get dressed every morning because the entire right side of my body was too weak to do it. She was the person who had to take care of my infant daughter because I couldn't do it. I was in a serious car accident that caused a near fatal head injury and I started reading and writing in this fandom as a way to recover.
Msscribe tends to make this same appeal for sympathy -- telling the story about writing fanfiction as therapy for her head injury -- every time she is challenged. This is a particularly extreme example.
I do wonder what happened to Msscribe's infant daughter on the four days per week that Clarabella wasn't there to take care of her.
I got stalked by a former online friend who we KNEW was communicating with Imogen.
This is the first hint I've seen that "Louis" was ever a friend of Msscribe's. In his first appearances flaming her fics at Portkey and leaving anonymous insults on her Live Journal, he certainly didn't appear to be a friend. And Msscribe seems to have forgotten that Clarabella had already publicly confessed that the email to Imogen was from her, and that was taken as a given in analyses such as zorac's. This shows that she was not targeting her comment to the GTers, who certainly wouldn't have forgotten that, but to whomever else might be reading.
Clara decided to lurk on your message boards.
And to post on them, using six different identities, as she publicly admitted.
She LIVED with me, you fucktard.
I already pointed out in Chapter Six the conflicts between Msscribe's varying stories about where Clarabella lived.
you people acted as if she had commited some act of treason and went after her so I defended her.
Actually, it was the other way around. "Clara" voluntarily contacted GT and voluntarily confessed her sins to defend Msscribe from suspicion, not the other way around.
Oh, and we took him to court, btw. He was expelled from school. Did you know that?
It is hard to "know" things, when the story changes so often.
If Msscribe "took him to court" or he was prosecuted and received "probation" from a judge -- wouldn't there be court records of that? Aren't all court cases a matter of public record? Where are the court records for the case of State of Delaware (or Ohio) v Louis Movello?
This is why I'm good friends with a couple of fandom lawyers, asswipe.
This is a little rhetorical trick. To any casual fandom observer, it might sound like "fandom lawyers" such as Heidi and Praetorianguard actually saw a police report, attended a court session, or otherwise could testify to the existence of Fermatojam. Msscribe didn't actually claim they could -- she just implied it.
And as for crossing lines, would any of you like to own up to bein gthe one who sent the anonymous letter to my employer linking them to my online activities. I have a couple of return postage stamps that I could have publically posted, but because I wouldn't want to point the finger at someone who is innocent (there is a lesson to be learned there...) I didn't.
Just the stamps? What about the envelopes? Please, Msscribe, do go ahead and post them. It would make them seem much more real.
Again, she implied that the letters came from GT, but did not actually state it.
Tartanboxers riposted:
I got stalked by a former online friend who we KNEW was communicating with Imogen.
You seem to know a hell of a lot without having any solid facts to go on. The Fermatojam who posted on GT and emailed Imogen was the same person who was posting as Clarabella. So unless you're saying Clarabella was also your stalker, as well as your dear friend and nanny, Imogen was never in communication with the real Fermatojam. If he ever existed.
...For the record, I dont' believe Clarabella ever existed. How could she live with you and be a student at a university in NJ?
Msscribe responded:
"I don't believe Clarabella ever existed."
HAHAHAHHAAAA!~!!!!! OMG!!!! So like, Nanea, and all of those people who talked to her on the phone, the couple of people at portkey who have MET HER were just making her up. And New Jersey is 15 minutes away from my house, just so you know.
And to think, I was actually beginning to believe that Imogen was the real cunt and you all were just being blinded by her.
All what people who talked to her on the phone? Names please. And people at Portkey who met her? After much diligent searching, I can't find anything about that at Portkey, most especially not on this thread, where Msscribe mentioned having met Clarabella, and no one said "so have I." Who are these people? The only one named, Nanea, is infinitus, who is sadly no longer among us (if she ever was).
And to think, I was actually beginning to believe that Imogen was the real cunt and you all were just being blinded by her.
Again, Msscribe offers to limit her emnity to Imogen. This is clearly not intended for the GT people, who perfectly well knew that Imogen had had nothing to do with convincing them that Msscribe was Fermatojam and Pottersginny. Only a complete outsider could possibly believe that Imogen was some kind of Machiavellian manipulator, hiding her Nutty Christian co-conspirators from her fellow admins, while fooling them with cleverly photoshopped or spoofed IPs framing Msscribe. Actually, I don't see how anyone could believe that.
This thread had a lot more goodies. My favorite is this classic Nixonian line from Msscribe:
I'm not a liar.
In Msscribe's own words... HAHAHAHHAAAA!~!!!!!
But the thread had other interesting comments, as well. ari_o posted twice in Msscribe's defense:
You actually have the details of that story incorrect. fermatojam is/was a real guy. I have his name and address and IP tucked away somewhere because I was in charge of Nimbus Security. He was a very real stalker who hacked into Ms.Scribe's computer.
and
Oh right - because it is impossible to fake an IP.
It is easy to understand why ari_o, who seems to have had "Louis's" IP since the first day of Fermatojam's LJ appearance and who probably wasted a lot of time screening registrants to ensure he didn't show up at Nimbus, would have been convinced that "Louis Movello" was real. But if she had thought about it, she would have realized that it's even easier to come up with a fake name, address, and IP than it is to spoof or photoshop an IP, not to mention two dozen of them.
Here is another fascinating exchange from Starbuckx's post, which would lead to further consequences:
Msscribe:Okay. Triple dog DARE you to let an impartial party log in under your LJ and view the IPS.
Liar, liar, liar.
Ladymaidmarian: Impartial Party???
I'd love to see you find one in this fandom.
Heidi: Erm. Melissa of TLC? Steve VanderArk? Jeanna from the Dan Radcliffe site?
Just thoughts...
angua9 read this exchange, and soon afterward, on March 7th, she contacted Heidi. Since Fandom_Scruples had targeted her and the SQ admins, Angua again had a motivation to reveal the information she had compiled on Msscribe. And she thought Heidi was the best possible person -- if she were willing -- to untangle the Msscribe mess. Unlike the GTers, Angua had no particular bad feelings toward heidi8, who had always treated her civilly, and she respected Heidi's sense of responsibility. She knew that Heidi had shown herself a formidable investigator in the past, and that Msscribe obviously knew and trusted Heidi, and would have no excuse not to show her things like the police file, court records, hospital admission, and the envelopes that were supposedly sent to her boss and the newspaper reporter.
Angua realized that Msscribe's dare, while bold-sounding, was actually quite safe, since all the original posts except the ones at bohemianvixen's community -- in other words, all the posts that the GT admins could have given passwords for -- had since been deleted and irretrievably lost. But the ones at harry_and_ginny remained, and she assumed that some of the ex-GTers would still have copies of the emails, and screencaps of the lost posts, so investigation was still possible.
As she was considering whether she should approach Heidi, an opportunity arose.
March 2003 -- Msscribe and Sporkify
Heidi made this post (locked, but many of you can probably see it) on March 5th. On March 7th, Angua noticed it and commented, knowing all the while that Msscribe was likely to read what she wrote. Here is some of what she said (quoted with Angua9's permission):
...I suspect she's referring to the "new hatred," not the old hatred. In which case she would mean msscribe, who certainly is an FA mod
...Well, the last time they tried to tell people what they thought the problem was, you and praetorianguard quoted libel law at them in a threatening manner. I'm not surprised they're not eager to try again.
...They have been accused of harboring racists, homophobes, nutty Christians, etc., and people (including you?) BELIEVED it. They have been accused -- by you, I think -- of forging IP's to frame someone. They have been accused of writing letters to someone's boss and a newspaper. "Sporkify" Fandom Wanks them all the time. They think, and I believe they are right in thinking this, that "Sporkify" is, indeed, an FA Mod.
They're hurt and angry and traumatized. Sure, some of them are jerks and idiots who say and believe ridiculous things, but -- my God -- that's nothing new in this fandom.
Can you be calm and objective enough to engage them in meaningful discourse? I don't know. I don't know if it's worth it for you to even try. But there's a lot more going on than whatever lies or distortions Imogen may have said about you. A LOT more.
Angua says that Heidi responded to her, indicating that "Sporkify" couldn't be an FA mod because she asked them, and they all said no. I can't help thinking that Angua might have overestimated Heidi's investigative skills.
Angua responded (still quoting with her permission):
I came to a conclusion on my own as to who "Sporkify" is (from various circumstantial, stylistic and motivational evidence), and then I discovered that other people, including former-GTers and others, had come to the same conclusion. The person I suspect is definitely an FA Mod, but I don't know how close you are to that person, how much you talk to them, or whether you consider him or her to be a friend. The person is on your friends list, but you have a very large one. :p I definitely believe that you and your friends have been misled and manipulated by a very dishonest person among your... acquaintances at least, if not close friends.
Then, still knowing that Msscribe was almost certainly reading, she took it to email (still quoting with permission):
Couldn't handle this length restriction any more. Answered by e-mail, to your livejournal address.
On March 26th, 2004, Angua sent Heidi a lengthy email arguing that Msscribe was a sockpuppeteer who had created Clarabella, SarahKJames, Fermatojam, Killiganhashope, Pottersginny, Sporkify, and Fandom_Scruples, complete with many links and quotes. For myself, I am glad she wrote it, because it was one of my primary sources in researching and writing up this account, but that seems to be all the good it ever did. The first five times she sent it, Heidi said that she didn't receive it. The sixth time she sent it, on April 6th, Heidi acknowledged receipt and said she would have time to read it later. Angua never heard from her on the subject again.
In the email, Angua suggested that Heidi could ask Cassandra Claire to check the IP on the comment Fermatojam had left her and see if it fit with the IPs published by GT. She also suggested that Heidi could check the IPs of Msscribe, Clarabella, and SarahKJames at FictionAlley and on her own LJ. Her email ended as follows (quoted with Angua9's permission):
I also think that if Msscribe would cease her activities, the wank level in the Harry Potter fandom would go down about 40%. That it would, in fact, return to the level it had before spring of last year when she joined us and Fermatojam made his unforgettable appearance. I wish very, very, very much that she *would* cease her activities. There would be a lot less pain and anguish, and this fandom would have a better reputation. I'm taking the time and trouble to write this very long, boring post to you in hopes that maybe you can *make* her stop. That would be incredible!
But that's just what I *think*. I recognize that I might be wrong. Maybe you will be able to find evidence to show me that I'm wrong about Msscribe. Maybe you've met Clarabella personally, and talked to Msscribe's doctors, and talked to the chief of police and the president of Fermatojam's university. It could be. Anyway, you asked, and I answered. This is how I see things.
Angua emphasized to Heidi that she was in a position to clear Msscribe from these widespread suspicions if the accusations were false, and implied that she at least would accept Heidi's word as sufficient proof. But it seems that Heidi was not interested in pursuing that avenue.
[Much later edit: In this comment after angua9 posted the full text of her email to Heidi, praetorianguard, general counsel for Fiction Alley, said "And here's what the public didn't know: We didn't have to investigate Dionne as an FA mod because she had just told Heidi that she was going to resign from FA."]
On the other hand, Fandom_Scruples was quiet for quite a while after that, and those of us who were aware of the situation had the pleasure of watching Sporkify scramble to prove that he wasn't Msscribe.
On Mar. 2, 2004, ex-GTer metrocowboy had also made a post about Msscribe:
msscribe
Is a wanker.
That is all.
His friend starbuckx responded:
I don't know why ...but I think that
she's actually sporkify and she just fandom wanked herself!
God, that's needy.
Msscribe's friend irinaauthor then wrote the comment I linked to earlier:
You're mistaken. msscribe's journalfen name is karma_bitch, not sporkify.
Msscribe's friend muffinbutt responded as well, arguing that there was no reason to believe that Msscribe was Sporkify. Then, on Mar. 7, Angua wrote, "'Sporkify' is, indeed, an FA Mod," in a comment on Heidi's locked post and Heidi apparently asked everyone on the internal FA mailing list if they knew who Sporkify was.
Msscribe needed to establish that Sporkify wasn't one of the FA mods and, especially, that Sporkify wasn't Msscribe. The method she chose wasn't a complete success. On Mar. 11, Sporkify made his fifth and last Fandom_Wank post, reporting a dull little wank about a FictionAlley poster who whined in her own LJ about getting thwapped for a one-liner, and was answered by FA mods. In the post, unlike his previous wank reports, Sporkify offered several personal tidbits about himself:
Not sure how warnings and all that work at Fiction Alley
...because I'm definitely not a mod there!
The comments helped me kill half an hour or so of time I should have been spending on homework.
Because I'm a student, not a stay-at-home mom/aspiring novelist like Msscribe!
And in the comments:
Although, the comments even made my girlffriend laugh and she's totally not into fandom.
I have a girlfriend, not a husband, and thus am clearly not Msscribe!
But if Sporkify was Msscribe trying to show that she wasn't a FictionAlley mod, this comment by her friend slytherincess probably didn't please her:
You're right. It's not particularly wanky. Perhaps Sporkify thought so, because I mentioned it under a filtered post on LJ (which would mean, I would guess, that Sporkify is someone on my LJ f-list). I filtered it because even though it's my LJ and I have the right to bitch if I want to, I kind of felt that it would be inappropriate for me to discuss something that arose from FA business in a totally public forum.
Funny how the first filtered post I've ever made on my personal LJ is f_w'ed within two hours of my posting it. Gotta give props for chuztpah.
So, within two hours of making a post filtered to only those she trusted with FA business, slytherincess saw it posted on Fandom Wank. Sporkify hastened to clarify that of course he wasn't on Slytherincess's filter:
I just happened to find out about what happened through punurple and I'm not on your friends list, although I wouldn't object to it as I think you're pretty funny and straight on.
Slytherincess seemed to accept this story, but I find it unconvincing. punurple was a person with a friends-only LJ and only ten friends. punurple was also a friend and supporter of the original poster, minerva_fan, and the wank report slanted heavily against Minerva_fan. Morever, Minerva_fan and Punurple had done their ranting way back on March 6th. It wasn't until five days later -- March 11th -- that the FA mods found the post, responded, and discussed it on their own LJs, and that's when Sporkify reported it (within two hours).
Again I ask... what are the odds?
Msscribe just kept on trying to show that Sporkify wasn't her. She commented as Karma_bitch, as if she, like Slytherincess, was suspicious...
Question
Are you on my f-list? If you know my journalfen name, then you are.
...and reminding all her friends that they already knew what Msscribe's JournalFen identity was, and it certainly wasn't Sporkify! It had worked with Irina, after all.
Nor did Msscribe neglect her old favorite, the alibi. In this post in her own LJ later that day, she made a big deal about how she was driving home from Baltimore all day, and couldn't possibly have been posting Fandom_Wank entries as Sporkify:
"My apologies to my friends list. I spent the day driving from Baltimore after working all night along side my siblings. I actually pulled over and slept two hours at a rest stop on 95 because traffic was horrendous."
This alibi was rather undercut by the fact that Karma_bitch had made a comment at 1:52 that afternoon (22 minutes before Sporkify's post was made) on a Fandom_Wank post about Cassandra Claire. However, my ability to prove that is rather undercut by the fact that my source's carefully-preserved link to Karma_bitch's comment now leads to a page saying "Error, No such entry." As best I can recall, the Fandom_Wank post (#334184) mocked Cassandra Claire's fangirls for declaring that her Draco was way better than J.K. Rowling's Draco in the comments of this post . I have no idea what happened to the wank report -- I thought Fandom_Wank didn't delete!?
Msscribe's maneuvers to show that she wasn't Sporkify amused us, and apparently satisfied her friends. And then we enjoyed four months of relative peace.
June-August 2004 -- Msscribe and the POA IMAX
In early June of 2004, the Prisoner of Azkaban HP movie came out, and there was a FictionAlley/TLC-sponsored viewing at an IMAX theater in New York City. Msscribe attended, and published some photos of it in her Live Journal -- it looked like everyone had a wonderful time. At the same time, wahlee_98 and others from Fandom_Scruples' "Goldlist" (as well as quite a few people not on the list) congregated in Salt Lake City and watched the movie there. Then... nothing happened. Until August 15, 2004, when Fandom_Scruples decided to make a post, its first in six months. The post was entitled "BNF Roast." In it, Fandom_Scruples declared that he had also attended the POA IMAX event in New York and personally watched "BNF'S" behaving in a sinful and undignified way. The post was later edited, but here is a screencap of the original post, which I copied from this pdf file that someone ("babydoll"?) posted. The text:
BNF Roast
My own life has been in transition so I haven't been able to get on the internet since then I have the time now to say what some of you will always be too afraid to say.
Those of you call themselves BNFs are sad, laughable, jokes.. Here are a list of those people that some of you think are so cool and who I had the displeasure of meeting, albeit briefly.
epicyclical
heidi8
ari_o
lissinthecity
wayfairer
dancingrain
debellatrix
slytherincess
littletort
ali_wildgoose
msscribe
jlh
titanic_days
aegeus
ladylisse
melissa_tlc
There are many more whose names I can't remember. Why do some of you worship these people? They are SELFISH, SEF ABSORBED,IMMORAL AND CHILDISH LIARS. I laughted when after the show heidi8 screamed at her husband downstairs although I was unfortunately trapped in a line on the escalator and couldn't get close enough to hear what she was screaming about. I've never had much of a problem with melissa_tlc but she acted like she was queen of the world at this event. I'm leaving this entry open because I want people to voice their opinions. It's disgusting the way you all cater to some of these people and it's even more disgusting how selfish and self absorbed these people appeared to be. I got the impression that if I stood too close to epicyclical guards would attack me because I wasn't one of the chosen few whose seats were saved near her.
Are these people who deserve fame? NO. They deserve to be held responsible for acting irresponsibly, writing immoral fic, and acting like celebrities. Here is your chance to roast them the way they deserve to be.
Mostly the same people again, you see -- including Msscribe, of course, and the people who had partied with Msscribe in New York -- with just enough alterations from the Blacklist (melissa_tlc, aegeus) to show that Fandom_Scruples probably really had been to the IMAX show, or at least had read fandom accounts of it and knew who had been there. And may I just point out, as an aside, how amazing I find it that these people so easily swallowed the story that some wild-eyed anti-porn-crusading stranger had recognized them all? How? Did they think he went around peering at nametags and taking notes or were they just that famous? I'm going to assume that Heidi really did shout something to her husband, and -- because I'm a suspicious, cynical sort of person -- I'm going to hypothesize that the person who wrote this was actually quite close to her and could hear what she said perfectly. I'm also going to hypothesize that the person who wrote this was one of the "chosen few" who had a seat saved near Cassandra Claire, and this is a bit of indirect boasting.
As is the whole post, of course -- how many of these people were ever "worshipped"? Cassandra Claire (thegraybook) and Aja (bookshop), sure, and certainly Heidi and Melissa had many admirers -- and some of the others were widely liked, but worshipped...? I believe the post was a weird and rather creepy form of flattery, much like when Fermatojam complained of Cassandra Claire's "captivating writing style."
Fandom_Scruples left comments open this time and, as usual, the fandom flocked to oblige. The comments were all deleted later, but you can get some idea of them from the Fandom_Wank post (including this thread where prettyveela made it clear that she had heard the rumors about Fandom_Scruples being Msscribe) and this post and this post by ari_o.
In one of the comment threads on Fandom_Scruple's post, people began to speculate as to who Fandom_Scruples really was. One person, named taotheannoying1, suggested that it was dr_c. dr_c was a former SQ mod and GT member, a devout Christian who was best known for his rigorous logic and his courtesy and tolerance for different viewpoints. angua9, a friend of Dr_C's, responded heatedly to this comment, saying that anyone who wasn't stupid could see that Fandom_Scruples didn't really care about smut on the internet, and was just trying to make those who did care look bad, and that not only was Fandom_Scruples not Dr_C, it was one of the sixteen people on that list. There was more discussion in the thread after that and an anonymous mouse (I don't know who it was) named Msscribe as the Fandom_Scruples puppeteer.
This led to further developments. In response to Angua's accusation, ari_o, not taking the accusation seriously, created a poll, jokingly letting people vote on which of them was Fandom_Scruples. Fandom_Scruples, possibly taking the accusations a bit more seriously than ari_o did, deleted all the comments on his post soon after that.
As you can imagine, there was some discussion on Ari's poll post as to what Angua meant by saying such a thing. This thread, is the most interesting of them because epicyclical, who might have known about Angua's email to Heidi about Msscribe, correctly revealed her meaning:
*is irritated* Oh, for Christ's sake. "A very great number of people, including me, are quite sure who it is." I love the way she's perfected the art of finger-pointing while pretending she isn't actually finger-pointing. It is the deepest height of stupidity to suggest it's someone on that list - they're pretty much all friends, and in the aftermath of the last F_S post, all the ones I talked to or was in contact with, were deeply creeped out. If FS was one of those people, the only person they'd be pissing off/upsetting would be their friends. And really, why bother? F_S satirizes nothing anyone in that list of people gives two fucks about - if one were even willing to grant that it's a competent satire, which it isn't.
I would assume Angua means Dionne, from her post, for what that is worth. This shows no understanding whatsoever of Dionne but that is not a big surprise.
I can't help thinking that perhaps Cassandra Claire didn't understand something about her friend Dionne that Angua did understand -- her hunger for controversy, attention, and sympathy. I can easily believe that Cassandra Claire and others on the list were creeped out, pissed off, and upset at Fandom_Scruples' post. I certainly would have been, and goodness knows Cassandra Claire already had enough attention and controversy in her fandom life. But... well, they say we always give others the gift we want for ourselves. By making them "victims" along with her, Msscribe was in a weird way showing her love for her friends.
Cassandra Claire also said this:
That's a different issue, isn't it? When I refer to "them" above I am referring to a certain type of militant R/H shipper, such as Angua. I don't necessarily think Angua and her folk are behind Fandom_Scruples. I think she is either using it as an excuse to fling accusations at people she already hates, or, more depressingly, actually *is* that paranoid. Doesn't mean I think she's F_S though.
I'm sorry to say that Angua is indeed that paranoid.
Angua responded:
I didn't fling the accusation, and I didn't name names. taotheannoying1 was the one who did that, with the truly stupid accusation of Dr_C. I lost my temper, and responded accordingly.
I am giggling now, though, that you think I would have a vendetta against someone because they ship (or used to ship?) H/H.
Oops! I forgot I wasn't supposed to ever address you again.
I should probably explain that Angua's reference to not being supposed to address Cassandra Claire was a reference to this post at the Sugar Quill. For those of you who read the other comments at Ari's LJ and at Fandom_Wank and wonder why everyone is talking about "Evil Operatives," that is from a different wank that happened at about the same time. Here are some relevant links.
Heidi jumped in:
So because Tao, who openly hates Gwen, Ari and Slytherincess, posted something accusing Dr C, you went off the edge with velied accusations?
Angua answered:
Well I know nothing of Tao and who she or he hates, but basically yes.
There was a bit of discussion about whether Angua's rabid R/Hr shipping had turned her brain so that she was ready to make absurd accusations about anyone who shipped H/Hr or whether she had always been that insane and her rabid R/Hr shipping was just another symptom.
Again -- for the third time now -- most members of the fandom laughed off these accusations of Msscribe as ridiculous. But the accusations may have had some effect on her. It seems to me that Msscribe became significantly more cautious after that. Very soon after that, Fandom_Scruples deleted its first post about the "Goldlist" and defriended all of the Goldlist authors. It was almost like Msscribe was signaling to the "Goldlist" people: "look, I'm not targeting you any more, so stop accusing me." Fandom_Scruples also edited the "BNF Roast" post to remove the list of "BNFs" and all descriptions of the PoA IMAX event, so it wasn't harrassing Msscribe's friends any longer, either.
In fact, after this point Msscribe nearly dropped sockpuppeting altogether. As best I can determine, Fandom_Scruples was her last major attempt at a sockpuppet troll of the Fermatojam-Killiganhashope-Pottersginny-Watchful_Entity type. I believe she did make one more minor racist troll, though, whom you will meet in Chapter Ten.
However, Fandom Scruples wasn't through yet. It made three more posts in the next few days, but boring ones without the charm of fandom names and without allowing comments. The ensuing Fandom_Wank report also had this thread, in which angua9, dr_c, and runechilduk all got mentioned as suspects for being Fandom_Scruples.
And even that wasn't the end of the Fandom_Scruples saga -- it would post three more times -- but all that must wait for the next chapter.
CHAPTER NINE - MSSCRIBE LEAVES THE FANDOM