fyi...please read

[back alley]

this is just an fyi...but an important one.

momentcollector aka panamacolin aka filmrocks has been banned from this
forum...twice.

some of you may remember that ‘panamacolin’ joined our community and
immediately tried to set up shop. this was met with some negativity, i think due, to
his clumsy manner and lack of research as to how things normally get done here.
when confronted, ‘panamacolin’ reinvented himself as ‘filmrocks’ and tried to fool
us with threads where he had conversations with himself about buying/selling gear to himself.

i banned him for his attempted duplicity.

and then i discover his return as ‘momentcollector’.
this time out he was a much more appropriate member and seemed to work at fitting in.
i had a series of p.m.’s with him and suggested he ‘fess up’ to the membership,
come clean, explain himself and apologize to the forum. if he did this i promised
not to ban him again.

i could not, in good conscience, allow him to fool the membership again with my
knowing who he was.

i gave him a day to think about it and act on it, but it seems he chose not to do
anything but hope i was not serious.
i was serious and he is now banned again.
i suspect he may try to join again under yet another name.
i fear we are nothing more than a marketplace for him as he chose not to be
honest with this membership.

the only reason i bring this to the forum’s attention is to offer a heads up in the
event he tries a return appearance.
i have a hard time trusting someone who tries to fool me about who he is and then tries to sell his wares here.

i’m not trying to embarrass him, i think he has accomplished that for himself.

many thanks for your time & attention and for helping to make this the friendly
forum it is.

joe

 

[MacDaddy]

Thanks for the heads up on this guy! If we don't have our integrity, IMHO, we have nothing.

 

[peter_n]

Thanks for being alert, Joe. I would CC Jorge on this, I know he's busy but he can probably block the IP address (or range of addresses) this guy is operating from. More effective than just banning an ID and then finding he has another one - sort of like whacking the mole you know? 😉

 

[ChrisN]

Joe, thanks for the information. I believe you have the full support of the vast majority of the membership on this issue. RFF is indeed a different and special place amongst internet forums, and some people are apparently simply not capable of appreciating that.

 

[cp_ste.croix]

I applaud your patience and tact...your ultimatum reminds me of teaching grade 9's...no matter how badly you want them to do the right thing, sometimes they force you to follow thruogh on the consequences of their actions.

 

[ch1]

Darn, and I just re-posted my WTB for a Nikon SP - the first of which this guy "plagued" upon!

Joe - If he starts to "hit" on my current WTB - as I requested before - just kill my post and I'll try again some other time.

After doing w/o for 54 years, I don't need one so badly that I will allow myself to be an "enabler" for this guy.....

 

[david b]

I had a lengthy PM with "momentcollector" about buying an xpan. Sorry to hear he is such a jerk.

 

[w3rk5]

Good work Joe. It's not easy to do what you did. Thanks for looking out for us. 🙂

 

[jan normandale]

what I find interesting is that he has had a chance to just show up and post some stuff in the classified section. End of story. Maybe he might have been asked to support the site with an ad if his sole interest was commercial but that would have been about it , I think.

What is weird is his persistent desire to morph into an RFFer when he really isn't interested. That is what concerns me. I would not purchase anything from him now even if he were to come open handed. To quote GWB " fool me once shame on you.. and fool me we can't get fooled again"

I'm going to steer a wide berth around any new member selling here before having a history of posting and discussion. As for Panama ... I wonder if he sells decent product? I don't feel like finding out.

 

[wlewisiii]

It's a pity on a number of levels to me. I do believe he's a young idiot who will eventually learn better; in the meantime we have to deal with the messes left behind and I have enough sh*t from my son (literally with a 3 year old in potty training) .

Thank you joe for explaining this situation carefully. I had not connected the dots to the earlier incarnations and believed that the newest was a reasonable member.

Damn. I really do think he might have something to offer, eventually... Ah, well, god bless him in the meantime and help us all otherwise.

William

 

[DougK]

Sorry it had to come to banning him, but thanks Joe.

 

[Pherdinand]

joe, do remember your health and try not to let some loser piss you off. Thanks in the meantime.

 

[Allen Gilman]

You da man Joe.

 

[oftheherd]

I can understand his embarassment, but some things an adult really needs to learn how to do.

If he or any of his ilk are lurking, please understand this is a special forum of special people. I don't think there is another like it. Any members who might tend to deviate from the norm will first have to face the corporate whole, and then Jorge or Joe.

I know some long time members have found the latter objectionable. I might even be willing to discuss when Joe or Jorge should step in. But step in they must sometimes. I just wish others could keep a little thicker skin. Doesn't need to be as thick as mine perhaps, but think about this: tolerance goes both ways.

My two cents and I will forthwith vacate the soapbox.

Oh, Joe. I do hope it never gets to the point that doing your job for us affects you health. This is generally a stress free group (except for that maximum stress builder GAS). Sure hope it stays that way.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Thanks for the heads-up, Joe. In the beginning, I thought welcoming people whose first post was a FS ad was bit unkind, but then I realized that the whole idea of an internet forum is, precisely, to create a community, not to be an extension of the marketplace. If we eventually buy or sell things among us, that's simply the result of the community we've forged, not an open invitation for merchants.

 

[dcsang]

Like most "good" communities, I think this one is able to police itself. This was quite evident when PanamaColin showed up and tried very hard to buy/sell items here.

I think most of us know who each other are and have local meets/greets to sort of break the ice and see the faces behind the avatars. (well.... my avatar is me.. just really goofy..some say that's how I am normally 🙂 )

Knowing what it's like to moderate a community; and this one is a LOT more civil than some I've moderated; I think you have the utmost patience Joe and you've obviously done what you could to give the member the opportunity to get out of this without too much egg on his face. Thank you for that.

Cheers
Dave

 

[FrankS]

Thank you Joe. RFF is a special place and I appreciate the efforts by all to create and maintain a much higher than average level of integrety here.

 

[Skinny McGee]

Lets go put a burning bag of dog Sh*t on his porch!! HEEHEEHEEHEEHEHHEHHEHHE

 

[markinlondon]

Francisco's post above has summed up my feelings on the likes of Panamacolin and their unsuitability to a community of this nature.

Nice one, Joe

Mark

 

[Kat]

Thanks for the headsup, Joe. I'm very poor at figuring these things out, so it's great to know there's someone keeping an eye out. Although the guy's initial intentions and approach I felt were not very appropriate for this forum, it wasn't that big a deal for me until he started pretending to be someone else and logging in as someone else, that for me shows a lack of integrity and respect for other people.