Group Action Is Best

Hartbrook slumped back in his wheel chair, "What do you mean?"

"It seems there can only be a limited number of valid complaints. Such as the group didn't list itself as an adult group, or there are underage children as members of the group, or the group is an incest or bestiality group or promotes bigamy or polygamy or child porn." The interviewer spread out his hands, "Do you check the group and verify the complaint before you delete it? Or do you just delete it without checking simply because it is an adult group?"

"We do our job!"

"Mr. Hartbrook, please answer the question. Do you check the validity of the complaint before you take action or don't you?"

Mr. Hartbrook obviously had had enough. He actually pounded his fist on the arm of his wheelchair. "I do what company policy tells me to do and so does my staff!! That policy is NOT being submitted for your approval! Now I have work to do and I'm sure you have something constructive to do, sir!!" And Hartbrook spun his wheelchair around and wheeled himself out of the room without listening to the next question.

The camera then panned the room. There were three men with their backs to the camera working on computers. Rick and Tony knew that one of them was secretly working with Sam. 

No one else at Net Groups allowed themselves to be interviewed. The reporter finished by saying that even a casual observer could see that the adult groups were being unfairly attacked and were only responding to that attack, which they had a right to do.

"Regardless of how you feel about pornography," the reporter said into the camera, "the law currently allows it to exist under certain conditions. As long as those conditions are met there is no reason to arbitrarily delete those groups without just cause. It's a logical assumption that if Net Groups agrees to leave those adult groups alone who abide by the Terms of Service that the pornographic pictures in the non-adult groups would disappear as suddenly as they appeared a few months ago." And the segment ended. Rick and Tony flew to their computers to log on to the chat room.

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Seven

Sam was in the chat room waiting for them.

Sam: how'd you like the show, guys? :))
Rick: what the fuck was that about sam? i had no idea things would go this far!
Sam: it doesn't scare you, does it?
Tony: it scares me shitless sam! my folks would smear my ass all over the place if I
got kicked out of school!
Rick: wouldn't do me any good either dude!
Sam: let me tell you something that happened yesterday, guys. i spent some time in
The chat room with my spy at Net Groups.
Rick: so?
Sam: he said they had a big staff meeting just that morning. they were told that the 
management had absolutely no idea what to do, and they had no plans
Whatsoever at the moment.
Tony: for real? 
Rick: but how are we being protected? this was fun at first but i'm fuckin' nervous
now.
Sam: that's understandable. really. but that's exactly how net groups wants you to
feel. they want you to get nervous and stop and go away quietly.
Tony: they got a lot more power than we do dude. 
Sam: not really. they have a good marketing and advertising department who
knows how to paint a picture, but that's about it. my guy at net groups said
they were told to stop deleting the adult groups. how bout that?
Rick: no shit?!
Sam: well, except the ones who promote the illegal stuff. but yeah - groups like ours
are safe, at least for the moment.
Rick: i don't know dude. that dude on tv seemed awful pissed.
Sam: he sure did! but the problem there is that he was caught unprepared and it
showed. he didn't cover himself very well at all.
Tony: i just know he was fuckin' pissed!
Sam: yeah he was but that only made him make some mistakes. big ones.
Rick: such as?
Sam: he shouldn't have said anything about law suits. hopefully some of the hetero
Group owners will pick up on it and start asking questions. if not, could very
well be the ACLU will do something by themselves. that would be good, and
the ACLU can be damn aggressive when they want to.
Rick: is that something like a Plan D you got dude?
Sam: LOL i'm already thinking of a way to get that ball rolling.
Tony: can they really do something?
Sam: oh you bet they can. anti-porn people think they have nothing to worry about -
That no one would dare publicly disagree with them. they think they have
that much power so they don't even have a Plan A to deal with any actions on
our part.
Rick: what other mistakes did he make?
Sam: he evaded answering questions about how they evaluate the complaints. That
as much as admitted that they don't evaluate at all but just delete arbitrarily. 
that wasn't good at all. made our whole case!
Tony: wow! so we did it? we won?
Sam: we won a battle - not the war. net groups is still hoping this whole thing will
simply go away, just like things like this have done in the past. they're
counting on it.
Rick: so do you want us to keep on posting stuff? what if they really can find out
who we are?
Sam: they can't. remember, all your email addys and profiles are full of wrong 
information. even if they really do try - which my guy said they admitted that
they don't even know how to begin - it will only be one huge wild goose chase.
Rick: sounds good, sam, but i still feel kinda like i'm out here by myself. 
Tony: yeah - and what do we tell the other guys? i bet my inbox is filling up right
now.
Sam: well guys, actually, we don't have to do much at all at this point.
Rick: really? what do you mean?
Sam: the media loves this stuff. they eat it up.
Tony: so?
Sam: so now that they got their hands on it - they'll run with it all by themselves.
they don't need any help from us at all.
Rick: oh yeah - that's right!
Sam: so you can tell the other guys to just sit tight. they don't have to post anything
else yet.
Tony: oh man! now THAT sounds good!
Sam: LOL i figured you'd like that. now we can't just stop, though, or everyone will
think we gave up. but we certainly don't need to post anything every day like
we have been. once a week or even only twice a month would do to keep the
ball rolling.
Rick: no kiddin?
Sam: sure. the media will basically take it from here. and they'll be happy to do it,
too. all we really have to do is sit back and watch.
Rick: we'll let every body know right away.
Sam: and then you're gonna "celebrate" again?
Tony: oh you bet! Woo hoo!! LOL
Sam: did you guys get a web cam yet? :-)
Rick: oh stop!! Ha ha ha!
Sam: LOL i can dream, can't i?
Tony: by the way dude. what about this Plan C you said you got?
Sam: i already did it - i'm the one who contacted the media in the first place.
Rick: fuckin shit dude!!

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Eight

Sam was right: the media took it and ran with it. All the news shows did segments and interviews which fueled the fire. Every major newspaper in the country did a front page story on it. Every morning and afternoon talk show did shows about it and had as guests people who owned some clean groups who hollered about it, and people from various religious groups who hollered about it, and people who didn’t even know what Net Groups was, but hollered about it. But this time they also had people who owned some hetero adult groups who felt buoyed by the sympathetic press recently, and they hollered right back; louder and more forcefully than they ever have in the past. One talk show that was notorious for its confrontational style invited every one to be guests. The religious people and the anti porn people jumped at it. But the owners of the hetero adult groups sent a statement and said that such a planned confrontational style and the people who liked it were beneath them, and they declined the invitation. That statement fueled the fire even more, prompting many "How DARE they pretend to be better than we are!" letters sent to editors and calls to the news shows. Radio talk show nay sayers were just as quick to jump on the bandwagon. The consistent thought seemed to be one that condemned what Sam and the guys were doing, but admitted the adult groups' right to exist within the law. No one had ever done that before.

After the first TV spot, another 10 guys dropped out of the project, but there were still 170 left. A few times in the next month they posted pics and vid clips and sent complaints to Net Groups and Sam's man on the inside laughed as he deleted the offending clean groups. As it turned out, even Sam mis-guessed the timing and they only had to keep it up for a couple more months.

Someone actually did pick up on the legal angle. No one knew who but the guys suspected Sam had something to do with it somehow. The ACLU sent Net Groups a complete set of legal papers outlining a class action law suit representing thousands of group owners of the hetero groups. Not a single gay group was mentioned. The papers were all set to file, needing only to be dated and signed. The ACLU assured Net Groups that they fully intended to file unless certain demands were agreed to. 

Net Groups sent an announcement to the owners of all the groups - both adult and non adult - that they were changing their Terms of Service. Any complaint must now be properly investigated by Net Groups and the investigation must be documented. That documentation must be sent to the owners of any group slated for deletion in the future. Nor were groups to be deleted immediately, but depending on the violation, the group owners had to be given time to first fix the problem and report to Net Groups what was done. For example, owners would be given 30 days to remove copyrighted pictures, and 48 hours to remove pictures that may be of underage children, etc. If it could be documented that the violation had been corrected, the group could not be deleted.

Sam couldn't see it but there were parties all over the place after that announcement. At least 170 of them. 

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Nine

Sam and Tony and Rick met in the chat room again after the announcement.

Sam: so guys - we did it!
Rick: yeah!! and what a relief! but it feels good dude - it really does.
Sam: you and all the other guys have every right to feel good - i gotta admit i feel
good too
Tony: oh you bet! but i have a question for ya.
Sam: yeah?
Tony: that guy who works at Net Groups - that sounds a little too convenient to be
true. it's you isn't it? you're the one who works at Net Groups, don't ya?
Sam: LOL oh no - no no - he's a real guy - i'm not kidding. a real "silent hero"
type of guy.
Rick: damn! we thought we had you figured out!
Sam: tell ya the truth guys - there were a couple times there i wouldn't have known 
what to do if i didn't have information from him. i wish i could meet him and
Shake his hand and take him out to paint the town red and all that. but it's a
lot safer for him if we just leave him be.
Rick: but sam - you planned this whole thing out real well. like you had some
experience. like you already knew how net groups would react. like you were
already inside. how did you know?
Sam: i do have some experience. not all that much with net groups. but i got some 
experience with making plans and all that. used to do it for a living.
Tony: yeah? what did you used to do?
Rick: yeah sam. you never told us what you did. almost like you didn't want us to
know.
Sam: well i can tell you some. not all - just some. but yeah, i used to do a lot of
planning
Rick: so where?
Sam: the Pentagon
Tony: what?!?!?
Sam: yeah. i was in planning and operations for the marine corps
Rick: oooohhhh shit!! 
Tony: now it all fits! your confidence - your plan B and C and all that. 
Sam: oh yeah - always a good idea to play devil's advocate and try to be ready for
things that might go wrong. 
Rick: so what were you? a general?
Sam: nope. didn't make it that far. never did learn to keep my big mouth shut! LOL
i'm a retired colonel. one more promotion and i would have had my star.
Tony: i'm blown away! man!! and you served all those years and no one knew
you're gay?
Sam: oh shit yeah! it was easy. being an officer helped, but there's a LOT more of
us than anyone thinks. Hee hee
Rick: well no wonder this whole thing worked. you kind of already knew it would.
Sam: awww. i was confident for sure. but still couldn't have done it without all of
you guys.
Rick: wow - it's hard to believe we really did it. my head's up in the clouds
Tony: after those months of sneaking porn into the regular groups, it still seems like
it happened awful fast.
Sam: that's how it always happens. always a slow start, but once the pieces start
falling in place it kind of snowballs. after a long fight the climax (pardon the
pun!) always happens quick.
Tony: so what was the clincher? 
Sam: well, the ACLU really scared em! my guy told me they had another staff
meeting and everyone was yelling at each other. but finally they admitted they
had no other choice. 
Rick: i bet the regular group owners are pissed
Sam: who cares? LOL
Tony: i assume we can tell all the guys to stop posting in those groups?
Sam: oh yeah. you can even leave them too - but leave them the same way you
joined - with one profile every couple of days.
Rick: if they knew we were leaving they'd be real happy
Sam: wouldn't matter really. they think they won
Tony: THEY won?!?!
Sam: yeah. when they see that the porn stops they'll "determine" that it's because
They scared us away.
Rick: but they really know the truth don't they?
Sam: well, yeah, but like i said before, they won't admit it, not even to themselves-
they're too narrow minded for that. but that's ok. we can even count on it and
put it to work for us. 
Rick: how so?
Sam: just like we already did. the trick is to let them think they're winning when in
reality they're actually playing into our hands. when you think of it, it's really
not difficult to do with those kind of people.

They talked a bit more and then the guys asked Sam what kind of media player he had. Sam was puzzled but told them. They gave Sam a connection code and told him to use it right now, and clicked out of the room before Sam could say anything else. 

"Those sons-a-bitches!" Sam said to himself and laughed. He lived alone so it was safe for him to talk to himself. He used the code he was given.

The picture came up and Sam could tell the camera was sitting slightly elevated in the guys' bedroom. Tony and Rick walked into the room and waved to Sam through their new web cam. They were too far away for the microphone to pick up any noise so they sat on the end of the bed and each held up a sign. Tony's sign had an arrow pointing to Rick, which said, "He's Rick." Rick's sign and arrow said, "He's Tony." Sam laughed out loud. 

Sam sat with one hand working between his legs as he watched those two start making out. They stripped each other down very slowly, teasingly showing off every bit of skin to Sam. Soon it was obvious to Sam that they had forgotten about the camera as they went at each other and Sam watched them have their own "celebration." 

"One of these days," Sam said to himself again, "I'm gonna have to tell those two just how close they came to figuring me out for real." He decided to finish watching their show in his bed. "Guess I'm a better actor than I thought!" he laughed as he put a few papers in his lap. He put both hands to his side and maneuvered his wheel chair over to the side of his bed. He reached up to the triangular bar dangling over his bed and used it to pull himself up out of his chair and swung himself over and into his bed.

He settled in and watched Rick and Tony love each other for him. He kept shaking his head and saying to himself, "Those two!!" and laughing. He was happy for them. "Damn I hope they make it," he said.

When the guys were finished, they quickly blew a kiss to Sam through the camera. Rick reached over Tony and grabbed the corner of their blanket. As he slowly pulled it over both of them, Sam saw that they had somehow attached a towel or something to the blanket. On the towel they had used a big magic marker, and had written the words.........................