Public Apology (to Sammie and other members)

Andrew Boon posted 25th of May 2009 in . 62 comments.

There are events in life that we want to push the rewind button on and fix what we did, or what we didn't do. Running BoonEx Unity largely unmoderated and not stopping clearly abusive discussions was irresponsible and wrong.

I apologize to Sammie and other members who had fallen victim to personal attacks here at Unity. I apologize for not listening to complaints and/or not reacting in a timely manner.

I hope that the new rules and a new approach to BoonEx Unity moderation will put an end to any negative communication issues that Unity members had to undergo, and I hope for your faith when I'm back.

 
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sammie
thank you Andrew and i now hope as i stated in the other post, Boonex and Unity working together for the future can now begin. and we all put our differences aside.

i pledge from this day forth, there will be no more personal attacks from me
I am glad to see some peaceful resolution to all of this.

While all the hugs, apologies and forgiveness is flowing I hope some thought is given to the many others who have been attacked and offended in the past and that they will be included in the group hug as well.
sammie
Dwain, yes i am sorry and to you too, a lot of people i attacked were friends at one point, and i have lost that freindship and thats really sad.

what know one knows is what happend. i really do not want to go into details, but something was happening to me here on the site, and still is, and it became a real life threatening issue for me about 10 months ago.

All the changes you see happening this weekend and this week are a direct result of Andrew now being made aware just how bad one of see more the 20 guys i have had to deal with here, really got. again i dont want to go into details, but a Boonex staff member was fully aware of the rape threats and did nothing when i asked for help.

Boonex failed to protect me, and i posted name and shame threads like this one:
http://www.boonex.com/unity/blog/entry/Stalker_name_and_shame_what_is_it_with_some_guys_

again just one of the 20 sexual preditors i have had to deal with because boonex staff didnt see it as their problem.

the more of these sexual preditors i had to deal with, the more hostile i became to everyone that so much as said the slightest thing out of place.

a month or so ago i was warned by Boonex that i can not post name and shame threads as its a violation of that persons rights. well the result was i flew off the handle and i just went balistic this last month or so.

let me post part of an email i sent Andrew today or yesterday:
"i feel so let down it really hurts me. i did what i thought i had to do and that was contact your staff because i had a major problem with threats from a user, and you failed me, i couldnt write to you yesterday and i am crying as i write now, i am ashamed that i attacked a lot of people for minor things, because i allowed Boonex to change me as a person to protect myself, because Boonex wasnt interested in protecting its users and as you can see in the screen shots. your staff where well aware of the Rape threats...
I understand now that you (Andrew) were kept in the dark by your staff, you need to have some serious words with them about things like this. you have no idea the fear or harm and sleepless nights all this caused me."

Quote from the email from the Detective before he was arrested:
"It is becoming apparent that Mr. **** is involved in other matters that need to be addressed by the police. I don't have to tell you how unstable Mr. **** appears to be as reflected in his actions and e-mails to yourself."

As you can see, when the police tell you that someone is very unstable, you take notice.

so i hope you now understand a little more, and no it does not excuse my behavior, as i said in the email above, i am ashamed of it.
sammie
fidelg3
Sammie, I've read through many of your posts and I completely understand about why you have been in attack mode. Truthfully, I always looked past all that and concentrated on the content of your posts, which I always thought were very insightful. I've also thought that you are a genuine real person, who speaks her mind very honestly. I appreciate that very much about you. I wish you great success in all that you are doing and I hope you continue to be a great spokesperson here at Unity. Cheers!
MichelSwiss
You are responsible for the quality of the scripts, the support and to drive your company to the success... and you have your own children to educate :-) This is already a quite haevy weight for your young (but powerfull) shoulders ;-)
sammie
i owe you an apollogy too, so sorry for the things i said to you, they were uncalled for.
sammie
MichelSwiss
I apologize too ;-) and propose to set our disputemeters to zero ;-)
sammie
great and thank you Michel, to a new beginning YAY old sammies back. and the nasty one can go back in the cupboard for good.
DosDawg
most generous of you andrew. I would like to take this same blog, and where i believe it to be on topic, but if not, you can just tell me and i will create my own blog. I would like to take this time, to extend my apologies for any whom i have offended accidentally or inadvertently, also those who i have offended unprovoked on this site.

good job andrew, and MS you are correct, he has a ton on his shoulders already, but with any CEO or President, that is what comes with it. unity is of the essence see more from this point forward.

Regards,
DosDawg
danielmarseille
good resolution it is more fun to read than other things I have read
sammie
YAY group hug thread.
ok i also think it would be far better to post a general apology to everyone that includes:
Caltrade
.... god 45,000 members huh? could be a long list as well as long night, so as you all know who you are, I'm sorry, lets start over
sammie
killerhaai
He Sammie, the imported thing is that you have found yourself back!
The real Sammie is a nice understanding girl. :)
sammie
thank you sweetie, and i am glad this is all over, and just want us all to be happy again and move on
Technoman
I do think there is hope from all members of this community here at Boonex, if we work together and continue to work togther as 1 group and NOT against eachother from now on from this day, we will be able to achive everything or most that lies ahead.

Sammie yes I am sorry that we have our different views on different blogs,threads,posts but that is what makes us different but unique in all ways.



Thanks
Peace & Love 2 All
sammie
Hi Technoman
our differences go wayyyyy back, you were the first guy i had a fight with lol.
and i have said a lot of incencitive things to you that i know hurt you, and for that i am truely sorry.
if we are going to forget the past and start anew, then it will clear 400gb of brain cells from my 500gb hard head

be good, be safe
sammie x
driveby
Oh I'm sorry. I think I accidentally entered a parallel universe here!

MichelSwiss, sammie and Technoman all cool with eachother?

Call me a skeptic but,,,oh heck group hug. Always good to start over anyway.

If this is the apology thread then I take back whatever bad thing I ever said to anyone here and setting my disputemeter to zero.

This totally caught me off guard. Good vibes are infectious.

What Technoman said "Peace & Love 2 All". I agree 100%.

You are a good see more and powerful example Mr. Boon.
sammie
you gotta be careful when you step into them time warps, they can blow your mind. lol
Draxxon
LOL. Maybe this section of the site is called Unity for a reason.
hd4real
All I can say is: Good for all of you who had isseus. We are now going the right way as it should be. A great day to all.
johnlayson
(edited out)

reason: the word "F-ING" is a no go here anymore.
therock
Although I don't post here as often as I should, even though I have been a part of Boonex and Dolphin for over 3 years now, I do however read and stay on top of what is going on here at Unity. I must say that I was appalled at seeing what was happening here at Unity however I am glad to see an end to all the abuse. I must say it brought a little, just a little wetness to my eyes to see some more Unity here. LOL!!

Kudos to you Andrew for manning up and apologizing for the errors on behalf of your see more staff and taking on the responsibilty for something your were being kept in the dark from.

Sammie, I hope you get your justice for the abuse and threats you were receiving from this piece of you know what, from here in Canada, which is where I am from and I hope he gets what he has comming to him. You have played a very important role here and I am sure there are plenty who would not have liked to see you go. Myself being one of them.

I would offer my services as a pundit however I don't have much time available between working on my site and promotion, working part time, constructing websites for others and now with going back to College in Sept. for a 2 year computer programming course, which will leave me even less time and with everything else life throws at me.

Anyhow, I am glad peace has been made by all and everyone has had thier group hug, things can now get back to some normalcy and focus on the new and upcomming great new Dolphin.

Cheers and peace to all.
Diddy
I do belief that all this action has brought us a step closer together and a lot of good clean up seems to come.
I'm in contact with police because of my adult sites to report the kids stuff. I will ask them about a abuse email for such matters because such people surely don't do their dirty hobby only here.
I will mail the contact info then to uno@boonex.com if this is al right?

I wish you all a wonderful time in Peace, Love & Understanding :-)
johnlayson
Oh and P.S. is there any Americans that work with this product that will work on a Barter bases to help me finish my site?
Juker
Dear Boonexers,

I think we will all look back upon our relationship with Andrew in a few years the way the founders of Microsoft do today and say "I knew Bill Gates when he was just a regular guy."

Already his time is very limited and soon he will be pulled away from us and swept up into the world of big enterprise but today he is among us as a friend and a brother and I deeply appreciate his presence.

We have all been through Boonex Bootcamp for the past year or so but I think see more we are now emerging as a cohesive unit of professionals. Mutual respect is earned and it doesn't come cheap and today we can celebrate a great victory of the heart.

I am certain that the new bonds we are forming will translate into great prosperity for all of us.

Juker
johnlayson
Amen on:.... god 45,000 members huh? could be a long list as well as long night, so as you all know who you are, I'm sorry, lets start over
sammie
And
Amen on:I am certain that the new bonds we are forming will translate into great prosperity for all of us.

Juker

That is what it is all about working together for a common goal.


P.S. I'm sorry for being so blunt.
people
....what did I miss?

Did we just float off into soap opera heaven or something?

Was J.R Ewing reborn in the next episode?

Just a bit over dramatic me thinks.

If people have been biatch slapping other people, then they should go and buy an island not a CMS portal, and people.....knock yourselves out :)

Odd when a developer's forum floats off into lala land, this is gotta be a first.

But great PR me thinks :)
brenaris
Bravo well said "people" I could not have said it better. Just completely sad that this time drain has had to take place at all!!
sammie
Was J.R Ewing reborn in the next episode?

huh that went over my head who's he?
DosDawg
you know its difficult to please all of the people all of the time. there were complaints when it was dramatic, and now there are complaints when its complacent. people, i dont think anybody has floated into lala land, this community is designed for unity as its name represents.

those of us who have been here and endured the agressive not so nice behavior, understand fully and completely what is going on here, and if you are a bystander just stepping in it would be understandable that you would see more be discombobulated, as to this specific topic.

Regards,
DosDawg
Abyss
Andrew, I am so proud of you. You are enormously strong, and only wise enough people understand what sort of work it evolves. I, in my turn, would like to say "I'm sorry" for any abusive words you heard from me, they were not pictured in the "draft of our ideal life". Love you deeply.
sammie
awwww Julie thats so sweet and brought a tear to my eye. we forget that we all have a personal life that we have to worry about before others, and yes the stress he must have been under must have shown at home too, so please accept a personal apology from me to you, as i know i must have given Andrew more than just a headache to take home.

hugs
Technoman
Abyss and Andrew do you guys remmber me when we were in the chat room on BOONEX like 2 or 3 years ago when it first went public, you guys looked so warm together and I really hope your son is doing well .. I hope you both remember when we were in the chat room doing conferencing, your very beautiful Abyss and ANDREY takes good care of you and this makes me very happy to see.

I am 1 who read the blog on your journey threw Australia, I really thought it was a great blog.
babona
hi
i am still wait the licenses you promised for everyone who makes a donation ,
what is the update ?
DosDawg
if you had an account prior to that offer, then the license number is in your unity account under the license section of your profile.

Regards,
DosDawg
Technoman
the abouve post just before this i put "son" and I meant your daughter not son ( as I did not sleep much last night ).
Abyss
no worries, mate :) believe in your memory, it's son.
killerhaai
Andrew you are great, thats a fact, but I know how difficult it is to lead a community or business..
Like you have done now: Be fair and make things clear!

Go on this way and have success..
jctwebsites
This post makes me smile :D Group hug post!
maddp
Well I recon i shall add my 2cents. I am new to this and i am planning on taking some code classes to assist this movement. I have read many post and saw this back and forth negative stuff alot. The new pricing took the cake. I am a free thinker and think everyone has a voice so its great to see we can all speak freely and learn from everyones point of view. Trust me i have many questions to get my site correct and running and i will ask as many of you have assisted. ANd i Thank everyone of you for see more it. ;O)
Synergy
I feel like a proud mother seeing all my kids getting alone :-)
RumpyBumpy
A great big Thank You Andrew (and all) for the apologies!


I just dove in on this thread before reading all the others so I hope I do not get caught in the old "chronological time warp" before I go back and read though all in order.


I have been missing in action for many months and only recently peeped in to see what was going on and my interest is beginning to rise once again.


I also want to apologize to any and all members, staff and anyone for any and all past shenanigans, see more etc on my part as any of you that remember that far back, I pretty much spoke my mind which a lot of people took the wrong way a lot of times and seemed to get me in the muck a lot.


I started out here with high hopes for Dolphin and was rather bewildered early on by the lack of sense of direction/caring/communication/effort by the Boonex staff. Then the confusion of everything as it was back then just overwhelmed me so I said to myself, "self, I just don't need this extra crap in my life" and gave up and dropped out.


I always only tried to help others and more times than not it seemed I was made to feel guilty about it.


Anyway, enough of my rambling, the past is past and I would also like to extend the group hug to everyone and start over with the newly FOCUSED and DIRECTED community once again.


This is really looking good and the RIGHT way to be the TOP community software in the world!


So COM'ON, back the the group hug ..... :)

.
sammie
you have perfect timeing. i wanted to put you forward for pundit too but your profile was hidden and i couldnt message you. can you pm me please baby?
sammie
RumpyBumpy
A great big Thank You Andrew (and all) for the apologies!

I just dove in on this thread before reading all the others so I hope I do not get caught in the old "chronological time warp" before I go back and read though all in order.

I have been missing in action for many months and only recently peeped in to see what was going on and my interest is beginning to rise once again.

I also want to apologize to any and all members, staff and anyone for any and all past shenanigans, etc see more on my part as any of you that remember that far back, I pretty much spoke my mind which a lot of people took the wrong way a lot of times and seemed to get me in the muck a lot.

I started out here with high hopes for Dolphin and was rather bewildered early on by the lack of sense of direction/caring/communication/effort by the Boonex staff. Then the confusion of everything as it was back then just overwhelmed me so I said to myself, "self, I just don't need this extra crap in my life" and gave up and dropped out.

I always only tried to help others and more times than not it seemed I was made to feel guilty about it.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, the past is past and I would also like to extend the group hug to everyone and start over with the newly FOCUSED and DIRECTED community once again and do whatever I can to help it succeed.

This is really looking good and the RIGHT way to be the TOP community software in the world!

So COM'ON, back the the group hug ..... :)

.
johnlayson
(edited out)

reason: the word "F-ING" is a no go here anymore.


That is so F-ing funny. It is ok on prime time TV.
In America.
RumpyBumpy
A great big Thank You Andrew (and all) for the apologies!

I just dove in on this thread before reading all the others so I hope I do not get caught in the old "chronological time warp" before I go back and read though all in order.

As many of you know, I have been missing in action for many months and only recently peeped in to see what was going on and my interest is beginning to rise once again.

I also want to apologize to any and all members, staff and anyone for any and all see more past shenanigans, etc on my part as any of you that remember that far back, I pretty much spoke my mind which a lot of people took the wrong way a lot of times and seemed to get me in the muck a lot.

I started out here with high hopes for Dolphin and was rather bewildered early on by the lack of sense of direction/caring/communication/effort by the Boonex staff. Then the confusion of everything as it was back then just overwhelmed me so I said to myself, "self, I just don't need this extra crap in my life" and gave up and dropped out.

I always only tried to help others and more times than not it seemed I was made to feel guilty about it.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, the past is past and I would also like to extend the group hug to everyone and start over with the newly FOCUSED and DIRECTED community once again and do whatever I can to help it succeed.

This is really looking good and the RIGHT way to be the TOP community software in the world!

So COM'ON, back the the group hug ..... :)

.
RumpyBumpy
A great big Thank You Andrew (and all) for the apologies!

I just dove in on this post/thread before reading all the others so I hope I do not get caught in the old "chronological time warp" before I go back and read though all in order. LOL!

As many of you know, I have been missing in action for many months and only recently peeped in to see what was going on and my interest is beginning to rise once again.

I also want to apologize to any and all members, staff and anyone for see more any and all past shenanigans, etc on my part as any of you that remember that far back, I pretty much spoke my mind which a lot of people took the wrong way a lot of times and seemed to get me in the muck a lot.

I started out here with high hopes for Dolphin and was rather bewildered early on by the lack of sense of direction/caring/communication/effort by the Boonex staff. Then the confusion of everything as it was back then just overwhelmed me so I said to myself, "self, I just don't need this extra crap in my life" and gave up and dropped out.

I always only tried to help others and more times than not it seemed I was made to feel guilty about it.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, the past is past and I would also like to extend the group hug to everyone and start over with the newly FOCUSED and DIRECTED community once again and do whatever I can to help it succeed.

This is really looking good and the RIGHT way to be the TOP community software in the world!

So COM'ON, back the the group hug ..... :)

.
RumpyBumpy
WOW!

Now I have to apologize for the many posts!

I was "editing" the original post each time but instead of EDITING it as it should it posted each as a NEW post!

Perhaps a 'bug'?

.
RumpyBumpy
Hmmmmmmmm ..... What the heck did I do wrong???

DANG!

I only clicked the 'edit' button each time and edited and clicked 'post' when I was finished. No reloading or anything like that.

YIKES!

Now I'm gun shy and feel like a dadgummed noobee LOL!

At any rate, the 'last' post is the final one the way I wanted it to be .....

WHEW .....

.
johnlayson
This is a good thing cuz if who ever is in charge see's it they will fix it. And tell us how t fix it if it shows up in our site.
sammie
edit the top of the 2 text windows lmao ya aint been gone that long to get old.
johnlayson
LoL Rumpy Bumpy
Thank god you only did 2 last time I posted any thing here it showed you about 18 times.
mastermindsro
I found some very good friends and interesting people here on Boonex and I thank God for that.. although I had some big fights with Sammie and promised to myself that I will never talk with her again.. I've found that -I'll feel better- if I apologize and forget everything..

So I apologize to Sammie and the other members for the way I acted in the last weeks..

Someone said "speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret" ..now I know it's true..
sammie
Hi Adrian
sorry the reply has taken a while but i had to think hard about it.
your quote will be printed and stuck to my screen for a long time to come.

having read over and over your post here, i started to think about our fights, and it hit me that really all it was, was we were to immature to accept others have a right to a different opinion.
but others that are 20 years older, so twice as mature i guess, are going to allow this oppertunity slip by, and thats ashame.

i accept your apology see more and extend mine to you, and i hope you know i mean it.

but i am also Proud of you today, because you talked to me so we would work out our differences and show everyone here, that if you and i can do it, so can everyone else.

i also know you are a talented young man and designer. and if you can settle our differences like we have, then you should also feel proud of your self, and i think you would have a lot to offer the community so i would like to see you added to the pundits list.
sweet dreams i know its late for you.,
sammie x
Tallyplayer
Alright whoever just hugged me squashed my smoke. Big hugs and kudos to all! (Enough with the mush mush) May the unified effort stay intact (Smiles)
 
 
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