SlingerVille in the Press
Tech Talk: Using The Web To Fight Bullying and Cheating!
Article by: CNN
December 26, 2012
















Tech Talk: Using The Web To Fight Bullying and Cheating!


Tech Talk: Using The Web To Fight Bullying and Cheating!

 

Strength in numbers is one of the culminating principles of our society and used to be a task requiring hours of legwork, promotion, extensive time and willpower. Although the Internet is often used for maleficent, scandalous or purely monetary means, occasionally an entity comes along that uses the rapid and influential power of the web and social networking to support the greater good.

 

For those of you who haven’t heard of James McGibney or his emerging 'Ville' empire, allow us to set the stage. The former Marine seems to have found the formula for social media success in short order. Each one of his “Villes” continuously draws massive national media attention. His appearances include ABC Nightline, Dr. Phil, Maury Povich, Dr. Drew and Extra. His latest brainchild, BullyVille.com has exploded within the social networking scene, quickly outpacing the already wildly popular website he launched last year, CheaterVille.com.

 

CheaterVille is best described as a dating resource tool for anyone who is looking for a version of Yelp, for people. He had the idea after returning home from an overseas deployment with one of his Marine buddies who discovered that his wife was having an affair during their entire deployment. He’s also launched KarmaVille, SlingerVille and CupidVille.com, which is a dating site that references the CheaterVille database. In essence it weeds out all of the cheaters so you don’t have too.

 

We recently sat down with James to discuss the tempered chaos which his life has become; it’s easy to see why he has so many fans, along with his fair share of enemies.

 

CNN: Your first duty station was with Third Surveillance Reconnaissance Intelligence Group; is this where your background in Server and network technology began?

 

JAM: I’ve always had a ridiculous addiction to anything related to technology. I’m the product of what happens when you have few friends growing up and literally no friends in high school. I turned to information technology as an avenue of self-expression. Code doesn’t ridicule, code is factual. It gives you exactly what you put into it.

 

CNN: We find it interesting that you’ve done the exact opposite of what any Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist would advise for a startup company. The business rule of thumb is that you focus on one company, yet you’ve launched five within two years. Why go against a proven business model?

 

JAM: Why not? As long as you believe in what you’re doing, keep doing it. I could be dead tomorrow so I’m most certainly not going to have any regrets today. Some VCs think they know everything and founders know nothing. We just came up with the idea that they’re hoping to capitalize on. When they do get involved, they want half of your company and will dilute your vision in the process. There are some great innovations collecting dust in the valley because a VC helped drive them into the ground. Having said that, there are a few VC’s who really do get it, who I admire; they’ll always be founders in my book.

 

CNN: We’ve noticed that BullyVille has been aggressively going after and shutting down revenge porn websites. You took down the largest, Isanyoneup.com a few months back. On Friday, you tweeted the following from your BullyVille account; “If going after sc**bags who run revenge-porn websites & post naked underage girls makes me a "bully," then so be it.” Was this tweet in retaliation to a complaint that was filed with the Better Business Bureau against BullyVille and yourself by the owners of another revenge porn website? They have accused you, and others, including the group Anonymous, of bullying them. Are you a bully?

 

JAM: When it comes to this specific instance, yes I am. Sometimes you have to be a bully to beat a bully. You can’t have a logical conversation with anyone who posts underage naked girls on their website and then tries to claim “free speech” as justification for running the site. When I referred to these revenge website owners as being scumbags, that’s free speech. When they take completely naked photos of victims, some of whom have been hacked and are underage; and post them on their website, that’s not free speech. That’s someone who needs to be bullied back. Just like cheaters hate CheaterVille, bullies hate BullyVille. As Winston Churchill once said, “you have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.”

 

CNN: Hunter Moore started making his rounds again, claiming that he not only was going to launch a website with naked images of girls, but also post their home addresses implementing Google Earth for the exact location and directions to the victims house. The group Anonymous stepped in and systematically dismantled his life. Do you agree with what they did?

 

JAM: Do I agree with it? Yes, I absolutely 100% unequivocally agree with it. I’m still a little shocked that Anonymous wasn’t chosen as Time Magazines Person of the Year. Anonymous does so many great things for our society, and they’re efficiency and precision is noteworthy. When they make a call to action you better believe people listen. They recently went after the Westboro Baptist Church after the church said it would picket the funerals of the victims of the school shootings in Newtown Connecticut. Picket the funerals of innocent children whose young lives were senselessly taken away by some deranged sociopath? I guess this is a prime example of the price some are willing to pay for invoking “free speech.” Anonymous has ensured that the ringleaders running the Westboro’s Bapist Church are paying a hefty price for their free speech.

 

CNN: Dj ASHBA – lead guitarist for Guns N Roses - is your spokesman and Becca Tobin from Glee on FOX is your female spokeswoman for BullyVille. That’s about as far opposite as you can get, what led to that decision?

 

JAM: Dj is one of my closest friends and quite frankly, the guy’s a genius. His story on BullyVille has been read over 900,000 times, he’s an inspiration to millions. He’s done such a great job as our spokesman and he’s one of the most technically astute rock stars on the planet. Ironically Becca plays a bully on Glee but she’s far from one in real life. I’m so proud of her and she’s become such a great role model for her ever growing fan base.

 

CNN: Next Ville you plan on launching?

 

JAM: Decisions, decisions.

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Maxwellh20's profileMaxwellh20

1 hour ago

This dude is no joke. Keep attacking that hill Marine. Five stars for Anonymous.



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