Common sense Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 BEING A PROFESSIONAL DUMBASS ON TWITTER IS EASY I have a theory about what causes 90 percent of sports fans’ worst behavior: it’s not born from obsession, but a need to fulfill an insider fantasy. In an age in which not just fantasy sports, but fantasy sports analysis and fantasy sports supplies are cottage industries, the fundamental delusion of the fan is control. The belief that the average fan is basically part of team management underlies a lot of suspect (but increasingly normalized) behavior: closely watching high school athletes who aren’t your son (“scouting”), simulating 20 seasons in Madden (“projecting”), and calling into sports radio shows with desperate pleas directed at free agent athletes (“recruiting”). And with social media actually reducing barriers to access, there now exists the worst manifestation of this mania yet: Twitter rumor-mongering. A stable of legitimate reporters provide this service, like Jon Heyman for baseball and Adam Schefter for football. But when fans cross the line between eagerly awaiting breaking news and needing to feel like they’ve got Billy Beane’s number in their cell phone, the market demands a particular type of snake oil salesman. Enter the “Twitter Insiders.” Anonymous users with official-sounding handles and spooky avatars are proving with their follower counts just how desperately fans want to know about trades a few minutes before news actually breaks. I parodied the phenomenon in February, right before the NHL trading deadline. And while my post was a minor hit among freaky hockey sickos, the mongering has only gotten worse, with fake insiders proving as popular as ever during this hockey offseason. At the heart of hockey’s fake rumor mill sits Eklund, the guy behind HockeyBuzz.com, who codified many genre conventions, including, but not limited to, anonymity, hyperbole, and secretive language. Eklund, real name Dwayne Klessel, who lists his phone number in his Twitter bio, has long since passed from nuisance to novelty. That his throw-crap-at-the-wall approach is less successful than random chance has long been obvious. And Eklund’s self-deprecating tone and mostly genial demeanor has aided his transformation from villain into farce. Still, HockeyBuzz.com boasts 30 million unique visitors per month. Even faced with the low odds of anything Eklund writing coming to pass, people flock to his, hoping to find a small nugget of inside information in a pile of crap. After all, Eklund’s information is sometimes good, and he denies making stuff up, but he doesn’t have any filter, and never seems to bother to confirm anything the way fusty, factual old media journalists would. Now, however, a more insidious type of Twitter insider is on the rise, one that cannot be easily dismissed as unfiltered and unverified. These prattlers, who probably are lying and were the true targets of my parody, exploit Twitter’s features to create an illusion of credibility. They bury their mistakes under the sheer volume of tweets, and magnify their successes with retweets. They also block anyone who challenges them. Basically, these accounts are like the worst kind of “psychic” hustler, only for hockey fans, and instead of “the cards” it’s “my sources.” Their tweets are cold readings, purposely vague and all-encompassing, allowing the fan to imagine the best possible future for their team, while also giving the rumormonger an excuse for when everything they said inevitably goes belly up. Most notable and brazen among them is @hockeyyinsiderr, who, just a week after getting everything wrong about Zach Parise’s negotiations , still commands a huge and loyal audience. The night before Parise and Ryan Suter signed with the Minnesota Wild, the Insiderr claimed that there was a 5 percent chance the two would go to Minnesota. Then, right before their signings, Mr. Insider changed his tune in a tweet meant to cover his ass, one claiming Parise and Suter might sign with the Wild. Afterwards, he created an entire story about Parise reneging badly on a commitment to Pittsburg. The way he told it, Sidney Crosby was practically calling for a Canadian invasion of Minnesota. TSN actual-insider Darren Dreger was so offended by this narrative, he took time to call him out, citing Penguins’ GM Ray Shero as his source. In what turned into an embarrassing internet squabble, HockeyyInsiderr told Dreger to un-block him and apologize, threatening to leak a compromising photo of the Canadian sportscaster at work (which was of course acquired from an anonymous source). The “incriminating” photo wasn’t even PhotoShopped; the Insider taped a printout to a computer monitor and took a picture. He’s daring you to unfollow him now. But you shouldn’t get mad at the Insiderr, a guy who cons people so masterfully, who grows an audience in the face of seemingly career-destroying missteps. He proves you can just BS your way through everything, and fools enough people enough of the time to now be working to form a team of “expert rumor breakers” that will be selected from among his followers. Yep, now all you have to do to be an expert is follow a guy who says he is one. http://www.vice.com/read/being-a-professional-dumbass-on-twitter-is-easy Why do we continue to allow these fake-artists to profit by driving traffic to their sites and by buying into their less-than-chance reports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 They really all should just shut up, and admit they know nothing more than anyone else does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 It's because the casual hockey fans are desperate for rumors and news. Where else will they find rumors and news? The major media sources won't say anything and keep it safe, so they don't look like idiots. So, you have these guys, who essentially post everything they hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossi Vaananen Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I found samjam on youtube as sjam99. He has some videos from when he first joined in 2008, and he couldn't have been more than 14/15. He's just a kid, it's really quite pathetic that grown men still follow/believe his bull sh*t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayman Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 90 percent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 It is too bad samjam protected his account, meaning no tweets are made public. I guess he finally understood that he's no Dreger or McKenzie. https://twitter.com/samjam99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smashian Kassian Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Yeah I agree. There just media trying to fill the Fans burning desire for action on the Luongo, Nash, Ryan (exc.) Fronts. Oh well nothing we can do about it other than not believing it and discouraging it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aladeen Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 There are worse things in the world to get upset about, don't like it? don't follow them? Its like every other entertainment. Should we get all up in arms about historically based movies that don't show exactly what happened the way it happened? Are those movie producers liars and scumbags? maybe but the point is entertainment. Its good to know what these guys are and what they aren't but to get all worked up about it serves no purpose. Bottom line is it gets people talking and it gets people excited, so what if they're wrong 99.9999999% of the time or even always wrong. They obviously fill a void that people want, where there is demand supply will follow. That's just my opinion though and I personally believe nothing until I see it signed sealed and delivered on TSN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJokinen! Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 This guy is the most unintentionally funny account that I've found. Now he is putting together a team of all the other fake insiders for his website. Hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AV. Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 HockeyyInsiderr has no sources but he is very well educated and that's why when he "reports" something, the probability is above average. Oh but he called the Ott- Roy trade? Well who were the two guys Buffalo and Dallas were actively shopping at the TD that Bob McKenzie said would be dealt? Roy and Ott. Yeah but what about JVR and Schenn? Again look at the TD and one of the big rumours. He must be a frequent visitor of HF Boards under a different name. On that site, all teams have fans and they make their team needs known. Point? Easier to assess team needs and this leads to a more educated rumour Must have been a good stream of luck but for somebody who claimed that they were so well connected, you would think he would have had the Parise and Suter deals down. He didn't, got called out for it, and complained. Trust people with real names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoneypuckOverlord Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 in Samjam's defence, he did break the booth trade 4 hours before gillis announced it, but other then that, he's been wrong almost every time. Now hes not even trying anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckbeliever Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 The thing about samjam is the guy rarely posts stuff and he just graduated from high school. He is not a true insider however when he has posted stuff it has been on the money except for the Luongo deal of course. The fact guys from CanucksArmy gave him credit in one of their article shows you he means something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckbeliever Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 in Samjam's defence, he did break the booth trade 4 hours before gillis announced it, but other then that, he's been wrong almost every time. Now hes not even trying anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 My buddy visits Eklund's website errday. Hockeybuzz is great for guys who want to know 'inside info', whether it's true or not. The problem with this is two-fold. First, legit sources don't get as much traffic. Second, people make arguments based on total misinformation. But we are living in the age of misinformation now, so it is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elvis15 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 ... Why do we continue to allow these fake-artists to profit by driving traffic to their sites and by buying into their less-than-chance reports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etsen3 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I don't know why people follow these fakes anyways, when it's obvious their rumours are bull 90% of the time. My guess is there are a lot of bored, desperate people out there, hoping for small chance of anything exciting happening with their team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.DirtyDangles Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Why do we keep posting threads on them when we know they're stupid? I can understand the discussion around rumours they generate but creating another thread to point out how bad they are as sources is hardly a public service that will shed light on these guys' nefarious practices and have fans stop believing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButterBean Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Eklund shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as HockeyInsiderr. Eklund spews complete crap that comes out of his ass. HockeyInsiderr is right most of the time whether you like it or not, just so happens he was wrong on the 2 biggest signings during free agency, yet still nobody acknowledges the other numerous signings he broke hours/days before TSN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJokinen! Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Eklund shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as HockeyInsiderr. Eklund spews complete crap that comes out of his ass. HockeyInsiderr is right most of the time whether you like it or not, just so happens he was wrong on the 2 biggest signings during free agency, yet still nobody acknowledges the other numerous signings he broke hours/days before TSN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jai604 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Let the sheep follow. I've never read, nor will ever read what Eklund or HockeyInsiderr have to say. I honestly don't see the fascination with knowing the news 5 minutes before everyone else, but that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.