Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories

Vanilla 1.1.8 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome Guest!
Want to take part in these discussions? If you have an account, sign in now.
If you don't have an account, apply for one now.
    •  
      CommentAuthorRorschach
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010
     
    I spent a fair amount of time trying to decide on the appropriate category for this topic, and finally settled on "General" because there are about four different categories that it *could* go into but they all seemed a little too limiting.

    I first discovered Robert Stanek a couple years ago due to an excellent thread on asoiaf.westeros.org (a George RR Martin forum), detailing his dubious activities with self-promotion on the internet. Stanek, for the uninitiated, is a self-published fantasy author who has created hundreds of sockpuppets on Amazon.com to give his books 5-star reviews and trick people into buying his books. I immediately found the guy interesting, and kept tabs on him for about a year. Eventually, when I'd finished the series I was currently working on, I decided to spork him, figuring the world could only benefit from knowing truly how how horrible a writer he is. The sporkings have been going slow, for a variety of reasons, and I couldn't stop thinking that the world could also only benefit from a detailed compilation of everything this guy has done, written up nicely and in one convenient location for quick reference. However, that seemed like a lot of work, and so I spent seven or eight months just slowly collecting links and information about the guy, until finally in December '09 I started actively writing what turned into a series of articles about him.

    Which I present to you now.

    http://conjugalfelicity.wikispaces.com/robertstanek

    I'd love to hear what you all think about him, but even more, I'd love to get some feedback about the articles themselves. This is the first time I've ever written something along these lines and any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. This is essentially the first time they've ever been "published", considering that the only people who have seen them have been people who frequent my site, and due to the infrequency of updates that has been approximately no one.

    And ow that I have finally (sort of) finished these, maybe I can get back to sporking and writing things for II.
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010 edited
     

    The only thing I know about Stanek is that either he is a multiple amputee or a really bad photoshopper.


    Look ma, no legs! Also, his hand is not attached to an arm… is he clasping hands with Thing?

    On your articles, I will say on Part One (An Army of Sockpuppets) that I’m impressed with your diligence and use of hard statistical evidence and comparisons. Not only does it highlight the issues you’re talking about, but it also lends you as an analysist a lot of credibility. As well, I found some of your numbers very interesting. 299 5-star reviews? Please. And finally (on the same section), the bit at the end about the Amazon Verified Purchase was very enlightening. Probably the most damning evidence in my opinion.

    ...

    In prison, people like them usually get shanked.

    EDIT: Now I’ve read through the four -part essay, I can say that it was professionally constructed, well written and thoroughly researched. You’ve done a good job on this, I’m really impressed. I now move on to the sporkings, because I quite like your writing style.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010
     

    That was brilliant ,Kawnliee.

    Everything was researched, thought out, well written. Very professional, no words can describe how amazing that was. I hope you stick around here, because you write great articles.

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeFeb 9th 2010
     

    Very impressive Kawnliee, good work.

  1.  

    Omygod! You’re the one who did the Seven Sleepers Spork. I’ve been looking all over the intawebz trying to find it again and now you’ve handily linked me to the site. Thankee.

    Also, your articles on RS are great. He’s a disgusting person.

  2.  

    I second Inspector Karamazov.

    And by the way, what happened with your Stanek sporkings on your LJ? They were so much fun to read

  3.  
    So I've been stalking around Stanek's stuff lately. I haven't read all of rorscach's articles on him, but I found a horribly made, egotistical website he set up for himself. What is it? RuinMist.com? No, he's such a ham he called it RobertStanek.com. Within it is a fake interview he has with himself, with the interviewer constantly comparing him to Tolkien.
    News flash, Stanek, that shows off your work as unoriginal knockoffs, not genius. And he says he was influenced by asian culture to write these? Really? Bleeeack, that must make Asians feel so proud.

    The weirdest thing is he made a Robert Stanek forum. And it's full of users talking about his work as if they love it. None of them say it's bad? Not one? No criticism? I guess Rob gets butthurt and bans any real users that sign up, because, as fantastic as this sounds, the most reasonable conclusion is that every member on that forum are sockpuppets he made himself. After the amazon thing, that might not sound too surprising, but keep in mind this is a forum where users post somewhat regularly. Actually, that's not quite true, as many of the most recent posts in each board are aged by years. The most recent thread is May 17, 2011, and the contents within has me in stitches.

    http://ruinmist.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=extras&action=display&thread=1196&page=1

    It's an obvious spambot, and... an administrator MOVED the spam thread to the 'extras' board, with the remark "Please post your adds here!"
    o_0
    What?
    So either Rob can't tell this thing is a spambot, or, more likely, he is well aware of this fact and wants the spambots to post there, showing that marking up his forum as adspace is a desired source of revenue for him.

    Oh, and he was a facebook page... none of his wall posts on it are people criticizing him (surprise!). Any posts not made by him are praising his series. But that's few and far between because he posts on his own wall hamming up ruin mist a lot.

    Oh, and he also made a large series of books called... "bugville critters"? What?

    One last thing: every time I see a picture of him, with his non-matching beard and hair color and that stoic look on his face, and those narrow, bright blue eyes that stare though your soul, I want to wash my eyes out.
    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeMay 21st 2011
     

    Wait, you’re the one who wrote the Stanek articles? Huh. I can’t believe I never realized that.
    All I can say is: Good job.