Holy Buck, Fatman!

Trainwrecks.net has bitten the dust

Heaven Nose is taking a lot of the credit
Now, let the conjecture begin.

I was a trainwrecks reader. It was snark. The bloggers who were trainwrecked were done because they chose to publicly discuss their problems with anyone who had an internet access. Sometimes, the content published was found by some to be TMI, a little over the top, or WTF? In short, a few people who shared opinions were brought together because of their voyerism.

Trainwrecked sites were both loved and hated. That’s what happens on the internets. You are loved and hated. You get nice comments and bad ones. If you can’t handle the bad ones, you have a “members only” blog, “Comments Moderated” blog, or just no comments accepted at all. Sometimes, you are hated so much that that someone might start a “Troll Blog” and you can either fight back, ignore or delete your blog and lick your wounds in the corner.

The Trainwreck admins decided that ignoring the exsistance of Heaven Nose was the high road. The people at Heaven Nose obviously didn’t like that, so they ramped it up. Allegedly, Heaven Nosers had somehow mined the personal data of the Trainwrecks admins and published it, actively encouraging harrassment by e mailing this information to trainwrecked victims.

Any normal person can see that the biggest trainwreck of all is Heaven Nose.

If it truly was a Blog review/satire site then trainwrecks would have gotten a post, some comments and the blogger/bloggers would have moved on. No, Heaven Nose was much more. Heaven Nose and it’s creators, posters and everything else had a personal vendetta against trainwrecks. The posts make that plainly obvious. They were obvious trainwrecked victims and they lashed out in the most juvenile of ways. Ladies and gentleman, the common Troll, v2.0: The Troll Blog.

The Heaven Nose Bloggers seemed desperate to be the snark masters of the internet. They started a “blog review” site turned troll blog . Here is the funny thing, if you take a look at the comments over at the Zero Boss, You’ll see a few comments with a bunch of blackslashes from a commenter who, other then masking herself (it’s obvious that HN is a women. Who else would react so violently?) as several commenters, defends heaven nose taking down Trainwrecks as “Those meanies were mean and could potenially cause someone to be passed over for a job!” Really? if you were featured on Trainwrecks, chances are you would be passed over for a job before a potential employer even had a chance to google you.
So, who asked the self proclaimed superheros of the blogosphere to act on behalf of those profiled on Trainwrecks? The entire time I read Trainwrecks, i never once saw the admins encourage flaming trainwrecked blogs, stalking, trolling or anything beyond a few comments ON THE TRAINWRECKS SITE and some humorous discussion following. If a victim wanted to defend themselves on trainwrecks, they weren’t blocked or censored. If a commenter on trainwrecks got out of hand, The admins were quick to delete and/or deliver a smackdown. The only thing that was hurt was the precious ego of a few bloggers. Did they have it coming? That’s subjective.

This entire thing raises the question of ‘net ethics. This is, of course, the United States and we do have freedom of expression. I have the right to say that your blog sucks. Anything past that starts to become a bit creepy. Is it ethical to actively engage in tactics that intentially harass people? No. The Heaven Nose crew (or person) crossed the line by intentially e mailing personal information to persons featured on trainwrecks. Although they claim to be from a different country, I’m not buying that argument . I suspect a few vitcims of trainwrecks are potentially behind this. The posts are too personal and to angry not to have been a widely discussed trainwreck of some sort. The magic of the internet is that you can be anyone you want in the fourth demension we call cyberspace. If you have a geek friend with some knowledge, you have ways to mask yourself. If you have a laptop, you have a public IP in any coffee house.
Can saying someone’s blog sucks and discussing it with other people who share the same opinion constitute as harassment? Not in the least. It’s within my right to say that I hate someones blog anywhere on the internet, where it doesn’t violate the websites terms of serivce. It’s not my right to intentionally violate that persons privacy and publish their personal information. It’s not funny, witty, intelligent or clever. Crossing a line from an opinion holder to a stalker is insane. Anyone who condones such behavior is a fucking trainwreck, plain and simple. Again, I never once saw the admins of Trainwrecks condone harrassment. Having an opinion on a blog/open forum is not harrassment.
Lastly, telling people that you don’t care about a site that you exclusively started a troll blog for? Puhhleasse. This is yet another clue telling me that the heaven nose is not some liberating superhero armchair warrior, but a bruised blogger who had no life.

a little snarky corner of the internet has gone bye bye and it’s a damn shame. Sure, some people might not agree with ripping certain websites apart but that is why we can chose not to click on certain sites. Trainwrecks will eventually be reincarnated by someone else. I hope all the regulars find its return in whatever form that might be.