Apology

[norwich36]

I've been encouraging svmaria to publically apologize for the events that occurred in December, since as I said to her here , apologizing only to people who refriended her smacks of saying that she only cares if she hurt people who like her, when she hurt a lot more people than her f-list with her lies. {Edited to add: She has now made public her original apology, cut and pasted into to the entry I linked to above.)

And I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth is. At some point during the beginning of the whole fake accident mess, when it wasn't clear who was or was not a sockpuppet, I publically made the argument that svmaria might be a sockpuppet of herohunter, based on some speculation on svmaria's early activities on livejournal. Based on IP evidence and some other information I am not at liberty to reveal, I am now completely convinced that herohunter and svmaria are two separate people, so I would like to publically apologize to herohunter for accusing her of making up sockpuppets and therefore making up the story. I now believe that herohunter was mislead horribly by Maria, and I deeply regret if I caused herohunter pain by stating my speculations publically. I am truly very sorry for that, and for any harm my speculations may have caused to her reputation.

Comments

[herohunter.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your words, I appreciate them. That said, you owe me no apology. I again apologize for having brought this despicable event to the community. It will not happen again by my hand, I promise.

I never understood the purpose of a sockpuppet and I still don't, to tell you the truth, but I can see that they're still alive and very well, AND communicating with each other. *shakes head*

Thanks again, hon.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

It's regrettable that you were the target of her deceptions. Hell, it's regrettable that the fandom had to suffer because she's a compulsive liar. There was enough pain floating around as a consequence of her actions; I'm just sorry if I contributed to it.

[allzugern.livejournal.com]

Aw, you know, you certainly weren't alone. That whole situation was so disturbingly chaotic, it was very difficult to sort the lies and suspicions from the truth. And, unfortunately, the only way to get to the bottom of it all was to toss out all the evidence and speculation and pick through it.

It *did* appear there was some connection between HH and svm, and it took a lot of digging to realise that HH was just another victim -- probably the one who svm hurt the most. Still, many of us, HH AND myself included, gave her the opportunity to take advantage -- and she did.

I just feel really badly for all the true newbies to sv fandom who instead of getting an open armed welcome, from what has always been one of the most friendly fandoms around, are now treated with distance and suspicion.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think suspicion that all newbies are sockpuppets is the worst fallout from all of this. And I don't see a solution to that, and it makes me very sad.

[acampbell.livejournal.com]

I hope we can all ultimately move on from this. I admit, I was addicted while we were all trying to figure out what was going on, but now it all seems so very sad and unfortunate.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

As I said to allzugern, to me the worst fallout from all this is that all newbies are going to be under suspicion as sockpuppets for a long time to come, and that doesn't make for a very welcoming fandom atmostphere.

[petit-rhino.livejournal.com]

Could you clarify something for me? What exactly is a sockpuppet?

I'm quite new to the SV fandom and it's not my primary fandom (Firefly is), but I would find it very sad if people were driven away from it, because *one* person lied.

That said, even though I've come to this fandom mostly for fics, I've found you all to be welcoming (and some of you really talented). So, thank you.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_sock_puppet and
http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Sockpuppet explain the concept pretty well. Basically, a sock is an account you create separate from your main account which can be used to stir up trouble, or defend your main identity to make it look like you have more support than you do, or lurk places you have been banned from in your main identity, or to recreate yourself when you've done something that makes you a fandom pariah.

And since lots of people suspect that Maria has created not just one but multiple socks in her attempts to return, there is a general suspicion that people with new accounts may be another sockpuppet of hers.