Is it the new season yet? Actually it hasn’t been so bad this year. It’s only taken me 9 years to get it right. Normally I do nothing for a week or two and then realise how much work I have to get done to update the website before the new season starts. Then it’s a bit of a panic to catch up. This time I didn’t start with the relaxation and got lots done in the first few days. Yesterday I finished updating the player notes for the members’ pages which is my least favourite task of the year. Now I just have a few videos to record an updated commentary for. Piece of cake.
I should probably give a tiny apology for the last two diary posts. I usually give trolls zero attention which is by far the best way to deal with them. Those two posts were aimed at one particular individual as I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist a reaction. I get virtually no nasty comments or feedback. Maybe one or two a year and they’re usually pretty weak efforts that wouldn’t bother a 5 year old.
Here’s a little tip if I do irritate you enough to troll me. Don’t do it in the tennis closed season. I’ve got lots of time on my hands!
Anyway there was something different about this one. The comments were also pretty feeble but they seemed very angry. Yes I know trolls are often angry but I got the feeling that I knew this person. What confused me at first was the fact that it seemed to be written by a kid. The type of anger you might see from a 14/15 year old who is struggling with puberty and has just had his X-Box confiscated.
When you post a comment on a Wordpress blog the blog owner gets a notification email that includes the IP address of the person who posted. It’s probably the same on all blogs but I use Wordpress. I checked for the IP address on my live stats site and there he was along with his internet service provider, home town, postcode, Windows version, browser info and screen size.
I keep virtually all emails. If i get a question from a TradeShark member it can be useful to check back on any conversations we have had or maybe check when or if they signed up etc. I searched my emails for this kid’s home town.
I was right. I do know him.
He used to run a trading service. It has now folded and his site address is up for sale. He had asked me to promote his service in 2013. I don’t really remember any details about his product but it must have been decent as i did promote it. According to the emails from him he paid me almost £3K in commission so my endorsement must have made him a few quid. The commission was paid via Paypal so I also have his full postal address.
I was going to do a full exposé with all his details and screen shots but I can’t really be bothered. He might be mentally ill and I don’t want to tip him over the edge. I emailed him to let him know I was thinking about writing about him with all details or that I might even make a Youtube video about him. Obviously he might not still have the same email address although it’s his Paypal address too.
Six years is a long time to hold a grudge. I won’t go into details about why he might be pissed off. I called him out on something he did and withdrew all endorsement of him and his product.
Sad really.
In other news, next week we have a little tennis. The WTA Challenger in Limoges was moved from the end of November to mid December for some reason. There are usually some decent players in the tournament and liquidity should be good. I’ll be covering it for the Trading Tips emails and will post round predictions on the blog and also on Twitter.
Have a great week!
EDIT: Over a year later the troll is still going. I thought he had got the message that none of his messages were going to make it onto the site. I had an email yesterday (13 Feb 2021)
Hi Tradeshark,
You fat old fuck!
A bit rude. I haven’t totally written of the possibility that it’s from my mum.
Everyone knows you are a fraud, just checked you out and you are a real piece of work.
Everyone? Surely I have pulled the wool over a few people’s eyes?
I will be advising my solicitor how to do deal with you and hopefully we get you in court soon.
So you have only just checked me out but feel the need to involve a solicitor. Who is playing that part? Is it teddy?
You are scum of the earth and I’m so glad you are failing.
Bahahahahahahahahahahaha
Hmm it does SOUND like my mum actually. It’s the manic laugh at the end.
Now, if I got a lot of this type of message I wouldn’t have a clue who it was from but this guy writes in exactly the same style regardless of whether he calling himself Steve or in this case John Quinn. quinnyboy58@hotmail.com;
Incidentally I did a quick google search for quinnyboy58 and found posts on a Nintendo gaming forum. That would make a lot of sense.
So who is this superhero?
Sarge? No.
Rosemary the telephone operator? No.
Justin Gilbert who used to run the Trading House trading service? COULD BE!!
In the post above I briefly explained how I know Justin. I promoted his Trading House service. I can’t really remember much about the service but I must have thought it was decent as I agreed to promote it. I made him quite a chunk of cash with the promo. My commission was over £3K. You would think he’s be happy. So what made him so angry? What turned him into a troll? He was probably already trolling people on the Nintendo forums!
Having run the promo for a few weeks he emailed me to say that he didn’t want to continue with the discounted price and would just go back to selling it himself. I told him that was fine. It was his product and he could do what he wanted to do with it. He thanked me for generating some sales and we parted on good terms.
That was until a short time afterwards I was made aware that he was still using my name on his site. He was also still selling at the discounted price. The price wasn’t an issue. As I said it was his product and he could sell for whatever price he wanted to sell at. My issue with it was that if you want to use my name, either get my permission or pay me commissions. I emailed Justin to ask him to take my name off his sales site. I don’t remember the conversation though probably have the email somewhere. I do remember he got a bit shitty and didn’t seem to see what my problem was. I asked him again to take my name off. As far as I knew he had done so and I didn’t hear from him until December 2019 when the angry messages and bad reviews for Tradeshark Tennis started appearing. They got worse during Covid. I suppose he had a lot more time on his hands to stew.
It looks like shortly after the promotion ended his business folded. Internet businesses and sites go under quite often. Usually it is because the content or the service isn’t good enough. As I said, his service must have seemed good for me to promote it. Maybe he didn’t treat his subscribers very well. It does take a lot of effort to keep a one man operation running. Whatever the reason he clearly blames me. I did remove any mention of the Trading House on my blog apart from a couple of posts which I edited to say that I no longer endorsed Justin or his service.
It’s time to get over it, Justin. Your business failed. That was down to you. You live in a lovely part of the country (Bideford, Devon) so chill out and get your life back on track. Maybe your friends on the Nintendo forums will welcome you back, unless of course you were being a twat on there too.
If anyone used to be a members of the Trading House maybe you can shed some light on to why it shut down.
