Chances are that if you have a Twitter and follow hockey, you've probably heard a rumor started by @HockeyyInsiderr, you just may or may not know. For some reason, many people continue to follow him and believe his idiotic rumors. In fact, the mysterious character that "HockeyyInsiderr" is has amassed over 21,000 Twitter followers.
Anyway, I usually ignore people like him. I've never followed him, and I never will. While I disagree with what he does, which is essentially trying to create rumors (like Brodeur for Semin two years ago and Parise for Malkin last summer) and inflate reports to boost his follower count, he doesn't force anyone to follow him. If people follow him, that's their problem.
There was a little extra buzz surrounding him recently. Why? Well, usually when he's wrong about something, he's able to cover up and pretend that never happened. He was unable to do that this past week. On July 3rd, the night before Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed with the Minnesota Wild, "HockeyyInsiderr" boldly tweeted that there was a 95% chance that Parise was heading to the Penguins and Suter had pretty much agreed to go to Detroit. He was the laughing stock of Twitter the following day. His sources must have misguided him. Eventually, he got into some kind of Twitter dispute with some members of the media, including TSN analyst Darren Dreger.
So, all of this got me thinking: who the hell are this guy's "sources?" And then I tweeted this:
The response was overwhelming. The general consensus was that the Pittsburgh Penguins get covered enough as it is, and not even "HockeyyInsiderr" himself would fall for this sort of outrageous trade rumor. So after eliminating Rick Nash, since he has a no-trade clause, my followers suggested a Bobby Ryan-to-New Jersey trade rumor.
I decided to do a Ryan to New Jersey for Adam Henrique, a prospect and draft picks (everyone that helped me used a variation of that trade). I then got some followers (mostly Devils fans) to help me out. @Tholen21, @ZlAbuZzz, @Hadly_, @HenriktoDaniel,@Scottyk9 and others joined me, and we each became a source.
Each of us then e-mailed "HockeyyInsiderr" (whose e-mail address is conveniently on his Twitter page) as employees or friends of employees of the Ducks and Devils, and through the day on Sunday, we sent him an e-mail saying that we had heard of this trade rumor.
He then tweeted mid-day yesterday that he would have an update on Bobby Ryan trade rumors. He didn't tweet anything that we had sent him. I followed up my e-mail saying that trade talks were picking up and that the deal would be completed this week. Perhaps that got his attention, because this morning, he tweeted this:
So basically anyone that e-mails him can be one of his "unverified sources."
The fallout was priceless. First of all, apparently, "HockeyyInsiderr" is the source to others, too.
Some other blogs, including Devils blogs, began to report this and my mentions became full of Devils fans who were freaking out that Adam Henrique was going to get traded. Ugh.
Eventually, word got around that maybe we weren't exactly being completely serious about the trade rumor. "HockeyyInsiderr" tweeted this:
But he's wrong quite often, so to him, today was nothing new, but for us, I'll be honest, it was pretty comical to see him "report" that.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that he fell for such a scam. When you're so desperate for attention and determined to be the first to report everything, I guess you'll fall for anything.
As it turns out, getting scammed wasn't the only notable thing that happened to Mr. Insiderr yesterday. He had a meltdown on Twitter last night, as he pretended to have obtained Roberto Luongo's cell number and then tweeted photoshopped images of TSN's Darren Dreger. But personally, nothing was more satisfying than the scam.
Sources say, he's a fraud. #CONFIRMED
Anyway, I usually ignore people like him. I've never followed him, and I never will. While I disagree with what he does, which is essentially trying to create rumors (like Brodeur for Semin two years ago and Parise for Malkin last summer) and inflate reports to boost his follower count, he doesn't force anyone to follow him. If people follow him, that's their problem.
There was a little extra buzz surrounding him recently. Why? Well, usually when he's wrong about something, he's able to cover up and pretend that never happened. He was unable to do that this past week. On July 3rd, the night before Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed with the Minnesota Wild, "HockeyyInsiderr" boldly tweeted that there was a 95% chance that Parise was heading to the Penguins and Suter had pretty much agreed to go to Detroit. He was the laughing stock of Twitter the following day. His sources must have misguided him. Eventually, he got into some kind of Twitter dispute with some members of the media, including TSN analyst Darren Dreger.
So, all of this got me thinking: who the hell are this guy's "sources?" And then I tweeted this:
The response was overwhelming. The general consensus was that the Pittsburgh Penguins get covered enough as it is, and not even "HockeyyInsiderr" himself would fall for this sort of outrageous trade rumor. So after eliminating Rick Nash, since he has a no-trade clause, my followers suggested a Bobby Ryan-to-New Jersey trade rumor.
I decided to do a Ryan to New Jersey for Adam Henrique, a prospect and draft picks (everyone that helped me used a variation of that trade). I then got some followers (mostly Devils fans) to help me out. @Tholen21, @ZlAbuZzz, @Hadly_, @HenriktoDaniel,@Scottyk9 and others joined me, and we each became a source.
Each of us then e-mailed "HockeyyInsiderr" (whose e-mail address is conveniently on his Twitter page) as employees or friends of employees of the Ducks and Devils, and through the day on Sunday, we sent him an e-mail saying that we had heard of this trade rumor.
He then tweeted mid-day yesterday that he would have an update on Bobby Ryan trade rumors. He didn't tweet anything that we had sent him. I followed up my e-mail saying that trade talks were picking up and that the deal would be completed this week. Perhaps that got his attention, because this morning, he tweeted this:
So basically anyone that e-mails him can be one of his "unverified sources."
The fallout was priceless. First of all, apparently, "HockeyyInsiderr" is the source to others, too.
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| How's the weather in Minny?! |
Some other blogs, including Devils blogs, began to report this and my mentions became full of Devils fans who were freaking out that Adam Henrique was going to get traded. Ugh.
Eventually, word got around that maybe we weren't exactly being completely serious about the trade rumor. "HockeyyInsiderr" tweeted this:
 |
| He never spoke to me. #CONFIRMED |
 |
| I never said "MAY." |
But he's wrong quite often, so to him, today was nothing new, but for us, I'll be honest, it was pretty comical to see him "report" that.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that he fell for such a scam. When you're so desperate for attention and determined to be the first to report everything, I guess you'll fall for anything.
As it turns out, getting scammed wasn't the only notable thing that happened to Mr. Insiderr yesterday. He had a meltdown on Twitter last night, as he pretended to have obtained Roberto Luongo's cell number and then tweeted photoshopped images of TSN's Darren Dreger. But personally, nothing was more satisfying than the scam.
Sources say, he's a fraud. #CONFIRMED
