Let's Talk: About Not Supporting Spikey Bits

 

Random Warhammer 40k picture because I felt like it

 

Welcome back to Let’s Talk and we’re going in a different direction today. I’m going to stir up some drama and offer some commentary. In order to defend myself against frivolous legal action, I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m showing an opinion, a response, and then my own opinions and commentary. I would suggest you do your own research before making your own decision about who to support and what actions you want to take.

First off, I’m a member of the Reaper Forums and stumbled across a thread about supporting Spikey Bits subscription boxes. One user offered the following in a post:

A lot of sketchy things that he does. A lot of his revenue is from traffic so he does a LOT of clickbait titles (another name for him is Spikey Baits), he does a lot of deliberately misleading writing, and he's actually stolen other sites' photos and articles, not to mention taking someone's breaking news and claiming claiming it as their own. I have even heard of a story about him stealing someone's pics and then threatening the original creator with lawyers just because they asked for them to be removed. Rob Baer is a greasy character all around, and one that I make sure I don't support in any way.

Which was then followed by this response from the guy behind Spikey Bits:

Hi (user), I appreciate your opinion about the site and myself, but I will caution you about making false and accusatory statements about my character and our business practices on a public forum without any proof or support.

Regarding the accusations you have published, we had put out our statement explaining the truth behind them, which, unfortunately, isn't as exciting as you make it out to be. With a daily readership of 30-40,000 users just on the site alone, we have arguably the largest reach across all platforms in tabletop wargaming.

That's bound to ruffle a few feathers such as yours, so I welcome you to read the actual truth behind the things you said above to help clear up any confusion in the future.

You can find the article at this URL: https://spikeybits.com/does-spikey-bits-steal-content

Thank You

Rob Baer

Founder & Managing Editor www.spikeybits.com

Co-Founder: Long War TV

Member of GAMA

I’d like to point out that he made an account to make this post. Under his real name.

Okay, so, yeah, that was a thing. I’m no lawyer, but making a legal threat like that, valid or not, could be killed with an Anti-SLAPP counter suit. I’m not going to explain what that is, but I encourage you to look it up, as it’s a useful thing to know about. The only edit made to the post was the removal of the user’s name, and some for formatting.

Now, personally, speaking for myself, this reaction makes me NOT want to support this person or their company. In my opinion, to react in such a vehement manner to A SINGLE POST shows that he has a very thin skin. And there was a delay of over nine months between the original post and his response. Also, in my opinion, reacting like this shows that there’s probably more than a little truth to the accusations. Now, I can’t prove it, nor am I trying to, as I’m offering an opinion on what was said, based solely what was said. It’s very slimy to react like this, in a public manner, to a single post. Threatening legal action is never okay, especially since about half of what was said looks like an opinion and rumor. When it comes to the accusation about the picture thing, that’s the only thing that seems a little slanderous, but hey, feel free to take people to court. I’m sure that if you’re right, you’ll prevail, right? Excuse me, my eyes rolled back a little too far from that one.

Threatening legal action over a single post is not something you want to do. It’s not a good look. It could be that there were other posts that were removed, but I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it, but I can’t say for sure.

Now, in the past, I’ve bought some bits from them, back when I played 40k. But I stopped playing for a lot of reasons. And I have no intention of returning to it because of Games Workshop’s litigious habits, in addition to many other problems I have with the company. Threatening to sue, or actually suing someone, is a good way to lose my business. Of course, since I’ve been away from GW and 40k, I haven’t read any of the articles (at least that I know) from Spikey Bits, but I sure as shit won’t be now.

To sum things up: Fuck you, Rob. Fuck your shitty website. Fuck your attitude. Fuck your little defensive blog post. And fuck your threats. That’s my OPINION of you. Based on one post. That’s enough to sour me on you. So, again, fuck you and the horse you rode in on.