BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-01, 22:33:

It has come to my attention, and specifics will be avoided as per the preferences of Vogons mods, to keep drama off here, search "retro scammer" etc to dig more up, that there is an undercurrent of unease, drama and ppl bowing out of the scene due to how one or several sociopaths have been playing "names" in various retro communities, Mac, Tandy, PC, Arcade etc off against each other, while gaining trust of some of them (temporarily) and leveraging it to inveigle sale or trade items which are incompletely paid for. Hence several have been becoming jaded and distrustful. This maybe has put a cloud over various segments of the scene this year so far and dimmed it's sparkle.

I am not sure that detailed discussion of this will be possible here, so just treat it as a PSA/warning, especially if someone pops up out of nowhere trying to be your new best friend and claiming to know virtually everyone.

Without direct involvement one wouldn't know what to believe about this controversial story making the rounds on the internet for 15+ years now (with a small "break"). But thankfully more and more people are coming forward with information lately, so it seems that it'll stop being controversial very soon if it hasn't already.

rmay635703 wrote on 2024-04-01, 14:15:

Be careful as There are also YouTube alternatives recommended by folks like yewtu.be indivious and piped.video but all appear to be scam farms (and I’m too terrified to check them further).
Would love to be proven wrong and there actually is a legit low resource solution to YouTube .

I've used Invidious regularly since September 2019. How is it a "scam farm"?
Note that Invidious is a decentralised client; yewtu.be is the domain name for a public instance.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-01, 22:33:

It has come to my attention, and specifics will be avoided as per the preferences of Vogons mods, to keep drama off here, search "retro scammer" etc to dig more up, that there is an undercurrent of unease, drama and ppl bowing out of the scene due to how one or several sociopaths have been playing "names" in various retro communities, Mac, Tandy, PC, Arcade etc off against each other, while gaining trust of some of them (temporarily) and leveraging it to inveigle sale or trade items which are incompletely paid for. Hence several have been becoming jaded and distrustful. This maybe has put a cloud over various segments of the scene this year so far and dimmed it's sparkle.

I am not sure that detailed discussion of this will be possible here, so just treat it as a PSA/warning, especially if someone pops up out of nowhere trying to be your new best friend and claiming to know virtually everyone.

I was curious as to what this was referring to. Unfortunately just searching for retro scams turned up a variety of different scams.

It took some digging, but for anyone who wants to know what this is about, visit Ron's Computer Videos ( https://www.youtube.com/@RonsCompVids ). He has a couple videos from this past month that are about what I am assuming you are referring to.

GemCookie wrote on 2024-04-02, 07:55:

rmay635703 wrote on 2024-04-01, 14:15:

Be careful as There are also YouTube alternatives recommended by folks like yewtu.be indivious and piped.video but all appear to be scam farms (and I’m too terrified to check them further).
Would love to be proven wrong and there actually is a legit low resource solution to YouTube .

I've used Invidious regularly since September 2019. How is it a "scam farm"?
Note that Invidious is a decentralised client; yewtu.be is the domain name for a public instance.

Beats me, had a low trust score so I avoid anything that has a low trust score. Daily motion was another with an extremely low score, I used it on a disposable computer with popup and virus protection + firewall and it seemed to be ok, from what I’m told daily motion recently became “less problematic “

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-02, 12:42:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-01, 22:33:

It has come to my attention, and specifics will be avoided as per the preferences of Vogons mods, to keep drama off here, search "retro scammer" etc to dig more up, that there is an undercurrent of unease, drama and ppl bowing out of the scene due to how one or several sociopaths have been playing "names" in various retro communities, Mac, Tandy, PC, Arcade etc off against each other, while gaining trust of some of them (temporarily) and leveraging it to inveigle sale or trade items which are incompletely paid for. Hence several have been becoming jaded and distrustful. This maybe has put a cloud over various segments of the scene this year so far and dimmed it's sparkle.

I am not sure that detailed discussion of this will be possible here, so just treat it as a PSA/warning, especially if someone pops up out of nowhere trying to be your new best friend and claiming to know virtually everyone.

I was curious as to what this was referring to. Unfortunately just searching for retro scams turned up a variety of different scams.

It took some digging, but for anyone who wants to know what this is about, visit Ron's Computer Videos ( https://www.youtube.com/@RonsCompVids ). He has a couple videos from this past month that are about what I am assuming you are referring to.

The vid with Adrian answers many questions. Now I know why Adrian kinda disappeared from the NABU scene after being one of the early people doing videos about it.

kingcake wrote on 2024-04-02, 16:07:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-02, 12:42:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-01, 22:33:

It has come to my attention, and specifics will be avoided as per the preferences of Vogons mods, to keep drama off here, search "retro scammer" etc to dig more up, that there is an undercurrent of unease, drama and ppl bowing out of the scene due to how one or several sociopaths have been playing "names" in various retro communities, Mac, Tandy, PC, Arcade etc off against each other, while gaining trust of some of them (temporarily) and leveraging it to inveigle sale or trade items which are incompletely paid for. Hence several have been becoming jaded and distrustful. This maybe has put a cloud over various segments of the scene this year so far and dimmed it's sparkle.

I am not sure that detailed discussion of this will be possible here, so just treat it as a PSA/warning, especially if someone pops up out of nowhere trying to be your new best friend and claiming to know virtually everyone.

I was curious as to what this was referring to. Unfortunately just searching for retro scams turned up a variety of different scams.

It took some digging, but for anyone who wants to know what this is about, visit Ron's Computer Videos ( https://www.youtube.com/@RonsCompVids ). He has a couple videos from this past month that are about what I am assuming you are referring to.

The vid with Adrian answers many questions. Now I know why Adrian kinda disappeared from the NABU scene after being one of the early people doing videos about it.

For starters "Famous persons in retro communities"and "Youtube celebrities" in that Ron's video sound so funny, at least to me ... 😄

And that second video ... "Used your name to use some sort of unearned social capital". Lol, what? 😄 I dunno, it looks kind of childish to me. Two gray-haired guys spend almost an hour to discuss some guy that they were too naive to take him at his word. Cause, come on guys, almost every one of us received in the past at least once an e-mail from Nigerian prince looking for friend to help him to get his inheritance. No one in his right mind had started a discussion with that scammer. I personally even don't talk on a phone with representatives of the companies I deal with. You have something to tell me, send me an e-mail from your official e-mail address, or I'll call you back to your official phone number.

And those deals. How can you send to someone you don't know your stuff that costs hundreds of bucks for free? I mean, what's the problem to make an exchange using PayPal that gives you 6 months to have your money back if something goes wrong? How do those guys live on their own in this world? 😄

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2024-04-02, 18:08:

kingcake wrote on 2024-04-02, 16:07:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-02, 12:42:

I was curious as to what this was referring to. Unfortunately just searching for retro scams turned up a variety of different scams.

It took some digging, but for anyone who wants to know what this is about, visit Ron's Computer Videos ( https://www.youtube.com/@RonsCompVids ). He has a couple videos from this past month that are about what I am assuming you are referring to.

The vid with Adrian answers many questions. Now I know why Adrian kinda disappeared from the NABU scene after being one of the early people doing videos about it.

For starters "Famous persons in retro communities"and "Youtube celebrities" in that Ron's video sound so funny, at least to me ... 😄

And that second video ... "Used your name to use some sort of unearned social capital". Lol, what? 😄 I dunno, it looks kind of childish to me.

Obviously these are relative terms and not absolute. Every community hierarchy will have people at the top and people at the bottom. Doesn't matter if it's a community of 1,000,000 or a community of 5. Trading on the reputation of others is classic scam behavior. Being willfully obtuse about what's being said in order to try and diminish wrongdoing is, frankly, suspicious.

kingcake wrote on 2024-04-02, 18:31:

ThinkpadIL wrote on 2024-04-02, 18:08:

kingcake wrote on 2024-04-02, 16:07:

The vid with Adrian answers many questions. Now I know why Adrian kinda disappeared from the NABU scene after being one of the early people doing videos about it.

For starters "Famous persons in retro communities"and "Youtube celebrities" in that Ron's video sound so funny, at least to me ... 😄

And that second video ... "Used your name to use some sort of unearned social capital". Lol, what? 😄 I dunno, it looks kind of childish to me.

Obviously these are relative terms and not absolute. Every community hierarchy will have people at the top and people at the bottom. Doesn't matter if it's a community of 1,000,000 or a community of 5. Trading on the reputation of others is classic scam behavior. Being willfully obtuse about what's being said in order to try and diminish wrongdoing is, frankly, suspicious.

"Every community hierarchy will have people at the top and people at the bottom." Lol, and what if you're at the top of some community? Does that mean I have to take you for your word? 😄

Come on, I won't take for his word even a President, cause I don't care about one's ranking in hierarchy and his reputation. Any deal has to be made with all needed precautions in order to prevent any possible problems in the future.

It's not nice and the guy is a dick for sure. But this is not that big of a deal, be smart with your business dealings and if you're a personality be vocal about the liars...

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-04-02, 22:58:

It's not nice and the guy is a dick for sure. But this is not that big of a deal, be smart with your business dealings and if you're a personality be vocal about the liars...

To be vocal about the liars it is definitely a right thing to do.

But when you tell the audience that you made friends with someone who just called you one day, then sent him few items worth few hundred bucks in exchange for free (just hoping he won't scam you), introduced him to your friends (who made the same irresponsible deals), and you even don't know his name, well, that sounds very funny, I have to say. 😄

It's the same like if in all seriousness telling about how you made friends via e-mail with Nigerian prince, who (surprise!!!) turned out to be a scammer Johnny Doe from LA. 😄

rmay635703 wrote on 2024-04-02, 14:30:

Beats me, had a low trust score so I avoid anything that has a low trust score. Daily motion was another with an extremely low score, I used it on a disposable computer with popup and virus protection + firewall and it seemed to be ok, from what I’m told daily motion recently became “less problematic “

It's interesting that this program assigns a low "trust score" to websites with the least embedded spyware.

GemCookie wrote on 2024-04-03, 07:14:

rmay635703 wrote on 2024-04-02, 14:30:

Beats me, had a low trust score so I avoid anything that has a low trust score. Daily motion was another with an extremely low score, I used it on a disposable computer with popup and virus protection + firewall and it seemed to be ok, from what I’m told daily motion recently became “less problematic “

It's interesting that this program assigns a low "trust score" to websites with the least embedded spyware.

Cant farm your personal data if you avoid the sites they setup for it.

What you really think all Spyware is made by hackers and other nefarious peoples ? if you do I have a lovely bridge in New Jersey to sell you.

Me: Watched couple of Ron's videos about Retro Computers Scammer
YouTube: Wait a second, I have more stories for you. What about "I too was taken advantage of by an internet confidence trickster" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynlyh685e5Y) ?

I can't believe, this guy scammed almost the whole retro computers community!!!

Waiting now for a video from LGR in his famous atmospheric style and from The 8-Bit Guy with Commander X16 and PETSCII Robots ads integration. 😄

YouTube just changed the UI layout and it's terrible.

Not really on topic, but I did notice it while watching a retro video, so there's that.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-10, 09:12:

YouTube just changed the UI layout and it's terrible.

Not really on topic, but I did notice it while watching a retro video, so there's that.

I've noticed, too. It's like with Mobygames or Wikipedia.
(I'm so glad Wikipedia in my language version still has old UI.)

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-10, 09:12:

YouTube just changed the UI layout and it's terrible.

Not really on topic, but I did notice it while watching a retro video, so there's that.

And what do you say about new Google Chrome and Adobe Reader UI?

I have a feeling that UI development was outsourced to China and they have outsourced it to North Korea, and North Korean comrades put into development of UI all their hatred to the capitalism and to the West. 😄

I don't use Adobe Reader, so I can't say much on that, but I do dislike Chrome's interface getting more confusing compared to how it used to be.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-10, 14:09:

I don't use Adobe Reader, so I can't say much on that, but I do dislike Chrome's interface getting more confusing compared to how it used to be.

Thank goodness it still can be rolled back to the older one.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-10, 14:09:

I don't use Adobe Reader, so I can't say much on that, but I do dislike Chrome's interface getting more confusing compared to how it used to be.

I switched to Firefox for this reason.

Google have recently removed the ability to view cached pages. They took the option off the search page a long time ago, but you could still view the page by prefixing the URL with cache: e.g. cache:www.website.com/page.html

This no longer works. Now you are sent directly to the current live page, bypassing the cached one.