Ok, so my last post got a lot more attention than I thought it would. To sum up my last post:

1 – Alex Billington essentially blackmailed Universal into inviting him to a special “secret” screening of Scott Pilgrim at Comic Con by threatening to announce the screening to his readers unless they capitulated. This was beyond wrong and not only makes himself look stupid, it makes the whole online film community look stupid too.

2 – A collection of well meaning and well intentioned web guys wrote a letter condemning the act, unfortunately the letter, in my opinion, was a poor idea and not well thought out. The result has been backlash against the writers of the letter and the online film community itself as much as Billington.

A few of my friends who wrote the letter in question have asked what I would have done differently. That’s a fair question to ask. If you’re going to say something wasn’t done quite right, you should be ready to offer up what the alternative is/should have been.

So for what it’s worth, here’s how I think the web community should have handled the Alex Billington/blackmail situation.

If the guys had approached me and asked my opinion on the matter back at Comic Con (and it was probably smart that they didn’t… I’m not very bright), here’s what I would have told them:

A) It has to be understood that this letter will probably get out to the public. There are too many higher profile online personalities involved for it not to be. The starting assumption should be that this letter will get out somehow.

B) To avoid the appearance of “self importance” (none of the guys involved are like this… but you have to be aware of appearance) any action must involve more than just 20. It should be an organized effort bringing in at least 50-60 individuals and websites representing large, medium and small sites from across the web.

C) The letter should be an OPEN LETTER to show full transparency, resolve and unity. Address it to the studios, but make it available to everyone to read.

D) Any such letter should not involve Devin Faraci or others who have openly disparaged and fought with Alex publicly. No matter how right their intentions are, it risks the appearance of questionable motives and makes the effort lose credibility. Another writer from CHUD (or whatever site) should sign in his/her place.

E) Draft a letter that contains the following points:
– We the undersigned…

– We recognize that professionalism and conduct are important for a relatively young medium such as ours.

– We recognize that as a young medium we have all sometimes contributed to the existing reputation and perception of our “industry”.

– We are all committed to growing and improving our “industry”.

– We firmly voice together that we do not condone the actions of Alex Billington at Comic Con. His actions in no way should be seen as a reflection of the attitude or practices of the wider online film community.

– Alex Billington’s actions and motives are his own and we cannot comment on them, however this sort of incident is one we most seriously and somberly wish to disassociate ourselves and our industry from.

– etc. etc. etc.

F) Spend the next week reaching out to and getting feedback from 50-60 websites who agree to the open letter.

G) Co-Ordinate an exact day and time that all the involved sites publish that open letter to the studios on their sites.

Personally I think if this was done, the effect would have been much more powerful, the backlash would have been much smaller (there still would have been some) and the point would have been much more effectively made.

But maybe I’m wrong… that’s been known to happen from time to time.