Text 28532, 145 rader
Skriven 2007-05-02 21:19:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Obama cont.
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http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=15924828
8&blogID=259712152&Mytoken=8738375F-A57E-4AB4-900496ABAA3F3FF11236719

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 

  5.01.01 What happened to the Obama profile? 
Current mood:  disappointed 

Friends, 

Many of you are probably wondering what happened to the Obama profile. 
The campaign, with the help of Myspace, have seized control of the 
profile without my consent, and are using it to refer traffic to a new 
profile they created. I have been blocked from having access to the 
profile. The campaign will probably have a different perspective on the 
events leading up to this, but until my personal profile is deleted, I'm 
going to take a stand on this. I believe what they did is just wrong, 
and someone should say something. 

Here is an email I sent to Micah at techpresident.com. Any questions, 
let me know:



Thanks Micah,

I want to be careful about this, but also I think it's unfair that they 
deleted this community when they could have left it up as an unofficial 
fan site as it has been for the last two and a half years. The campaign 
may say that this was my decision, and this is not true.

I did want to be paid, if we were to continue working together . This 
was not an attempt to use this profile for commercial purposes. This was 
an attempt to keep working my ass off on this profile, for Barack Obama, 
and for the enormous community of supporters on Myspace.

Since January, as you may know, and as many in the Myspace community 
know, I've been working on the page around the clock. I started this 
profile in November of 2004 and it grew steadily since then. In January 
and February the media started to notice, and I began to work even 
harder because I reallized what an impact the Myspace could really have.

People were actually registering to vote, making contributions, asking 
questions, putting banners on their pages, etc. I know this because I 
constantly received emails about this, and I replied to every single one 
to thank them or point them in the right direction if they needed more 
information.

The campaign got involved in February and although at first it was very 
exciting, it quickly became clear that they just had no interest in me 
or my involvement. They only wanted to take control of the profile and 
get on with it. I bit the bullet for a while and kept working for the 
good of the campaign, but they quickly went from passive aggressive, to 
aggressive, and then eventually just rotten and dishonest.

For the past few weeks, the campaign decided it would be better if they 
just took control of the profile and we decided to try to come to some 
agreement. By this time, I didn't have quite as much respect for the 
campaign guys, and frankly felt like I was just being used. They knew 
about this profile the entire time, and really just waited until it got 
enough media coverage and friends request so they could step in and 
bully me out of it.

The last few weeks were just insane. They kept scheduling phone 
conferences with me, I would wake up early that day after barely 
sleeping the night before, I'd take time off work, etc. and each after 
another would be postponed at the last minute. This went on for weeks.

It got to the point where I didn't feel comfortable turning the profile 
over to the campaign unless they paid for it. This was largely symbolic. 
The same campaign that inspired me to work so hard to build this 
community, the same campaign whose underlying message stresses "the 
power of the individual to have an impact on politics", was constantly 
downplaying my role in this, bullying me, and a couple of other things 
that were just rotten and dishonest (specifically in connection with 
Myspace, and the campaign quashing a recent NPR interview about the 
profile).

In a conversation with Chris from the campaign last week or the week 
before, Chris suggested a one-time fee to transfer over the profile to 
them and that they discussed this with Myspace and they were agreeable 
with any arrangement we could work out. He did not suggest how much, or 
what sort of a fee. He did say that he needed it by the next morning so 
we scheduled another meeting and I stayed up all night working on a 
proposal that I thought would be fair to everyone. This was a positive 
conversation and he seemed sincere enough.

That meeting finally happened yesterday. It was clear at that time that 
there was no "one-time fee". I felt like it was a bit of a setup so that 
they could have a reason to take the profile without my consent.

I was accused of using this profile for commercial purposes. I was 
threatened that I would be responsible if the profile was deleted (they 
even followed up via email to be sure I knew it was my fault!) The 
conversation really was about them taking control of the profile. There 
was no counter offer, or anything to suggest that they had any intention 
of paying me anything at all.

At this point there was no way I would turn this community over to them 
and would rather keep it as an unofficial site and keep doing what I've 
been doing. I expressed this, and they said that if I did not turn the 
profile over to them immediately, they would delete it and all of my 
hard work would go to waste. They reiterated this several times, and 
repeated "You are the one making the decision to kill this profile". In 
fact, I responded each time, that I have no plans to delete this 
profile, and that decision would be between them and Myspace. (I even 
added that he sounded like Bush telling congress/senate it was their 
decision not to fund the troops. How hypocritical is this!)

Finally, Chris from the campaign emailed me, indicating that Myspace 
needed my consent to give them access to the profile. I replied that 
Mypace did not have my consent to grant access to the profile to anyone.

An hour or so later, I was blocked from the profile and the content was 
altered to redirect traffic to the new, "Official" profile. Myspace has 
in fact granted access to the profile without my permission.

This was not about money and I don't believe that one person who has 
interacted with me via the Obama profile over the past couple of years 
would be able to say that my efforts were anything but sincere. This was 
about holding a campaign to their message, about acknowledging my work, 
and taking this community seriously.

I think I did the right thing. I wanted a fair outcome for everyone, but 
unfortunately that's not what happened. In fact, I think this was 
enormously offensive to both me and the Myspace community. I could 
understand Myspace/Newscorp doing this, but didn't think Obama's 
campaign could have the audacity to do such a thing.

Apparently the message here is, as an individual, if you have too big of 
an impact, you're just a liability.

This is how Obama lost my vote, and one of his strongest supporters.

Sincerely,

-Joe Anthony

p.s. Like I said, I'm passionate about this right now. All this work, 
all this progress is down the drain, and I'm absolutely heart-broken.

9:05 AM - 121 Comments - 125 Kudos - Add Comment

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