The Saga of Melanie Jones

It all started with a (supposedly) 'bot account on Google+: Melanie Jones. Who, as it turns out, is not a 'bot, but rather a real live girl who claims to be a social media and personal branding expert.

Go look at her Profile, she posts only pro-Romney/Tea party posts, which is fine, each and every person on social media has a right to curate their own mini-blog of their own material. Sometimes these posts are overtly pro-Romney and sometimes they're very disparaging towards the current sitting president, Obama; sometimes going so far as to make them racist.

But that wasn't enough. What really annoyed the Google+ community is Melanie Jones does not allow commenting on any of her posts by dissenting opinions. Sure, they're all public posts (she wants them to be seen by the entire internet) however she restricts commenting to those people who agree with her or who will reinforce her opinions. That's right, she does not allow dissenting comments or opinions on her pro-political stance posts. Anyone who posts political (or religious) content should automatically expect dissenting opinions. The internet wasn't born yesterday and most of us over 10 years old have been using it for quite some time. None of this is new.

She then went on a tirade against people who created their own content-postings questioning her facts and opinions since they are not allowed to post on her items. For example, she might claim oil drilling under Obama is the lowest it's been in decades. Which anyone with a search engine can prove is blatantly false. However, if you believe her content is false and come to her posts ready to comment armed with facts, she does not allow you to comment on her posts. Only pre-approved and, one must assume, like-minded people are pre-approved to comment on her content. So, people have making their own posts, linking to hers, plus-tagging her and making their own comments.

She didn't like that and decided to play the victim, claiming the entire internet was bullying her. 

Such as Alex, who was blocked for tagging her in a post to question her anti-Obama claims: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/BD9RfjMmhNk

And Sven, for the same reasons: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/hip79kvAPez

And Tiffany: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/jZAaSBPPVnr

And Lucius: : https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/7bzEutmALXq

And Rory (Papa) Swan: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/DzPNCF1apVQ

And Dominic, whom I'm not connected to, but who dared question her: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117281774754537171340/posts

And here she is playing the victim: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/A8t5VyBz1iZ

Anyone else want to pick on me today??? We will probably never see things the same way... You post hate and I post the truth!!!! :) 

As we all know, truth is subjective. Only facts aren't questionable. Most of Melanie's posts are devoid of facts and many of those that do contain facts are usually wrong or questionable.

Another post calling out someone who questions her validity: https://plus.google.com/106653678649405633861/posts

And calling a nice guy a bully because he dared question her, again not on her posts since she doesn't allow non-conforming commenters: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/AyoL7sG62RK

And asking others to report Alex on her behalf which is again claiming the victim and asking her "white knights" to save her by reporting him: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/T1NNHcejq52

And asking Alex to be reported and blocked by her followers again: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/GoKefHDSh1S

Again, asking her followers to report and block Alex: https://plus.google.com/107215233344563833193/posts/5vsfCorUVsz

I came on Googe+ this morning to find Alex had his account suspended or taken down due to Melanie's self-declared victimhood and asking her followers, people who do nothing but reinforce her beliefs, to report and block him en masse. [note: at the time of this writing it looks like his profile is back up, but restricted].

The ironic part is, she's so upset with Alex, she made his image her profile picture and at one point she even listed Alex's workplace address since his employer was listed on his Profile. That post as since been taken down, whether by her or by Google, I don't know. (http://goo.gl/NMwI8 not listed anymore)

Then her followers started flooding other people's streams with pro-Melanie hate speech. One such example is Lucius' post calling Melanie out: https://plus.google.com/116553149107505884077/posts/g62vvHUBZvB. If you scroll down you can see where  Michelle Howell tells people they need to grow up:

Michelle Howell12:47 AM

She is not talking shit!!!! You guys are the one who started shit with her. 

Her followers are full of people trying to defend her honor. But, is she a Trollbot or something? Joe wants to know and asks the internet for help.

Yet her followers, those who lean more Tea Party than moderate or even sane right, jumped on the bandwagon and took the requests for blocking another level, even going so far as to claim people Melanie Jones has outed (see above) are child pornographers to get their accounts flagged and removed more quickly:

Blatant lies and abuse of the system, an abuse that can ruin relationships, careers and online reputations, all in the name of defending a person who might not even be a real person. And yet, somehow those people who have questioned Melanie Jones are the bullies. 

According to Google Image Search, all use of her Twitter profile picture is associated with Melanie Jones, who is a self-described social media expert and personal branding coach. With how she handles her own branding and social media accounts, I can only guess she's terrible at her job. Knowing, as we all do, our public G+ posts are collected and indexed in Google's searchable database. This means anyone searching for her name, or the term "Melanie Jones" isn't going to find a social media and personal branding consultant, they're going to find political hate-rhetoric. Not the sort of "personal branding" I'd expect a consultant to be publishing all over the Googleverse. Usually social media experts and online branding coaches keep their content non-controversial.

Supposedly this is her Twitter account, which is Private. While she's not shy about posting publicly on Google+, apparently she's not proud enough of her opinions and Romney's chances are winning this coming election to post publicly to the Twitterverse. I'm not entirely sure the Profile pics on Twitter and Google+ are the same girl, but they could be -- the nose ring is in the same spot and both 'girls' are pretty blondes.

Let's forget about Twitter for a second and look at her Blogger page where she claims to be a branding consultant. I'm not sure about you, but I don't know if I want this blogger to be my 'social media extrordinaire.' If you can't have a good clean Blogger then what kind of "extrordinaire" are you? You know what, seeing her Google+ posts and her Blogger and I think I'll "extrordinaire" myself, if you please. I'm not going to follow her on Twitter for two reasons: (1) I don't use Twitter that often and (2) I don't need more of her hate speech filling my view.

So really, who iss the bully? The people who wanted to have a conversation about the subject-matter of her posts or the people she blocked and reported for bullying as a result of her being plus-tagged over and over? Who's the bully, people who wanted to know why she didn't want to defend her positions or the people she encouraged to lie for her and block on her behalf? 

But perhaps Melissa Bryan said it better than I could ever say what I attempted to say.

[note: this blog post started off with me just trying to catalog all the vitriol I saw being posted by Melanie Jones and her brood. If it doesn't flow very well (which I don't think it does) it's because I haven't eaten anything yet. ;) ]