This post is actually about true zealots and asstroturfers, but to get to that point, I have to throw a boomerang around a couple of trees. The thread of this post is going to weave around like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Bear with me.
I was really sickened the other day to see an investigative blogger whom I respect and admire get attacked so unfairly. I am speaking of Roy Schestowitz, of BoycottNovell fame. Far beyond the original purpose described by the URL, Roy has focused with laser-beam intensity on all of the dirty dealings of proprietary technology. I have often been amazed to check a Boycott Novell article and discover hard evidence, before my very eyes, of things I'd only half-guessed and suspected before.
The attack was from Open Source to Go!, so it seems to be from a source within the community. Beside the point of who's right on that one, David Schlesinger, in the post on Open Source to Go!, uses the little spat as an example of zealotry.
"Zealotry" is another one of those words that makes me reach to unbuckle my holster. Invariably, it is a term of derision hurled at every user of every system that doesn't have a Microsoft logo stamped on it. In this case, it's even used as an accusation within the community. In this case, Schlesinger thinks Mono's just fine, Schestowitz takes the side of RMS in being anti-Mono.
Now for the wide-picture view: Um, apathy appears to be a virtue in the modern United States. What is put down as "zealotry" here, is the same kind of thing another culture might describe as "giving a damn about something."
Anyway: This isn't about the little spat between those two or a stance on Mono. I really don't go either way on Mono. I agree that it should not be forced down our throats. I would sooner have icepicks jammed in my temple than code one line of .NET, C#, or anything else that started at Redmond. But if that's other people's kink, I wouldn't stand in their way of having an open source way of doing it. I consider Powerpoint to be the tool of Satan, but you don't see me screaming for OpenOffice to drop Impress. Also, I use SWFTools, an open-source Flash compiler, which some might say has the same things wrong with it - Flash being a proprietary technology controlled by Adobe. I spit on Adobe, but now that Flash is being calved away from them, I say 'Yay for Flash!'. They had no business buying it in the first place.
Now, in the above paragraph, I probably came off as moderate overall. But, along with my laissez faire approach to "run whatever you want", I also have a staunch defense of anyone in the open source community accused of zealotry. Accusing a FOSS advocate of zealotry is like ignoring a massacre to stop the one person minding their own business and give them a ticket for jaywalking.
REALITY: Linux is at war. Linux is under attack. Do you, dear reader, have any enemies? Who, pray tell? Your mother-in-law? That one manager at work? An ex-partner?
You know who Linux's enemy is? Oh, nobody much. Just the most powerful corporation in the known universe, founded by the richest human being in the universe. Not that big a bother, is it? When that company bribes half the world's governments to stand against you, manipulates most of the supporting hardware and software markets to refuse to work with you, and takes every opportunity to call you everything from a communist to a criminal, and whose influence permeates every tiny, possible corner of all forms of media, yeah, you might have to defend yourself sometimes.
That's not being a zealot. If somebody puts a gun to your head, and you do everything in your power to survive the confrontation, does that make you a zealot?
Well, that's what's going on in Linux and the FOSS community. Pardon us, but we're fighting for our freaking LIVES! And everybody else's freedom too, even if they don't care about it themselves much. We just... want to compute the way we want to compute. We just want to mind our own business and be left alone.
Unfortunately, we have the zealots of Microsoft to contend with.
Now, at last, the point: Boycott Novell has intercepted real, actual, hard evidence of asstroturfing by a Microsoft employee. What pisses me off the most is that, without the Roy Schestowitzes of this world, if I try to say that Microsoft asstroturfs, I get called "paranoid."
Do keep in mind that Microsoft has declared "jihad" against Linux. There is the hard evidence. Microsoft hires "evangelists".
But check the rest of Armchair Theorist. If you didn't know, you'd think it was a personal blog just like mine, wouldn't you? But it's not! It's a soapbox for a corporation. A corporation that hires... "evangelists." Definition of "evangelism" courtesy of Wikipedia:
"Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity and Islam, since those two religions mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith..."
How many of these "Microsoft evangelists" are there, anyway? To take Microsoft's own word for it, we can visit the MSDN page with the folksy-sounding title of "Meet Your Local Microsoft Evangelists." With a map of the USA. I just clicked on my home-state of Iowa, and counted nine profiles. For Iowa. Which isn't exactly saturated with computers to begin with. It's that important that the fly-over state of Iowa, home to more hogs and cornfields than computers, has nine "evangelists."
How many are there in your state? And remember, these are just the ones in the USA. That they admit to.
Who are the real zealots?
Search Google for "Microsoft evangelist." There's an amazing lot of it out there, isn't there? The Crusades should have been so fired with passion!
Now, besides religion, you know what else makes a zealot out of a person? Money. Lots of money. With revenues of US$ 60.420 billion split between 89,809 employees in 105 countries, that's a lot of money. And you have to fight to defend it after you get it, too.
Never forget, never never never for one solitary second, that every penny made by Microsoft is at the expense of technology freedom. We are at two mutually opposed ends. On the one hand, freedom means everyone owns technology. On the other, one company monopolizing all of technology makes us all slaves. The more freedom of technology we have, the less money Microsoft makes. It's zero-sum.
Linux has zealots? Oh, no no no, my dears. Linux does not have nearly ENOUGH zealots! The company with the most zealots is of course the one that can afford to buy the most. And we widdle peoples in Linux just happen to be the target of that.
If you need a name for Linux users... why don't you just call us "infidels"?
Bonus buck: Since one of the commenters below launched into the typical spiel about how professional coders at proprietary software companies produce superior output compared to the hobbyists of open source who are all wearing sandals, etc., blah, blah, blah...
I found this amusing, assuming it isn't a parody site (crossing fingers). Here is the principle developer for Microsoft Internet Explorer. He's a dropout, self-educated, and has prior job experience at at McDonalds, coffee shops, and a hotdog stand - and that's not even the most embarrassing thing he says about himself.
What was that superior difference between FOSS and proprietary software again?
Update: Just to make it clear, I'm deleting/ blocking/ banning any more of David "Lefty" Schlesinger's static. He's a troll. He's picking a fight with Roy, he's picking a fight with RMS, he's picking a fight with me, he's picking a fight with other people, a quick skim through the archive on his blog shows that he's even picking fights with the Apple community and Google... that's all he does is pick fights. That's a troll.
He has nothing to do with his time but fight. I've been checking him out in a few searches, he posts a lot of important-sounding things he's a member of which mean nothing, beats his chest about how many conferences he attends like that canonizes him as a saint, and that's it. I can't see where he's anything to FOSS but disposable.
It didn't work, Dave! Your attempt to get the whole FOSS community divided and working against each other backfired. We all just hate you. Back under your bridge, go wait for some other billy goats. The rest of us have important work to do.
31 feedbacks
Comments:
“Do not attack directly; no debates, no whitepapers, no lawsuits. Do the unexpected; attack [the enemy's] assumptions.” ...
“Sun's plan: Implement Win32 on Unix.
Assumption: MS would try to block WABI through legal action;
Microsoft's response: put Win32 on Unix ourselves.”
“Disrupt the enemy's alliances”
“Platform example: Win32.
Win32 on Windows - Windows NT, Win32s, Windows95;
Win32 on Unix - Sun, WABI; Bristol, MainSoft;
Win32 on Mac - Visual C++ for Mac.
Result: Win32 is the universal API. We win!”
Pure zealotry. It reads like something smuggled out of a brainwashing cult.
The Mono - and Moonlight - issue is important because it's what Microsoft does. (“.NET/Silverlight is universal. We win!”) The problem with them (probably) isn't patents, and (probably) never was. Why does nobody see this? Have they not been paying attention for the last 25 years? Don't they care?
Microsoft is at its most dangerous when it appears friendly. If we want a world where it isn't dominant, the only way to deal with it is with a ten-foot pole. Preferably longer. It cannot be trusted. Period.
That would make them mercenaries, not zealots. Of course there are Trolls that do it for free. Are they morons or what? Doing for free, something that others get paid for!!!!
And "zealots" is used for Linux users, "trolls" for ms users and "fanboys" for mac users:)
I don't even bother debating these people as they don't adhere to logic and are irrational.
(Yes, I've had the "Open Source software doesn't belong in our company because it's communist" line...WHAT, no seriously, WHAT do you say to such thoughtless absurdity? The best I could come up with was "Did you actually find a lawyer who agrees with you that legal agreements for mutual benefit are inherently communist?" but at that point you start to get confrontational and risk losing your job...)
Dude,
What the hell ass fuck?
If you meant "we're fighting for our lives" literally, please clarify the shit out of it, because I don't see it. Yeah, leaks of sensitive data that get you executed, bugs harder to detect of patch in critical software, stuff like that - not exactly a big deal for the average First World Linux user.
If you meant it metaphorically, that's sorta offensive to everyone killed for religious reasons, by big powers, for their opinion, or by everything ever. Boohoo, you're mean. Seriously, man, can you imagine that?
Could you stop ranting about FOSS for a sec? I just got fired, my spouse is abusive and my children tried to kill me in my sleep.
Well, your boss, spouse and kids are smaller than Microsoft so you're a zealot!
First off, what technicians and programmers often feel to appreciate is a simple sociological fact: organizations often can bring much more staying power and focus to bear on problems than a loose collection of individual(ists). A power and a focus that may overwhelm a bunch of unorganized hobbyists.
You see, Microsoft is simply doing all it can to delay, derail, and avoid adoption of Linux and with it erosion of their marketshare. It's only reasonable that they should, for they stand to loose big bucks when that happens. We knew that. But perhaps some people (like FOSS enthousiasts) didn't quite realize the implications.
Well ... they are finding out that it means that Microsoft uses its normal PR channels: salespeople, media, and the web to promote its own brand and to put Linux adherent away as irresponsible nerds who'd like to stuff their hobby down people's throat with no regard for end-users or management problems. They also find that Microsoft uses every ounce of its commercial influence to discourage "the channel" from selling or supporting anything but Microsoft. Big surprise huh?
Unfortunately that's not the whole problem. Nor ir is the main problem.
What I see as the real the problem is: this negative image of Linux enthousiasts *really* isn't Microsoft's invention. On the contrary!
Instead it accurately describes a vocal section of the Linux community.
Like people who trumpet the virtues of "The Commandline" and how hapless end-users should just get used to it. Or people who contend that "Linux is a way of Life", and therefore doesn't and shouldn't adapt to the needs of users or management. Or who derisively respond to simple (and sometimes admittedly stupid) questions with replies that basically echo "RTFM" in varying degrees of rudeness, or technical shorthand that only a fellow Linux enthousiast will be able to decipher.
Or a certain Windows-management project which released version 4.0 without warning that it was in fact a pre-beta. And which then went on to state that the project, not being commercial software, would continue to release part-working software for people to experience and experiment with.
Or people who trumpet that switching users from MS-Office to Open Office or whatever should not be a factor of consideration. Or who bash Mono for being tainted while not offering an equally powerful replacement. Or who bash SuSE Yast for being "Linux with a Windows-sweetener".
The list goes on. And on. And on.
And as long as it does, Microsoft will have *plenty* of ammunition to paint Linux as a hobbyist tool (as far as the desktop is concerned).
That, and those people in particular, are what I regard as the greatest stumbling-block on the path to replacing MS Windows with Linux on the desktop.
If the Linux community were somehow able to pour the same disciplined wave of energy and focus into a single polished, high-quality, end-user friendly windows manager as it did with the Kernel, Microsoft Windows would be marginalized within a year.
Only it doesn't, for various reasons.
"Linux is not interested in market share. Linux does not have customers. Linux does not have shareholders, or a responsibility to the bottom line. Linux was not created to make money. Linux does not have the goal of being the most popular and widespread OS on the planet.
All the Linux community wants is to create a really good, fully-featured, free operating system. If that results in Linux becoming a hugely popular OS, then that's great. If that results in Linux having the most intuitive, user-friendly interface ever created, then that's great. If that results in Linux becoming the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry, then that's great.
It's great, but it's not the point. The point is to make Linux the best OS that the community is capable of making."
This is from http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
And yes, it addresses that there are some "customers" for some distros of linux, but they are fundamentally different. Give it a read, quite a good one in my opinion.
Uh, yeah, I link to "Linux is NOT Windows" right over to the right on the sidebar. Under the "News and resources" / "LINUX HELP..." section, first one, using the text "The first thing every new Linux user must know."
I find your comment absolutely dripping with bigotry and FUD. Since I know others will reply, I'll just save everyone the trouble and post my stock rebuttals.
> "organizations often can bring much more staying power and focus to bear on problems than a loose collection of individual(ists)."
Sure, that's why The US Postal Service, The New York Stock Exchange, and Cisco use it. Amongst thousands of other examples.
> "Microsoft uses its normal PR channels"
Well, they aren't ethical or legal channels, hence our concern.
> "people who trumpet the virtues of The Commandline"
Anti-command-line raving is as good as a signature of trolling. Even Microsoft trumpets its own command line.
You go program your own OS without having any command line in it at all. Go, do it! Lead the parade, big mouth! Be sure to send me a copy when you get it finished, so I can review it. If it meets my criteria of being a fully capable computer operating system without having a command line used anywhere in it, I promise to give it a glowing review. I would PAY for the privilege, since this feat would violate known laws of computer science, and we would have a place in the history books.
And by the way, I'd consider an on-screen keyboard utilizing a mouse pointer, stylus, or finger to enter text characters to be "using a command line". As I would also consider a device which uses hand-writing recognition. And "a fully capable system" does everything my computer can do now, including allow me to develop software within it.
> "the greatest stumbling-block on the path to replacing MS Windows with Linux on the desktop."
And who said that's our goal? Repeat with me from this very post:
WE JUST... WANT TO COMPUTE THE WAY WE WANT TO COMPUTE. WE JUST WANT TO MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS AND BE LEFT ALONE.
Get the hint?
And and the commenter above me [linux guy] is so totally going in my Troll of the Week blog. Nice work, there.
I think that was the "linux guy"'s point. I took that as a parody, to show that he was familiar with the MS Evangelist trope.
I think you owe David an apology for writing libel against him. A guy stands up for something he believes in, and the best you can do is rip about how he's an "M$ Shill"?
Grow up. He's a human being. Admit your fault in this, and treat him with the respect and decency that any other human being deserves.
When I read stuff like Boycottnovell I really, really don't feel better using Linux. Please, stop this type of 'advoccacy'.
How did you get this impression? OK, closed-captioned for the tl;dr crowd:
"Linux users get accused of zealotry. Even if we're zealots, we have a damn good right to be. We were minding our own business until the world's biggest software company launched a jihad on us and hired 'evangelists' to pollute the web with FUD."
"Libel"? "Slander"? "McCarthyism"? Are you kidding me? The last time I saw accusation that ludicrous, they came from Austin, Texas. Maybe check your legal definitions there?
Case in point. Pete mentions that Boycott Novell has "real, actual, hard evidence." That's great, except the evidence doesn't fit the crime. AstroTurfing requires that a person engaged in said activity does not reveal the political or commercial entity they are working for. Johnathan Wong's own website, which he linked to when posting on Boycott Novell, states that he works for the largest software company in the world. For a sane, rational person... let me repeat this again because it's so important... for a Sane and Rational person, this is enough. For the zealot? No!!! Johnathan would need to begin and end every posting with a flashing red banner that reads, "Beware: I work for Microsoft!"
Simple logic and reason dictates the obvious: An "AstroTurfer" would NEVER link back to any blog, publication, or resource that in even the smallest way indicated who they were working for. But zealots don't need logic and reason. They only need fear. They only need to be told that their own freedom is in danger, and that their "enemies" are trying to take it away.
Then why do I give favorable treatment to closed, proprietary games?
C'mon, guys, I know you're all about fun 'n' games at this point. But at least do your homework!
Firstly, the issue has nothing to do with Microsoft. I don't work for them, I've never worked for them, and the only thing I've ever gotten from Microsoft that I didn't pay retail prices for is a "Port 25" t shirt I got at the Linux Foundation' Collaboration Summit. So you're off to an inaccurate and irresponsible start.
My blog post shows that Roy conspired with a Mark Fink to contact my employer and try to cause trouble for me. The proof is a digitally signed email from Roy replying to Mark Fink's comments on this effort to "get David [i,e., me] fired".
Roy replies, "I liked what you do, but try to distance yourself from the site to give it credibility. Make it look like a personal gripe while the site keeps it polite."
That shows acknowledgment and approval of Fink's past actions (i.e. the effort to "get David fired") and directions on how to conduct himself in the future.
That's called collusion. It crosses a line. Roy lied to me, multiple times, and has lied about me as well.
In fact, after a libel to which I particularly objected--strenously--Roy was finally persuaded to do the correct thing: he posted a full retraction, an unreserved apology, and a promise to be more responsible in the future.
He broke this promise in less than a day, and continues to defame me right up to the present moment.
Roy may not have mentioned that I'm preparing to take him to court for his defamation.
I hope people actually read my blog entry. Have you, Pete? How do you explain the digitally signed email from Roy?
However, he clearly identified himself as such when he began posting, so this clearly doesn't qualify. Roy's made a big show of sending a complaint to the FTC, but I promise you that the FTC is going to send it back with a big, red "What the hell are you talking about?" stamp on it.
In short, Roy hasn't caught anything, and his complaint isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Don't take my word on it. Be sure to ask Roy about it every week or two. I expect he'll continue to make excuses about "not hearing back from them" for a year or two. Insist on getting an answer from him.
Left to his own devices, Roy would just never mention it again and hope people forget about it.
"Firstly, the issue has nothing to do with Microsoft. I don't work for them... So you're off to an inaccurate and irresponsible start."
Apparently, you're the one with the reading comprehension problem. I made no such accusation of you.
Once again, closed-captioned for the comprehension-impaired (with feeling and full backing from the choir):
The. Message Of. This. Post. IS:
"Linux users get accused of zealotry. Even if we're zealots, we have a damn good right to be. We were minding our own business until the world's biggest software company launched a jihad on us and hired 'evangelists' to pollute the web with FUD."
Anyway. Regardless. Everything else you have to say is blah blah blah blah that doesn't interest me in the least, piddling bit.
"And by the way: the "Astroturfer" that Roy "caught" is, indeed, a Microsoft employee... However, he clearly identified himself as such when he began posting."
Whatever chance at credibility you had before is completely imploded by this heaping pile of bull.
You know what my site's about? Objective #1 is "An extraordinarily geeky blog about Free and Open Source Software and the wonders thereof." You know how you can tell that? Because it says so at the TOP OF THE SIDEBAR on every single page of the blog!
And objective #2 is to use this site as a showcase for my skills in support of my freelance work. And, even though I don't let that interfere with objective #1, I STILL DISCLOSE THAT WITH A 'WRITER FOR HIRE' BOX AD ALSO IN THE SIDEBAR ABOUT HALF-WAY DOWN, AGAIN, ON EVERY SINGLE PAGE OF THE BLOG! That's besides stating as much in my 'about Penguin Pete' page, and from the portfolio accessible from the home page of the site. Just because it's better to error on the side of too much honesty, just to be sure that you are maintaining integrity plus 10%.
You know what I do when I go elsewhere to comment? I CLEARLY IDENTIFY WHO I AM, MAKE NO BONES ABOUT WHAT MY PURPOSE IS, AND LINK BACK TO A PAGE ON MY SITE WHICH LEAVES NO DOUBT IN ANYONE'S MIND WHAT BADGES I'M WEARING.
So to the case of the astroturfer caught by Roy: "Disclosing" that you work for Microsoft by hiding that information in a non-obvious place and then sticking your nose into the free software community where it doesn't belong (to shill for Bing, no less!) is sneaky, underhanded, immoral, dishonest, and SHOULD BE ILLEGAL! It is, in fact, the Wikipedia dictionary definition of astroturfing.
You don't want to start in with me. Nothing pisses me off like a bald-faced liar who lies right in my face and doesn't even bother to consider that I'm capable of following deductive logic. I was neutral on you before, just using that word 'zealot' as an example of how you can be in the FOSS community and spit on the sidewalk and get in more trouble than if you worked for Microsoft and waged a genocide. You just proved to me that I was wrong to be neutral; the benefit of the doubt I was giving you was a fault of generosity on my part.
But the part where you close by specifically inciting me to stalk and harass Roy? That is pure evil.
Of course it doesn't take much to get the Mono Culture Club's attention. No, the real problem with them is HOLDING their short attention spans.....
;)
Nice blog BTW.
The GNOME Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with an elected Board of Directors, an appointed Board of Advisors, approximately 400 members, and two paid staff. The 400 members are all contributors to GNOME. A contributor is anyone who has made a significant contribution such as code, organizing a conference, writing documentation, or translating GNOME into other languages. GNOME contributors must renew their membership every two years.
ACCESS makes commercial Linux mobile applications, and contributes to several FOSS projects, like Glade3, GTK+ and a couple others. Apparently they bought a seat on the Foundation and sent Lefty to sit in it.
Lefty has been on BN, LT, your site, and many others. On Sam Vargasee's site he tried to divide the Linux community into "real" and "faux" members. His criteria amounted to nothing more than "real" members of the Linux community were those who loved MONO and thought MS was one of the good guys. Every other Penguin was a false member. Oh, and they disagree with him.
Lefty made this comment on David Herron's Blog:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/robogeek/archive/2007/05/quality_and_ope.html
I think the key is a word he's borrowed from Japanese Samurai movies. Tsujigiri is when a Samurai tests a new sword on a random passerby.
Typical OSS quality processes are like that.. Quality is negitiable [sic]. "Open Source Software: 80% as good as the last guy who worked on it needed it to be" .. etc, he had several good quips like that.
Somehow I doubt he would include MONO/Moonlight/GNOME (because of Glade3 and GTK+), or Microsoft two contributions to Linux which, as several have already noted, benefits Microsoft more thann Linux.
With advice like that it's no wonder that Ubuntu has decided to make its Desktop Edition DEPENDENT on MONO.
Wow, thanks for the awesome info! You'd make a good "mole!" This confirms a ton of things I suspected, but couldn't ferret out on my own.
Instinct told me that there was less to Lefty than meets the eye when I found his Linked-In profile showing "David Schlesinger’s Honors: 'Golden Penguin' Winner, LinuxWorld 2008" Doesn't that sound distinguished! Actually, it's a trivia 'bowl' contest they do for fun. Love the description. Wonder if Lefty had to sing.
I have no problem with people preferring and using anything else. But over last 25 years there has been an ongoing "anything but MS" attitude out there which has personally affected me that I have been subjected to thousands of hours of putting down Windows. This goes way back to even the commodore 64 which really was an immature piece of junk. Anyhow, I get anti-PC stuff all the time.
I guess it depends on one's perception of things. I honestly don't think I have met a Windows Zealot. I have met Linux Zealots, Mac Zealots, UNIX zealots, Risc Zealots, Apple II Zealots, Commodore Zealots, and zealots for anything you want to think of. They all wanted me to switch to "anything except Windows".
Anyhow, I think the competition is good and wish everyone the best using the OS of their choice. I believe in freedom and liberty and that sort of stuff.
Very interesting,
Thanks for writing about it
and at last the truth appears...
here:
http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/366559/3764b9898966b1a5/
and here:
http://lwn.net/Articles/367127/
Posted Dec 17, 2009 18:07 UTC (Thu) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510)
In reply to: GNOME ponders its code of conduct by mjw
Parent article: GNOME ponders its code of conduct
I ran into Lefty at a community summit out here a while back, and his emotional state was really high. He explained his beef with RMS with a cry in his voice, I kid you not. When I was less than sympathetic, he practically ran out of the room in tears.
Now, I am no stranger to getting emotional about things. But I've learned that it doesn't generally help me win the argument.
He really needs to focus on ACCESS, which, IMO, is a sinking ship. RMS isn't the big problem in front of him.
On these links, David "Lefty" Schlesinger (aka 'stonemirror the great and terrible) penned two hideously sexist and defamatory articles in the furtherance of his multi-year trolling/harassment of a mentally ill couple.
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Talk:Vitki
Talk:Vitki
Fucking awesome edits, Stonemirror. THANK YOU! --girlvinyl 22:57, 9 Jan 2005 (GMT)
LOL To the Terrible!
Nice outline Stonemirror! ROTFL!
I had to do it
and here:
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Sandalfon
proof is in the text which references Schlesinger's old livejournal, which was removed for TOS violations on his part:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://stonemirror.livejournal.com
and in the text itself which references Santa Cruz where Schlesinger/stonemirror lives, references the martial arts weapons he is obsessed with (the 'bokken'), etc.
This whole stalking effort started on Schlesinger's old 'stonemirror' livejournal. Both it and this current Schlesinger site reference santa cruz, vitki, bokken, 'the great and terrible', etc. So there is no doubt at all that only one 'stonemirror the great and terrible' aka David "Lefty" Schlesinger is responsible for this vicious stalking of the mentally ill and malicious sexist taunts and references which accompany it.
http://stonemirror.wordpress.com
http://www.shugendo.org
these sites even feature clear photos of Schlesinger in public with the bokken weapon. He has taken to claiming it is merely a 'camera monopod', but on his archived stonemirror livejournal he refers to it and other ninja weapons as one of his interests.
reply
Mon, 28/12/2009 - 4:44am — Anonymous
another schlesinger site, whois ties it to his civil name and to ED
www.shugendo.org/marsupial/index.htm
but after it was pointed out a few weeks ago he deleted it. He forgot about the Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071216231726/ http://www.shugendo.org/marsupial/index.htm
this site mentions another 'encyclopediadramatica' article, again sexist and defamatory. and this site with its current ridiculous defamatory 'wanted poster', has a stolen photograph which schlesinger gleefully defies the DMCA on.
http://www.shugendo.org and http://www.extinct-marsupial.org are both whois registered to schlesinger's civil name and address.
Unrelenting attack in every forum and blog
on the Internet.