From: matilda@blogdash.com - Matilda Tanascov

To: namelesshorror@gmail.com

Subject: Partnership Opportunity

Hello John,

My name is Matilda Thompson, social media manager at Blogdash.com. We’ve been following your blog at http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/ for a while now and your writing style is pretty great! I’m willing to bet PR agencies and Brands might find it appealing as well.

So we selected your site to offer you a revenue share partnership. Let me know if you’d be interested in this opportunity and I’ll follow-up with more details!

Best regards,

Matilda Thompson

Matilda@blogdash.com www. blogdash. com


From: namelesshorror@gmail.com - John R

To: matilda@blogdash.com Matilda Tanascov

Subject: Re: Partnership Opportunity

Hello Matilda,

I’m glad to know that you’ve been following my blog at The Rap Sheet for a while, since I wasn’t aware I’d taken over the running of their site. I’m especially glad you like my writing style, since I didn’t even know I’d written anything for them. I am buried down the bottom of their linkroll and they’ve mentioned me and I’ve commented there years ago, but if I’ve been contributing to their blog in my sleep then I’m due a raise for sure! I do that a lot; I woke up one morning in 2010 to find I’d been writing a column on beekeeping for the Guardian and a weekly Q&A for Techcrunch about the difficulties involved in running Linux on domestic appliances.

I’ll have to let J. Kingston Pierce know that the site’s mine now and I can start raking in the cash. Sweet! I can’t believe that old curmudgeon has been holding out on me all this time.

Some might say there’s been some baffling six-degrees-of-separation cock up in your hand-picking of data, or else your email farming software has encountered a serious glitch, but I know that’s not true. I look a lot like J. Kingston Pierce - we both have the same Mark Twain moustache and propensity for cursing loudly in public spaces - and I’m not surprised to hear he’s been getting rich off my hard work.

Best regards,

John Rickards


From: matilda@blogdash.com - Matilda Tanascov

To: namelesshorror@gmail.com

Subject: Partnership opportunity

Hello John,

My name is Matilda Thompson, social media manager at Blogdash.com. We’ve been following your blog at http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/ for a while now and your writing style is pretty great! I’m willing to bet PR agencies and Brands might find it appealing as well.

So we selected your site to offer you a revenue share partnership. Let me know if you’d be interested in this opportunity and I’ll follow-up with more details!

Best regards,

Matilda Thompson

Matilda@blogdash.com www. blogdash. com


From: namelesshorror@gmail.com - John R

To: matilda@blogdash.com Matilda Tanascov

Subject: Re: Partnership opportunity

My God, Matilda! So the rumours are true. I’d heard that Blogdash force workers to slave away in email farms, stamping out identikit messages regardless of response or context, slowly driving both recipient and sender into a hypnotised coma through repetition in order to render them mentally unable to resist Blogdash’s demands. One of my friends received fourteen Blogdash offers in a six week period last year and ended up selling his house and moving into a bloggers’ compound where he makes “like this on Facebook!” widgets and pens religious tracts on the meaning of Blog. Anti-blog deprogramming groups can help. If they’re forcing you to email against your will and need aid, try to slip a coded clue into your next repeat message.

Be strong.

John Rickards


From: matilda@blogdash.com - Matilda Tanascov

To: namelesshorror@gmail.com

Subject: Partnership Opportunity

Hello John,

My name is Matilda Thompson, social media manager at Blogdash.com. We’ve been following your blog at http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/ for a while now and your writing style is pretty great! I’m willing to bet PR agencies and Brands might find it appealing as well.

So we selected your site to offer you a revenue share partnership. Let me know if you’d be interested in this opportunity and I’ll follow-up with more details!

Best regards,

Matilda Thompson

Matilda@blogdash.com www. blogdash. com


I mean really - what self-respecting spammer doesn’t respond to a request for more details? I don’t even know if this is the real (easily-googleable) person or not, but the company’s certainly real. If this is a marketing tactic it’s a deeply bizarre one. I haven’t been mentioned on the Rap Sheet since (I think) 2008-ish in one of JKP’s round ups of copycat book covers, so I’m not even sure how the substitution happened, especially since my email address isn’t on there and their old link to johnrickards.com redirects here. It’s a genuine mystery!