This was my first comment within the thread, started by Adam, and the thread header:
Today I was apparently banned from ODs on Facebook for copying content out of their site a couple of weeks ago —
Adam and ODWire members,
Thank you for the opportunity to address Adam’s message. Before I start, when making your own opinions of what is going on here please work around the “clutter” of who owns what or what infrastructure I chose to run my community on. This noise is irrelevant to the situation at hand and clearly aimed at harming the credibility of my community. This tactic has been used for years on ODWire to discredit my community; clearly a scare tactic generated out of fear that our community might surpass theirs in stature at some point.. The comment about my “real power” is just infantile and I won’t justify it with a response as it is irrelevant to the matter at hand.
I can only speak for myself and the subject matter I posted on and in no way am speaking for Dr. Nelson, as I am about as far away from that drama as I can be and want to be. Adam, your name is not being dragged through the mud by me – not one thing I posted insulted you personally. I have not nor will I ever attack you personally. As a matter of fact our few interactions outside of the forum have been pleasant enough. My posts clearly are calls for transparency, and CEWire related. You hosted a virtual conference and differentiated it from ours with claims of “profits to charity”. Great concept. Subsequently you boasted about having 3,000 attendees. Fantastic success for these things, almost too good to be true….I could only assume based on these numbers and my experience running these conferences that you generated north of $300,000. This figure is based on (1) sign up revenue (2) sponsor revenue and (3) Dr. Silberberg bragging about how you and he made a killing off the conference of a six figure amount to more than two of my industry friends. My figures are not precise and may even be in error, but what other assumptions could I make given the information you and your partner provided? After all, the numbers came right from the horses mouth. It is likely you provided group sign up discounts and even let some attend for free while others paid which would reduce the revenue. Regardless, it appears based on statements of attendance, sponsorships and your associate Dr. Silberberg that it was financially successful. Kudos.
A key strategy for your success was the “profits for charity” angle. Perhaps “profits to charity” was on the up-and-up as I sincerely hope it was, but it is also possible to use “fuzzy accounting” and use the line item of “salaries” to draw as much personal income from the effort while donating a small fraction of the revenues to charity. Whether that did or didn’t occur, when someone claims “profits to charity” it is everyone’s right to have access to an independent audit of the finances. Don’t get me wrong, of course you and whoever are entitled to take a salary, but that salary could be from nickel-and-dime amounts to 90% of the revenues – I’m not accusing you of that, I am just pointing out to those who may not have thought about this that an independent audit is appropriate albeit required. For most charitable organizations this is a matter of course and by saying “all profits to charity” you are indeed claiming “charitable status”, are you not?
Dr. Nelson deleted Dr. Nelson’s post and he admits that. Frankly I would have preferred it stayed up. I do not delete posts that are within guidelines. Your desire and right to defend your self is respected and was welcomed and at no point did I suppress it. You were banned from the community specifically and only for sharing our content outside of the community; this is anathema, and as an experienced community moderator who should know better I was dismayed and shocked that you would stoop to that level. I have never and would never take an image from another community, one that identifies the people who comment, who expect to comment in a secure environment and share it somewhere else. Adam had been a respectful member of our community since the early days and I paid attention to and respected him for that. Your assertion that you were banned for defending yourself has no merit whatsoever.
What I will say about Dr. Nelson is I find it strange that there are so many people here who attack others, including me, that you decided to make an example out of him. I know very little of the story, but I have witnessed some horrific behavior by other members, yet the standards seem to shift with the wind. I am not experienced enough over here to comment any further on this but wish for the sake and sanity of your members to see some consistency in guideline implementation as I have in my community
As far as Adam’s claims of being “attacked” with hostility from “the moderator” there’s more to the story than he would have the reader believe. No attack or comment at any level would ever compel me to copy and share it with my community. A few years ago after seeing some negative comments about my community I reached out to ODWire with an olive branch and suggested we work together, even joined as a “supporting member” with the attitude “the industry’s big enough for both of us; we are different groups serving different needs. I was immediately attacked and accused of things by many people, including your father. This is true genesis of the vitriol. I have never attacked you or anyone else in your forum in your forum or mine and, after this unpleasantness retreated and rarely visited at all. I have not nor will I read all the comments, but anyone is welcomed to have an email discussion or spark up a post in “ODs on facebook” - just not Dr. Silberberg. I’ve been threatened enough for one life by him.
