A Genius Amongst Fools: The Rise and Fall of Ben Skid

Ben Skid considered himself to be the smartest dude in the room. Whichever room he found himself in, he would always outwit, outsmart and outdo everyone in it. Especially in chat rooms and online forums. . Here he didn’t have to have a personality, he could create one, which was rather fortunate for him, if truth be told in real life he was known as something of a boring fuck.

First things first, make himself a doctor – that would make him wholly more interesting, wouldn’t it? He would become Dr Ben Skid. Important. Successful. Brilliant!

He joined Voicefrog (a site dedicated to starving writers convincing each other they were the next Shakespeare). He had learned that the platform gave out coins for being supportive and writing. Being the clever little Dickens he thought he was, he jumped right i.

He didn’t just want to scam the system and shove his AI-generated crap into the communities, no, he would overtake the leaderboard as the master of the comments. Aaaah 'The Leaderboard', the digital shrine to kindness and engagement. Ben wanted his name at the top. He was a legend. A genius who could outsource supportiveness. And he would prove it.

And so, Ben created Bot-Skid—an AI of great power (a script copy-pasted from a CSS tutorial). He trained it on every empty platitude he had ever encountered in his high school creative writing class. And lord knows his writing was so utterly mediocre that he had heard hundreds of them over the course of that year.

Within minutes, Bot-Skid had scoured the latest stories and had begun its work in righteous earnest:

Nice work. Question: what was the trigger for this story? You peaked my interests. :)"

"Congratulations on your Top Story, I'm proud of you."

"I like this. Keep writing. Writing is good. You are a writer. Yes.

Ben leaned back in his chair. Victory would be his. Comments rained down on the unsuspecting writers like a plague of blessings from a literary deity. And the best part of all? They believed him. Idiots, he thought as he dunked another Digestive into his Earl Grey.

He lounged in his genius. He rose. And rose. And then—glory. There it was, practically smising in digital gold:

#1. Ben Skid - Most Supportive Commentator

He had done it. He had hacked the system. Outplayed the fools. He had always known that writing wasn’t about intelligence, or even reading, all you had to do was understand the system and bend it to your will. And they would never know. He was almost disappointed. His great experiment and he could never share the results. A silent genius.

Nonetheless, validation and success felt good. They had never appreciated his potential at the council office but now. He scratched his little balls at the thought of his own greatness. Damn, he was good.

Of course, the narrative he had told himself had one fatal flaw. The other writers did know. And they weren’t just going to loll about reciting poetry into the wind. Not this time anyway, save for Sundays which had always been designated ‘Elocution Day’.

Gradually, they started to challenge him:

From: SybilWritesNowSometimes

Hey Ben, just wondering—why did you comment “Congratulations, I’m proud of you” on my poem about my dog dying? Also, you don’t even know me and had no hand in my Top Story… what is there to be proud of? And who are you?

From: ShadowyQuill909673

Did you actually read my story? “What was the trigger for this?” feels weird when it’s literally about me joining an LGBTQ writer’s group and encouraging others to do the same. What do you think the trigger was? A CIS man’s night out?

Ben laughed out loud. Fools. Simple, paranoid fools.

He typed out his response with precision. He had learned that the only way out was to double down harder. That’s how he’d almost gotten promoted at work and that’s how he had seen all the other bigwigs step up on the ladder. Shout louder. Be heard.

Absolutely not! My comments are deeply personal and handcrafted with care. Iame extremely efficient and very supportive of my fellow writers. Maybe you should focus on your own craft instead of questioning someone who’s actually uplifting others. Have a great day :)

But the accusations were relentless.

Some users started calling him out publicly. And others posted screenshots of eerily identical comments all over their social media. Someone had even compiled them into a Ben Skid Bingo Card. When they were bored over at PVIM, they would play a quick game of Bengo—

"So proud!"

"Intriguing take! What inspired you?"

"Nice work. Keep writing. :)"

MC always won.

The challenges continued.

He fought back in the only way he knew how: relentless, defensive OUTRAGE. How dare they? Mixed of course with a little sprinkle of 'woe is me'.

"I can’t believe the negativity here. You guys are just jealous I engage more than you do."

"Wow. I spend my time supporting writers and THIS is what I get? I tried so hard to just be part of something bigger than myself."

"You've pushed me so far, I have thought about leaving :( This is horrible. You are horrible. "

This went on for weeks, until one bright Wednesday, he hit refresh and saw the words that shattered his world.

Deleted User

He scrolled down frantically. His name was gone.

He checked his email.

From: Admin

We take the integrity of our platform seriously. Your account has been permanently banned for spamming and fraudulent engagement.

Ben stared at the screen. His genius, his empire, reduced to nothing.

And yet… a thought formed. A new plan.

A new email. A new account. A new name. He would rise again.

SkidBen97 has joined Voicefrog!

And just like that, Ben Skid, like a Linux Lazarus with a WiFi connection, rose again. Literary genius 2.0. This time, they’d never catch him and Benskiddy2.0.