From Tony:

Hey Goin 'Deep, we had a change in some Spearboard moderators last week. There will be an announcement of what happened tonight and the future direction. Please don't believe the rumor-mill. We are in the process of re-structuring spearboard for the better. There will be plenty of time for debate after the announcement. Please be patient. Thanks!
__________________


So it seems that Tony is going to explain everything that happened and where it goes from here. It'll be interesting to hear his side of the story. Think he'll lay it out honestly? :confused:

Oh boy! I can't wait. :rolleyes: Prepare to be misinformed. :D

:smcowboy:

This is really a weird thing for me. Now I'm in the position the thousands of members of the site I webmaster have been in.

We had some trouble over a year ago. One mod committed a federal wildlife violation which triggered us to boot him. This in turn exposed some back stabbing & screwing he'd been working as as he'd conned most of us. Most but not all. Another admin was in on it & when it collapsed, he got pissed & left.

This is when it REALLY got fun. These 2 went out on the web, started their own sites, & proceeded to tell everyone they could that we who remained were the ones who were trying to do what they in fact had been up to.

Since all of this had been going on behind the scenes, hidden from public view, other people had/have no way to know who was telling the truth. All they could really do was wait, watch & see what happened as time passed.

Well, now I'm in that situation. I've seen what has been visible over there & some of that has been quite troubling. I've read what's been posted here about it & that has also been quite troubling. But I'm one of the guys who is on the outside, no way to know what's true, what's not or what's a matter of true but differing perceptions by those involved.

I will say that a fair bit of it just hasn't made any sense to me. Such as kite being banned, WTF is up with that?

About all I can do at this time is wait, watch & see what happens over time.

Wow, What kind of BS do you think he's gonna spew out of his lying mouth for this one.
Maybe he'll have a graph to show how all is well at McGrogans, And how the 2008 SBO will be the biggest tournament in the universe. :D
And everyone else is a liar. That guy is way out there.

I will try to explain what I know of the mess. First off Tony has a God complex and will only act like he is interested in your opinion if it benefits him. If something he has done is questioned he will first ignore PM's then poof the post if you question him on the public forum. He set rules in place that everyone is supposed to follow except him and his "followers". Many people that had a large part of making spearboard what it was BEFORE Tony bought it where frustrated by his inconsistency and double standards. When they tried to question what was going on they first received very sarcastic half ass answers and then realized their accounts had limited access. When it all came to a head Tony says he had a server problem that caused SB to go down for a day and a half.:bsflag::redcard::bsflag: Funny how when it came back up a lot of mods where booted and many people that had questioned him had limited access and abilities on their accounts.

I was a sponsor for SBO and was VERY unhappy at what I was told would happen and what actually happened for my donations.

I asked Tony months ago why he would allow Koenig, who is the 2nd worst enemy to spearfishing/fishing only beaten out by his wife, to write an article for the Magazine. I did this in 2 P.M.'s first and after being ignored I placed the questions on the public forum. It went to 4 pages in like an hour and no one was happy about it. The post was poofed without any response from Tony. I started another post in the FRA section and it did the same thing and was poofed. I then received a PM from Tony saying that in all his years that no one had ever questioned his editorial authority and I was WRONG about Koenig and his wife. He explained that he had discussed this with many of his "advisers" and they felt it was a good idea. He continued to tell me that Koenig loves spearfishing.


Basically Tony is out to monopolize the spearfishing community and industry for his own profit,,,, that's it! He will pretend all day he is on your side until he is done with you.

We don't need people like that representing our sport IMHO.

wonderboy, get the f*ck over it already. Many came to a new site to avoid all the crap going on but you keep bringing it to our new home. You gossip and start more shit than a sixth grade girl! Let it go man, Tony didnt run over your dog or anything....just chose to stay with sb or move to a new site or both but good god leave sb to sb. If not I might have to make a fake screen name and poke fun at you:smthumbup:

Damn, I've been called a lotta things, but a 6th grade girl is a new one for me!:D

Gamble pretty much hit the nail on the head, rigdvr has a point and I could give a shit what his "explanation" is. He's not the only show in town.

As one of the former moderators of the lesser board, I fully do not expect to come off well as a result of whatever explanation Tony conjures up. While I won't pretend that, as moderators, we did a perfect job, my guess is that we will be accused of being on a power trip, of applying the rules unevenly, and of generating too much discord and causing more problems than we resolved.
Now, tell me - who does THAT description sound like?


What pisses me off most - we backed that f*cker up. When he bought the board, we kept on trying to do our jobs. Sure, we didn't know the guy, he wasn't Scott, but we supported him. Contrary to what he'd have you believe, our discussions with him weren't always, "Tony, you're a f*cking idiot, do it our way." There was actually a genuine attempt to work with the guy, at least for the first several months. After a while, it became obvious that our opinions didn't matter, and it only got worse from there.
Again, I'm not going to say we did a perfect job. We did manage to get along pretty good with Scott for a lot longer and let me tell you - he didn't always do what his mods wanted, either. Maybe the difference is that Scott is actually an honest person. For a f*cking attorney, that is. :D

I've seen a lot of people kicked off that board that I know to be genuinely good people with common sense, a love for the sport, and very good communicators. I feel I'm a very good judge of people's "character". I trust these people that have been kicked off and consider them friends...the things I've read and seen has caused me not to trust Tony.

I will try to explain what I know of the mess. First off Tony has a God complex and will only act like he is interested in your opinion if it benefits him. If something he has done is questioned he will first ignore PM's then poof the post if you question him on the public forum. He set rules in place that everyone is supposed to follow except him and his "followers". Many people that had a large part of making spearboard what it was BEFORE Tony bought it where frustrated by his inconsistency and double standards. When they tried to question what was going on they first received very sarcastic half ass answers and then realized their accounts had limited access. When it all came to a head Tony says he had a server problem that caused SB to go down for a day and a half.:bsflag::redcard::bsflag: Funny how when it came back up a lot of mods where booted and many people that had questioned him had limited access and abilities on their accounts.

I was a sponsor for SBO and was VERY unhappy at what I was told would happen and what actually happened for my donations.

I asked Tony months ago why he would allow Koenig, who is the 2nd worst enemy to spearfishing/fishing only beaten out by his wife, to write an article for the Magazine. I did this in 2 P.M.'s first and after being ignored I placed the questions on the public forum. It went to 4 pages in like an hour and no one was happy about it. The post was poofed without any response from Tony. I started another post in the FRA section and it did the same thing and was poofed. I then received a PM from Tony saying that in all his years that no one had ever questioned his editorial authority and I was WRONG about Koenig and his wife. He explained that he had discussed this with many of his "advisers" and they felt it was a good idea. He continued to tell me that Koenig loves spearfishing.


Basically Tony is out to monopolize the spearfishing community and industry for his own profit,,,, that's it! He will pretend all day he is on your side until he is done with you.

We don't need people like that representing our sport IMHO.

ding ding ding - Gamble NAILS it. Yeah, when his little "explanation" comes out tonight, I fully anticipate getting thrown under the bus.

What needs to happen is for someone to insist that Tony put the MOD section from the past out into open view, and let everyone make their decision. The MOD section from Spearboard is crystal clear.

But, then again, that will happen when monkeys fly out of my ass.

Who cares what the grogan has to say?

He is a dirtbag liar and will either throw all of the bad apples under the bus or completely ignore the situation.

Spearbored is his forum to screw up and I think he has done a pretty good job of it, he pretty much killed any chances of a successful SBO 2008, it looks like the 800 lb gorilla is dead.


bgbill, not a fan of the grogan.

:lol:

I'd love to see the mod section put on display. I'm pretty comfortable with just about all of our past actions, and I don't appreciate how much Tony is twisting the truth. Hell, give us 24 hours mod access to gather evidence to disprove his lies, that'd be enough.
But yeah, when monkeys fly out of my butt...

How is he communicating with you guys? SB statement, email, private room, or phone?

Everything I've read I saw in the open sections of the lesser board. I think the explanation he's referring to will come in the form of a public announcement. If it comes.

I think its important that all this laundry get aired out here and now for postarity. So much of whats happened has magicaly been poofed that it deserves a place to see the ligth. Many don't know much of whats gone on and would like to know, obviously being unbiased doesn't make bussines sense so we now what the sheeple will be told.
I like to ask myself how Scott would have taken all this? and then I realized he deal't w/it on a daily basis and laughed at himself, took it all in stride, and always kept it purely about the sport nothing more, nothing less, sponsors only came into the picture to benifit the prize table of the sbo. Im not saying Scott didn't make a cent, but for him it was a labor of love, not a power trip or a way of making money.

I for one think all the "bad apples" were pretty much the core of what people came to like about spearboard. A band of rude salty dogs, when the batteries on the shark shield run low, how you expect Mr tax man to act:biggrinangelA:

The folks he bannned were the ones who drew the crowd, and added a ton of good content. Sure the may have been old and crabby but then again they had to read most of Pargos missing posts.

Standing by

Who the hell are you calling "Old and Crabby"???????:banned2:

:smthumbup:

Gamble is spot on.
First, I was never a moderator at SB.
I was put on severe restrictions for nothing other than my association with others. When I publicly questioned this and Told Tony I planned on informing his sponsors of his bizarr behavior my access was completely terminated and still is.:crazy:

What most of you are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg I can assure you.
Most of you will never trully know what occured in the various private sections of SB because they were limited access.
Unfortunately you will have to believe all the people telling you what has been occuring or not.

I really dont want to continue this Slam Tony dialogue. I love this sport and have made many lifelong friends because of it.
I will continue spearfsihing just as much as I always do with or without SB. I will continue my fight for the FRA with or without SB. And I will continue to promote and protect the sport whenever I can with or without SB.

I really have no desire to EVER return to SB under any circumstance. I have seen everything I need to see there...
Rich Taylor

Well said!:toast:

OK, all this leads me to ask a very important question. As most of you may or may not know, I've only been diving/spearfishing for about a year and a half, so don't go trying to turn this into an Ironhead thing. After the hell he caught, I would never make that mistake. Anyway, I know there is a lot of talk about Tony, and his apparent "George W. Bush, I'm The *&^%$ President" mentality.
This much of the story I understand. But the bigger question is : What is the significance of Marcus' dog being named "Inlet" and his apparent attempt (or success) at mounting a pig ?

Mikerotch, Suddenly Pondering Marcus' Avatar http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Who cares what the grogan has to say?

He is a dirtbag liar and will either throw all of the bad apples under the bus or completely ignore the situation.

Spearbored is his forum to screw up and I think he has done a pretty good job of it, he pretty much killed any chances of a successful SBO 2008, it looks like the 800 lb gorilla is dead.


bgbill, not a fan of the grogan.

I'm with Bret on this one, New Forum, old attitudes, and No BS, Lucy can take his s..t Mag and Forum and F..k himself.....

Mikerotch,

You will have to do a search on the other site, but let's just say that a few years ago were some widely publicized photos of Intel that didn't look much different from the Avatar you inquired about.

Griswold has no witty sign off, but he too asks that Mikerotch continue his.

For anyone who cares the explanation is up on spearboard.

I have yet to see it but this should be interesting!! :bsflag:

Just about what we expected.

It is. Basically he's saying that some of the old moderators weren't following his "game plan" so he needed to make changes. Basically bring in some new ones that will be "yes-men". I suppose if his game plan is to expand his bank account, monopolize and exploit spearfishing, and to further divide the community then his explanation would be acceptable.

If he had limited it to a 'management decision' because he simply couldn't get along with some of his mods, I'd have actually been fine with it. Honestly, it IS important that he be able to work with his moderators. Regardless of who was in the right, he CLEARLY did not see eye to eye with most of the ones he had. It was a failing relationship and something had to give, and he owns the board, so there ya go.
If he had stopped at a simple mod shake-up, he'd have come out much better. It's the wholesale banning of everyone who did nothing worse than disagree with him that really f*cked him.

I believe that we'll see some of those who were banned/reduced capabilities "by association" will be fully reinstated, specifically Rich T and John H. Others may fall in behind them. There will be some lame excuse as to how they got caught up in the "changes".

For all intensive purposes I'm finished with that board and what it represents, a grogan.

It is. Basically he's saying that some of the old moderators weren't following his "game plan" so he needed to make changes. Basically bring in some new ones that will be "yes-men". I suppose if his game plan is to expand his bank account, monopolize and exploit spearfishing, and to further divide the community then his explanation would be acceptable.

He never showed the coaches (Moderators) the game plan, how are they supposed to know what he wanted done?

There were several issues brought up in the mod section that the grogan would either ignore or try to pit one person or group against another, or not follow the moderators advice.

One recent issue was with pargo, I showed tony where pargo violated his ROE and Personal Attack Policy, yet tony brought up a post that he deleted of inletsurfs and another post that inlestsurf put up, yet he deleted it himself, he never did anything to pargo, but he started screwing with Steve.

the grogan likes doing the one on one phone call so he can lie about what was said.

the grogan likes doing the one on one phone call so he can lie about what was said.

That and then post, "Well I just got off the phone with my good friend <fill in the blank> and we have decided blah blah blah...".

Good friend? :liar:

the grogan likes doing the one on one phone call so he can lie about what was said.

Would someone please explain the grogan reference? I don't get it. :confused:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grogan

Would someone please explain the grogan reference? I don't get it. :confused:


tony grogan owns Spearbored, click on the link in my signature line for the definition of a grogan.

:rofl:

That's bad.....

All I know is this...

1. I wasn't involved in any of the shit that went on and is going on on spearboard.
2. The shit-stirring, backstabbing, whining, and general 8 year old crap was/is getting old.
3. The people who's posts I enjoy reading have largely came here.
4. The people who's posts I least enjoyed are not here.
5. Deleting posts is for pussies.

I just wish I had seen a reference to this site a while ago...

That about sums it up perfectly.:toast:

All I know is this...

1. I wasn't involved in any of the shit that went on and is going on on spearboard.
2. The shit-stirring, backstabbing, whining, and general 8 year old crap was/is getting old.
3. The people who's posts I enjoy reading have largely came here.
4. The people who's posts I least enjoyed are not here.
5. Deleting posts is for pussies.

I just wish I had seen a reference to this site a while ago...

Well said....

He will paint himself as the good guy here to all those who are stupid and ignorant as to what really happened, and the way the chips fell. Here's the his only explanation: I was, and am an egotistical Grogan who likes to play God from behind my keyboard. I also burnt many bridges and have divided the spearfishing community due to my actions. Please forgive me being a dick...I cant help it the money and having 10,000 members has made me feel stronger than I actually am. I have lied, and let alot of people down, but o well, I own Spearboard and will do as I please!

The guy has a "hurray for me and piss on you" attitude. I dont care to even read it. I second the part about Wonder Boy or anybody else comming over here to update us on his dealings and lame ass excuses. This is Spear Fishing Planet, not Grogan Board. Lets keep that propoganda, thats what it is, over there. My .02 cents. The Grogan def nearly made me make a Grogan as I nearly shat myself laughing.

Well, at least I've discovered where the real spearo's have run off to.

Hopefully here we can remain free from oppression when we discuss that which interests us, and away from those who get their panties in a wad when the bikini pic is "too" revealing. :moon:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grogan


Ohh my God, that is priceless. The truth is always better than fiction.

All I know is this...

1. I wasn't involved in any of the shit that went on and is going on on spearboard.
2. The shit-stirring, backstabbing, whining, and general 8 year old crap was/is getting old.
3. The people who's posts I enjoy reading have largely came here.
4. The people who's posts I least enjoyed are not here.
5. Deleting posts is for pussies.

I just wish I had seen a reference to this site a while ago...

Amen! :yay:
I went on vacation, came back to all hell breaking loose, finally found where everyone migrated to, and I was too late! My screen name was already taken!
Oh Well, Ya Snooze, Ya Loose!