Sykes updates the settlement negotiations in the suit against blogger Jeff Martin, aka Fecund Stench. 

Perhaps it's been settled already? 

Martin tells Sykes he plans to keep a low profile until the settlement is final. His current post at a new blog takes aim at a prominent local developer with the headline "Marty Kotis: Dumbass."

More from the kinder, gentler Martin here (do not click the link to the Fecund Stench blog in Gauger's post -- it's an abandoned and unsafe address).

If the goal of the legal action was to limit conversation about the business dealings and past transgressions of prominent local Tea Partiers, it was a failure. Even some of the content the plaintiffs deemed most offensive, although disappeared from Martin's blog, lives on in the public sphere via the lawsuit.

Comments

[liv]

From my experiences, lawsuits (or the threats of them) are typical of blogging. If you're going to be honest, if you're going to have conviction of the heart to tell it how you feel it should be told, you're going to upset a few people.

Unfortunately most of those people you upset are dumb-a**es.

[Andrew Brod]

According to Sykes' reporting, under the settlement Martin would still agree to a complete gag order regarding 3 of the 4 plaintiffs. And it still seems odd that he's allowed to publish factual information about Brett Riddleberger but no one else among the plaintiffs.

It's not pretty.

[Fec]

Ed, it is no concern of mine if you choose to take my comment out of context. I have no intention of laying low except as regards the lawsuit until it is settled.

Dragons still need to be slayed.

[Fec]

Having finally dispensed with a few monstrous hypocrites, the fact that you obliquely deride me for being impolite while allowing this cesspool of ludicrous comments places you squarely alongside my recent victims.

Maybe you can find some wrestling on TV to watch.

[Ed Cone]

Huh. I was going for bone-dry humor via ironic juxtaposition, assumed some would read the post as promoting you and your ongoing work, did not anticipate the lens through which it is seen as hard on you, Jeff.

Re the comments, what remedy would you suggest for people writing unkind things about others on the internet?

[Hartzman]

No posts Ed?;

"The bill lays out regulations to allow fracking in North Carolina. Sen. Trudy Wade, R-Guilford, voted in favor. Sen. Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford, voted in opposition. Sen. Phil Berger Sr., (R-Rockingham), was absent.

Several Democratic Senators attempted, unsuccessfully, to amend the bill to allow public access to the chemical involved in the fracking and allow cities to regulate the practice in their jurisdictions."

http://www.news-record.com/blogs/killian_lehmert_the_inside_scoop/article_8938f2e2-e133-11e3-a103-0017a43b2370.html
.
.
Seems like concentrating on Fec is keeping you from your opposition to Kay Hagan's fracking interests, no?

[Andrew Brod]

Now that's irony. We were talking about Fec and here comes Hartzman to give us an example of cyber-stalking.

[Fec]

For such a smart fellow who wishes to appear unfailingly kind, you are apparently oblivious to the effect you have on others. Allowing the bullshit that goes on here undoes any good you may wish to achieve.

I never said unkind but ludicrous. For years, you have allowed innocent people to be horribly pilloried. Your silence is interpreted as tacit approval.

I thought that with the demise of your blog, this disease would expire. But no, you have allowed this pathogen to reappear, at my expense.

At least my malevolence has goals, whereas what you allow to occur here is senseless.

Roch had the good sense to police Greensboro101.

Police your fucking blog.

[Hartzman]

I'm just pointing out a hypocrisy.

Have fun Fec.

[Andrew Brod]

Now I see why Fec is settling. He doesn't like free speech after all.

[Fec]

Brod, you commented here a few days ago that I would have to be insane not to settle.

[Fec]

And tell us Brod, where to find your blog.

Show us where you confronted a terrible scourge and spent years trying to understand it.

Remind us of how you stood alone against monstrous hypocrisy for years at personal risk.

Inform us of those heroic efforts you've undertaken simply because you thought it was right.

Regale us with how you, unable to affect these people with logic and reason, reverted to satire, parody and humor.

[Billy Jones]

I have to admit I'm having a blast! Watching Jeff Martin squirm because of an event of his own making is great entertainment. Notice how thin skinned the mighty Fec has become? He can write anything about anybody calling it satire but when the jabs are directed his way he screams, "Police your fucking blog."

But I still don't understand why Andrew thinks me angry.

[Fec]

The fact is those who brought me the links that got me sued did so because I gave them reason to believe I would post them and run these people to ground, which I have done relentlessly since 2011.

And tell me Brod, having done that, would you have the courage to delete said blog you don't in fact possess, so that no further harm would come to those you loved through some unforeseen consequence?

And confirm for us Brod, that you would have also killed your Facebook and Twitter accounts just to make sure you had done everything possible to insulate your family and business from potential attack.

[Andrew Brod]

I most certainly did not say that you'd have to be insane not to settle. I said that as a general matter, it's sane to avoid litigation. I said that most people would settle. However, I then said:

"But most people haven't spent the last few years trying to persuade everyone how tough and brave they are."

Rather than taking the sane path of avoiding litigation, you've spent years courting it. You're the toughest, most daring bad-ass in the blogosphere. And you succeeded! This is the second time you've been sued.

So now you're calling it courage to back down and protect yourself. It's understandable. I might have done the same. But I wouldn't call myself brave for having done it.

[Fec]

And please remind us Brod, how while facing litigation, you found yourself faced with critics on all sides, giving inane advice about how to handle a situation they never had the courage to get into in the first place.

Finally, persuade us that having done what I have achieved, that you would have decided to face the plaintiffs in court and the chattering know-it-alls like yourself, when after all, the hypocrisy had been exposed and the critics shown to be nothing more than a jealous pack of screaming little girls.

Tough? You Goddamn right I am.

[Fec]

More to the point, Brod, I made it entertaining.

[Greensboro Observer]

Could someone confirm that this is Jeff Martin's retail business

[Hartzman]

"You do not become a ‘dissident’
just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career.

You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility,
combined with a complex set of external circumstances.

You are cast out of the existing structures
and placed in a position of conflict with them.

It begins as an attempt to do your work well,
and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

…He does not attempt to charm the public.

He offers nothing and promises nothing.

He can offer, if anything, only his own skin
—and he offers it solely because he has no other way
of affirming the truth he stands for.

His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen,
regardless of the cost."

Vaclav Havel via Fec from a few years ago

[Ed Cone]

Jeff, few netopian dreams died an uglier death than the myth of the self-policing comment thread, and few people kept digging for that fool's gold longer than I did. Trolls gonna troll, knees gonna jerk, irony gonna fail to iron, etc etc etc etc etc etc. Go read one of the interminable threads on local politics on Facebook and you're pretty much at this blog, circa 2004, minus any original posting, or on an old-school BBS years before that. So, yes, comments are often terrible, and good communities require maintenance.

I have tightened my policies a bit, but outright bans are the only effective solution. Some may be coming.

In this case, people may not see you or your blog or your decisions in the same light you do, but I'm not seeing real abuse. If you can point me to comments you find problematic, either in this thread of offline, I'll give them a look.

[Hartzman]

Allen Johnson from August 13, 2008 on Fec;

"...a local blogger has performed the cyber-equivalent
of washing his mouth with soap.

Jeff Martin, aka Fecund Stench online,
altered a post about City Councilman Robbie Perkins and his family
after Greensboro police investigated it as a threat.

Martin originally had posted that he wanted to "ruin Robbie Perkins' life
and "strike fear in his heart for himself, his family, property and livelihood."

The post included a map to Perkins' home.

Ha. Ha. What a hoot.

Martin has since recast the post, writing that he represents "no threat"
to the personal safety of "Perkins
and the unfortunate people who are related to him."

What a funny guy, even in the face of a call from the law.

...bloggers are, by nature,irreverent and, in many cases, over the top.

Or least they try to be.

But attempts at wit or humor by communicating threats are inappropriate and immature
-- and can get you into big trouble."

Allen, August 13, 2008
.
.
Fec on Fec from the Summer of 2011;

"I am not an anarchist...

...I will not countenance attacks on minorities, gays, old people, children or the poor.

...I am not anti-religion, but contend spiritual beliefs are an intensely personal matter,
with no place in politics or government.

Those who seek political office by use of a Godbag will rue the day.

...I am not unreasonable.

...A fire in the belly to serve must also be accompanied by a desire to listen
and the humility to admit when you’re wrong.

The average sociopath running for office generally has a problem with the last two...

If I write something you consider objectionable, email me and I’ll probably take it down.

I’m the first to admit I don’t know all the particulars of an issue
and frequently exercise bad judgment.

My primary goal has always been to drive stupid people out of politics.

It is not personal.

Don’t take me seriously.

I’m usually bored and simply trying to entertain myself.

Anyone who gives anything I write credibility deserves the outcome."

Fec on Fec
.
.
Fec on Robbie Perkins, May 31, 2011;

"The Only Adult in the Room

That is how Greensboro City Councilman, Robbie Perkins,
has been described in meetings.

Given the sixteen years he has served this community,
the unequaled vision he has developed for it, the excellent mind,
tireless energy and personal sacrifice of time he has given to the task,
no one deserves to be Mayor more, or is more qualified to lead us during these difficult times.

I urge you to join me in supporting Robbie Perkins for Mayor of Greensboro."

Fec
.
.
Hartzman on Fec, 6/9/2011;

Mr. Martin is one of the best writers I have ever met.
.
If I was certain of which Mr. Martin I may run into at any given moment,
we would probably be good friends.
.
I regret that we are not.
.
I welcome and look forward to this year's online political debates.
.
Playing opposites, although literarily revealing,
hurt my feelings,
but reminded me of who I don't want to be.
.
So thanks Fec, in a wierd kind of way,
for a reflective afternoon and evening.
.
I will now tell myself to go to hell, in your absense.
.
George Hartzman

[Fec]

Kotis, you coward, we don't break other people's rice bowls. You were in the news and are fair game.

[Billy Jones]

What's ironic is that Jeff Martin, who's IP address has turned up in countless threads as Anonymous Cowards shouting abuses, would have the audacity to complain about policing comment threads. You see, Jeffery, while sites such as Blogger/blogspot don't offer IP tracking there are available add-ons that do and the cost is much less than hosting fees.

Same goes for Roch, Ben Holder and several others who comment in these various local threads. You might be fooling some people but you're not fooling me.

[Greensboro Observer]

"You were in the news and are fair game." - Jeff Martin

http://www.news-record.com/blogs/editors_sounding_board/article_2d184e70-e0ea-11e3-abc4-001a4bcf6878.html
http://npaper-wehaa.com/yes-weekly/2009/12/01/#?article=671139
http://www.news-record.com/blogs/editors_sounding_board/article_8cb68958-dd45-11e3-8a34-0017a43b2370.html
http://www.news-record.com/news/article_03038fb6-db7f-11e3-9917-001a4bcf6878.html

[Fec]

Is that the best you can do, dumbass?

[Fec]

From Scott in the comments at the Fox 8 story:

Same thing different day from Kotis. This has been the intention of PP and the long-awaited Marshall Freehouse establishment of selling his own beer as his house brand in the restaurants that he owns, not to mention the restaurants/bars in commercial properties onwed by Kotis Properties. Good try on back-dooring a sales network for your product (regardless of quality.)
I have been in the bar and beer business for over a decade now and believe that if NC ABC allows this to happen it will set a precedent across the state, and further upset the (albeit ainchient) Three-Tier System that was established by the Federal Govt. I feel that the options are limited for Kotis to work around this. One option would be to sell the Brewery to a third party (and please allow them to change the name.) The real viable option would be to take a section of Marshall Freehouse (nix the liquid nitrogen/foam bar area) and convert it to an in-house brewery for the restaurant, allow the brewery that is complete to make beer for other markets/establishments and not carry PP in Darryl’s (also owned by Marty Kotis).
A little bit of research would have gone a long way for Kotis on this endeavor, as the ABC system and it’s regulatory rules are very clear to follow.

http://myfox8.com/2014/05/20/greensboro-restaurateur-cant-sell-own-microbrew-at-restaurant/

Pig Pounder. Really, Dumbass?

[Ed Cone]

I do see a difference, Marty, between writing about a news story directly involving your business, and dragging in the business of someone involved in the news for other reasons.

You asked earlier for blogging advice. Mine, here, is to not get into flame wars with people with fire - retardant asses.

[Andrew Brod]

Good one -- the modern version of the old line about buying ink by the barrel.

[Hartzman]

double entendre

[Hartzman]

For full disclosure purposes for my conscious, this is the other post I archived, of which all are now in this thread.

As I recall, it turned out that Robin Saul isn't Jewish.

Fec on Jews, 11/3/13;

"Manning and Tanger are both Jewish.

These people push us around and have their way, more often than not.

Just like Sue Polinsky, who stole ConvergeSouth, a local blogging event, for her own business purposes; or Ross Meyer, who kept his family in poverty while fathering a child with another woman out of wedlock; many of these people are snobs who feel entitled to have their way, regardless of the feelings of their neighbors.

I realize this comment and others I have made open me to criticism of being an anti-Semite.

Just as I despise Rabbi Guttman as being a neocon Zionist traitor for urging an attack on Syria, I really don’t care what these people think of me.

Many of them are secretly racist and someone needs to stand up to them.

Fuck it, I’m gonna tell it like it is.

If we had to depend on people from Greensboro, we couldn’t run a business.

The few Jews who trade with us are rude to our employees and trash our dressing rooms.

I realize that some will see this as an indictment of the Jewish race, but the fact is that most of those with whom we come in contact do not know how to behave.

...Greensboro is full of horrible people and many of them, including Robin Saul, happen to be Jewish."

Jeff "Fec" Martin
.
.
Mr. Martin in the comments of the post;

"I’ve been getting up leaves all day and have pretty much decided to declare war on Greensboro’s Jews.

The reality is I’ve always been an anti-Semite, as I hold them responsible for much of what has happened on Wall Street and in DC.

I have a similar opinion about their influence on Greensboro recently."

Jeff "Fec" Martin
.
.
I did not include what I wrote in response.

[Ed Cone]

Fec said a lot of stuff on that blog, but blaming the Jews for Robin Saul and Ross was over the line.

[Hugh]

"The few Jews who trade with us are rude to our employees and trash our dressing rooms."

I don't recall reading about that marketing scheme in textbooks.

[Fec]

I think I said at the time hating Jews isn't as easy as hating Blacks.

It would be a great deal of help if you could point them out for me.

[Fec]

If this disclosure salves Hartzman's conscience, it shall have been worth it.

[Hugh]

Fec, just so you know, Ed has deleted several of my comments in these lawsuit threads. He's policing quite nicely.

[Spag]

There is some beautiful crossfire going on here.

[Bob Grenier]

"There is some beautiful crossfire going on here."

So true. Just think of at least some of it as personality disorders on parade.

[Ed Cone]

Case in point.

[Bob Grenier]

"Case in point"

....says the best example of the condition I described above, in the category of "Those Who Are Not Quite As Smart As
They'd Like Others To Believe."

To be fair, though, there's quite a few of his kindred spirits who qualify, as seen here, and on the Echo Chamber Facebook page.

Nothing new here......their "talents" have been on display for years.

[Ed Cone]

Case in point.

[Billy Jones]

Jeff Martin and his supporters forgot one thing when it comes to protections afforded by the Constitution and the US Bill of Rights, that thing being something we were all taught in jr high school: YOUR RIGHTS END WHEN THEY BEGIN TO INFRINGE UPON THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS.

And yes, before you say it, I've also crossed that line. The difference is I admit and regret doing so. Jeff Martin, on the other hand, continues to defend his actions claiming to have done it for a cause, claiming his "malevolence has goals" when in fact the only goals Jeff Martin ever had was to entertain himself and others at the personal expense and pain of his subjects which include several among this thread.

That, my friends, is tantamount to dog fighting, cock fighting and other forms of abuse. Jeff, who is without a doubt of highest intellect but no moral standards whatsoever, has honed abuse to high art and weaponry.

It causes me great personal pain to know that I have caused undue pain to people I should have never attacked in my efforts to end corruption and stop the building of the performing arts center. But Jeff Martin has taken this to mastery having done it since long before I began and without ever expressing any sort of remorse. And he even tricks you into thinking it is his right to cause others harm.

As a matter of fact: even in this very thread he brags as if he has accomplished something of greatness while putting himself at great personal risk.

Dismiss me all you wish, you all know I'm right.

[Hugh]

Billy, I disagree that the abuse is the same as dog or cock fights. Those animals have no choice. The "offended" have a choice to be offended. They can choose not to read the tripe or blow it off as being written by an idiot.

If they choose to get all worked up over it it's by their choice.

[Ed Cone]

The Constitution does not guarantee a right to no hurt fee-fees, or require a noble motive for unkind speech.

What's decent to say is not always coterminous with what's legal to say.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking about right and wrong, productive and destructive, clever and stupid, etc. More of that would be a good thing.

[Billy Jones]

Ed cone wrote: "That doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking about right and wrong, productive and destructive, clever and stupid, etc. More of that would be a good thing."

We should also be talking about the truth and most of what Jeff Martin has been writing here and elsewhere has little to do with truth and more to do with Jeff's twisted desire to see others suffer at his keyboard.

And no matter what the Constitution does or does not guarantee, Jeff Martin should be made to suffer some sort of consequences for years and years of intentional abuse as he is obviously too callous to care. If nothing else call him out for what he is: the worst kind of skum on the Internet today. Maybe the courts will let him off but that doesn't mean you and I should forget his evil deeds.

Since this began anonymous cowards have attempted to paint me as being the same as Jeff Martin but despite all my faults, wrongdoings and mistakes I have never intentionally written or said anything that could be construed or misconstrued as racist, anti-Semitic or anything of that nature. But as we all know Jeff Martin has done all those things, thus was his intention in naming his blog, Fecund Stench in the first place.

If I've accidentally crossed some line because of my ignorance of other races, religions, creeds or ethnic divisions then I apologize for not being better informed than I am. It was never my intent.

I'm sick of keyboard cowards and I'm sick of being compared to this trash that has wooed so many of you into his corner like abused children who do their best to make the abusive parent like them only to continue to be abused! I will tolerate it no more and will go to whatever means necessary to make sure I am never victimized by Mr Martin again.

You should all man up and do the same.

Yes, I have hurt innocent people and I was wrong to do so but you don't see me defending my wrongs in threads all over the Internet. I'm paying for my mistakes right now, Jeff Martin should pay for his evil intentions as well.

[Hartzman]

Thinking of the difference between right and wrong, it seems to me something of a conundrum that Billy and I were booted from GSO101 by Roch Smith Jr. when it was about Mike Barber, of whom Roch has had an interest, but not Fec.

How is it that there wasn't any action after the Jew stuff Roch?

I don't recall much of an uproar.

Ed may have not been blogging at the time.

Roch has essentially enabled Fec over the years.

These are hypocritical acts in my view.

How many posts have been tagged at the top of GSO101 by Roch, while over the last few days he among others have declined to find fault in the veracity of the Barber information, who have also censored and ridiculed the issue online without providing a shred of alternative information?

There is plenty of fault to go around for what has occurred or been purposefully omitted.

[Billy Jones]

Hartzman wrote: "There is plenty of fault to go around for what has occurred or been purposefully omitted."

Indeed, we have a long history of the society clicks picking and choosing what and who they wish to become hysterical about while now choosing to hide behind the Constitution never admitting their own guilt in helping to push the situation(s) along. If nothing else this incident has shown how twisted so many of the loudest and most prominent voices in Greensboro's online "community" really are.

Sad, so sad these acts of cowardice.

[NitWitCharmer]

Jeff Martin:

Having finally dispensed with a few monstrous hypocrites, the fact that you obliquely deride me for being impolite while allowing this cesspool of ludicrous comments places you squarely alongside my recent victims.

What hypocrites?

I am guessing you are referring to individuals who fall short of their own high standards ... standards higher than your own.

Considering your apparent distaste for ethics, are you truly in a place to label others as hypocrites for embracing a morality beyond your own?

And if you believe you are, are you not the true hypocrite?

Until you embrace a personal morality by which your actions and decisions may be gauged (many point to a biblical morality while others find morality elsewhere) you are the hypocrite.

The fact is that if one wants to find bravery it can be found in those who have the character to claim an ethical standard by which they may be judged and fall short.

And if one wants to find a coward that coward will hiding behind a lack of personal morality by which they may be measured... the same dark place from where you cast dispersions upon the brave.

If you are in need of a dragon turn to your own soul.

[Roch]

"How is it that there wasn't any action after the Jew stuff Roch?"

This is your problem: You demand that people respond to your misunderstandings.

I leave it at this, you are wrong. There was action. Do not ask me to respond to your ignorance. Get your facts straight before you go off on people.

[Hartzman]

"Do not ask me to respond to your ignorance."

lulz

An act of cowardice is to suggest there are facts that disproves, but not supply.

Roch likes to insult and so things are not so in the face of overwhelming evidence, yet fails to provide rebuttal.

What we have here is a failure to act in the best interests of our community.

Why is Roch protecting Mike Barber?

Why is Ed?

Why is Andrew?

Why is the News and Record?

Easy to go after the low hanging fruit, but when it comes to the big dogs, some have been less than candid, harming Greensboro in the process.

[Spag]

John, is that popcorn ready yet?