Re: Amused

["Stanley Barthfarkle" <sbarth@xxxxxxxxx>]

Roland,

Here's a little background. I'll try to be as objective and unbiased as
possible.

Robert Bass came here in the mid-90's. Back then, this forum was almost
exclusively dedicated to discussion among alarm professionals about
installation, service, products, and business issues specific to our
industry. Usenet had not become as widespread as it is today, so we rarely
had homeowners come in asking questions.

Bass came here like a bull in a china shop, espousing a long, storied career
in "the trade", and spouting off about just how much he knew, how much
smarter he was than any of the rest of us, and telling what turned out to be
outright lies about his background in "the trade". (He has also done the
same thing in other groups such as alt.aviation, telling tall tales and
baiting flame wars, and alt.home.automation, where he has a somewhat
sympathetic ear because of morons like Mikey (("Group Moderator", inside
joke)) who are obsessed with trying to hurt Bass) He pissed a few people off
with his sociopathic cyber-arguments, and a couple of them took him to task
about his background, checking publicly available info such as licensing,
etc.

They found several interesting facts, which exposed his lies about his
length and breadth of service in "the trade", and uncovered a Felony
conviction that he had in the late 70's involving a firearm and a family
member, and a DUI accident during the same period in which he was
responsible for killing a young woman. One needs to keep in mind that in
most places, convicted felons are not allowed to install, service, or sell
security systems or equipment, or own an alarm company.

Of course, when confronted with this information, Robert at first denied,
then, when confronted with evidence, spun the information into new tales.
IE: He's been a "prison minister", he's been "saved" as a Christian, etc.
He's denied using "shell" companies involving relatives to both cover his
activities, (as a felon who is involved with security systems illegally) and
to avoid paying his fair share of taxes. Of course, none of these things are
Robert's fault; oh no, it's the people who dared to take him to task. If he
had come here and played nicely with others instead of purposely causing a
ruckus, we may have never known of his past. But of course, he isn't as
smart as he likes to think he is- at least not in a "big picture" sense.

The regular posters to this group are mostly "old-school" alarm pros- we
install and service systems, or own companies that do. We have paid our
"dues", worked hard within an industry which has become very hard to make a
living at thanks to "giveaway" systems from the big companies, and take
pride in providing quality systems. We take pride in helping to protect
people from the dangers of fire and criminals, and work within the law.
There aren't any "trunk-slammers" here, at least not any that stay very
long.

When Robert's marriage and business (another whole story) began to fail, he
started an online store. Where would his customers come from? You guessed
it- ASA. He would (and continues to do today) start a thread to "discuss"
something, in which the main objective was/is to gather new customers for
his DROP SHIPPING operation (Robert doesn't stock anything, he has items
sent from professional-only not-for-sale-to-the-public alarm wholesale
suppliers) via this message board. He has developed a "them vs. us" diatribe
where he pits the "greedy alarm pros" against "poor small benevolent
businessman Robert and his DIY customers" to some effect.

Of course, many of his activities within "the trade" continue to remain, if
not wholly illegal, against all professional ethics. To wit, he sells things
to people that were only meant to be sold to professionally trained
installers, and provides "free" manuals and software to DIY customers that
are clearly marked and advertised for properly trained and licensed industry
pros only. He now operates his "store" from his Florida, where licensing is
less strict than his former Hartford Connecticut home base. Still, he is
clearly using loopholes to skirt the law by providing third party monitoring
service and technical assistance to DIY customers (he needs a license that
he can't get to do these things) through intermediaries.

He has stolen the written work from many here, including myself, (need to
know how to defeat a phone-line cut attempt without a cell backup? My
article is there) for his "help" pages. He has literally called people's
employers and gotten at least one (who is still here, and will probably pipe
in any moment now) fired from his job for posting obscenities to Robert. He
has taken many people here "real life", and has gotten a few "real life"
types doing the same to him in return.

I could go on, but this is the gist. Hope it helps those who havent been
here since the mid-90's to understand a bit about the flame wars that go on
here. My next dictionary item will probably be the definition of "dirtbag".