Marketroids Pimping Segway
Actually while reading the Segway story I noticed this Slashdot posting:
This so obviously horseshit that I did some digging…
WHOIS on the obviously bogus-named bookofseg.com:
Organization:
phillip torrone
424 second ave west
seattle, wa 98119
US
Phone: 206-XXX-XXXX
Email: phillip@flashenabled.com
I note from a Google search that this is a Tony neighbourhood of Seattle, with one of “Puget Sound area’s largest advertising agencies” located at 424 second ave west. So this seems like a hotspot for marketing companies.
And then he goes and leaves his regular advertising site URL unmasked in the header: www.flashenabled.com. Where he outs himself as a bigwig with Fallon Worldwide. And spends a lot of time pimping PocketPC gadgets. Which makes sense if you’re in Seattle, that close to Microsoft I guess.
So the article was written in obviously dumb marketing buzzwords futzed around a bit to look “cool” and “hip” and “with it”. The same 206-XXX-XXXX phone number is re-used for the POCKETPCMAGIC.COM website, registered to phillip torrone 627 broadway suite 504 new york, NY 10012. There are other interesting websites operating from this nice Manhattan location.
great googling– but all this info is on the about page of my both my sites. i work for a company called fallon, i do mobile device stuff out here in seattle. i’m in the same building as our parent company (424 2nd ave west). i’m not a big wig, i’m just little guy– we do have cool clients though. _none_ of which are segway, llc. the 206 phone number is my cell, you can call it right now if you’d like. the pocketpcmagic.com ebooks site (i write books) was registered to my old nyc addy when i worked for a company called braincraft. again, you could have asked me or looked at the about pages on my site.again, to be crystal clear– i do not work for segway in any way, nor does the company i work for in any way, i do not get paid to do any segway related stuff– the bookofseg.com is just my personal journal of having one. i’m sending this email to you directly as well. feel free to call me if you’d like.
any more questions? let me know.
cheers,
pt
Hi Mike,
I noticed your blog entry re:Philip Torone and his site, BookofSeg.
My name is Frank Tropea, another Segway HT and Segway “Early Delivery Contest” winner. I run a Segway HT news and discussion site, http://www.SegwayChat.com.
I’m not employed by Segway LLC or have any financial interests in the company or otherwise.
The purpose of this e-mail is to let you know Philip Torrone is not a Segway employee or doing marketing for them. His wife won Segway’s contest with her 75-word essay. Each winner was allowed to bring along one guest. She brought Philip. Personally, I brought my wife.
I thought your entry crossed the line of fairness and decency. What purpose does it serve to make that sort of baseless accusation and then top it off by posting Philip’s address/telephone number?
Would you be kind or decent enough to correct your blog entry? In the spirit of true blogging, I think the lowest standard we should all try to follow is to get the story right. If we find out we were wrong later, we should correct our entries.
Regards,
Frank A. Tropea
The errors are huge on your part. Your profile of being a good blog runner has run thin. I think the great idea of you posting Mr. PT’s phone number (latter removed, I give you that) and personal address make me sick. I am not a zelot but just an average ‘Joe’ who wants this to be fixed.
PT does not work for Segway. Given the amount of time that Phillip has to surf the web and post to forums, I think it’s unlikely he works ANYWHERE!
(sorry Phil, I just had to do it. Cheers!)
Mike,
You just removed and/or corrected the wrong part of this article. Deleting pt’s phone number, which is easily gotten with a whois (I notice that your whois phone number is 555-5555), isn’t the point. Delete the article, please.
The point is, you have some pretty weakly proven accusations there, using what-did-it-take, 5 seconds of super-internet-sleuthing? We all can run a google and a who-is, Mike. It’s not that impressive.
It isn’t about a group of Segway enthusiasts decending on you. Don’t attack us, we’re trying to help you make the right choice. It’s about integrity. A guy put out a weblog, you should respect that.
Face it, leaving the article up reflects poorly on you. Taking it down at least hides your mistake. Printing a retraction would show your integrity.
Amazing that you complain about the amount of email from happy Segway-interested people. Man, you are a celebrity (I mean, isn’t that why you write this kind of negative, incendiary, definitely not researched stuff, so that you will get a rise from people, so that you will get attention???? – of course it is!) So don’t complain about the email. It reads a lot like whining about getting that which you’ve asked for.
Is there anything wrong with a little enthusiasm? Having some cool hobbies? If you had had the presence of mind to ask pt, as others did over a month ago, if he had an association with Segway LLC you would never hav wasted your time. One word, “no”, there is no story her.
My initial impression is “what is the big deal that Phillip has an interest in the HT and posts a site?” You have a site posting your interests. What’s more, as a fellow city dweller, having my name and address blatently posted on the web without my permission would not be too appreciated, no matter how easy it is to find or lookup elsewhere.
mike-
your site with the errors is still not updated, it would seem my next option
is to send a certified letter asking you update your site, and then a lawyer
is the next step after that– which isn’t something i’ve never needed to do
and i really have no desire to spend money on that- i’d much rather give it
a local charity or pay some bills. so i’m hoping you and i can just chat
about this and correct the site and ideally remove the post, i don’t want an
apology, i don’t care about stuff like that.
please confirm or simply let me know the site has been updated as per your
own error as you pointed out and we’re done. if you’d like talk about this
please feel free to call me 206-372-2651 you can call 24/7, doesn’t matter
to me.
you seem like a nice fellow from your site and writings, and i might have
assumed the same things if i googled too, but one email, looking at my site
in the about section on bookofseg.com, a call to me would have be real easy
as opposed to causing me all this grief for the last couple days. this is
the web, you can update your site / remove the errors, please do– this is a
waste of both of our time.
thanks.
cheers,
pt