Ok, here's the scoop on the TRU deal.
Philip Wise, webmaster of RebelScum, has entered into a deal with TRU, where he has sold the personal email addresses of every member of his site, in exchange for some unnamed monetary compensation.
It created a huge uproar at RS, and began a mass exodus from many of the long-time members there. Furthermore, those that didn't want to leave, but spoke out openly about it in their forums, were banned immediately.
Another site, JediDefender, had two mods that were former RS members, and they started really bashing Wise and his site. Wise's response was to ban
every single mod that worked at JD, whether they participated in the bashing or not.
Eventually, Wise responded to the outcry with a post where he said he couldn't understand what people were upset about. Apparently, there were tens of thousands of members that were okay with the deal (RS doesn't even
have 10,000 members). To those that openly complained, he gave this lovely advice - and I quote:
"Get a life"
He told everyone that the only way to be removed from the list was to request a voluntary ban from RS completely. Furthermore, he complained that there were lots of inherent costs in running a site as large as his, and this was necessary to cover his costs. He then decided it was a taboo subject in the forums, and any and all posts would be deleted, not just locked, and those most vocal were to be banned.
Sorry, Wise, but RS has sponsorship deals with some of the biggest names in the industry, of which TRU is only one. Not only that, but he runs his own autograph store (C2 Ventures), that is a huge source of revenue for him. His main page is almost always a minimum of 50% ads for various sponsors. There is no way that this was a necessary route for him to take.
I personally don't care about the emails. What I care about is the total lack of respect he has for the privacy of his members, and how he sold everyone out for some kind of monetary deal. He is willing to let his longest-serving members leave (and truthfully, those still there are more and more turning out to be immature kiddies that do little more than whine and start flame wars). One guy had the emails show up at his work address, which he insists was never used in his RS registration, and which had some eyebrows raised at his work. When it was brought up, Wise didn't even have the courtesy to explain to him how he acquired the email address, or to offer to remove it.
What this shows is that Wise has absolutely zero respect for his members, and cares only about what SW and his site can do for him personally, and what he can gain from it. The guy is a total buffoon, and doesn't deserve to run arguably the biggest SW site on the net.
There is one thread that got locked, but was never deleted. This is probably because it came up in their vintage section, which pretty much is policed by the mods, and Wise generally stays out of it. That thread can be accessed
here.
My comments begin about halfway down the first page (my username there is Ian_C). I have since pretty much abandoned their site. Once in awhile I check their trade section, but the rest of it can go to hell.
Of course, now that it's been brought up here, we can fully expect that myself, AmShak, Aussie, and WC will be banned. Shakker doesn't post over there, but I know DA and WC have posted in their trade section from time to time.
Maybe one day Wise will grow up - but in his 50's, it's highly doubtful. It must suck to be a bitter old man who is in such a great position in the SW community, but chooses to show no respect to it.
Barada