Thursday, March 1, 2012

I'm getting paranoid here

As part of my research program I run a Hamster Fur Weaving Blog. I don't have it on a school server, however (actually because I could not get IT to agree to set up WordPress for me) and I actually use my real name over there, but don't list the school.

I've been in a bit of a dustup with a Squirrel Fur Weaving Psycho who has been denouncing me as being unscientific and insane and a bitch and a Nazi and a prostitute in the comments of my blog because I've been able to show that his squirrelly results are full of holes and won't hold water. I've found it rather amusing to be accused of being unscientific in such an unscientific manner.

Anyway, SFWP decided to give me a call on Monday. He ranted and raved and screamed at me - I turned on the speaker phone so that my student researchers in the lab could hear all this fine gentleman had to say to me. They learned a few new swear words, I fear. He threatened to call the dean on me - I lied and said I was the dean - and then he was going to call the president and rat on me.

Anyway, when I got bored I hung up. He kept calling back, so I pulled the jack.

Yesterday I'm at the library when the chancellor's secretary calls me. I step outside, and the chancellor has his we-have-a-problem voice activated. You see, SFWP actually did write an email to the president, accusing me of pretty much the same as the above. He forwarded it to the chancellor. And the chancellor suggested I take down the offending page "to avoid a lawsuit".

WTF? Without even asking me, they believe a random idiot accusing me of something by email in a truly idiotic manner? And you know what is worse? He used an email address like this: JohnDoe101@gmail.com. You google it, and there are no hits on it. Not good for a real scientist....

I tried to explain what a blog is. And a troll. And why they don't have to panic when they hear the word "lawsuit" from a troll.

I got a letter this morning from the chancellor. I'm "allowed" to continue blogging. I just have to make sure that I don't pretend to be representing the school (which I never have) or that it is a part of my duties as a professor (which it is, actually). And I have to do everything to avoid a lawsuit against them....

Boy, am I glad I'm blogging pseudonymously here! But it is seriously time to be getting that resume out, no matter how old I am. I'm starting to get seriously paranoid.

Just Plain Suzy

7 comments:

  1. Nice to know all the school is concerned about is if THE SCHOOL has to deal with a lawsuit, not your own integrity or whether you have a right to publish academic theories and results that counter those of others (so then, what's the point of research, again?). I don't think you're going to get canned, but I wouldn't feel safe working somewhere that was so easily bullied and automatically assumed you were in the wrong.

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  2. But just think of the new Snorg Tees they could sell in the side bar:

    My troll sued me!
    I smoke flaming trolls!
    A troll touched my blog and all I got was a lawsuit.
    I pulled my troll's jack.

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  3. This whole situation is way, way, way above my pay grade, but, yeah, polishing the old c.v. sounds like a rational response to all of the above. Hey, maybe if SFWP's smear campaign goes viral, you'll get some useful publicity.

    Now, should *I* be paranoid about the fact that one of the ads in the sidebar is currently advertising my own university? Probably not, given other obviously locally-targeted ads.

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  4. Be thankful that your chancellor had the sense to back down. Somebody got hold of him to explain free speech, new media and other arcane marginalia. Or maybe his advisers decided that messing with you was even worse than some internet idiot. Either way, it at least speaks well of the people surrounding your chancellor.

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  5. Suzy, that is yet more bullshit for you. Keep your chin and spirit up.

    The RGM

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  6. It is deeply disturbing that your chancellor doesn't have the intelligence, experience with academics, experience with the public, or the common sense to be able to recognize the patent work of an obvious crank. Anyone who accuses a scientist of being a "bitch" or a "Nazi" or a "prostitute" because of something they wrote in a scientific work is very clearly a crank. Astronomers like me have to deal with UFO enthusiasts quite often, and similar pretenders hover around many other academic fields. Why doesn't your chancellor know this?

    It's even worse that your chancellor's default position is to side with the crank. It creates a feeling that the lunatics have taken over the asylum, doesn't it? A normal response to a crazed attack from a stranger would to side against the stranger.

    Your chancellor being unfamiliar with new media isn't an excuse. "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" was published in 1843. You are right to be working on your resume.

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  7. @SarcasticBastard, oooh, that's an idea. Maybe I'll just put one of the comments on a T to wear to the next faculty meeting.

    @BeakerBen, I dropped by to see the new dean this afternoon and told him this. He just shook his head, said that that was the fifth piece of madness he'd heard of this week from the chancellor and that it appears to be linked to some "sickness" the chancellor has. He's now off sick.

    @Froderick, I've seen all three emails, they scream "crank" from line 1. But you see, the default assumption is that all proffies are lazy crooks.

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