Does anyone know the whole story about this??

I got this email from someone at reptileforums.com
Does anyone know what this is all about?

Here's the email:

This is to all ReptileForum.com members.

I have some very bad news to share with you about one of our
moderators. Rich or (iguanairs) has stabbed me in the back.

Rich was one of ReptileForums admins which gave him access to the
entire forum. He was the only moderator with this status and he had more
power than any other moderator. I trusted rich with this amount of power
because I counted him as my friend. I trusted him 100%

However, yesterday he did something that was illegal and very wrong. He
decided to start his own forum because he was not happy about the
success of ReptileForums.com He knew that reptileforums was one of the
fastest growing reptile message boards on the net. In fact, reptileforums is
the 4th largest reptile board anywhere. Rich got jealous and decided to
start his forum without telling me. Looking at his site, I know he must
have been working on it for weeks all without telling me.

Well, once he got this new forum ready to launch, he needed a way to
promote it, so he decided to hack my forums by deleting everything off
the homepage and putting 8 of his own banners all over the homepage that
lead to this new site. He then left a note that said “ReptileForums is
moving, click on the banner to be taken to the new site” along with
some other words which I don’t want to repeat.

After, he did this, he also start to reply to every thread possible
telling everybody that reptileforums is moving with a link to his new
site.

After he did this, he must of told lies to the other moderators,
because he got most of all my moderators to leave with him. He was telling
them that I was being disrespectful and ignoring all his requests which
was a LIE.

After doing all this, he went even further. He then logged into the
admin panel and STOLE my email list of all reptile forums members and he
has been emailing them about his new site. Not only is this illegal, but
it is wrong and his email is a complete LIE.

To even make this worse, 2 hrs before Rich did all of this, he was
chatting with me on AOL about how he liked the new layout which I created.
He was telling me how great it looked and we chatted away for ten
minutes as if we were friends. He did not bring up that he started a new
forum, he did not tell me that he was going to delete my homepage and
replace it with all his banners, he did tell me that has was sending out
emails to my members and lying to them.

After all this happened, Rich finally chatted with me on AOL. I asked
him why he did this. He said because he was mad that I have a popup on
the topsites page of reptileforums.com and he said that I was ignoring
ALL of his private messages to me. THIS WAS ALL A LIE. I did not receive
one private message from him on reptileforums about any of this. I have
PROOF. I logged into the database and there was no private messages to
me from Rich. I also told him that the only reason I have a popup on
the topsites page is because it helps my topsite members receive more
traffic. The popup is a traffic exchange popup which brings in even more
traffic to the topsites page. Why would I remove this??? It is only on
one page and the topsites page is not a page that reptileforum members
would visit.

After asking Rich again why he did all this, he still told me it was
because I did not answer his private messages and because there was a
popup on one page. I asked Rich why he didn’t send me an email or why he
didn’t try to chat with me about any of this and he did not answer;
because he knew he was lying. I caught him and he knew it. The fact is,
Rich never sent any PMs to me and never contacted me about any of this. He
just needed an excuse to start his own forum.

Reptile Forum members….does this make any sense to you???

Heres the big question.

If rich really thought I was ignoring him, then why didn’t he just
leave and start a new forum instead of deleting my content off the
homepage and stealing my email list and lying to everyone???

Rich had no right to do any of these things, it was illegal and morally
wrong. I have spent thousands of dollars on reptileforums and I have
personally coded everything, created the layout, added all the care
sheets and articles and promoted it all by myself.

I trusted Rich as my friend, but I can see that he just wanted to hurt
me. He stabbed me in the back and lied to everyone. If you got an email
from rich, then delete it. He is a liar and a back stabber.


Why would you want to be a part of Rich’s site when you understand what
he did to mine?

Also, you may see posts from users that are posting hateful messages on
reptileforums that are leading to Rich’s new site. This is Rich, he is
using reptileforums to promote his own site. He is using my traffic to
promote his own site. I have worked very hard to earn all my traffic
that goes to reptileforums and Rich is taking it away. Not only is it
against the terms of use contract, but it is morally wrong. You don’t
become a member of another board and start driving other members to your
site by writing lies to everyone and putting down the owner which Rich is
doing.

What makes it worse is, I lost a friend. Rich, if your reading this,
you were my friend and I trusted you with my entire board. I did not
think you would do something like this.

This is a notice to ALL reptileforum members, please be warned of
Rich’s actions and please be aware of his lies.

I have not came into his board posting hateful posts and directing any
of his members back to my board. I have not posted my banners all over
his site, and I will not steal his email list and start spamming them
about my board. I am a bigger person than that. I have morals.


Thank you for reading this.
Joshua Writer
Owner & Founder
www.ReptileForums.com

PS. You have to ask yourself this question: Would a morally right
person, delete content off another’s persons web page and steal their email
list and post hate messages all over the forum? Would they create a
message board behind your back and chat with you 2 hrs before pretending
to be your friend. Would they lie to your members and deceive them? I
don’t think so.

I signed up for those forums awhile ago and had completely forgotten about them until I received this rather funny email from a "Rich Brooks" (whom I do not know)yesterday. Here it is
----------- ---------------
Hello,

The Administration and the Moderators of Reptile Forums have opened a new forum. We are now located at <http://www.herpcenter.com>

This move was due to unassisted aid from the current owner of Reptileforums. There were a number of ideas that the members shared to help improve the forum. Unfortunately,none of the existing Admins or Mods. had the ability to make any of them come true. The owner was the only individual capable of adding and editing forums.

The owner also found it necessary to use pop advertising on the forum. As an Administrator of Reptile Forums,I informed him that the members did not like this. His lack of respect in his response was his demise: "I don't care,they can deal with it!"

That response prompted myself, as well as the moderating team to reconsider our current status on Reptileforums.If he didn't respect the members,why should we respect his forum? Why continue to create a forum that the owner didn't appreciate or participate in? That was the flame that started the creation of Herp Center.

The moderators and a select handful of members from Reptileforums have been working hard to get Herp Center ready for members. We are proud to announce that we are open for business!

The current staff consists of :

Rich (Iguanairs)-Site Administrator

Dominick-Administrator

Merlin-Super Moderator

Bitis Gabonica-Moderator

Lyn-Moderator

(Fran...when he returns from out of town work-Moderator)

Tricia Powers....(waiting for a response!)-Moderator

If you liked RF,wait 'till you see Herp Center! There are no strings that bind us here! Help us become the fastest growing Reptile Community on the internet! We are expecting you!
---------------------- ------------------------

Greg,

Might I respectfully suggest that you edit the thread subject line to include ReptileForuums so people don't start another thread by mistake.

To All,

A Mutiny By Scalawags, in my opinion, quite possibly!

I formerly was a member of ReptileForums.com. I had numerous run ins with moderators at that site who accused me of various things. The accusations were usually that I had been 'disrespectful' to other forum members. This was based upon my adding my point of view on a subject, especially in instances when I contradicted or corrected someone who had stated what I believed was absolutely terrible advice to a newbie making an inquiry on how to care for a herp. You would not believe some of the advice given by the so-called expert moderators. As far as I could see, some of them considered themselves to be experts (of their own making and with little apparent experience across the board) and they made an unrestrained effort to influence the herp keeping community without regard for any differing opinions - even when the info in countering opinions were quotes from books written by true experts in the field of herpetology.

This , as far as I was concerned (and as far as some others were concerned) got bad while I was a member of that site. Several users wrote me PM and emails to back me up and also to complain about a few moderators there who were pretty much intolerable in what we believed was their control freak type of nature. Well the site owner got rid of one of them for an attack he made on me and another user on a forum in that site, but others remained. In my opinion, there was a clique of moderators who wanted control of people more than caring about herps and proper herp care. Now guess what: some of those moderators are now the ones listed in your email (in the second post on this thread). Certainly all the ring leaders, as I saw them to be, have moved to the new site! The attitudes expressed, in my opinion, by those moderators was that they felt themselves superior to anyone who disagreed with their knowledge or lack of knowledge regarding herps and herp care - and I do mean superior in a extremely snobbish sort of manner (but this is only my opinion). My posts, and the posts of well meaning others, were often slammed because we gave an opinion or info differing from theirs. Sometimes we were slammed the hardest when the person making the original inquiry said "holy cow Glenn's suggestion was the one that worked" or something to that effect about one of us, and our advice, who would dare disagree with the moderators. They often would lash out at anyone who gave an alternate solution to a problem that a herp keeper was having, when it differed from a suggestion already made by one of them. To me at least, it seemed they wanted ass kissers only to answer threads on that site, ass kissers who would elevate the moderators to some sort of demigod status - but again that is just my opinion.

Another funny thing was that posts started to disappear. Then after a while, sometimes whole threads would vanish. The owner or the head moderator, as I remember, would say there was a problem, but when they got it fixed and some threads were back, it was sometimes the case that posts from the threads were still missing. Selective computer memory, I wonder? Maybe sabotage, maybe not, go figure!

I would like to post some proof more than my word; however when I left that site in disgust, I had all of the posts by me deleted. That was a foolish thing for me to do in anger, but I was pretty upset at the stuff they were pulling there and I wanted any connection between myself and that site to be severed. Apparently they could not even get that right because they kept articles I had written in one of their forums. You can see some of my articles still at that site, unless they were pirated too as the owner claims other site items were pirated, as proof that I was indeed a member.

If what is claimed, in the email from the owner to site users, is true then: I imagine that maybe now the site owner would see more of my side of it than he apparently did back then. It was worse than, in my opinion, the debacle at kingsnake.com. Funny thing is, I got the same email as the person who opened this thread and I am no longer a member. I wonder is the site owner looking for my support now? If so - what chutzpa on his part! The really funny thing is, I might lend it to him now that the bad apples are gone.

Best regards,
Glenn B

If he was unhappy he should have just resigned.

What he did was basically stab the guy in the back.

He can butter it up all he wants.
He can justify it all he wants.
In the end I will always look at him as a back stabber.

Many mutineers used the back stabbing method too.

One other funny thing I forgot to mention - While I did receive an email from Joshua, the owner of reptile Forums, I guess it comes as no surprise that Iguanairs (Rich) nor any of the other figurative mutineers (as I see them to be) did not deem it appropriate to send me an email about their new site. I think, that speaks volumes not so much about whom they would choose to be on their new site, but more that the fact seems to be that they are choosing at all. Rather selective of them from the start, especially since I just found out my name is still listed on the membership roles at ReptileForums (despite my telling them to unregister me and delete my posts) and I could have easily been included in their invitation if they used that list for their emails. Oh well, I am crushed, but life goes on...

I also imagine if you give them time you will see their true colors erupt as I expect them to moderate their new site to death!

I may just have to start using ReptileForums again.

All the best,
Glenn B

I don't know either any of the primary individuals involved, nor did I ever visit either site before today.

I've read what both parties had to say. Even if I totally disregarded the account of events by Joshua Witer, Rich Brooks' side of the story tells a tale of his own abuse of position and unethical behavior.

Yeah Glenn, I think one of the reasons I might have received the email was my poor posting stats. I signed up there about 10 months ago, and maybe posted 3 or 4 times.

The same email I received was sent to about 15 other people besides me, BTW.

I to got that email, but dont recall ever posting at all.

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