As my father always said they are probably "A bubble out of plumb". But hitting the pipe is also a very solid description. It seems as though he feel fancy free to misappropriate donations,mask wrongdoings, and intentially ignore us.

To him it has become the norm,like the air that he now breaths. False hero, black knight, a true pyrrhic victory. He was willing to sacrifice morality and the well-being of the entire community to further himself.

What gets me very cranky is that he has no remorse and is oblivious to the feelings of those he has trampled over. I remember I had encountered a member who I suspected was about 14 years old. He was in a foster situation,and his posts were very alarming,and he admitted to being sexually abused by various male members of his family. I PM John lester and asked him to help this young man,and use the information from his posts if he had to. I PM him twice with no response at all.

The young man disappeared from the community,but his member log-on details would of helped with locating him. I mean how unfeeling can one really be??


PS. There is a good possibility that those very same moderators you speak of Steve are none other than John Lester pretending to be different people. It's actaully very common that an administer like John Lester has multiple profiles,and uses them to further manipulate people into submission. I wouldn't be surprised if he was lurking on this forum too, promoting his other sights.

I bet that none of you have ever checked out Second Life have you???

Well, I did, (Only because my son who has aspergers is addicted to it).

It's free to join, so I joined. I must say the graphics are overwhelming, the tech language is not for beginners. You really have to know your computer technology to know what you are doing in this virtual world.

But the shocker was.....There is a lot of sexual activity in this world.

sure, you can be an entrepreneur, and make Linden dollars, and build stuff and fly in the air and create your own avatar with skins, textures, and other wonderful stuff.

You can also enter a virtual world of S and M, bondage, hookers, and last but not least, sexual areas (which I accidentally entered and took off so fast it would make your head spin).

I happened to be sitting on a log around a campfire and if you sit there for 10 minutes you get 2 linden dollars. So I had zero linden dollars to my name, So here I am sitting around a fire, with other avatars sitting on their logs when female avatar walks up to me and invites me to go with her and she'll pay me 50 linden dollars. So, because i have no idea what I'm doing, and I hear 50 linden dollars, I said "sure!" and she teleports me to a place where......and I'm trying to not be off-color here.....but everybody was stark naked and well, USE YOUR IMAGINATION!!!. I typed in the chat box on the bottom of my screen: "oh my god, you're all naked and having sex" and one of the avatar's says in the chat box "well, hi there, come and join the party". So there I was standing in this virtual world, (completely dressed) and everybody was having the time of their lives. One female says to me "isn't this the most amazing place??" I answered "you've got that right!!" and I teleported myself to a virtual gambling casino and sat somewhere and earned some more linden dollars for doing virtually nothing.

When Alan came home and I explained what happened, after he stopped laughing so hard, his bald head turned red, he looked at me and said "I wish I could have seen your face when everybody was naked".

I mean, who ever thought that second life would have virtual sex places? Lots of virtual sex places.

So now we know what JL has been up to don't we???

melody

Maybe I better check this out! Thanks Mel! But you know, I don't think my ISP is FAST enough to handle that place...LOL If you look at it from another point of view...there are many people who don't understand sex or intimacy.. and online activities could bridge that for them. My son had a brief fascination with the Furry community...and he outgrew it pretty quickly. You can look that up, if you have never heard of it. It was a developmental, juvenile thing for him. ( I found out after, and was pretty stunned!)

In all seriousness... A non-profit does not have to file an IRS statement, unless
the income exceeds $25,000. At one time this limit was going to be raised, so
I don't know if it has. So there does not have to be accountability.

While I agree it may disturb people to know the "truth" about OBT's admin,
the "truth" varies from individual to individual. Some things can be verified on the net.. and others cannot. I have found some interesting stuff myself. Labeling posters at OBT as "high" or the implied negative attributes suggested by Liza's post, is not respectful at all.

I agree with Nide (Bob) in that most of the folks at PN are not involved in the
politics of OBT. Many aren't.

So as Liza is stunned, I am stunned to see this thread here. DocJohn does not
need more negative attitude or accusations (that do not have EVIDENCE, but only speculation)..to bring problems to this board, about another venue.
We are lucky to have this wonderful place...let's not denigrate another place using a wonderful, generous positive one. There are emails and PMs to share your feelings.

If folks do not like OBT...then don't go there. But don't cast aspersions on those of us who choose to participate there in our own way.

I donated, I was banned, I was hurt, and I got over it. It is time others move on as well.

Sorry, off the soap box.

one more thing... remember if it were not for OBT (and all it flaws as well)
we all would not have met each other, and this thread would not even exist.
Think about that. What is more important? The politics, your disappointments, or the facts and connections we all made?

When I tried to log in, Wings42 wasn't found. When I tried to register anew, I got the message "The administrator has banned your email address. To contact the administrator click here." I clicked on the link about two weeks ago, asked what the problem was and how to remedy it, and received no response. That feels so like the old OBT. I tried again tonight after reading this thread, but am not holding my breath awaiting a reply.

OBT had two crashes of the old server, and two of the new. The old server problems were quickly remediated, and we were all kept informed. The new server (which I helped pay for) problems were very s-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-y solved and we were not kept informed. In the case of the latest crash, the database wasn't even restored. In any computer dependent business, the IT director would get fired and possibly sued if the database was lost and it took so long to bring the system back up, and if the users were kept uninformed.

As far as I'm concerned, two adages apply:

- "Once bitten, twice shy" and

- "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

I'm not a fool, and will not set myself up for the typical OBT abuse and neglect a third time.

Hi Mrs. D.

You need a cable modem or a dsl line to get into second life.

And yes, I agree, there are many souls out there who are too shy to go in the real world so a fantasy world is right up their alley.

You should have seen my face when this naked person approached me asking me if I want to get it on and I think I replied "get it on what?"

Now that just shows you how old I really am.

I was sorry to hear that Liza Jane donated $10,000. At least that's what I read in the posting. That would pay my rent for one year.

So some people have bad things to say about OBT and some don't. Matter of perspective I guess.

Oh, by the way, Alan had a full spine MRI yesterday. Told me it was painful. I said "how on earth can an MRI be painful?" he said "you know I can't lie down straight without the pins and needles and shooting pain". I said "you did this for 30 minutes, you poor thing".

Nice cup of hot tea soothed the day.

Will update on what they find and what can be done. (if anything).

be well
Melody

I was never involved with any politics at braintalk, as most here werent or arent. I didnt even know there were politics, I thought it was a totalitarian state. Sure I am grateful that I had a place to go to when I didnt know anything about PN, and I appreciate most deeply the people who went out of their way to give me advice and just in general took the time to post what they knew. Many times however, I felt like I was back in grade school with the arrogance, and at times just plain meaness of the moderators. I was once threatened with being banned because I said I was sick and was throwing up, another time I was banned for 30 days because I was discussing peripheral neuropathy in the chat room and someone else found it boring and complained. That has nothing to do with politics, its just the way I was treated and I resented it. I wasnt denigrating the people from here that go to both places, Ive made a few posts there since its back up running, what I was amazed at was the almost fanatical devotion to someone who obviously has moved on to other things and the denigration of anyone who posited their view of needed reforms after two major crashes. I understand perfectly why people who contributed money to get it back up and running last time feel the way that they feel. I bet many feel like they bought the Brooklyn Bridge. By the way in a recent thread, an administrator at this site said there was no problem with discussing what people felt that they needed to about Braintalk.

Discussion is good, IMO. Implying that "something is wrong" with people who post at OBT is crossing the line, IMO.

Alot of the behaviors at OBT, I thought were due to the personality issues that the admins had.
For example, my son is a computer "nerd" techie..he makes his living with it
now. So I know many of his friends...over the years, and have a feel for
the "type" it can attract. I can tell you for example the head computer technician at the
huge place I am now temping at could put some of those admins at OBT to
shame. Did you ever see the skits on SNL in the past about the computer guy who comes into the office and denigrates the personel because they are having a snafu? Very familiar to me at least. While we can laugh at the TV, it is another matter when it is you or I who are being shamed. And I also get that shame feeling from this thread.

I personally did not feel comfortable in chats... I visited a few times, and decided it was not for me. But I would not post that I was "stunned" that others chose to do so! I think as a matter of fact that you and I chatted on one of those rare times!? I also had my moments of not posting as often as before while I was sorting out my own feelings and issues.

So the fact remains that we now have a nice new home. Those interested will find this place like OBT was found on Google. I don't think it is necessary to
keep going on and on about disappointments...one has to move on to the more constructive issues. And here it means support and helping.