scubamagazine.net are spammers w/shady business practice

Here on Wetpixel, his username is "RebreatherDave".

I think he has a new one.... 'pinay pam' doing the rounds on facebook / scubaboard. I called him/her on it and their response wasn't what you'd expect for someone genuine.

I think he has a new one.... 'pinay pam' doing the rounds on facebook / scubaboard. I called him/her on it and their response wasn't what you'd expect for someone genuine.

possibly Jennifer Martin on facebook who's been spamming a lot of divers on facebook as well...

It appears that [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] is spamming us here on Wetpixel by signing up as members who are clearly female (to entice our male-majority members) and spamming individual users via private messages.

 

Apologies for letting it through. We're taking action to make sure it's harder for people to do that.

 

And -- shame on [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] for spamming. I'm going to make sure the entire online publishing dive community is aware of your actions. If anyone reading this is participating in the forums at [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor], you may want to rethink your participation in a company who stoops to spamming.

 

For future reference, the two Wetpixel users who were spamming are "PhotoGirl" and "iDiveChick", both of whom came from ip address 65.111.169.35, which resolves to a machine at serverpronto.com.

Eric,

Is that the same "PhotoGirl" who has just advertised Ikelite product for sale in the 'Classified' section of Wetpixel ??

Bruce...

Yes, it appears to be the same person. Same ip address.

UPDATE: OOPS -- I thought you actually meant "PhotoGirl" and not "photo_grl", who is not the same person. I have no idea if they are the same.

photo_grl has also posted the item on Scubaboard. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt and not crucify her just yet!

I was quite surprised that "Pinay Pam" was made an administrator on the [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] PPD facebook page. By her own admission she was a brand new diver. Something didn't seem quite right, but I figured, "what the heck" maybe Dave was as much a sucker for a pretty face as the rest of us guys can be at times

I thought at first that the fact they were using the same name from scubaboard was not very good, but decided it must not be much of an issue since some of the PPD'ers from scubaboard were posting there also.

When I ran across a link to this thread on another board, I posted it on PPD's facebook page. I deleted all my photo's from the [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] facebook page and left the group. I deleted as much content as I could from what I had posted on scubabmagzine.net's site and placed copyright notices with the items that I couldn't delete (I had posted trip reports from the Philippines and Japan and included some of my best photos). As I was finishing this, I found myself BLOCKED on his site

Just another chapter in the story ;-)

I wonder if these companies are truely sponsoring scubmag****.net

Those banners look like they were ripped off of Wetpixel. I made those buttons with a bezel to look like buttons, and the only one that is different is the Aquatica one (which is a different banner than the one we use here).

More BS from [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url].

I wonder if these companies are truely sponsoring scubmag****.net

I asked INON about it and they told me they never paid them and had asked to be removed. It was gone for a while, not its back.

I've sent an email to those housing companies...

Eric

just wondering since the buttons are a derivative artwork that you did, would it be possible to claim CR infringement for ripping them off?

Wow, this thread is fascinating,

My question - what does this guy have to gain from his actions??

Where's the $ in what he is doing, or am I being naive as a "youngster" in this Web 2.0 world??

Wow, this thread is fascinating,

 

My question - what does this guy have to gain from his actions??

 

Where's the $ in what he is doing, or am I being naive as a "youngster" in this Web 2.0 world??

The money for online forums comes from advertising on the site. Advertising rates are based on the "traffic" to the site. The better his site looks, the more traffic he can draw. Some companies might not want to advertise on a site that engaged in less than ethical practices.

Potentially there is money to be made, but of course it's possible to make no money. Same risk whenever anyone starts a new business. Generally one has to be prepared not to make any money the first few years while getting established.

In this particular case I personally was more than willing to help him out in getting established. I re-posted material and photographs that I had posted on other sites and posted new material and photographs on his sites.

This is what someone needs who is running an online forum if they want to eventually make money. People to participate. The more participation, the more traffic. The more traffic, the more money they can charge for advertising. There's nothing wrong with having a business and making money. What this thread is about is some of the ways that most people consider to be an unethical way to go about it.

When I ran across this thread, I decided not to participate on his site anymore.

Here on Wetpixel, his username is "RebreatherDave".

RebreatherDave was hanging out on the video forums a year or two ago. He had an Amphibico housing and was a bit clueless about it, but seemed like a genuine nice guy hoping to improve. I gave him loads of help as did others like Wagsy. But then he vanished. I'm really surprised to hear that he is the notorious [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] spammer.

Dear All,

I keep getting 'we miss you' emails from scubamag / idivechick

Joined the forum, but got a bad feeling so stopped participating. Having read all this thread, and looked at the pictures it is obvious to me that the chicks a dude!

Lets face it, diving is still a male dominated sport, especially when it boils down to the very technical stuff. Not saying that I don't enjoy a good technical discussion about things I understand or want to learn more about.... but there aren't that many girls / ladies that would post up gazillions of pictures of the insides of rebreathers! (Girls are interested - just not THAT interested).

Also, I found it very fishy (no pun intended) that the very attractive 23 year old idivechick did not post any pictures of herself whilst participating in the sport.... I'm sure that a good looking young lady in wet neoprene would have had a lot more success in seducing the boys into her / his web of deceit!

I don't have an issue with folks making money from setting up forums etc, as long as they treat their customers with respect - and honesty is a cornerstone of the relationship.

So...I saw RebreatherDave aka Dave Bischof aka iDiveChick driving in his white and blue truck today on the 101 freeway getting onto the 405-N...

That is AWESOME. Next time, get your passenger to hold up a sign that says, "I LOVE YOU, iDiveChick!!"

RebreatherDave was hanging out on the video forums a year or two ago. He had an Amphibico housing and was a bit clueless about it, but seemed like a genuine nice guy hoping to improve. I gave him loads of help as did others like Wagsy. But then he vanished. I'm really surprised to hear that he is the notorious [url=http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17238]scubamagazine.net[/url] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] [known spammer -editor] spammer.

My guess would be he tried spamming as a different login, and Eric blocked the IP, thus removing access for his genuine account.

The other option is that he could be a transvestite and that is his alter ego; He probably still lives with his mom and borrows her DSL - maybe he gets home from work, locks his bedroom door whilst he slips off the overalls after a hard days work and gets in to some lingerie. Sitting on his Spiderman Bedsheets as he tries to make some new friends as the woman he always wished he had been. Don't be so hard on the guy...