I received this post awhile ago from one of our members that he saw on the YP’s Gamo page and brought it to my attention and as one of the original members of the GTA new it was not true. He was in fact one of the people that received the invitation.
Here was the post.
It had more to do with mining members' email addresses for the purpose of sending spam. - Steve in NC on Jun 8, 2007, 6: 02 PM
There is not the least bit of truth in that and Steve-in-NC knows it and so does the forum owner but being the person that he is will never admit to it. I never sent spam to anyone. It was his way and excuse to seek revenge because I helped build another forum and I, as he put it, “stabbed him in the backâ€. Almost everybody knew it then and knows it today.
Here is what actually happened and nearly everybody know it to be the truth, including both Steve’s.
When Gene and IÂ began putting the GTA together, I informed Gene that I had a customer data base address book of nearly 300 customers. I told him that I would send out an open invitation to all of my customers inviting them to visit the new Gateway to Airguns forum. At that time Steve-in-NC and I were still working together and I had kept him abreast of what we were doing, discussed it and also informed him of the idea of I had of sending the invitations weeks in advance. Steve was well aware of the truth.
I prepared an open invitation to send to my customers that were to be sent out in groups of ten. After we had put the forum together I proceeded to do just that. I sent e-mail invitations to my “Customers†in groups of approximately 10.:)Â
In my e-mail address book, there were a few names that were not past customers but they were in my address data base. In the process of setting up the mailing groups, they were included in the mailing. It seems that there were a few of those addresses that were members from the YP’s but not actually customers which is quite understandable because for years, it was the only forum that I actively participated. I wouldn't have even known the difference.
A couple of them had made a comment about receiving the invitation on the YP’s about recieving an invitation to the new GTA forum. Right away, the forum owner, Steve in CT, came unglued and accused me of “harvesting†the forum with the intention of sending out spam to all of his members. Bull!!! Both of the Steve’s knew that was not true then and they both know it to this day and one of the many reasons for all that has transpired since. It also gave him an excuse to slander me, delete any reference to me and attempt to destroy me, my website as well as the GTA forum. And as many of you know, it was so bad that he nearly destroyed his own forum, created havoc on other forums and lost a lot of the members. Anybody that posted on the GTA were banned from the YP’s. And it continues on to this day. However, with that said, almost everybody over there are a great bunch of people and nearly all of the YP membership were aware of the truth. Dozens of them came to both Gene and I both on our forum and in e-mails with support.
Bottom line…In all of the invitations that I sent out, I had just one person that e-mailed me and asked me to remove him from my customer mailing list which I did and e-mailed him an apology. Other than that, out of nearly 300 invitations that were sent out, I had not received one single complaint. :p
That’s how it went. Why do I bring it up??? Because you as members of the forum should be aware of the truth and when you see this kind of misinformation over there as I’m sure some do, I’m sure for some it brings up questions. But you guys, especially the ones that have been with us from the early days, can relate.
But with all of that, Gene and I as well as you guys that hung in there and look what we have today. And it wasn’t cuz of no spam either.
And ya know what else guys??? His claim that he would"bury" us never came to pass and we just keep goin' and growin'. I just luv it here...
AIN’T THIS A GREAT PLACE TO BE?
??
Thanks guys…… and gals.
