"Devotees" in the news again

[Slithy_Tove]

@SubaRhubarb

I wrote to him via email and said I thought he was being duped. Here is his response:

" damn, really?

they’re all just good hypotheticals to every reader but one. still, i hate running fakes.

do you have proof she’s fake? links?

dan"

That would be so cool to have Dan Savage as a regular doper.

[CairoCarol]

@Slithy_Tove

That would be so cool to have Dan Savage as a regular doper.

I don’t know if he’d fit in. His lack of capitalization in his e-mail is … disappointing.

[SubaRhubarb]

@Blackberry

Did I miss something or are you holding out on us?

I am holding out.

[Marley23]

@SubaRhubarb

I am holding out.

For what reason?

[VinylTurnip]

@SubaRhubarb

I wrote to him via email and said I thought he was being duped. Here is his response:

" damn, really?

they’re all just good hypotheticals to every reader but one. still, i hate running fakes.

do you have proof she’s fake? links?

dan"

I was going to say that I suspect that a high percentage of the letters appearing in Dan Savage’s column are fakes and that he probably realizes it, but prints them anyway if they permit an interesting reply or might apply to actual situations experienced by his readers. Based on that reply, though, maybe that isn’t true.

That he’s in on it, I mean. I still think a lot of them are fakes. Likewise with the “Prudie” column on Slate and what’s-his-face on Salon.*

• Which I’ve stopped reading altogether because of their horrible, intolerable, browser-crashing site redesign.

[Taomist]

That’s great that Dan replied. I am guessing he does at least some of his work on the road or otherwise on a mobile, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt. I know I hate, hate hate texting unless I have to, and when I do, I absolutely do not give a fig about punctuation or spelling or anything else. I mean, I insist on spelling things out, which helps the hate, I’m sure, but yeah. Shorthand is shorthand, as long as it’s understood it doesn’t really matter what language it is.

And I’m with Vinyl Turnip, in that I’m sure he sees a lot of letters that seem kinda out there, but that might address an issue that he either hasn’t addressed yet, or that he thinks needs some air time anyway, for those people who DO have the issue.

I just love him, always have.

[Taomist]

Just to add: It doesn’t seem like the comments have gone off the rails over this. If it’s a fake, and there ARE a couple of comments that look like they’re meant to inflame the topic, then it’s not doing a very good job of creating any drama. So…good.

If I were REALLY snarky <and less respectful of the Doper community> I’d link, over there, to the Umkay stuff HERE. But meh. The question over there debates the merits of a relationship after one has broken trust; the details don’t really matter.

If I were ambitious enough, I’d import Dan’s questions over here once a week; pretty sure the Dopers could provide a variety of responses much wider than even the Seattle community.

[CairoCarol]

@Taomist

That’s great that Dan replied. I am guessing he does at least some of his work on the road or otherwise on a mobile, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt. I know I hate, hate hate texting unless I have to, and when I do, I absolutely do not give a fig about punctuation or spelling or anything else. I mean, I insist on spelling things out, which helps the hate, I’m sure, but yeah. Shorthand is shorthand, as long as it’s understood it doesn’t really matter what language it is.

And I’m with Vinyl Turnip, in that I’m sure he sees a lot of letters that seem kinda out there, but that might address an issue that he either hasn’t addressed yet, or that he thinks needs some air time anyway, for those people who DO have the issue.

I just love him, always have.

FTR, I also absolutely love Dan Savage. (But you gotta admit, the joke about his punctuation was crying out to be made.)

[SubaRhubarb]

@Marley23

For what reason?

I am dying to blurt details but I may not.
It is making me itchy.

[Maggie_the_Ocelot]

Will you be able to eventually? Will you tell is when you can?

[Ambivalid]

@SubaRhubarb

I am dying to blurt details but I may not.
It is making me itchy.

Um, wha?

[tesseract]

I hope she gets outed over there. And SubaRhubarb whatever do you mean? Why would you be holding out about links that are already on “nursing forums to reddit” ? What is there to hold out about? I don’t like not knowing stuff! Also let’s get some pitchforks and a posse together and go out her. Who’s with me!?

[Mama_Zappa]

@tesseract

I hope she gets outed over there. And SubaRhubarb whatever do you mean? Why would you be holding out about links that are already on “nursing forums to reddit” ? What is there to hold out about? I don’t like not knowing stuff! Also let’s get some pitchforks and a posse together and go out her. Who’s with me!?

I think we’re not supposed to sic people onto other boards. So as annoying as it is that SubaRhubarb won’t spill, I guess she (he?) is playing by the rules.

[lavenderviolet]

Meh. I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that every female quadriplegic we hear about is umkay. Quadriplegics that date probably do attract devotees pretty often, so I wouldn’t find that to be such an outlandish scenario that I’d assume it must be the same person.

[WordMan]

Update - Dan Savage states that the letter to him is likely fake:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/july-18-2012,82586/

Scroll to the bottom - the passage is:

With that said…

GIMP’s letter appears to have been a fake. There’s a disturbed person lurking on the web who pretends to be a woman in a wheelchair, as a number of readers wrote to inform me, and this person has peddled the exact same story before. A fake letter is going to make its way into the column from time to time—there’s no way to verify every letter—and as every question that does make the column is a good hypothetical to every Savage Love reader save one, I try not to get too worked up about the odd fake question. But it is a problem when a fake question contributes to the negative public perception of a group of people whose sexual desires are already so stigmatized.

While the news that GIMP’s letter is fake will come as a comfort to everyone who thought my advice for GIMP sucked, it’s cold comfort for all the good and decent devotees out there who had to see yet another story about a shitty—and, in this case, completely fictitious—devotee make it into print. My apologies.

---

Mods, if that is too much text to paste in, please remove it and folks can find it via the link and scrolling to the bottom…

[twickster]

@WordMan

Mods, if that is too much text to paste in, please remove it and folks can find it via the link and scrolling to the bottom…

Nope, we’re good.

Thanks for the update.

[Philster]

That is clearly the same scammer behind umkay.

Whoever they are, they are tenacious about their writing style, tone, grammar – just the whole package.

.

[Fiddle_Peghead]

I’m not convinced it’s the same person. It’s way to easy for this to simply be a coincidence without a lot more evidence.

[SubaRhubarb]

@Fiddle_Peghead

I’m not convinced it’s the same person. It’s way to easy for this to simply be a coincidence without a lot more evidence.

There is more evidence. A Lot more. I gave Many links to Dan, including the ones discussed on the dope, and links to other places I found online that I am not willing to share here. One of the places is a forum frequented by women suffering from a certain trauma, and they got trolled hard by Notummok. It is a private board in the sense that google doesn’t index it, and you must register to even Read there. The mods there know about her history here and at the whattoexpect forums now.

That is all I can share now, and it is unlikely I will share more later. Sorry.

[Ambivalid]

@SubaRhubarb

There is more evidence. A Lot more. I gave Many links to Dan, including the ones discussed on the dope, and links to other places I found online that I am not willing to share here. One of the places is a forum frequented by women suffering from a certain trauma, and they got trolled hard by Notummok. It is a private board in the sense that google doesn’t index it, and you must register to even Read there. The mods there know about her history here and at the whattoexpect forums now.

That is all I can share now, and it is unlikely I will share more later. Sorry.

Then why say anything?