So as many of you know, there was a post made on December,22,2011 by +Mike Elgan here on Google+ public to all of his quarter of a million + (260,000) followers talking about how he made a discovery of how to chain a mobile hangout etc. (As I had done back in August of this year already being the first person on Google+ to take the concept to the next level including taking many people here on the road with me for true mobile hangouts where I chased drunk drivers (You can find these videos of the whole hangouts on here and by searching youtube, all from back in august) while I entertained plenty of people with my methods and captured live accidents happening from my mobile dashboard 1080P cam setup as well as tours of the city of Montreal.
Not only did +Mike Elgan post sound strangely like what I had been doing since August of this year, but he also attached a photo to his post, a photo that was taken as a snap shot of an actual hangout I did back in august where I was running a police scanner and rushing to the scenes of police activity happening in the city, all live in the hangout for everyone to watch and enjoy.
So, now I decide that I should comment on the post, asking him why he was misleading his 260,000 followers with this post and not giving me any credit for my discovery/idea, let alone his attaching of an actual photograph taken from right inside my own vehicle while doing a mobile hangout right onto his post.
I try to comment and I am told I am not allowed to comment on the post, so then I try to give a plus one to comments or posts on his page and I am still banned from doing so.
I then realize, not only did this post happen and is being accepted by over a quarter million people who it has been sent to in their streams and made publicly available through the search feature to the rest of the world using my content, I am banned from even calling it out, how's that for awesome.
People can and will easily argue that an idea can be thought up by anyone and then someone can think of it at another date, granted, but seal the deal with a stolen photo of my dashboard focused on a street in Montreal, along with other people in the photo that can attest to it being from my car and being in the actual hangout when it happened many months back.
I put the word out and several people like +Mike Stenger who happened to be the person who was not only in the hangout pic that +Mike Elgan posted but also was the one who actually took the screenshot on his pc published it back in August. Also other people such as +Moritz Tolxdorff , +Al Ebnereza , +Brett Bjornsen and my friend +Hugo R. Martin who also happens to be my Lawyer posted comments on his post making it clear as to where the content originated from.
Three Hours after +Hugo R. Martin posted in my comments section a clear message about the matter at hand, +Mike Elgan edited his post and added a +mention of my name beside the photo he used in his post. (Not that this clears everything up for one important reason since the post was originally made on the 22 of December and was seen by everyone mainly on that day and the next, now it takes someone a good five minutes of scrolling down the posts on his page to even find this one, buried deep. A proper retraction would be far too much to demand of someone with as much respect and over a quarter million followers and a well known tech writer at that.
I am sure many can relate.
Embedded Link
Mike Elgan – Google+ – Cool discovery about hangouts
I'm messing around with…
Cool discovery about hangouts
I'm messing around with hangouts today, and made a fun discovery.
As you know, the new mobile apps let you participate in…
Google+: View post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.
I remember your mobile hangouts in the car well, +Adam Guerbuez. You were first and people like +Amanda Blain and +David Bennett, with whom we were in mutual hangouts at the time, can attest to this. Your hangouts were popular because they were fun and accomplished something – besides being a first.
Adam, you were innovating and pushing the bounds since the beginning… it's ridiculous to see people like +Mike Elgan try to pass his random discoveries about months old innovations as something that's new, and clearly pulling from the work of others. It's one thing to talk about something new that you didn't know before and share with people who may not know that information… it's entirely another thing to build off of someone elses innovation and then clearly steal a photo and use it in the post as well…
It's disappointing that people who have been hanging out since forever, and are the ones who know so much about it, aren't the ones who are writing for big tech blogs. I know so many people on here that have so much knoweledge about how hangouts work, and the culture within them. I'd like to see those people, who truly are on the cutting edge of social media, making a living off of their knowledge.
I am not afraid, for my beloved hangout peeps. Those who have come before, are so far behind in this space, that their advantages from their prior 'fame' will be diminished.
Watch their streams – they devolve into popular posts redone – spambots. Those of you who understand the immediacy of this place, the fact that is is divinely intimate, will succeed in the end.
So smile a wry smiles my friends and drink to the new generation.
Hear, hear, +John Fanavans, but they must be called out. I was going to post something along the lines of Lol, Mike Elgan just discovered hangouts but I didn't. We need to make posts and comments like this every time. be sober, be vigilant my children, right +God?
You are blessed beyond what you understand.
Lol, +God I understand full well: what you said, and about hangouts. What kind of a god are you if you don't know that, or that I would catch what you said? ; )
+Adam Guerbuez – I think +Mike Elgan did the Steve Jobs thing..
just uncircled and blocked +Mike Elgan and circled +Adam Guerbuez
He did the same with +Bobbi Jo Woods Santa Girls photo. Shared it, No credit given.
tsk tsk tsk. Called Out.
Thank you +Renata Sherwin thank you for your kind words, it is too bad that more people out there did not have the same dignity to speak out on this issue.
+Nicole van Rossum Indeed!
Steve Jobs thing?
Thanks +James Ezell hope you enjoy the content that I post here on in.
+Bobbie Today Over the past two days, speaking to many people about this matter, I have heard that this is indeed not an isolated incident, apparently I am not the only person this has so blatantly happened to.
It's a trend in lazy bloggers… to grab content and ideas from other less known users and pass it off as their own, or portray as it as a "new groundbreaking discovery" and that they've blessed their following with newfound knowledge… it's sad to see really.
+Adam Guerbuez Were the others also blocked from commenting? I noticed that others have taken up your cause and called him out.
Yeah, he culls column topics from people he follows on here and elsewhere. Which would be fine, if he didn't claim the topics were his own independent discoveries. This is just the most grotesque and flaming example I'm aware of.
Unless you were one of the Googlers who coded Google Hangouts, you have no right to claim "copyright" over writing about some aspect of them. (Actually, if were a Googler your employment contract would probably prohibit you from doing that.) +Mike Elgan should have credited +Mike Stenger who actually recorded and published that screenshot, as you stated. Once the omission was brought to
his attention, he acknowledged and corrected it in the original post where it belonged. (Only glaring and critical errors merit a new and separate post.)
,
Other than your evident need and skill for self promotion, I dont believe you have a legitimate stake in a simple correction to a photo credit.
+Joe Lyons , No I was the only person +Mike Elgan Blocked. He did unblock me this morning and is still posting about how he seriously doubts my claims, even though I have a small army of people backing my claims up as factual with actual proof, not hot air.
Be on the look out for What I have in store for this today and throughout the rest of the week, going to ride this one until it satisfies the masses by my standards.
+Robert N. Lee Indeed, and today he is even making matters worse with his latest post about me over here, https://plus.google.com/u/0/113117251731252114390/posts/8zEfhiay7tx feel free to comment there and let him know that his deeds are not going unnoticed…
+Brett Bjornsen Have a look at the latest drivel from +Mike Elgan in his post today over at https://plus.google.com/u/0/113117251731252114390/posts/8zEfhiay7tx where he says "He's still vexed about it, so I've removed his screenshot and am writing this post. He's also upset that I say "I discovered" the idea of multiple logins, and says he discovered and posted about his discovery long ago. (I did stumble on the idea myself, but don't doubt that he did the same when he says he did.) " …… Even though that photo was taken from an article on the web that clearly outlined my discovery and linked to others of mine from back in August, 2011.
Nice Try, no cigar.
He really does not get it and I along with my army of very intelligent followers who have class, self respect and etiquette will not simply sit back while someone like +Mike Elgan use other people's content, repackages it and spreads it freely to his quarter million + audience here and like sheep, most of them buy whatever he will tell them, at who's expense though and is this behavior that we went to become more of a trend here on Google+?
The good people here who have spoken out against the practices of +Mike Elgan as of late need to be thanked publicly by the masses, these are the same people that will be the reason that google+ will improve and the overall user experience will be far more enjoyable as the pressure they put on people who obviously are here to deceive and disrupt the other members of the service for their own personal enrichment will be called out constantly.
A Trend is in the making here, one new set of brass balls being handed out every hour or so as one more person steps up to have his or her voice heard.
Let's keep this matter in the whats hot, shall we?
Thank you all, that includes the people who are posting negative comments, as long as you just keep posting and mentioning, it will be kept alive and I thank you kindly for helping me reach the masses beyond my own following here by doing so.