Why I no longer post at Ryze.

If you actually read my blog... and why would you? You'd know that I use it to draft stories and articles and sometimes just to write about stuff.

I don't require commentary, but I like it when my friends do. I don't solicit commentary, but I like it when people point out things I may have missed or give me new information that didn't exist when I originally wrote the blog, I even like it when people point out that I made an error in calculations.

Those are the great sorts of commentary that one expects to receive as a blog-writer.

What one doesn't typically receive and I wonder why people feel inclined to write them are commentaries that are deliberately insulting. Recently I received a comment, signed "anonymous", of course, telling me that the reason I was having a hard time with ex-employees was because I wasn't a kind person. Right on the heels of another comment suggesting that they didn't like the colour of my blog and therefore it wasn't worth returning.

Well, for starters, my ex-employee didn't leave because I wasn't kind and I really couldn't care less whether or not the person commenting, likes the look of my blog. I didn't create it for them.

That said.

The commenter hails from California; Fountain Valley, in fact. And the even more interesting thing is that I actually know someone from Fountain Valley... Isn't that weird? And to add insult to injury, something happened shortly before these two posts that would lead me to believe that this person was mad enough at me to want to get back at me.

But for some unknown reason, that person isn't wise enough or savvy enough to know that NOTHING you post on the internet is anonymous, even if you make a point of not signing your name.

So, I bet you're wondering what happened to cause this woman to hate me so much that she'd post hateful things to my blog?

Well, I'm not proud and since libel is only libel if it is untrue... here's the story, because frankly, the whole incident was childish, insulting and never should have been given the light of day.

Back in August, a woman by the name of Althea Garner got into a flame war with a couple of fellows on Ryze. Althea claimed to Ryze Administration that they were harassing her, and both of them got suspended; no questions asked.

Well a horrific, uproar ensued and Ryzers began a write-in campaign asking for either the reinstatement of the two men or the equal suspension of Althea, since she had given as good as she got in the flame war.

Well, the suspension was granted by Ryze Admin.

Shortly thereafter, I came up on the receiving end of Althea's radar and she sent a misplaced email to Ryze Admin, calling for my suspension. Without question or explanation. I found myself on the receiving end of a suspension.

Two months later, I was lurking, still waiting for my "suspension" to be lifted or even acknowledged by Ryze Administration, when Althea went into a network and posted the outright lie to everyone and sundry who could read it that she had no idea who had complained about me to Ryze Admin, but that she had nothing to do with it and she went so far as to suggest that I had upset someone else on another network.

I lost it.

Me losing it isn't pretty.

Well, I decided that since Ryze Admin was blatantly ignoring me anyway, and that at this point, I really didn't care whether or not I ever got back into Ryze because anyone that ran a network like that didn't deserve any hit generation that I might be party to. So, I created a persona and I named it: Althea Garner is a bold-faced liar. And then I posted this story and included a copy of the email that Althea was stupid enough to have forgotten that she'd cc'd me on, when she complained to Ryze Admin calling for my suspension. Duh!

Well, before I knew what had happened, Althea had finally shown her true colours publicly, had insulted the owner of that network and everyone who posted there, gone into her own, now no longer existent network, and posted how outraged she was over the indignity she was being made to suffer at my hand. She made nasty hateful PMs to the owner of the network, threatened her children with horrible diseases, etc. And ultimately came in here and posted those two hateful posts.

Well, suffice it to say, I was right about never being allowed back into Ryze. I apologized for losing it, and asked to be let back in.

Well, I've more pride than that... So, here I sit, receiving hateful posts to my blog, that will never see the light of day and the only thing Althea Garner can do about it is pout.

So now, Ryze Admin is in the unwelcome position of having been used to further Ms. Garner's ends, of having acted on her lies and made to look foolish and of losing my business, although truth be told, they hadn't received any yet, because I'd made my decision to become a paying member at the beginning of the tight cash flow period and as such, hadn't given them any money yet.

But I'll be damned if I'll do so now. Well, truth be told, and all humility aside (I did write the admin and apologize for my "you're a liar" post. I also asked if he could let me know when this suspension (which was based on a liar's lie and uncalled for to begin with), would end...

I was told to come back in a year or two.

Guess what...

Ryze Admin... You can feel free to share this with Althea Garner: THIS is for you: