The Reddit Incident

In the fall of 2022, I came into a reddit I’d frequented off and on, and found someone in the act of posting some ridiculous and easily disproven claims about me. The person was not a client and was angry at me for not accepting their business because they asked for extra services not offered. They were hiding behind a fake account. When I told them they should use their real reddit handle if they meant what they were saying, I was “permanently banned,” and the mod (who had been a friend) began spewing the most ridiculous and nonsensical things at me in a PM. I just took it as this was a reddit which had been garbage forever and has become very recently popular, and the mod wanted all his “fans” to love him so I just let it go. There’s a lot of crappy people who have fits when you don’t allow them to hire you. It’s like a quick storm and amounts to nothing. It wasn’t worth my time or effort to protest or explain or even worry on it. 

For about 4-5 months, I’d get reports about this but I always took it as the same incident. I was pretty busy and I just thought it was really sweet clients and friends telling me about that silly fake account making stories. I’d roll my eyes and be like “I know, but that person is not mentally well so I’m not gonna bother,” or similar. Trust and know very little escapes my notice if you post it or say it. It was when I spoke to a would-be wanna be new for hire practitioner who I’d met on that reddit about 4-5 months later over her own bizarre behavior that I realized this was not some isolated event, but a campaign. Seeing it was both hilarious (because it’s so obviously false and disprovable, not that anyone asked my side,) and horrible (because I don’t even know nor have I ever met most of those people in my fucking life, if they are even truly multiple people as it has been shown later it’s the same handful for the most part.) It’s not even well made lies for much of it, and other stuff criticizes practices I don’t have, practices I do have, and even things which are entirely untrue (one person goes on about how they understand how I got all those chargebacks I have which for unsuccessful ones is 2 in 2 years, and 0 successful ones, - ie no one got any money by attempting them - and total this is less than even a quarter of one percent of all my sales in 2 years, anyhow,) so it’s just a baffling parade of hate. 

I was informed by a former participant that they were offered free services in trade to post lies and ugly things about me, and felt the proof shown of this happening while not undeniable was at the least supportive that they were bribed. 

Having no idea of the underlying cause, I cannot give one. Yeah, sometimes I don’t let people hire me, and they act shitty, but I never took their money so they shouldn’t offer up any review. Yep, I’ve had a few people act out repeatedly to the point of being very abusive and get warnings and then fired in the last 20 years in business, and for the most part they did not act crazy once fired but at least a quarter did have some real issues and freaked out, so there are those who are not my fans. I’ve had a few epic stalkers. This here? This is weird and creepy. So  I hope the following helps to answer some questions about what’s happening next. 

People have asked for example, if they were involved are they getting in trouble and etc. Let’s just make a little question/answer here, and if I don’t cover your question, please contact me and I will personally attend to it. 

“I was involved because (reason, even no reason is fine,) and as I wasn’t a ring leader, but I just went along for (reason/no reason) am I going to get in trouble?”

Well, legally probably not. If you posted lies or defamatory statements (technically praise or nice things too, heh) or if you posted parts of emails (which is also forbidden), they are $3000 each as per your contract and the easy way to avoid that is I couldn’t collect if there’s no post, or comment or anything that goes against the posting/sharing clause that can be traced back to you. It is $3000 per each one of your posts or comments or reviews or articles or etc, so I get the honest concern but it’s in the contract. I will stipulate -for this incident only- anything that requires my removing of the item, so that relieves some people (who complained on say a business policy I don’t deny having,) of any financial burden even if they were rude about it. I realize if you were going on a tear that’s hard to be sure you got everything you ever said (even though that bespeaks a level of involvement that may mandate my addressing it,) but if you worry you’re missing stuff and it’s keeping you up at night you can always ask. I have people who can help if you genuinely want our help. If you just want to leave nasty shit up and take your chances, it honestly might not be of much worry depending on the level of involvement so that’s fine as well. 

“I want to go after these people!” And also “Are you coming after me now?”

Look, I tend to ignore this stuff for the very reason that most of it is well below me to even pay it attention which is what the perpetrator wants. I don’t want to give anyone fame for being a weird stalker in a bullying group fixated on a person most of them clearly have never even interacted with. If you got involved, part of me feels sorry for you because you must be very lonely and insecure to think this was normal or acceptable. The reality is, if you’re not a ringleader, and you don’t spend your days putting up lies and trash about me and you remove anything you did to participate, you’re fine. I don’t even want to acknowledge this. I’m ashamed I even know some of these people, and not ashamed of myself in the sense I deserve this, but like embarrassed to have spoken to or even considered one a friend at one time, because normal healthy people don’t do this stuff. 

“I had a legitimate complaint! I swear!” 

Very well, if you swear that’s so, you bring it to me using my email or the general contact form and use the title “Legitimate Complaint,” and I will go over it and point out any contract violations on your part prior to the incident, any following if applicable, and if the complaint is invalid, why that is. I promise you if a SINGLE PERSON comes to me with a valid legitimate complaint that was in no way dealt with by me, I will forgive some resulting posting/sharing violation, PLUS will remedy the situation with them the best I can and hopefully bring about a proper closure. 

At one point, my email (when on my old host in the fall) was not sending email properly, and maybe there is a valid complaint I need to address, so please do not hesitate to let me know, and there will be no shaming of you or anything of the sort. I pride myself on dealing with this stuff fairly. It troubles me to think someone may have such a problem and I will attend to it. 

“You have no write to dictate what people post!” 

Yes and no. I have rules and regulations which are agreed to at the time of purchase which I can hold paying clients to and which are legally enforceable. I can also prosecute people for causing any loss of business if they post anything dishonest. I also have the right to have people removed from varying sites, to report any illegal behaviors…I am not even listing all my own rights. I’m very much a live and let live person, but when people legit make a hate group dedicated to smearing my name, that’s very creepy and I think most people would react. 

“I’m troubled by something posted. It upset me. What do I do?” 

You can ask it be removed from whichever side posted it. You can discuss it with me. I can’t speak for the other parties as to if you can discuss it with them, but I understand this is very upsetting for many innocent people and I’ll try to help if I can. 

“I can’t bully a bully so I’m going to keep doing this stuff, haha, and take out my anger at someone else on you, Cat, wheeeee!” 

I am not a nice person when pushed too far and too much but I’m far from being a bully. And being a bully doesn’t become acceptable because someone told you someone else is one. If you have anger issues and like harassing strangers on the Internet because it makes you feel better about yourself, I feel badly for you, and strongly recommend you seek psychiatric help for your issues. 

“Do you hate me?”

I’m definitely deeply disgusted by a few people to the point of almost being impressed that they would sink so low, but no, I don’t hate anyone involved. I don’t have respect left for the ring leaders, for sure, but mostly I’m disgusted or feel pity for people so needy for some sort of group to belong to that they actually thought this was acceptable. I also pity those too scared to not play along. It’s pretty sad, really. 

“How many chargebacks DID YOU GET?” 

Lifetime? I think it’s 4-5 that stuck, and maybe 12-16 that didn’t come close to sticking that were in my favor that being in 19 years of business. It’s hard to say as most of them don’t work out and are really just someone acting out which is forgettable. In the last 2 years like I’ve said in more than one spot it’s 2 attempts, 0 successful chargebacks. I might be wrong but it seems to me I’d remember it, as Mr NinjaCat gets in a rage over them far more than I do, so the 2 attempted really stand out in memory. 

Wait, you’re threatening to out me now? I’m a client or I was one and you can’t."

I can if I’m forced to and I will if I must report you to any legal or justice services, the owners and workers of reddit, the mods, and anyone else who may have concerns should you be forcing me to do so. It’s the last thing I want but in some cases some clearly illegal stuff is going on, and I worry some participants are beginning to cross the line into being a danger to themselves or others, so only in cases where they clearly are endangering my well being, their well being, my clients’ well being, or threatening anyone’s life, or inviting or encouraging others to cause damage or harm to anyone’s life…loss of job when you’re the breadwinner is pretty crappy so if you’re attempting to lose me business and use false statements, or suggest to others I’m engaged in practices I am not (I literally could put all the complaints - excluding from this incident - made on me in almost 20 years and they would be much less than the several - many under different handles but by the same person, that I was sent screenshots of just from this incident, which sure seems suspect that I would change so drastically only to a small set of people tho and in my mid forties, but gullible people might believe the lies,) and only in the desire to cripple my ability to support those who depend on me, that’s literally threatening the lives of myself and my dependents, too, so I will react there. So if you’re not doing any of that, definitely nothing to worry on. If you’re concerned, please contact me and I’ll make sure you know if you are in a position to have any private information revealed out of necessity.

This sounds weird. I don’t know how to process this. Is this normal?

No. Nope. This is some batshit stuff right here.