u-Bob

Ok, let's get this straight once and for all.

As most people around here know:
- I've been fighting this .xxx for a very long time.
- I've never been afraid to speak my mind.
- I'm not the kind of person that starts fake drama all over the place.

Some time ago I started noticing something odd. I started getting the impression that you (who in the past has always been anti .xxx) were getting more tolerant towards the ICM Registry. Whether or not this was your intention is impossible to tell. You're the only one who can answer that. But based on your posts, that was the impression I got.

At the same time I noticed a certain hostility from your part towards people who used humor (comments like "I heard all .xxx are filled with malware") to fight the .xxx or people who made certain errors in thinking when writing their anti .xxx posts. At the time I didn't think much of this. I attributed it to a difference in style. Personally I applaud any attempt to stop the ICM and if someone makes an error I try to correct it. Just like I did in goodgirl's thread about the danger of the ICM monopolizing search in the .xxx tld. You have, let's face it, at times displayed the tendency to "bark" (pun intended) at those posts you deem to be "simpleminded". Again, it is possible that this was never your intention. however, that is the impression I got.

Last week, when chatting on icq about the .xxx tld, 2 other GFY'ers brought up the exact same points. And 1 of them asked me if I knew something about a rumor he'd heard. The rumor being that you had been approached by the ICM to fill the gap created when Chris 2/3.0 left. My first reaction was : this can't be true. Or maybe they did approach him but he surely must have told them to go fuck themselves.

Around the same time I got a 3rd icq msg about the same rumor. I discreetly asked around. I emailed 2 people who've been long time members of this industry and fiercely anti-.xxx. Both of them replied that they didn't know anything about this and that they'd find it hard to believe. I also contacted 5 people on icq. 2 of them I basically told "this is the rumor, know anything about?". The 3 others I asked more indirectly: "any news on the .xxx front?".

Out of those 7 people I contacted (2email, 5 icq), 2 replied that they had picked up a rumor about you, 1 other didn't know anything about a rumor but did mention what he described to be your "change of heart".

At that time I started to get a bit worried. To be honest, I never like your style, but I always respected your efforts to fight the .xxx tld and I was impressed when you took the time and made the effort to go to san Fransisco to be one of the few to actually protest there.

Part of me didn't want to believe the rumors. Another part of me is always a bit suspicious, so you could summarize my position at that time as: "I hope it's not true."

Around that time I started a new gfy thread asking if the ICM Registry had hired a gfy-er to do its dirty work. One reason for this was that the way Chris 2/3.0 and NALEM got shitlisted all over the place for doing business with the ICM and that this thread would serve as a warning/message to whoever might be considering taking money from the ICM next. The other reason was to find out if anyone knew anything about the rumor that the ICM had approached you. In that thread I never once said anything about you or the rumor about you.

Funny thing is that some of the replies in that thread could be seen as references to you and 1 person later contacted me asking "Who is it? Is it baddog?". I replied: "I hope not".

To be honest, I still wasn't sure what to make of it. Lots of rumors, no proof...

At one point you made an anti-.xxx remark and I replied that it was great to see that you still were anti-.xxx and that the rumors must false then.

At that point i really thought, ok, he's still on the good side.

However, ever since then you have continued to display a certain hostility. You never once asked what this rumor was (I never posted it) either on gfy or on icq. Did you already know about this rumor?

So to summarize: personally I don't think you are working for the ICM. However, the attitude you have been displaying lately has obviously given the impression to some that you are. Your refusal to clearly state that you are not working for the ICM (either directly or indirectly) when people allude to it, may not be the best way to handle this. And calling everyone who says something you don't like a simpleton or an idiot certainly isn't.