SL Exchange WebSite Censorship

Who said anything about him letting Apotheus win? What on earth does that have to do with what I've said? I've never suggested he should let Apotheus win. But his actions are just bringing closer the point at which SLExchange is a dead duck anyway. Look at how many merchants have withdrawn from there today - the Clothing section alone has gone down nearly 800 items today. There's going to be nothing left for either of them to 'win'.

Apotheus 'blackmailed' Merwan saying he'd kill SLExchange if Merwan didn't accept. All Merwan's doing today is rallying the troops to kill it anyway. Yet Merwan is the one who has said that he didn't want to influence people, didn't want to harm the merchants or the business that SLExchange can give them. But today his post has caused the most noticeable impact on SLExchange so far, and I have trouble thinking that he didn't choose his words careful to have that impact. Go figure.

I get the feeling that this is all spiralling out of control and that soon, if not in the next couple of days then the next couple of weeks, SLExchange will shut up shop anyway so there'll be nothing left to win, which is probably Merwan's only way of coming out of this with any sort of 'win' at all. So, despite the posturing, I don't think either of them at SLExchange currently has much thought for the merchant's at all - they're just the unwitting pawns in the power stuggle.

Thank you Moopf for putting what I was thinking into words. One of the reasons I have been holding off taking concrete action has been the hope the partners would work things out and SLExchange would survive.

Surreal

At this point, it doesn't much matter to me if it survives or not, I wouldn't hand my money to someone who destroyed a friendship and/or partnership out of greed. That would be silly of me.

Geez Moopf!!! Give us Merchants some credit huh. We are perfectly capable of making the decision to stay or leave without any influence by Merwan! And for the last time Merwan has been keeping us informed at OUR (the merchants) request!

Lastly, Show me ALL the post by Merwan that makes you believe that he is trying to pursuade merchants to leave. Show me one statement where he says "Noone should stay at SL Exchange". Back up your theory.

It seems that the "blackmail" was actually a buyout attempt of the 40% ownership of an up and coming website that has the potential to make some (?) serious money.

It seems that when the buyout attempt failed, the forums were used to persuade the one partner to accept the buyout offer. The public attempt failed. The public was notified of limited access to the business.

It seems that when the plea to reinstate access into the website failed, that now we have the purported blackmailed partner effectively shutting down the entire company with sympathic withdrawals of accounts based on friendship and forum postings that basically warn people to remove their cold-hard Linden money.

Am I watching a movie?

And why do I have this gut feeling that there was more internal strife between the 60% ownership and the 40% ownership than what's being told? Why do I get the feeling that this strife dealt not only with day-to-day issues, but also long-term business direction and planning?

I'm waiting for the sequel.

TWO competiting websites, each owned by the original owners go toe to toe (no pun intended) wanting to win the support and business of the SL community.

And yes, Moopf, I agree with your imagery of what is now transpiring.

As grandpappy always said...

"If ya can't beat 'em, whomp on them until they can't stand up any longer. That way, they're back at your level and you can bite 'em on the ankles."

Here is my problem.

I don't KNOW either of the partners well enough to have formed an opinion on thier personal honesty. Apothesis says he shut Merwen out of the business for some unnamed reason. Merwen basically says the same. I can't get the pair of them in a room and talk to them until I get a sense of what kind of people they are. It could be that Apotheus is greedy. It could be that Merwen didn't do something he was obligated to do. I don't know. I can't find out. That sucks.

As best as I can tell the net result of all this for the principals is going to be dead business and tainted reputations.

I expect I'll be with Neph later tonight. Painfully delisting 10 pages of merchandise. Not because I know what actually transpired, but because a sound business decision for me is to move on and not deal with any more of this.

Surreal

If that's correct then why has today seen such a rush to leave SLExchange? I mean, after all, I've heard so many people say they were waiting to hear from Merwan before making a decision and today they heard in no uncertain terms. Merwan posts exposing his full side of the story and people remove their items in droves. Looks like many made the decision based on Merwan's post today, don't you think?

Merwan didn't have to say leave at all for it to have that desired effect. All he had to do was expose exactly what's gone on in the background and also start this thread about how he's been further banned from SLExchange's forum because of the posts he made there earlier. He has influenced many with his words today - hey my first response was draw your money out, remove your items and get out while you can. Why? Because Merwan's post painted a very bleak picture of Apotheus and the current power stuggle going on for it. And that's exactly why he didn't have to specifically tell people to leave, because those words were more than enough to make people want nothing more to do with it.

Merwan's playing his last hand over this. Apotheus has made the threat that if Merwan didn't accept his offer he'd shut SLExchange. Merwan's actions today are nothing more than double-daring him and showing that he has enough power to get the merchants to leave, without even having to say it. It's a sad and sorry situation, but don't think that Merwan hasn't played this out intentionally today by posting what he has publicly. It's gone too far for it to end amicably, in my opinion, so Merwan's showing Apotheus that he can kill it just as easily. Yet by not saying "leave SLExchange" outright and going to great lengths to say he's not trying to influence people, he's convinced some people, like yourself, that that's not what he wants at all.

This is business. It gets dirty. As I said before, the merchants are now nothing but pawns.

If I post that "the sky is blue" you can interpret this in two different yet consistent ways:

1. I am trying to persuade you to accept the proposition that the sky is blue
   
2. I am making a statement about the "facts" of the world as I perceive them
   

I've seen Merwan taken to task for being quiet while waiting for an amicable solution and then being roasted for telling his side of the story. All this after being subject to a hostile lockout which has not been refuted, only confirmed from multiple angles. I'd be surprised if most could conduct themselves with as much grace given an equal blindsiding.

All communication is manipulation at some level, but that is tangential. Merwan conducted himself with decorum and forthrightness throughout an obnoxious situation solely of Apotheus' making. Have you noticed who isn't saying anything? The self-proclaimed owner of SLX. At this point it doth appear that Apotheus is the one whose silence is damning; he is also the one with the most to lose at this point.

Excellent post, Malachi. I have been struck by the whole damned if he did, damned if he didn't nature of criticisizing Merwan for speaking up. Merwan has acted beyond reproach in this entire situation - he did not take this public, and even after it was taken public, worked privately to try to resolve the situation. The fact that Apotheus has neither the class to have kept this private, nor the character to have not screwed a partner on so many levels - first by his actions with the site, then with his non-apology ass-covering PR post that dragged it out into the open, and then to remain silent after his post left Merwan with a situation that I think has handled beautifully.

At this point, Merwan needs to protect his own interests - while the merchants of the site are important, they are not paramount in this situation. From beginning to end, doing business with someone is about trust, and that trust has been publicly and privately breached on such a fundamental level that even without Merwan's posts, there is no going backward on this or much hope of an amicable resolution. I am sure everyone would like ta positive outcome, but given that Apotheus has made no sincere attempt to resolve any of this, I think the prospects of it are bleak. Merwan has handled himself far better than I think most would in a similar situation, and I applaud him for that.

I agree with you completely, my same reasons. I still do not know what happend yet what I can see how SLExchange is being ran I will not be doing buisness with them. Unless there are some changes in the future.

The only two who know, as fact, all the details of the 'hostile takeover attempt' are Merwan and Apotheus. The rest of us are just catching the crumbs.

What I do know is that it's been Merwan who's assisted me from the beginning, and it's been Merwan who did all the follow through. He advertised, he pushed, he encouraged, he hyperlinked and he sold this service on his reputation. Unless he was expected to juggle steins of red hot magma while dancing in a tutu and nipple clamps, I really don't see how he could have failed to live up to his end of the bargain. Most would say he went above and beyond, to the point of annoying some people with his enthusiasm.

Now, whatever Apotheus's real reasons may be for locking Merwan out of the business without warning, they don't much matter to me. He chose to take that route, he chose to make the (what some would consider) blackmail attempt, and he chose that over the consideration of what all of this 'scandal' would do to the business, and us, his clients. That was a bad business decision any way you look at it, and it doesn't make me want to say, "Here, hold this L$11,000 for me, will ya?"

This is horrible advice.

1. Finding a transmission in which Apotheus calls Merwan 'partner' means nothing as 'transmissions' can be forged/faked.

2. What actions are you saying can be shown to demonstrate a partnership existed?

3. How can Merwan make a claim on half of the business? A claim that can be enforced through legal action???? No.

Your 'advice' may work for the banned resident who needs a voice in the forums but "real legal advice" is far beyond your capacity judging by your advice given thus far.

Briana Dawson

yeah

Surreal

Cristiano, I think you're reading more into what has been said by myself today. It's not a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. However, in the last couple of days I can't honestly say that I don't think Merwan has handled this well at all - before that I thought he had.

Yesterday he posted sparingly with extremely vague posts, open to interpretation. One was made to Malachi to which he responded something along the lines of 'things aren't always as they seem' (there were a couple of others as well in this same tone). That Secret Squirrel approach seemed odd, although I put it down to just the way that Merwan generally words his posts.

Today he let the fireworks go, presumably because he now knows that there's no chance of saving the business relationship. Of course he openly, and privately, encouraged people not to leave SLExchange before as the merchants, like it or not, were his only real weapon - he who has sway with the most merchants between them really holds a great deal of power to ruin the business - I don't think Apotheus actually realised that. Today, whilst pretending that he wasn't trying to influence them, he influenced them to leave SLExchange en mass. Even those who weren't in it because of Merwan could not ignore the content of his main post.

It wasn't in his interests for them to leave before whilst hope still remained that there was a solution to all this, otherwise there would of been nothing left after the solution, but now it doesn't matter. Getting them to leave en mass is a last hoorah, a kind of 'if I can't have it, then I'll make sure you can't' - actually a similar position to Apotheus. I agree with him doing that, 100% - once somebody's made the threat to you, you may as well pay it back in kind. What I don't agree with is that he's done it today still under the guise of not influencing people. Forget that, use your influence and use it transparently, don't use it subversively. The merchants would still of supported him because it's the right thing to do. There was no need to pretend it was being done for any other reason than making sure Apotheus didn't have it easy, or at all, with the SLExchange he's left with.

Anyone else feel like their watching a nasty divorce? Complete with the friends and in-laws? Looks like the kids are headed to an orphanage.

Surreal

anyone have the original TOS for SLEX? it was revised 1/18/05.

It's REALLY shady to update your TOS without informing your clients & customers (don't believe i got an email). And i didn't find anything about it on the forums or on the main page.

Would be very interesting to see what's changed.

As one of the founder sellers, I also now will be deleting my Neo Japan items from SL exchange and removing my funds. Good luck Merwan, you are well supported and deserve better

It seems upon glance that the change is Apotheus has repeatedly put his RL name in the terms to emphasize his ownership of SLE.

I LOVE those TOS's that say even if we are in the wrong, we won't be liable for more than X amount of dollars. Real... classy.

Unfortunately, due to the continued silence on Apotheus part, the lack of notice to the change of TOS, my faith in SLE has waned and I will be joining the many other merchants and removing my listed items from SL Exchange.

Note to Apotheus: you're running a business whether you define it that way or not. Customer confidence in your business is something that cannot and should not be taken lightly. Quick and efficient resolution of an issue that may erode confidence is the key to successfully making it through an issue like this. Clear and open dialogue with your customers is another valuable tool to help keep from losing customer confidence.

I urge you, to resolve this issue and start treating your customers as customers quickly - before the damage to SLE is beyond repair.

Best of luck to you and Merwan.

I hope Merwan is looking for legal counsel, because it sounds like he has grounds to sue. Probably not worth the effort tho, cause it looks like Apo's shady busy ethics have effectively destroyed SLX.

After reading all the posts and threads on this situation, I have joined the many merchants that has delisted their items in SL Exchange. I withdrew my funds and took the Magic Box into my inventory and will be placing the items as inactive until this matter is completely resolved. It is not about us merchants being pawns or anything like that. It's about being able to trust the company you are dealing with.

I was able to create an account on SLExchange and post a message to other users. Does anyone have any ideas on how we could get through to other merchants who might be interested in knowing what's going on?

~Ulrika~