I am the webmaster of the Cooler Crew web site, and have been ever since sometime in 2002 or 2003. During that time, the site has migrated from the collection of basically static pages it was when I took it over (and that was somewhere around 170 pages) to a pseudo-Content Management System that I'd put together, to a Drupal based site much like this one. It makes my job easier when it comes to keeping the place running. I've got thick skin. You can't be a webmaster and not; its simply impossible to please everyone. But when someone lashes out at you based solely on lies, a response is not only called for, but is obligatory.
Naturally whenever you make massive changes to the underlying architecture of a web site, mistakes can happen and content doesn't always make it over into the new site. Such is the story of what's happened here. Since I still catch heat from certain people (Jake, you know who you are) about this situation, I feel it necessary to debunk the whole works right here...
A couple out of New York City, one of whom has ties to Minnesota, came to the Twin Cities during the 2001 hunt, and lasting through the 2003 hunt, producing a documentary about the treasure hunt. We've always been very amicable, so imagine my surprise when I was thumbing through the official Pioneer Press discussion boards for the hunt and came across this post:
Yes, I did let the paper down. I'm surprised (and very happy) to see the words "no time for cold feet" in the first clue.
That's one more mention of the film than you will see on coolercrew.com. But then again, there aren't that many Cooler Crew featured in the film, right?
I'm sure Ares is hard at thought right now trying to figure out how he can take the words "no time for cold feet" out of the first clue when he posts it on coolercrew.com.
Where did that come from?
I can only infer that the author of said post has some beef with me because I took longer than he felt acceptable in December of 2004 to get information on the screenings he had scheduled in late January 2005 up on the Cooler Crew site. He sent me a note about them the evening of the 30th of November. I got a story up on the 20th of December, after doing a fairly massive amount of work on the site as a whole. This was still over a month before the first screenings which were scheduled for the 23rd of January of that year. When he had to change the venue of the screenings with under a week to go, I was very quick to oblige (taken verbatim from my instant messenger log files):
Session Start (Me:Him): Tue Jan 18 15:39:35 2005
Me: cc.com has the updated times on it.
Him: thanks
Him: still can't believe it
Me: de nada
Me: "we're bigger than you, eh?"
Him: exactly
Me: lets see what the courts say about that
Him: exactly
Me: cajones that go clank, they have
Him: either that or they are completely stupid
Me: did they even offer your money back?
Him: I've already made my calls to the important MPLS film people we know... just so they know
Him: no money back
Him: they were about as rude as they could be
Me: oh nice
Him: I've never had a New Yorker even be that rude
Him: thanks for updating the site... later
*** "Him" signed off at Tue Jan 18 15:43:16 2005.
Session Close (Him): Tue Jan 18 15:43:19 2005
OK. That's the last communication I had with this guy until the post mentioned above on the Pioneer Press boards. Seems civil right? It did to me anyway.
After the exchange that followed those posts, I sent a couple of instant messages to the guy, who happened to be away from his computer when he received them, and so responded via email to me:
Hey Ares,I wasn't ignoring you -- I was away from my computer. As per your IMs, I don't think there's anything to discuss.I have much bigger issues to deal with right now, but just so you're clear on my position, I'll type up something quickly here:I certainly didn't mean for this to be blown out of proportion to this degree. It's pretty crazy. Your wife's posting was inflammatory and unnecessary (not to mention how it makes you look). But at least I know where you guys stand... as if that wasn't transparent to begin with.I'm not stupid, Ares, I know what you did to our links shortly after the 2004 hunt (when you removed us from the links on the right bar). Don't think I wasn't paying attention. This wasn't happenstance or coincidence... So I knew that it would be difficult to get the 2005 screening info on the website... as it was. I was actually amazed that you eventually posted the screening info, and I also knew that the second the screenings were over, you would yank down any mention... which you did.Something happened between the 2003 and 2004 hunts that changed your perception of and attitude towards the film. I think we both know what that is, so it's not necessary to discuss it.You know, the shocking thing about all of this is my conversations and e-mails with you throughout the years have been perfectly pleasant. I clearly remember the first conversation that we had waiting for Clue 5 during the 2002 hunt. You were surprised that I knew who you were by sight, and you were equally surprised that I knew about your love of Mustangs.The last time I spoke with your wife was when I told her that I would be happy to supply Zephy with a DVD when it was done. And by the way, I think what you guys did with Zephy during the 2005 hunt was amazing, commendable, etc. It touched a lot of people, myself included.Okay, back to the Cooler Crew website. Here I was thinking that this was a community of medallion hunters, and here is a film about that community and the event that they love. Every medallion hunt website is linked to on the homepage of coolercrew.com, but one. Steve and Jesse make money off their ventures (more power to them). We will never make back the money that we've put into Cold Feet, so you don't have to worry about us profiting. If I were concerned about money, I would've rushed and released the film years ago. Also, we link to coolercrew.com from our website, and I'm sure we have way more unique visitors to our site year-round than you guys get (it's probably not even close).I didn't see you at the screenings (there were ten of them) in 2005, so I know you didn't see the film. I'm sure you were busy with the Zephy activities, which is certainly a much more noble activity than seeing Cold Feet. That said, you can't possibly hate the film because you haven't seen it. But we know that this de-linking happened long before then anyway. Anyway, by not seeing the film, you don't realize that the film is an important hunt resource. It probably better explains and shows the hunt than anything else. It will be a good first stop for anyone who wants to know what the hunt is.And just for the record, for the screenings in 2005, we lost a little over $2,000. Was that shocking to me? Big time. Given the absolutely surprising media exposure we got (the STP-MPLS media were totally awesome and covered the shit out of the film), I was surprised at the turnout, particularly from medallion hunters. Very few came to see the film. Many Cooler Crew came alone to see the film to make sure that the film was okay before then attempting to bring people. That didn't help matters, and I told everyone this to their faces. There were no secrets there. Ultimately, there were way more people from Minneapolis at the screenings than St Paulites, and people who knew nothing about the hunt had the strongest positive responses. This was shocking to anyone and everyone.But what this did was make us realize that the audience for this film is not medallion hunters (of course, we already knew this -- with over 6.5 billion people on the planet and just 3,000 medallion hunters at most, this is a no brainer). The audience for it isn't even St. Paulites or Minnesotans for that matter (yes, some people will be interested, but for the most part, the audience lies elsewhere). With this knowledge, we went and recut the film and tested different versions of the film for months in front of NY-area audiences.People who have never made a film or promoted a film have no idea how much work it takes. I always tell non-film people, just look at those credits at the end of films, all of those people do something meaningful on the film. In indie film, this number is reduced to a few. Every step of the way on this, we have worked really hard and long to get this right because of our love of the hunt and the people who hunt.Our marketing plan for Cold Feet has very little to do with the TCs, and certainly, anyone who would go to coolercrew.com already knows about the film. So a link on there is unimportant to us from a business/ economic standpoint. In my mind, it was more of an issue of "We're friends, right? So why are you not linking to us when you linked to us before? You guys are in the film, you helped make the film. It's about the Cooler Crew. We have a common interest."That said, Ares, don't worry about a link. I would actually like to request that we be removed entirely from the website (I think we're only under Credits). Please take us off of that page and anywhere else you can find us.Thanks.Trent
Wow. Where to start.
As per your IMs, I don't think there's anything to discuss.
Obviously there is, or he wouldn't have written the diatribe he proceeded to write.
I have much bigger issues to deal with right now, but just so you're clear on my position, I'll type up something quickly here:
In other words, "I haven't figured out how to respond to facts, so I'm just going to spew some FUD and hope you'll go away.
I certainly didn't mean for this to be blown out of proportion to this degree. It's pretty crazy. Your wife's posting was inflammatory and unnecessary (not to mention how it makes you look). But at least I know where you guys stand... as if that wasn't transparent to begin with.
With an inflammatory post like he made in the Pioneer Press boards, if he didn't intend for things to be blown out of proportion, what did he intend? Perhaps my wife's response there was inflammatory, but its important to remember that it was in response to an initially inflammatory and unnecessary post, which after we get the facts straight, will be revealed to be completely baseless.
Something happened between the 2003 and 2004 hunts that changed your perception of and attitude towards the film. I think we both know what that is, so it's not necessary to discuss it.
The "something" referred to here is the woman who is now my wife. She refused to be filmed for his documentary, citing her employment contract in force at the time, a reasonable reason for not being filmed. Presumably this was mangled into "she doesn't like me, so he won't like me anymore". Nevermind the fact, that she had connections (while I won't discuss the details, those who know us know the connection) to the entertainment director of one of the major television stations in the area, and offered her connections to assist in promoting the documentary when it was screened in 2005.
I'm not stupid, Ares, I know what you did to our links shortly after the 2004 hunt (when you removed us from the links on the right bar). Don't think I wasn't paying attention. This wasn't happenstance or coincidence... So I knew that it would be difficult to get the 2005 screening info on the website... as it was. I was actually amazed that you eventually posted the screening info, and I also knew that the second the screenings were over, you would yank down any mention... which you did.
Let's go back to an authoritative source on the matter, the Internet Way Back Machine. When I was putting together the historical stories for the Cooler Crew site, it came in very handy to show what was modified when and how the site looked through various points in its history.
Allegation:
I'm not stupid, Ares, I know what you did to our links shortly after the 2004 hunt (when you removed us from the links on the right bar).
Fact: The wayback machine has snapshots of the site dated 1/22/2003, 4/6/2003, 6/19/2003, 8/3/2003, 1/30/2004, 4/28/2004 and 2/6/2005. It has some intermediate snapshots in 2004, but indicates that nothing changed when it took those shots. You'll have to bear with me, since the temporary move to 8m.com resulted in a decent sized style sheet screw-up. Oftentimes what is referred to as the "right bar" ends up under the left bar on the archive pages.
The first appearance of a right sidebar appears in the 1/22 page. There are four links in the right sidebar. One to the Pioneer Press, one to the official Winter Carnival page, one to Mr. Med Hunter's site, and one to Marley King's site. This would be the last update before the Pioneer Press pulled the plug on the sponsorship early in February 2002.
I received a ZIP file of the contents of the site from Greg Sax, the previous webmaster on January 2, 2003, just in time to resurrect the site at 8m.com while we figured out the domain name issues associated with coolercrew.com. On March 20, 2003, I received the coolercrew.com domain name and started getting things going again. For that first year, we had coolercrew.com redirected to coolercrew.8m.com, simply because all I had at the time was a 256K uplink speed on my DSL connection. On that date, the right bar (appearing at the bottom of the archived page) shows the same four links, and there is a NTFCF blurb in the center of the 4/6/2003 page. Incidentally, this is also the same content as is shown on the 6/19 page and the 8/3 page.
Moving forward in the archive, the 1/30 entry has added new items about the predig and rehash bash for 2004 on the top, and NTFCF drops to the 4th entry. The right bar (again appearing at the bottom of the page), still shows the same four links. The next change comes on the 4/28 page. That transition was the result of the migration back to coolercrew.com sometime after the hunt was over. Note that the URL of the archive page reverts back to coolercrew.com from coolercrew.8m.com.
The only thing I can say through all of this is "How can I remove a link from a page where a link never existed?"
Allegation:
So I knew that it would be difficult to get the 2005 screening info on the website... as it was.
Fact: You sent me an email on the 30th of November for screenings in January:
Hey Ares,
If possible, can you please put this info on the Cooler Crew website? Thanks.
I hope the married life is treating you well. Cute avatar photo of you, Chesty and kids on the Forum.
Take care...
Trent
"No Time for Cold Feet" Screenings
Bell Auditorium
Sat. Jan. 22nd 12:30pm, 3pm
Sun. Jan. 23rd 12:30pm, 3pm
Sat. Jan. 29th 12:30pm, 3pm
Sat. Feb. 5th 12:30pm, 3pm
Sun. Feb. 6th 12:30pm, 3pmTickets
$8 - adults
$5.50 - seniors, children under 12There will be no advance ticket sales. Tickets for the 12:30pm show will go on sale at 12noon. Once the first show starts, the second show's tickets will go on sale (at approximately 12:45pm).
The Bell Museum Auditorium is located at 17th and University Ave. S.E. on the University of MN East Bank campus in the Bell Museum of Natural History.
Bell Museum Of Natural History
10 Church St SE
Minneapolis MN 55455
(612) 624-7083Please see this website for Bell Auditorium parking and directions:
http://www.mnfilmarts.org/?venue=2&page=5From what we understand, parking is free on Sundays - though we have not been able to independently verify this.
December of that year was very busy for me at work, and it took me until the 20th of December to find time to get the screening information in place for that year's hunt. This was well in advance of the screenings, the first of which was on the 23rd of January, 2005, although I never directly replied to the email. However, the information was up. Most of the time, that's a sufficient reply. Evidently it wasn't in this case.
The archive page shows the next update to the Cooler Crew site to be on 2/6/2005, and while it contains significant information about the 2005 hunt, pre-dig gig, rehash bash, medallion being found, etc., the screening information is still there. The archive also makes viewing the right sidebar easier, since I significantly changed the layout of the site during this time. Again, as the archive has always shown to be the case, there is no NTFCF link on that bar. Even despite the screenings, no one, not a single person, either from the community as a whole or the producers of the documentary suggested putting one into that bar. No one else every said, "Hey there should be a NTFCF link up there with the others." No one ever questioned it, until January 2007 when said producer posted the initial post quoted in the top of this post. Given that this is a community site we're talking about here, if the community didn't feel it was important enough, it would never have occurred to me to put one there.
Allegation:
I was actually amazed that you eventually posted the screening info, and I also knew that the second the screenings were over, you would yank down any mention... which you did.
Fact:
Sometime between the 2/6/2005 snapshot and the 3/29/2005 snapshot, we recapped the 2005 Rehash Bash, and Allison Wonderland announced his hunt. With the sheer size of the hunt announcement, something had to move off the front page. The recaps of the Pre-dig and Rehash from that year were still quite relevant, so the announcements of those two events as well as the screening information were moved off the front page. With newer items for the front page, why should it be? One doesn't go to TVGuide.com and expect to see TV listings from a month ago or even yesterday for that matter. It would have been nice to have a review of the documentary from someone who had seen it. No one ever submitted one, and as the producers aptly noted, I hadn't seen it for myself, which means I can't objectively and fairly write one. The announcements of 2005 events that had already happened and were in the past were moved, rightfully so, to the Older headlines page, which on that date, had not only one but two distinct references to NTFCF. Yes, there had always been a blurb about the documentary on the front page. However, that blurb was always related to ongoing filming, which by the time the documentary was screened in 2005 was long completed. It certainly didn't qualify as news, and made its way into the older news file with everything else that was older.
Perhaps it is this removal that the poster was talking about. I don't know. but the archive shows that it didn't happen until sometime between February and March of 2005, which while technically "after the 2004 hunt" as he alleged, it was certainly not immediately after it.
Statement:
Okay, back to the Cooler Crew website. Here I was thinking that this was a community of medallion hunters, and here is a film about that community and the event that they love. Every medallion hunt website is linked to on the homepage of coolercrew.com, but one. Steve and Jesse make money off their ventures (more power to them).
Response:
This is the difference. If Steve's or Jesse's link fell off the front page tomorrow (and I'll do this based on your incorrect assumption that there was a link to NTFCF in the same place that their links are), neither of them would throw a temper tantrum publicly with the first post copied here. They'd contact me in some way privately, ask what was up and the problem would be resolved. As far as making money, Steve and Jesse certainly haven't attacked unprovokedly with an inflammatory public post like that. Yes, they do get front-page billing on the site as treasure hunting resources. The author of said post would have gotten front-page billing too as a treasure hunting resource, had he not engaged in such inflammatory behavior. Since he did, if he wants the front page billing he can bloody well pay for it. I'm not in the business of scratching someone's back who rather than scratch mine pours gasoline down it and sets it ablaze.
Statement:
You know, the shocking thing about all of this is my conversations and e-mails with you throughout the years have been perfectly pleasant.
Response:
Yeah, I'd always thought the same thing too. Imagine my surprise when completely unprovoked I saw the post quoted in the beginning of this entry. I can't imagine why, if the author of that post had pleasant conversations with me for years prior to this he would assume that anything had changed, unless of course he himself had an agenda to advance. He admitted that he was shocked that I posted the screening information. yet at the same time the instant message conversation I had shows a response to a request that came from somewhere (it wasn't an email, but it may have been a private message on the message board we used at the time, or it may have been a post on that message board).
Statement:
I was surprised at the turnout, particularly from medallion hunters. Very few came to see the film. Many Cooler Crew came alone to see the film to make sure that the film was okay before then attempting to bring people. That didn't help matters, and I told everyone this to their faces. There were no secrets there.
Response:
Wow. Just wow. What he's saying is that he really expected us (the Cooler Crew et al.) to do a boatload of promotion for the documentary. When people didn't do what they were expected to do (i.e., bring everyone and their uncle) because they wanted to sanity check it first, he told them that their actions didn't help him any. Perhaps there are some that would let that slide, but most sane people would say "screw you" and not come back to see it again. Alienating one's clientele, and quite frankly the source of a lot of the information in the documentary one is producing is just a really poor way to do business. Period.
Statement:
Our marketing plan for Cold Feet has very little to do with the TCs, and certainly, anyone who would go to coolercrew.com already knows about the film. So a link on there is unimportant to us from a business/ economic standpoint. In my mind, it was more of an issue of "We're friends, right? So why are you not linking to us when you linked to us before? You guys are in the film, you helped make the film. It's about the Cooler Crew. We have a common interest."
Response:
Again, I too thought we were friends too. I guess not. That said, here's some interesting tidbits, again from the Internet Wayback Machine. We've had a links page dating back to 2004, when the number of links became more than we'd care to have in the small right sidebar: Cooler Crew Favorite Links shows the contents of the original page. Each of the archived pages has a NTFCF link on it. After the site redesign, the links page was updated several times. Up until the modifications that took place in 2007, when the content of that script was redesigned to include images, NTFCF still had a link on our links page. Why wasn't there one from 2007-2008? See the following blurb from the email:
Statement:
That said, Ares, don't worry about a link. I would actually like to request that we be removed entirely from the website (I think we're only under Credits). Please take us off of that page and anywhere else you can find us.
Response:
Talk about childish behavior. First a childish attack based on unfounded information, in what really amounts to a smear campaign. Followed up with "I don't want to deal with you anymore so I'm taking my marbles and going home". Somehow, I really don't think that's what he wants, but... he's not on the links page because I made changes to how that page is generated. None of the other stuff (including the credits) has had its underlying data reworked so its still there, and I have better things to do with my time than remove things from the site on someone's whim.
To this day, I have no idea why it is that people spend so much time writing the inflammatory things they do, and then cry foul when its done right back to them. For that matter I don't understand why it is that people who are observing come down on the attackee for defending himself, rather than the attacker who shouldn't be spewing their attacks in the first place.
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