2/8/13- Columbus, OH

In a concerted effort, labeled by the perpetrators as Troll Storm 2013, an impassioned group of Facebook users prompted Columbus’s Alrosa Villa to disable their Facebook fan page this morning. The venue which caters mostly to the rock and metal scenes found their events page inundated with posts from established musicians within the Columbus metal community protesting their ‘Pay-to-Play’ model of hosting and promoting shows. This model generally consists of a concert promoter offering newer and unknown local bands a chance to play a show in exchange for selling a certain predetermined number of tickets to the event (and owing the cost of any tickets that are unsold.) Many of those well-versed in concert promotion and show booking at local venues view this practice as predatory and detrimental to the development of up-and-coming acts.

The “storm” began around 8:30AM, Thursday morning, when users began posting humorous and satirical posts on an Alrosa event page for an upcoming Battle of the Bands contest. By noon, the page was flooded with posts pointing out the ludicrous nature of such an event and jabs at the venue itself for condoning such practices. By 3:30PM, all posts had been deleted and the comment function disabled on the page.



The Alrosa later reacted by posting a statement on their fan page late Thursday evening claiming that they were working with Facebook authorities and local law enforcement in an effort to stop the harassment and threatening activity occurring on their page. They also said that their lawyer had advised them not to provide a “rebuttle” [sic] to any of the claims.



Rabble Rouser ringleaders and respected local musicians, Bob Brinkman and Jeff Martin, refused to back down and explained the reasons behind the trolling. They also adamantly denied that anything illegal had occurred and were willing to work with local authorities to clear up the matter if they had indeed been contacted.



Several enraged Alrosa fans rushed to the venue’s defense, incorrectly identifying the attack as malicious and defamatory towards the club itself and the bands that play there. Brinkman and his legions set once again to dismantling their arguments. One user said, “

Sometime after their post reached over 100 comments, The Alrosa Villa disabled all public access to their Facebook account. The trolls had claimed victory.



Read the response from local metal record store, Dreadful Sounds, regarding the events of 2/7 and Pay-to-Play practices.



Screen Caps from the original event page trolling.



An excellent blog post by Alex Burton that further elaborates on the evils of Pay-to-Play

