No worries, Mr. Holston, no offense taken. Let me see…

You write “I only live in the real world.” Umm, I disagree. You and I are in the virtual world — right? We know this is the virtual world, because I can’t see you, and you can’t see me. When you tell me that you have xxx experience, I have to decide if “I think” you are telling the truth, exaggerating, or making it up — right? Same goes for you — right?

You told us that you tracked down someone named Jessica Wildfire who replied to your query via email… “Thanks for reaching out. I do not write articles on medium and never have. Unfortunately someone is using my name without my permission. I have tried to remedy the situation and have not been successful. I appreciate you reaching out so I can confirm that author is not me.”

Hmm, “…someone is using my name without my permission” — struck me as odd — at best. If you google Raffey you will find it is a rather common name. Jessica is even more common and so is Wildfire. Way back in the early 90s, I discovered the name of my company was already taken on-line by someone in Canada. Real names are worthless in here and cost a fortune to buy.

It’s possible you found Jessica Wildfire and she lied to you. How would you know if she told you the truth, or lied to you? If you don’t have the computer skills to track her down digitally, you really cannot know — right? Well, that’s the difference between real life and virtual life.

Of course, this is driving you batty, your curiosity is itching for an answer and your professionalism, while admirable, is not satisfied — at all. You want to know who this woman is, see her credentials, check out her story and do your old journalism thing. But “old” is the key word. Old ways do not work in the virtual world. If you want to track someone down in the virtual world, you need the tools — and 99.9% of us do not have those tools.

Personally, I don’t see how it matters, who Jessica Wildfire is in real life. She is sharing her ideas with us, not her life. Besides, very few people have lives that would interest someone else.

Writers have always taken a little liberty with the truth to tell a story well. Inserting a pejorative word here and there, is manipulative, even dishonest, but common (it drives me batty when reporters do that).

You write, “What I can see of her in her essays and the virtual world she inhabits just doesn’t add up.” I see it too, and so do most of her readers. But we are not interested in Jessica Wildfire. We are interested in her ideas. Her ideas are “sticky”. She makes them “sticky” with her writing. That’s why she has so many followers. Its also the reason, she is making money on Medium while most of the other Medium writers are making nothing. The real question is what are her readers finding so darned appealing — what is she satisfying in them, appealing to in them, answering for them?

I suspect you are looking for the kind of authority that does not exist in the virtual world. There are some really good writers on Medium, that source themselves like crazy. Jessica Wildfire is not that kind of writer. She is not a reporter. She is a provocateur, an idea person, and a visualizer. If I found out she was an 80-year-old man in the Philippines, it would not change my view of her work.

Different times, my friend, different world. I think of the virtual world as Mars — I’m on a foreign planet. Now tell me, and be honest with me, are you a Martian or a human?