Voltaire's Child
Fool on the Hill
When I was first on a.r.s. in 1998, which is how I got into the critic's scene (and I just know each and every single one of you is so glad I did, right?) I remember seeing posts from a few church members. A couple- Erin, wgert and I think GunBunny, were clearly OSA. It was obvious even to me then. And a few others were just earnest true believers as I was then, I believe.
One person I remember was MikeSmith3. At the time, I thought he was just a church member, like me, who was there on his own, posting happily. He and I even exchanged some emails and he assured me he was there on his own. Later, come to find out from Tory, he turned out to be Bill Yaude. Well, why would he lie? Cuz he's OSA. That's why he'd lie. I mean, it's not like someone who's with them is going to want to disclose that.
But what I liked were his hilarious posts. MikeSmith3 had a good sense of humor. He didn't do any harm by his posts. Frankly, I wish all OSA operatives were like that. It's not like OSA accomplishes anything by any of their more hostile posts or their sporge attempts. I remember one time, after some PI bust in on Bob Minton and Stacy Brooks, who were on Minton's private property in his swimming pool, MikeSmith3 wrote a hilarious post about Minton and his shotgun and expressed interest in the fate of Stacy's cats. Now, that shit was FUNNY.
Over the years, I've seen several posts holding Bill Yaude up as some kind of bogeyman cuz he's with OSA. Shit, that guy is just a true believer toiling away there at OSA Int. He's obviously a bit smarter than the average bear, but so what. He ran some ops- but did it really slow down the critic's scene any? No. It probably gave it more fuel, than anything else. A lot of things- including Tory's departure from CofS- resulted in whole or in part from Yaude's efforts.
In the end, the OSA ops have done very little to hurt critics or the critic's scene. I sometimes wonder if OSA personnel and affiliated operatives aren't really subconsciously sabotaging their own efforts- because they're THAT ineffective.
I've found that quite a few of the critics who scream "OSA OSA!" at and about other critics the loudest are the ones who used to work for or with OSA when they were in CofS. And I think that when they post things like that, that they are at least as damaging to the critic's scene as anyone out there at OSA Int in LA.
So, really. Don't bring up Bill Yaude as this bogeyman around me if you don't want to be challenged, particularly when it's in conjunction with a remark about other forum contributors who wouldn't know the guy if they fell over him.
One person I remember was MikeSmith3. At the time, I thought he was just a church member, like me, who was there on his own, posting happily. He and I even exchanged some emails and he assured me he was there on his own. Later, come to find out from Tory, he turned out to be Bill Yaude. Well, why would he lie? Cuz he's OSA. That's why he'd lie. I mean, it's not like someone who's with them is going to want to disclose that.
But what I liked were his hilarious posts. MikeSmith3 had a good sense of humor. He didn't do any harm by his posts. Frankly, I wish all OSA operatives were like that. It's not like OSA accomplishes anything by any of their more hostile posts or their sporge attempts. I remember one time, after some PI bust in on Bob Minton and Stacy Brooks, who were on Minton's private property in his swimming pool, MikeSmith3 wrote a hilarious post about Minton and his shotgun and expressed interest in the fate of Stacy's cats. Now, that shit was FUNNY.
Over the years, I've seen several posts holding Bill Yaude up as some kind of bogeyman cuz he's with OSA. Shit, that guy is just a true believer toiling away there at OSA Int. He's obviously a bit smarter than the average bear, but so what. He ran some ops- but did it really slow down the critic's scene any? No. It probably gave it more fuel, than anything else. A lot of things- including Tory's departure from CofS- resulted in whole or in part from Yaude's efforts.
In the end, the OSA ops have done very little to hurt critics or the critic's scene. I sometimes wonder if OSA personnel and affiliated operatives aren't really subconsciously sabotaging their own efforts- because they're THAT ineffective.
I've found that quite a few of the critics who scream "OSA OSA!" at and about other critics the loudest are the ones who used to work for or with OSA when they were in CofS. And I think that when they post things like that, that they are at least as damaging to the critic's scene as anyone out there at OSA Int in LA.
So, really. Don't bring up Bill Yaude as this bogeyman around me if you don't want to be challenged, particularly when it's in conjunction with a remark about other forum contributors who wouldn't know the guy if they fell over him.