Jeff For Fan Club President!

[Matt]

The true beneficiary of the cost savings on the trip is Phillip Wise.

(snip)

...we're already up to $1525ish kicked right back into Uncle Phil's pocket just by having Dustin win.

I doubt that the $1500 or so Philip may have saved by Dustin "winning" the trip to SDCC is much of a factor at all.  Let's not forget that Philip flew Dustin down to Dallas for some crappy toy show so Dustin could give away $40 Official Pix prints in exchange for Hyperspace memberships.  In the short-term, that was a money-losing weekend.

I think the real value out of all of this is the nerd cred that Philip will get from being able to say that his number two guy is president of the Fan Club for the next year.

[ruiner]

 Let's not forget that Philip flew Dustin down to Dallas for some crappy toy show so Dustin could give away $40 Official Pix prints in exchange for Hyperspace memberships.

And lets not forget Dude that keeping wildlife, um... an amphibious rodent, for... um, ya know domestic... within the city... that ain't legal either.

[Angry Ewok]

 Let's not forget that Philip flew Dustin down to Dallas for some crappy toy show so Dustin could give away $40 Official Pix prints in exchange for Hyperspace memberships.

And lets not forget Dude that keeping wildlife, um... an amphibious rodent, for... um, ya know domestic... within the city... that ain't legal either.

William Shatner, is it you?

[Jayson]

I doubt that the $1500 or so Philip may have saved by Dustin "winning" the trip to SDCC is much of a factor at all.  Let's not forget that Philip flew Dustin down to Dallas for some crappy toy show so Dustin could give away $40 Official Pix prints in exchange for Hyperspace memberships.  In the short-term, that was a money-losing weekend.

If PW did in fact purchase the ticket for Dustin, and Dustin handed out Official Pix merch., couldn't PW just write it all off (hotel, ticket and show pass) as a promotion expense?

[Morgbug]

If he's an employee, yes.  If he's a volunteer, probably. 

[CaptainAlex]

Yakfsace.com has taken the very public step in questioning this outcome of the election on their front page this afternoon.

It's good to see another major collecting website question the offical story. I hope other sites follow their lead.

I think the erasing of the discussion at rebelscum has really kicked things up another notch.

RS was better off just locking it instead of the old clean slate ,"never happened" school of historical record.

[JediMAC]

Yakfsace.com has taken the very public step in questioning this outcome of the election on their front page this afternoon.

It's good to see another major collecting website question the offical story. I hope other sites follow their lead...

Good for Mark for bringing it up publicly.  I was contemplating doing that here as well, but ultimately passed on the idea (for now).  Unfortunately, even if/when the Fan Club does attempt to explain what happened, I doubt many folks will actually believe them (much like Phillip's usual ridiculous and insulting attempts at spin control).

I do find it highly amusing that Dustin is now unable to even make a post over in the RS forums about his victory, to thank those who helped him finish in a distant second first place.  Heh.

Big thanks to Richard and Jayson as well, for pointing out even more money going into (being saved by) Phillip's pocket.  Hadn't even thought about those things...  It's also an interesting potential conflict to point out that the prizes can't be transferred.  I would think that should include giveaways as well, since "transfer" doesn't necessarily have to mean physical money was involved.  After all, if Dustin wasn't interested in the actual prizes, what was the point of his running?  Oh wait, I remember now... 

[Owen D]

Anybody else notice that the photoshopped picture of his victory celebration appears to be using Nixon's body?  Is this to suggest that he'll be resigning in disgrace, too?

[Phrubruh]

Well he does have the same size nose.

[Jesse James]

OK guys, I hate to step in but I'm going to have to ask that the insults and stuff cease at this point...  Are people pissed off?  Obviously.  Was there shady things went on?  I believe so.

Personal insults though on people's physical appearance and such is crossing the line at this point, and we don't let that go here whether they're members or not.  Be pissed all you want, cite the how's and why's, but lay off the personal attacks please.

Keep this to the topic at hand, and nothing more.  The other things have gotten completely out of hand I'm afraid, and I'd hate to have to lock this thread considering you can't openly discuss the matter over there... 

Keep it civil guys...  This is crossing the line of simple anger at the situation and getting into the realm of spite.

[Matt_Fury]

Matt,

You made some excellent points in your response...it definitely puts this whole fiasco into perspective.

Josh,

I don't think you quite grasp how much PW is turning our hobby into a money making franchise for himself.  I'm not begrudging him the opportunity to make money....I just do not like his tactics.  It's like he doesn't respect the fans of SW or the average joe collector and just sees all of us as a way for him to make money.  He pushes everyone in the props forums to use the RS link to MR whenever they make a purchase, he makes money off of all the transactions that are made at MR, SWShop, EE(?) that are linked from TF.N or RS....it may not seem like much, but it sure adds up over time.

He's ruined a great online forum when they were merged from BHC...with the spam e-mails and the bannings of people who disagree with him.  Although I wasn't actually banned, I hate the facgt that he decided to just delete posts of mine that were critical of him and the RS staff that were not at all rude or inaccurate.

I would much rather some kid who enjoys the movies, buys star wars figures and just loves collecting won the FC presidency that someone who probably shouldn't have even been allowed to run.  The way this has all been handled by PW and RS ingeneral is deplorable.  I hope this is the straw that breaks the camel's back over there and we finally see the mas exodus of quality posters over at the RS forums and he's left with the Mr Kenobi's, GNT's, Lady Jaye's and others of their ilk....let them stay there while JD and GH gets a nice boost to their respective communities.

[DoctorPadawan]

I don't have the exact quote as I never thought to save it, but does anyone have the bit from the article on "Lord of the Rings" merchandising and the LOTR online community where Wise, in reference to the money-making potential of SW vs. the money-making potential of LOTR, said something like, he "backed the wrong franchise?"

That comment, more than anything else, said everything I ever needed to know about where his interest in SW stands.

And lest we forget his hostile takeover/disclosure of personal information/mass firing of the TFN forum moderators a few years ago.

[JediMAC]

And lest we forget his hostile takeover/disclosure of personal information/mass firing of the TFN forum moderators a few years ago.

Yeah, I meant to mention that one as well Michael.  Bloody brilliant when Phillip steps in to TFn and suddenly starts demanding all of the personal information from his entire TFn staff and moderating crew, with absolutely no reason given to them whatsoever as to why he wanted/needed it all.  It wasn't until he fired half of them for not divulging to him ALL of their private, personal information (which I believe he said he'd be storing online somewhere, IIRC), that he finally had to come out and address yet another forum community of his that was VERY irate wth him (as usual), by telling them something to the effect of TFn was a business, and as it's owner, he had to have every right to request every last detail on everyone that "worked" for him there.

Funny that now he's downplaying folks (Dustin's) involvement with the various sites, saying that they're "just volunteers".  It sure seemed to be a matter of life and death to Phillip a few years ago when the whole TFn fiasco blew up in his face, and his "employees" wouldn't bow down to his every whim.  Again, not one shred of appreciation or consideration to numerous people that were busting their humps for the man.  But at least one good thing came out of it all (since the RS crew had to give their personal info to him as well), we got to find out who GREGG was! 

In the end, it's really all about a person's character.  I think that's why so many collectors and fans are upset about this latest turn of events.  Who knows, perhaps USCwannabe's character may not have been too great (maybe, according to Dustin's biased friends and supporters), but instead, you now have a (puppet) Fan Club President who is a petty, spiteful, and arrogant jerk to anyone who disagrees with him or his boss, or that might (god forbid) be involved with a site other than his own.  Then, to top it off, the puppetmaster who's pulling the strings is basically the biggest cancer in the entire collecting community (not that he's actually a part of the "community", per se).  A greedy, pompous, self-righteous, demeaning businessman who's more than happy to **** all over the fans, and his own members, if it'll somehow put dollars in his pocket, and/or keep them from (deservedly) verbally ripping him to shreds.  The man's been proven time and time again to be a habitual liar, a deceitful cheat, a hypocrite, and an abusive, condescending "leader" in our hobby, who'll cover his tracks and delete his comments or various thread(s) at the drop of a hat if it'll somehow save him some face and save his sites from further embarrassment or furor.  Yet this is the man Star Wars fans and collectors continue to push further and further to the top of our beloved hobby.  I just don't get it...

If these guys were actually decent fellas, who were in this as fans, and friends with the overall community, and as generally respectable collectors, it'd be a totally different ballgame, and most of us wouldn't have a gripe right now.  But that's obviously not the case, now is it...?

- M

[Morgbug]

In the end, it's really all about a person's character.  I think that's why so many collectors and fans are upset about this latest turn of events.  Who knows, perhaps USCwannabe's character may not have been too great (maybe, according to Dustin's biased friends and supporters)...

Matt, thanks for doing a great job of portraying the events with an even keel.  I think you're doing a fine job of elucidating the real nature of the problem as most people view it.  I don't get much into the whole RS debate really.  A while back I decided to mostly leave there because I couldn't tolerate the excess of juvenile commentary that drowned out the good stuff.  Volume simply wasn't enough. 

But the above quote really hits a chord with me.  In this day and age, unsupported innuendo is so easy to disperse and sell to people as truth.  I see it in so many different forms and to see what may well be the same slur tactics in a contest for Fan Club President (aka Lord of the Geeks) is quite simply surreal.  One can only hope that wasn't a factor in the decision as to who won and who lost, certainly not without some serious efforts to validate those rumors. 

I've not seen all the comments regarding USCwannabe that are negative and nor do I particularly care too.  I guess I'm just naive and would like to believe the contest was won fairly.  It's troublesome to see that the contest was seemingly out of reach for Dustin, followed by silence from all parties and then with no explanation Dustin wins.  That's just a little too curious for my blood.

And just in case anyone's wondering, I'm still registered at RS.  I've never been banned there in spite of a somewhat obvious association with JD.  I've never had a run in with Dustin and I even was one of the winners of Scum's 5 year anniversary giveaway.  I just tired of the crap on the boards is all. 

Anyway, sometimes you feel the need to ramble, so I thought I'd do that and say thanks to butthead Colman as well.

[BillCable]

I predict we'll never hear anything from USC, because I expect LFL game him some sort of settlement in exchange for his silence when they decided to disqualify him.