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What have those of you from Bangkok heard about all of this?
The big buzz in Bangkok this week, at least among expats, is the demise of the popular Stickmanbangkokcom website following a feud between web personalities. For those of you who have never enjoyed the guilty pleasure of perusing Stickman, his website comprised a compendium of turgidly written tips on living in Thailand and how to get work English teacher and a weekly column d g the goings-on at various "naughty nightlife" Venues. But, best of all, there is a "Readers' Submissions" section - which was the site's lifeblood - in which writers of varying abilities shared the ecstasies and travails of life in the Land of Smiles. Reading many of these pieces was like so many train wrecks, as writers poured out details of their emotional eviscerations and financial fleecings at the hands of Thailand's gimlet-eyed ladies of the night.
Stickman, otherwise known as Paul Owen, is an English teacher from New Zealand who works at a Bangkok college. In his Stickman guise, he also conducts "bar-girl Investigations". His nemesis is Keith Summers, an American in Thailand's north, whose online persona is John Galt of The Great Galt.
Summers recently launched a website, NotStickmanBangkokcom, devoted exclusively to debunking and decrying almost everything Stickman presented.
He took aim at Stickman€™s editorial endorsement, or otherwise, of various nightlife venues, and regularly questioned the legality of Stickman's bar-girl investigations.
Typical NotStickman invective included: "Stickman is a farce. He knows it. Behind the scenes Stickman is brash and brazen. He has a penchant to bully people he doesn't like (who he thinks are smaller than him). He hides in secret while he manipulates people and information for his own profit"
Mr. Summers' piece de resistance was his online publishing of Stickman's real name, picture and details of the school at which he teaches. Mr. Omen immediately removed everything except the innocuous living-in-Thailand tips.
Stickman addicts seeking their fix are now greeted with a disappointing edict: "The strains of working a full-time job and trying to run a website at the same time have taken their toll on me and I have decided to take a break from the site to concentrate on teaching."
Mr. Owen told Mangosauce.com, another Bangkok site, that he had received e-mail tirades from Mr. Summers for over a year. Mr. Owen rebuffed requests to meet him. Then, about three months ago, NotStickmanBangkokcom was born. Mr. Summers may feel like he has had the last laugh, but it's a Pyrrhic victory. After all, when the host dies, the parasite dies with it. And the death of Stickman has made Bangkok cyberspace immeasurably duller.
Stickman, otherwise known as Paul Owen, is an English teacher from New Zealand who works at a Bangkok college. In his Stickman guise, he also conducts "bar-girl Investigations". His nemesis is Keith Summers, an American in Thailand's north, whose online persona is John Galt of The Great Galt.
Summers recently launched a website, NotStickmanBangkokcom, devoted exclusively to debunking and decrying almost everything Stickman presented.
He took aim at Stickman€™s editorial endorsement, or otherwise, of various nightlife venues, and regularly questioned the legality of Stickman's bar-girl investigations.
Typical NotStickman invective included: "Stickman is a farce. He knows it. Behind the scenes Stickman is brash and brazen. He has a penchant to bully people he doesn't like (who he thinks are smaller than him). He hides in secret while he manipulates people and information for his own profit"
Mr. Summers' piece de resistance was his online publishing of Stickman's real name, picture and details of the school at which he teaches. Mr. Omen immediately removed everything except the innocuous living-in-Thailand tips.
Stickman addicts seeking their fix are now greeted with a disappointing edict: "The strains of working a full-time job and trying to run a website at the same time have taken their toll on me and I have decided to take a break from the site to concentrate on teaching."
Mr. Owen told Mangosauce.com, another Bangkok site, that he had received e-mail tirades from Mr. Summers for over a year. Mr. Owen rebuffed requests to meet him. Then, about three months ago, NotStickmanBangkokcom was born. Mr. Summers may feel like he has had the last laugh, but it's a Pyrrhic victory. After all, when the host dies, the parasite dies with it. And the death of Stickman has made Bangkok cyberspace immeasurably duller.
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