Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Weekly (Pat) Report #1

Well... Here we are! Another week in the saga of the Revenge of the Fake Reviews! You're probably all tired of hearing about it by now; I know I'm tired of talking about it. BUT, if you want things to be righted, you can't stop talking about it, because that's the same as saying, "What you did is okay, and I'm going to let you get away with it." Dilloway has already been implying that he wants me to stop talking about the things he's done and his patterns of behavior, and I will... just as soon as he has his sister take down all the fake reviews/ratings she has up for me. Which are also on goodreads, now, because Dilloway can't stop himself from escalating the situation even as he's talking about how I should stop talking about him.

So... Let's review the situation, shall we?

1. I wrote a review of a book not written by Pat Dilloway.
2. Pat Dilloway freaked out and had a hissy fit because the author of the book was a friend of his.
3. As a result of his hissy fit, he attacked my review in each place it was posted.
4. He also, in a attempt to "give me a taste of my own medicine," lowered the rating of a book of mine, "Tiberius," which he had previously reviewed and rated four stars, to one star.
5. Pat tried to extort me to change my review of the other book by offering to change his rating on "Tiberius" back to what he originally gave it. Not one to be extorted, I said no, but that whole exchange made me angry. This is not a "hey, I'll lie for you if you'll lie for me" kind of thing.
6. Then, he wrote a post on the IWM blog about what a horrible person I am and accused me of being someone who just goes around giving out 1-star ratings, basically, because I feel like it and because I like being mean to people.
7. At that point, I wrote a post explaining, again, my stance on honest reviews. This post had nothing in and of itself to do with Pat Dilloway, although he took exception to it just as he did the first time I stated my stance years ago. Also, Briane Pagel wrote a post about honesty in reviews which he posted on the IWM blog in no small part because Pat's view that reviews should be biased toward the author for indie books (although he does not practice his own stated stance and will freely give negative reviews to people he doesn't like or to whom he views as a threat or competition) is not a reflection of the views of IWM.
8. Pat expanded his attack on me to include Briane and 1-starred at least one of Briane's books in response to Briane's post about reviews.
9. I wrote a post about the childish behavior of Pat Dilloway with the idea that the way you deal with bullying behavior is to bring it to light. The bully wins if you keep it hidden, and it allows the bully to keep doing it and do it to other people.
10. Pat began harassing me and calling me names in the comments section on my blog (he had also been doing the same to me on goodreads).
11. I published a review of a book of his which I had previously withheld. I see, now, that withholding the review in the first place was a mistake but, at the time, I had not wanted to get into it with Dilloway, because I already knew how he reacted to bad reviews. The review was not revenge, as he seems to think, but was to make a point, again, about the types of reviews that I do, i.e. reviews with objective reasoning based on the product which have nothing to do with how I may feel about the author.
12. Dilloway, of course, attacked the review. Another reviewer pointed out some of the things that I was talking about in the review, things Dilloway said didn't exist, and Dilloway attacked him, too. The other reviewer posted his own review of Dilloway's book because his comments somehow mysteriously vanished from the comment thread on Amazon, and Dilloway attacked that review, too, though most of Dilloway's comments were removed by Amazon.
13. Dilloway began spamming my comment sections on my posts with hundreds of comments calling me names. Yes, I said hundreds. These comments I just ignored and stored, but Dilloway, then, went out of his way to also call various of my commenters names and, actually, called all of my commenters stupid.
14. Because of Dilloway's "I didn't do that, oh, I did do that but it's okay" attitude and his similarity to Vox Day along with his persistence in spamming my comments, I wrote the Sad Puppy post.
15. Dilloway asked for people to help teach me a lesson (on Facebook (I saw the post but don't remember the exact language he used)), and his sister went over to Amazon and began 1-starring all of my books. Later, his other sister also 1-starred the same books that Dilloway had 1-starred.
16. Dilloway wrote another post about what a horrible person I am and how I am just petty dictator for removing all of his comments which were full of nothing more than calling people names and insulting people. Sorry, it's my blog and, if insulting people is the best you have, I don't need that on my blog.
17. Amazon stepped in and removed all of the Dilloway siblings reviews/ratings on "Tiberius" and The House on the Corner. Dilloway re-posted his reviews, both with 3-star ratings, just to have Amazon remove them again. That happened several times (at least three), but Dilloway was persistent in re-posting the reviews every time Amazon removed them. They currently stand with 3-star ratings. Neither sister replaced their reviews on those books, but the first sister still has six 1-star ratings of my work on Amazon.
18. Dilloway began spreading around, in order to show how horrible I am, that I am currently in a feud with my church. That's a very interesting thing since, currently, I do not attend church nor have I in years. I'm assuming that Dilloway is referring to the series I've been doing about racism, and I am going to be generous and assume that his misunderstanding came from a lack of being able to read closely rather than that he is siding with the batch of racist assholes I was talking about in those posts.
Oh, wait, he could have just been purposefully lying about me so as to discredit me. Hmm... yeah, let's go with that option. Occam's Razor and all of that.
19. His sister expanded her rating attack to goodreads where she has currently given me more than 50 1-star ratings (because each piece of the Shadow Spinner serialization is still listed there).

This is the point at which I'm saying that I am not going to quit talking about Pat Dilloway and what he has done and is doing until he fixes it. Not just his reviews (he also went and downrated everything he'd rated of mine on goodreads), because he's changed those so that he can, I suppose, say, "Hey, look, I don't have any bad reviews of his works," but his sister's, too, since, ultimately, he is responsible for those being there. Also, if I see that he's doing this kind of thing to anyone else, I will do my best to let people know about that, too. Because, you know what? Bullies don't get to win.

And, now, for my favorite one!

20. Just this week, Dilloway has published a post saying how much he hates me and how, also, he's sure that everyone believes he's an asshole but, really, what he's doing is okay because he keeps it isolated to "out-of-the-way message boards and blogs." At least he's not putting it in a book that's for sale on, say, Amazon where thousands of people could see it.

The logic here is amazing to me. It's kind of like saying, "Hey, I know I hit you in the back of the head with this board, but at least I did it in this alley where no one could see instead of out on the street." Or, "I know I stole $100.00 from you, but at least I didn't steal $1000.00." It is not the magnitude of something that makes it wrong. The thing is wrong or it's not. Speeding is still against the law even if there are no cops around to catch you.

He also states in the that post that he has been involved in "many a flame war," which I also find interesting considering his stance that I am the problem. I suppose that this could be considered a flame war except that I have kept all of my talk (except for one stray comment) restricted to my blog and have also restricted my talk to only pointing out actual actions without resorting to calling names and insulting anyone's intelligence. At any rate, I think the person who has an issue with getting involved in flame wars should take a look at his behavior.

So that's the update. Next week's will be restricted to only new developments, but I wanted to get the sequence of events down here at the outset. I think I covered everything, at any rate.

If you would like to find out what you can do to help fight the bullies who attack and/or intimidate authors like this just because they can, please feel free to email me.

16 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Alex: It is a mess. And, looking back, now, because of your comment, I see that 75% of what is listed there are attacks by Pat. Of the other 25%, one of mine is the initial review and one is re-stating my review philosophy.

      That's kind of WOW.

      Delete
  2. Seriously, I have no idea what he's hoping to accomplish by harassing you and anyone else who happens to agree with you. It seems like if any readers saw what he was doing, they would steer clear of him and that seems counterproductive to his whole "selling books" shtick.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeanne: Yeah, I don't know. If I was someone looking to buy one of his books and saw how he attacks anyone that leaves any kind of review that isn't viewed as positive, I would never buy one of his books.

      Delete
  3. Most people probably won't see his attacks on blogs and things like that. So it won't come back to haunt him at all, unless it spreads out more widely than it has so far; remember that piece I did on negative reviews and the author who freaked out and it ended her writing career?

    Absent that kind of widespread ignominy, PT will probably suffer not more than the disapprobation of those of us who dislike that kind of behavior.

    It has affected me; I have a couple of his books on my Kindle that I hadn't read yet, but I can't imagine going to read them now. The books haven't changed, but how I feel about them has.

    I'd post a link on my own blog about yours, but I really only get about 2 readers a day, so I'll tweet this out instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Briane: Which is why I'm posting about what he's doing. As he says, although I'm paraphrasing, he's been doing it in dark places and intimidating people so that he could continue to get away with it. People need to know.

      Thanks for the tweet.

      Delete
  4. This has been a lot of drama. Makes it scary for us who post honest reviews.

    Well, I guess all worlds are full of psychotic people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dolorah: It has been a lot of drama, and it is scary, but you can't give in to the terrorism, because, then, those people learn that it's okay for them to act that way. It's okay for them to use intimidation to extort positive reviews, and it's okay for them to go one rampages because no one will stand up to them.

      I'm standing up.

      Delete
  5. In reading the title, all I can think of is that "Morning Report" song from The Lion King, the one sung by Rowan Atkinson (Zazu the bird)

    "This is the weekly Pat report
    Gives you the long and the short
    Every grunt, roar, and snort
    Not a tale I distort
    On the weekly Pat report."

    And after hearing about all of the things he does and continues to do... well, I don't feel bad using the words grunt, roar, and snort. I still don't know what he's trying to accomplish with all of this, and how, through everything, he still thinks somehow that he's the "good guy" in this tale, but he's acting like an animal. No logic. No thought. Just attacking you in any way he can as a blind act of revenge.

    And like Briane said, this is the kind of thing that makes me never want to read an author's work, ever. And to add to that, when I read Amazon reviews for a potential book, I do look at the comments. Because if the author responds defensively to negative reviews, then they're clearly showing a complete lack of professionalism.

    Plenty of authors get negative reviews. We have negative reviews. And you'll notice that we haven't responded to a single one of them. People are entitled to their opinions, and whether that review comes from an intelligent reader who just didn't like the story, or a complete moron who bashed the book needlessly, or even a friend who was honest, they're all entitled to their reviews. Us speaking to them isn't going to magically make them say hey, they're right, I actually liked this. 5 stars!

    We just let the number of 5 star reviews speak for our work.

    Besides, can you imagine that in any other profession? Like, Joss Whedon goes to some random jackass's house, knocks on the door, and says, "Hey, are you the guy that put up on Facebook that he didn't like Avengers 2? Well me and you are gonna have a little talk, pal, so I can tell you all about why your review is bullshit."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ABftS: Yeah... To continue his rampage, he has, once again, gone back over to Amazon and changed his ratings back down to 1-stars and, just to add some zing and pop to that, he has gone over to goodreads and 1-starred everything I have there. You know, because he can.

      But you don't see me in any of those places posting on all of those reviews "FAKE REVIEW! This is a FAKE REVIEW!" like some other author I could mention.

      But, speaking of movies, there was that Looper guy who actually went around the Internet commenting on all kinds of things to correct people and tell them how his movie really did make sense. He wasn't mean about it, though; he just wanted to make sure he got to explain the inconsistencies.
      Or something.

      Delete
  6. Both of you need to grow up and move on. What you are doing with posts like this one could be considered harassment and there are laws against cyberharassment in all 50 states.

    You are also being just as much a bully as you claim him to be. The part above where you claim that you will continue with this attacks until the reviews are removed is bullying.

    Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and free speech is protected in this country by 1st amendment by the Constitution. You may not like what those people say, but they have the right to say it. You may not like my one star ratings, but I didn't like your books. I have that right to rate them as I want just like anyone else. Not everyone will like what you write. Are you going to torture and harass everyone who gives it below a certain rating?

    And my brother has NO control over what I say and do. I am my own person with my own opinions, thoughts, etc. So if you want to attack someone, attack me. I'm NOT changing my ratings. I don't back down or give in to bullies. But then again attacking me wouldn't be as much fun because I won't give you the attention you crave.

    And I know this post will be deleted because that's what you do, but just know I have made copies of it and taken screen shots so deny what you want.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melissa: Skipping over the insanity of the person purposefully exacerbating the situation then trying to tell people to stop, we'll move on to the multiple misconceptions you have about the meanings of words.

      1. Saying that I will continue to "talk" about this does not equate to "attack."

      2. That you are throwing out "free speech" and harassment in the same comment is... mind-boggling-ly hilarious.

      3. But, first, let's deal with your misunderstanding of "review." A "review" is something you do in response to your experience with a product. Looking at the box (or cover, in this case) does not equal an experience of the product. That's like, to use an example you should understand, walking into Burger King, seeing their pictures of the food, and walking out only to tell people that the food is gross even though you never tried any of it.

      What you did was made a decision to not experience the product and, therefore, no "review" you give is valid. So, unless you are expecting me to believe that in the moments between Pat's call to action and you going over to Amazon and 1-starring my books that you, somehow, accessed them on the Internet (because you didn't buy them) and read them [Maybe you're Ultron? He could have done that. But, then, he wouldn't be having problems with the other concepts you don't seem to understand, so that doesn't really work.], you have no business offering a "review." However, please feel free to buy any and all of my books and THEN offer any opinion you want on them.

      -- Oh, and just by the way, some of the stuff you 1-starred are collections of stories by middle schoolers, not stuff written by me, but, see, if you'd even read the descriptions, you'd know that.
      -- And you should know that all that cover bashing you did was bashing a friend of your brother's who did those covers (and one of Pat's, at least), so, again, you're not even attacking the person you want to hurt.

      4. Free speech, unlike what people like you want to think, is not a license to say anything you want about whatever you want anywhere you want to say it (see, harassment wouldn't even be possible if that were true). Freedom of speech allows you to, say, criticize the government in public places without the fear of being arrested. Free speech does not give you the freedom, though, to slander someone (you can look it up), which is why I have restricted myself to only reporting events that have happened and made no value judgements.

      Delete
    2. To continue that thought, this blog is NOT a public space, and "free speech" does not apply here. This space is the property of Google, and they have ultimate control of what it done with it. It is, however, a space I have borrowed from them and, as such, it is MY space, which makes it, by definition, a PRIVATE space, and, hey, I get to have control over what's in my private space. I am not violating anyone's freedom of speech to remove, well, anything I want to remove. Mostly, I do not choose to remove what people say. I have made exceptions for three people, you and your brother being two of those.

      5. Now, let's move to harassment and how that relates to all of this, because, again, you have no idea what you're talking about. Imagine that I am in my house (sort of the equivalent of this blog, actually) and I am saying things about you. You want to know what those things are, so you come and stand at my window or, even, just come right in so that you can hear. What I am saying in, again, MY SPACE is not harassment of you. No one is making you come here to hear what I am saying.

      Now, if you get mad about what I am saying and, say, start following me around and yelling things at me and calling me names and, well, I'm sure you get the idea, now, THAT is harassment. So, see, I have all of these hundreds of comments that were made in MY space over multiple posts so, if we're going to talk about harassment, we can start there. Because, yes, I still have all of those hundreds of comments and can very easily move them back to the comments sections on posts. There are not hundreds of comments from me anywhere. There aren't even comments about any of this on FB page, even though that is also a private space. Anything I said is here on my blog, and and all of those things relate to specific events, though some of those events have been deleted by places like Amazon.

      Delete
    3. All of that said, it is impressive to me how little care you have for your brother. You are so invested in being mean (because "being mean is more fun") that you initially chose to not support any of his books in favor of just doing stuff to hurt me. Not to mention the fact that you have had years to support your brother in his writing endeavors and have never chosen to do so, at least not in any public way.

      Also, now that your actions are having a negative impact on your brother, you are choosing to continue in them anyway, being so invested in a crusade that wasn't yours to begin with that you are willing to hurt the person you were supposedly trying to help. All in the name of "being mean."

      Maybe you should go home, now, and look at yourself in the mirror for a really long time.

      Delete
  7. If things were like they were a couple hundred years ago we could give you each a pistol and let you duel it out. Or maybe swords--a sword fight would be more exciting.

    Now out of curiosity I guess I need to go to Dilloway's site. I'm curious to see if he actually received any comments on those posts about you since on the other posts I've read of his there were never many if any comments.

    This is all pretty crazy.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Road trippin' with A to Z
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lee: Just so you know, the first post about me was on the IWM site. So was the second, but it was taken down. He re-posted it but not on his main blog. It's on an older blog.

    ReplyDelete