Movie Poop Shoot. 3rd Installment of MSCL DVD article.

[ChrisRyall]

Hey, everyone--

I'm not entirely sure how anyone read Part III yet...it hasn't run at the site yet. I laid it out and put graphics in to get it ready, but the copy is still changing. The final version will go live on Monday. So please, don't trash Derek for this--he's worked really hard and done everything he can to make this a balanced piece, including contacting the people involved multiple times and giving everyone their fair chance to give their take on the events.

So check back and read it on Monday but please, don't make any judgements until then.

[Jason R]

How did they find the link? Is the nomenclature of your site such that if they know one page, they can guess at the others?

Hey, everyone--

I'm not entirely sure how anyone read Part III yet...it hasn't run at the site yet. I laid it out and put graphics in to get it ready, but the copy is still changing. The final version will go live on Monday. So please, don't trash Derek for this--he's worked really hard and done everything he can to make this a balanced piece, including contacting the people involved multiple times and giving everyone their fair chance to give their take on the events.

So check back and read it on Monday but please, don't make any judgements until then.

[ChrisRyall]

I'm thinking maybe someone used the "Search" function and looked for MY SO-CALLED LIFE. That would pull up any articles, even those that haven't gone "live" yet, like Part III. I'm revising the third part right now, considerably (GODFATHER 3? Really? Ouch...!), so it'll be nicely changed piece on Monday. Although I know in a story like this, there's no way everyone's going to be happy. But I also know that Derek is in no way an apologist for AU or anyone else--he's also a huge fan of the show and is really doing everything he can to be balanced and not biased.

[Jason R]

Well, I think Godfather II is the best of the bunch, so hopefully the revisions will make up for that and this will turn into a good sequel.

Kind of like Rocky III.

[andrewgd]

C'mon, you run a website and you don't know how I got to see the article? Maybe you just didn't realize your .htaccess file was gone, but c'mon, it wasn't that hard to find this:

http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/news/oct02/

And sorry about posting the link before the article was finished. I didn't realize that a whole page would get posted before the copy was actually done. If I had known, I may not have posted it.

But seriously, get your .htaccess in order if you don't want people looking up your skirt.

[mephisto]

Derek: so far I really liked your articles (and also your artwork, the movie posters). And as someone who works in communication science and sometimes in journalism, I really know how hard it is to write a balanced article

however, here are a few points that should be stressed more:

1) Why did AU need 3 months to credit me back? Why were other people not credited back yet?
2) Why did so many double charges happen at all. Was it really an accident?
3) What did Rojek do with our money (= why didn't AU pay the vendors
or not until they were forced to albeit everyone prepaid)?
4) Why was Rojek lying about having paid the vendors in the past?
5) Will the Bonus DVD ever be produced (has Grafik.com been paid? Did Bedford Falls agree that the interview may be released? Was the Museum of TV and Radio paid?)
6) Why did AU claim to be the exclusive retailer but sign a deal that
other retailers may sell the DVD set as well?

[andrewgd]

Yeah, see, now you're getting some "constructive" criticism before you post the live article too I don't know if you wanted it or not, but its here

[ChrisRyall]

C'mon, you run a website and you don't know how I got to see the article? Maybe you just didn't realize your .htaccess file was gone, but c'mon, it wasn't that hard to find this:

Yeah, but...so you accessed the news index for the month. That doesn't show you where any article is unless you click through 170+ news stories. I know HOW you did it, I just didn't think anyone would bother to do so. Well, if you do so again, the piece has been changed, but since there may be more over the weekend, I'd prefer anyone wait until the link goes live before commenting on it.

We're still dealing with a bad hacker incident from this week, so it's cool if you don't post that anywhere else...I'm still pretty traumatized from the hacker.

[andrewgd]

Actually, I just knew what the current articles were numbered, and at that point, there was only like 3 or 4 that were numbered higher, and I took a stab and clicked on the highest one, and that was it.

[Minerwerks]

1) Why did AU need 3 months to credit me back? Why were other people not credited back yet?
2) Why did so many double charges happen at all. Was it really an accident?
3) What did Rojek do with our money (= why didn't AU pay the vendors
or not until they were forced to albeit everyone prepaid)?
4) Why was Rojek lying about having paid the vendors in the past?
5) Will the Bonus DVD ever be produced (has Grafik.com been paid? Did Bedford Falls agree that the interview may be released? Was the Museum of TV and Radio paid?)
6) Why did AU claim to be the exclusive retailer but sign a deal that
other retailers may sell the DVD set as well?

I can say that on #2, Ross has consistently said this was a mistake, and I reported so.
#5, I can't predict the future, only report that Ross has said the disc will be produced. I did not have time to properly interview anyone from grafik.com or Bedford Falls.
#6, Ross deferred all comments on the this topic to Steve Cooper at BMG, but he was asked specifically about this and told that people would want to know why he made that decision.

On the other questions, Ross either did not reply or refused comment. Based on the questions he did not answer, I did not even attempt to ask why he posted that people had been paid when they had not.

Keep in mind, this did not begin as some kind of Woodward & Bernstein investigative piece. I am not that kind of journalist. There are others better suited to those endeavours, and hopefully, they will take up the cause. I did, however, attempt to include as much information as possible to help people investigate further.

I am explicitly directing people to come here to hear YOUR stories. Those stories speak volumes that I would not feel comfortable approaching in an attempt at unbiased journalism.

[Jason R]

Derek, did you ask why people who complained of double charges did not receive refunds, or if they did, they often waited 3 or more months, after making repeated phone calls, often only getting refunds because they threatened further action? Did you receive an answer? Would you be willing to print if he had no comment?

Excuse the rapid succession of questions. It is hard to write that kind of stuff without sounding like a major pain in the A.

I am writing it because this, from my perspective, is the real issue. To err is human. But it is no longer an error if you don't fix it when you are told about it. It is something worse. JD Powers and Associates even showed that people are happier with service when there are errors, as long as they are fixed promptly. I will try to dig up that study, but I am on a deadline.

Best
Jason

1) Why did AU need 3 months to credit me back? Why were other people not credited back yet?
2) Why did so many double charges happen at all. Was it really an accident?
3) What did Rojek do with our money (= why didn't AU pay the vendors
or not until they were forced to albeit everyone prepaid)?
4) Why was Rojek lying about having paid the vendors in the past?
5) Will the Bonus DVD ever be produced (has Grafik.com been paid? Did Bedford Falls agree that the interview may be released? Was the Museum of TV and Radio paid?)
6) Why did AU claim to be the exclusive retailer but sign a deal that
other retailers may sell the DVD set as well?

I can say that on #2, Ross has consistently said this was a mistake, and I reported so.
#5, I can't predict the future, only report that Ross has said the disc will be produced. I did not have time to properly interview anyone from grafik.com or Bedford Falls.
#6, Ross deferred all comments on the this topic to Steve Cooper at BMG, but he was asked specifically about this and told that people would want to know why he made that decision.

On the other questions, Ross either did not reply or refused comment. Based on the questions he did not answer, I did not even attempt to ask why he posted that people had been paid when they had not.

Keep in mind, this did not begin as some kind of Woodward & Bernstein investigative piece. I am not that kind of journalist. There are others better suited to those endeavours, and hopefully, they will take up the cause. I did, however, attempt to include as much information as possible to help people investigate further.

I am explicitly directing people to come here to hear YOUR stories. Those stories speak volumes that I would not feel comfortable approaching in an attempt at unbiased journalism.

[pgh kenny]

derek, i am glad you decided to write about this topic and i look forward to seeing the final copy on monday. anyways, thanks for your time in researching and writing the article.

i guess writing a fair and balanced article about a controversial topic is kind of like having a fair and balanced judge in a trial... in the end neither side is really happy with the judgement.

[Minerwerks]

i guess writing a fair and balanced article about a controversial topic is kind of like having a fair and balanced judge in a trial... in the end neither side is really happy with the judgement.

Thank you very much.

And all the feedback people have offered, whether positive or negative is greatly appreciated and has been duly noted in completing the final text.

[mephisto]

first of all: these are just comments and suggestions regarding your not-yet-ready-for-publication article. In the end it certainly is your article

On the other questions, Ross either did not reply or refused comment.

personally I think that it is interesting that he refused comment on question #1 and especially #3. IMHO you could stress that out because I think it is important, i.e.

+ "everyone prepaid. vendors not paid. where's the money? rojek refused to comment on this"
+ "many people overcharged. many didn't get the money back yet. they're getting angry. while AU claims that it was an accident they refused to answer the question, why refunds take so long".

Speaks somehow for itself. And it wouldn't biased as far as I see it. These are facts. You wanted to hear their side of the story. They obviously didn't feel that these are questions they should answer. And that's an answer too. (If you feel that this would be biased, I'm personally interested why - I know that cultural differences can be an important factor in this field)

I also think that it could be emphasized that it is uncertain what will happen with the Bonus DVD. We only have Ross' word so far. And personally I don't trust him anymore (I guess I never should have). If someone still trusts Ross, please raise your hand

I did, however, attempt to include as much information as possible to help people investigate further.

Derek, nobody here wants to bash you! As I wrote earlier, I know how hard it is to write a neutral article. I really appreciate that you wrote this and that you talked to both sides. And I really look forward too a sequel after this nightmare will have ended (hopefully soon).

[kidbro77]

Hello! I JUST registered to join in on this forum. I love it. I too was double billed, haven't heard from Another Universe.com, blah blah blah. I've been reading all the posts and think all of you are great!

It made me feel really good to be part of a fanbase who is so supportive and informative and on top of things. Despite what we're all going through, I'm glad that we all have each other to go through it with. So, thanks for that. That in itself is a story.

I'm overwhelmed with all this information overload. I knew i was double billed, but I had no idea there was so much more going on and so much more that is needed to be done. I've downloaded all those forms and will be mailing them out to the respective people, i.e. credit card companies, attorney general, etc. and thank you so much to the people who have tried to facilitate this process and lending their aid in this situation.

Hopefully things will work out , whether that means we get our money back, we get our promised items, what have you....