Daily Digest 20 (Mon 5/23)
UHUB...@gmail.com
Unfortunately, we can't bring you the kind of lighthearted entry we
usually like, but we feel that our responsibility is to tell you the
full story.
GROSS VIBE
As we mentioned yesterday, Medya got really angry when he found out
that the chance to grant immunity had been given to the players,
because he seemed to think it was his 'turn' for immunity. Today it was
revealed that he seems to have gone off the deep end. In the Den Mimi
posted a pretty horrible message that Medya had emailed her. The
message was disrespectful, vulgar, and violent. It was shocking,
really. Lyova then posted a similar message that he had received from
Medya -- this time containing insults to his family and a death threat
to Lyova himself (we're not kidding; we wish we were).
The UltBlog community responded strongly. After getting over the
initial sensation of disbelief, people were outraged and offended at
Medya and felt like the community had been violated by these negative
messages. A lot of angry comments were made. After realizing that his
emails to Mimi and Lyova had been made public, Medya attempted to deny
he had sent them, but nobody really believed his denials. Things got
pretty rough, and didn't seem to be resolving themselves.
BLOGMASTERS STEP IN TO SAVE THE DAY
In response to all the trauma and disturbance, the game hosts removed
the posts containing the offensive emails from the Den and host Steve
issued a truly great message explaining why they had made that
decision. He also reminded everybody why the game was created in the
first place.
"We think of the prizes just as a bonus. The main reward in this game
is the fun of meeting new people and playing an awesome game. We have
met so many amazing great people and we will definitely continue to be
fans of their blogging, will stay in touch with, and hope to meet in
real life. We thought this was true of Medya. We are sorry he did not
have fun and we hope this ugliness hasn't ruined it for anyone else.
I'm going to delete the entries with Medya's ugly emails that
contestants received now. It was right of our contestants to post them,
but to get us past this gross vibe I'm gonna take them off now."
Thank you Steve. Well said.
The comments thread started out very positive and as an affirmation of
these same values. It made us proud and happy, and it definitely helped
us get past the "gross vibe." But then Medya added a bunch of
inflammatory comments and the whole thing started all over again.
That's probably why that post was removed from the Den too. We saved a
link to it, though, and we'd like to share it with you.
http://www.urbanhonking.com/ultimateblogger/den/archives/2005/05/message_from_pr.html
We also have the permalinks to the two deleted posts from Mimi and
Lyova, and if you would like to read them drop us a line and we'll let
you know where to go, but it's not nice stuff...
We'd also like to acknowledge that the hosts were in a tough spot and
tried to do their best to restore the fun, positive vibe we've all come
to expect from the Ultimate Blogger game. We respect their decision to
delete links to the awful messages sent to Mimi and Lyova, but we
thought host Steve's message was great, and it seems like a disservice
to the greater community not to let his message stand as part of our
history and as an affirmation of the reason we all came together. We
think it would have been a better idea to close comments on that thread
so that all spectators who might not have seen it the first time would
have an understanding of what actually happened.
ULTIMATE PAPARAZZI
But let's move on. Another unfortunate aspect of all this
unfriendliness is that it completely overshadowed what contestant James
called "the most incredible movie i've ever seen." This challenge video
was out of control!!
Our illustrious and sassy hosts gave us a brilliant new video this
morning, and it's clear Mike came back from LA with more than just a
killer tan. He also brought back a brand new Hollywood attitude.
Interivews, photo shoots, & stylish pink shirts.
The video (found here:
http://www.urbanhonking.com/ultimateblogger/archives/2005/05/challenge_07_gl.html)
addresses the subject of celebrity gossip, naughty night vision, hot
Ultimate Blogger rumors, and more...good stuff, all accompanied by a
pop-fantastic soundtrack. All this because the new challenge facing the
players is to dish on hot celebrity gossip. Nothing made up. Just good,
hard, investigative fluff reporting. Another important item to note is
that contestants have an extra 24 hours to complete this challenge.
DOUBLE SHREDDER
In the video, hosts revealed that the player-submitted rankings were
not JUST to grant immunity, but were also used to determine which
bloggers were eliminated. Lois and Medya faced the shredder of doom,
and it's now down to just 5 players. Both Lois and Medya discussed
their eliminations on their personal blogs. Those links (and many more)
are now available on the right side Ultimate Blogger Welcome page.
Players who are still in the running to be named Ultimate Blogger were
ranked by their peers in the following order (from highest to lowest):
James, Lyova, Willow, Ritchey, and Mimi.
All of the eliminations left in the game are sure to become
increasingly difficult. The bloggers who have made it to the final 5
are our very best, and they seem to have become good friends too.
Competition is tough.
NEW HOME
Oh, and it looks like yesterday's UrHo downtime may have precipitated
some kind of urgent back-end rearrangement; check out this main page
message: "For the next 24 hours, Urbanhonking.com is undergoing some
service upgrades. While everything should appear normal for most users,
some features may not be operational during this time. For example,
posting comments on one of the many blogs hosted and loved here at UH
HQ may result in an error...We sincerely apologize for the service
interruption and hope to be running as good as new very soon. Thanks
for your patience."
You are welcome for our patience!
Thanks for your hard work and dedication!
We are all very thankful to everybody who's been involved in making
this such a fun and exciting RealityBlog.
Last but not least, it's James' birthday. Happy ultimate birthday,
James!
That's it! More tomorrow! Get ready for gossip!
-- HUGABUG
p.s. feel free to drop us a line if you have questions or comments.
UHUB...@gmail.com