Part of owning a business, or even just hanging around the Internet, is dealing with people who are unhappy with the work you do. They may have valid reason to be, they may not, but it’s your responsibility to deal with criticism in a mature, responsible manner.
Or you could decide to make the person criticizing you look like a huge whore on the Internet, which is also totally reasonable! Nothing says “patronize my establishment” like being a troll!
The trouble started when Elayna Katz wrote a couple of bad reviews about a Latin restaurant in Ottawa. The owner, Marisol Simoes, saw these reviews and dealt with it by sending emails to Katz’ bosses that she was transgender and, we quote, “a tiger in the sack.” And then, because this was also sane and not the behavior of a creature that lives under a bridge, she started a dating profile in Katz’ name stating she was the stuff /b/’s dreams were made of.
Meanwhile, Simoes sent an angry letter to the website posting the reviews, which starts out fairly calmly, if somewhat strident, and ends with, well, this:
I HAVE SERIOULSY HAD IT WITH HER AND WITH YOU GUYS FOR ALLOWING HER TO COME THIS FAR.
I HAVE A VERY STRONG CASE AGAINST YOU SO BE SMART AND DO WHAT I ASKED OF YOU BACK IN MAY, PUT AN END TO THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL AND TAKE KINKI & MAMBO OFF OF YOUR SITE.
THIS WAY YOU WILL NOT SHOW FAVOURITISM TO HER OR ME, IT IS THE ONLY OPTION AT THIS POINT AND THE ‘HUMAN’ THING TO DO.
AND I’M SURE YOUR READERS WOULD APPRECIATE IT TOO.
CONSIDER IT AN X-MAS GIFT TO ME, AND IT WILL NOT GO UNAPPRECIATED!
Needless to say, Simoes was not exactly clever in covering her tracks and the Canadian authorities easily tracked the emails in question to her account. Not helping was the fact that the Katz dating site account was posted by someone who had access to Simoes’ dating-site account and password. She defended herself by saying her employees or her husband also could have done it.
We laugh at this, but it did make life hard for Katz as she had to explain to her bosses why, precisely, she was telling them about her sexual proclivities. Although we’ve got to say, come on, guys. You get an email from somebody you know coming out as a transgendered person into threesome, it’s from a troll. This is Internet 101.