Anatomy of an online steroid story….

As a follow-up to this post, I’m going to show you how a story gets around, in the online world. If you recall, the other day, I was talking about how there are really very few people producing steroid information online. Most of us, truth be told, work together…and the best example of this is the British Dragon arrest earlier this year. It’s the best example because I can actually tell you how we (the online steroid media) got the story out to you (the online reader).

I started my blog for one purpose, and stated it in my first post - I wanted to put out information that wasn’t available before…

My whole purpose, in having a blog is to be able to talk about the things that were previously hidden. I always wanted to take the “secret information” out of the “vet forums” (forums hidden away on steroid websites, visible only to select users) and put it out there in the hands of the average person - so I started the first steroid blog on the net a couple of years ago. This is my third version of it…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about how the British Dragon bust got out to the public, instead of being hidden away for only a few people to see….

First, I saw an article in the Pattaya Daily News, and recognized the names of the surviving member of British Dragon (Edwin Richard Crawley) and Redicat (Ashly Livingston). Google sent me the article, directly to my Keptprivate account, just like it’s been doing for years. If you don’t know, this is how we (yes, all of us) get 90% of the information we put out there. We have “google alerts”…the other 10% is what matters though. Because somewhere in that other 10% lies pieces of information (like the real names of the people who run British Dragon or who Redicat really is).

Alright, so I knew who these two guys were, and I called Millard Baker to tip him off, and to check my blog in a few minutes. What he read was this and, I followed up with this blog post the following day. Later that day, Millard posted his own Blog entry about British Dragon and Redicat being arrested, and then Dr. Garry Gaffney, another friend of mine, got in on the act with this post on his own Steroid Nation Blog.

The following day, after me calling him almost non-stop, and sending endless PMs and e-mails, Mr.X of Isteroids put the information out there on his own blog. At this point, I was talking to all of these guys, and we were all sharing information trying to flesh out the details of the bust. Everyone involved in blogging this kind of thing is basically honest, and when we get a tip from someone else, we drop their name in the blog and give them credit.

So, you can see that from start to finish, there were several bloggers working together, to make sure people knew this story. We, the bloggers, were effectively able to put out this story before anyone in the community could try to hide it. Of course, there were also less reputable people putting the story out there, and not giving credit. Muscle Mayhem copied my first blog post verbatim, including my side notes, then credited “The Roving Reporter”, and not me. Other sites and “vets” in the community (ha ha) thought I’d made it up (and later were left looking more than a little bit stupid).

But it didn’t matter….at this point, with all the chatter from me & Millard, and everyone else….this story BECAME THE TRUTH. Within a couple of days MuscleMecca had posted Millard’s story in full, and other sites like this one had slightly edited Millard’s story and tried passing it off as their own (kinda like Muscle Mayhem did), although other sites ran the story in full, and gave credit to the originator.

Granted there were a few people who could have confirmed the story, but for the first few days, all of the information was coming off blogs, and being reposted on all the message boards. T-Nation members were actually talking about the bust, but didn’t know that it was Redicat and British Dragon (because they are, despite what they think, woefully mis-and- underinformed about the steroid world).

Now, everyone knows that it was true, and that British Dragon and Redicat were arrested…in fact, it’s old news…but this is the way stories like this get out there. We (the steroid industry media, if you will), search for information constantly, and get the same information you could get off google, But then we do something different with it, or know additional facts, and we’re off and running.

The British Dragon story got to every site within about a week, and this is how it happened. And it’s kind of a victory for my entire purpose in starting a blog…I had always wanted to take the power away from the vets and mods, and put it out there for the average user - to end the vet-forum-garbage. And I think in a way, the fact that now all of the “inside information” is found on blogs, and available to everyone…well, that’s a victory in itself, and the BD/Redi bust was the best example I can think of.

The information is out there - it’s yours to have - finally.