Painkiller Already #110 Ended After WoodysGamertag was Banned by Google

The now-weekly broadcast of Painkiller Already, shortened to PKA, was ended prematurely when WoodysGamertag was blocked from Google Hangouts. It is through their interface that this livestreamed broadcast is brought to YouTube viewers.

The PKA broadcast is a well known gathering of YouTube Call of Duty commentators and friends who gather to speak their minds on Thursday evenings and has become a central nexus of thought for that corner of the YouTube community.

Host WingsOfRedemption from YouTube was quick to put up a video explaining why the video was suddenly cut off, including a comment that Woody had received a message noting that it had been done due to “Reason Code 39.”

To this moment, the actual meaning of “Reason Code 39” is unknown.

Speculation mounts that it is potentially Code 3.9 which means that it’s a subsection of the Google Policies & Principles document outlining no use of hate speech:

3. Hate Speech

Do not distribute content that promotes hatred or violence towards groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.

Although it does seem somewhat premature or strange that this has happened to PKA. The speech and conversation ran into places considered offensive to some; but none of it crossed into hate speech territory. The discussion certainly angled through racism as well as transgender topics (and not artfully handled)—but not in any sense not previously covered on previous PKA broadcasts. The PKA hosts are well known for a vulgar attitude; but nothing that has ever exceeded even the feverish expectation of “hate speech.”

Google themselves do not speak to how they determine when a Hangout has infracted their policies & principles guidelines document.

Someone could have flagged the Hangout or a bot “listening” to the broadcast could have procedurally decided to terminate the broadcast and throw the error.

The strike occurred during a story told by another host retelling a story involving a transgender prostitute in Japan that included “colorful” terms (read: actually offensive epithets related to transgendered individuals) and a trigger-worthy narrative that included violence against a transgendered individual. The violence itself was not the point of the story nor was it central to the post discussion.

We may never know as YouTube and Google are not known for good customer service in this department.

There is already a question up for Google (potentially staff) asking what “Reason Code 39” is and ideas are being posted tonight. Although we may not know until WoodysGamertag posts on his YouTube channel to explain.

UPDATE: From WoodysGamertag,

A Talisman Online Review

My friend, and writer on Vox Ex Machina, Nelson Williams has reviewed the free-to-play MMORPG Talisman Online. It's 3D antics muse a bit with Chinese mythology and as you'll see, provide a different sort of approach from MMOs that play in the Western mythos sandbox.

Link, via YouTube and GameOgre

False Flagger Burdens VenomFangX with Streisand Effect

As we should all know by now, infamous Christian YouTuber VenomFangX, fraud and charlatan, has himself an ever increasing set of bigoted views that he’s hanging on the nail of his religious convictions.

For this we can set aside his anti-gay attitude and his belabored bigotry and ignorance that he hides behind his holy book to protect himself from criticism over. What happened to him in this round of drama is probably not his own doing, but it’s going to come down on him anyway.

The current saga unfolds as follows:

Well-known atheist YouTuber BionicDance posted a video addressing VenomFangX with grudging respect over how he appeared to approach the still-proceeding failure of multiple culture to recognize human rights to homosexual individuals. He seemed to present that while he’s still a bigot with regards to homosexual individuals; he wouldn’t seek to repress their human rights by petitioning the government or other people. This, BionicDance found to be a respectable position.

This is all in a video not currently on her channel because almost a week ago she accidentally deleted a swath of her stock. Of course, it’s irrelevant now because of what happened next.

BionicDance posted this video as rebuttal to one of VenomFangX’s videos on the subject of homosexuality—during which she basically loses all the respect she had build up for VFX previously.

Then someone flagged down her video and it was removed by YouTube. In effect, someone has stifled her speech. Note: This is more of an issue about the polity and policy of YouTube that involves flagging; but it’s obvious to the community this is a false flag and her video should be restored.

There’s no good reason to believe that VenomFangX flagged her video down, nor do we believe that he egged his followers to do this. In fact, its in his best interest to have left her video alone—it gives him attention from his fawning supplicants.

The false-flag, however, makes his followers look very bad; and by association it only tends to draw our eyes back to his previous bad acts and why VFX is a bad neighbor, a piss-poor member of, and parasite upon the YouTube community.

Previous VenomFangX coverage:

Jan 2010 Venomgate Redux: The VenomFangX Scandal Revisited

Aug 2009 YouTube Series: The History of VenomFangX

Jul 2009 VenomFangX and His Triumphant Not-Return to YouTube

May 2009 The VenomFangX Scandal: Venomgate

In Defense of Draw Muhammad Day

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day Videos (Part 3 of 3)

Fallout from the Everybody Draw Muhammad Day has led to Pakistan banning Facebook over the “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” page as well as today banning YouTUBE, Wikipedia, and other sites not for just participating, but actually containing information on the event.

 

Venomgate Redux: The VenomFangX Scandal Revisited

After another spate of bad-acts, VenomFangX has left YouTUBE once again. This time permanently, if anyone is to believe him; perhaps even if he does return someone can claim that VenomFangX did not return, as he has chosen to escape from his past by divesting himself of that name like removing a wet coat upon entering a house. So we'll call him Shawn.

Shawn has shut down his VenomFangX channel in the wake of community outrage about his filing of more than two dozen false DMCA notices to various other YouTUBE channels in a transparent attempt to stifle their speech. His false-concern replies noted that he was choosing only those videos that mocked and harassed him unduly and put he and his family in danger. This is a behavior which he basically showed he already knows is illegal from the last time he was caught doing this, in fact he said as much in his apology speech to Thunderf00t from the original Venomgate Scandal.

Then, after several of his targets moved to defend themselves and several retained legal aid, Shawn went ahead and posted a video calling DPRJones a pedophile. A demonstrably false accusation based on bad information and in bad faith – and directed at his primary adversary when it would come to his upcoming legal troubles for filing false DMCA notices.

As he has since shut down his channel, his new apology is posted on the DPRJones channel.

People have mentioned that he sounds contrite, apologetic, as if he intends to get help for his apparent mental problems and criminal behavior – and understand, filing a false DMCA notice is perjury (knowingly and willfully making a false statement for legal purposes), a felony in the United States. Shawn is a Canadian citizen, so I don't know what criminal laws bind him there, but it's likely they also frown at individuals lying on legal documents.

As we well know now, Shawn is a snake. He is a brilliant manipulator of emotions, a plagiarist, a liar, and a known fraud (see: Venomgate and Sick Children Hospital.) In spite of his apology and attempt to escape from his bad behavior as VenomFangX is manages to fail to actually stop this behavior.

As part of his apology he grovels, simpers, and attempts to show contrition by saying that he will get help (which he may) but then he continues on to ask people to remove videos mocking him and outlining his bad behavior as VenomFangX. Claiming that the existence of this history will make it difficult for him to move on.

There are those who will be quick to point out that he isn't welcome to escape his history. What he's done has been done and if he did get into legal trouble there would be court cases and public documents of his actions. That much of his history is now in video form which can be removed does not mean it should be removed at his request.

My issue is altogether different.

VenomFangX has committed a series of crimes. The fruits of these crimes was to remove videos outlining his past, mocking him for his bad behavior, and otherwise documenting his terrible acts. He got caught in the commission of his crime and failed. In his apology – in an attempt to escape justice according to his crimes – he asks people simply hand him the fruits of his criminal behavior. To me this is exactly like the executive caught embezzling $10M who gets caught, but escapes imprisonment through an apology and while apologizing asks people to just give him the $10M he tried to steal "out of kindness."

Don't give Shawn the fruits of his criminal behavior.

YouTUBE Series: The History of VenomFangX

Our understanding of VenomFangX has changed since we became aware of him. He has gone from just some ignorant kid, to a censorship happy prick and a habitual liar, to a crazy nut job, to a lying selfish ass. He has been one of the biggest preverbal train wrecks I have ever seen.

This video touches on the history of VenomFangX on YouTube. I have left out a few things such as his temporary suspension or his spats with TheAmazingAtheist.

This short video series (3 videos in all) is a bit biting, but it does timeline and dissect a great deal of the milestones of the career of VenomFangX. He has since left YouTUBE, but not so totally that he hasn’t given his successor videos to post from him (in fact his channel is not gone, it’s just been handed over to another person.)

Since the VenomGate scandal he has only poked his head out once to make snarky comments at Thunderf00t for having an on camera informal interview/conversation with Ray Comfort.

Link, via YouTUBE JRChadwick and djarm67.

VenomFangX and his triumphant not-return to YouTUBE

So, the whole Ray Comfort vs. Thunderf00t discussion was posted on YouTUBE. Thunderf00t spends a great deal of time speaking against Creationists, and anyone else who misrepresents empirical scientific knowledge about the world and our universe. As such he runs afoul of people like VenomFangX who from day one regurgitated the well-debunked lectures of Kent Hovind (convicted fraud, felon serving time in prison for his crime.)

He posts videos revealing the bad arguments, propaganda, and intellectual dishonesty of the Creationist movement and its proponents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwEr_Eo8I9E

Shortly into the video, I saw this:

Uni = One

Verse = A spoken sentence

VFX has his etymological background messed up, verse in universe is from vertere, which is “to rotate or turn.” This sort of poor scholarship is indicative of VFX’s dishonest presentation—not because he gets things wrong, but because he gets them wrong, gets corrected (over and over), and never chooses to learn from it.

Thunderf00t doesn’t ridicule people about their delivery; but he does shine light on the ridiculousness of the content. Making fun of Tf00t for stuttering while having a cordial discussion with Comfort and then using that as a segue to claim that Tf00t is a hypocrite for showing people to be ridiculous is pure asshattery.

Tf00t has never claimed he has an absolute understanding of everything and he doesn’t claim to know things he doesn’t—in fact, this is the point that VFX harped on all through the first five minutes of the video. But then around 5:54 VFX says, “…you claim that you have an absolute understanding of everything.” How transparent is that?

6:25 VFX looks to an exchange where Comfort plays a game of equivocation with Tf00t. In a friendly discussion everybody doesn’t force everyone else to define everything, but according to Comfort’s context he basically tried to say “life = soul.” And Tf00t is thinking that Comfort is referring to an untestable, uncorroboratable supernatural force and is arguing against that.

I recognize the “your dog and your horrible neighbor are drowning which one would you save?” question, and I’m puzzled why Tf00t even answered it—although, he does seem to be Aspergers to a bit, which means that this honesty is going to be very pointed. Why he didn’t just turn it around to: “A white man and a black man are drowning, who would you save?” or even “A man and a woman are drowning, who would you save?” to Comfort. The positive effect of this hypothetical situation is designed to provide values for lives, and it’s intrinsically true that as social creatures we do automatically apply value to life when in life or death situations. Come to think of it, the pointed question back to Comfort would have been to take away the “dog” (inhuman) status from the friend.

So VFX: “Your sister (or how about best friend) and your horrible neighbor are drowning, you can only save one—who would you save?” By the way, we’ll flash “Love your enemy as yourself,” on a billboard as you’re deciding. Using this sort of question is really uncalled for in any sort of cordial debate.

VFX’s not-return video is poor criticism and in the vein of his usual disingenuous presentation.

The VenomfangX Scandal: Venomgate

...is over?

YouTUBE is a place rife with drama of every sort, however, few times are quite as dramatic as today when I logged in to discover numerous people from across different communities talking about the same thing: VenomFangX has left YouTUBE.

For those who aren’t savvy to this particular part of the Internet, or even this little tribe of thought, I’ll give a little bit of background. VenomFangX is a YouTUBE user who uses his evangelical creationist Christian message to basically run his channel. I mention it because it is the sole and primary purpose of his presence on the site, he makes no pretence about it, and it represents his eminence everywhere he goes. VenomFangX is the worst representation any religion could ever have—he's charismatic, smarmy, insipidly drippy, condescending, and borrows most of his material from fraudsters and asshats. He is, for lack of a better term, a popular villain.

He has left YouTUBE in the past; and now he’s doing it again. (Last time to no effect, obviously, as he didn’t leave.)

And he’s doing it on the heels of a huge donation scandal perpetrated by him. It started out in April when he posted a video about how he couldn’t keep a job because he simply couldn’t keep from proselytizing to customers; and he even proudly strutted his lack of work ethic when he displayed spools of DVDs he had burned at his current employment, using their equipment for his own gain. It is unsurprising that such antisocial behavior got him canned from so many jobs.

Thus, he came to his avid and adoring fan base and asked them for money.

Initially he asked for $500 a month—or, as he put it, for 500 people to give him $1 a month. In the video where he asked for this he intimated that he would give any amount over $500 a month to charity and named Sick Kids Hospital in Canada as the recipient. A misspeak on his end, perhaps, but he did little to then actually offer this money to them; instead he repeatedly attempted to renege on this by pretending that he’d said no such thing when soliciting donations.

Numerous tubers rose up to document, dissect, and point out the flaws of his behavior. His previous behavior certainly did not work in his favor in this as few people outside of his cult following find this to be on par with his previous actions. April ended and he probably collected far, far more than $500 but there’s no indication that he delivered even a cent of it to Sick Kids Hospital.

Numerous complaints rained down on his PayPal account, contacts to the Canadian revenue service, and even Sick Kids Hospital. His PayPal was shut down twice due to fraud. And now, his YouTUBE channel and website are gone.

The reason given is that he’s been receiving death threats from Muslims. A claim yet totally unsubstantiated. However, a message on his website states that his parents took it down, that they don’t support his actions, and they apologize if he offended anyone.

Links to two series on YouTUBE that help elaborate what happened, and who VenomFangX is. These are mostly cultural critiques by people who don’t like him very much, but they will probably give a good example of one side of the story. The other side is accessible via related videos and searches if you want to expand the depth of your net into this seedy event.

Goodbye Venom. Although, I doubt he’ll be gone for long. Here’s hoping this was the community nipping the next Peter Popoff in the bud.

Links:

VenomFangX Fraudster Exposed! by LordHathor

Dprjones examination of VenomFangX

YouTUBE and the murder/suicide of Tony48219

This guy has been little known on YouTUBE for some time—he was berserk, crazy, and barely audible in his vociferous screaming when he shouted people down, cackling with barely withheld crazy. At the time, he was just a fringe idiot, the sort of babbling drunken crazy that pukes in the town well; only seen by some time-to-time when someone decided to use clips of his insanity to frame other messages.

Nobody expected him to fly apart.

This tragedy has been bringing together a lot of different people on YouTUBE especially in the communities that Tony48219 moved in. It is … a shock to the system, a reason to cry, to laugh, to hold serious conversations, and to rant mindlessly. DonEdoxus2, The Amazing Atheist, JezuzFreek777 and many others have been throwing in their 2¢ on the issue.

We’ve lost someone. He certainly wasn’t a cornerstone of sanity—he wasn’t even that popular—but he went out by murdering another person, snuffing out her life along with his, and we might yet remember him hoping not to discover the fragility of the human condition in his descent into madness.

It’ll be solemn to see where we go from here. We've seen a loss...

This horror will fade, it will soothe with time, but the echoes of it will still shape the community we build.

JamesRandiFoundation YouTUBE Account Suspended

I don’t know how to respond to this – primarily because I have no clue why it happened – but all I can say right now is that this is stupid on the face of it. James Randi is an amazing illusionist (it’s right there in his stage name) and he’s also an excellent resource for looking into the false claims of psychics, scam artists, con artists, and televangelists who claim faith healing and other unproven and grossly bogus activities.

And now his channel has been suspended by YouTUBE. It is not uncommon for people like the above to run false flagging campaigns, to misuse the DMCA, and to otherwise abuse the law and other resources to attack venues like YouTUBE in order to suspend their detractors. And YouTUBE, following the DMCA law and their own policy in a fashion bereft of actual wisdom—suspend on whim.

Steampunk fragrance and surreality in Second Life machinima

Link, via BoingBoing