“the cost estimates have recently changed… All donations here on out will go toward the appellate case first.”

Hello Readers:

When last I last discussed Eron Gjoni in this space, he was facing legal action as a result of his revenge blog “The Zoe Post”. I am writing now to say that the odds of Gjoni ever overturning the restraining order Zoe Quinn took out against him seem to be very much diminished. He’s still raising money and hell online to get legal “justice” for himself, even though he’s lost the latest round of litigation and is appealing to a higher court. This higher court costs more, but Eron seems determined as Captain Ahab, chasing down every avenue of legal recourse in search of legal vindication and retribution against his ex.

Practically since Quinn served him the restraining order, Gjoni has held fundraisers to combat it; each of which preceded a new round of court dates. His preference is not to go out of pocket for his own legal expenses; Eron has a history of filing pro-se when he cannot hire legal representation. At each fundraiser, Gjoni asks for more money than he did in the previous round. (It’s causing a bit of donor fatigue on KotakuinAction.)

“It would help if we could stop the “this is sketchy for reasons I will not explain” thing, Eron says to backers, sounding sketchy as all hell.

Back in Fall 2014, Eron’s fundraisers were much more modest in scope: a few hundred dollars to file papers here, a few thousand for legal representation there against what Eron must have assumed would only be a few hearings. By December, when I wrote my profile “Hateful Boyfriend” about him, Gjoni had received less than $10,000 in crowdfunded legal assistance. By March 2015, when he was profiled in Boston Magazine, Gjoni had only raised $13,000.

Since March 2015, Eron’s raised an additional $20,300. This is out of a goal of $27,000, part of which is some sort of stretch goal, endorsed by people just as sketchy as Eron is. Eron’s infographic for this fundraiser is about as convoluted as his reasoning about why Zoe Quinn really deserved to have a vengeful, defamatory blog post written about her.

On the whole, these court dates do not seem to be going well for him. If they were, Eron would not be appealing to a higher court to hear his case. It would suggest that Eron actually lost his last round of legal Ahab-ing, so he’s raising the stakes. On the way, he gets to wrap himself in the flag, selling this case to #Gamergate like it’s going to be some watershed moment for a men’s rights, when in reality he’s probably just going to incur more costly losses.

Gjoni is undeterred by the extra cost or trouble of dragging his ex in and out of court, perhaps because doing so is a way for Eron to force Quinn to see him. But why would he be deterred, considering he pursues this litigation at no cost to himself? Maybe a better question to ask is how long ’til Gamergaters take Eron’s hand out of their pockets.