JohnG Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 I don't even know how to begin this post so I guess I will just say it. I am the person who created the "ghost" members at Klink's new site, RC. Specifically, FakeMaster, LegendofSpeed, Daytona4me, Sub4me, By-Tor, Anubis, and Piratedzeus. At the time I was doing this, it seemed funny. Now I am deeply ashamed of my behavior. I had had a very brief and unpleasant interaction with Klink on RWI when I was a new arrival. I have become aware over time of some of the shenanigans that Klink engaged in himself when he was a member with considerable responsibility at RWI. So two days ago when I saw the thread started at RWGjr in which he used a membership created in Cybee's name to post, I became curious about the site and joined. I quickly realized that the vast majority of the content at the site had been copied without permission. Somehow in my own mind I used this fact and my own over all impression of Klink to rationalize doing a prank. So I created the fictional Fakemaster personality, posting some of his content to RC, and generally interacting with the site as I thought Fakemaster might. What seemed incredible to me was that when Klink found out that Fakemaster had denied posting on his site, Klink assumed it was a plot to sabotage the site. And those outside the site, almost to a person, assumed Klink was the author of the fake Fakemaster personality. My prank, in my mind, had been a bigger success than I could have imagined. At this point I lost control over what might have been funny if I had come clean at that time. Yesterday I created the remaining ghosts - and I found the resulting confusion and accusations and counter accusations entertaining, for the simple reason that Klink's own past conduct had created a situation in which both he suspected many different people of sabotaging him and those same people by and large suspected him of playing strange games on his own site. I made my puppets speak as I thought their genuine counterparts might in reality by sampling some of their posts to get a sense of their posting style. I had Fakemaster post useful information and admiration for the site, LOS express disappointment in the use of content without permission and the ghosting of members, Daytona4me back up LOS, By-Tor ask for his content to be taken down, and Sub4me be generally raucous. As I sit here and type this I am ashamed to admit that at this hour yesterday I was watching with great amusement as Klink ran around accusing most of these individuals of being spiteful or ungrateful, or both. I never once stopped to consider what lasting damage this might actually have to existing relationships within the entire replica community. I never stopped and thought about the considerable time and effort that Klink must have put into creating his site. Or the joy and pride that it must have given him. Last night before the last of my id's was shut down at RC, I saw a post by Trailboss (who I don't know if I will ever be able to face again, given that he has always been a friend but I feigned ignorance to him about what was happening), replying to a noob question, "Who is Klink." In this reply, among other things, Trailboss posted a picture of Klink. For the first time I saw him as a human being. Undoubtedly a human being with many flaws, much like myself, but a person deserving of a level of respect far above what I was showing him. At this point, my "prank" ceased to be fun. And I looked at the threads running in three forums in a different light. How could the prank be undone? Why hadn't I stopped earlier? Later I read that Klink has been battling cancer and speculation that his mind may have been affected by affected by his treatment. Someone described the sadness of a lonely sick person just trying to hang onto his hobby. At this point I began to feel like a monster. And this morning I awoke to find that the site has been taken down. I do not know what punishment I deserve but I am sure that it is greater than anything that anyone here can mete out. I deserve and fully expect to be banned from all of the forums. Nevertheless, I want the truth to be known. And I want to apologize to everyone. Members whose time I have wasted, the friends who I have disappointed and trust betrayed, the members whose names I appropriated for my own sick fun, and most of all, to Phil. I am so sorry. I read at one of the forums that someone has phone contact with him. Perhaps there are more that can reach him. Please communicate to him the truth and encourage him to put the site back up. If I were to be the cause of the destruction of this person's only joy, I don't know how I could bear it. I myself am a sick person as is clear from my conduct. But I have no excuse, no justification, no right to behave as I have. To FakeMaster, LegendofSpeed, Daytona4me, Sub4me, By-Tor, Anubis, and Piratedzeus... and all the other people I have been mean to in the past, and to the friends here whose respect I will now have deservedly lost, and most of all to Klink himself, please know that I am deeply, deeply, sorry. JohnG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Well John, I choose my battles and forum politics has never been one of them. I have also had some bad experiences with members at other forums and as such I have chosen to only be a member of this one after once being involved with all of them. I also didn't really follow all of this so closely as I would have had to venture away from here to do so, and as I said I just don't do that anymore. That said, yes what you did is sh*tty with a capital S and you should be ashamed. You should also ask what is lacking in your life that you have the time to do all this? It is one thing to post a lot but when you start going over the edge with stuff like this that can damage solid reputations bad things happen. But I will say I think it is honorable that you have owned up to all that you caused like a man. I'm sure for that some of the powers that be and ones you have hurt will treat you with more leniency - whatever that means. It takes a man to admit his wrongs and for that I give you respect... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordRasta Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 It takes a man to admit his wrongs and for that I give you respect... I am not condoning what you did, and I agree with RobbieG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_r Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 John, Yes, what you did was wrong but it took a lot of courage to admit to it and apologise. I'm not one of the injured parties, so my rights to an opinion on this are limited, but I couldn't say it better than RobbieG. I sincerely hope that those concerned will see this the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave123 Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 No worries John,Klink is a person,but a guy that has felt no sympathy for the 'feelings' as you put it of others,myself included...he started posting some serious lies about me at RWI and it resulted in my leaving as others on that forum followed what he had to say,very serious lies and it didn't bother him that he put them up,at all.No apology from him. What was meant to be fun got a little carried away,what can ya do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 John, while I admire your courage to come forward and admit the truth, your actions were a clear and willful attempt to cause other members grief. You clearly saw the frustrations of the other members in the three forums, yet you continued with your little prank. You even stepped it up a notch. If you want to do the proper thing, offer your resignation from all three boards, because in my opinion what you have done merits nothing less than a lifetime ban. Sorry for the harshness of this post, I don't really know you and for all I know you might be a nice enough fellow, but what you have done is beyond the realms of what can be tolerated from the membership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dluddy Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Andrew, I am curious to know what grief was caused? It was a site that nobody participated in and nobody cared about with Kilink as the only real member? Puggy and BT should be the only ones who might actually have a beef with what John did by posting their content and neither seems to be upset or care about it?? Like Dave said, prank gone too far but IMO, no harm done. Given the time it must have taken John to copy all of that data over, I might suggest that he put the time and energy to more desirable forum contributions but hey, that's my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted November 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Andrew, I am curious to know what grief was caused? Dluddy, Among other things, I caused at least one personal friend of Klink to turn his back on him, having led him to believe that Klink was doing this all himself for attention. He now feels he let his friend down in his time of need. That relationship may have been seriously damaged because of my actions. There were real consequences to what I did. That I didn't think about this at the time now hardly seems like a defense. If I engaged in this kind of manipulative subterfuge for my own entertainment in real life, I would expect the persons I involved to spit in my face, or worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Andrew, I am curious to know what grief was caused? It was a site that nobody participated in and nobody cared about with Kilink as the only real member? Puggy and BT should be the only ones who might actually have a beef with what John did by posting their content and neither seems to be upset or care about it?? Firstly, whenever someone steals an identity, it causes grief for that person. John not only stole those identities but was actively impersonating those people, putting words in their mouths, and in some cases using those identities to insult other members. Whether people were seriously hurt by this or not is not the issue. The issue is one of identity theft and impersonation, and there is no denying his guilt in those offenses. Although I have zero sympathy for Phil, he was the one that was hurt the most in this incident. Not only with friendships broken, but with the sabotage of his site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolfire Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 What's important is that you're sorry, John. I admire your courage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 A prank is a prank up until you steal & use someone else's identity & materials for something like this. While I am sure that everyone appreciates your willingness to come clean (though I have to wonder if the impetus for this posting was at the insistence of another party), I doubt that I would have been quite as dismissive of your actions as those who were directly effected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegendofSpeed Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Unbelievable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted November 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 A prank is a prank up until you steal & use someone else's identity & materials for something like this. While I am sure that everyone appreciates your willingness to come clean (though I have to wonder if the impetus for this posting was at the insistence of another party), I came clean because my actions resulted in chaos and damage to interpersonal relationships and resulted in Klink taking down his site. At some point I saw with perfect clarity what I had done. I knew the only way to undo ANY of the damage was to tell the truth. I deserve to be banned. Hell, I deserve more than that, but that is the most they can do to me here. A worse punishment will be knowing that I broke Klink's dream of having his own forum. I ruined it for him and he gave up and took it down. That is what I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HauteHippie Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Come on guys... Too much drama. Klink's board is (or should I say was?) a big prank in and of itself.... Move on to bigger and more importantly better things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave123 Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Can't argue with the Chief.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted November 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 I have been permanently banned at RWI. I can only hope that the same happens here. I pm'd my apologies to Admin and I imagine he is too disgusted to even reply to me. I usurped By-Tor's identity on another forum. I entered into a contentious discussion of that forum using it. That ought to be good enough for a permanent expulsion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave123 Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Alright,calm down John. Leave it be.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieG Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 As I read the respponses I can only come to the conclusion that the outcome should be decided by those who are injured and it probably isn't any of the rest of our business. The other forums can do as they like, but the members of RWG who were injured (Bytor, Pug, and anyone else I'm not mentioning that are kind of known to home base here) should really be the ones to decide what they think is the best resolution if there is even a best one. John if you are so sure you deserve to be banned, why not just resign and be done with it rather than let Bytor, the admin, whoever decide whether you shouls stay so as not to burden them further if your assumption is that you couldn't hang around here without shame anyway? A valid question I think from a guy who could care less about any of it as it never concerned me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted November 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 John if you are so sure you deserve to be banned, why not just resign and be done with it rather than let Bytor, the admin, whoever decide whether you shouls stay so as not to burden them further if your assumption is that you couldn't hang around here without shame anyway? A valid question I think from a guy who could care less about any of it as it never concerned me... If they will close my account, I will resign. I don't want to be a burden on them. I just don't want to hide from what I have done - I may not be able to post in other threads like nothing had happened, but if my account is active I will face any and all criticisms and I will freely admit and/or clarify exactly what I have done. That is the least I can do. If they will accept my resignation, I offer it humbly. I don't know what is appropriate. I have a history or contentiousness and bad judgement, and even mean-spiritedness. I wish I wasn't that way. Perhaps some day I will overcome this. For now, it is clear I have not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 I don't really know what to say, so I'll just say what's on my mind. From my own personal experiences moderating a forum, I know how frustrating it can be when a forum is being 'over-run' by people who are only doing so for their own amusement. I know how sickening with worry it can be, when said people start posting false statements or other forms of harassment, and I would never wish that on anyone. I think it takes courage to admit ones mistakes and take the repercussions of ones actions. As Jon Fort mentioned above, with his Christian approach to forgiveness, I can only respond likewise, from my own perspective as a Muslim, and that is, that it is simply not my place to judge anyone, so I will leave it at that: It is not my place to judge anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onzenuub Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 I am not condoning what you did, and I agree with RobbieG. Heey John, just popping out of the bin to say the same as above. You apologized and told in public what you did, if you didn't no one would have ever known. Thats shows you're a real man and because of that and your honesty you shouldn't be punished. We're all here for some fun and recreation and types like you give us this. So, head up and no worries mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andreww Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 You apologized and told in public what you did, if you didn't no one would have ever known. Not really true. His IP had already been matched to the fake identities and posted, so it was only a matter of time until he was figured out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onzenuub Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Not really true. His IP had already been matched to the fake identities and posted, so it was only a matter of time until he was figured out. I don't mind about that, and I am back to the bin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ztech Posted November 14, 2008 Report Share Posted November 14, 2008 Wow... I'm simply amazed at what lies around the corner of life. If my 2 cents even matter at this junction I'll state it. Like others have already said, I've no right to judge others as I too am not perfect. Far from it. I think we all know JohnG's actions were wrong and unforgiveable. There are many times in life that I've made serious errors in judgement, but one thing has always remained clear. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Just because you failed at it in the past doesn't mean that there won't be another opportunity around the corner. So... let this be a lesson and learn from your mistakes and drive on. I also have to say that Robbie has put things very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Carl Posted November 15, 2008 Report Share Posted November 15, 2008 I agree with Chieftang. I remember a lot of Klink's early stuff on various boards and he has probably earned a prank or three as he set that kind of mean spirited tone. We have had confession, contrition, and what I think is an honest request for forgiveness, which is a social more than religious thing for me. Let's move on and re-focus on what we are all about- having fun with watches. Carl out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now