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Friday, September 30, 2005

Survivor Addicts From My (And Everyone Else's) Mailbox 

Back in February 2001, I created SurvivorAddicts.com with the help of Melanie, my partner. We owned and maintained the site until we sold it to Kris Karbon (Gabby) and Sam Shelley (Fuel) a couple of years ago. We had a working agreement where I would maintain the site for a small fee.

This was all working quite well until recently when the show ramped back up. I had had several personal things come up in real life and I was definitely behind in my responsibilities. I was approached by Gabby and tahitisweetie about this but I was never doubtful that I would be back on track and that we would have yet another successful fantasy season. Apparently, however, my delinquency was more than the new owners of SurvivorAddicts could bear and I was removed from my administrative duties on the site.

The really sad thing about this for me is not the loss of the community or my responsibilities towards it. The sad thing to me is that I was completely deceived by someone that I truly believed was my friend. Gabby and I have had our differences in the past. Hell, we met when I flamed her for stating her beliefs as truth. Through the years, however, I truly came to respect her as a good and decent person. I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that this was just a ruse and she is actually not a good person at all.

Gabby and I were talking on Monday morning. She was again stating her concerns about what was going on with the site and the game. There was no questions of "How are you doing?" or "Is everything in real life all right?" No... it was all about the site and what Gabby and Fuel were or were not getting out of me. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Gabby continued to say to me that we needed to work out a resolution and get back on track. She kept telling me that Fuel was pushing for my removal and that she didn't know how to respond to it. She kept telling me that she didn't think that Fuel could run the boards, let alone the game and that she didn't want to lose me. It reminded me of the many times in the past when she and I discussed my continued involvement in the site. She would always say something like, "Please do not make me go to Texas Kelly and have to work with him."

I thought to myself that the whole thing seemed fishy so I went to the discussion boards. I had been stripped of my admin status and was just another board user. The site that I had created out of my own blood, sweat and tears was now just a place to visit for me.

I didn't handle this well but, in hindsight, I am glad that I reacted the way I did. My first instinct was to log in to the FTP server and completely remove my fantasy game from the site. Some of you may think this a vindictive move of revenge. It wasn't. Had I wanted, I could have logged in and deleted the discussion boards, entirely. No... I was protecting my intellectual property and the integrity of the game. It had become clear to me that integrity had been replaced at SA by insantiy (Fuel running the game?) and I did not want my work to be further damaged by the horrendous decision made by Gabby and Fuel.

I told Gabby at the time what I was doing. She begged me not to. It is only now that I have even more information do I understand why she didn't want it deleted. She had every intention of stealing my intellectual property and using it for her own gain. Again, I never imagined that this was the type of person that Kris is. I TRULY believed her to be a good and decent person. What a fool I have been.

The plan was to remove me and have Fuel run the game - despite the fact that Fuel is not a programmer, doesn't understand PHP or MySQL, and has emotional stability only due to the advances of modern medicine. There was to be no conversation. Gabby was either stalling me or trying to make the impending storm less severe. I am not sure which. I do know that it was another deception in what I now see was a long line of deceptions.

And so... the Fantasy game at SurvivorAddicts is no more. They have some plans to make a new game but I, for one, do not believe that it will ever live up to the old one. People said some very nice things about the game which you can read here: http://www.boards.survivoraddicts.com/showthread.php?t=15851

I was very vocal for the first 36 hours of my being de-adminned. As I am sure most people would be when they find themselves removed from a community of their own creation, I was livid. I have never been one for holding my tongue when the truth must be spoken and so I spoke the truth. Fuel is an incompetent buffoon who is just a forgotten pill away from a breakdown. Gabby is a dishonest, unethical person who thinks she is a good Christian.

Yeah... they didn't like my truth so I am now banned from the site that I created nearly 6 years ago. This was, of course, after I was promised by Gabby that I would not be banned... ever. Just another lie, it seems...

So... if I am ever in the mood for some Survivor discussion among people who are not unethical assholes, I will try one of these fine sites:

http://p085.ezboard.com/bsurvivorsucks - Survivor Sucks
http://www.survivorfever.net - Survivor Fever
http://www.realiiity.com - Realiiity.com

Yes... these are sites that I have badmouthed in the past. For the most part, they are run by lousy people who would sooner spit on you if you were on fire rather than actually help. And yet... I would recommend those sites over SurvivorAddicts, now. The mighty have fallen that far...

Take care and... make sure to put real life first. It's WAY more important.
-Sam (Cygnus)

A Bit About Kaysar 

A couple of emails from a Jokers regular:

It all started here: http://www.jokersupdates.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=BBDiscussion&Number=2571087&page=2&view=expanded&sb=5&o=31&fpart=

Then it got worse here: http://www.jokersupdates.com/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=BBDiscussion&Number=2571417&page=1&view=expanded&sb=5&o=31&fpart=

My first thought was "What is she thinking?" Then I knew the answer; she wasn't thinking at all, she just needed attention.

When I first heard rumors of the Kaysar chat so soon after the show ended, I thought "Okay, I can see doing an interview with him, but a chat? While all the freaks and geeks are still bashing and trashing on every aspect of the show? What a nightmare!" Then I heard that Jokerette was paying him for it, and I thought it was an extremely bad move for several reasons. When she came out today on the open board and admitted to it, and the way she talked about it, well, those reasons just solidified and grew much stronger.

Here they are, my reasons why Jokerette just jumped the shark of reality tv websites:

1. By paying for a chat, when you haven't done so before, you do three things. You give the opinion that other reality tv stars that you've had in for chats before aren't worth paying for, alienating them (and their friends in reality world), you set a precedent that you are willing to pay the talent, so anyone in the future will ask for payment, or be offended if you won't, and you set a standard for other websites, even if you aren't going to pay for chats in the future. "If it's good enough for Kaysar, it should be good enough for me." "Jokers paid for me, you should too." Especially when it comes to WINNERS of games. Of course, Jokerette already said she didn't want Maggie or Ivette on Jokers, but that's another discussion of bad RTV etiquette all together. Competition between sites is sometimes fierce, as you post frequently at RE, but none of them are money-makers in the long run nor is that their intention.

2. Letting it be known that a contestant asked for payment, does two things. It sends fans of the "other" side into a frenzy of trash mouthing the contestant, which was done almost immediately by a few posters at JU. It also ruffled feathers of some of the fans of Kaysar who didn't think it was right for him to ask for payment. Now if you're a reality tv star, with an 82% popularity rating, and you do a chat for a website right after the finale, do you really expect the site's owner to be trashing you within 2 days? Kaysar is spending time with the Sov 6 right now, and James posted on Kaysar's message board http://www.kaysarridha.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1164&page=1
to "give him a break," so you know they all know about this. I doubt seriously any of them are going to have anything to do with JU now. So between the Sov 6 not touching JU with a ten foot pole now, and Jokerette posting that she didn't WANT Maggie or Ivette, exactly how much good publicity is she expecting from the BB6 cast and crew?

3. Jokerette committed to a tremendously successful donation drive for one of her administrators who was a victim of Hurricane Katrina and needed help badly, by offering all donation monies for a two week period go directly to this admin, even though there was an address for direct mail to this admin posted on the private Katrina forum. After some minor complaints, she committed to a 2 week drive to benefit a Katrina relief fund after the initial 2 weeks for her admin. When the first 2 weeks were over, she squashed the other, citing it was slow donation time since BB was over anyway. This in the days before Hurricane Rita was to spin her way toward the Gulf Coast again, this time toward Texas, where many Jokers regular posters would be affected. Within a few days of saying she would not be doing another donation drive, she paid for a chat with Kaysar, an unprecedented event. A few days later, she has now stickied a post to the top of the BB Discussion forum asking for donations because of going over bandwith. If Jokerette was going to pay for a chat, and then ask her users to pay her back for it, shouldn't we have known she was paying for it in the first place? Should she have agreed to pay him? Personally, I don't think so, and I say that as a moderate Kaysar fan but a long time poster at JokersUpdates.

If she wanted to pay for the chat with her own money, that's her prerogative. By agreeing to a fee, and having the chat, she took responsibility for that decision. To go back after all is said and done and insinuate how bad it was that he asked for a fee, even with the disclaimer (later) that it was a minor fee and well worth it, is just bad form, in my opinion. Then again, this is the woman most known on her board not for what a great site owner she is, but how much she can "frap."

--------------------------

Apparently Jokerette is the one who went to Kaysar initially with the money for a chat offer, and when HE tried to bargain with her, it pissed her off. That was the way I thought it probably was from the start, and I have had it confirmed. He didn't get the memo that everyone is supposed to bow at Jokerette's feet and thank her for pissing in their ear and telling them it's raining.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Miss Mary's Ghost 

I stumbled upon a little piece of history over at Media Fiends.

Take a look around the 5th post from the bottom on the following page - the post from Jax:

http://www.mediafiends.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=XForum&file=viewthread&fid=160&tid=3054&page=2

I always wondered about the quick departure of Miss Mary, who ran Reality TV Fans - the site that spawned Reality TV Fans Refugees. Miss Mary ran the site, using some portal software that her employer developed - and I believe she ran it off of one of their servers. It was one of the top reality sites on the net. I believe Miss Mary had actually spun it off from one of the first reality sites - Big 3 TV or something like that.

Anyway all of sudden she was moving across country, turned the site over to someone else who really didn't know what they were doing, then Miss Mary sold the domain to SirLinksALot.

Now we know the rest of the story.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Easter Egg Hunt Then Its Back To Business 

As Big Brother inches to the finale, a bunch of people have taken to other diversions. Some are doing magic tricks, and some are talking about themselves.

I have been watching my good friends at Reality TV Gossip and seen them regaled with parlor tricks that got them quite upset. I have also heard their, and others, plea that I get back to writing about reality sites like I should be.

I agree. I get caught up in the attempts to find out who runs this site that seem to crop up every year.

I feel I owe the Reality TV Gossip people at least one good laugh before I get back to business though - they were abused because of the witch hunt, and need a chuckle.

Where to begin? Well let's take a look at a little mail that I got from BBVoyeur:

-----------------------------
From: Paul Laughton
To: realityenquirer@wildmail.com
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 22:16:25 -0700
Subject: Once again, I find myself thanking you.
You have been kind enough to point out some security problems with my
web site. I thanked you for that.

Now you have again helped me by testing my repairs. You are very clever
and make a good tester. It looks like all the holes have been blocked.

Thank you for you efforts. It is not easy to find good software testers
these days.

Please feel free to conduct further tests as needed.

Cheers,
Paul
--------------------------------------------

Yes Paul Laughton, also know as BBVoyeur and BBTomcat, is being gracious. It seems that with all his wizardry on the net that he displayed at Reality TV Gossip recently, his own security on his site is so inadequate as to be almost criminal. The cutest thing was his Important Links page with a link labeled Tomcat which pointed to the ezboard login.

Oh and not to forget his site statistics, as seen below. Seems these were just laying around for anyone to see. And fancy that - one of his most prolific users is Tobor from San Antonio, Texas. Outside of the top user, which is most likely Paul himself, we see multiple hits from Tobor's IP. Of course all this really means is that Tobor is hitting the images posted on the BB Creative Development site. Isn't it interesting to note how much he hits the site. Don't these people have jobs?

Paul I feel good that you think your site is secure. And if you do suffer some catastrophic loss, feel free to drop me a line, I am sure I can help you restore your site from my files.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

I have enjoyed seeing the shenanigans of BBVoyeur and Tobor in their attempts to "out" me. As they get increasingly frantic for clues, they keep getting further away. Their voices start rising in a maniacal pitch - on the reality tv gossip board we hear BBVoyeur screech "RE is here right now!" as if the Alien had just punched through the iron grating and was about to eat them all.

But here is a question. Why would I go to ezboard sites logged in as Reality Enquirer where I know BBVoyeur and Tobor reside, and linger so anyone that is looking would know I am there? And then make a grand tour around all of the sites I know they are IP scraping? If I had to be logged in to read on an ezboard and I wanted to remain anonymous, wouldn't I just get another ezboard ID that they wouldn't associate with me? I guess that is just too devious for an idoit like myself.

As for magic tricks - BBVoyeur was amazing the locals at Reality TV Gossip by posting IP addresses of people viewing the forums. Everyone was stunned, so much that the board owner Deb banned him. So for all you board owners and those that like a little privacy, you may want to listen to the magician's reveal. What Paul does (and has been doing for a while) is add an image link in his message to an image on his server. In this case he made the image so small you couldn't see it. Then like a spider, he sits on his server and watches his referrer logs to see who hits that image, and then makes guesses as to who the IP belongs to by who is currently on the board (isn't this kind of creepy?). When just a few people are on that particular page it can be very amazing. However I did get some irate messages from some people who saw their IPs posted. You can be assured this trick is being used extensively at BB Creative Development and Guru's Mecca of Razz, and can be used anywhere that links to images hosted on other sites is allowed.

Well this is getting boring for most of you, so here is a little magic trick of my own. Below I present to you a glimpse of the secret area of BB Creative Development. I won't tell you how I got it, but let's just say I wasn't visiting the site as Reality Enquirer that day. It does amaze me that such a paranoid place has such poor security. And look at all the nice things you can find out about the site just from this little peek.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

That just about wraps it up. This was fun for a while, but as I always realize too late, the witch hunters will burn a few innocents and never catch the witch. So until Tobor reveals my true identity I will turn my attention back to the business of reality sites.

Oh wait - I promised an Easter Egg Hunt. It seems that there are two sites that now each have a very obscure easter egg hiding somewhere. You will have to look very hard to find them, but they will be obvious once you do.

Happy Hunting!

Bonus Humor:

Stanley: She fell for it.

Oliver: I have to give credit where credit is due.

Stanley: So you think it is Staci? A smart person would not push the stick in the hive deeper when she sees the bees coming out right?

Dean: The whole game is beginning to bore me.

Jerry: I bet she got so giddy when she found it. But its nothing. Woooheee... you found some threads that talk about who the strangers are that peak in on the board. Oh my!

Stanley: Too bad for RE it seems. She went to far.

RE: Do you guys think I am really that stupid to fall for that setup? It smelled to high heaven. Call the EZBoard Authorities! We opened up our privates to make it look like RE broke in! I am sure Ezboard is laughing their asses off.

Jerry: Deeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaannnn!

Oliver: This is another fine mess you've gotten us into Stanley.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

What's The Matter At BBChatter? 

This just in:

Something strange is going on at BBchatter. It seems that members are being banned for no apparent reason. The owner gave many people mod status, for what he called mod wars. People are getting deleted,complain,then get banned when they complain,mods delete the oddest stuff.

So what exactly is a mod war? And why at this stage of BB?

Monday, September 12, 2005

New Email 

Due to an overwhelming number of emails, I have run out of room and am having to change email accounts.

So please use realityenquirer@gmail.com in the future to send me those delicious bits.

And thanks for all the support!

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Searching for RE Poll Closed 

Ok it is pretty obvious that both sides of this question have found a way around the voting rules, so I am closing the poll. Either that or Morty's has posted the link on his site and there is real division amongst the ranks.

And thanks to both sides for all the concern about me. And to BBVoyeur for pointing out that the poll numbers were jumping too quickly.

Stay tuned, Tobor's announcement is imminent.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Methinks He Protesteth Too Much 

If you take a look around on Reality TV Gossip and Big Brother Creative Development, you will find Tobor's response to my linking him to BBVoyeur.

There are other reasons I thought this may be true. One is, as a member of EZboard, I have an inbox. No one has sent me a message in the 2 or 3 years I have had it, until recently. I have now received three messages - one from BBVoyeur, one from BBTomcat, and one from Tobor - all of them fishing, trying to get me to respond.

However I tend to believe Tobor - he is probably not BBVoyeur, just an unwitting tool. Tobor himself has revealed that Big Brother Creative Development is another front for BBVoyeur - the reason Tobor's image links back to laughton.com is that all the graphics from BBCD were moved to laughton/BBVoyeur's server a while back. Which either means BBVoyeur owns the site, or the owner is in really tight with him.

Besides how could I confuse the two - Tobor is just a pompous ass whereas BBVoyeur is just a pompous... well ok they are easy to confuse. Besides, Tobor is from Texas and a Spurs fan as everyone knows.

Also some people have been wondering why the comments on the poll were closed. Well it seems like proxy jumping BBVoyeur/BBTomcat like to impersonate the board owners of a certain clubhouse, so I pulled them and closed the comments. And please remember BB - it isn't that hard to use a proxy server - you didn't invent them. Or did you?

Update: You know, I still have my doubts - reading some of those posts Tobor sure sounds like BBVoyeur.

Where It All Comes Together 

Now it all makes sense.

Why is Tobor pursuing me passionately?

Simple - Tobor, BBVoyeur, and BBTomcat are all the same person.

Proof? Well remember the images under posts by BBVoyeur and BBTomcat at the Mecca that linked to a site? And the site said Gateway To Laughton?

Well do a right click on the Bogart image on the same site under Tobor's name and see where it comes from.

Laughton, Tobor, BBVoyeur, BBTomcat.

No wonder Tobor is ragging on TVCH.

Friday, September 09, 2005

You Always Find Something Interesting When You Are Bored 

So I took a little trip over to the Mecca of Razz and found a fresh post from BBTomCat with just an image in it of an eye.

Seems this links to http://209.76.109.3/bbvoyeur/images/eyeball.gif

That ip address is a DSL line in the San Francisco area.

But what is more interesting is if you go to http://209.76.109.3 - the page redirects you to arnoldshapiroprods.com, but not before you see the title of the page - Gateway to the Laughton's.

So is BBTomCat actually bbvoyeur? And if so who is Laughton? I know. And it looks like either the BBTomCat posting at the mecca is also bbvoyeur, or they live pretty close to each other. Maybe bosom buddies or a pair of star gazers.

Quick Update: Just checked out one of BBVoyeur's posts on a previous page over there - he had also posted an image. Guess what - http://209.76.109.3/bbvoyeur/images/fubar1.gif

I guess BBVoyeur is having a bit of a personality crisis.

(I guess he wasn't really trying to hide it too hard - both names have pictures associated with them that are also linked back to that address. Wonder if it is in the terms of service that you can run a web server off a dsl line?)

Thursday, September 08, 2005

New Poll 

It took me a while to come up with the concept of this thread, but I think it should elicit some stimulating and thoughtful conversation.

Look to the right and find my newest poll - Should Reality Enquirer be exposed? Or should I just be put out of my misery now and save the lives of many reality site board members who are borderline suicidal?

Vote here, or I will be posting the poll on numerous websites in the near future.

Now I must get back to the emails pouring in about the identity of RE.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Who Is Reality Enquirer? 

Apparently Tobor is posting the following to out me. Doesn't he know that http://p207.ezboard.com/bwhoisrealityenquirer already exists?

From Tobor:

I am spending too much of my time reading and answering emails from people who think I am writing the Reality Enquirer Blog.

This is the location of the blog if you do not know:

www.realityenquirer.blogspot.com/

For the record-- I'm not the guy. (Actually I think it is a girl. My syntax analysis and word selection compiler says it is a girl, and the compiler has never been wrong once.)

I am going to find out who this writer really is. Where she posts and what the agenda is.

So I ask you... ARE YOU with me on this? Don't you want to know the TRUTH? Well then let's go out there and GET the truth.

I already have some good leads.

My email Addy is in my profile. Email me with any information you have have on this RE... any little bit helps. I'll keep my sources confidential if requested.

OR you can post your thoughts here.

This is an all-out effort to get this mission accomplished.

We WILL find the identity of Reality Enquirer!!!!

Monday, September 05, 2005

From Start To Finish? 

Here is how it starts:

3-17-13 NT
menthol
07/20/05 02:05 PM


Which was a BB safe cracking thread.

Is this where it ends?

Quote: "Blatant lie. go join the twisted Iggits and FU NT"

was deleted.

Unless you have a good explanation for slamming a user like this, consider this your last warning.

Further posts of this manner may result in a ban from posting.

Thanks, Kaz


Quote: it was a lie, and why "...consider this your last warning" I have not gotten any other warnings? LAST? Maybe I should beleive all the bad sh*t posted on the www about jokersupdates. PUH!

Quote: Last warning yes, some don't get any. You have been here long enough to know the rules. We do not change them for anyone and nobody makes them up for the hell of it.

Thanks, Kaz


Sounds like standard operating procedures over at Jokers Updates to me.

Keep Them Damn Foreigners Out! 

Take a look at Big Brother Creative Development now. This has to be the funniest thing since I found that splinter group using a public board who thought they were private. I guess when you have 10 members it is always a good thing to lock the doors so none of them get out. (Update: I guess the power of the press is still alive and well - the site is now accessible to all again)

http://p102.ezboard.com/fbigbrothercreativedevelopmentfrm11

Ah what the heck - here is what it says so you don't have to waste your time going to the site:

Membership By Approval
You have reached this page because Big Brother, Reality TV Creative Development requires membership to either view or post.

To submit an application to this community, you must be logged in to your Global User Account. If you do not have a Global User Account, register now.

Message from the Administrator of Big Brother, Reality TV Creative Development
To gain access to this board you must apply for membership first. We want to learn about all of our potential members beforehand to ensure that our discussions are thoughtful, lively and spam free. If you are interested in becoming a member of this board, please click the button "Apply for Membership" and you will be contacted via email whether or not your application was accepted - IF your email addy is visible in your profile.OR email woodsoldiers@yahoo.com if you have questions. WRITE THIS EMAIL ADDY DOWN! Once you apply, you can't get back to this page. Also, make sure you have your email VISIBLE in your profile and/or have "accept admin emails" enabled in your preferences. OR make sure you check your EZINBOX in the days after you apply. If we can't get to you through email, we will contact your EZInbox. It would also help a lot if you had your last 5 posts visible in your profile. NOTE: Once you get access to the board, you ONLY have 30 views per day until you make your 1st post. So, if you want more access, then make a post in the Welcome Thread very soon after you read the RULES. Thank you. We will get back to you quickly, but certainly no longer than 12 hours later. If you are approved and you do not make a post in your first week, your membership MAY be lost and you can re-apply.