Deception, Espionage & general foolery.

This is addressed to DR1 Webmaster and ALL FORWARD THINKING & considerate board members.

I have just made this comment (as part of a comment relating to a similar matter) on the other board. Could I please ask anyone interested in getting DR1 back on track as being a serious & informative bulletin board, with serious & informative contributors, to acknowledge this post & give their support.

....... "
Hi Andy,
I have now had three of these types of letter. They have been around for years & are basically a scam to try & get you (the recipient) to be greedy, pass over a deposit in exchange for promises of greater "Income" & then fritter out to nothing.

Just for fun I followed one through saying I couldn't afford the fare to XYZ country but WOULD be able to pay the required deposit they would be looking for in 3 months time, please forward me the monet for the airfare & I would be on my way immediately - I have heard nothing further!!!!

In a nutshell, I don't think this has anything to do with the current problems of DR1, Bravenet, webmasters &/or some of the contributers to both forums. It is a basic scam & the people probably get their information from other sources - I certainly HOPE so as I would hate to think that DR1 &/or Bravenet were passing on this information. Maybe these people scan through these boards, spot a likely, considerate & informative person, then make note of this persons details from that board. Am I too naive & trusting???

More serious at the moment is the amount of subterfuge, espionage & counter espionage going on by these two boards. Yours is the first response I have made for some days because I just do not know who I am talking to any more (Rob is TW, TW is TW, TW is Tom, Onions & Carrots is one of all four or all four of one, Hippo has taken sides & is now visiting both sites under a pseudonim just to persuade us all he is a caring, knowledgeable person ......... Tom is Rob & Elvis still lives through all of the above). My head is swimming with it all & I can not trust that anything I put on this (& the other) board will not shortly be transered to the Kremlin or maybe even Mars!!

For goodness sake Webmasters, get things unders control or you will be loosing ALL of your serious contributors leaving you with just the names above (which to all intents & purposes are probably just one person anyway!!" .......

I am NOT asking for censorship of articles per se, just some form of SELF regulation where WE, the board members, stick together to 'persuade' non conformers to take their personal attacks to other areas. IF we notice people contributing under two or more names, we should 'persuade' them to stop the practce & better still, contribute only under their proper name (difficult I know - but worth a try. If you have got something useful to say, you should be prepared & proud to put your name to it!!). Jim, Tom F., the other Tom, ECH, Carlos, Sarah, myself & many others are prepared to do this so why not Tourist Watcher, Toilet Water, Onions & Carrots, Hippo etc?? I presume it is so that they can argue with themselves to make the board more agressive (something we don't really need - but that is only my opinion) & argumentative pulling in childish, unrelated or unproved little statistics which they feel PROVE their points.

Please everyone - can we please get some semblance of oreder back? Otherwise many board members will fast become BORED members!!

My name is Grahame Bush & I am PROUD with the contributions I have made to this board!!!

Hi Grahame, your posting makes sens, and I mostly agree that we have to keep the level of our comments, so it's still an interesting board. However, sometime it feels better to write under a pseudonym, because of all these paranoiacal reasonning you were refering to... The strength of that board is that sometime we are better informed than the press beacause we have members all around, and they are not afraid to comment... And the opposite point of views are good too, because it sharpens our judgement... So it will be good to back each statements with hard-facts, so we get the best infos...

Grahame Bush:

I didnt know that DR1 or Bravenet had Board Members. Who is the Chairman of the Board and who appointed you as board member. How can I join this prestigious group of citizens who dare place their pseudonyms as apparent real names?

Well, if it pleases anybody, my e-mail is available and if you want to know if I am a real person, I will give you directions to a place where we can meet. How about Plaza Central? I will buy you a cup of coffee so you can meet Tourist Watcher.

I am not a creation of Rob or the Webmaster at Bravenet. I have never met either one of them. And I object to any insinuations that some group opinions are better than others, or that the "board members" have more rights than others. These boards have been announced as public forums. If you want to close them to "non-board members" then all DR1 and Bravenet have to do is require passwords, that way you can all spend your whole life chatting with each other instead of having a versatile, mixed and democratic forum. I could care less if you people want to close this to the public. There are hundreds of forums all over the world where people can communicate with each other. And what makes you think, that anyone can prevent crashing even a secured board?

Mr. Grahame, there is no way you can shut me up or my computer. I pay my fare as much as you do and have my own page.

You do not have to be a hackers to figure ways to penetrate or infiltrate anything in this country.

"I didnt know that DR1 or Bravenet had Board Members. Who is the Chairman of the Board and who appointed you as board member. How can I join this prestigious group of citizens who dare place their pseudonyms as apparent real names?" -Tourist Watcher

That is a pretty childish way to start what you purport to be a serious reply to a very real problem that has cropped up recently. I didn't get the impression that Grahame's post was specifically targeting you, but rather lamenting the fact that with all the pseudonyms being used, most threads on both boards have degenerated into mud slinging and name calling with the posters hiding behind false names.
Good for you that you post you address. I just may take you up on your offer of a cup of coffee the next time I'm in SD. But I also recall some "slinging" on your part, too.
Rather than reply in a facetious manner, would it not be better to attempt to solve this problem in a more serious manner?

If there is a problem, I am sure both DR1 and Bravenet can address that. I know there has been mudslinging on all sides and the solution to that is to try to respect one another and each others opinions, without ridiculing. We are all capable of being smart asses when provoked.

I am very new here and started my participation with high hopes and without attacking anyone directly. However, my replies to certain messages and some of my originated statements were being attacked with vindictive and nasty remarks. Since that was the case, I was also armed with a nice repetoire.

Just I started all over again with clean cuts. I hope it stays that way, because I am not looking to create a bad atmosphere.

Guys,Guys!!! RELAX,RELAX. We are just trying to be informative and have a little fun at the same time.I see absolutely nothing wrong with the way things have been as of late.It's similar to what goes on in "La Camara de Diputados".

Lets have fun.What's wrong with a little mudslinging?

By the way I have a real person from Mao.

Humble and of peasantry stock, Onions and Carrots

Who is your real person from Mao? You? You earlier posted that you lived in Miami not far from an old folks home. Or was that just smoke?

One famous pseudoname from a while back was Mw. Does anyone remember this guy/gal? He/She used to go under several other names: ME, Maria, Get A Life, Manny (yes, I did recognize all of them as one person. I'll tell you how if you want me to). This individual's contributions were mainly the result of hatred and/or frustration at seeing so many Dominicans on the streets of New York.

I encourage everyone here to turn another cheek on this individual and others like him/her. Unlike me, who decided to get into a little cyber p***ing contest with him/her, do as I say, don't do as I do.

Rafael