Lately we’ve been getting a ton of emails asking us to advertise various e-petitions. We’ve had people request everything from asking people to sign a petition asking for Twilight to be released on a certain date overseas to supporting an actress’ PETA alliance.
Aside from the fact that if we advertised every Twilight related cause we’d be posting nothing but petitions, there’s actually a better reason why at the Lexicon we don’t advertise e-petitions ever. It’s not that we are trying to be mean, it’s that they don’t work. It’s too easy to fake signatures, and the people to whom they are sent regularly discard them for that very reason. In fact, oftentimes the only person an e-petition helps is the owner of the e-petition site. You can read about it more here on Snopes, the urban legend site, the hands-down best place on the Internet for determining if something is Internet myth, hoax, or truth.
I know it’s hard to believe in this electronic age, but if you want to make an impact, and get people to notice you have to do it the good old-fashioned way: letter writing or a "stunt" that something concrete shows up. Some recent examples of this would be fans of Jericho saving the show for an extra season by sending the producers bags of peanuts (a take off on a popular character’s line), or socks…lots of socks, sent to Mike Welch.
I don’t tend to do e-petitions in case they are fake and people are faking signatures.
Go Twilight Lexicon
xx
I don’t understan everything so:(
Wow. You guys didn’t want to come across rude, but you did. If someone wants to start an e-petition let them! You didn’t even have to acknowledge that you get a ton of e-petition. Other websites obviously get them too, but they don’t go out and say that they are useless. Ever heard the expression "ignorance is bliss"? I also don’t understand why you have to toot your own horn about the whole socks things, when you are talking about e-petitions. Sending socks to Michael Welch wasn’t a form of protest. It gives you guys a sense of arrogance that a lot of people don’t appreciate.
Since you seem to be a regular commenter on our blog with negative comments, but don’t have enough guts to put in a real email address other than the bogus BluthEmployee@gmail.com I am now forced to address you in public.
As for what you just wrote, I think everyone can see what you wrote and what we wrote and make up their own minds. There’s a decided gap in logic and I don’t believe that gap is ours.
As to previous items you have addressed to us, below in bold is the email I attempted to send to your bogus email account on your last occasion here(including typos–if anyone wants I screen cap I can provide it). When you questioned why we state "tell them you got it on the Lexicon" and when we asked people to "right click on our ads to tell us the url of objectionable ads regarding dating and adult sites." I post it now because I have no other choice to address someone who makes unsubstantiated statements and doesn’t have enough guts to sign their fandom name or provide a legit email address for a response. If your modus operandi stays the same, you’ll be toddling over to TS on LiveJournal to spout your half-truths next, which is the height of maturity.
The reason we say "let them know you got it from the Lexicon" is several fold:
Many other websites, highlight cut and paste the news that another site runs, breaking IP law and depriving that site of the recognition it deserves as the newsbreaker. The other sites essentially steal that site’s news. We say "let them know you got it on the Lexicon" as a way of showing them we are supporting their efforts.
We also usually write a private note to the author if we have never linked to them before telling them that we thought it was a good story. We also ask, before we link, if it is a smaller site if it is OK so we don’t potentially kill their bandwith. We also ask bloggers if they mind linkage, because sometimes people don’t want that kind of exposure and we respect their wishes.
On larger sites, like Cinematical, MTV, Reelz Channel that people dealing with the tech end DO NOT communicate with the reporters at all, or on a end of month basis. They have ZERO idea many of them where there hits are coming from. Again when we link we’ll write a note thanking the site for a great story. We’ve then actually had the authors on those sites come back to us later to fact check background on Twilight so they don’t put their foot in their mouth on a story. One recent reporter, like many, thought "Twilight fans were all goth/emo types". We let them know this was far from the case. Reporters when they realize what type of fanbase there is have also done more follow-up stories and sometimes have asked "What do you think the fans would like?"
We’ve now built a relationship with several webmasters who want to do more Twilight stories because of the positive reaction they have gotten from us and our fans. It’s basic marketing 101. It’s how we are able to get content to you, the fans. It’s also how major outlets like Borders, Summit, MTV, want to deal directly with us, because they have had a positive experience.
Why do we have ads?
The ads on our site go to pay the server bills. We don’t have a virtual server, we have a dedicated server that hosts just us, we have a PO Box to pay for, a chat room with transcript for security reasons(if someone is being harassed we have a record and don’t have to deal with a game of he said she said.), and various other expenses that crop up from time to time. Any money we make from the ads (1099 income) goes to pay those bills. Keep in mind it’s also taxable so roughly half of what the ads make go to taxes. No one has quit their day jobs here, we are not rolling in money. If we didn’t need the ads we wouldn’t run them, but we need them to pay the bills. Also, there was considerable money spent in February of this year(three new urls and set-up charges), because we had to basically buy our website from Alphie’s soon to be exhusband who was uncooperative at best in giving us the site.
Never at any time have we asked anyone to click on the ads, as in left click. As that is a direct violation with the Google user agreement. Left click is the only thing you can earn money off of. We can’t pick which ads appear. The ads change depending on what area of the country you live in, as well as the content in our posts, that’s why you see a lot of fang, teenager, and are you a vampire ads. What happened this week, offending several regular viewers, were ads talking about overseas brides, swinging threesome singles, and a dating service. Several of these ads also carried rather graphic photos. We think that because The Host talks about a love triangle that’s why those ads popped up. As per instructions from Google, we can block and ad, but we must know that ad’s url and a right click is the only way to obtain that.
Lastly, if you have a question on how a website is run, why not actually ask? Our admin email is right there for anyone to see. Why resort to anonymous insinuations that are not true. What does that solve other than to spread misinformation? Sure it’s fun for a 15 minute laugh in on LiveJournal, but it’s not based on the actual facts.
Laura Cristiano (AKA Pel)
you go Pel & Alphie!!
(with everything!)
i agree with e-petitions…we’d all get our way if these were taken seriously. there have got to be hundreds of related e-petitions out there.
thanks as always for
keeping up the extraordinary and super-duper work!
thank you for doing that with unnecessary unkindness from mean people.
as for the petitions if people want something to happen th en how about sending plastic fruit (forbidden fruit)or plastic fangs(sorry but it is an idea) then send them to summit entertainment or to producers
Gotta love snopes.com… =P
… *is on Team Hahaha* So you’re saying that we should stop trying to stand up for good causes in every way we can, but if we want to do something for celeberties (who already have enough material goods) via the same general idea, that’s perfectly alright and stunningly more successful? Regardless, as authority figures, you might want to try to remain more polite and respectful. (And check your grammar, especially if you are going to insult someone elses spelling) Every opinion, even if they are negative, is valuable, and if only we’d truely listen to each side, we could potentially work on weaknesses and better ourselves.
No, if you actually read carefully. We are saying take the time and actually start a petition in a format that will do some good. Meaning start an actual written one. Save the whales, the rainforest, heck save the the Antartic grub worm for all we care, but if you are going to try to do something about a cause you are passionate about, at least make sure all your effort at least has a chance of getting you a result. If we were presented with a Twilight themed petition in a format that charities/TV talk shows/industries actually listen to and respect we would post about it.
As for insulting anyone’s spelling, no place did we do that. Again, if you read, I pointed out that my response, not hers/his contained the spelling errors that I originally sent via an email that bounced back from a bogus account. In other words, I didn’t clean up the grammar so if anyone wanted to see a screen cap of the original there would be no difference spelling errors and all.
Pel
Just as a side note it’s rather interesting that your IP is within the same block as HAHAHA’s (AKA Olivia) (AKA BluthEmployee). Can we say sockpuppet boys and girls? I think we can.
okay first of all,
why are people getting all pissed off about online petitions?
if you really want to petition something, at least make it tangible, and maybe it’ll actually do some good.
Potted plants,
No, that’s not what Laura is saying, and your interpretation is far from what the administrators meant.
The clear message in the post is:
If you want to make a difference, send your actual letters to whoever you are filling a petition for. E-petitions are just not taken seriously therefore not proactive. End of the story.
I also think you kids are getting mixed up Campain and Petitions.
Do you want to get an online community to do something? Build your own site and ask for support!
Do you want to get an online community to ask someone else to do something in your behalf?
Get everyone to mail a letter with an uniform request to create a movement.
Can you tell the difference… yeah there is a fine line, but all you need is a little sense to get it.
Carry on!
You rock Alphie and Pel!!!
Seriously, I would go crazy if I had to deal with ignorant and rude people like that on a daily basis. They probably have no idea how much time and energy you spend on this site for us. Thank you so much, you guys really are the best fansite EVER and do an AMAZING JOB!
Thank you for correcting my error- you were not insulting someone elses spelling. I misread that portion of the post and I am sorry for that. And Nena, thank you for clarifying, though Pel did take care of that. I do admit I was wrong on that portion of my comment. As for the IP dress, I honestly am 100% shocked by that! You may not believe me, and in the age of computers, it is justifiable to not believe me, but it is true. I was one of the first fans of Twilight in my area and probably do know Hahaha (I’m not sure what to refer to her as, I’ve only read the one post from her on this artical, so that’s why I used that name). I generally know the people in my area that’ve read Twilight, as well as their opinions on the book, their status on many theories, and their involvement in the fandom. I didn’t know there was another person in my neighborhood that goes on fansites! I’m most certianly not a sockpuppet (if I were, I doubt I’d have supplied a legit e-mail account), but if you wish to believe this, I suppose I cannot proove that I am not without putting in far more time and energy than is available to me at the moment. I do, however, deeply regret the somewhat condescending nature of your side-note. Your reply to my comment was very respectful- you shared your view on the matter, specifically to what I had said, and did so in a polite fashion. Then you added a side-note which jumped to conclusions. I will admit that the conclusions you jumped to probably had enough evidence from your point of view to be considered fact, not theory. About three things I am absolutely sure: 1) I am not a sockpuppet of Hahaha. 2) The evidence, from your point of view, is probably leading you to believe that everything I’ve said is a lie. 3) That’s the downside of technology, and we will all be forced to live with it and decide for ourselves what we wish to believe. The plus side to all of this is that I now know there is yet another Twi-Hard in my neighborhood! Regardless of the circumstances in which this was discovered, I’m quite excited about that!
No problem I believe you as "Bluth" et al would hardly come up with a response as articulate as yours, would never take a high road, and you actually provided a legit email. I had a very good friend unjustly banned from a site because she had a similar IP to a troll, so no worries no banning here. My apologies on calling you a sock, but as you say two people having an IP within the same run is pretty high odds.
Pel
Sorry, I hadn’t checked said e-mail account before posting. I didn’t know your responce was there, too; if I had, I would’ve replied there rather than on this page.
Go Alphie and Pel! You guys work so hard, and this is your site..you can post whatever you want!!!!!!!!
Thank you for believing me.
really?
http://welcome2thedarkside.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2008/08/4000_twilighter.html