Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Paladin Schmaladin: Worked Up Over Nothing?

So, the Ferraro saga has taken may twists and turns lately. Ferraro is not who they said they are and actually claims to have had seven different people working on the site (though WoW.com refutes this claim).

For those of you who do not know, Ferraro was a Paladin blog with great guids for all specs. The guides are still there in case you are interested in checking them out. All of the other stuff has been taken down. No more cutsie wootsie stuff or Lost reviews. If you went there for the pictures of a girl, that is gone too since that is not Ferraro.

If you want to see the real "Ferraro", she can be found at TechDarling. She has issued a video about the whole stolen identity thing.

So, what are people so mad about? If you are mad that you have been "betrayed", then get over it. Regardless of the fact that Ferraro may or may not have been a girl, and definately was not the one pictured, should not take away from the fact that there was a lot of good information on that site. If you went there for something besides gaining knowledge of your class or a funny story here and there, then shame on you. There is plenty of porn on the web if you were trying to get your jollies.

The internet is not a place to trust people. If you trust everyone on the internet, you will always be waiting for you 1 million dollars from the Nigerian prince or wonder how someone is using your credit card number to buy stuff at a walmart in Wisconsin. Take the site for what it was. It was entertainment and it was informative Paladin stuff. Let go of your hurt feelings and realize that this person was trying to get people to view their site any way possible. Was it a bit underhanded? Perhaps, but they knew what kind of large audience they could get drooling over there by posting as a young lady who works for Blizzard.

If your biggest disapointement is that it was not Sarah Townsend actually writing the site, then get over it. There are bigger things in life the be outraged by. Someone lying on the internet is not news. I think somebody telling the truth on the internet is a much bigger deal.

I guess I am of the same thought as Gevlon in this situation. If you always trust people you dont know you will be in for a lifetime of hurt and disapointment. Toughen up.

I also have a confession to make. It may shock you that I am not actually a Dwarf or a Warrior. I dont have a red flat top. Contrary to popular belief, I do not have giant skulls on my shoulders either. :)

If anyone should be upset in this whole situation, it is the girl who had her identity stolen. Everyone else should just get over it and move on.

14 comments:

The Renaissance Man said...

To be honest, what bothered me was the outright plaigurism of several posts, so I'm glad that "Ferraro" cleaned that up after she got exposed.

Unknown said...

Some people have a very visceral reaction at being lied to. They don't like it. Ignoring that, though, the spectacle should make you ask a more important question:


Are you sure that there was good paladin information on Ferraro's blogWhen writing a blog, you can imagine a spectrum of writing styles, ranging from pure opinion to pure fact. Let's illustrate some possible approaches, :

1) I like paladins!
2) I've played paladins for a while, and here are some tips.
3) I've done a lot of research on paladins and gear and mechanics, and here are my findings.
4) I work for Blizzard, I have a character on a secret tester server, and I have full Ulduar gear, including hard-mode gear. Once you have full Ulduar gear like me, you'll have ### Mana and ### Crit, so keep this in mind when planning your upgrades.


Ferraro spent a lot of time in mode #4 recently, and this is a problem when it is revealed that she is also persistent liar.


I happen to be a person who dislikes being lied to, and this is enough personal reason to convince me not to read Ferraro any more.

But yourself: even if you don't mind being lied to, are you honestly saying that you'll take paladin advice from a person who you don't trust? How are you planning to tell the difference between the good advice and the hogwash and bullshit?

Me said...

Jacob:

I have tested the theories on PS and found them sound. Whether this info was theorycrafted by "ferarro" or someone else is of little importance to me. "Ferarro" also knew about the mace in Ulduar if I remember correctly... and knew it would be good for paladins before all the info was released.

There are many different ways to trust a person. I don't like being lied to either, but moreso from someone I care for and trust. Don't we all know one person who can be relied on at work to get the job done, but they lie about their personal lives a bit? I think we do. And do we shut them out? Or do we just make a mental note that while their data is good, they are pathetic on a personal level?

Ferarro's data is good. I'll leave it at that.

Darraxus said...

@ Jacob: Nobody likes being lied to, but it is a fact of life. If you have never been lied to you have been alopne your whole life. I have tested some of the things on Ferraro's blogs and they have been extremly helpful. The how to guids especially.

Anonymous said...

I guess we should all still be listening to Milli Vanilli too.

I mean, it was just music right? Our own entertainment was all that mattered.

--------

The author reposted content from TechDarling word for word.

He or she deserves whatever recrimination may be heaped upon him/her.

It's one thing to say "the info posted there is still valid". I can stipulate that.

But telling people they have no business being disappointed because "it's just the internets, you should know better"?

Sounds like you might not have any business telling people how to react.

I didn't mean that to come across as so rude, but the point stands.

Darraxus said...

@ anonymous: I just find it hard to believe that people are so up in arms about something that really does not affect them. It certainly wasnt cool to steal techdarlings identity. The info for paladins is not good. To get mad over it just makes me lol.

Abhinav Jain said...

more than some of the other threads/blogs/comments i have read since the whole affair... yours seems to be the most objective-oriented..

for all the people who complain about Ferarro's identity theft and those criticizing her posts... can anyone of you put forth a real argument that the paladin information that he/she gave was wrong? and wrong as in baseless assumptions of mechanics, pure false information or such thing?

the TD repostings were a sad affair now that it has come to light.. why he/she went to such lengths (FB friends, lifting snaps from FB and TD, stealing her personal information and life) is beyond me..

but i would really like Ferarro to continue the blog... just because her/his information accurate as far as i am concerned and it was personally very helpful

Abhinav Jain said...

also.. i am constantly seeing her/him getting slammed on most sites... and very very few people are sticking up for her paladin content..

some people lack enough sensibility to get over their misconceptions

*vlad* said...

The site was great; the need to pretend to be someone else less so.

Now we have a new conspiracy that Ferraro and TD are indeed one and the same person.
Who knows?
But for all you kids out there - Identity theft is bad! Don't do it!!

Me said...

Anonymous @ Milli Vanilli:

If you liked the way Milli Vanilli's music sounded before, then I don't see why you wouldn't listen to it. I think the difference in you and those of us defending the pally content is you were there to look at pics and fantasize while we were there to read pally/raiding info.

The idea that sound principles or ideas should be thrown out because a person lied about their personal life is stupid. If you found out that Henry Ford stole the plans for the automobile from an unknown farmer in Arkansas, would you quit driving your car!!!?? For most of us the personal entries were fluff and padding.

Anonymous said...

Well you had to wonder when the girl they kept posting pictures of was one of the finest specimens of sapien on the planet....she didn't exactly look like your typical computer gaming nerd. Seriously...go back, way back in "her" archives and look at the pics she would post of herself at hotels and crap. Not exactly the kind of pics a gaming blogger girl would put up IMO. In fact, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so I'm kind of suspicious of megan's posts over at out-of-mana. I mean really...what girl in the world likes to talk about taking dumps publicly?

Anonymous said...

Hehe...I just went and tried to find some of those old pics, but alas...they've been removed. Interesting. Some of you might remember them?

Heywood Djiblomi said...

I wouldn't quit driving my car, but I never buy another Ford either.

Abhinav Jain said...

@orgauth

seriously? haha

if that's the kind of opinions you have then are so many theoretical situations you can be in and your reaction would be - i no longer consider myself american... i no longer consider myself a wow player... i am no longer a hunter... so on and on....

you can't just make those kind of statements without considering context and meaning