ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
As some of you may have seen, the site has been subject to some unpleasant blackmail attempts by an ex member, who actually used to be a Moderator. He seems to want to blow a whistle which doesn't actually belong to us - so I will tell the facts exactly as they are, and you may draw your own conclusions.
Please note - as I never dug for concrete evidence (I was too disgusted by what I found) and preferred to take the word of trusted people (and the obvious facts presented when doing a Google search at the time), I refuse to make a direct accusation. However, please make up your own mind - it's a free world after all...
The original incarnation of this website, as many may remember, was beoworld.co.uk
The site was owned by another person who had built it from scratch and hosted it on his own servers, along with any other sites he may or may not have owned, which may or may not have hosted some pretty vile pornography.. Strangely, the person who is blowing this whistle and some of the moderators discovered many links from the beoworld site to some extremely distasteful pornographic sites. We were informed by several sources (all very trustworthy, and one who worked for B&O at the time) that B&O had also discovered these links and had distanced themselves from the site for this very reason. This was the reason Bang & Olufsen as a company were very keen to distance themselves from BeoWorld - and were very pleased when the site changed hands. They were not at all pleased that the words 'Bang & Olufsen' featured amongst, or next to, such shocking search results.
Going back to the time I found out about these links / ties etc, we sought advice and it was agreed that the only way to part ourselves from the thousands of links when searching, was to change the name of the website. You will notice we changed to beoworld.org and dropped beoworld.co.uk - and the links to these sites fell off considerably - although many still remain.
We decided as these seemed no longer active since we bought BeoWorld, no further action need be taken. B&O welcomed the take over as can be seen by the very successful trips they have organised for us, and re-established very strong links. None of the present moderating team had any prior knowledge of these sites and indeed the blackmailer was also a moderator at the time and also had no prior knowledge.
As part of the agreement to purchase BeoWorld from the previous owner, the person signed an agreement not to start another website of the same type. I then handed over a large sum of cash on the strength of this, only to find around a year later the person had indeed set up another website. It currently resides on the internet and on Google. As a mark of respect I haven't taken legal action, although I should.. I have no idea what or which sites the person still hosts, and do not care as it doesn't affect BeoWorld.
Back to 'eduardomoro' or 'Ed' as he was known on these forums.. Quite why he has decided to spread such untrue information on the site is quite beyond me. He was banned from the site for being immensely abusive and destructive on site a couple of years ago. He had been regarded as a friend and was welcomed back at one time but once again resorted to abuse.
Yesterday, whilst enjoying Christmas Lunch with my family, I was subjected to some vile emails - which again today have been followed up with more of the same, along with threats of more abuse in 2013. These emails have been going on for the last couple of years, but to be honest I feel sorry for any man that would rather spend time on Christmas Day sending abusive messages rather than enjoying a very important day with his wife and family. I do hope, for his sake, that one day he can move on.
I'm not entirely sure what to say apart from I'm very sorry I've had to divulge this to you all. For the good of BeoWorld and out of respect for the previous owner, we've kept this as secret as possible.
We hope that this frank disclosure can bring the unpleasant attacks to an end though if necessary, we will have to resort to legal procedures. If 'Ed' decides to re-register as a member yet again, I will report him to his ISP provider and GMail who, when I send them a document with the last 2 years abuse on, will no doubt suspend his accounts.
Once again, my sincere apologies.
Lee
yes Lee, I leave the country and within two days crazy times!!! ;)
Definitely not your fault Lee. I guess it spiced up a rather traditional/conservative brand ;) Gosh, even us Apple boys don't do that!!! :)
Anyway Happy Christmas to You and your family and all the team! Thanks for the honesty
wow , sounds like one of my infamous trolls ( no comment )
merry hitchmas lee , you deserve better than this
I just don't understand. I have been banned for one day recently because of some disagreements I had with 2 mods. Another member has accused me and giving me names like hoarder, dealer and giving freebies away for certain purposes and that all has been accepted. I asked Lee for an explanation and no response. This still really bothers me, sorry to say!
Brengen & Ophalen
I fully endorse what Lee has said - I think it a huge shame that something in the deep past has been resurrected when it has nothing to do with the present site.
I am very sorry that Lee has had to put up with such a vile attack at Christmas.
Peter
Leslie: I just don't understand. I have been banned for one day recently because of some disagreements I had with 2 mods. Another member has accused me and giving me names like hoarder, dealer and giving freebies away for certain purposes and that all has been accepted. I asked Lee for an explanation and no response. This still really bothers me, sorry to say!
I don't see what this has to do with this thread - I have emailed you regarding this and you were actually suspended for about 1 hour whilst we cleaned up the offending thread. Opinions are welcome on this site but one has to accept contrary opinions as well as handing them out. This is a family site so abuse is not tolerated - I am happy to discuss this by email should you wish - at no point was Lee involved and I am sure he has been spending a Happy Christmas with his family rather than worrying about the site.
I have just been on this site for a little more than one year, one thing that I have noticed is that there has not been any trolls.. There are always some percent of idiots.. Keep it up :)
Most of whom are slowly disappearing thankfully. I can only think this Ed guy is in a pretty dark place, considering his venom and the time of year he is bothering to spread it about.
Happy Christmas anyway, including Ed.
Beosound Stage, Beovision 8-40, Beolit 20, Beosound Explore.
I'm probably a bit in the dark, but what's this guys motives against the new beoworld and you Lee?
Too long to list....
He was banned from the site after being abusive to members - he had been a moderator. I have no idea how it reached that point - it seemed ridiculous to me. He did promise to behave and came back but simply started up again. I think it a shame - I had regarded him as a friend - he has a lovely family - I have a beautiful pair of Dutch clogs he gave me; he is a normally kind and generous chap.
OK, thanks for the clarification Peter.
I've been here ages...... I've never been a mod or anything close but I can remember Ed as a member. I have no recollection of what caused him to flip in the first instance but have caught many deleted threds since , involving said Ed!
Nothing or noone here has ever caused offense to my knowledge and so I can only give my honest and sincere support to Lee, Peter and all and everyone involved and supporting Beoworld - there are no tawdry secrets, only honest and trustworthy folk supporting a passion and a business interest in the brand, all fairly and above board.
None of this is a secret to the Beoworld community.
Well done Lee and Beoworld for all you have achieved in recent years - long may you continue!
Ban boring signatures!
Puncher: I've been here ages, never been a mod or anything close! I can vaguely remember Ed as a member and have no recollection of what caused him to flip in the first instance but have caught many deleted threds since , involving said Ed! Nothing or no one has ever caused offense to my knowledge and so I can only give my honest and sincere support to Lee, Peter and all and everyone involved and supporting Beoworld - there are no tawdry secrets, only honest and trustworthy folk supporting a passion and business interest in the brand. None of this is a secret to the Beoworld community. Well done Lee and Beoworld and all you hqve achieved in recent years!!!!
I've been here ages, never been a mod or anything close! I can vaguely remember Ed as a member and have no recollection of what caused him to flip in the first instance but have caught many deleted threds since , involving said Ed!
Nothing or no one has ever caused offense to my knowledge and so I can only give my honest and sincere support to Lee, Peter and all and everyone involved and supporting Beoworld - there are no tawdry secrets, only honest and trustworthy folk supporting a passion and business interest in the brand.
Well done Lee and Beoworld and all you hqve achieved in recent years!!!!
I fully agree.
Vähintään yhdeksänkymmentä prosenttia suomalainen!
Nicely said Puncher :)
Hey, where is our pal Moxxie these days???
Chris Townsend:After reading Peters post, I can only assume he's a very ill person.
I'm not, I am fine, honestly!
Peter: I am fine, honestly!
....... for an old bloke, obviously!!!
hahahahaha ;)
Puncher, you are terrible!!!
It's a great site Lee so keep up the good work.
It's a shame when a minority like Ed behave like this when they could probably have made a worthwhile contribution instead.
Graham
Lee.
Don't worry about it.
This site is an invaluable resource (membership coming.)
There is always hate in the world.
Ignore and delete.
Best not to take offense.
Bossy Boots is probably taking out on yourself, that the wife ran off with the pool cleaner.
All the best for 2013!!
Woof Woof!!!
Hi Lee,
Thank you very much for the information. I still don´t know why we have to waste our life time with something like that.
I am very sorry to read the above but you have my fully support.
Cheers and best wishes for the time of the year
Lars
BS9000, BC6, BC2, BL3, BL11, BL3500, BL2000, BeoTime, Beo EarSet2 3i, Beo, BEO DropStop, BEO Bottle Opener, BeoCom5 including Table Stand, ATV
Christmas Prize Draw 1st Winner 2010 - THANKS A LOT!!!
Struer Trip 2012 - THANKS A LOT!!!
Be careful with your wording, Chris... This one could easily be misunderstood...
But -of course Peter is an intelligent person, so he knew what you wanted to say -and saw the humorous side...
(I surely hope you didn''t mean it literaly, Chris...) - or...
Clearly it was sent on Christmas day to be as upsetting and disruptive as possible, but that is business for some isn't it?!? Distasteful of sure but injustice or should I say perceived injustice in someone's mind can make them resort to desperate measures, maybe the only thing is to take things further with legal action. As always there are two sides to every story.......... Happy New Year!!
Hi Lee
A happy new year to you and your family, and what ever you have to do we are behind you
malcolm
Steffen: Chris Townsend:After reading Peters post, I can only assume he's a very ill person. Be careful with your wording, Chris... This one could easily be misunderstood... But -of course Peter is an intelligent person, so he knew what you wanted to say -and saw the humorous side... (I surely hope you didn''t mean it literaly, Chris...) - or...
I, of course, knew what Chris meant, as indeed did everyone, I am sure. However it does show how we can, in this case deliberately, misinterprate what people say. One of our failings, and by this I mean the English speakers, is that because we find the non English speakers write so eloquently, we imagine they understand all the fine nuances that we take for granted. I do wonder if many of the altercations we get are actually due to misunderstanding rather than real conflict.
The old adage of putting one's brain in gear before engaging the mouth is equally true when posting!
I can subscribe to what Lee is informing us from.
I've seen the porn links linked to Beoworld years ago before Lee took over.
And even now after all these years Ed is still bugging me from time to time... Where I have never had any argument with him. But I'm just ignoring him...
Lee... keep up the high standard we're all accustomed to!
This is all quite disturbing, I do hope Ed sorts himself out as from what has been said here, it sounds as if he is on a path to self destruction. This is a great site and I for one had no idea of the links mentioned above. I take my hat off to Lee and others for dealing with this issue so professionally and getting B&O back on board, no mean feat!Hopefully everything will, in future, settle down and Lee can concentrate on the running of Beoworld as it was originally intended.Here's to a happy and trouble free New Year :-)
Olly
Just to add my support of Lee and the rest of the team
This is a great site and so nice to be able to ask questions (no matter how daft or how often they've been asked before, or chat about the stuff that interests us without having abuse, constant pop ups and tardiness.
Keep up the good work. Personally I would rise above it as legal action could only inflame matters with the result that we all suffer - however I can fully understand wanting to settle the matter once and for all.
Kind Regards and Seasons Greetings to all
Andrew
Lee I am truly sorry that your Christmas has been ruined by my namesake. There are no excuses nor reasons for such behaviours.
To the many newcomers over the past 5 years, and just for the record, way back in the beginning, there were two Eds on the old Beoworld.
I always used to joke that I was Ed-II as Dutch Ed had joined before me, and for a time I had an ED-2 avatar from the Robocop movie.
As Peter said, in the beginning Dutch Ed was a great guy, a prolific poster with good advice, lovely pictures which included kit and family, and on one occasion providing assistance to collecting kit and helping transport it to the now defunct, privately run B&O museum -- sadly much of that kit was ultimately ruined, another separate sad issue in the history.
The week in 2006 when I first met Peter in Newcastle, I almost met Dutch Ed in the Netherlands but sadly my flight into London did not connect timely enough for a quick hop across the Channel. I would have loved to have met Dutch Ed not just because of all he had contributed, but also so I could perhaps be better positioned to know what went wrong and perhaps to have helped.
Sadly these old ill feelings from Dutch Ed have flared up every so often. I saw a couple of posts around Christmas that I did not understand -- they appeared out of the blue in a thread and were from someone "new" and contained anger and vitriol. Now I think these were the precursor of the attack on Lee, Beoworld, and our harmony.
I am as sad for Dutch Ed as I am sorry for Lee. Dutch Ed must be in a terrible place -- and I pray that none of us have to experience that. And I fervently hope that Dutch Ed's circumstances. health, and life do improve so that he can simply move on.
And for the record, as I stated in the Christmas Wishes for Moderators thread, I think Lee, Peter, Keith and the moderators do an outstanding job for Beoworld and the B&O community world wide. As do dealers like King of Snake and people like Leslie in collecting and reselling kit, and the people like Steve at Sounds Heavenly or STBbrackets that provide innovation to the B&O ecosystem.
And now I will change my signature line to remove the chances of any confusions -- and wish everyone at Beoworld can have a better fresh start to 2013.
BeoNut since '75
Elephant I can only agree with you.
bayerische: Elephant I can only agree with you.
Same here!
elephant: And for the record, as I stated in the Christmas Wishes for Moderators thread, I think Lee, Peter, Keith and the moderators do an outstanding job for Beoworld and the B&O community world wide. As do dealers like King of Snake and people like Leslie in collecting and reselling kit, and the people like Steve at Sounds Heavenly or STBbrackets that provide innovation to the B&O ecosystem.
Thank you very much Ed, and as Ed has already stated, I'm not a reseller/dealer, just a lucky guy who can get B&O stuff quite easy ( like lots of other members I know). It's my passion working on these things and yes, I do have my own ideas of refurbishing them, not always appreciated by some members. But I get a lot of positive feedback from people on this forum mostly by PM's. Thank you and hopefully we all get a great and happy New Year. Wish you all the best...
Peter:One of our failings, and by this I mean the English speakers, is that because we find the non English speakers write so eloquently, we imagine they understand all the fine nuances that we take for granted. I do wonder if many of the altercations we get are actually due to misunderstanding rather than real conflict.
I just looked up "altercation".
--mika
I think it's a great testament to Lee, Peter, Keith and the rest of the team at Beoworld that I had no idea there were any issues.
The fact that these sort of things are dealt with discretely and swiftly shows the level of professionalism displayed by Beoworld.
Beoworld has my fully payed support and thereby my vote in any decision they choose to follow regarding this issue, and I hope that they manage to make it a forgotten part of the Beoworld history.
Jonathan
x:________________________
tournedos: Peter:One of our failings, and by this I mean the English speakers, is that because we find the non English speakers write so eloquently, we imagine they understand all the fine nuances that we take for granted. I do wonder if many of the altercations we get are actually due to misunderstanding rather than real conflict. I just looked up "altercation".
So did I.
Martin
I thought nuance would have got the pair of you!
We regard the general forum as an extended English class, particularly for the Scandinavians!