You see, Richie was trolling on a local newsgroup slamming the USA (I'm in Canada) I checked out his posting IP and busted him.

He's actually an EMPLOYEE of suck.com that was trying to get hits to his writing. Maybe suck.com writers get paid per hit, who knows.

Here's his original post in wpg.general
Here's my reply where he was busted.

Richard Shirk at Suck/Wired.com, you are a troll and a coward. You have the gall to slam me on your eRag but don't have the balls to let me know.

You may like to read all of RICHARD SHIRK'S posting on deja-news. Read his slamming of suck.com in public from pseudo-anonymous e-mail addresses to troll various groups of people (Canadians, homosexuals, etc. etc.) all for the sake of getting more hits to his stories. This is most unethical. I doubt the good people at Wired/Suck disagree.

He also posts under another name.  polly6104@my-deja.com. Same trolling as always in an attempt at getting hits to stories he has written.

Here's a full posting history from this other account. (From this account he slams the kids movie Tarzan and [of course] mentions a good story on suck about it.)

If you find his trolling tactics an insult to your intelligence, e-mail him here or here.  You can even mail his boss, George Shirk. They share the same last name, nepotism was at work getting Richie his job it certainly wasn't based on his talents as a writer.

[CONFIRMED!  An anonymous source pointed me to George's home page where he lists Richard as his son.]
 

Thanks to the two Wired people that gave me some more dirt on Richie.  "Poor Richie Rich" (as one called him) seems not to be well liked ("pretentious ass").

As always, all mail is strictly confidential.

"Remember this; Americans only laugh at bitter Canadians."
-Richard Shirk in e-mail to myself July 15, 1999