TRU and philip wise
- Thread starter AmShak
- Start date
Jedi Daniel
Geek Jedi
I wondered why I was getting all this crap in my e-mail. I've reported it to Yahoo as Spam.
Darth Aussie
Australian Sith Lord
Typical .......
Darth Boru
Celtic Sith
Maybe there was a hint in their name to begin with??
Darth Aussie
Australian Sith Lord
sounds the same.....lol
Barada
Saboteur
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
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
Darth Boru
Celtic Sith
Never did like that site, or him much. If you ever read anything he posted, it almost always sounds just a little bit off from this reality. Seems to me that his true colors are coming to the fore. Glad I never joined up over there now, I get enough spam as it is 
The only reason that I ever registered there was to post feedback for people that I had made a trade with. These were not trades that originated at rebelscum but with people who found me through this site or another and wanted feedback posted at scum. Other than that, the only time I have found myself in their forums is when someone that I knew directed me to a topic. One of the topics that was pointed out to me was one on scalping and it questioned scums affiliation with some of its sponsors. Mr. wise managed to find his way to those threads post his "final words" and delete or lock the thread. New threads would be started and get deleted or locked.
My opinion of him or the site has not changed with this last bit of news .... So read into that what you will.
I think they need to re-evaluate what they are spending money on, so that they don't have to do things like this which turn people off. I’ve seen his sponsors and I know the ballpark figure for what it costs to advertise with them and I find it hard to believe they can't manage to make ends meet.
For anyone who has read their "collect to collect" policy, I have always found it odd the way they have the definition of "scalper" altered from pretty much any definition you will find in a dictionary to accommodate what they want to do. I think the meaning behind the word "scalper" in our hobby is to not take advantage of other collectors and IMO this is what he seems to be doing.
It’s probably not fair to lump everyone from scum into one group. I have always had pleasant dealings with curto through scum, ffurg or the custom alliance and I’m sure there are plenty of good people over there. It just seems that there are a few that are not so good which is why I just avoid it.
If he/they want to ban me... I think I’ll manage to get by
My opinion of him or the site has not changed with this last bit of news .... So read into that what you will.
I think they need to re-evaluate what they are spending money on, so that they don't have to do things like this which turn people off. I’ve seen his sponsors and I know the ballpark figure for what it costs to advertise with them and I find it hard to believe they can't manage to make ends meet.
For anyone who has read their "collect to collect" policy, I have always found it odd the way they have the definition of "scalper" altered from pretty much any definition you will find in a dictionary to accommodate what they want to do. I think the meaning behind the word "scalper" in our hobby is to not take advantage of other collectors and IMO this is what he seems to be doing.
It’s probably not fair to lump everyone from scum into one group. I have always had pleasant dealings with curto through scum, ffurg or the custom alliance and I’m sure there are plenty of good people over there. It just seems that there are a few that are not so good which is why I just avoid it.
If he/they want to ban me... I think I’ll manage to get by
Darth Aussie
Australian Sith Lord
If thats the attitude he gives, well i'm gone from there. I only go there for trading now and then but this takes the cake. As Shak says "If he/they want to ban me... I think I’ll manage to get by", I'm not going to lose any sleep. I feel sorry for his forum members really.....
JEDI FREIJAN
a.k.a. Darth Kraam
Who cares?
The only Star Wars site I need is right here.I have never been to RS(rat ****)and now have a reason.
The only Star Wars site I need is right here.I have never been to RS(rat ****)and now have a reason.
Jedi_Joel
Agent
We all should because websites where they're allegedly for collectors are now going behind our backs without our permission and selling our information to compainies for their own financial gain.JEDI FREIJAN said:
Now we just need to switch our e-mail addy with Phillip's addy so he gets his own spam.
Darth Aussie
Australian Sith Lord
Agreed Joel. He's only in it for the money, not for the collectors and fans he should be helping with his site.....