Author Pushing His Book?

[Desdichado]

Well, the author--excuse me, poster, has made a few more posts.

Still, if a more established member--me, for example--were to annouce that he had written a book, and sold it, would that be a violation of the rules? I wouldn't think twice about it. If this guy has done so, what rule is he violating? It's concievable he could be a longtime lurker who didn't have anything to say until his book was published, if a sense of "belonging to the community" prior to announcing it is important.

I'm not sure that I see how it is, though...

Of course, pretending to be a fan of the book, and essentially cut-and-pasting the same post on a dozen or so message boards is a bit different; that's leaning towards spamming. But, like I said, he's posted in some other threads; he posted some pertinent and on-topic stuff in a Tarzan thread, for instance. Even if he did cross-post, and was a bit coy about his authorship, if he is indeed the author, I still don't see what's so inherently wrong about it that a Moderator would need to be alerted. Just call him on it, and move along.

 

[DaveMage]

Still, if a more established member--me, for example--were to annouce that he had written a book, and sold it, would that be a violation of the rules?

If YOU wrote it? Depends on what the subject matter is.

 

[Crothian]

seems like spam to me especially the way he did it.

 

[Dog Moon]

Originally posted by Ulorian
Also, in the last while, this guy has set up accounts on numerous sci-fi/fantasy/rpg boards and the first post he makes is almost verbatim the one he posted here on ENWorld. For example:

Wow, that's just crazy, though finding all those is almost as crazy. Although it's good to have your stuff known to lots of different people, I think he's giving the guy some negative publicity [Or himself, w/e].

 

[Steverooo]

It's the how.

So HOW did you stumble onto all of this?

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Wow, that's just crazy, though finding all those is almost as crazy.

Not really.. all I did was enter his username into Google.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

So HOW did you stumble onto all of this?

What got me suspicious was that this was the guy's first post. I took a quick look at this profile, then I did a google for AV Wedhorn (i.e. the author), not yet suspecting that they were the same person. I noticed that the birthdate listed on the author's website was exactly the same as the 'superfan' who posted the review, and that's when it clicked. More googling sealed the deal.

 

[Knight Otu]

To be clear, it's not just the same birthday, it's the same birth year as well - that would be one hell of a coincidence.

I'm aware, that's why I said 'born on that day', and while unlikely, it is a far cry from being a lotto jackpot. But that's not the point. The point is that there are better ways to handle such a situation.

As a final note - There are two points that are much stronger evidence for me than any of the circumstances you posted - this superfan has not signed the guestbook of the series' website, for one (at least he hadn't yesterday when I checked). The other is much more subjective - the author's short autobiography has the same 'feel' from a writing perspective as the posts damiynn made.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Of course, pretending to be a fan of the book, and essentially cut-and-pasting the same post on a dozen or so message boards is a bit different; that's leaning towards spamming. But, like I said, he's posted in some other threads; he posted some pertinent and on-topic stuff in a Tarzan thread, for instance. Even if he did cross-post, and was a bit coy about his authorship, if he is indeed the author, I still don't see what's so inherently wrong about it that a Moderator would need to be alerted. Just call him on it, and move along.

The moderators were alerted (actually, they spotted the thread on their own, without the help of this thread); he only posted on the other threads you mentioned after the moderators closed his thread and warned him about pimping his own work while masquerading as a fan.

At first, I didn't think it was that big a deal and wouldn't be something with which the moderators would want to bother. After thinking about it, though, I surmised that the owners of ENWorld wouldn't want this kind of misrepresentative post on their site, which hosts reviews that its readers expect to be honest and accurate.

I'm aware, that's why I said 'born on that day', and while unlikely, it is a far cry from being a lotto jackpot.

No one is suggesting that that evidence alone is enough to clinch it. That evidence coupled with his posting behaviour on other sites, his user name being associated with the same city of residence as the author, etc. does put this matter into the 'lotto jackpot' realm though.

But that's not the point. The point is that there are better ways to handle such a situation.

What do you mean? The moderators were alerted and they took the actions they felt were appropriate.

this superfan has not signed the guestbook of the series' website, for one (at least he hadn't yesterday when I checked).

Good catch!

The other is much more subjective - the author's short autobiography has the same 'feel' from a writing perspective as the posts damiynn made.

I thought that also, but didn't mention it because, like you said, that's subjective.

 

[Pielorinho]

Just to be clear, I closed the thread for three reasons, in increasing order of importance:

1) Pretending to be a fan when you're really the author is dishonest, and it just bothered me. Note that this is the least important reason.
2) The thread was turning its focus on Damiynn, not on the book, and that sort of thing has a tendency to turn real ugly, real fast.
3) Most importantly, his first post consisted of recommending his own product. That's pretty much the definition of spam (especially when you consider that he's made the same post elsewhere).

As I said, I welcome damiynn to the boards, and I encourage him to participate in threads on other subjects. If he wants to mention his book occasionally, that's fine; we just don't want anyone's entire board participation to consist of tooting their own horn.

Daniel