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Venture capitalists are rigorously image-conscious — and laughably bad, for the most part, at keeping up appearances. Take EDF Ventures, an obscure Michigan VC firm, which may well have gotten a bum rap on TheFunded.com, a VC-ratings site. After issuing a subpoena to find the identity of the entrepreneur who said the VC firm was "to be avoided unless you are desperate," it has now filed a lawsuit against the anonymous commenter. "If someone lies about you, it isn't right," says Mary Campbell, the firm's founder.EDF's main factual quibble: The poster claimed to have worked with EDF on "several deals." EDF partner Mike DeVries says the company has never done multiple deals with the same entrepreneur. Which just goes to show how tone-deaf EDF's legal adventure is. Most venture capitalists love to talk about how they keep entrepreneurs coming back for more. That EDF has never worked with the same entrepreneur twice is a far more damning admission — from the mouth of one of EDF's partners! — than anything written on TheFunded.com. Campbell and DeVries might be able to prove their point, at the cost of further damage to their firm's reputation. Far better for EDF to have focused on the commenter's claim that EDF's deal terms are harsh. The PE Data Center, a research service, finds that EDF's terms, on balance, favor neither the investor nor the entrepreneur.