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Johnny Longfellow's avatar

So, I opted to wait to comment 'til it appeared others had had their say about my essay. As the number of comments have remained at a total of 37 for a good number of hours, I think now is a good time to offer my own follow-up thoughts.

First, I want to thank the majority of folks for whom the essay resonated and also those few who were less than enthused. The reason I thank both groups is because if anything, I think the essay served to be something of an ice-breaker in terms of discussing some of the negative behaviors we all witness in online spaces among writers and publishers alike.

Next, I want to remind that larger group for whom the essay resonated of the old Chinese proverb, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." I remind you of that because while I understand much of the frustration expressed in your comments, the proverbial darkness surrounding dogpiles, smear campaigns, false accusations, and damaged reputations is going to continue to exist. Reason being, social media is anarchic, and when it comes to online mobs, there is no central authority to appeal to for redress.

Recognizing that fact, the way I've chosen to light a candle is not simply to have written the essay above. I also host the On the Record blog, where James Diaz' Testimonial is archived. If you're a writer or publisher who's been the target of a dogpile and/or smear campaign where your peers have defamed and libeled you, then I am more than willing to try and help you, should you wish. And, I will do so free of charge.

How can I help you? I can help you to collect, organize, and analyze the “receipts” of any dogpile and/or smear campaign to which you’ve been subjected. And, to aid you in composing an argument that pushes back against any lies your peers told about you, and/or illogical arguments they made against you. Such a testimonial can be shared with individual writers or publishers should they come to you with questions based on rumors or gossip they heard. Or, it can be shared online via social media if deemed necessary to more publicly counter your detractor(s), most especially if they seek to continue (or resume) their smear campaign against you.

Please note, I understand how collecting, organizing, and analyzing such data about yourself can be triggering. As such, I can do as much or as little as you wish in terms of interacting with such derisive materials. I can also serve as a sounding board for sorting through all the myriad accusations and claims made against you in order to focus on those which are at the heart of the smear you suffered. In so doing, I can help to restore at least *some* of that sense of Self you had before your peers screwed with both your head and your reputation, and also provide you with something tangible to push back against any continued campaigning on their part.

With all that in mind, if you've been a target of an online dogpile and/or smear campaign and feel a testimonial would help you, then I can be reached by email at midnightlanegallery@gmail.com, or on Twitter @BAD_ACID_LABS

I’ll add, in the closing paragraph of the “Contextualizing Hobart Pulp,” I asked those who are tired of being passive bystanders and might wish to participate in awareness raising campaigns for their thoughts. But, the only two people in the comments who shared their thoughts on that matter was James Diaz and Alina Stefanescu.

This, I will admit, was a tad disappointing. Though, I’ll acknowledge the lack of curiosity related to what an awareness raising campaign might look like could at least be in part due to the open-ended manner in which I posed the question. And, little concrete detail as to what such an awareness raising campaign might entail, beyond my offering James’ testimonial and Michael Schmeltzer's FB slideshow as suggested reading.

Here, I think the question is, how might you light a candle? First, consider taking your primary focus off those who do the targeting and place it instead on those who've been targeted. For, the latter group is far and away more important than the former from an ethical perspective. Moreover, from a practical standpoint, it’s far easier to help one who’s been targeted than it is to change the collective behavior of a group of bullies.

Next, consider speaking up for those who’ve been targeted. Speaking up can be as simple as posting a testimonial on your social media platform, should a target desire such aid in order to help them rewrite the false narrative others have composed about them. Becky did that for James when she promoted their testimonial recently on this very Substack, as did Misery Tourism when they replatformed some of James’ poetry. If you’re a writer and/or publisher, others might need similar help from you promoting their stories or deplatformed work in the future. (And, you never know. You yourself might need such help in the future.)

If you wish to be an active bystander in pushing back against those cases where the Wisdom of the Crowd turns out to not be any too wise, then you can reach me at the same email address or Twitter handle I left earlier in this comment. Beyond building a pool of participants potentially willing to post any future testimonials, I'd also certainly appreciate volunteer help from anyone with a social science background in qualitative research to aid in collecting, organizing, and coding materials such as tweets and Facebook posts, should the need arise. For, I sense there’s a very good chance that need will arise.

If you have any related experience, I’d be glad to hear from you. Hell, if you have no experience at all, but wish to learn some basics in terms of conducting qualitative research and utilizing the findings to perform victim advocacy relative to online bullying, I’d also be glad to hear from you.

On that note, take care.

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Danielle Rose's avatar

An element missing from this fantastic write up is that in the current climate where most literature exists in a closed-world community of other writers, the lack of external measures of success means that gaining "clout" functions more like high school cliques than like any meaningful engagement between writers and critics.

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