There has been some rumors going on about me and I don't like it one bit. Especially since the people spreading them seem very spiteful with ill intent towards me.
I'm sure some of you remember my trip to computer reset last year:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22030
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22055
I grabbed quite a few keyboards(over 100), and on my third trip I got banned. The reason I got banned from the organizers perspective can be seen in this FB message to me from the organizer:
- Justin_FB.PNG (152.58 KiB) Viewed 6066 times
Fault #1
I did leave a mess in several areas. There were some piles that I went thru that were more disorganized after I went thru them. I did clean some of these but some were still there after I left. Mainly an area beneath the overhead shelves that was hard for me to get into in the first place.
Fault #2
There was one person who took two keyboards straight out of my pile, and I confronted him about it and politely asked if I could have them back. He lied and said he found them somewhere else. I explained that I knew they were mine and the person I brought with me to the warehouse confirmed this, and he gave them back. I probably should have just let this go. I didn't care that much about the keyboards, it was honestly more about principle. Either way I should have just let the guy have them.
Fault #3
Most likely the main reason I got banned. There were piles of keyboards all throughout the warehouse, and most of the keyboards I got were from these piles. People saw what I was taking, and even though most of what I was taking was PS/2 and AT there were some terminal models as well. This means that a few systems somewhere in the warehouse are essentially unusable since they don't have their proprietary keyboard. The owner confronted me about this on my third trip(Separating a keyboard from its box) and had a bruh moment and put it back, and didn't touch anything that was a full system after that.
Now with all that being said, let me explain my perspective.
During the times I went, my understanding and the situation at the time was that it was a liquidation. I was told they had to clear the place out in a month because they were going to bulldoze the lot and sell it because the family that owned the place needed the money. So I was trying to save as much as I could, because the place would be gone within a month. So making a mess wasn't a concern to me as I thought the warehouse would be a bulldozed lot next month. Clearly I was wrong with this assumption.
It didn't work out this way, and as the warehouse got more attention and more rare things were uncovered I think the organizers decided to hold off on a full liquidation.
I did offer to help clean and organize the warehouse, both before and after I got banned but but when I got banned I pretty much knew that wasn't going to happen as the organizers wanted nothing to do with me.
Another thing that upsets me is that no one said a thing to my face while I was there aside from the aforementioned exchange about the proprietary keyboard in the box. I was kind friendly to everybody I came across and the other people in the warehouse acted the same way. I never yelled at people saying things were mine, that just isn't who I am. In my mind everything there wasn't mine until I moved it into my pile. BTW pretty much every person there had their own pile, it was understood that the things in piles belonged to people that already found things. Before I left I shook hands with the organizer and nothing seemed off.
After that FB message I was banned from the Computer Reset facebook group. My father was banned too who came with me on my second trip, and I still don't know why this was done as he didn't do anything wrong. All my attempts at communication with the organizer went nowhere, and I had no further explanation or dialogue with him online.
This was last summer, and I was upset for about two months after being banned since there were so many cool things in the warehouse and I enjoyed talking to the people that were there. I was also very disturbed about the things he said in that message, since I had never had anything like this happen to me before and felt like I had made people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. I never want to do this to anyone.
Then, after some emails with someone I met at CR I asked him if all those things were true and he had this to say:
- David.PNG (97.2 KiB) Viewed 6066 times
Also to add, I those brown alps TI keyboards I got from CR I gave to the person mentioned in the email. He had a working TIPC which wouldn't even boot without the keyboard. I wanted to convert one of those and use personally, but there was another person he knew with a TIPC so I gave him both.
Another thing I did that the rumor spreaders fail to mention is that me and my father donated $1000 to the warehouse owners gofundme. I did this because I was glad for the experience to be in such an interesting place, and wanted to pay my respects and appreciation to the owners who allowed me to have this adventure.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/7uagmw-elder ... VeiSf9F9KA
- donate.png (218.02 KiB) Viewed 6066 times
You can see this guy accusing me on mechmarket:
https://www.removeddit.com/r/mechmarket ... cts_added/
This guy is wrong on so many levels. He also deleted all his posts so maybe he knows it too. My responses are detailed in the posts, but I'll go over my main complaints here as well.
First off, it was never a giveaway for collectors. If you look at the facebook group the name is literally in the title:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ComputerResetWL/
Second, I only got like three or four rubberdomes that were interesting to me. I didn't cover up rare stuff under piles of rubberdomes, why on earth would I bring back loads of rubberdomes?
The way it worked was that you put everything in a pile, and the organizer looks at it and then we talk price. The organizer saw everything I got each time, and some of the stuff was in boxes. I asked if he wanted me to unbox or show him more detail on what I had, and he didn't feel the need to. All the terminal and proprietary keyboards were in plain view.
Third, the vcfed thread is NOT any type of accurate information. Only about three people in that thread had even been to computer reset, and from what I can tell most of the people in that thread are just frustrated in general how the mechanical keyboarding community have caused a spike in prices for the keyboards they want for their systems. The are frustrated that their hobby is being comprised, and see me as a contributing factor. Which is fair, however I try to keep lower prices than what you would find on ebay.
Now, I am not expecting to get back into Computer Reset ever. It's quite clear the organizers want nothing to do with me, and that's completely up to them.
What I do want is for people to quit saying I stole stuff and robbed these people. That is not true, I have never been a thief and hate being seen as one. I have worked hard throughout the years to maintain a good reputation within the keyboard community, trying to provide fair deals and help people whenever needed. Having it all tainted by these rumors is very frustrating, and I feel like its one or two people that are out to get me. I have seen people doing this in mechmarket and in a couple discord servers.
Thank you to anyone who read this far, I hope you all stay safe and healthy during this COVID pandemic.
TLDR:
Got banned from Computer Reset last year, for legitimate reasons. I have tried to make this right thru communication with the organizers to no avail. Now this year people have been saying all kinds of things like I stole keyboards and am a shady thief. This is not true, and I don't like people slandering my name.
Would appreciate any advice or thoughts on the subject.
