Dear Geekhack~

[boost]

Dear Geekhack,

I have taken actions and said words recently that first, I truly regret, and second, I feel I must apologize for. In particular, I am referring to my thread in the classifieds yesterday and for previous similar threads.

A number of the members on geekhack disagreed with the way I was selling my items, and misinterpreted my intentions as trying to run a private auction. As a moderator and a community member, I truly value the integrity of geekhack and the business we do on it and it was never my intention to run a private auction, period.

Another group of geekhackers felt that it was wrong for me to make a profit on sales of my personal property. If you read the TOS, you will see that moderators are allowed to sell their personal items. Further, in my defense, I will say that the reason I was forced to sell my personal items was because I have invested over $2000 in projects for the community; the Skelton, the 60% case, my SSK beta testing, and I am a person with limited means. If I invest that much in the community, some personal property may have to go so that I can afford to live.

For reference, the Skeldon has cost my $1000 in prototyping and setup fees and generated $400 in revenue. I have lost slightly less than that in it so far but only because of an extremely generous donation for which I thank the donator profusely.

Further, I am selling the Skeldon at cost. The only cost I have added to the case is an optionnal 10$ donation.

I have the privilege of being a mod on geekhack and it is something I value; I hope to be someone that people see as being a leader and a pillar in the community and despite my explanation above, I understand that many people are nonplussed by my recent actions. For that, even the appearance of impropriety, I apologize to the entire community. I apologize to those who disagreed wiht my words and actions and those who did not.

Geekhack means a huge amount to me, as I've met many friends and people on here that I consider to be really close friends and that I spent quite a bit of time with in real life as well as on the forum. Hence, I really do appreciate, care and respect all of the geekhack community, and again I apologize if my words and actions yesterday did not reflect that. Further, I apologize to the geekhack staff, as my actions and words reflected negatively on them as well.

Thanks everyone,

Your friendly neighborhood mod,
Ravi (Boost)

[tp4tissue]

Don't pretend to be a saint when you're a business man.

it's ok to be a business man

[SpAmRaY]

phew....I thought this was going to another goodbye thread!

ygpm

[Tym]

phew....I thought this was going to another goodbye thread!

[esoomenona]

The problem is not profit. In fact, had you set up an auction, like tsangan, people would probably not have said much in the first place.

The problem is how you do it. "TW" and not setting prices is a private auction. So either set a price, or set an end date.

[tp4tissue]

The problem is not profit. In fact, had you set up an auction, like tsangan, people would probably not have said much in the first place.

The problem is how you do it. "TW" and not setting prices is a private auction. So either set a price, or set an end date.

what is tw

[Photekq]

Wait.. $1000 for Skeldon? For a single prototype? That's steep.

[lcs]

The problem is not profit. In fact, had you set up an auction, like tsangan, people would probably not have said much in the first place.

The problem is how you do it. "TW" and not setting prices is a private auction. So either set a price, or set an end date.

what is tw

"Treading waters"

[i3oilermaker]

Wait.. $1000 for Skeldon? For a single prototype? That's steep.

I think it was 3 or 4 protos until everything was perfect.

[Techno Trousers]

All I can say is that it's nice to see some really desirable merch go on the market here, whatever is being charged or how it's being sold.

I would have loved to get that Salute, but of course I could never justify the cost (whatever it was). But I still think it's nice that someone else will be able to treasure it now, and that with the revenues from his sale, boost will be able to continue to support this great forum.

[Photekq]

Wait.. $1000 for Skeldon? For a single prototype? That's steep.

I think it was 3 or 4 protos until everything was perfect.

Ah, okay.

[tp4tissue]

The problem is not profit. In fact, had you set up an auction, like tsangan, people would probably not have said much in the first place.

The problem is how you do it. "TW" and not setting prices is a private auction. So either set a price, or set an end date.

what is tw

"Treading waters"

There's nothing wrong with that...


There are some way more shady practice that no one even mentions.

For example.. the whole For Trade thing on Click Clacks.

MOST are sold... the For Trade is just a moniker for "make me an offer".. but the seller is usually just looking to cash in..

TW "treading waters" is no worse by any means.

[eth0s]

I still love you boost.

[Xenderwind]

If you're going to sell stuff, and especially if you try and hype it up before hand, then at least be professional about it.

To me "testing waters" means I am looking to see how interested people are in an item, an IC.  If you wanted offers then just say that.  "PM me offers and I will respond accordingly".  Put up prices that are concrete and if you think they may be too high, put OBO.  None of this questionmark bull****.  I take that as "well I may be able to get more...so if I get a lot of pm's ill sell it for more".

Your 356 mini thread only said the layout/switches and keycaps on it.  It didn't even have pictures of it but pictures you took from someone else.  Mentions nothing of pming you offers and you have the nerve to post http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46743.msg990584#msg990584 despite people clearly wanting more information.

[Michael]

[tp4tissue]

If you're going to sell stuff, and especially if you try and hype it up before hand, then at least be professional about it.

To me "testing waters" means I am looking to see how interested people are in an item, an IC.  If you wanted offers then just say that.  "PM me offers and I will respond accordingly".  Put up prices that are concrete and if you think they may be too high, put OBO.  None of this questionmark bull****.  I take that as "well I may be able to get more...so if I get a lot of pm's ill sell it for more".

Your 356 mini thread only said the layout/switches and keycaps on it.  It didn't even have pictures of it but pictures you took from someone else.  Mentions nothing of pming you offers and you have the nerve to post http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46743.msg990584#msg990584 despite people clearly wanting more information.

xender, you just don't like people making monies yea?

[snoopy]

Dear boost,

just gift me your salute cc and I will forget about the long time I wasted camping in your classifieds thread yesterday and the anger I felt about even not having the chance to buy something when I went to bed.

Sincerely yours,
snoopy

[Xenderwind]

If you're going to sell stuff, and especially if you try and hype it up before hand, then at least be professional about it.

To me "testing waters" means I am looking to see how interested people are in an item, an IC.  If you wanted offers then just say that.  "PM me offers and I will respond accordingly".  Put up prices that are concrete and if you think they may be too high, put OBO.  None of this questionmark bull****.  I take that as "well I may be able to get more...so if I get a lot of pm's ill sell it for more".

Your 356 mini thread only said the layout/switches and keycaps on it.  It didn't even have pictures of it but pictures you took from someone else.  Mentions nothing of pming you offers and you have the nerve to post http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46743.msg990584#msg990584 despite people clearly wanting more information.

xender, you just don't like people making monies yea?

Show Image

Never said that.  I am completely fine with people making money, even on clacks.  I just don't like the way he handled his sale threads and the wording in them.  If he had just put "pm me offers" I would have been 100% fine with it. 

[tp4tissue]

If you're going to sell stuff, and especially if you try and hype it up before hand, then at least be professional about it.

To me "testing waters" means I am looking to see how interested people are in an item, an IC.  If you wanted offers then just say that.  "PM me offers and I will respond accordingly".  Put up prices that are concrete and if you think they may be too high, put OBO.  None of this questionmark bull****.  I take that as "well I may be able to get more...so if I get a lot of pm's ill sell it for more".

Your 356 mini thread only said the layout/switches and keycaps on it.  It didn't even have pictures of it but pictures you took from someone else.  Mentions nothing of pming you offers and you have the nerve to post http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46743.msg990584#msg990584 despite people clearly wanting more information.

xender, you just don't like people making monies yea?

Show Image

Never said that.  I am completely fine with people making money, even on clacks.  I just don't like the way he handled his sale threads and the wording in them.  If he had just put "pm me offers" I would have been 100% fine with it. 

oh come on, too harsh, relax, he saw the Monies, and disregarded social convention, basketball players and music artists do it all the time..



I'm loving these emoticons btw, if you guys can't tell

[ekw808]

Not cool to shaft the person he got these from, who DOESN'T believe in profiting off keyboards, and sold everything to him at GB cost. Even selling **** I gave you for free. Tsk Tsk.

[Michael]

Not cool to shaft the person he got these from, who DOESN'T believe in profiting off keyboards, and sold everything to him at GB cost. Even selling **** I gave you for free. Tsk Tsk.

[tp4tissue]

Not cool to shaft the person he got these from, who DOESN'T believe in profiting off keyboards, and sold everything to him at GB cost. Even selling **** I gave you for free. Tsk Tsk.

he didn't sign an agreement saying he wouldn't buy and then resell for profit..

[ekw808]

he didn't sign an agreement saying he wouldn't buy and then resell for profit..

Show Image

Can you be depressed somewhere else?

[tp4tissue]

he didn't sign an agreement saying he wouldn't buy and then resell for profit..

Show Image

Can you be depressed somewhere else?

ah, i'm not depressed at all.. seems like you guys are the ones all worked up over nothing..

[jcrouse]

Not cool to shaft the person he got these from, who DOESN'T believe in profiting off keyboards, and sold everything to him at GB cost. Even selling **** I gave you for free. Tsk Tsk.

No matter how much you think you know, there is always more to the story.

[nubbinator]

Not cool to shaft the person he got these from, who DOESN'T believe in profiting off keyboards, and sold everything to him at GB cost. Even selling **** I gave you for free. Tsk Tsk.

No matter how much you think you know, there is always more to the story.

True.  I think the problem myself and some others had was that there was a total lack of transparency and it just came off shady as heck.  That's really not how a mod should be behaving.  Their sale threads should be the paragon of virtue and strive to uphold the standards they ask of everyone else.

[MKULTRA]

[lazerpointer]

If you read the TOS, you will see that moderators are allowed to sell their personal items

Huh? I see people on classifieds selling (mostly) their own "personal items" all the time.

[domoaligato]

I had no problem with your clack sale.
My only issue was the timing.... I had just shelled out cash on tsangen's sale and the feng case so I could not participate.

[Dubsgalore]

good on you brother keep ya head up

[demik]

I think you should step down as a moderator due to your "Team Redline" affiliation.

[domoaligato]

I think you should step down as a moderator due to your "Team Redline" affiliation.

Does ThIs MEan Boost isn't a Mod, Now?

No, it means he doesn't make a profit.

Neither did I with Retro DSA.  (Spectacularly not, as it turned out!)

 - Ron | samwisekoi

Show Image

obviously he is not making a profit.

[demik]

what does that have to do with anything?

he's still affiliated with a for profit vendor.

[domoaligato]

What I am saying is that the team redline connection was already discussed and beat into the ground in the VTOS thread.
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=43873.0

[demik]

and nothing came of it other than ron making up excuses on the fly to defend boost.

so im reopening the discussion and hopefully boost will see why he should either step down from his mod position or his redline position.

[domoaligato]

This is not directed at individuals... but a larger audience.

Who has actually read the following?
Geekhack TOS
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=39249.0

Geekhack VTOS
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=43873.0

The last few days I have seen Personal Attacks, Trolling, and the promotion of the idea that multiple accounts are ok. They are all violations of the forum tos.

and back on topic...

from the VTOS.
2. Who cannot be a Vendor?
  a. Any Administrator or Moderator of this forum who qualifies as a Vendor under Rules 1.a-c, must choose between being a Vendor or being an Administrator or Moderator.  It is a conflict of interest to be both.

If it is not going to be enforced then the VTOS needs to be changed.

[demik]

exactly, yet people don't understand why boost shouldn't be both.

whether he makes a profit or not is irrelevant. he's the stateside "team redline" member.

which is a vendor.

which he is a part of.

so therefor he is in a vendor group.

even if he doesn't make money, how do we know he doesn't receive gifts or discounts from them?

[mkawa]

if boost ever made a profit on anything i think the world would explode. ekw, you know how much he loves his clacks. he's selling because he has to. skeldon went wildly over-budget because he wanted to get it right for the community. why do you think he had to made 3-4 protos? because everything was all hunky dory? NO.

i don't know if you folks remember but i ran the FIRST redline GB ever on geekhack. i made on paper, 200$ in profit, 100$ of which went toward buying one of them for imav. the other 100$ went into gas, a mistake i made in calculating shipping, and a meal for my friend who translated 150 emails back and forth for me.

what we care about in the vtos as far as mods are concerned is PROFIT, not affiliation. i am a vendor, geekhackers.org, i help the community organize itself to get things that are hard to get and put hard money down. as of last count i am 6000$ in the red on this effort. i consider that equity and put any cash i make toward geekhack and expanding operations to get more cool stuff made for everyone. i spend my own money going out and meeting with people who want to help our community grow. if you want to jump down boost's throat for badly organizing his personal sale, then jump down my throat first. please.

but keep in mind that i was raised by wolves, all of you are my pack, and i am happy to bite back.

[demik]

so basically the VTOS means absolute **** for certain people?

got it.

i don't know if you folks remember but i ran the FIRST redline GB ever on geekhack. i made on paper, 200$ in profit, 100$ of which went toward buying one of them for imav. the other 100$ went into gas, a mistake i made in calculating shipping, and a meal for my friend who translated 150 emails back and forth for me.

that GB IIRC was before the VTOS was put up.

a. Any individual, entity, or representative of an entity that according to IRS regulations would be classified as a business.

He is a rep of Team Redline, a vendor. If he makes money or not is his problem. But according to the VTOS he shouldn't be a mod AND a vendor. I know he's your buddy and he's a Mod/Admin member, but if we start playing favorites what is the point of even having a VTOS?

[digi]

somebody link dangwang's conspiracy poem, gogo.

[mkawa]

so basically the VTOS means absolute **** for certain people?

got it.

it means exactly what it says. as site staff we are free to throw our money away on the forum. which i have done and pay interest on every single day. bring it on demik. let's tussle the socal way, ON THA STREET. three beeps then GO

[meiosis]

if boost ever made a profit on anything i think the world would explode. ekw, you know how much he loves his clacks. he's selling because he has to. skeldon went wildly over-budget because he wanted to get it right for the community. why do you think he had to made 3-4 protos? because everything was all hunky dory? NO.

i don't know if you folks remember but i ran the FIRST redline GB ever on geekhack. i made on paper, 200$ in profit, 100$ of which went toward buying one of them for imav. the other 100$ went into gas, a mistake i made in calculating shipping, and a meal for my friend who translated 150 emails back and forth for me.

what we care about in the vtos as far as mods are concerned is PROFIT, not affiliation. i am a vendor, geekhackers.org, i help the community organize itself to get things that are hard to get and put hard money down. as of last count i am 6000$ in the red on this effort. i consider that equity and put any cash i make toward geekhack and expanding operations to get more cool stuff made for everyone. i spend my own money going out and meeting with people who want to help our community grow. if you want to jump down boost's throat for badly organizing his personal sale, then jump down my throat first. please.

but keep in mind that i was raised by wolves, all of you are my pack, and i am happy to bite back.

Tiger mom not wolves :[.

is geekhackers.org going to become a website soon? and I agree prototyping must have been very expensive since essentially it is a MOQ of one.

[demik]

so basically the VTOS means absolute **** for certain people?

got it.

it means exactly what it says. as site staff we are free to throw our money away on the forum. which i have done and pay interest on every single day. bring it on demik. let's tussle the socal way, ON THA STREET. three beeps then GO

dude not fair. that abarth will kick my sentra's ass

but boost shouldn't be a mod and a vendor. doesn't matter how you try to spin it. there is conflict of interest. either he loses one title or the VTOS is a bunch of crap.

[mkawa]

yep, it is. we have a very early alpha storefront up in sandbox mode and are just finding time to finish the website and bring it up such that we're confident it does things correctly. for example, the CA BOE has informed me in no uncertain terms that if i don't charge california residents proper sales tax, it's going to hunt me down, chain me to a wall and ream me for the rest of my life.

[jcrouse]

Good time to throw this in .....

At what point would continually flipping of product, any and all product, be seen as being a vendor?

Personally, I always supported buy whatever, sell whatever, pay whatever, charge whatever. I do not care. That was where DanGWanG and I had issues. I am also ok with whatever each individuals opinion is. Howerver, to have acquired, I am guessing 25 clacks (some very rare), 6 korean customs (some very rare) and MANY other items in a years period, many of which he stated he would never let go, and turn them ALL over simply seems like a bad action by an admin. As bad as it sounds, I hold mods to a different standard than the base membership. Boost seems likeable, sometimes generous and I have had some good conversations with him but I just expect more from a mod.

[mkawa]

so basically the VTOS means absolute **** for certain people?

got it.

it means exactly what it says. as site staff we are free to throw our money away on the forum. which i have done and pay interest on every single day. bring it on demik. let's tussle the socal way, ON THA STREET. three beeps then GO

dude not fair. that abarth will kick my sentra's ass

but boost shouldn't be a mod and a vendor. doesn't matter how you try to spin it. there is conflict of interest. either he loses one title or the VTOS is a bunch of crap.

right now there's a 50% chance the ECU will decide it doesn't like the turbo and turn it off, actually. i then have to pull over, turn the car off, clear the pending code and restart it. there is nothing mechanically wrong, but the ECU HATES ME

[demik]

so basically the VTOS means absolute **** for certain people?

got it.

it means exactly what it says. as site staff we are free to throw our money away on the forum. which i have done and pay interest on every single day. bring it on demik. let's tussle the socal way, ON THA STREET. three beeps then GO

dude not fair. that abarth will kick my sentra's ass

but boost shouldn't be a mod and a vendor. doesn't matter how you try to spin it. there is conflict of interest. either he loses one title or the VTOS is a bunch of crap.

right now there's a 50% chance the ECU will decide it doesn't like the turbo and turn it off, actually. i then have to pull over, turn the car off, clear the pending code and restart it. there is nothing mechanically wrong, but the ECU HATES ME

don't try to trick me into getting my ass kicked. im on to you kawa!

[mkawa]

Good time to throw this in .....

At what point would continually flipping of product, any and all product, be seen as being a vendor?

Personally, I always supported buy whatever, sell whatever, pay whatever, charge whatever. I do not care. That was where DanGWanG and I had issues. I am also ok with whatever each individuals opinion is. Howerver, to have acquired, I am guessing 25 clacks (some very rare), 6 korean customs (some very rare) and MANY other items in a years period, many of which he stated he would never let go

yes, so clearly he's overjoyed at having to let them go for cash to survive.

look folks. i work 3.5 jobs including this one and am paid by no one. i invest money into the community just like boost does and have had many many "oh crap" moments. since, i have just accepted that i was not built to handle money wisely but was built to make crazy **** and that's basically that.

boost asked for your forgiveness on this one particular action, and you are free to not give it to him, but IF YOU ARE GOING TO JUMP DOWN HIS THROAT, JUMP DOWN MINE FIRST. i am an actual vendor the vends ONLY for the good of the community. this is the same as boost's affiliation with redline. if he did not work with them as an UNPAID US GH liaison, you would have even less access to cool korean boards that you want.

this work has cost him real time, real money that he is not going to recoup, even after selling things that he loves and never wanted to give up.

yes, he handled the situation yesterday badly, and he is apologizing for that. but please recognize who is taking the risks for the good of the community and who is not. i personally ask you to cut him a little slack on his behavior yesterday (which, yes, was unexcusable, and absolutely required this apology). i know it's hard to stop a pitchfork and bonfire fest, but put 'em down and put it out, please.

[demik]

you aren't on the chopping block here kawa, stop bringing in what you have done or do.

this thread is about boost and his actions.

one being him being a vendor affiliate and a mod.

which in just about every forum ever is frowned upon.

INCLUDING this one.

so you either rework the VTOS or boost steps down from redline/being a mod. it's not that hard.

and go fix your car.

[pasph]

Money makes the world go round
What happens if it spins a little too fast?