Ladder Trick

Ladder Trick was a column written by Nick Mamatas that was published by the Greenwich Village Gazette (now known as Nycny.com) from October 1998, to its last published column on June 2001.

Currently, Mamatas is a novelist, short story author, and editor.

Ladder Trick and furry
On August 18, 2000, a Ladder Trick piece was penned by Mr. Mamatas titled "Three Feet High And Falling: Reform Party Self-Destructs, Saves Universe From Stupidity."

Article's sum and substance
An article which focused on unusual quirks of several Reform Party candidates as evidence of the party's imminent collapse. These were John Hagelin's belief in Transcendental meditation, Pat DiNizio's backyard-concert crusades against Hillary Clinton, and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Scott Malcomson's involvement with Furry fandom.

Malcomson's segment
Mamatas attacked Malcomson's involvement with Furry fandom, including references to roleplaying on FurryMUCK with his fictional fursona Roy Calbeck, a reference to adult furry artwork, and his involvement with Burned Furs, a furry hate group which: Mamatas concluded his segment by saying

Malcomson and Mamatas
After the article's publication, Malcomson wrote an email to Mamatas questioning the author's journalistic standards as being without objectivity, as he had during a prior confrontation over Mamatas' misrepresentation of Furry fandom as a whole (see below). This led to a heated series of emails, some of which were reproduced on the press review website Pressed Fur.

Prior confrontation
Mamatas had previously been challenged by Malcomson for writing a similarly slanted attack piece on Furry fandom which concluded that it:

The piece primarily covered the various sexual fetishes to be found in the fandom, glossing over its non-sexual aspects early in the article, and concentrating instead on such topics as sex with Warner Brothers characters and bestiality activism.

Malcomson's challenge consisted primarily of informing Mamatas that the fandom was home to all genres and all ratings, that this included G, PG and R-rated material as well as X, and that his article was therefore misleading with its singular focus.

Mamatas, in response, cited founder of "gonzo journalism" Hunter Thompson in stating that "objectivity is a myth".

Fandom's reaction
While being discussed in such forums and groups as alt.fan.furry, the Pressed Fur site called this article: