Oops

I guess some people are into trolls and find it amusing but I think this whole thing was kind of lame. I expect better from the community but I suppose I shouldn’t.

The primary lesson here for me may indeed be much like conserving your resources when helping someone in the wilderness who is in need. It is the same on the flip side when I’m in need of help.  Turn over resources slowly, carefully, perhaps even in a somewhat miserly way.

Same for volunteering to help someone on this site with my resources.

A secondary lesson for me is probably to realize how different people are and the surprising extremes some will embrace for entertainment sake.

On the up side, such trolling generates a ton of posts that can help decide who one might and might not want to befriend.

This is 5.15 trolling. 

Mac P wrote: In the defense of journalism in a scenario like this I wonder what the "right" thing to do really is. It's a good story, hard to believe at first until I found out he's talking to strangers worried about him and asking for help... To me sounds like rock and ice did due diligence, this guy was corroborating his story with fellow climbing strangers with drawn out details and continued to follow through with an interview. What more evidence does one need? In this scenario is that bad journalism? What about all the questionable ascents that have supposedly gone free while there is only one or no other witnesses?

It's not clear to me that R&I talked to anyone. Literally no original effort. From their article, it looks like they just read the OP and saw John RB's post that "someone local" had talked to the OP and gotten more details and they ran with the story from there, uncorroborated apart from what they read on MP. Which would not pass muster in an elementary school journalism lesson. 

Hahahaha.  Any slim shred of credibility R&I had left is now gone.  300 well written Bisharat pieces or harrowing tales of barely escaping death in the alpine can't make up for this.  What nonsense.  This is what happens when you try to take the easy way to sell more issues and abandon journalism.  Hey Duane, or whoever is running that rag now, maybe tell your writers to stay out of the forums and, idk, actually go out and get stories and talk to people.

To the OP:  Well done.  

don'tchuffonme wrote: Hahahaha.  Any slim shred of credibility R&I had left is now gone.  300 well written Bisharat pieces or harrowing tales of barely escaping death in the alpine can't make up for this.  What nonsense.  This is what happens when you try to take the easy way to sell more issues and abandon journalism.  Hey Duane, or whoever is running that rag now, maybe tell your writers to stay out of the forums and, idk, actually go out and get stories and talk to people.

To the OP:  Well done.  

Paging George! What has become of the old rag?

wonderwoman wrote:

ohhhh.  I thought it was 413.  My eyes are getting old.  Someone in Toledo should do the honors, though.  lol

You are correct - when originally posted it was 413 area code

Now R & I is back pedaling in their correction, saying that Lee "continued trolling, even when he was called on the phone to verify his story" .  What they are leaving out was that it was someone on the MP forum who called to corroborate, NOT THE MAGAZINE.  How pathetic is that?  They can't even own up to their journalistic sin of not verifying the story themselves.  For some reason, this bugs me more than the trolling.

Alex Lee originally wrote: Hey, a friend suggested I post this here. My rack was stolen from the first flatiron yesterday. If anyone has any info please let me know. I had doubles of Black Diamond .3-4 camalot C4 cams, a set of #1-13 stoppers, and offset micro stoppers #1-6. It was all pretty new. The gear was taken from the 6th pitch of the Direct East face of the first flatiron. My partner and I were climbing the route. We reached the ledge before pitch 6 and came across a guy who seemed pretty freaked out. He said he was free soloing but that he was in over his head. We offered to let him join our group. He had a harness he was going to use for the rappels so it was easy. We were honestly relieved to have him because we're both newer trad climbers and he offered to lead the pitch since he'd done the route before. I gave him the rack and my end of the rope. He did the first few moves, but then he pulled the rope and it fell off his harness. I freaked because I thought it came off by accident. Then he said "thanks for booty" and then easily soloed the rest of the pitch and left. My girlfriend was hiking up to meet us at the bottom of the rappels, and she thinks she saw him running down the trail with my rack. My partner and I didn't know what to do and it was about to get dark, but luckily another party came up and let us join them for the rest of the route (Jon and Lisa you guys rock!). The guy was white, late 20s/early 30s, shaggy brown hair, he had a beard, and he was wearing a red long sleeve shirt and gray nylon pants. I'm pretty upset about this. I just learned to place gear last month and my parents gave me the rack for my birthday and I'm pretty shocked that someone would do this. If you see anything my number is 413-489-0137

Alex 

Pretty sure Honnold only soloed Freerider because he was hoping to make off with someone's rack. Too bad there were cameras recording the whole time!

Take away here: mountain project consensus is more accurate than rock and ice 

Can we turn this thread into a discussion on even better ways to troll R&I interns?

A little late to the party, and probably nobody will think it's funny, but I do! Made it while bored at work yesterday. 

Brian S wrote:

You are correct - when originally posted it was 413 area code

The subterfuge is amazing!

And now he has retitled the thread "Oops."

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

There are several cases of people pretending to have cancer in order to get attention.  Some even get massive donations before the fraud is exposed.  Virtually no one applauds these people and they are usually mentally ill and desperate for people to feel sorry for them and to focus attention on them.

I can't remotely relate to the MPers here who think this fake story was useful or entertaining in any way.  People were volunteering to give him gear, money, etc.  Several people I know were offering to take him climbing so he didn't get soured on the community.  There was a sincere outpouring of support and the dude still played along.  Sorry, he's just a d-bag in my book.  Probably some kid who is dying for attention.

If you want attention, earn it by doing something noteworthy.  Yeah, I know... that's requires actual effort... I'm sorry.

Dear Alex,

You are my hero.  I almost shat my pants in laughter while drinking my morning coffee.

Love,
A New Fan

John RB wrote: There are several cases of people pretending to have cancer in order to get attention.  Some even get massive donations before the fraud is exposed.  Virtually no one applauds these people and they are usually mentally ill and desperate for people to feel sorry for them and to focus attention on them.

I can't remotely relate to the MPers here who think this fake story was useful or entertaining in any way.  People were volunteering to give him gear, money, etc.  Several people I know were offering to take him climbing so he didn't get soured on the community.  There was a sincere outpouring of support and the dude still played along.  Sorry, he's just a d-bag in my book.  Probably some kid who is dying for attention.

If you want attention, earn it by doing something noteworthy.  Yeah, I know... that's requires actual effort... I'm sorry.

Spot on.  Even if some people were gullible for believing Alex, he was preying upon people's sympathy and compassion. The hallmark of a scammer. To think that some people are applauding this as "brilliant."

It wasn't brilliant, it was lying. Plain and simple.

Rock and Ice is trash. It has been mostly advertisements and filler for years now.