I dislike internet trolls as much as anyone. However, I would like to respectfully disagree with the characterization of Al Trautwig as "creepy." In fact, I think calling a critic or internet troll is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He probably searched for the guy online and had no idea it was the parents he was calling. From the way the story is written (and even from Blocknesmonster's tweets) the call sounded like it was a respectful one.
Blocknesmonster stated that his parents were called at "midnight," but don't know this is true. Blocknesmonster's mother called him at 7 am Israeli time, which would have indeed been midnight in NY. However, that doesn't mean Trautwig had just called. It may instead mean that Blocknesmonster's mother called at midnight because of time changes. It is hard to call from the US, so staying up until midnight would allow his mother to call before Blocknesmonster left for work. Until I hear more, I'll reserve judgment on Al Trautwig.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Bryan Carson.
Not sure it is really creepy
I dislike internet trolls as much as anyone. However, I would like to respectfully disagree with the characterization of Al Trautwig as "creepy." In fact, I think calling a critic or internet troll is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He probably searched for the guy online and had no idea it was the parents he was calling. From the way the story is written (and even from Blocknesmonster's tweets) the call sounded like it was a respectful one.
Blocknesmonster stated that his parents were called at "midnight," but don't know this is true. Blocknesmonster's mother called him at 7 am Israeli time, which would have indeed been midnight in NY. However, that doesn't mean Trautwig had just called. It may instead mean that Blocknesmonster's mother called at midnight because of time changes. It is hard to call from the US, so staying up until midnight would allow his mother to call before Blocknesmonster left for work. Until I hear more, I'll reserve judgment on Al Trautwig.