Guy's letter to principal goes viral after taking them out of school to run Boston

menoscemo

Well I am sure you all read the back and forth between the principal and the Boston Marthoner on Facebook etc after his letters went viral.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/04/28/boston-marathon-principal-letter/

Dear Madam Principal,

While I appreciate your concern for our children's education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.

Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can't be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.

In the 3 days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time) they learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts and physical education.

They watched their father overcome injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal.

They also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal.

At the marathon, they watched blind runners, runners with prosthetic limbs and debilitating diseases and people running to raise money for great causes run in the most prestigious and historic marathon in the world.

They also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won't ever truly learn in the classroom.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence.

These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality our children are ahead of the game. They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.

We appreciate the efforts of the wonderful teachers and staff and cherish the education they are receiving at Rydal Elementary School. We truly love our school.

But I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out of school again for an experience like the one they had this past week.

Thank you for your time.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/04/28/boston-marathon-principal-letter/#KD1PvAWYmYzDFFh8.99


Well it turns out he probably cheated to get to Boston in the first place.
Details here

Let's run thread http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539&page=0

walshb

Jail the school dodger!

DocQismyJesus

Now that my friends is how you deal with a bluffer. FairPlay to letsrun for outing this clown.

plodder

But, the evidence that he cheated seems to be:

- a 30 minute improvement in his previous marathon time compared to the qualifying time. 3:43 -> 3:11 That's not an unimaginable improvement. A fair few people here have done that. I went from 3:50ish to 3:27 myself at the same age co-incidentally.

- there's only one photo of him on the course - at the finish line. Apparently, there should be dozens of others .... So, next time you see the race photographer folks, make sure you smile for the camera and make sure he sees your number clearly.

Not saying he didn't cheat, but the "evidence" on that page is pretty threadbare. It seems to be predicated on the idea that big improvements are just suspicious by default. Sad.

Though it appears his Boston finish time of 4 hours is way off the mark. While there could be an explanation for that, it's a bit annoying that the article didn't mention it.

average_runner

menoscemo wrote: »

Well I am sure you all read the back and forth between the principal and the Boston Marthoner on Facebook etc after his letters went viral.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/04/28/boston-marathon-principal-letter/

Dear Madam Principal,

While I appreciate your concern for our children's education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.

Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can't be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.

In the 3 days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time) they learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts and physical education.

They watched their father overcome injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal.

They also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal.

At the marathon, they watched blind runners, runners with prosthetic limbs and debilitating diseases and people running to raise money for great causes run in the most prestigious and historic marathon in the world.

They also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won't ever truly learn in the classroom.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence.

These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality our children are ahead of the game. They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.

We appreciate the efforts of the wonderful teachers and staff and cherish the education they are receiving at Rydal Elementary School. We truly love our school.

But I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out of school again for an experience like the one they had this past week.

Thank you for your time.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/04/28/boston-marathon-principal-letter/#KD1PvAWYmYzDFFh8.99


Well it turns out he probably cheated to get to Boston in the first place.
Details here

Let's run thread http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539&page=0

Meno,

As a teacher Meno, how do you view this? Is that a common thing in schools?

Just asking as our little one will start school next year and I would be very reluctant to take her out of school in June for a summer holiday.

tHE vAGGABOND

there's only one photo of him on the course - at the finish line. Apparently, there should be dozens of others .... So, next time you see the race photographer folks, make sure you smile for the camera and make sure he sees your number clearly.

The one thing I would say is that having done Chicago, is that the big American marathons have loads and loads more cameramen around than European marathons do. Dublin you have the finishing line photos and then the odd lone wolf here and there.

At several points of the Chicago course you have 5 or 6 photographers on bridges, or scaffolding taking pictures of all around them. There were 25-30 pictures of me after Chicago, most of them utter rubbish to be fair - So I totally understand folks being suspicious about his only having one, that is really weird.

They make a fortune from photo packs as folks over there have no problem paying $100 for a pack of a few photos, and if they sell them to 30% or so of folks doing the race that's a lot of cash. Everyone I know over there who had done a marathon could show me the pictures, on their phones or in their houses - where I have done 7 marathons or something now, and have got the pics twice [Paris, second marathon, and Chicago, where I fell for a "pay $60 now and not $120 later" advance offer

DocQismyJesus

plodder wrote: »

But, the evidence that he cheated seems to be:

- a 30 minute improvement in his previous marathon time compared to the qualifying time. 3:43 -> 3:11 That's not an unimaginable improvement. A fair few people here have done that. I went from 3:50ish to 3:27 myself at the same age co-incidentally.

- there's only one photo of him on the course - at the finish line. Apparently, there should be dozens of others .... So, next time you see the race photographer folks, make sure you smile for the camera and make sure he sees your number clearly.

Not saying he didn't cheat, but the "evidence" on that page is pretty threadbare. It seems to be predicated on the idea that big improvements are just suspicious by default. Sad.

Are you actually serious?

1. The only reason this all kicked off is the guy wrote an obnoxious letter to his kid's school when they questioned him for taking them out for 3 days. He then posted the letter, it went viral and a proffessional educator- doing her job got death threats.

2. A bunch of loser letsrun geeks (losers but with a pretty good track record of exposing frauds Google Kip Litton ) do a 65 page peek into this guys blog/ race results/ photos etc

3. They reach the conclusion(based on lack of photo evidence, fact the guy posts GPS results looking at training times etc for everything but his BQ etc that he cheated.

4. I'm sorry too lazy to post the thread but this guys best ever 5k was run at his supposed marathon pace.

5. They call him out by alerting the media he courted to harangue his kid's principle

I'm sorry justice is being served here. People work incredibly hard to run qualifying times/ make improvements like you Plodder- calling the BS out is protecting the integrity of the sport
P

PaulieC

average_runner wrote: »

Meno,

As a teacher Meno, how do you view this? Is that a common thing in schools?

Just asking as our little one will start school next year and I would be very reluctant to take her out of school in June for a summer holiday.

Wait til you see the price difference in flights/accommodation/etc. as the calendar ticks over to the 1st of July.

Greenmachine

Guy comes across as a self righteous idiot. If he had of just quietly apologized for taking his kids out of school, he would not be receiving all this attention right now. Teaching his kids that he/they are always right is damaging.

plodder

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

Are you actually serious?

1. The only reason this all kicked off is the guy wrote an obnoxious letter to his kid's school when they questioned him for taking them out for 3 days. He then posted the letter, it went viral and a proffessional educator- doing her job got death threats.

2. A bunch of loser letsrun geeks (losers but with a pretty good track record of exposing frauds Google Kip Litton ) do a 65 page peek into this guys blog/ race results/ photos etc

3. They reach the conclusion(based on lack of photo evidence, fact the guy posts GPS results for everything but his BQ etc that he cheated.

4. I'm sorry too lazy to post the thread but this guys best ever 5k was run at his supposed marathon pace.

5. They call him out by alerting the media he courted to harangue his kid's principle

I'm sorry justice is being served here. People work incredibly hard to run qualifying times/ make improvements like you Plodder- calling the BS out is protecting the integrity of the sport
P

Well, I'm just going by the two pieces of evidence that were published in the magazine, not the letsrun thread or any of the back story which I hadn't heard about. It struck me as odd that the points were in themselves flimsy.

But, it's good to see "justice" being served on a letsrun thread. I just hope the guy himself got a chance to speak, because even a**holes who exploit their 15 minutes of fame, are entitled to it.

average_runner

PaulieC wrote: »

Wait til you see the price difference in flights/accommodation/etc. as the calendar ticks over to the 1st of July.

Already did our homework on that, things go up alright but still within budget thank god, as I have my running routes in this area all figured out from last year!!

I dont like change!!

DocQismyJesus

plodder wrote: »

But, it's good to see "justice" being served on a letsrun thread. I just hope the guy himself got a chance to speak, because even a**holes who exploit their 15 minutes of fame, are entitled to it.

he has. He is calling in the laywers. Thank god America has very robust free speech protection. Doubt he'll get far.

Also USATF has launched an investigation into his alleged BQ time.

Those letsrun nerds can be annoying at times but this time it looks to me like they've exposed a guy who tried to humiliate an educator doing her job in public on TV etc while trying to make himself look like super dad - cheated his way into Boston and got caught out. I say well done if that thread had been on boards it would have last 3 seconds as fear of solicitors letters would have trumped any search for truth

PaulieC

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

I say well done if that thread had been on boards it would have last 3 seconds as fear of solicitors letters would have trumped any search for truth

When I saw this thread title, I thought right, that's me out of here, might as well be on FB or buzzfeed if this is the level of anodyne post that now encouraged on A/R.

I had a quick read through the first page of the thread and it would appear from the "evidence" that this guy gained his qualification in an unusual way. I think the lack of in race timings are more conclusive than the lack of race photos. Whatever about him being a cheat, he certainly is an absolute ballsack with the way he is carrying on.

annapr

Dear Madam Principal,
My children also learned that cheating goes a long way. And that all sorts of populist nonsense can go viral on social media and make Daddy 'famous.' Invaluable lessons, no doubt.

TRR_the_turd

Lesson of the day for A/R boardsies

No problem in us continuing to rig race results and getting bangers to run for us to achieve BQ and London QTs BUT don't be a self righteous prick on social media. You will be found out

DocQismyJesus

PaulieC wrote: »

When I saw this thread title, I thought right, that's me out of here, might as well be on FB or buzzfeed if this is the level of anodyne post that now encouraged on A/R.

I had a quick read through the first page of the thread and it would appear from the "evidence" that this guy gained his qualification in an unusual way. I think the lack of in race timings are more conclusive than the lack of race photos. Whatever about him being a cheat, he certainly is an absolute ballsack with the way he is carrying on.

Totally agree I thought click bait as well (especially with meno posting it )

I actually believe it's a really important thread though. It's a good model for a type of crowd sourced protection of a sport's integrity. It's just too bad drug cheats don't tend to leave a big social media footprint or we'd have athletics well and truly guarded by the likes of let'srun

average_runner

TRR_the_turd wrote: »

Lesson of the day for A/R boardsies

No problem in us continuing to rig race results and getting bangers to run for us to achieve BQ and London QTs BUT don't be a self righteous prick on social media. You will be found out

I am sure no one on boards would do that kind of cheating

DocQismyJesus

TRR_the_turd wrote: »

Lesson of the day for A/R boardsies

No problem in us continuing to rig race results and getting bangers to run for us to achieve BQ and London QTs BUT don't be a self righteous prick on social media. You will be found out

The funny thing about that TRR is that if you get involved in some kind of letsrun cheating sting - the boys are gonna be pulling up 4 hour marathons in your name from all over the globe as evidence against you

plodder

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

Totally agree I thought click bait as well (especially with meno posting it )

I actually believe it's a really important thread though. It's a good model for a type of crowd sourced protection of a sport's integrity. It's just too bad drug cheats don't tend to leave a big social media footprint or we'd have athletics well and truly guarded by the likes of let'srun

Not so sure about "protection of a sport's integrity". As TRR said, it was purely to expose a self-righteous ass-hole.

davedanon

For me the biggest piece of evidence is his 5k pb. I find it highly improbable that someone who could run 26 back-to-back 7.17 miles couldn't break 7 minutes a mile over 3.1 miles.

sconhome

His Twitter and blog are locked down.

Surprised these people haven't learned from Lance to brazen it out and then claim it was all a big joke or "social experiment" :rolleyes:

plodder

davedanon wrote: »

For me the biggest piece of evidence is his 5k pb. I find it highly improbable that someone who could run 26 back-to-back 7.17 miles couldn't break 7 minutes a mile over 3.1 miles.

It's more than improbable, but where I'm coming from on this, is to avoid this kind of ire (if you want to be a controversial sort that people take a dislike to), you really need to have all your race results neatly packaged, available online etc. What if your 5ks were all done in club races that weren't recorded online? Having said that, I just read the first page of the letsrun thread and the comment where someone actually asked him on his blog to account for something, got deleted by him and wasn't answered. That doesn't sound good.

DocQismyJesus

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man?currentPage=all


The parrelels here to this incident and indeed even to past A/R travails are fascinating. Long but worth a read.

The crazy thing is it actually takes as much effort sometimes to fake something as it would have to do it for real.

menoscemo

plodder wrote: »

It's more than improbable, but where I'm coming from on this, is to avoid this kind of ire (if you want to be a controversial sort that people take a dislike to), you really need to have all your race results neatly packaged, available online etc. What if your 5ks were all done in club races that weren't recorded online? Having said that, I just read the first page of the letsrun thread and the comment where someone actually asked him on his blog to account for something, got deleted by him and wasn't answered. That doesn't sound good.

He is his own worst enemy.
By keeping his own athlinks profile (profile pic and all) he is publishing his own results all in one place. He admittedly has a half marathon PB of 1:40 and ran a 1:47 in a half just 2 months before running a 3:11 marathon :rolleyes:
http://www.athlinks.com/athletes/213451360?category=Running

Muff Richardson

you'd think he'd have a whole host of official race results available, isn't that how most people go about running their first marathon...doing a heap of shorter distance races building up to a marathon.

shutting down his blog, twitter, calling in the lawyers seems to be a tad extreme if he has nothing to hide rather than shrugging it off and offering to prove himself genuine.

davedanon

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man?currentPage=all


The parrelels here to this incident and indeed even to past A/R travails are fascinating. Long but worth a read.

The crazy thing is it actually takes as much effort sometimes to fake something as it would have to do it for real.

I've read that story before. It's absolutely fascinating, I think, the lengths that some people will go to.

DocQismyJesus

davedanon wrote: »

I've read that story before. It's absolutely fascinating, I think, the lengths that some people will go to.

My favourite part is that Kip actually invented a marathon for himself to win/ published fake results, put up a website - even answered emails as the fake race director. Amazing stuff.

DocQismyJesus

The funniest thing about all this is the bluffers don't realise most competitive runners are OCD types who make amazing detectives. The running crowd is pretty much the worst group in the world to try and fake on- no other sport would have blokes trawling through thousands of photos/ times just to catch a cheat.

davedanon

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

My favourite part is that Kip actually invented a marathon for himself to win/ published fake results, put up a website - even answered emails as the fake race director. Amazing stuff.

Yeah. I found myself perversely admiring the guy's chutzpah. If he put as much effort into his running as his scam he'd have smashed 3 hrs no bother. The hubris is brilliant, as well. Not only does he want to 'run' sub-3, he has to do it every month! In a sport where even the tiniest cutting of a corner in an insignificant cc race is noted, filed away and never forgotten, the sheer grandiosity of some of these people is remarkable.

davedanon

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

The funniest thing about all this is the bluffers don't realise most competitive runners are OCD types who make amazing detectives. The running crowd is pretty much the worst group in the world to try and fake on- no other sport would have blokes trawling through thousands of photos/ times just to catch a cheat.

Yeah. Remember the Crusaders guy who jumped into a race a couple of years back? Was it the DCM? He got outed pretty quick, people were all over the race photographs and the time-splits.

omnithanos

menoscemo wrote: »

They also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won't ever truly learn in the classroom.

I should hope not as there is strong evidence that the Boston Marathon Bombing was a hoax event which played out in almost identical fashion to the Department of Homeland Security-sponsored terrorist drill Operation Urban Shield which was scheduled for June of 2013 and was planned to be an unprecedented operation using over 500 first responders.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/bostons-custom-designed-terror-operation-urban-shield/5345223

You can follow a link to watch a video about Operation Urban Shield here but I do warn you that it contains fake gore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEFSBYr42Qc

Sacksian

davedanon wrote: »

Yeah. Remember the Crusaders guy who jumped into a race a couple of years back? Was it the DCM? He got outed pretty quick, people were all over the race photographs and the time-splits.

He did it in two consecutive years I think - 2012 & 2011. In the 2011, he ran the first half in 66 minutes. Which is some going. However, he faded a little in the 2nd half and I think he got in under 2:5*, or something like that. But he learned from that experience and switched up in 2012, with an improved strategy, running the 2nd half in 67 minutes to finish around 2:30: a text-book negative split of 16 minutes.

Apparently, he did something similar in the GIR before these; bypassing the Khyber/S-bends, etc, by just running across the 15 acres to join up on the other side!

He's still running and competing (not for Crusaders though).

robinph

omnithanos - Take that to the conspiracy theories forum.

eoinín

I have just finished reading Jon Ronson's fascinating "So You've been Publicly Shamed":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-x/dp/0330492284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431001353&sr=8-1&keywords=ronson+shamed

which deals exactly with the kind of vindictive cyber ganging-up that is occurring on LetsRun. The consequences of his alleged cheating (i.e. life probably ruined because of cyberbullying) hugely outweigh the act of cheating, which, while definitely a bad thing, is really a fairly trivial matter and should only have resulted in his disqualification from the event and maybe a ban from future races. You could say he brought it on himself by posting his rant on the internet, but I do feel a little sorry for the guy. Its hard not to feel sorry for people who've done similar foolish but fairly innocuous things, and watched their lives fall apart in the aftermath, like in these examples given by Ronson:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0

DocQismyJesus

eoinín wrote: »

I have just finished reading John Ronson's fascinating "So You've been Publicly Shamed":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-x/dp/0330492284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431001353&sr=8-1&keywords=ronson+shamed

which deals exactly with the kind of vindictive cyber ganging-up that is occurring on LetsRun. The consequences of his alleged cheating (i.e. life probably ruined because of cyberbullying) hugely outweigh the act of cheating, which, while definitely a bad thing, is really a fairly trivial matter and should only have resulted in his disqualification from the event and maybe a ban from future races. You could say he brought it on himself by posting his rant on the internet, but I do feel a little sorry for the guy. Its hard not to feel sorry for people who've done similar foolish but fairly innocuous things, and watched their lives fall apart in the aftermath, like in these examples given by Ronson:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0

This situation is certainly not cyber bullying. The only bullying here was the public letter the cheater wrote to make his kid's school principle look like an arse- which incidentally resulted in the poor woman receiving death threats. I'm familiar and quite enjoy Jon Ronson normally and IMO there is a massive difference between the type of spur of the moment tweets people have been shamed for and the pre meditated cheating followed by self righteous attack launched by this guy in Boston.

It is unfair to victims of actual bullying when the term is used so loosely to apply to anyone who blows a whistle on charlatans and chancers like this.

A perfect example of this type of hi- jacking of the word bullying is in full public view in Ireland right now used by groups like the Iona "institute" and the Catholic Church. They have attempted to reframe a civil rights issue and are accusing anyone who calls them out for the bigots they are as a "bully"

Dangerous. (Apologies for political rant here mods delete if you wish but am using it to make my point)

Itziger

eoinín wrote: »

I have just finished reading Jon Ronson's fascinating "So You've been Publicly Shamed":

http://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-x/dp/0330492284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431001353&sr=8-1&keywords=ronson+shamed

which deals exactly with the kind of vindictive cyber ganging-up that is occurring on LetsRun. The consequences of his alleged cheating (i.e. life probably ruined because of cyberbullying) hugely outweigh the act of cheating, which, while definitely a bad thing, is really a fairly trivial matter and should only have resulted in his disqualification from the event and maybe a ban from future races. You could say he brought it on himself by posting his rant on the internet, but I do feel a little sorry for the guy. Its hard not to feel sorry for people who've done similar foolish but fairly innocuous things, and watched their lives fall apart in the aftermath, like in these examples given by Ronson:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0

Sorry, not buying it. He's a dork. The letter to the School Principal is cyber bullying at its best. Cheat and dork. Yes, the Letsrun people are nutters but that doesn't change what he is.

Itziger

Jeez, all that Let's Run reading is frying my brain. I wrote "Principal" in my first response above, then doubted my spelling and changed it to "Principle"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! before changing it back.

MUST STOP READING forum stuff.

DocQismyJesus

Also, read the article about Kip Litton from the New Yorker I linked to a few posts back- he was habitually cheating for years, faced a trial by letsrun but the article concludes has not had his lif "ruined " in anyway - in fact has faced no consequences at all beyond some race bans etc.

eoinín

DocQismyJesus wrote: »

This situation is certainly not cyber bullying.

how is a comment like this not cyber bullying:

"Let's get this cheating scum and take away his kids to boot!"

and thats just from the first page!

menoscemo

BTW another fantastic thread on letsrun about this kind of thing is the exposure of another two total bluffers: Parvaneh Moayedi and Larry Macon.

Some of you may remember Larry being on the news around the new year as being the 'world' record holder for most marathons completed in a year. Paravenah is the female record holder.

Anyway the lads have proven in this thread that in fact they have falsely listed marathons they never ran in (in some instances they simultaneously ran two marathons that were happening in different states). Fixed their own times to qualify for the likes of Boston and Badwater (Paravenah and Larrry organise a series of marathons and once in a while run a fast one to get a qualifier) as well as cheating in races such as Badwater. It's a long thread but worth a read.

I think bluffers like this who clearly crave fame and attention deserve to be outed.

HelenAnne

I haven't read the Let's run thread (because life's too short (and I'm at work)), but I've read some of the cases from the Jon Ronson book. The woman who tweeted on the plane said something horrible and racist, and you could say she brought it on herself, but the backlash was so huge and worldwide, and she had so many people gunning for her, that actually I felt really sorry for her. And I found it hard to understand the zeal people had to punish her -- I bet they don't leap into action as quickly when they hear someone scary saying something racist in the street!

Similarly, this dad sounds like a bit of a dick, and an annoyingly entitled and know-it-all-ish one, who thinks he knows more about education than professional educators (AND is holding himself up as an inspirational learning experience for his kids ) BUT despite all that, it must be disconcerting, and even frightening, when your online activities start to invade / spill over into your real life -- I think we're all guilty of feeling like we're posting to a select few, or into a vacuum, when we post online. I know I would be really shocked if I opened up my inbox tomorrow to find thousands of runners the world over had looked up things about me online and tracked me down in real life (I'm even disconcerted when people from boards I've never met before recognise me in the flesh!)

Even if he did cheat etc, it's one thing to be caught cheating by race organisers, it's another to have strangers half a world away looking up your personal info / judging you etc. I KNOW he made it public himself, I'm just saying, imagine how it would feel to suddenly go viral like that.

I would class 'cyberbullying' as saying things about people that you wouldn't say either to their face, or in a signed, non-anonymous post* (I mightn't say 'entitled dick' to this guy's face, but I'd happily sign my name to it in a letter to the paper, or similar).

* (unless, of course, you have to be anonymous because you live in a dictatorship and risk death / harm for your views).

davedanon

robinph wrote: »

omnithanos - Take that to the conspiracy theories forum.

Hah. Was going to post that very sentence, only I don't know how to 'quote' on my phone.


At the very least it's an outrageous thing to say about an horrific event which cost some their lives and others limbs.

HelenAnne

Itziger wrote: »

Sorry, not buying it. He's a dork. The letter to the School Principal is cyber bullying at its best. Cheat and dork. Yes, the Letsrun people are nutters but that doesn't change what he is.

Just because someone is a cheat and a dork and has bullied someone else, that doesn't mean they can't be bullied in their turn.

And I agree -- poor principal! All she was doing was her job (and probably doing it pretty well -- upholding the 'no holidays in term time' rule etc)

Sacksian

eoinín wrote: »

Its hard not to feel sorry for people who've done similar foolish but fairly innocuous things, and watched their lives fall apart in the aftermath, like in these examples given by Ronson:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0

That was a really good article - thanks for posting! I particularly liked the observation about how the design of social media inadvertently provides perverse incentives (approval/attention/congratulations) for prolonging or broadening public abuse/shaming.

Off-topic (to running but related to above article) but the line about a journalist being "like everyone who participates in mass online destruction, uninterested in learning that it comes with a cost" reminded me of those cases involving people who use social media to abuse public figures e.g. the two who were charged for abusing and threatening Caroline Criado-Perez. A lot of the time, they are completely oblivious/apathetic to any consequences arising from their actions and are fuelled by the attention/infamy their online profile is providing.

DubOnHoliday

Itziger wrote: »

Jeez, all that Let's Run reading is frying my brain. I wrote "Principal" in my first response above, then doubted my spelling and changed it to "Principle"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! before changing it back.

MUST STOP READING forum stuff.

What I've learned from this thread is that compared to Letsrun, Boards A&R is an oasis of calm

annapr

HelenAnne wrote: »

I haven't read the Let's run thread (because life's too short (and I'm at work)), but I've read some of the cases from the Jon Ronson book. The woman who tweeted on the plane said something horrible and racist, and you could say she brought it on herself, but the backlash was so huge and worldwide, and she had so many people gunning for her, that actually I felt really sorry for her. And I found it hard to understand the zeal people had to punish her -- I bet they don't leap into action as quickly when they hear someone scary saying something racist in the street!

Similarly, this dad sounds like a bit of a dick, and an annoyingly entitled and know-it-all-ish one, who thinks he knows more about education than professional educators (AND is holding himself up as an inspirational learning experience for his kids ) BUT despite all that, it must be disconcerting, and even frightening, when your online activities start to invade / spill over into your real life -- I think we're all guilty of feeling like we're posting to a select few, or into a vacuum, when we post online. I know I would be really shocked if I opened up my inbox tomorrow to find thousands of runners the world over had looked up things about me online and tracked me down in real life (I'm even disconcerted when people from boards I've never met before recognise me in the flesh!)

Even if he did cheat etc, it's one thing to be caught cheating by race organisers, it's another to have strangers half a world away looking up your personal info / judging you etc. I KNOW he made it public himself, I'm just saying, imagine how it would feel to suddenly go viral like that.

I would class 'cyberbullying' as saying things about people that you wouldn't say either to their face, or in a signed, non-anonymous post* (I mightn't say 'entitled dick' to this guy's face, but I'd happily sign my name to it in a letter to the paper, or similar).

* (unless, of course, you have to be anonymous because you live in a dictatorship and risk death / harm for your views).

You are far too reasonable and empathetic