**Updated by Tenshi Below Cut**
You might have read about the recent trials and tribulations of RUNWAY, but if not, here’s a short encapsulation:
RUNWAY closed it’s doors unexpectedly without informing staff and leaving lots of debt in it’s wake. Someone tried (or not) to swoop in and take it up. The former (?) owner got all legal-ese on the swooper’s butt, took her toys and went home. That’s about the point at which I stopped caring and listening. Well, the RUNWAY blog is back in a very annoying way.
The blog has started syndicating posts from the feeds, namely Fashion World of SL, Fashion Feed of SL, and iheartsl. Unfortunately, RUNWAY is also syndicated by these feeds, so it’s basically vomiting posts back up and making it hard for anyone’s post to stay at the top of the feed to be seen. In essence, it’s breaking all the SL fashion feeds with spam.
It’s not syndicating all the posts, but a high number of them from various SL blogs.
Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. Whoever’s doing this with the RUNWAY blog is taking writing credit for all the posts. Take a look at this, this is the post I did earlier today on Tunip Murnip’s prefab and M.Fox, as syndicated by the RUNWAY blog:
Do you see my name anywhere on that post? No, didn’t think so. I certainly don’t write for RUNWAYsl, and I didn’t give permission for my post to be picked up on it. At the bottom of the blog, it even says all content is copyright to RUNWAY. This is plagiarism, pure and simple.
It even has categories highlighting posts as you’d see on a regular blog, in addition to a topic header with the ‘highlight’ posts that changes. As far as I can tell, since it’s overhaul the RUNWAY blog has NO original content on it, but if you looked at it with uninformed eyes, you’d think that they’d written every post.
The blog has over 28 posts today at the time of this writing and is growing with more every hour.
I can’t help but think this is a deliborate and malicious way to grief the feeds after the popular response to RUNWAY’s departure. The blog is still listed as belonging to Maggie Mahoney, but I have no way to verify if that’s who is running it. Please email, IM or Plurk the feed owners’ to inform them about this and let them know you’d like the RUNWAY blog removed.
Tao Takashi – Fashion World of SL
Carissa Crimson – Fashion Feed of SL
**edited by Tenshi to add**
“The Following Story is true. The names are changed to protect the innocent.”
But only the innocent.
So, Rowan Carroll and I were in Designers in Seclusion chat today while I was going off about the crappy Runway of SL feed, and how it was totally plagarizing SCD’s work. While I was too busy wanking off to my own anger, Rowan started digging.
“Did you know runwaysl.com is owned by fourseasonstranscriptions.com?” She asks.
Wheels start cranking in my head. That sounds SO familiar.
In fact, I had a conversation a few weeks ago in regards to that fact with another avatar I won’t name but I do trust. She told me that Maggie Mahoney was extremely blatant with her RL information when she first joined up in SL, and that Maggie Mahoney was telling people she was Robin Hall in real life. Robin Hall owned and operated Four Seasons Transcriptions out of Virginia, which is known for not paying it’s employees again and again. I could keep going with the links of Medical Transcribers who say they’ve been scammed.
From MTStars.com, a Medical Transcriber forum which we have linked to here:
Robin Hall CONTINUES to scam MTs and get away with it. I get emails weekly from MTs who cannot get their paychecks from her. I find it absolutely incredible that she can continue to get away with this, but she does. After she had to leave here, she moved over to guru.com. I contacted them and warned them about her, but she wound up scamming some people there and has since been banned. Kind of an interesting aside – heard from a reliable source that Robin was giving hospitals a false Tax ID#. Go figure!!
And more from the same poster:
Well, the update is there is no update. She still has not paid me the money she owes me and refuses to answer emails, etc. I’ve heard she’s suing me for making slanderous and libelous statements.  She obviously has not looked up the definitions of slander or libel. I’ve not made one FALSE statement. I’ve had mutual acquaintances forward me emails/instant messages from her where she’s making outrageous claims like she’s mailed me my money by certified mail and I’ve failed to pick them up and she’s emailed me but I refuse to answer her. Totally nonsensical garbage. I hear that she’s advertising on guru.com these days.  I really need to know where these unethical imposters get off thinking they can just steal our services and get away with it. I guess because they can. Boy, how I wish some hospital would stiff her like she’s stiffed me. Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement.
It seems she favors work where she can victimize people who stay at home and want to work their own hours, which basically leaves stay-at-home mothers and fathers. Transcription was a perfect area for her. The requirements to work at her Transcription service:
Hardware/Software: Windows XP; Microsoft Word 2000 or better; Bytescribe or Express Scribe (or similar wav player); ability to play .mp3, .wav, .dss files a must.
Method of sending/receiving dictation: FTP via secure site
Compensation Information: IC status only – rare weekends – DOE – based on 65-character line incl spaces
Second Life was an easy transition. It’s fun, funky, and why not? Same sorts of people, looking to make money, right?
Maggie came in SL playing the part of a complete newbie. She made friends with people she knew she could take advantage of, and then after she got good and comfortable with the interface, she sprung into action, forming RUNWAY. Her first life tab says she’s a “southern girl”, and “manners count”. Yup. They sure do. But not as much as the hot, hot cash in your hands, huh Mags?
We also obtained other, um, evidence to the fact that Maggie Mahoney does tromp the grounds that Robin Hall walks on, but we shan’t share it, because we all know that’s kinda creepy and weird. As far as I’m concerned, Maggie/Robin already has her pants down.
We haven’t seen Maggie in a few weeks, have we? Dealing with her supposed breast cancer… or moving to Honolulu? Theories abound, but the one thing we can assure you, is that you got scammed.
Robin Hall aka Maggie Mahoney has a record in Virginia, and not just where she held her \Transcription business. No, it goes to Tazewell County (I know, I LOL’d too, DON’T TAZE ME BRO) court records. “Uttering Forged Document”, “Obtaining Telephone Service” (which I can only assume is a parole violation), numerous counts of forgery including of public records, Failure to Appear, Larcen (Theft), Probation Violation, Probation Violation, Probation Violation.
If Maggie Mahoney/Robin Hall wants to step forward and dispute these claims – both RL and SL -Â with a plausible explanation, I will gladly retract ALL of this and issue an apology. But do you really think that’s going to happen?
Please note: We have absolutely nothing on Ocean in this matter. For all we know, he may be a victim as well.
About Iris Seale
I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I had been wondering how they were so prolific. They aren’t prolific at all — they are just thieves!
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Oh and ughhhhhhhhh.
If I catch the son of a bitch doing this I’m going to rip them a new one and get them shut down.
its annoying as FUCK. Btw, carissa already took them out;)
Woot, Carissa ROCKS!
Dat’s why we deleted their syndication off Inqcommunications as soon as we saw what it was doing………….same day.
I think there should be a syndicate syndicating all the blog syndicates – imagine how big that would be? bwahahahha
I like to think of us as a mob syndicate………
you know I’m a fan of the fashion mafia.
Now I’m a capo………..
(runs over to inq to make sure I actually got it off of each feed we pull…………)
Ya’ll should start putting on your personal blogs that RUNWAY SUCKS ASS and let it keep getting published on their site =)
Wow that is like so wrong!
I can’t wait for how they’ll respond to this, if they do.
yep, this is now on runway too
http://www.runwaysl.com/blog/
I can’t get there, it creeps crapping out via that link.
Yeah as Gidge said we removed them for InQConnections.com they started it, I am not sure what they are doing but it was causing real havoic.
Wow.. Runway is like the blog from hell.. Its eating all of our posts!!! Its … the twilight zone.
*plays creepy music for dramatic emphasis*
—the fuck!
Ugh. That suggests to me there’s no originality. On the plus side, SCD must be so bleeding edge and tops of teh fashion ‘verse that all else is an epic FAIL. SCD RULZ
so basically they’re doing feeds without permission?
like wannabe FashionPlanet or Avinista? O.o
Wtf is Runway?
‘DOH!……..the update is delicious and worthy of you.
Now, THAT is dramaz.
“The RUNWAYsl Blog: Ripping Off Bloggers One Post At A Time
By RUNWAY SL • April 28, 2009″
Haha love it!
I knew people were making real money on SL but I never fathomed that anyone was making enough money (besides *Anshe and a few others) to have side thievery gigs going on. I wouldn’t have figured a RL con artist would give SL the time of day. I know of con artists who make enough to keep a sim running but not to this extent.
Could Ocean be an alt? I say this having never heard him on mic but then that’s just me.
*not accusing Anche of thievery
@lei — worse than that. Becuase when its presented by them it appears as though they have written it. The only place you’d know it was not by them is if you happened to mouse over the title and look at the URL. It even says ‘by SLRunway” and “All Rights Reserved”
This is plagarism. Presenting someone else’s work as your own.
@ viv: Right on. I almost get the feeling this is intentional-intended to stir up dramaz
omg @ the update! thats REAL bad..holy whaaa??
ZOMG @ the update. Whoa, ok now we got something serious here, way above and beyond mere plagiarism. There’s RL and SL scamming going on here. Anyone wanna guess that the RUNWAY ‘shutdown’ was due to Maggie/Robin feeling teh heat?
omg what a mess. I am known to love a little detective work on occasion. I found her rl MySpace profile and her favorite TV show is….wait for it…..clear your mouth of any drink……..
PROJECT RUNWAY.
Now that is pretty funny don’t you think?
I wrote her ISP in regards to content theft. complaints@bluehost.com
When the Runway feed began (before it was feeding the feeds) I realized they had added my blog to it when i got a pingback from one of my posts, so i went over to check it out. Being added to a feed is a good thing, right? more exposure? Then i saw the byline…
I contacted Maggie regarding the ‘by SLRunway†byline and told her nicely that needed to be changed as it was looking like they were taking credit for writing those posts. There was a tiny link to my blog at the bottom of the post, if you looked close, but my name was not on it. (at that time, post titles did not link back to the original blog either, but to another runway page) She said they were just getting started and would make sure that was taken care of.
Instead of fixing the issue, they just removed me from the feed.
*goes back to pretending she doesn’t read this blog
*
That house would make a cute skybox. I want it.
I saw this happening on the feeds yesterday and I thought something was up. I wondered if it was just my computer acting funny but damn, this just blows me away. Just…. wow….
Un Freakin Real.
Good work Sherlock, Dr Watson and the crew.
i’d also like to point out that from the http://www.runwaysl.com home page, you can click the advertising link and get info on how to submit your ad and who to pay. There is no information anywhere that Runway as a magazine in SL no longer exists. I guess they haven’t had time to update that with all the work on their new feed… and I really hope anyone visiting that page knows that they no longer offer that service.
I was writing this off, as losing a few bucks to an unprofessional roleplaying Anna Wintour on SL, no intentional harm done. *rolls eyes*
Of course SL is crawling with grifters, the economy is a real ATM.
This is just…wow. Great work here. I’m stunned. I mean I knew they did bad, but I never would have guessed it was to this extent. I’m speechless. No paragraph out of me this time. Just kudos.
Holy crap! Now that all of this new info is coming out, Maggie is firmly established as a liar and a con-artist. Can we finally just accept the fact that she was lying about Runway Magazine’s readership numbers, too?
So the complaint dept got back to me and replied:
“I apologize but this email is not intended as an avenue for copyright
complaints. Please make a ticket at
http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/contact under the “Terms of
Service/Abuse Complaints” option.”
Going through the host to get this site down is one thing, but I wonder if there’s a way to get a lawyer involved and profit from this. It might take a civil court case, but if they’ve taken in any money by selling advertisements on the website, or in their newsletter, it seems possible that (since that income was created through fraud) it’s up for grabs.
I’m not a lawyer.
But, it seems like someone is using plagiarized postings to advertise their business, and thinking that in cyberspace none of the laws count.
When, really, they do. This isn’t any different from producing a real life newspaper, filled with articles you didn’t write, saying that you did write them, and then charging people for advertising in the paper. The hard work of other people created this paper’s ability to attract attention, thus giving it value. Value that rightfully belongs to the people who DID create the valuable content.
Something to think about.
Anyone a lawyer, or willing to shell out a few bucks to see if there’s a case here?
Only bullets stop mega assholes. May this mega asshole get what is coming in a dark alley soon.
Ann Otoole
Only bullets stop mega assholes. May this mega asshole get what is coming in a dark alley soon.
++++++++++++++++
Yikes! (o.0)
Yeah the pin kinda dropped after that one, Ann. lol
Utterly amazing detective work..bravo!
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/stock-letters/
There’s a nice boilerplate email for if/when plagiarism strikes.
If it is Robin Denise Witt Hall who is behind this, I sincerely doubt she’s done. She started her criminal career in 1992, racking up 11 charges of credit card theft and 12 charges of credit card fraud. Then she moved up to larcenies and “Forgery of Public Record.”
I haven’t pulled her court records to review them in detail, I don’t care THAT much, but I will say this has been an eye-opening read. Thanks for the intrigue; I’ll never look at random internet people the same.
Well, Nota.Lawyer, you’ve certainly done your homework!