Monday 1 June 2009

Paladin Schmaladin no more?

The blogger Ferarro who has been writing the blog Paladin Schmaladin is apparently not who she or he appears to be.

To begin with, the blog itself is a fairly decent source on "How-To" for Paladins and whatnot. Lately, however, an unholy shitstorm has brewed up when it turns out that the writer of said blog has been lying through his/her teeth, claiming to be someone she/he isn't.

For starters, Ferarro claimed to be TechDarling. This claim was shot out of the sky when a warlock posted a link on the WoW forums to the site TechDarling and outed Ferarro as a fraud.

Recently, Ferarro closed down her blog, or rather, made it Private due to her having a stalker (stalking is bad, people, mmkay? Consult your doctor before practicing). I call BS on that, though. I think it's more along the fact that she's trying to save face as all the pictures you've come to associate with Ferarro are taken straight from TechDarling.

Reminds me of when a guy on a forum linked a picture to a girl claiming her to be his girlfriend only to be made into a fool when the girl on the picture actually posted and refuted his claims. But I digress...

WoW.com recently interviewed Ferarro, wanting to know more about her life as a blogger, paladin and game tester for Blizzard. After that article was posted, a few things happened.

1. Ferarro switched her blog over to Private Mode. Only accessible to those who got an invitation from her. However, you can still view a Google Cache of her page. Clicky!

2. Her Twitter page has been deleted.

3. Her character is no longer accessible on the Armory. I assume server transfer or name-change?

4. Her posts on Retpaladin.com are deleted and she's no longer writing for them. However, Slayton and the rest of the guys over at RetPaladin didn't delete her stuff. Apparently she's done that herself before dodging into shadows.

Ferarro also claimed that there have been 7 Ferarro's writing on Paladin Schmaladin. Check the cached site. There's a full-on explanation there.

Now, Wow.com did a little digging and unless these 7 Ferarro's live within a few miles of each other, they are the one and the same person. IP-addresses rarely lie.

Also, do note that all the comments on Ferarro's blog are moderated. All the "good" comments remain while the "bad" comments are deleted.

I think most paladins are rather upset with this as a person who claims to have a stalker have been doing a lot of stalking herself, as well as lying through her teeth claiming to be someone she isn't.

So, what now?

I don't know, really. Guess it's a matter of "wait and see what happens." WoW.com have given Ferarro a chance to come clean and explain things as they really are and not post some bullshit about there being multiple Ferarro's.


EDIT: Sarah Townsend (TechDarling) has posted a video response to this whole thing. Hop on over to her Blog to watch it. Also, Ferraro seems to have removed the whole explanation about there being 7 of her writing on Paladin Schmaladin.

No comments: