I first met Technosailor aka Aaron Brazell at SXSW last year. I was introduced to him by Ted Murphy. He seemed kind of stand offish like he was better then everyone but I let it go because anyone can have a bad night.
Later Aaron pinged me about a new project that Darren Rowse, Brian Clark and he were working on (or thats what he made it sound like) called Lijit and in so many words asked me to promote it…. so I did here.
Then a couple days later he thanked me and asked if I could get john Chow to run it… which I pinged him about and he started using it.
Then a couple days later he emails me this asking for a intro with Joel Comm cause “Darren and Brian” want to keep the good vibe going….
So I hooked him up with a intro….
Then at Blogworld I talked to Darren and Brian and they told me they were not involved a at all with lijit and Aaron was just name dropping… hmm ok…
At Blogworld lijit had a bigass booth and I hit Aaron up to sponsor the elite retreat … basically just got the cold shoulder (not interested at all). Ahh well no worries we did pretty well with that.
But then out of the blue today he twitters that I spam him on facebook to join my fan page.
Wow wtf? Have I been inviting people to my facebook fan page? Yes… with 2000 friends I do about 300 at a time until my fingers go numb and usually wait days before attempting to pickup where I left off. Do I invite some people 2x… no doubt…. especially I see have not joined and I am like wtf… thats weird I know I did shit for him…
But Aaron could have emailed me if he had a problem with me… He certainly knew where to get my email when he needed something from me and I could help him.
I have met a lot of weasels like Aaron (technosailor) over the years. They use peoples names and do whatever it takes to get what they want. Then they piss on you first chance they get.
Aaron you are a weasel.
echo ‘technosailor’ > shitlist.txt
May 23, 2009 at 7:14 am
In my experience there are lots of people out there like Aaron, trying to get something from you and then leaving you to the wolves when it suits them.
May 16, 2009 at 11:49 am
I remember when he first started and only got play from comment spamming Darren Rowses blog which turned into a little something for him. He should be a bit more humble pulling b*tch moves like name dropping…that is 110% #FAIL
May 16, 2009 at 8:56 am
@Shoe Wow, that was surely interesting, what a prick indeed. It would be interesting if he replies, it would bring alot of attention to your blog Shoe!
May 14, 2009 at 10:33 am
Ummm… I think there was a misunderstanding at the start of this whole thing. Shortly after SxSWi 2008, Aaron WAS working with Darren to develop and implement a custom Lijit widget. I know this because I’m the one who put the files on problogger.net and did the code reviews on everything Aaron wrote. Go into any article on problogger.net and you’ll see that the custom widget (wijit) is still there and has been customized to work nicely with his site and bring up searh results from Darren’s vast pool of articles.
In a casual conversation it would be easy to interpret “working with Darren on developing a new Lijit widget” to think that Darren was involved with Lijit’s development – which he wasn’t. So if you asked Darren if he was associated with Lijit, of course he would say he wasn’t. He’s not.
Once you know he was writing up custom widgets for installation on high profile sites like yours, Brian’s and Darrens, it’s pretty clear where the misunderstanding was that started all of this.
Your Skype quote/image illustrates this very nicely. In the article, you told us that Aaron had said ‘ “Darren and Brian” want to keep the good vibe going’ in the quote you have below. Everyone should read that again. That is clearly NOT what Aaron was saying.
You heard:
It’s been pretty meaningful, in my efforts, to refer to positive vibes coming from you.
Brian and Darren and I want to continue that trend.
He was saying:
It’s been pretty meaningful, in my efforts, to refer to positive vibes coming from you, Brian and Darren.
And I want to continue that trend.
Same words, two totally different meanings.
Yeah, he could have used another comma or two, but we all know text is horrible for actual communication. That’s why it is better to call a person on something directly to straighten it out, rather than calling them out first infront of their peers plus all future and past employers. Yeah, it is easier to write a post than to force yourself to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone, but hey that’s life.
I’ve know Aaron for years now and yeah I know he can piss people off, but I also know that he takes his work seriously and plays his cards straight in busines deals.
May 13, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I can’t understand why many people want to do everything to achieve what they want.
May 13, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Shoe,
I don’t know about this post.
You have said lots of times on your blog that if someone has a beef with you, they should just call or email you directly.
Maybe, you should have given TechnoSailor a call or an email, before busting out this post.
Then, if he still acted like a weasel, he should be exposed as such.
May 13, 2009 at 2:25 pm
And you think you know a guy (c) Lion King.
Or something like that… 
Yeah, many people are like that, please do this please do that and then when you need help not only they refuse, but spread it all over the world saying how bad of you it is to even ask something simple like that.
May 13, 2009 at 12:45 am
This is something which i did not like at all shoe. Totally disappointed ..!!
May 13, 2009 at 3:55 am
No way ricky, it’s Shoe’s best post by far. Streight forward uppercut.
May 12, 2009 at 10:57 pm
I am going to call bs on this… did you really mean this
echo ‘technosailor’ > shitlist.txt
or did you mean this
echo ‘technosailor’ >> shitlist.txt
Did you mean to delete your whole shitlist just for this guy or amend it?
May 13, 2009 at 9:27 am
Its a new shitlist
but yes nice catch & tip for those looking to make a ongoing shitlist use >>
May 13, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Previously you said “The really funny thing is I actually keep a shitlist.” I just wanted to make sure that one list did not overwrite the other… maybe you ran the
asskicker1.0 < shitlist.txt
program first?
May 16, 2009 at 5:51 pm
well played sir…
May 12, 2009 at 8:04 pm
The sentence you are referring to in the email implies the “good vibe” is coming from you, Brian and Darren and he (and only him) wanted to keep it up.
Not defending anyone, but the sentence grammar implies the above meaning, which is altogether different than your understanding of it. Not saying he didn’t mislead you in the past though, as I have no knowledge of the past relationship.
May 12, 2009 at 10:18 pm
He’s still a complete douche on Twitter though!
May 12, 2009 at 5:27 pm
“Wow wtf? Have I been inviting people to my facebook fan page? Yes… with 2000 friends I do about 300 at a time until my fingers go numb”
Shoemeisters fingers go numb from clicking? Rookie…haha jk
May 12, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Nice! I love ready about things like this, sort of brings a smile to my face. Plus, the way you handled it was FTW.
May 12, 2009 at 4:43 pm
It’s hard to understand why some people act the way they do. At the end of the day, professional jealousy comes into play I think…
May 12, 2009 at 4:15 pm
You see, that’s why people don’t help other people these days. Everybody in the world is not bad, but it’s a shame that we have to be extra careful to help one and another out. Dude, sorry it went out like that.
May 12, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Yup, Aaron gets pretty harsh when it comes to social network invitations and things like that.
But Micah B. said (in the comments above) that Aaron couldn’t have approved a Lijit sponsorship of the elite retreat, and “seemed kind of stand offish like he was better then everyone” is something that people often say about strong introverts. So maybe he’s not as weaselly (weaselish?) as you think he is.
I dunno. Just trying to offer another take on the situation. It’s just that, from up here in the nosebleed section, it looks like this could all be chalked up to a personality clash (cf. Mr Darcy and… well, pretty much everybody he meets in Pride and Prejudice).
May 12, 2009 at 3:26 pm
To paraphase Bill Hicks,
.
What can you do? Bawbags abound.
Speaking of which, you didn’t put my pic on your t-shirt gallery after I lovingly posed.
May 12, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Sure you feel that Aaron is a Weasel and that he has taken advantage of someone else in the worse possible way, but have you not done the same or similar?
I built extensions for you in the past at the expense of my own money over $500 to be exact and wen you sold shoppingAD you blatantly stopped responding to my emails about the matters, genuine concerns that I had in a prospect that did not benefit at all since I had a long term objective for.
Did you take into consideration for the effect it would have for me?
Then you sent me a one liner email asking if I develop facebook app, and when I spend the time to respond you, you again fail to reply.
I think you should seriously reflect on the proverb, ‘do onto others what you would like done onto you’. You have highlighted this situation as you have felt violated, betrayed, abused or whatever you want to call it. But I read this post thinking, huh! did you not do the same thing Shoe?
May 12, 2009 at 2:37 pm
There are trolls in every industry.
Best you can do is avoid them and keep on moving forward.
–Chubbs
May 12, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I actually put Aaron up in my basement for 6 months while he went through a transition. Living with Aaron Brazell demonstrated to me that he is a stand up guy who is loyal to his friends. I also think gentlemen have the guts to handle these kinds of issues offline instead of with public drama.
May 13, 2009 at 6:59 am
This is shoemoney we;re talking about here, oh someone pissed me off? I know I’ll blog about it, that will show em’
May 12, 2009 at 11:45 am
Funny, I sent out a Tweet about this whole thing, and technosailor tweeted back that it really wasn’t that interesting because he wasn’t engaging. Hmmm, I wonder why he’s not engaging. Maybe because he knows he just got owned? Dude…you should know that when you name drop to people like Shoe or other big bloggers that they are eventually going to talk. But, I guess he figures he got the traffic out of it and maybe thought you would never see his tweet about the “unsolicited attention whoring”
May 12, 2009 at 11:03 am
The nerves on that guy. I had never heard that people use other names to the get a little spotlight.
May 13, 2009 at 5:02 am
Welcome to the real world man…Time to get out of your barn and open your eyes to reality…I’ve too met some shady characters in my life…boy…If I see them again…I would beat them with a frozen turkey!
May 12, 2009 at 10:46 am
All kinds of people in this world …Life goes on ….
May 12, 2009 at 10:32 am
Too funny… this post is currently on the front page of Google when searching for Aaron Brazell.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Aaron+Brazell&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rlz=1R1GGGL_en___US323&client=firefox-a
May 12, 2009 at 1:10 pm
lol not on anyone’s side here. I don’t know either personally. But I do feel duty bound to say that is textbook WIN.
May 12, 2009 at 9:31 am
P.U.B., Publishers Union of Bloggers, have a solvency watch on Lijit pending release of its guidance moving forward, requested months ago by P.U.B. of Lijit.
If you use Lijit, have a backup visible or invisible search option running on your blog from either a publicly traded company or an entity transparent with guidance, should Lijit fail.
Thanks for the post, it took guts but you have some good peeps behind you.
Barney
P.U.B.
May 12, 2009 at 9:26 am
This is justice served on this weasel. Have you read this about how he bullied other bloggers?
http://www.igorthetroll.com/blog/aaron-brazell-aka-technosailor-is-a-cyber-bully/
May 12, 2009 at 9:15 am
Yeah that is kinda lame of that dude, quick to take someone’s hand of help but doesn’t want to help anyone. Well if there was a thing such as karma or justice he will get his.
May 12, 2009 at 8:54 am
So you didn’t really like Lijit then, depsite the review?
May 12, 2009 at 9:16 am
I did like it as I said in that review but later removed it because it was soooo slow (as I wrote about later).
May 12, 2009 at 10:23 am
Jeremy, we were very excited to have you as a Lijit publisher given your stature and ability to provide us feedback (positive or negative) that would help us improve our product. We have done that (the speed is up, we have added thumbnails of posts, comment integrations and the ability to interact with flickr and youtube directly from within your results).
We even have a robust revenue share program that allows the publisher (you) to sell your own search inventory (google doesnt allow that!).
Most of our publishers are seeing an increase in pageviews and (in the cases where they sell their own keyword ads) search revenue.
When you decided to remove Lijit, we were equally disappointed.
Im sorry that Aaron gave you a bad impression of Lijit (he has moved on – since december 2008), and I would love to have the opportunity to discuss lijit’s improvements.
[also, as a point of reference, Aaron was a contractor for Lijit, and couldnt have approved any sponsorship.]
Looking forward to reconnecting!
May 12, 2009 at 11:27 am
Fair enough. Was just confused because you said he asked you to promote it and you did – I don’t think I’ve ever read any of your reviews where I didn’t think you were straight down the line, was wondering if perhaps this one slipped under my bullshit radar.
May 12, 2009 at 8:51 am
http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/02/21/why-you-should-embrace-negative-press/
I think you secretly have a man crush on this guy. Now that you can’t have him, you want him even more
Actually, I am seriously considering degrading you publicly so I can get some face time on your site. It’s a much bigger audience than I have now. There’s been more than one instance of some schlub getting press on your site because of some concocted beef with you.
Check this site out:
http://www.dhamma.org
May 12, 2009 at 8:50 am
Affiliate Marketers are weird dudes.
May 13, 2009 at 5:04 am
Ha! you made me click on your link! Can’t resist the ‘free’ t shirts!
May 12, 2009 at 8:27 am
A tad harsh don’t you think. Seems like perhaps you have had a bone to pick with him for a while and saved it up, pulling it out in this petty tit for tat..
I would have hoped you were above that.
May 12, 2009 at 8:31 am
The guy rips shoe in a open forum (twitter), shoe let this guy get away with name dropping and free placement on 2 of the twop mmo blogs, and still has the balls to say shoe is spamming him on a social network? I think that the post is more than justified but at the end of the day he doesnt need to justify it this is a personal blog.
May 12, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Mubin,
I couldn’t agree with you more.
The big problem is that most people allow clowns like Brazell…Brazil…whatever the f%%k his name is getaway with insidious behavior.
I’m all for civility, when it is warranted, but sometimes you have to converse with ass hats and f$%k nuts in the lingua franca they are comfortable speaking…foot in buttocks and knuckles tattooing teeth.
Anthony
May 12, 2009 at 8:24 am
Looks like @technosailer is calling this charecter assasination, from my pov it looks like he milked you as much as possible and now just wanted to move on. Thats not cool. Get em shoe.
May 12, 2009 at 8:13 am
Considering the mancrush between you and Arrington, you two should have a couple of awesome tech-savvy hyper aggressive kids.
Anyway, well played sir.
May 12, 2009 at 8:04 am
Its not really my style to be confrontational like this…even when someone is being weaselish. This guy is obviously shady, but I might find more creative ways of dealing with someone than public humiliation.
May 12, 2009 at 7:55 am
Good looking out, it’s nice to know who to watch out for in this almost anonymous internet world we participate in.
May 12, 2009 at 7:49 am
That’s lame!
May 13, 2009 at 5:06 am
I agree, but that is how the some people are. You just have to steer clear of those clownz when you do in-counter them. And if they persist, then take’em out back and beat them with a frozen turkey!
May 12, 2009 at 7:48 am
Don’t you just love it when people have the nerve to tell the whole world but don’t have the nerve to stand up and say something to your face. I live in one of the smallest towns in the world and people do that here also. The good thing about being in a small town rather the the internet we get a chance to meet these weasels face to face eventually and listen to them choke trying to explain them self. Maybe you will get to see him face to face one day. I wonder how many time he will apologize lol.
May 12, 2009 at 7:13 am
The things people do to get ahead in the game.
May 13, 2009 at 5:07 am
Hey man, That’s how some people are…You just have to avoid them when you happen to in-counter them.
May 12, 2009 at 6:46 am
I salute the long-term seo implications of this post.
To the top of Google for Aaron ‘the apparently name-dropping complainy pants douchebag” Brazzel
May 12, 2009 at 6:05 am
I saw the Lijit being used on other blogs, but I don’t like it. Did it pay people for the searches? What comes around goes around. Greg Ellison
May 12, 2009 at 10:24 am
Greg,
What do you mean “pay people for the searches?” We do not pay people to place Lijit on their site. People can make money (decent money) through our rev share program and ad network. Lijit is the only search widget that allows you to sell and price your own keyword inventory.
May 12, 2009 at 5:34 am
Wow dude, this guy suck big time. Unfortunately the world is full of stupid manipulating cheats like this guy. I am putting him on my shizz list
May 12, 2009 at 3:52 am
I joined your FB page after reading this … In your face TechnoSailor!
May 12, 2009 at 3:09 am
another court case? Some many weasel out there…
May 13, 2009 at 5:08 am
Yep, yep. Court cases suck; they take up your time and money because of some clown.
May 12, 2009 at 2:59 am
wow how sad. Don’t worry Shoe its his loss.
When I was 15, the McDonalds manager once told me(after a customer was rude to me).
“Don’t worry, they are a lot of a holes out in the world…and you just saw one at lunch time”
Life goes on.
May 12, 2009 at 2:53 am
whoa, bad peoples all around us, watch out !
May 12, 2009 at 2:24 am
Note to self. Be nice to Shoemoney.
May 12, 2009 at 2:00 am
What a disrespectful prick.
In other news, WTF is with this stupid facebook thing? The only way I can post a comment is by clicking “log out” which then logs me out of facebook and every time I go back to facebook I have to log in again.. fucken hell it’s annoying!
May 12, 2009 at 1:56 am
Wow.. I don’t like that at all
Too bad this kind of people exist and have so much influence online. Thanks for pointing it out, I’m forgetting about lijit.
May 12, 2009 at 1:53 am
Wow – I hope it was worth it to him – whatever that was, I didn’t bother to look at Lijit. How can he blow it with 4 top guys over 1 project? Must’ve been soooooome project. lol.
May 13, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Well, if it blows up like Google or something of that nature…then it’s well worth it…or is it…
May 12, 2009 at 1:46 am
I am reading from time to time. I’d be glad to hear if you like it or not. feel free to drop a comment on my blog at http://www.twitpassion.com