Joe Cumia never took a swatting from those fellas, and they really gave him hell. It's just not how they do it.
No person in the history of O&A, before or after Reddit, ever had the cops called on them. SWATing is a quite recent phenomenon centred around streaming, and has been really fucking controversial since it started. It doesn't make a whole lick of sense to do it to some guy who isn't streaming, because there'd be no pay off. We only got the audio through sheer luck, there shouldn't have been anything outside of the call log. The only other reason to do it is if you're some kind psychopath who wants to legitimately harm or traumatize the person in question.
I can't see anyone from onaforums doing this shit. They might be bastards and degenerates but they're not stupid. I don't even suspect it's a KF lurker a la Nadolski, that's just too big a leap for a rando to make in my opinion. If the call was a work, my money's on Twitter, Discord or Twitch lunatics. They're petty, short-sighted and deranged enough to do something like that on a whim.
One thing I will say is, the OnA guys do appear to be willing to go harder in the paint than they used to. They seem unbridled now that they aren't reliant on reddit, and the antics of Chris Kuhn seem to have changed them a bit.
I don't think things have gotten worse, just different. Back with Joe, Ant, Logan Lynn, etc, the trolling was more of a guerilla thing. Direct confrontation was pretty rare, they wouldn't often pop up on the sub to duke it out mano-a-moro. On their public profiles, they usually wouldn't acknowledge the OnA crowd, or at least learned not to, but in private they'd do gay behind-the-scenes shit like DMCA strikes and the rascals would respond in kind by reporting their Twitters or signing them up for the Big Apple Ranch monthly newsletter. Once they got results, the pests would triumphantly record them and all would rejoice and gloat.
The interaction with Rick is quite different because of his insanity. He will engage 100% of the time, guaranteed, no matter how silly the initial message. Everything he says is so autistic, so haughty and so delusional it's both hilarious and infuriating at the same time. That really helped to change the dynamic. The barrier of entry for participation was lowered significantly because he just can't let the idiots win. His pig-headed obstinacy was great fodder for pests to riff on and come up with innovative new bits. He's like a blank canvas to trolls, something they can explore the full breadth of their creativity on. The end result is a trolling pattern that's a lot more intense and personal, because anyone can do it (



), because he allows them to do it. Joe and Ant were smart enough to tap out from time to time, and eventually indefinitely, so you had something of a trolling cycle. With Pat, it never fucking ends.
In terms of the actual severity of the bits though, I don't think it's gotten noticeably worse. Most of it is the same shit they did back in the old place, with the exception of the text messages, but that's his own fault. Joe's number and email were known to everyone for ages as well, but he never got anywhere near as much in his inbox, simply because he didn't bother responding to most of them.
The one thing I'll say people have gotten more gungho about is getting riskier with their own shit. Since the lawsuit, you see a lot more sharing of personal information and IRL gags than before. Some users have made a sport of skirting as close as possible to self-doxing just to make a mockery of Rick's incessant threats of jail time, time running low and knocks and the awaiting thereof. They're like matadors trying to bait the bull closer with every charge, except instead of a bull it's an obese waterbuffaler or one of those warthogs whose tusks grow out into their own skulls.
Patrick S. Tomlinson will attend, be a panelist and sign books at GenCon @ Indianapolis August 4th-7th
Full list of events he's on:
View attachment 3538455
live -
archived
Note it says "free" but you need a con pass I assume, which costs $65 / $80 for Friday and Saturday (lol). They have something called GenCon Online going on at the same time but it's unclear if they livestream some panels or it's a separate thing.
Link to archived event page for each + description
- Know Thy Weapons - What to do in writing if you're not a gun or sword expert but your character is. Richard Lee Byers, Chris A. Jackson, Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Social Media Basics for Writers - SOLD OUT - Learn how to make the most of your social media. Cat Rambo, John Wiswell, Gregory A. Wilson, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Steve Drew (M)
- Adding Maps to your Writing - The plusses and minuses to having maps in your book. Paul Weimer, Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Spit and Polish - Once you finish your manuscript, what's next? Jennifer Brozek, LaShawn M. Wanak, Katherine Monasterio, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Howard Andrew Jones
- Writing in 3D - How to make sure your scenes have a feeling of physical space. Jennifer Brozek, Gini Koch, Erin M. Evans, Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Trunk Novels - Most writers have at least one book they wrote but doubt they'll ever publish. Hear about some of ours. Erik de Bie, Patrick S. Tomlinson
- When One Book Becomes Many - Making a stand-alone novel into a trilogy or more. Patrick S. Tomlinson, Jennifer Brozek, Marie Bilodeau
- Working with Editors - What should you know and what can you do to improve the process? LaShawn M. Wanak, Katherine Monasterio, David Mack, Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Book Signing with Donald J. Bingle and Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Book Signing with David Mack and Patrick S. Tomlinson
This type of conventions are faggot city which means concealing your face with a mask is not only common but
required indoors (aren't vaccines amazing?) and they might even accommodate attending under a pretend name to cater to mentally ill trannies. Anybody going?
Did you pick out the relevant panels to post here or is that the full list and Rick decided to attend every single one because he's an expert at everything?