What dragged me into the methane cloud...

In 2008, A & E began airing a series called Psychic Kids, which happened to star an acquaintance, Chip Coffey. We had both worked out of the same theater about ten years before, he as artistic director of Kaleidescope Children's Theater, and I as part of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company (ASC). Chip impressed me  then as having a terrific rapport with children. I had no idea he had any psychic interests or abilities. While working on a book about the ASC (which was completely derailed by what followed!) I asked a mutual friend at ASC what Chip was doing lately, because, of all things, I wanted to ask if he had ever encountered a ghost that hung around his office upstairs. She said, "didn't you know? Chip's a psychic working on Paranormal State!"

I hadn't heard of Paranormal State, nor of the series he had just started, Psychic Kids. I found a discussion group attached to his website and went there to leave a question for him. What I found was a discussion group in need of a moderator - big time. Kids were posting there and were receiving some answers that could lead to harm if they were experimenting with psychic ability on their own. Though not a professional psychic, I had been using psychic ability for years, and had done a great deal of research and writing on paranormal topics. By nature, I'm an analyst. In life I had a wealth of paranormal experience. So I contacted Chip and volunteered to take on the moderation.

I had been around all sorts of discussion boards for more than ten years at that point. I knew what worked and what didn't. What resulted after moderation (there are two of us) was a terrific board with great, supportive members, centered by a teaching method with this solid rule: we talk about paranormal activity from a central, neutral point of view. No demonology, no off the wall suggestions, just common sense solutions, and acceptance of all spiritual beliefs without proselytizing.  Troublemakers are not tolerated. It has to be child friendly just in case kids come on, but kids are not encouraged to be members. We ended up almost entirely with parents looking for help, or people wanting help with their own abilities. It's a safe place to come, gaining over seven thousand members in three years. My private messages alone went over 20,000.  Because of that experience I learned how to be a good guardian at the gate. But being a guardian on the Internet has some serious limits of ability.

In April 2011 a serious problem erupted on the Psychic Kids: Childlren of the Paranormal page on facebook. By that time, A & E had decided not to renew the series because of low ratings. I could already tell that was coming from the drastic drop in traffic on Chip's discussion board. The problem was, with the loss in viewer interest in the series, A & E lost interest in monitoring their facebook page. That's when a small group of anti-PK posters began trying to take over the page and shut it down.

Soon friends were gnashing their teeth big time. So I came on the page and began volleying back, posting positive things for the most part, but I ended up trying different ways, any way, to make the troublemakers go away. I learned a hell of a lot about what does not work when you are going head to head with deeply disturbed people.

Ron Tebo and Kirby Robinson were the only open members of that group, often taking credit for managing the others in some way. They took turns playing "good cop, bad cop," determined to to tell fans what to do. I found out from friends that Ron had a long history of doing this, but Kirby seemed to be just a very strange celebrity stalker, in turns like a rabid fan and a even more rabid enemy.

I thought I had seen everything a troll could throw in a flame war until one of the sockpuppets or drones in this little skirmish announced he was reporting me and a few others as child predators.

You don't tell someone who was abused as a child that you're labeling them, without reason, as a child a predator. That was my hot button. It was also a hot button for the others attacked in that way, and the war was begun.

There were lots of fans on that page. There were only about a half dozen attackers, trying to make themselves look bigger by creating sockpuppet accounts and pulling their friends in as drones. They were absolutely vicious about Chip and occasionally about the other experts on the show. Fans who spoke up were attacked, sometimes in very cruel ways.

I was hit hard because I stood in front. I did that deliberately. I am a gatekeeper by nature, when someone is attacking others.

The one thing that became clear during that round is that nothing but hands-on management by A & E could stop the attacks. A & E took a long to time to get around to doing something that worked - or seemed to work. The attacks finally broke around June. But they were far from over, and they had already been moved off of facebook, with pages such as this:

I had no aliases. They had a lot of them. They were attacking real people, whose names I've removed here. They had just begun.

Did Ron write this?  "Huge RED flag" will appear in his writing under his own name. Whether he did or not, he encouraged what was written. He's been encouraging attacks all along. Why? Read on...