Ron May and ACF

I read the thread in this groupe informative begun the 9 of September
by Ron May of alt.comp.freeware (ACF) on falsifications and
sockpuppets. Subject of the thread: " X-Privat.org - Is the
information of the abuse a loss of time? ".

Ron May is not telling the truth about what goes on in ACF and uses
underhand techniques known to deceive people in AFN in his attempt to
secure the expert aid here on the halting of the forge. By way of
indication, it is the truth here on Pricelessware (PWH) and his
activities in ACF, that go probably a long way to explain my problem
because Ron May and several other members of the cult of forged
Pricelessware is being etc. Ron May chooses to call to this people
'malcontents' 'forgers' 'sockpuppets' and other names that denigrate,
whereas it does not pay attention to all the attempts to get business
of the Website of PWH off ACF. Here it my summary of the racket of
Pricelesswa

================================================== ====================

--The $Pricelessware $Racket--

1.Abuse of alt.comp.freeware by Pricelessware website owners:
__________________________________________________ ___________

The Pricelesswarehome (PWH) website was started a few years ago by a
few people who posted on alt.comp.freeware (ACF) about freeware and
their original aim was probably honourable: to produce a list of
freeware programs to reduce the number of regular requests by people
who posted on ACF asking: "I want a program to do X".
They could easily be pointed to the Big List, as it was called.

But most of the original people involved have long gone and control of
the PWH website was taken over by a different set of people with
bigger aims, mainly to boost their personal egos and power. Some
probably saw $$$ in freeware, others are control freaks.

Susan Bugher has an ego bigger than a hot air balloon and led the coup
de'tat about 5 years ago against the incumbent webmaster and then
became the new PWH webmaster.

Under Susan Bugher, one aim of the new regime was to remove the
seperate identities of PWH and ACF by giving a clear impression to the
outside world that ACF and PWH website are two sides of the same coin:
ACF being where daily PWH business is conducted for later presentation
on the PWH website.

Thus, PWH has no debating forum attached to its website but it is
stuffed full of ACF information, carefully dressed up to support
the 'two-sides-of-the-same-coin' aim.

Susan Bugher was mostly responsible for that but had much support from
Ron May and a few others who rarely or never post onto ACF about
freeware.

Obviously, that process has resulted in ACF being regularly smothered
with PWH business activities which have nothing to do with ACF.
Endless
recent threads about electing a new PWH webmaster to replace Susan
Bugher have dominated the newsgroup for some time. The new webmaster
(Craig) was not 'elected' by ACF people but mysteriously 'appointed'
after being strongly nominated by Ron May.

Other threads about the website design and page layout have also
dominated the group.

None of this is about freeware and ACF is the wrong place for website
debates.

Further, each year PWH goes through a laborious process of nominating
and voting for its latest "Pricelessware List" (PL), which is
presented as the "Best of The Best" in freeware but in actuality
is little more than a "Favourites List". A mere 46 people took part
in the PL 2008 process and only a handful of those involved ever post
on ACF about freeware. IOW they are PWH people, not ACF freeware
people, obviously keen to get their favourite programs onto the PL.
One example is iNcReDuLoUs but there are others including REM, the
'PWH Manager'.

Ron May is running this year's misuse of ACF for the new PWH
"PL 2009". No debate about this ever took place on ACF yet they
claim "PWH is owned and controlled by ACF". hhmmm.

Not only is one entitled to ask "who are these people that only appear
to join in PWH business?"; but it demonstrates that ACF newsgroup is
clearly the debating forum used by the PWH website crowd for its
private business activities.

Further, Ron May was personally responsibile last year for rigging a
vote on ACF to get the "PWH Freeware Glossary" named the "ACF Freeware
Glossary", when in fact it has nothing to do with ACF and is only a
glossary for PWH use. Analytical evidence was posted about his fake
vote but he ignored it and carries on regardless. And it has never
stopped him and several others from trying to impose PWH freeware
definitions onto ACF.

All attempts by non-PWH people to get this sorted out have been
ignored by Ron May and Susan Bugher, and both regularly refer to
the fake ACF Glossary as though it is the de facto Freeware standard,
even though most people will decide for themselves whether a
particular freeware program is 'nagware' or 'donationware' or
whatever.

The PWH crowd have long justified their use and abuse of ACF by
claiming that "PWH is owned by the people who post on ACF". This is
clearly untrue because the legal website owner and manager rarely (if
ever) post on ACF and requests and comments about PWH from non-members
of the "PWH in-crowd" are ignored. In fact Ron May has all dissenters,
and anybody who disagrees with him, killfiled and doesn't even see
their posts. He conducts character assassination campaigns against
them
from the safety of his killfile.

Countless requests to the PWH crowd by numerous people on ACF to move
their private website business affairs to another place have all been
ignored, using the false "PWH is owned by ACF" tactic. A few years ago
someone created a new newsgroup alt.comp.pricelessware for PWH
exclusive use, but the PWH crowd ignore it because (presumably) it
does not have the public visibility that ACF enjoys.


2.Unlawful Pricelessware freeware ISOs:
_______________________________________

When it became known that the person posting as "Q" provides server
space to host the PWH/PL CD ISOs for downloading/burning and
distribution, he was asked to provide material evidence that each
program on the ISOs are authorised by the author. Such information
ought to be immediately available. He claimed such information existed
but declined to provide it and eventually admitted that "PWH is
only 'sort of' owned by ACF" and described the request for material
evidence as coming from a k00k, thereby sidestepping the request to
provide it.

The reason "Q" cannot provide material evidence is that it doesn't
exist, meaning that in some cases freeware programs are being
distributed unlawfully. Therefore, the PWH ISOs are unlawful and
people associated with PWH are aiding and abetting unlawful
activity by copywrite infringement and numerous other laws.

Further, given the amount of 'stick' that PWH people have received
about their abuse of ACF, it's inconceivable they continue with it for
altruistic reasons. The obvious explanation is that some of the PWH
crowd are themselves selling freeware CDs. In any case, since the ISOs
are freely available for worldwide download by anyone from "Q"'s
server, other people are almost certainly downloading/burning and
selling them for profit. This means that "Q" is knowingly aiding and
abetting unlawful activities.


3.List of URLS to download PWH/PL ISOs from "Q"'s server:
__________________________________________________ _______

Pricelessware Website CD.ISOs available for download:

PL2008:
http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2008CD1.iso
http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2008CD2.iso
MD5 checksums:
http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2008CDs.md5


PL2007: http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2007CD.iso
PL2006: http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2006CD.iso
PL2005: http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2005CD.iso
PL2004: http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2004CD.iso
MD5 checksums:
http://downloads.remarqs.net/pl/PL2004567CDs.md5


4.Summary:
__________

a) it is quite likely that someone is going to get caught in a trap
for selling a PL CD and will be prosecuted under law. To avoid this,
the PL ISOs need to be removed from "Q"'s download server and no
more added UNLESS each program included is covered by explicit
approval from the program author. Such approvals need to be
transparent.

b) some of the PWH crowd may become subject to formal complaints to
their ISPs for abusing a Usenet newsgroup to conduct private website
business on. To avoid this, they need to move to a new place to debate
Pricelessware business. The easiest place is the (currently unused but
existing) newsgroup alt.comp.pricelessware, but a PWH website
forum would be an ideal alternative.

ACF is the wrong place because it was specifically set up to debate
freeware.

end of quote

--
"All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed,
and third, it is accepted as self-evident"
(Arthur Schopenhauer)

ACF.FAQ download: http://www.datafilehost.com/download-d375213f.html
ACF.FAQ view: http://alt-comp-freeware-FAQ.notlong.com
Freeware resources: http://bearware.info
ACF zero tolerance policy: http://zero-tolerance.notlong.com