[Editor’s Note: After much deliberation, two websites passed on this because this was more of a personal issue. In the abstract, this is clearly a community one at whole, but I respect their decisions.]
Sometimes, all you have is your identity.
It can be stolen, changed, or mistaken, but the one you have is your own. We, as humans, do everything we can to differentiate ourselves from each other. This is the reason we give our offspring names and why we sign up for forums and Magic Online accounts with a name. No one remembers 2019384. That’s just a number, a faceless being in a faceless world. People remember names.
Quiet Speculation.
Gathering Magic.
Star City Games.
MTGColorPie.
It’s with these names that others remember personalities, styles, and brands. It makes them stick in your head.
The thing I contribute most to the Magic community is my writing. No one looks at me for creating the next format-breaking deck or what cards they should invest in. My writing is something I’m passionate about as I always love to try out new and different ideas. Sometimes I’m the court jester, other times I’m the storyteller. There are times where I’m the kid at the front of the class raising my hand after every question the teacher asks. I feel like an ambassador to this game that we play because of my writing; it’s part of my responsibility to help people understand this game. There are so many doors opened and opportunities given to me because of my written word. I feel like a writer first, and a Magic player second.
I’m very comfortable with that.
As a writer, you’re told that you need to develop a brand. That’s why you see MTGColorPie as my brand everywhere I go. MTGColorPie on Twitter, MTGColorPie.com as my personal Magic blog, MTGColorPie on Magic Online. It’s more than just a name, though that’s a large part of it. Readers want to know what to expect when they click on that link to read your words. I tend to have honest and researched writing, broken up in more prose-like passages and disjointed paragraphs that I’m sure my editors (when I have them) hate. I’ve branched out to talk about several areas of Magic including design, humor, culture, and, most prominently, Commander.
We’ll get back to that in a moment.
I don’t write the controversial articles. I’m not Dr. Jeebus, Geordie Tait, or Ted Knutson. I’ve disagreed with all of them multiple times, but they’re the one getting hits because people like controversy. My brand that people have come to expect is one where I don’t rock the boat. I have tried to follow Knutson’s Open Letter to MTG Pros and Writers (an actual must read for those groups). Lately this has created a huge existential dilemma.
What happens when your brand suddenly becomes someone else’s?
A few months ago, I reloaded the Magic sites and blogs at “Magic Midnight”, 12 AM Eastern Standard Time when all the major sites update to new daily content. I noticed something on StarCityGames that made me a little sick to my stomach. There was a column from a Sean McKeown simply titled:
“99 Problems”
If you don’t get the reference, it’s a clever call back to Jay-Z’s hit song “99 Problems” (with NSFW language) and the fact that your Commander deck has 100 cards: the one Commander and rest of the 99 cards in the deck. Once you pick your commander, you have 99 other cards to fill, and that’s where your problems begin. It’s cute wordplay, and it makes sense for the format. Some of you may not be aware that I had been writing my own commander blog. Are you curious about the name of the blog that I started in October 2009?
“I’ve Got 99 Problems But a General Ain’t One”
Awkward.
It’s not like I just wrote one post and left the blog. I continued it for over a year, and it was one of the first Commander-only blogs out there. I then decided to call it quits on the blog in February, the 21st to be exact, to focus more on my other writings, like writing Commander for GatheringMagic. I basically admitted that I had bitten off more than I could chew in trying to contribute to the Magic community (Two blogs, writing at two separate sites, a Twitter feed; I only have so much time to give). What can I say? I’m a people pleaser.
Sean’s article went up on the all important date of February 28th. Just one week after I announce my blog is going to stop another person basically picks it up, not only using it as a title of a post (which would be better) but as the name of his new column. The title of an article I can completely understand, since titles can mean and be anything. But calling his column pretty much the same as my blog was, well, that’s a little too close for comfort.
I’m most likely not the first one to compare one of Jay-Z’s most popular songs and this highlander format, but I did start a blog with that title and kept it running for quite some time. What if I started a blog titled “StarCountyGames?” I’m sure that there would be at least a little backlash over, that and some people in high places in the Magic community would ask me to stop using that name.
When someone first creates a blog, starts writing a column, or begins recording a podcast, choosing a name is a very important part of the process to help create your identity, your brand. Once I had chosen MTGColorPie as my internet handle, I worked hard for that identity to show who I am and branded it to be my work. More players in the Magic community know me by MTGColorPie than my real name. Some people have grown out of their handle, to the point where people can call them both by their real name or their handle. MTGMetagame is Jonathan Medina, and Lauren Lee is Mulldrifting. Both have gone on to huge success at StarCityGames. I have barely begun that process.
One of the other ways people knew about me was through my Commander blog; I was the “99 EDH Problems” guy. They may not have interest in my Magic design stuff, but they liked my work there. For a blog that had no advertising, and no support other than my own and a few other’s guest work, I had about 1,000 views a day. I know it doesn’t rival the big Magic sites, but I thought that was pretty good for a little guy like me.
Now that Sean is using 99 Problems for his column name, I feel as if part of my identity has been lost. This is one of the major reasons I brought back 99EDH: I didn’t want to lose part of myself in this Magic community.
But this isn’t Sean’s first go-around as a StarCityGames writer. He used to have a column called “Magical Hack.” When I approached him on this situation he said that he wanted to create a new brand, for a new audience. Sean understands the importance of a brand, which is why he wanted to change his previous one up for a new one when he talks about Commander.
But it’s at the expense of my brand. My identity.
After all, a name change with a column seemed like a good, simple idea that would fix the problem. I didn’t have an issue with his writing, only those two little words in his title. He told me that he didn’t know that my 99 EDH Problems blog even existed; Sean only reads the large sites, where my blog wasn’t on his list.
And that makes some sense, right? Not everyone is so involved in the Magic community, so I could forgive him there. Not everyone knows about BojukaBlog.com or MuseVessel.wordpress.com. I consider myself lucky that I’ve been published at GatheringMagic.com, and at Quiet Speculation. Yet one of the questions I keep coming back to is “But is this all Sean’s fault?”
Let’s try a little experiment.
If I wanted to start a new Magic blog, or podcast, or whatever, the easiest way to discover what name has already been taken is to Google it. If, for argument’s sake, I wanted to title my new column on so-and-so site “99 Problems” and talk about Commander, let me type in “99 Problems, Magic” into Google and let me see what I find.
Huh.
All that it would take would be a simple Google search and everything would be fine. But Sean didn’t do one. Sean’s editor’s didn’t do one. Now I’m the jerk for ruining all of their fun.
I know I don’t own the rights to the title, but within a community like ours doesn’t it show a little bit of respect to not name something that has already been taken? It shouldn’t matter if someone is being paid for their writing or if they’re writing for fun; if they’ve started to embrace their brand it should be “off limits” to name it for their own use.
“But, Robby” some of you cry, “you were done with your use of that name. Why not let him use it?” It’s like if I started a blog called “Magical Hack” and wrote about the same stuff Sean did. He would have no right to get mad at me with your logic even though I would be, intentionally or not, stealing his identity. I asked Sean about that very same situation but he shrugged me off. He doesn’t care if someone does that.
He may not feel that way.
I do.
I emailed him and asked him to stop using the name after his six article test run. That would be a logical stopping point. I really don’t feel comfortable with having that column title with someone else’s name attached to it. This isn’t like on DailyMTG.com, where people pass down columns and titles after they leave.
Sean suggested that I come onto his column to say that I used to have a very similar title for a blog, but he was going to continue to using it. Somehow, I think that’s a tad disingenuous. Basically, he was lining me up to give him a thumbs up on the situation and be like Fonzie with it. I’m not okay.
I’m really not okay.
Sean, whether he meant to or not, has stolen a part of my online identity and doesn’t seem to care. I can’t change the title of my blog because it’s how my readers find me; his is a column that runs on a site that publishes dozens of articles each week. The important thing is I don’t I feel like I have to. He suggested that we should keep them the same because readers have to type in two different URL’s to get to our two respective sites. Because, clearly, that’s how the internet and people work; they never use search engines.
Sean won’t change his title. Why should he? He’s writing for one of the most popular Magic sites, and has their power behind him. If he didn’t hear of my blog, why would’ve anyone else?
But, let’s see what Sean has to say, in an email he sent to me:
“…not being aware of every blog in existence on the Internet is very reasonable for the editorial staff of a major daily newspaper with an editorial staff of fifty working full-time to catch such possibilities, and unfortunately for Robbie [sic] that is all his blog is: a blog on the Internet, not a competitor website which presumably the editorial staff should have been aware of.”
Excuse me, Sean, that’s exactly what an editor is supposed to do. If StarCityGames wants to acquire new talent and find out what people are thinking, I’m sure someone out there might be searching the other Magic sites besides DailyMTG, ChannelFireball, QuietSpeculation, BlackBorder, and GatheringMagic. We live and work in a world based on the Internet. If there was only a way to quickly and easily search to see if someone did happen to have a similar title, and a neologism had been created to describe such an action.
“99 Problems, Commander”
“99 Problems, EDH”
“99 Problems, MTG”
It’s a fun game that anyone can play at home on their own computer. I would highly suggest you try it.
What if Sean were to meet someone at one of the StarCityGames Open series and share that he writes a column called 99 Problems. After a long tournament, that person may have forgot his name, or where he said the articles were, but somehow remembered the title. I hate to admit it, but it’s so damn catchy. He goes home and Googles it, finding my blog.
Not that I’m complaining that Sean’s audience would become my audience, but the point is he’s not getting the hits that he should get. I know for a fact the reverse is true: I’ve had my friends come up and ask me when I started writing for StarCityGames.
Brand name make and break everything. Sometimes they’re so engaging, you want to know what it’s about. One of the best Magic examples is the podcast “Yo, MTG Taps!“, a very clever parody of the MTV show from the 90’s. I was the one that suggest “The Eh! Team” podcast name (and even made their original intro parody The A-Team theme). Brand can be everything, and it makes no sense for two people to be sharing that.
I don’t want to boil this argument down to “I was here first, please respect that.” Even if I did stop my blog for a while, you can’t say that’s ok to take the name; after all, no one knew it existed in the first place, right? It would be like me taking the title UGMadness after the webcomic has now officially gone defunct. “Well, he’s not using it anymore.” You just respect names and brands like that.
That’s all I’m looking for: respect as a fellow writer.
I wish that I could tell you that this has a happy ending and that all I had to do was to email the author or their editor and get things ironed out. It shouldn’t really be all that hard. There would be some awkwardness, as would be expected, and a new name could be chosen and everyone moves on from there. I’ve been trying to keep this out of the public eye to be respectful to everyone involved. I could’ve brought this up every single time that he had a new article published, left comments on his articles, and tweet every other Tuesday about what has happened.
But I didn’t.
This situation is now not unique anymore. One of my favorite Magic humor sites has now fallen under the same problem: MagicLampoon.com now has been joined by very similar MTGLampoon.com. But they have different URLs, so it’s all good, right? I don’t know how their situation is going, but you can imagine who I’m supporting on this one.
As the Magic content-creating community grows larger there will be more people wanting to publish their thoughts. They will have an awesome idea for a title.
Only it will be your title.
Your brand.
Your identity.
Sure, this may sound a little like scare propaganda, or a slippery slope argument, but it’s real; you to keep an eye out for situations like this. If you’re serious about establishing yourself in the Magic community, this is something you have to know. You picked your brand in order to stick out, and now you’re not. Google is your best friend.
As for StarCityGames? Well, this is now in the open. The editors have passed me on to Sean and this is just two writers hashing this out but I’ve just been getting the run around. No one cares about the little guy, and you’ve got the StarCityGames brand to protect. In the mean time, I won’t be attending StarCityGames Open Seattle this weekend (a local event in my home town), won’t be ordering anything from them, and won’t be going to their site anymore.
It’s a shame; I really like some of their writers.
Writing this whole thing, seeing that title on a different site… none of this has been easy. I feel like I’m a tattle-tale or a whistle blower. Believe me, I’m not enjoying one minute of this.
But maybe I’m over reacting. I’m the last person in the world who can be completely objective about this. After all, it’s just a name. A series of letters combined to make a few words to trigger a memory response in the reader. I could be acting too petty and overstepping my bounds.
After all, no one’s heard of me.
If that’s the case, join me next time on The MTG Show.
Untapping your cards, so you don’t have to do it yourself.
MTG Color Pie 
Rock On. I am completely with you on this one. And I wouldn’t put yourself down so much – I may be biased because to me, the MTG community is the MTG Twitter community, but in my mind YOU are Mr. EDH. It’s rather sad the way SCG can throw its weight around.
And as for never hearing of your blog – that next week thing just seems a little but too coincidental to my mind.
I feel your pain and hope that someone from SCG will step up. I think that Evan Erwin especially would have some pull in the situation – and I hope this gets resolved.
This is not Evan’s place for this. He is not an editor and he is not the writer of the column. I do not wish to get him involved.
It is, however, a PR issue which Evan could help smooth things out.
This isn’t identity theft. Your analogies are not apt, as this is nowhere near tantamount to taking the name of a defunct something-or-other and claiming it as your own, since you don’t own the intellectual property rights to a reference to a song that isn’t yours.
I hesitate to even brush this off as a “coincidence,” as the two titles are not the same. They’re similarly inspired references about the same topic, and nothing more. I’m sorry you’re so upset about this, but I do think you’re overreacting and that no further actions needs to be taken by SCG. At least that’s this writer’s opinion.
Incidentally, I JUST found out my article series shares a title with an homophobic, god-fearing podcast. There’s a lesson here…
His point isn’t identity theft, and his initial attempts were to quietly resolve this issue with the writer who apparently inadvertently chose the same name as his blog. That sort of thing happens, and should be no problem to resolve. Instead he gets a condescending offer to “pass the name along”, and a “Oops, too bad.”
SCG needs to change the name of the article because MTGCP’s point stands, he had a blog with that name, and it ran for a year. That give it sufficient legs, represented by the fact that is the top result on a Google search. Its not a big deal beyond that, change the name and move on.
I am going to join you in your boycott, for whatever it’s worth. While I agree, that nothing was ‘stolen’. It does more harm to the community to take that name than anything else, and for him to use it, even after your objection is just silly. If he writes to help out the EDH/Commander community, he must know that confusing readers is not going to do much good, and it’s early enough in his columns history, where not much would be lost by changing it. People should have more respect, and it annoys me. He’s clearly attempting to piggyback on whatever notoriety you’ve already garnered under that brand, and it’s sad. I’m not an EDH player, but I’ve always enjoyed this blog here, and I was well aware of your 99 problems blog as well, and was sad to see you give it up even though I only on occasion checked it out. I hope Sean realizes he’s just being a dick. He can simply comply at absolutely no loss, its just the Golden F-ing Rule.
“He’s clearly attempting to piggyback on whatever notoriety you’ve already garnered under that brand, and it’s sad.”
This just isn’t true.
I think the initial impetus for naming the blog was not to stand on the success of MTGColorPie’s brand, but the offer to have him guest post on an article and “pass it along” is very much that.
It may not have initially been true, but Sean’s certainly not turning down the possible extra attention by correcting his faux pas now is he?
It is not absolutely no loss. He explained on an article today the problems that would result in changing his column’s name midrun. Please read his article, it is good to get both sides of an argument before you use the word F-ing in a comment.
Sorry sir, but people have been riffing on that Jay-Z song title since the day it dropped.
From my experience in the Talent Search, SCG’s writing collective doesn’t have a strong management at all. The hues and cries basically come down to “Manage your independent contractors!” which they don’t want to do.
SCG to me is the Wal-mart of Magic stores, in all that entails. The supply is there, and the content is there. That doesn’t mean you go to them for anything in particular or that there’s any strength; they exist as a large group, and that’s their only real brand. And aside from the Talent Search, that’s how they revitalized their writing staff as well: simply by being bigger and better-paying than the sites they were drawing from (Nelson from CFB, Medina from ManaNation, and so forth). You CAN work that way; that doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
I’m not speaking for the other Muses here, but I wouldn’t be a StarCity columnist unless something drastically changed. They don’t understand brand; they don’t need to. They have money and they have tournaments. Why does little person care about brand?
What they appear not to have understood is that keen brand understanding gave them their competition in the first place. CFB’s brand is absurdly clear, and before the merger I generally had a brand in mind about ManaNation as well. Quiet Speculation has theirs; we at the Muse Vessel have ours; and so forth. SCG hasn’t had a brand in years. They’re the big kids on the block, so they get to do things by fiat apparently.
I don’t have the wrath to join a boycott, and I wouldn’t be writing without having met the other Muses in that search or if the Ferrett hadn’t given me a chance. But Google searches are easy, and so is changing a new column name. The lawyer side of me wouldn’t even take the 4% chance of stepping on somebody’s brand and would change perhaps BECAUSE I hadn’t encountered the blog before.
The main irritation here as someone who’s interacted a bunch with you is how you’re being treated as small basically because you don’t write for StarCity. GatheringMagic is not small. Neither is your Twitter presence. When it comes to Commander, you’re bigger than Sean McKeown. (The Muses have not yet been fans of McKeown’s Commander writing, which is disappointing since we like his work on the whole.)
To my reading eyes, StarCity is Bennie Smith, Gavin Verhey, and some people I don’t read. Sounds like I can continue this plan.
Reading over this, I realized I DO read some other people at StarCity. I just didn’t even think of them as StarCity because I think of them as people long before their site. I guess that says something about them and about StarCity…hmm.
Anyway, in clarification I’m not mad at StarCity per se, because I can’t be mad at an entity that isn’t really an entity. It’s like getting mad at the Internet. But that also makes it very hard to deal with certain things that come up while making it difficult to blame anyone either, and it’s frustrating regardless of whether it is or isn’t purposeful.
With you on this one, Robby. Or at least with Magic Lampoon. Seriously, MTG Lampoon, really? And he opened up by saying there were no good Magic humor sites? Wow, that’s just awful. Didn’t even bother to look. And the way he reacted once someone told him was incredibly insulting to the original site and everyone who reads it.
But, yeah, your thing is an outrage too.
I was wondering what took you so long to respond to Sean McKeown taking your title.
Who knew it was so hard in the Magic community for someone to do the honorable thing? It’s not that hard finding an unused good title for your column, especially for EDH.
Wait, Magic Lampoon and MTG Lampoon aren’t the same? I started hearing references to the latter and just assumed it was people talking about the former. Which, um, illustrates your point quite nicely, doesn’t it?
When I first saw Sean’s article, I thought of your site. As someone who knows many of the smaller Magic sites, I made a clear differentiation between the two of you, in spite of the name.
Whoops. https://mtgcolorpie.com/2010/03/28/mini-magic-celebrity-commercial-manliest-ad-ever/
You and I already talked about that, but it was just a one shot joke. It’s like the many times you’ve heard a Bush joke, or seen a parody of “I’m on a Boat”. It’s low hanging fruit from pop culture and an easy joke to make, which is why I went for it. I’m sure that you, MagicLampoon, and every other Magic comedy/comic strip writer have never made the same joke ever, right? I know everyone wants to be different, especially in comedy, but sometimes people arrive at the same punchline.
I was a little surprised to see the first of Sean’s posts as that title, but I believe a title of an article can be anything; my last piece on GatheringMagic was a Mitch Hedberg joke. A column title, or blog title, is part of a brand. If someone one wanted to name an article “Slicing up the Magic Color Pie”, I have no issue with that. If that was their blog/column title, then that’s where I have the problem.
What we had was a little different and I have tried to be conscious when I do quick jokes like that because of our situation.
“It’s low hanging fruit from pop culture and an easy joke to make, which is why I went for it.”
If you would apply this rationale to your current situation, we’d only have 98 Problems.
Of course 99 problems has been used in many places, in reference to the song, but we are talking about magic community here. Maybe it is used in other communities as a blog name, but they dont get mixed up like in this case. It’s not about copyrights, it’s about common courtesy, sparing a thought for people in this community. To me this seems like a middle finger from Sean, from the big site to the small one.
This is pretty much stealing a name. Would you be pissed? I would.
So….you don’t see any reason Jay-Z would be mad at YOU for ripping off the actual words that he made up himself, but you’re mad because someone else ALSO ripped off Jay-Z? Dude, get a grip.
It’s funny because Jay-Z “ripped off” Ice-T among others; (from wiki)
“The title and chorus are taken from Ice-T’s “99 Problems” from his 1993 album Home Invasion. The song featured Brother Marquis of 2 Live Crew. Portions of Ice-T’s original lyrics were similarly quoted in a song by fellow rapper Trick Daddy on a track unsurprisingly titled “99 Problems” from his 2001 album Thugs Are Us. Jay-Z begins his third verse directly quoting lines from Bun B’s opening verse off Touched, from the UGK album Ridin’ Dirty”
BTW, I didn’t confuse Jay-Z for Ice-T (and they both have hyphen initial names too!).
The fact that you are actively pursuing the brand MTGColorPie and not 99Problems or Mr. 99 Problems doesn’t help…
Y’know what, though? An awful lot of people have made ’99 problems’ jokes, and it’s not like your EDH blog is updated very often..
Seriously?
You should thank Sean for driving additional traffic to your little blog. I had no idea it even existed until I read his response and he linked to this.
The 99 problems reference is the absolute “low hanging fruit,” its just so obvious. Think of a Pop Culture reference for EDH? I can almost guarentee you the Jay-Z song and various plays off of it throught the years is the second thing most people come up with. The first being the Mel Gibson movie, which the format ironical borrows its name from.
^^this right here. If you broaden your scope even a little, I am willing to bet there is another blogger or two, who also ran or run with titles similar to 99 problems. Have you infringed on their identity?The fact that some people who play some card game might know you is insignificant to the issue, the title 99 Problems or Jay-Z.
Although I understand your plight… And your wish to claim something as your own and be unique there 2 giant overlays you just seem unconcerned with
1) you don’t write that blog anymore and haven’t for a while
2) your blog and your writing in general should be doing your “talking” not a poor me someone has the same name, that’s like complaining that your name is Brian Johnson and you met 4 other guys name Brian Johnson, when you have a very common name taken from a well known POP culture reference stuff happens
That being said I understand your wish for your own identity, but no one has ever tried to take that from you. It isn’t like he ever claimed to be you or associated with you and as much as we’d all love to think this magic world of ours is so small it sadly isn’t. The magic growing and writing public grows everyday for better or worse.
Best of luck and hopefully you can find it in your own way to let go of something you, yourself have said you had given up a while ago.
The google search is the best evidence that the “99 Problems” meme (as it relates to magic) is most strongly related to the original Blog.
The argument from Sean seems to boil down to “I am a big person, you are a small person.” The big person being a star city games columnist, apparently. And you being the small person, an inconsequential non star city games columnist.
You are seriously a sad little man that needs to get a life. You had a small time Blog that most people never heard of until Sean linked to this issue. He came up with a name not knowing about a 2bit blog on the internet. You got a problem with that then try a lawsuit and see how far that gets. But in short grow up and move on.
Tom,
This is the kind of defense I definitely do not need. Please be civil, and if you can’t be civil, don’t help.
Tom has a point, even if he said it in a profoundly douche-y way. What, so if I wanted to start an article series that has a Star Wars pun in the title, it’s my responsibility to Google-check to make sure no random Internet writers have already “taken” it? And if one of them starts complaining that I “stole” his identity, I have to change everything even though I’ve written half a dozen articles under that name and it would hurt ME?
Sean was already well-known before this whole snafu, so it’s not like he was consciously stealing the name just to get extra hits on some blog somewhere.
The internet’s a big place, Mr. MTGColorPie. Sometimes people are going to have the same idea, and sometimes you’re going to have cases of mistaken identity. It’s not a zero-sum game: “Oh people are visiting your website so now they can’t visit mine.” Your writing is still yours; it’s not like any plagiarism is going on here. Hell, Sean linking your site in his article this week probably INCREASED your visibility.
So you’re not a unique little snowflake. Get over it. This is the internet. None of us are.
Actually, yes, it is exactly “your responsibility to Google-check to make sure no random Internet writers have already “taken” it.”
And had you done the Google-ing, you wouldn’t be stepping on any toes, and thus not have “half a dozen articles under that name and it would hurt you.”
Really, it’s just being about having the foresight to actually, you know, research, and the kindness and respect to correct your wrongs. It doesn’t matter about who’s got more fame, or whether it was intentional; brand-sniping is brand-sniping. It’s not nice, and those affected certainly have every right to feel bad and voice their grievances.
Wow , kinda sad people are jumping on Robby for being upset at what amounts to blatent intent to piggyback off his good works.
So what if it’s a big site, I actually find SCG content dull most of the times and it’s the small blogs that actually best show commander.
The Commandzone and Thecrazy99 (formerly Togedher) are some of the best writing on the format and have next to no readership.
Great shows get cancelled on tv because the larger (stupid) audience prefer reality tv shows, doesn’t mean they are better because more people watch/read them.
I think if Sean had any integrity he would have swapped the title even if he legally doesn’t need to but then integrity and honour seem to have little place in the world anymore.
Who is “big name” and who isn’t? I suspect some people are basing their claims on “I knew Sean but I didn’t know the other guy” or vice versa, neither of which is proof of their respective standing in the community. For my part, CP’s was the first commander blog i ever read, bcos of his presence on the official forums, although once i started writing myself there was no time to keep up with everyone else’s output…I assumed Sean was the 99edh problems guy until his writing style turned out to be VERY different.
If it was me, I’d give up the title if a significant online presence like MTGCP turned out to have used it first – just like I gave up my plans for a “Keep it casual” tag line to each article after I realized Dominick at Completely Casual had beaten me to it.
You’s a bitch. QQ moar.
I think this article can be summed up in one sentence.
“Someone else on the Internet stole my non-original idea, and because it’s on SCG it’s an evil conspiracy/the 900 lb gorilla picking on the little guy.”
I’m curious – if this happened a year after you stopped writing on your blog, would it still be an issue? 2 years? 3? The fact is, it’s a pretty easy title to come up with. If it was more original, I think you’d have an argument, but it’s not.