I've left the group as well, just seems sketch, no matter how good the deals are, there are plenty of groups that post deals as well.
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Not to promote or anything but I actually started my own deal posting group when I noticed things wern't going right. Hookups is a great concept and (bar the person in question) was run and worked on by some very kind and passionate people. It's sad it had to come to this but as you say, other smaller groups do the same job, just without as much corruption.
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Struggling to pay rent while gaming 100 hours a week with nearly 1.5k games? Poor guy
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We never even asked him about his personal life. He mentions the rent in hopes that we would pity him. He often did that. He even pretends to be his girlfriend at the end as if her speaking on his behalf is supposed to reinforce that he's too poor to pay his rent and play the victim. This had absolutely nothing to do with his personal life.
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Still it shows him to use any excuse he can to earn money. If you are too poor to pay rent you dont end up with a level 32 1,500 game account.
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Making money is one thing. No one joined Hookups staff with the desire to make a profit. Covering it up, lying and silencing those who spent their time helping you and the group, trying to make it out like it's all going back to the members in the form of giveaways is another thing. Then when someone points out the discrepancy call them worthless, delete all their concerns and banish them from your sight is not so obvious as one might think.
Many people did giveaways to help the group without the idea of gaining something for themselves in return. Only one person profited from the group.
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Decided I'd made a post that includes all the evidence and screenshots that I personally own, so people can get a much better view of the events rather than random links leading to snippets of information. Please see below:
Slip & DGMan's discussion: http://pastebin.com/Px3JwPEY
LewisLol & Owners discussion: http://pastebin.com/CqAnyUq4
Original giveaway thread: http://i.imgur.com/989xRLU.png
Giveaway thread after owner edits: http://i.imgur.com/QIeBx1m.png
Giveaway thread after admin input: http://i.imgur.com/Vjb8HA4.png
PhyreMatrix' thread to Owner: http://i.imgur.com/KTs5jNj.png
Xamon's letter to Owner with admin input: http://i1.minus.com/iucNoEPFkxv12.png
Cheese' leaving letter: http://pastebin.com/FN0j5uAy
Member's response to Owner on Facebook: http://i.imgur.com/4yzBEFn.png
Final announcement by remaining admin: http://i1.minus.com/ibekh9ny4wvs63.png
Collection of random screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/02uuhc4lpk26dsm/by0dmnhoq4
Would appreciate if you'd kindly add these to the OP chairmankao. :)
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[ ] read the thread
[x] thinks he doesn't need to
[x] will ask another question easily answered by reading the thread
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There's no accusation about it, he admits to using referrals, but as we have said time and time again, that is NOT the issue.
The issues came to life when we discovered he was editing other admins announcements and even regular members posts about deals and injecting his referral link to make money and THEN lying about he much he makes. In the links above you will see he claims to have only made $5, then more than $5 but nothing to brag about, then goes on to explain it paid his rent a couple of times!! I mean... how can anyone trust him after that alone?
The deletion of our discussions on the subject and regular members views that he finds "negative" only re-enforce the fact that he cannot and will not allow himself to be trusted. The nail in the coffin was when we called his once loyal and hard working mods and admin expendable and replaceable.
Again, all can be found in the links posted by me above.
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It's the end of what made the group so great. Sammy will drive Hookups into it's grave if it's the last thing he does.
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I'm a former admin on Hookups as well. I'm one of the first one who got hit by Sammy's (Owner) lies and propaganda, so he could add those referral links to all my previous announcements. He also tried forcing me to stop posting announcement on Trader's Guild so his group will be the only one posting deals, but I value Trader's Guild more than the one Sammy's group owns even though I contributed a lot to get it to where it is now (without me it would have remained a small time group with that kind of a small minded owner).
For those who sided with him when he keep posting all those lies about me, now you know who is talking the truth. :)
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Read all the comments Sammy. You seem less informed than most people on the matter. It aint all about referral links man, and you know that. So stop focusing on it.
Also, you did agree to use the money for giveaways, then you admitted to using it for rent =D
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Wow Sam looks like you learned nothing from the letter I sent you.
You reveal yourself for what you really are through your actions the last 24 hours. I couldn't believe it at first, but you really are a self entitled, self indulgent, and immature little brat.
If you want to be a great leader, you have to lead by example. So far you have done none of that. You continue to use excuses and lies to cover for your flaws and inadequacy as a leader. Very disappointing.
I was going to keep my letter to you as a private thing only, but since you decided in all your geniuses that you can't fix your own flaws; I feel that my letter is falling on deaf ears. Might as well let everyone have a read.
It doesn't even matter what toast did anymore, he simply gave you a taste of your own medicine. He deleting announcements is akin to you deleting and editing the posts of your own fellow admins. Your hypocrisy really knows no bounds.
Furthermore who has ownership of the announcements? You or the past admins?
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Wow just wow. I read the owner's side of things but never read the other sides' stories.
Guess I'll be moving away from Hookups. I've disagreed with his mass-invites also in the past and voiced it. But I guess, he's too thick to understand that or be blinded with potential profit.
And I agree with what you said - integrity comes first.
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As a third party, I probably should not be saying anything. However I have been noticing something that I think needs to be addressed. You guys really need to pause for a moment, take a deep breath and think things through a bit more before posting. Right now to me at least its not looking good and some of your posts are making things worse, not better.
I know this is not a fun time for everyone involved. I hope you guys can settle the issues you have more peacefully than this. So it might be best to just take a few moments ( everyone involved ) and try to calm down a little.
Trying my best not to pick just one of you out, but I think you guys know who I am mainly aiming this at, but it would not hurt if everyone does this.
I kind of want to say more but I am not really sure if it is my place to do so.
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"I probably should not be saying anything..."
"I kind of want to say more..."
Take some responsibility, there. You wanted to say it, and said it-- stand behind your actions. "Not sure," "Maybe so's" won't get you anywhere.
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I am standing by what I have said. The parts you singled out is me attempting to not come off as someone who is trying to be rude, since I do not want to give off that impression.
Also, I do want to say more, however the things I want to mention I am honestly not sure if its my place to do so in this conversation.
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Don't worry. I'll not judge anyone's reaction to this. We did put it here for the world to see afterall. So please feel free to comment on it. I'm an American and a firm believer in the freedom of speech.
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I agree. The former admin here originally got involved just to add important information. Someone else however, came to start a fight.
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Most of the former admins (Xamon in particular) have been impressively calm through all of this. I don't think their leaving was a knee-jerk reaction, or a fit of pique. The problems have been brewing for some time.
The owner's decision to shut down any and every thread voicing an alternative opinion was a massive own goal for him, and has been a real eye-opener for a lot of group members. While I appreciate that having critical threads in your own group pages may be hard to take, his over-reaction and attempts at censorship show a real lack of maturity, a rice-paper thin skin, and an inability for introspection and self-assessment.
Nobody with any sense is complaining about him making money out of this. That's a straw man, and it isn't the issue here. The issues have been covered comprehensively by others in this thread, and I think the person who needs to take a step back is the one who has his Y-fronts in a reef knot, and is trying to silence everyone with an opinion which doesn't match his own.
Yes, a few people are getting over-excited in this thread, but it's just about the only place on the internet where significant numbers of people are able to discuss the subject without the plug being pulled. I suspect if it wasn't for the overbearing censorship in the group, this thread would not have been allowed to stand (and would probably have never been made in the first place). Kudos to the SG mods for their common-sense attitude, given the circumstances.
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I'm not going to read this whole thread, so forgive any redundancies with previous posts. The referral links don't change how people use the site. They also don't have any effect on the deals. Why do you entitled, cry babies think that the owner doesn't deserve some compensation for all of his efforts? You get your group (that he made), you get your deals from his sellers, and you get a nice, controlled environment due to the admins that he setup. How the hell are you going to begrudge him anything he may or may not get out of that?
Entitled.Fucking.Babies
Anyone complaining about this--be it from a 'moral' stance or standard whining--is disgusting and needs to plug in to the real world.
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I think you should read the entire thread first, focus is not so much on ref links, its more than that
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If you read the thread, you'd realize that you just bitched for no reason. Instead, you read a few lines and made an entire assumption and proceeded to violently expel those incredibly misguided hypotheses. Seriously, at least take the time to read a page or two before acting like an ass.
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Hey there! Seeing as you're so lazy but also VERY opinionated, I'll bring all the info you need right to you :)
LewisLol & Owners discussion: http://pastebin.com/CqAnyUq4
Slip & DGMan's discussion: http://pastebin.com/Px3JwPEY
Original giveaway thread: http://i.imgur.com/989xRLU.png
Giveaway thread after owner edits: http://i.imgur.com/QIeBx1m.png
Giveaway thread after admin input: http://i.imgur.com/Vjb8HA4.png
PhyreMatrix' thread to Owner: http://i.imgur.com/KTs5jNj.png
Xamon's letter to Owner with admin input: http://i1.minus.com/iucNoEPFkxv12.png
Cheese' leaving letter: http://pastebin.com/FN0j5uAy
Member's response to Owner on Facebook: http://i.imgur.com/4yzBEFn.png
Final announcement by remaining admin: http://i1.minus.com/ibekh9ny4wvs63.png
Collection of random screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/02uuhc4lpk26dsm/by0dmnhoq4
Try to read it all, then you'll know that everything you just said is a load of old crap! =D
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Not just about the money, it's about a hell of a lot more, he deleted/edited reasonable discussions when he didn't like the feedback (not harsh feedback, just different opinions). Not to mention heavily censoring of his so called evidence of the income, we don't want his money, we just wanted the truth.
EDIT: Funny that you have an Sam added and just registered a few mins ago, either a friend or Sam himself?
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registered 6 minutes ago, just to write it? nice,nice.
Also anyone calling other people names, like "Entitled.Fucking.Babies" based on topic he didn't bother to read is Entitled.Fucking.Baby himself. Not to mention that AFAIK this whole drama is not about refs but editing otherpeople posts and announcments to add his refs to them. And other things as well. To use your words - don't announcments creators deserve some compensation for all of their efforts? Adding ref to someone post is not getting compensated for admins efforts - it's earning money on someone elses efforts.
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[x] Registered only minutes ago
[x] Member of Hookups
[x] Friends with Hookups owner
[ ] Coincidence
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I've read plenty about it already from other places (including the discussions in hookups). I like how you tell me not make assumption, then proceed to make your own ;). From what I've seen, the money was the biggest sticking point for people. That is what I chose to comment on. If you had an issue with something other than the referral links, then perhaps my comment was not the one to respond to, then, yeah?
Also, zelghadis, they can get those compensations when they've created their own giant community and aggregated all the users and sellers. Right now, though, they're using his. And he's earned that, not them. ENTITLED!!!
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This is grade A detective work going on here. You should all probably start solving crimes :3. I've read some of the threads in the hookups deals. Unless Sam posts every comment in them, I believe I've seen all sides. As I said, I chose to comment on the money portion of it because I've seen an awful lot of bitching about that, and I don't see it being even 1% justified. If you have a problem with something else that goes on over there, then my comment was not the one to reply to. I don't think this is very complicated. Also, Sam adds anyone from the group that sends him a request, so that's not exactly some big shocker, you goons. lol
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Not to bash on Sammy or his group, but Hookups wouldn't be as big as it is right now without the users. I remember when I joined and it was about half the size it is now and Sammy decided to start a giant giveaway to get more users to join Hookups. I contributed Amazing Spiderman, CS:Source, CS Anthology, and Cities XL Platnium for the group myself and many others made giveaways advertising the group and brought up the numbers exponentially. He ran 2 of those big giveaways and gave a total of 3 games only when I can say that a large amount of users gave more than he did and probably was able to persuade more than a few to join the group with each giveaway.
So don't you dare belittle the users' contributions and don't you dare say that all of the credit goes to Sammy for making the community.
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Going to give you the benefit of doubt and not assume you are an alt account of someones despite you repeating and focusing on the same thing..
You really should read the enter thread especially if you are going to make comments about the situation. Also blindly insulting people is never a good thing. You would not do so in real life, so please do not do so here either.
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My comment was pointed specifically at the people having issues with the money thing, and they would get a similarly worded--or perhaps slightly more verbose--version of the same in person. No reason for people to change hats when they sit down at a keyboard. If you have a problem with the referral links, you're an entitled fucking baby. I will repeat it eternally--if need be. I've read plenty about the situation already. I don't need to read 'this' thread to have that opinion. There is literally no reason or justification that anyone in this thread can come up with to sway me on that matter. I've surely read all of them before in the Hookups thread. I wasn't swayed then, and I won't be now. On this matter, this contents of this thread are irrelevant. I hope you all can wrap your heads around that.
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You got all that from what I just said? That's incredible! I wish I had the power to read a reasonable and well worded response, and then take something out of it that isn't in it at all. Can you watch a kids movie and see it as a porno? Perhaps you can turn pop tarts in crepes. I am in awe.
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Funny, I've not seen a single person respond to any of my points. Like, not even one. You've brought up everything else under the sun, but no one responded to any of what I said about the referrals. You have absolutely no room to be making any kind of judgment on my points.
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Funny, I just went back and looked at my post, and I see some points about referral links. I also don't see anyone talking about those. I guess our screens are showing us different things, my mistake. Differing opinions are one thing, but I feel like a teacher trying to deal with an unruly class of kinder-gardeners right now. You've proved that you can't hold a thought in a bucket, so congratulations.
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You absolutely asinine moron, TRY ACTUALLY READING THE THREAD. You choose to comment on something you know nothing of. The referral links are NOT at issue here. What you're doing is like walking up to a group of people who have been in an active and deep conversation for an hour, hear 5 random words from in the middle of one of their sentences, then interrupt them to bray your own thoughts on those five words, even though they were merely being used referentially.
But then, judging by your similar sentence structure, typos, other language errors, logic flaws and sign-up time, you're probably that scummy owner of the group, himself. Or perhaps his ethereal "girlfriend".
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I normally just watch and observe... read... but you dropping the F word basically ruined it, man. If you want to have your opinion heard, just be polite. That is all. That's the golden rule, "respect". Without one, don't expect others "respect" yours.
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While I 100% agree with what you're saying, I've recently come to the conclusion that 98% of the people on the internet--and probably a good 80%+ of the people of the planet--lack the ability to have rationale, objective, logical discussions. Why tip-toe around things when it just won't go anywhere anyway...
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None of the former admin care about the use of referrals or the money he made. Only his dishonesty and lack of respect for the people that helped him without any expectation of anything in return other than the truth. You clearly didn't read into it very well at all.
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" It appears the group has been going crazy with referral links, and there are accusations that ownership is profiteering."
Some of you clearly do care about this. I don't know why people are acting like it's an irrelevant part of this thread. If you don't have a problem with it, then don't respond to me!
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Alright, cool, you've read the second sentence of the OP. Please read on.
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.. The OP was someone entirely out of the loop on this, giving his own limited views on something where he knew half the story. He was no more than a member of the group who had caught wind of some form of argument going on. The rest of the OP (his edits) was also purely his opinion on the things said in this thread by the people who were involved in the argument themselves - the former mods and admins of the group, who have all given well worded and detailed explanations of what the argument was all about, backed up by screenshots and pastebin files to prove what all went down.
If you've still not read all that and are still choosing to comment, hanging on to quotes from the OP, - nothing more than a short "summary" of what happened, typed by someone who hadn't informed themselves fully before posting, either (which wasn't possible as the original threads in the group containing the arguments etc. were deleted) - you really are an incredibly stupid person. Like, mind-blowingly so.
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Hey, it's okay. If you think this is about money and ref links Zaku77 then that's fine. You are entitled to your opinion. But the mods and staff at Steamgifts allowed us a place to discuss the situation and our grievances and I'll ask that you respect them enough not to degrade the thread with ad hominem attacks based on the completely censored discussion on Hookups.
Oh wait is there a discussion on Hookups showing both sides? No, the Owner decided to delete everything that we tried discussing with him. If it wasn't for handy screenshots it would basically be his word against ours. And it's not like we can even join Hookups as regular members as he so boldly wouldn't just accept resigning but anyone who would have stayed as a normal member he decided to ban them from the group when they quit. So since the group is so heavily censored the mods here were kind enough to let us bring forth our discussion here.
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Sammy is currently kicking anyone who even smells like they disagree with him. People who wish to stick around are advised not to speak your mind.
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It looks like 7 people have been kicked from the group so far today, and counting. Appears that he is enforcing the "...if the questions are hostile then they will be removed along with you" part at the end of the The Truth post.
As SlipSlot said above, "hostile" means anything negative that makes him look bad.
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I was kicked out of Hookups for giving Sammy's greenlight submission a negative vote and saying it should be freeware. This has nothing to do with how I have acted in the group as I had been completely passive. He genuinely went through the trouble of seeing if I am a member and kicking me based on actions completely unrelated to the group.
It's an old DOS game from 1995 that failed that he has done nothing to but port to PC. Process that.
Edit: This happened in early July, I made a thread about it here too but I didn't disclose the group out of respect for the group's activities as a whole. I now think Sammy and all he stands for deserves all negative light it can get.
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Was a shareware game too ;)
But yeah, he bans all people who dislike his greenlight submission from Hookups and also lies that all upvoters will receive a key once greenlit.
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Ok, I was starting to think he just found that freeware game and shove it into steam greenlight.
When I was a kid I created a game (on dbase I think) where you had to guess a number. The answer was always 4. I should put it on greenlight aswell.
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Edited out
This post did not really add much to what was going on that was already semi mentioned. Do not want to do any calling out but I will say that after remembering something from a while back due to what you mentioned MightyCreep and seeing some comments on said thing. Yea, I can some issues being even more valid than they where before.
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FINALLY you give a hint to the game. I remember your post.
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I think most of the useful discussion has been had now, and all that's left is finger pointing between the sides. I respect the admins who've tried to straighten things out, and when that proved impossible, left.
Sad fact is that 90% or more of the members will never know about all this crap since they only ever look for the deal announcements.
I find it amusing though that (as shown from Jade's pastebin) I already had sammy blocked. He must have invite-spammed with his own account at some stage, or been a staggering douchebag in some other way, to be added to my blocklist. :D
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There was massive invite spam from him. I actually permed him once for it due to the staggering amount of spam, but later lifted it.
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That's not the only inviting he did, he's used "friends"/alt accounts to spam invite pretty much since Hookups existed.
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Newest announcement:
"Drama Stops Here!!
28 AUG @ 11:57PM - =^[(O){D_B}(O)]^=
Fight for Hookups!!! Fight for me, make the drama stop and ill unlock this group. If you care about anything then do this for me. But until something changes and the harassment stops there is no need to Hook you guys up with anything. I love you guys but this drama and harassment has gone way too far."
Could this guy be more lame?
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Wow, new low. He couldn't silence Steamgifts discussion so he takes it out on the members by holding the group hostage. See. That's what he thinks about members, something to be used to his advantage. If that's the announcement made then he's just proved all our points.
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Well, if people really are harassing him, then that is really bad.
However if that is a lie, then this is really pathetic.
Either way its not good really.
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We're all staying well away from him and Hookups. I can't speak for the regular members.
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If people are harassing him then this is not good, and those people should stop. If his definition of harassment is having people ask him about what happen and ask him to explain this thread? Then that is a different thing.
I think this whole ordeal should just be dropped. He showed to us that he cannot be apologetic at all and that he will lie and play the victim to the end. As such, there is nothing more we should do. We made our peace and showed our truths. He showed nothing. You have seen how he acted here. That is how he acted with many admins, and if he had his way, this whole thing would have been deleted/edited leaving only his side. So what else can be said? I would like this to stay up so that people can actually see what happened from both side but at this point right now, it is only up to the people to decide their course of action.
PS: To those who keeps on bringing ref links or how he did nothing wrong by using that money, please read either DGMAN, Slipslot, Toast, Phyrematrix, Lewislol or my own post. You will see that the issue was not about the use of ref links per se but rather the disrespect he had toward the other admins/mods. The ref links are just the conduit that brought the argument to its culmination. He used the admins and members (editing other people post), lied to them and finally when confronted deleted everything.
Again thank you mods of SG for letting this being shown to at least a percentage of people that can have a better understanding of what happened.
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Props for your mature and calm handling of the situation, Xamon. It's a refreshing and contrasting counterpoint to much of what was going down in the Hookups thread, before it was airbrushed out of existence.
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So apparently the group is locked or something now and Sammy is threatening, for the lack of a better word, that he won't find any more exclusive deals unless everyone supports him...
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As soon as the group locked and I got spam Announcement AND Event Notice about this whining I left. No time for his nonsense.
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I think you mean rouge. At least according to the Book of Sammy that's how it's spelled :D
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Interesting drama over at Hookups. It appears the group has been going crazy with referral links, and there are accusations that ownership is profiteering. The admins and mods have effectively risen up against ownership.
While this may be construed as calling out [I think this is more about the ethics and real mission of the group, though I guess it's hard to separate from the owner], given that many of us are members of the group and not everyone receives the announcements, I thought it was worth posting.
The ethics of the situation may make some question whether they want to continue being members there. I, for one, will be leaving the group.
Below announcement / thread for your reference:
Today's announcement posted by an upset admin
Thread discussing the problems
Mods, if this is inappropriate, please feel free to delete this thread. But I would prefer if this be kept up given the content and issues at play. Thanks.
EDIT: The above links are no longer valid, as the announcement(s) and discussion(s) have been deleted. There are links scattered throughout the replies that will provide historical screen shots. I'm reluctant to paste those here, as it almost gets to a point where it's piling on, but it has been pointed out that the situation is what it is and people can form their own opinions based on the evidence.
EDIT: Okay, I read through the chat transcript posted in the thread, and 1) I genuinely feel stupider after reading the entire thing, and 2) just because you don't like how the owner manages his site does not give anyone license to screw with his site or harass him. Since when does being an ass (some people's apparent opinion) justify disproportionate retribution? Leave him be.
EDIT: It's getting to a point where the discussion has just devolved into bashing the owner. The amount of hate just because the guy's exhibited schmuck-like behavior is a little over-the-top. I'll close this thread at ~8.30pm EST on Friday, August 30, 2013. If you have anything valuable to contribute, speak your peace before we put this thread to bed.
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