So Bulbagarden wants to put out its own "version" of events, which is going to be hilarious to read. It's going to be pretty darn hard to go against the facts. But here you go Bulbagarden, let's see what you can pull off with your imagination.
Of course, Bulbagarden, you could just apologize.
> It's just another day at PokeBeach when I get promo scans in an e-mail from a site reader.
New promos, yay! I post them up, give the guy credit, it's just another card collecting story. Nothing out of the ordinary, a small story in fact. This was yesterday.
> A day later, another website steals the images and edits it to remove the watermark to make it look like it didn't come from here. This website/online store, which shall go unnamed, is well-known amongst news posters for editing its images from multiple sources (which in itself is shady, since the store doesn't actually carry the product they claim to have; otherwise they'd post their own image). (Also, fun note: This is often the reason for why PokeBeach watermarks its card scans. Back in the early days we were warned against posting HD scans by PUSA because companies can use them to print fake cards, or other things like that.)
> Maverick Nate happily posts his news story with the edited image since now he does not have to credit PokeBeach. He can just credit the site that stole the image and get around the issue. Nate has linked to this store at every possible opportunity for all of his news stories, so I am actually starting to wonder if the store is giving him kickbacks, especially since it used to pay another site (whose staff member also used to be part of Bulbagarden) to advertise their store. Like Serebii, PokeBeach does not advertise or take payments from anyone.
> I contact Bulbanews's new editor-in-chief, no response.
> I contact Nate over FB, like usual, and tell him the image is stolen, how can you not see this, you're trying to avoid crediting us like usual, etc. etc. Nate makes it clear he will not do what's right, WPM threatens to expose what he's doing (the "harassing messages," apparently). Nate also claims in the conversation that he has not seen the news on PokeBeach and didn't know we posted it, but I link him to this thread and see him as the only guest reading it. The guest IP he uses is also from his state. A reverse IP lookup on our other forum accounts reveals a sock puppet account that has Nate's school e-mail address. In other words, the IP I have is Nate's. I check the IP against our server logs (which are saved for a week) and find that Nate has visited the site at least once, but probably many more times, since the news was first posted. So he is lying and trying to play dumb.
> I reply to Bulbanews's Tweet for the story saying "Interesting theft practices you have there" or something like that.
> Bulbanews removes the stolen image since it's obvious to anyone who looks at it that it's edited from here, but rewrites their article to link to the website that stole the image instead (kickbacks? doesn't want to credit PB just cuz?). This way they can still have the story, but not link to us apparently. At this point I don't really care an ounce about credit, as this situation is ridiculous. But you have to admit their practices are just so petty and shocking.
> I talk to Nate again and he tells me to contact the editor-in-chief because it's out of his hands. He says that he changed the article according to what they asked, meaning they also sponsor what he's doing or are, at best, ignorant of the situation (there Bulbagarden, I threw you a bone, make sure to exploit this point when/if you respond). According to Nate he's just the "messenger" now, in other words not taking responsibility for his story and using red tape in his favor. I stop talking to him.
> This thread, I link to it on Twitter.
> I receive a warning on Bulbagarden forums for 1000 points for "harassing Nate" even though I have not been on their forums in like a year or two. Sounds like they're just warning me because of this thread. I link to this thread again on Twitter.
> Bulbagarden responds to someone's comment of the situation on Twitter, as seen above, saying something about the thread not being true or whatever. I respond too and say something like "Bring it on Bulbagarden, I look forward to how you skew this situation in your favor."
And that's all of it.
I don't care what they say, I didn't do anything wrong, and I look forward to seeing their response if they choose to dig themselves a deeper hole by trying to justify their behavior.
), but in actuality they're just children with egos.
