Wow, just wow.
He banned me from the group hour ago, and I managed to find this thread. I already lost hope that somebody will reveal this dictator.
He opened thread about situation in the group. Anybody, and literally anybody who oppose him is banned.
Why I was banned?
Remember this?
http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/aCyWQ/hookups-group-disabled
I was moderator of this group before Valve shut it down. I was in his friend list. I said Sammy why group was suspended and I posted it in his prvate conversation (his stutus in activity). Guess what? He removed me from friend list. Pathetic.
Too bad SPUF moderators closed thread about Hookups so I couldn't post because I waited my account to be verified.
That's what I typed (90%). Minuts later, I was banned from group.
So, you don't agree with him and you are gone.
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LewisLol and I have had a deal posting group for a little while now if you're interested.
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I joined as well. After reading about this entire ordeal over the course of the day, it is pretty clear what kind of group Hookups is going to be/has already started to turn into. Like you all, I don't care about the ref links. Get something back for your hard work, but it is even more amazing that you will be putting all the revenue back into the community. I applaud your group (your home page is pretty upfront about what your group is about), and am truly sorry about the events that have happened recently. You admins put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into Hookups, and some even lost who they thought was a good friend.
Good luck to your group! I'll let my friends know about it.
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Thanks very much for your kind words. 4 ex-staff of Hookups are already part of the team with the possibility of others joining in the future, after their well deserved break from helping to run groups. Our content is just as high in quality and we have nothing to hide :)
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For some reason ( really not sure why ) I had an image of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead in his hyper mode spitting all over the place that he does from time to time in that show.
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I think the only thing to note now is that since everything else has been deleted and there's no more discussion forums to go to, that the members of Hookups that(for some reason) hasn't been online the past 2 days will only see Sammy's side of the story since we can't guarantee that all members of Hookups regularly use SteamGifts or the forum for that matter so they won't see this thread or the announcement on Opium Pulse.
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Your avatar.. lol.. prob my fav char from that. ( Yea I know its a bit off topic but just had to say it :P )
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here: gameshunt.pl/ Polish, but you will understand most of it
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Latest update: Group has been 100% locked down... comments to the homepage, discussions, announcements and events have been blocked and all group permissions have been set to owner only (meaning the new mods couldn't even kick the spammers from chat). On top of all that the group is now invite only until the members "stop the drama"?
It's a sad sight to say the least :(
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even sammy's steam profile is now private http://steamcommunity.com/id/o0O0oOdbOo0O0o
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If people have been personally abusing him, that's completely out of order. Hopefully that's not the reason :(
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That and someone mentioned that he had like 50+ hours of playtime a week. I didn't actually think to look at the time, but that's a full-time job and then some. If you are really playing games that much then you obviously aren't doing shit to make ends meet.
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This will only end up having a very tiny impact on the group's membership. When you reach numbers like this it doesn't matter what happens, some people will still stick around.
Funny that the group owner had to throw a fit and go nuclear - he could easily have shrugged all this criticism off and kept going like nothing happened.
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I left the group and here's my reasoning:
I was fine with referral links but I'm not going to knowingly financially support a guy that acts like Sammy does. I was planning to leave anyway and then I saw the announcement locking the group. Way to sabotage your efforts Sammy.
Shame for him too because prior to that I intentionally used the referral links multiple times to give a little something as thanks for sending out the deals.
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His cardboard box in the alleyway must have a HUGE rent, man.
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Joined Hookups myself when it was rather new and had few members but left it immidietely when I learned that owner or mods started massively inviting people. I just hate assholes inviting random strangers to their '23567th unique gaming community' using bots or other shit, for me it's just unwanted spam I have to delete and annoyingly waste my time doing so, it was just a matter of principles to leave. Didn't know the group got so big and the owner started making cash out of referrals, his reaction clearly shows what kind of man he is and he's not one I'd like to see profiting.
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I agree. I don't really want to bash the owner. He's actually built himself a nice little side business, from all accounts. So in that regard, I'm impressed and he's got my respect. But as a result, the positioning of the group as wanting to help out people then becomes disingenuous. It changes the dynamics completely.
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Whatever community is made by the mods who decide to leave... It happens to all big communities when the owner goes nuts, or at least it usually does.
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A lot of us have already moved to Opium Pulses Savings.
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All this is actually pretty astounding, first he posts these links to awesome deals:
**
Massive Price Changes
Hookups Exclusives
Metro Last Light Pre order (incl Ranger DLC + Comic) - $14.99
Bioshock Infinite - $14.99
Dead Island Riptide Pre order (incl Survivor DLC) - $14.99
Tomb Raider Pre-Order (incl Animal+Pistol DLC) - $12.99
DMC: Devil May Cry Pre-Order (incl Costume DLC) - $12.99
**
Then goes and locks down the group asking for the drama to stop now:
Drama Ends Now!!!
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.
How old is this guy anyway?? 5?
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Renjility (same seller) offers those exact same deals directly in his Steam Trades thread:
http://www.steamtrades.com/forum/S5ggn/
That "Massive Price Changes Hookups Exclusives" is really just Renjility's normal pricing.
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So, someone explain to me why there's drama and how it started.
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You are making yourself look bad through ignorance and quackery.
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"clearly because some of the mods / admins didnt get a piece of moneycake sammy was making.."
Nowhere in the many, MANY screenies that involved the ex-staff and Sammy did the topic of the ex-staff getting a share was ever brought up.
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I'm not saying that they didn't know. They knew from the start that Sammy was using referrals. If you read the entire thing, it started off as Sammy asking the mods if he should go weekly or month giveaways, to SlipSlot asking about all the money Sammy made from the referrals since Sammy claimed that all money made from referrals was going back to the community in the form of giveaways. When confronted, Sammy claimed he only made a few dollars when in actuality, he made a lot more than he claimed which he then used to pay for his rent(questionable since there's no proof). When the thread was deleted, the mods grew outraged over the lack of respect Sammy showed them and a mod wrote a thread to Sammy regarding his trigger happy thread deletion/thread moving. After some arguments, Sammy said something along the lines of "You guys are all replaceable and I have no qualms in doing so..." which pissed the mods off even more because of all the hard work they put into the group so they banded up and left.
That's the gist of what I've read...might've missed a few details but I believe that's what it was about...
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Yeah he was about to do a giveaway, by using 1% of the profit he gained from referrals. What a joke.
The reason everyone left was not even about referrals, I'm fine with you being completely ignorant of the entire situation. Please do carry on. Please shill for Sammy's cause harder, maybe you would like to start a charity fund for him next so he can pay for his 400 dollar rent. Perhaps you could even start an indie gogo campaign, those are all the rage these days.
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What the fuck do you think people are doing? They are leaving lol...besides for most people its not even the fact he did the referral links. Personally I couldn't give a fuck. If I'm going to buy a product regardless of a referral or not why not use it.
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I see a line in the Subscriber Agreement prohibiting the use of bots to trade or play games, but nothing preventing people using them to unrelentingly spam users with group invites :(
It strikes me as something which shouldn't be allowed, but while it is clearly a dick move, from what I can see, it doesn't seem to be breaking any specific rules.
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Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers.
Being spammed with invites negatively affects my experience.
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Before they left, they informed the group about sammy's behavior and warned them about his action. If you want to call it whining then go right ahead.
Then, by chance, they found this thread about it. Just like you. It's kind of funny how your post count this month suddenly shot up and in the pretty long forum too I might add. Anyways, to prevent any misinformation from spreading and because this is the only place they could talk with fear of getting the thread deleted, they informed the sg public of what happened or at least their side of it. But sammy did try to get this thread removed but failed in doing so because he had no power here. Appearing in this thread himself, he did not try to present his side of the case besides what was already mentioned but instead, wanted to fight with his ex-mods to end this.
Also, saying that second bit will only make people more suspicious and people are capable of learning from their mistaking, seeing how previous supporter of sammy was both in his group and friends list.
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Well as in Toast's post he used an invite spam bot but thats something only the admins know for sure I think. Either way this whole thing should just end. Make the decision to leave or stay in the group by whatever proof there is. It isn't like he posts any "exclusive" deals to the contrary of what he might say. Most of the deals from GMG/Amazon or wherever are posted 20 times everywhere else including here from time to time.
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Those aren't the "exclusive" deals that are mentioned...it's more of it being SteamTrades traders that were recruited to the group to sell or something like that.
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Some of the users might have more a problem with him claiming that the referrals were used for the benefit of the group when in actuality, he was using it for himself. I think one of the ex-mods said it in a thread somewhere that they only wanted transparency: If Sammy had come out flat and said he was putting referrals and wanted to make a profit for himself, the mods wouldn't have cared so much but he stated from the beginning that all money made from referrals were to be put back into the community in the form of gifts which he never did until now with an exploited game and a <$1 game from a very recent Humble Bundle.
And to your last point, although true, it's still kind of heartless. Most of the ex-mods put many of their hours into the group, enforcing the rules, making sure that the community would be one of the better ones not filled with trash. They stayed online looking for deals to post, or posted deals of which they had been informed by the users.
My mind makes these weird connections, so bear with me:
Think of the ex-mods to the community as a step-uncle to a kid. They nurtured the community to what it is now and then they're told that they're easily replaceable.
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Clearly you've got the basic English comprehension skills of a cerebrally challenged hedgehog with a bad case of concussion.
If you'd bothered to read any of what's been posted (including that which was airbrushed out of existence by the group's esteemed owner) you'd realise that what you posted makes less sense than a Jeffrey Archer novel.
None of the mods cited this as their reason for leaving. It's a straw man.
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Indeed.
Same narcissistic tendencies.
Same tracing paper-thin skin.
Same unwillingness to recognise and deal with the issue at hand, preferring to set up easily toppled straw men.
Maybe it's his "girlfriend"?
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Wipe those tears away, comrade.
It's got nothing to do with your standard of English and everything to do with you not bothering to read the thread and the [now deleted] discussions salvaged from Hookups before the owner got busy with his airbrush.
As I said before, none of the mods cited wanting a share of the referral link income as their reason for leaving. Read the linked discussions. Check the posts by the ex-mods in this very thread. There's nothing. It's a straw man, entirely of your/his own creation.
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Clearly someone didn't read anything because money is not why people are leaving.
We are leaving.
They are expressing their side of the story, we would gladly listen to sammy's side if he would care to explain beyond I can't pay for my rent, I had a bad day, I work 2 jobs, and I donate plasma for his actions.
We really don't mind the ref link. Just look at this website, no one knows how much cg is making and (to my knowledge) cg has never promised to make giveaways. All we know is that he spends a good amount on amazing giveaways for this site and doesn't treat people like shit, except for the occasional rule breaker. Heck, we even disabled ad-block to generate more revenue for this site and even want to donate to this site if we could.
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Anyone wanna give me a short simple answer? So far what I've seen is that "It's not about referallz!!!!!1" but that it's about the owner of the group using the money he earned from the referrals to pay for his rent. Anyone else got anything to add? Because honestly if that's all, I think the solution would be for everyone to just shut up and go home.
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Well, if that IS the short simple answer then my solution is the same. Shut up, get over it, and if you don't like it leave, you don't need to attempt to ruin someone's reputation. Same goes for stuff like EA, if you know a game is probably gonna be packed with crappy DLC and Micro-transactions and you don't like that, why would you buy it? Just stop giving EA money and the problem will eventually go away.
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Except the problem here isn't going away and if you'd read the thread at all, you would know this. This is a last effort because the mod was a pratstick and is now playing the "woe me" card. To put this into an analogy, what has essentially happened here is that he took money (from the links) and said "I'm going to give it to charity" (give back to the group) and then proceeded to blow it all on a Mercedes (his rent) and then lied about how much was put into the charity box (the referral profits) when all that was ever asked was proof he owned the car for honesty's sake (transparency). People are going to be pissed. Shut up, get over it and if you don't like it, leave.
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I'm not entirely sure what happened, but this morning, I received an event notification from Hookups. Upon going to the Group, I found myself unable to read anything, post anything, etc. I thought this weird, considering that the only interaction I think I've ever posted to the group was saying thank you for one of the deals. Given the drama that has been going on, I thought it prudent to leave. This is just messy and I don't like the implications of what the owner has done.
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People might want to have a look at this little discovery also...
http://www.villian.co.nz/news/exclusive-steam-greenlight-scam/
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I checked out the Greenlight game description, and he apparently has permission from the devs to release it on Greenlight. I don't know if that's against the terms of service or anything, I haven't found anything specifically stating that releasing the game on Greenlight is "wrong," but it seems like people are searching for reasons to make him look worse now.
I mean, I agree with you on most parts, but those are my thoughts concerning the whole Greenlight angle.
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Pretty sure he's been called on this already and just deleted it, as usual. If he had proof, I think he'd have shown it.
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Oh, lol.
Edit: The $100 tier. "Admin spot in Steam Group Hookups for a month"
Yeah, we all know how useless that is now, don't we?
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It's even funnier when you read the chat transcript where he offers some random guy an admin position on the spot. And then gives mod designation to someone else who admits that he's a serial chat idler.
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I spotted the game on some abandonware site. I suppose it's the shareware version.
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The greenlight version is the shareware version. He has absolutely no game development skills and the original dev team have apparently left it for him to do as he pleases. He saw a cash cow and is now trying desperately to make it succeed.
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If anyone wants to observe Sammy in his natural environment, here is the hookups chat log of about 12000 lines of text.
Afraid I might break his cover, I cannot reveal the source of this text.
Of course there is no point in reading this, it's just for those that need maximum drama exposure. Ctrl+f =^[(O){d_b}(O)]^= to find the word of sammy.
http://pastebin.com/Sxvfdjce part 1
http://pastebin.com/z9cKcnSY part 2
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Whoa man. If that's not altered that Sammy guy is really a drama queen. And look at all those prideless asslickers trying to scratch an admin position.
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Just read this article, dunno if it's true but related to this topic Steam Greenlight Scam
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Did you see the pastebin link in Meemo's post three entries above yours? Someone outed you as a "cock gobbler". I swear, it wasn't me. When I told you your cock gobbling secret was safe with me, I meant it! I will go to my grave without divulging your secret cock gobbling ways!
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The text is too long, I stopped reading it like after a good 1 minute of reading.
Edit: Found the two, maybe three guys. While I do not condone their behaviours, I feel no need to act. All I hope for is for all those people to know the real truth, and not blindly believe in sammy.
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Bah, everyone around here already knows CHT gobbles cocks as a living and as a hobby. Those guys are waaaay behind the times. ;)
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Just.... give up Sammy, it's too late and you're done. just stop with this, and move on. Or else it's going to be a death threat around here or real life.
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Death threats? What in Gaben's name are you talking about?
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Okay, calm down, dude. So you don't like how he runs things, so be it. I didn't either, so I left the group. But interfering with his group / business is really not the way to go.
Frankly, it's come to light that one of the ex-admins screwed with the site on his way out. That was waaay out of line. Completely disproportionate. The owner may have manage the site in a way that's self-serving, but that's a judgment call. It certainly doesn't give anyone license to mess with his group.
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I have read what the ex admin and mods post here, technically he screwed himself up real nice.
It's not interfering with his group or anything but how he dragged his co admins and mods into this mess. Only they know/knew Sam's true nature that how he handles things around there! Well after hanging around in the chatroom he does have emotion issues and how he handles things (just look at the "other account" comment above), he doesn't look too rough.
For one, now everyone knows who he really is. 2, how he uses, cheat, and how he lies to his co mods and admins. 3, Look how he handle his own group user. it just dirty as S*.
I just laugh at the Breakfree's steamkey donation for 25 dollars, and 100 dollars for being an admin in hookups. on conclusion, he just desperately needs money!
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Or more like he's fallen into the liking of fast easy cash and doesn't want to let that vessel sink.
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But guys he like needs this money to like pay his rent and his two jobs totally don't cover it especially as one of them deals with death because he's such a good guy because he works with dying people omg why aren't we all paying this saints rent? ;_; Poor Scammy!
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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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