- Joined
- Apr 5, 2002
- Messages
- 351
- Reaction score
- 0
I have no problem with Rick Schwartz personally (I haven't actually MET him, something many of you who so quickly attack seem to forget). But his PERSONA, that of the friendly, outsized helper of the little man, has always struck me as a little true and a lot false.
I think he means to help people, and I know people genuinely helped by him.
But I have often spoken up to let people know that his help is very convenient to the nature of his business. The more people he brings to his propaganda machine (aka Chatboard), the more people he lines up to
1) Sell him adult domains (cheap!) before anyone else.
and
2) To feed his seemingly limitless ego and increase his legend.
The fact that he pretends it's about anything else is just so silly. Not an offence of the worst order, certainly, but pretty tedious after a while.
Rick has always said that money is the only way to keep score, but day after day, usually after someone says something unlikeable about him, Rick uses the benefit of his private fiefdom to post cute little homilies like "The Lemonade Stand" to prove to everyone that his real purpose is to help people and that money is secondary to all that. If only people would stop being MORONS, he says, and start being...well, like him, things would work out, and soon they too would enjoy Pornographic Riches.
The fact that 1996 has come and gone, and so too 1998, 1999 and a few years since, and that decent adult names are almost IMPOSSIBLE to come by without spending vast sums of money, seems to be, well, inconvenient to the Grand Sage's copious shtick (and it *is* a shtick, make no mistake).
Still, the defenders line up in public to protect The Illusion, excited as they are to be collecting their $30 conversion cheques for a 3 day trial--over and over again. Anyone who dares question the endless low-level work, and the Formula, is immediately cast as a LOSER, MORON, ANGRY!!!
Puffery is the worst sin of all to me, and when I came to DnForum, I registered 'DnPowerful' as a kind of ironic joke, a tribute to Rick's puffery. Not surprisingly, given the lack of context, people took it eminently seriously, even while I didn't, and people even started saying "Is it you King in disguise?!!"
This is all a backdrop to a few days ago when I bought a name (free****picture.com) from someone here on DnForum in a hurried fit, because a long-distance buyer requested I do so. I explained patiently that the Overture numbers were for the plural name, but he insisted. He's a good buyer, and I bought it, a mere $75.
Of course, he changed his mind.
So, I decided to dump it on Rick's Board.
Simultaneously, I posted a domains wanted ad:
"Reprinted from DnForum.com:
Adult Domain Owners: 2-5 years revenue UPFRONT
After actually doing some deals off these forums out of the 10,000 junk names sent my way, I am relaunching my wanted ad:
Looking ONLY for generic adult .com's or 'net's (NO OTHER EXTENSION--PERIOD!) with type-ins and/or high Overture numbers.
If you have revenue and/or stats, include them, because I pay more for that, and will offer more off the bat.
There are only about five high end adult buyers on the planet. I am the probably the biggest. I pay as much as five years revenue depending on the name and situation. Normally I pay two years verified revenue as a minimum.
I almost never have people report being ripped off by me or having regrets, because I am usually more optimistic about a domain's potential than anyone else and will pay more.
The person I'm looking for is someone that really doesn't have any interest in selling their name because it's making them money, but figure 2-5 years revenue might be nice up front.
All conversations, including any revenue figures or any competitive business information is kept in strictest confidence. Contact me at dnpowerful at mailbolt.com"
--
Well, it turned out that the collision between the ugly free****picture.com and the All Powerful DnPowerful was too much to bear for Rick's attack dogs. The usual suspects turned out in their Sunday best: FAKER!, MORON!, ANGRY!, JEALOUS!.
Through a number of private and anonymous emails sent my way, people shouted their displeasure at me using the name "Dan Norman" and the fact that THEY, the inner circle, didn't know who I was, and how dare I front in such a fashion. Meanwhile, on the commerce side, my mailbox filled up with hotmail addresses begging for money for adult names, but "shhh" keep it quiet, please.
It's as if the massive adult business, with its billions of dollars in illicit revenue, and $250k deals done with digital disguises in full effect, were as tiny as Rick's humility gene, and that if a deal wasn't done in his little circle, then, like a tree falling in the forest, it didn't happen--at all!
Over the last few months of buying big ticket adult names, quietly, with perhaps a dozen identities mixed over a similar amount of IP's, I have been truly amazed at how many people I have come across (probably 20%) who ultimately do come from the Big Board, and who use separate identities as masks to slip on and off wherever it suits them. Their separate id's also give them a chance to vent, occasionally at Rick for his bellicose nonsense, and at someone or another in the circle.
To those really deep in this game, the reasons for multiple id's are obvious, and have nothing to do with integrity, but more mundane reasons, such as obscenity laws, privacy, and competitive advantage. The less people know about your activity, the faster and smoother is your ride.
Unless of course, you're Rick Schwartz, and you like the notoriety, and the names it brings in the door. Hey, whatever works. This is a business, first and foremost, not a Gentleman's Club, for God's sake.
But what kills me, again and again, is that in this business, where no one really is who they say they are, even if they post their name, phone number and Social Security Number, there are those who continue to attack those who are smart enough not to give away themselves in the process, while maintaining a decent level of integrity.
The people on Rick's Board scream about integrity, integrity, integrity, but it turns out integrity is only a really nice thing until someone offers you more money, and then the fake id's ramp up, and they drop Rick and his infomercial nonsense like a tired, old sweater.
I'm all for integrity, and have made many posts on this very forum to that effect, but so many of the Big Boarders must blush when they raise their fist for Rick (yea Rick!), but sell out through the back door using their other hand. Integrity is what keeps this business going and handshake deals pumping, but it's money that derails all certainties, and all pieties, and all the Big Board Fascism is getting pretty damned tired to me.
Long live the King. Just save all the propaganda for Beer Hall. Smarter people see the Emporer Without His Clothes.
I think he means to help people, and I know people genuinely helped by him.
But I have often spoken up to let people know that his help is very convenient to the nature of his business. The more people he brings to his propaganda machine (aka Chatboard), the more people he lines up to
1) Sell him adult domains (cheap!) before anyone else.
and
2) To feed his seemingly limitless ego and increase his legend.
The fact that he pretends it's about anything else is just so silly. Not an offence of the worst order, certainly, but pretty tedious after a while.
Rick has always said that money is the only way to keep score, but day after day, usually after someone says something unlikeable about him, Rick uses the benefit of his private fiefdom to post cute little homilies like "The Lemonade Stand" to prove to everyone that his real purpose is to help people and that money is secondary to all that. If only people would stop being MORONS, he says, and start being...well, like him, things would work out, and soon they too would enjoy Pornographic Riches.
The fact that 1996 has come and gone, and so too 1998, 1999 and a few years since, and that decent adult names are almost IMPOSSIBLE to come by without spending vast sums of money, seems to be, well, inconvenient to the Grand Sage's copious shtick (and it *is* a shtick, make no mistake).
Still, the defenders line up in public to protect The Illusion, excited as they are to be collecting their $30 conversion cheques for a 3 day trial--over and over again. Anyone who dares question the endless low-level work, and the Formula, is immediately cast as a LOSER, MORON, ANGRY!!!
Puffery is the worst sin of all to me, and when I came to DnForum, I registered 'DnPowerful' as a kind of ironic joke, a tribute to Rick's puffery. Not surprisingly, given the lack of context, people took it eminently seriously, even while I didn't, and people even started saying "Is it you King in disguise?!!"
This is all a backdrop to a few days ago when I bought a name (free****picture.com) from someone here on DnForum in a hurried fit, because a long-distance buyer requested I do so. I explained patiently that the Overture numbers were for the plural name, but he insisted. He's a good buyer, and I bought it, a mere $75.
Of course, he changed his mind.
So, I decided to dump it on Rick's Board.
Simultaneously, I posted a domains wanted ad:
"Reprinted from DnForum.com:
Adult Domain Owners: 2-5 years revenue UPFRONT
After actually doing some deals off these forums out of the 10,000 junk names sent my way, I am relaunching my wanted ad:
Looking ONLY for generic adult .com's or 'net's (NO OTHER EXTENSION--PERIOD!) with type-ins and/or high Overture numbers.
If you have revenue and/or stats, include them, because I pay more for that, and will offer more off the bat.
There are only about five high end adult buyers on the planet. I am the probably the biggest. I pay as much as five years revenue depending on the name and situation. Normally I pay two years verified revenue as a minimum.
I almost never have people report being ripped off by me or having regrets, because I am usually more optimistic about a domain's potential than anyone else and will pay more.
The person I'm looking for is someone that really doesn't have any interest in selling their name because it's making them money, but figure 2-5 years revenue might be nice up front.
All conversations, including any revenue figures or any competitive business information is kept in strictest confidence. Contact me at dnpowerful at mailbolt.com"
--
Well, it turned out that the collision between the ugly free****picture.com and the All Powerful DnPowerful was too much to bear for Rick's attack dogs. The usual suspects turned out in their Sunday best: FAKER!, MORON!, ANGRY!, JEALOUS!.
Through a number of private and anonymous emails sent my way, people shouted their displeasure at me using the name "Dan Norman" and the fact that THEY, the inner circle, didn't know who I was, and how dare I front in such a fashion. Meanwhile, on the commerce side, my mailbox filled up with hotmail addresses begging for money for adult names, but "shhh" keep it quiet, please.
It's as if the massive adult business, with its billions of dollars in illicit revenue, and $250k deals done with digital disguises in full effect, were as tiny as Rick's humility gene, and that if a deal wasn't done in his little circle, then, like a tree falling in the forest, it didn't happen--at all!
Over the last few months of buying big ticket adult names, quietly, with perhaps a dozen identities mixed over a similar amount of IP's, I have been truly amazed at how many people I have come across (probably 20%) who ultimately do come from the Big Board, and who use separate identities as masks to slip on and off wherever it suits them. Their separate id's also give them a chance to vent, occasionally at Rick for his bellicose nonsense, and at someone or another in the circle.
To those really deep in this game, the reasons for multiple id's are obvious, and have nothing to do with integrity, but more mundane reasons, such as obscenity laws, privacy, and competitive advantage. The less people know about your activity, the faster and smoother is your ride.
Unless of course, you're Rick Schwartz, and you like the notoriety, and the names it brings in the door. Hey, whatever works. This is a business, first and foremost, not a Gentleman's Club, for God's sake.
But what kills me, again and again, is that in this business, where no one really is who they say they are, even if they post their name, phone number and Social Security Number, there are those who continue to attack those who are smart enough not to give away themselves in the process, while maintaining a decent level of integrity.
The people on Rick's Board scream about integrity, integrity, integrity, but it turns out integrity is only a really nice thing until someone offers you more money, and then the fake id's ramp up, and they drop Rick and his infomercial nonsense like a tired, old sweater.
I'm all for integrity, and have made many posts on this very forum to that effect, but so many of the Big Boarders must blush when they raise their fist for Rick (yea Rick!), but sell out through the back door using their other hand. Integrity is what keeps this business going and handshake deals pumping, but it's money that derails all certainties, and all pieties, and all the Big Board Fascism is getting pretty damned tired to me.
Long live the King. Just save all the propaganda for Beer Hall. Smarter people see the Emporer Without His Clothes.
