So where were we? Graham “Adele” Langdon posting as a sock puppet, Entrecard closing it’s forum to the public in response, and plenty of name calling from both sides of the EC fence. Normally I let insults from those who have never read my blog fall by the wayside. But when one of those insults comes from the same account as an Entrecard Mod, I feel it requires comment.
So tonight’s trip into the EC slime pit is sponsored by Susan from Susan’s Home. (First person to count the number of grammar mistakes on her front page and I’ll buy a CMF Ad spot on your blog up to 5cr) Susan and Entrecard Mod “Make a Pound” are one and the same person: http://entrecard.com/details/116135. Susan claims “Andy” is her fiance. Either way, when a person in that position attacks me, I will respond. He/She chose Bethe’s post Entrecard Bans Most Members From Forums-So Much For “Transparency.” to insult me. Here is her lovely quote:
turnip head just plays dirty because he is jealous of Graham turnip makes me laugh with how pathetic he is
So, I play dirty? I am pathetic? Need I mention when checking your Entrecard profile that you have turnipofpower.com listed as one of your favorite blogs? No matter. You get what you ask for, dirty and pathetic, just for you tonight Susan!
Let me take you back to December 4th 2008. I was banned from Entrecard that day for tweeting the words “Is that asshat from entrecard still wearing his asshat?” on twitter. Publicly I was accused of all kinds of nonsense on the Entrecard blog. Though the silly statements were retracted on the EC blog, my account was never unbanned, the 230k credits stolen never returned, and no public apology made. One would think that was the entire story, only because I remained quiet and have a policy of not publishing private email and conversations.
Thanks to Susan’s comment, I will now publish a private email to demonstrate how “dirty” I can be. The following email was sent to my private account on Saturday, December 6th by Graham Langdon. I will leave it up to my readers to compare what is said in the email vs. what was said on the blog publicly and in the forums. You be the judge of who plays fair with their readers.
hey turnip,
ok, so look. the way I figure it, we basically have two options:
1.) continue this silliness, it lasts for however long, blows over, whatever
2.) we use the position we’re in, and controversy surrounding us, to skyrocket both of ourselves to new levels. look, my traffic is surging. I’m sure yours is too. it is clearly in our best interest to work together, plan out the course of events and the drama, and make both of us more popular than ever. let’s turn it into an online soap opera. we’d be stupid not to.
now I don’t know exactly how you feel about the whole situation, but I’m guessing not half as polarized as you come off on your blog. in the end, you want the best possible outcome for your online brand, identity and audience, and so do I. …so, this is a once in a lifetime type of opportunity, the amount of people that are following this controversy right now. we could really do something interesting wit this. but we have to work together on it.
so if you’re interested in working together, let me know. I have some ideas.
and by the way, it would absolutely imperative that you keep this conversation in complete confidentiality.
My response was to ignore him. Fake controversy is not my style. If I post something controversial, I do not fake it. I research and document it as best I can. Could I have taken Graham’s bait, lost all credibility, and gotten a few more readers? Maybe. But then Susan’s attacks would really sting, because they would be true. So tell me, how do you feel about your traffic Santa now?
*Note: I have hundreds of hours of conversations with EC mods, admins, and programmers. It is not in my style to release correspondance of this nature. But if someone with mod status wants to up the ante and question my ethics, I don’t mind taking the bait on occasion.
“Andy’s” fiance huh… I’m tempted to connect the dots…
Turnip, that email shows just how warped the asshat really is… crap like that gets found out in a hurry and the results are never pretty.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to really launch an offense to let folks know just how slimy and sleazy the asshat, Graham Langdon has become.
What’s worse is he’s preying on mere teenagers to do his bidding, teaching them how to be slime-balls, too.
Boy, Turnip. The more you reveal about this whole EC thing, the more I wish I hadn’t wasted so many hours clicking that darn widget.
wow. and the dirt you did dish. delivered as promised. Honestly, I don’t see how it is possible for any informed bloggers to continue to facilitate Graham’s Entresillyness by their continued listing, dropping and presence in what is clearly a disfunctional and dying site. And I applaud you for all that you have done all along to publicize the Truth about what happens at EC.
“wit this”? He actually typed “wit this”??? ROFL!!!
Bumbling child idiot…
This is why i didn’t bother giving away my 10k credits to more than one person. I just wanted out, and I didn’t want EC to have the credits back…I wanted another EC user to have them…for however long EC might be around.
What a waste of time. Not your post, I found that quite entertaining. I mean EC.
Cheers!
Well done . . . nauseating, but well done.
Been saying for over a year he’s just a used car salesman with a keyboard and a stupid hat.
Anyone left on that car lot deserves the lemon he sells them.
lol…
here’s that picture I made for you (should work this time) – http://i43.tinypic.com/28l6lbr.jpg
James, I am amused at your artwork, however, that’s not a direction I’m going to take today’s post. But I will consider it for future articles.
The thing which struck me was the line “my traffic is surging”.
Traffic Santa delivers traffic to all the good little boys and girls.
But now I see the dark forces gathering on the horizon. Traffic Santa is angry. Some question whether or not traffic Santa really exists. Now Traffic Santa is running ads on my blog, but not paying me. If you still believe, drop cards faster and he might come back from vacation.
Man, it’s like an army of grammar killers.
Turnip, you continue to amaze me. I am still upset with the Rev. I am debating whether to try to get on the forums. I’ll bet he’s got it buttoned down tight so no one can complain. It reminds me of what goes on in the Congo. When Robert Mugabe travels to and from his home to work, if anyone is caught pointing at him they are immediately arrested, FOR POINTING. I think we should get together and do a mass EC slaughter with every single one of us linking to each other. What’s he going to do about it? You wanna?
As a businessman myself I just can’t understand the way Entrecard is being run at the moment.
The bad planning, woeful introduction of new initiatives and arrogant, dismissive treatment of bloggers by the “powers that be” almost defy belief. And it seems to get worse every day. They’ve developed a kind of siege mentality where Forums are closed, “VIP sections” are created and any criticism or even constructive suggestions are condemned as “flaming”. Sad.
“let’s turn it into an on line soap opera. we’d be stupid not to”
I think he is having his 15 minutes of fame now, with the world Internet leaders and teachers all looking on, but rather than “a once in a life time opportunity” the lessons rattling around the classroom will be one of how not to become an overnight failure.
This just gets better and better…
Private/heavily censored forums and no new blog posts in 15 days… someone check to see if Graham is on suicide watch.
You mean you didn’t? Good on you.
Love it.
Very insightful Turnip. As much as I’m enjoying the crash and burn of EC, I think I’m out. I’m starting to think that just maybe if we ignore it – well, maybe it will go away. As someone sort of said above, this negative publicity is still publicity after all.
That being said, if enough of got together and used the anchor text “Entrecard” to all point to a definitive place that talks about how bad it is, we might have a chance to actually stop or slow the next wave of victims. Just a thought. Actually, I think have the prefect domain – I’ll be back …
FYI – entrecardsucks.com is till available. I was tempted but did not take it. Anyone?
I’ll help with the traffic …
I like your idea. Notice the fanboys on twitter all use #entrecard now like it’s some secret codeword to get themselves noticed.
I was bored last night so I made a clone of the entrecard widget…but rather then it saying “thank you” when you click drop it says “go f*ck yourself”
I’m still waiting for a reply from anyone over there about the fact that they changed advertisiers campaigns from CPC to CPM notifying them less than 24 hours beforehand and over the weekend. So my budget went from $5 a day to $50…
Matt: Ouch, 1000 page views is just under 3 people dropping 300 cards each in a night. I wouldn’t pay for that either. But CPC is eaten up by widget surfers too, so it’s no-win either way.
Here’s a little more fuel for the fire.
Just go to http://choicebusinessblog.com where I’m chronicling the crap I find. Would you believe I’ve not received any EC for my blog posts since sometime before Mar 24?
I tried leaving a comment a second ago but looks like it hasn’t posted. Either way, the gist of it was – I wouldn’t put this past Graham anymore. Who knows what scam he’s coming up with next.
Any connection between being called ‘turnip head’ and ‘funny head’ a couple of weeks ago?
(now commenting as JohnM since another John appeared!)
Once again, I am so glad I left Entrecard! If that is truly how GL operates, then he is headed for internet obscurity like so many others. It was my mistake, but I paid for advertising on EC and then saw all the crap that was going on, and left the site. Just for personal giggles I asked for my money back. Hmmmm….never heard a word back other than an auto reply. Costly lesson learned!
I’m seeing the same crap as well. The bots are killing me and nothing I can do.
Well, that email just goes to show the true nature of the guy…he is just in it for himself. Someone who would even think of being that dishonest shows that he has no scruples and is someone who is not to be trusted. I actually feel sorry for those who have already surrendered their Social Security Numbers to the man. Who’s to say what he will do with them?? If he is willing to be dishonest with regards to your online conflict, where is the line going to be drawn?
I didn’t know that kind of drama goes on at EC. I’m still with them, but everyone seems okay.
It’s like a ghost town at Entrecard… The sheriff vanished in the night 10 days ago and 5 days back the deputy disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
John, These are dangerous times indeed for the citizens there. Will your name, email and other details be sold? Who’s watching the store when there are no mods? A source tells me someone other than Graham logs into the Entrecard account to post one sentence on the forum. But nobody has actually heard from the “g-man” publicly since he left town April 17th.
Just a quick thought: have you noticed that he hasn’t updated on Twitter since the 17th, either?
Tahtimbo, Nope, never occured to me to check, thanks for the heads up!
I’m outta there. Entrecard is just too bizarre. What sucks is that Grahm is gonna get 1/8th of my credits back by transferring 1000 credits at a time. (how Insane)
All that time – dropping and buying and dropping and .. You know the drill
Beamer
He’s probably hiding out until it all blows over. But from reactions I have seen over the web it is just escalating.
@James, thanks for the chuckle
@Tahtimbo, I too expressed concern over what those SS# will be used for. I do know some gave out that information so I expect to see more on this issue as EC continues its downward spiral and the resulting fallout. There’s no doubt in my mind this private information is going to be purged and it will be mis-used.
@JohnM, GL absence has been quite apparent so now Jr has left the building too? Interesting that he would give up all that power!
gardengnome1 on twitter
I got banned from the forums for asking in the forums why affiliate links were OK, but other words like “power” were not.
sendaiphotoblog: Did you expect any less from a child dictator?
The new forums rules say you’ll first get a warning, second a 1 week ban, and third a permanent ban.
It’s interesting to see they’ve broken their own rules within 24 hours!
Gosh! What happened :/ ?
Frankly I don’t understand EC’s concept.
I hardly get any visits from there anymore. Too bad. Some blogs were really interesting but maybe they are here? I just applied with my bilingual blog (articles in French & English).
I didn’t even know those were the new rules. I’ll ask.
Since my IP was banned I cannot view the new rules. Care to post a screenshot?
New Forum Rules
——————————————————————————–
Hey Entrecarders!
In our continued efforts to make the forums a positive, peaceful place where members can interact productively, we’ve made a number of changes to the rules. We’re trying to keep them simple and efficient.
Rule 1.) All forums are open to Entrecard members only. Please place a link to your Entrecard blog in your forum signature to keep your forum account in good standing.
Rule 2.) All forums, except the VIP lounge, are open to everyone. VIP lougne is still open only to those who have bought over 400 ads with credits.
Rule 3.) Attacks on Entrecard, staff, or other members, and any attempts to cause needless controversy, will not be tolerated, and will be invisibly removed.
Rule 4.) Actions taken on behalf of the Entrecard moderation staff are not up for public discussion.
Actions taken:
1st infringement: warning
2nd infringement: suspension from forum for 1 week
3rd infringement: banning of forum account and Entrecard account.
This latest set of rules by the EC Gauleiters indicates they don’t want any discussion or criticism. You can only assume they’re trying to persuade some potential buyer that they’ve got a co-operative captive blogger audience.
It’s hard to believe their incompetence and paranoia – even to the extent that if you type “turnip” on their forum, it actually blanks the word out !
Sad.
Jim – I would love to see an EC mention on your blog!
This was censored from the Entrecard forum, I’m not sure why
—–
I can’t do the Entrecard math. Entrecard paid advertisers are paying $0.60 for 1000 advert views.
Paying with credits works out as follows:
2048 credits for a blog with popularity 2239. Popularity is over 5 days so the blog gets 447 impressions. Half of those go to a paid advertiser, leaving 224 for the credit advertiser.
That works out at 9163 credits for 1000 impressions. The cashout value is $1 per 1000 so if I’ve worked it out right, credit advertisers have to pay $9.16 for 1000 impressions.
Surely it can’t be right that the same impressions cost $0.60 for paid advertisers and $9.16 for credit advertisers. That’s like we’re second class citizens or something.
Nazicard: How EC charges bloggers $9.16 for 1000 impressions and Advertisers only $0.60 for 1000 impressions is one of the great mysteries. The answer though is pretty simple. Credits don’t really have any value over there. The fact that EC will deduct 10k credits from an account and then send you $10, simply means you were given a good behavior reward. Can you sell 10k credits weekly for $10, or can everyone sell 10k credits even once? The answer is no. EC seems to be paying random people for some positive publicity.
I’ve just had another post censored from the EC Forum too and I’m THAT close to telling them to piss off.
As you know Turnip, I’m attempting one last ditched effort with Entrecard by refusing to accept paid EC Ads .. that said, I originally found your blog through Entrecard and was floored when they booted you. I have never been active in the forums, because the few times I checked them out, I found the mods and many other users to be extremely rude and then the complaints about comments being removed etc .. anyway, I decided to stay well away from there.
The math regarding the paid ads never made any sense to me, and still doesn’t. I work hard for my credits and don’t want to blow them off on a site that does accept paid ads, where my ad is only going to be seen 50% of the time. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
Your continuing saga with EC is beyond ridiculous (on THEIR part!) It seriously has me considering finding the sites that don’t accept paid ads and blowing all of my credits before giving EC the boot.
BTW .. thanks for the retweet today, and the comment on my blog
Diane, my advice to you is to create your own drop list of sites that don’t have paid ads and keep it updated. Do not drop on the inbox spammers. As you drop from your list, keep an eye out for scoundrels that accept paid ads and signed up for your list anyway. Be sure to out them regularly. you might want to create your own twitter channel to keep members updated. It’s this sort of grass roots effort that pushed me towards making my own ad agency instead of wasting my time suggesting changes to something long obsolete.
After reading this post, I am very glad that I left Entrecard. The system just started going downhill a few months ago, and it sounds like it has gotten much worse since I left.
By the way, I just signed up for CMF ads as an advertiser. The concept behind CMF sounds much more feasible.
Nathan
Thanks for giving CMF a try Inkweaver.
It would’ve been best to just squash it and move on. Well, things happens.
Regards,
Jermaine