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Hi,
I've come across individuals who are selling the xda-unlock software on eBay, for personal profit I assume.
I think this is ethically wrong.
Is anyone on the xda-developers forum aware of this?
I am posting this message in the hope that those who agree that this activity of stealing from those developing the software, will e-mail the person (see below) to tell him that what he is doing is wrong and should stop immediately.
Noteyou may have to copy and paste the following hyper-links into your browser's address field for them to work)
See;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69929&item=5206235467
I tracked the perpetuator down and confronted him with this breach. His response was pretty much "Go away! I can do what I want" The sad thing is, the person has no idea about the software he's selling and is misleading people by telling them that one version (which he has) is suitable for all PDA's.
Here's his e-mail address.
[email protected] , with which he accpets Paypal payments on-line.
And this is his profile on eBay:
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=mrtrader888&iid=5206235467&frm=284
The odd, brave, eBay traders are complaining about this in the Feedback facility but the feedback system isn't perfect.
See:-
http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI...val=&page=2&frompage=-1&iid=5206235467&de=off
I hope everyone who appreciates xda-developers.com 's efforts will help stop this person from making money out of their efforts by telling them by e-mail how they feel about it.
technologyfusion.
The only way to deal with this kind of issue is to post an ad every day offering the software for free and directing the people to this site, that way nobody buys from the seller and there is a chance that those directed to the site may donate once they unlock and or upgrade their phone.
The other option is to email every bidder with the details.
I am not a vindictive person, generally, but that email is just begging for about 10,000 newsletters per day. I always believed that educating people is far more effective than punishing them. I think Daily Dumb Question will be a good start for him to explore.
I don't mind people reselling free tools. at the moment they take advantage of poor advertising of our tool.
I now created a wiki page for it, so it will become easier to find for people.
when it rises in google's index, it should become easier to find.
willem
If you're an eBay user, you can send private email to the bidders, warning them that what they are bidding on is available for free. They might not like finding it out after they've already bid, but they will probably appreciate knowing that they shouldn't pay any more for it, and that they can get it right away off the internet. (And if they don't mind a stain on their eBay record for 6 months, they can cancel their bid if it's not too late.)
But surely before bidding on eBay, they should have done their homework. A simple Google search would have found it.
Technically eBay could get you for "bid interference" or some such thing if you emailed users like that, but that won't happen unless they turn around and report you. Be careful, though: in several cases before, when I've given advice to bidders about a bad or misleading piece of merchandise, they've mistaken me for the seller and chewed me out!!! So I don't generally do this unless I'm prepared for an angry response. And I won't go out of my way to do it -- I'll just do it if, say, I was searching for something similar on eBay, and I stumbled across someone's unfortunate bid. ("Think I should warn them? Nah. No good deed goes unpunished.")
Speaking of theft of donations.... Has anyone noticed [deleted]
Hey why don't we have one???
I recently found someone on this site that got a Jam from me. I would rather give the great XDA-Developers.com members a chance before trying to sell it on eBay.
I totally agree!
Me too. I've had a lot of help from this site, and have recommended it to friends who also have found it very useful. I posted this a couple of days ago:
"I know that this is not a selling forum, but I've had a lot of help over quite a long time from this site so would like to help out fellow members if I can. If this is not acceptable to the moderators I'm sorry, but here goes:
I've got an XDA2 that has been dropped. The screen is fine, but it's permanently locked into "Calendar" mode and cycles through all the calendar views and options. In all other ways it is in very good condition. It receives and makes calls, and all the functions are available, but I can't always turn it off. It's boxed and complete with cradle, charger, earphones, case, software, manuals, etc., and I'm sure that someone with a bit more time than me could make use of it. It's not stolen, or from any other dubious source - I've upgraded and just don't have the time at the moment - I wish I did, but that's the way it goes".
I think that the whole XDA-developers community could benefit if, for instance, the seller donated, let's say, 10% of the agreed selling price to the site. I think that's fair and gives XDA-developer members the chance to benefit rather than the auction sites. I looked at eBay in order to sell the item I've mentioned above, and I'm new to Ebay, but it looks over-complicated for what I want to do with an item that I know is faulty.
There may be other issues that might make things difficult, but if people are honest in their descriptions I don't see a big problem. Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware - if you're not happy about something, don't do it.
I think there's room for discussion on this matter.
Am I the only one who is bloody damn tired of opening a thread that appears on the first page of a forum, thinking it is new, only to find that it is six, eight, ten months old?
Wouldn't it be reasonable to have a column in the forum listings that indicates the original posting date of each thread, so that just because someone posted to a five-year old thread, which bumped it to the first bloody page of the forum, we don't have to waste time reading old news?
Ideally, old threads would just fade away to page two, then three, then four, etc. until they ride off into the sunset. What sense does it make for them to take center stage six months after their birth, just because some noob comes along and posts a "downloading now" to LVSW's WM 6 v. 0.1?
Ah, that felt good. Thanks for letting me vent. That means I won't have to stalk the dark, foggy streets around the port of Miami looking for another victim.
Ben
I mostly agree with you Ben. I look at the number of replys and views to try to determine how old a thread is. Then comes the bouncing from page to page to find the posts I haven't seen yet.
I'll admit that I'm new to XDA, so maybe there's a way of only showing the unread threads and/or posts? Then again, sometimes the older posts jog my memory about what is being discussed.
Guess with such an active message board, these sorts of issues come up. Anyone have tips they'd like to share on dealing with it?
Gavin
mikechannon said:
At the risk of becoming one of your victims on a dark and foggy night -
The approach you suggest sounds like the AT&T forum one where threads get closed when they reach a certain age. This is not the approach here. In fact we actively encourage members NOT to start new threads if an old one exists. Who wants new threads on the same thing springing up all over the place (though it seems to happen anyway!). It is a pain when searching if numerous threads turn up on the same subject - and of course there may be good info in each one but not all in the same one.
I would only make one or two exceptions to the "search and use an existing thread" rule and that might be where a thread has become dozens of pages long or has become spoiled in some way or other
Mike
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Michael, it's an honor to have a reply from you. I always enjoy your posts.
And no, you will not become one of my victims around the foggy port of Miami. Aberdeen, perhaps Actually, it is rarely foggy in Miami. Come on over and enjoy the nice weather, friend.
I take your point. However, what about the idea of a column showing the original posting date? Or, could that date somehow be made to show up in the balloon when one places the cursor over the thread's title?
I wasn't really suggesting closing out a thread, Michael. Just letting them drift to the back of the line, perhaps. But even that is not necessary. Let them come to the front page when someone posts to them, that's just dandy. But let us know that they are a week old, or a year old.
Cheers for your contributions to the fora, Michael.
By the by, PLEASE do not accuse me of proposing something that emulates the AT&T forum! Ugh. That will bring out the Mr. Hyde in me. I had a terrible experience there with the appropriately named Mod Moose over a year ago and have not been back sinece
@gavink, thank you for your reply, too. This issue is a pet peeve of mine. It doesn't seem to bother many members, though, so it looks like we will have to live with it. A very old thread can have many, many posts, or very few, by the way, so that's no help.
Regards,
Ben
mikechannon said:
In the threads list, the thread will be highlighted in dark blue if there are new posts and to the left of the thread title is a grey box with an arrow that takes you to the first unread (by you) post.
Mike
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Thanks for the tips, Mike... Didn't know what that box was for!
mikechannon said:
.
Normally I have to pay large sums of money for that sort of thing
Miami I know is fabulous - not that I've been there. Weather is undoubtedly better than here - althoughwe do like our Scots mist now and again, provided we get a decent summer.
I can suggest this to site Admin. I agree that some threads eg early threads speculating about the price of the Tilt/Kaiser are pretty usless now. Presumably though these threads just die naturally. If a thread has new posts, why does it matter what date the original post was? Just curious about this 'cos quite often I refer people to threads I and others made over a year ago - if the answers were good then, most often they still are - don't you think?
Hah! I too have fallen foul of Mod Moose. I did go back though (not often). There was a time when the mere mention of XDA on the AT&T forum was seen as something worthy of cruel and un-natural punishment.
Possessing a "pet peeve" is a breach of forum rules. In accordance with the new policy on stronger Moderation you are ordered to be a happy, contented person. Mind altering drugs are available via download from the FTP - should they be required.
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Hello, again, Mike:
As always, your replies are cogent and witty. Large sums, indeed. Please, let it be in US $, not Euros, eh? Be kind.
Well, yes, Miami is pretty fabulous. If you ever get over here, please let me know ahead of time, and we will open our house to you.
OK, I am not requesting any threads be deleted, or even re-ordered. If it were possible, all I would like to see is the date of the original posting. This would help us to avoid wasting time reopening a thread we saw six months ago. For those of my generation, who cannot remember what we did ten minutes ago, this would be very helpful.
Making the original date of the first post available just seems to make sense to my time- and whisky-addled brain. Not to be able to see the date is like publishing an old news article and hiding the date.
From the traffic on this thread, or, more accurately, paucity thereof, I guess it doesn't amount to a hill of beans, so I am going to go pour myself a wee drap of the Glenlivet now and then forget about the whole damn thing. (You see, like you, Mike, I too like the Scots "mist")
But before I sign off, forgive me the breach of forum rules. With the cup of Glenlivet, I shan't be needing any other mind-altering drugs, however.
------------------------------------
A wee drap o' whisky I tak' when I'm weary
My blood for to warm and my spirits to cheer
And when I sit doon I intend to be merry
So fill up a bumper and bring it round here.
(First verse of a traditional Scots song)
.........................................
One last observation that has absolutely nothing to do with nothing. Your country's flag, (displayed in your personal information at the top of your e-mails, is practically identical to the U.S. and British Navy signal flag "M." And "M" when spoken in those Navy's, and the international phonetic alphabet, is "Mike."
You have a right to be doubly proud when you see your flag, Mike.
Cheers, brother Michael!
Ben
Mike, I think we have lost the rest of the "crowd" that were already not looking at this thread. Ah, well.
The history and pictures of the whisky mills were an absolute treat. It's amazing how rustic they seem (the sheds, that is)! Thanks for sending those. I will put them into my archive. I really would like to see them in person some day. Made it to London once, but that was a long time ago, and it's not Scotland, where some of my ancestors came from (along with some from Eire.)
I've not run across Macallan. Now I have a mission to find it.
That last picture is a gem. Give me the guy's contact information. From the looks of things, I don't suppose he has an e-mail, eh? I would buy a case of his brew without thinking twice, ha, ha!
As to the "Mike" flag, just Google "Navy Signal Flags." You are in for a treat when you see Scotland's proud flag identified as "Mike. Here is a table that shows both the flags and their phonetic names:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/sfpa.htm
Regards,
Ben
Thank you, Michael. Nothing should be done if there is a cost in money or time. Clearly, not many people are very worked up about about the issue.
Kind regards
Ben
You've a good sense of humor, Mike. Uh, is the photo typical of how the Scots bring up their wee ones? No wonder they are such a feisty bunch
Cheers
Ben
Well, well, well. Methinks you have to much time on your hands, Mike. Of course, here's Ben answering you, so who am I to talk?
Check out my new avatar. I was going to use this when I joined the forum, but never got around to it. The website photo you sent me was too much to resist.
In spite of my age, as revealed now by my mugshot, I still have a bit of "bong" left. I have been feeling less "feisty" the past few months, however. Reading the article you sent, now I understand. Big Ben had lost its "bong."
Not sure those workers scurrying around the face of my, uh, inspiration are going to do much for me, though. Perhaps if one of them were "bonnie Jean" from "the streets of Aiberdeen...."
Ben
(There go my chances of getting my "original post date" request implemented by our dear Webmistress, eh?)
I recently developed a joke viewing apps. And so far it has been rejected twice. I have a few problems that I want to share with you about the app certification process.
1. Its hugely subjective. First time my app got rejected because it has an "Adult Jokes" section. I guess it violated the content policy about adult/mature. I removed the section. The second time, it got rejected because it has content promoting discrimination based on race, sex etc. I think the problem is from the blonde jokes section. But seriously, I would think very few people would find this type of jokes offensive. And its jokes, and people who read jokes usually have a sense of humor, and I think Microsoft needs to have a sense of humor too.
2. The turnaround time is too long. For my case, i could tell that testers finished the test on Tuesday, but I don't get the result back until Thursday night, why does it take this long to receive a notification.
3. I would like to get all the problems all at once, instead of fixing one, submitting again, and only found out it got rejected again with new problems that should have been mentioned last time. The turnaround time is too long.
I really enjoy develop for Windows phone, and I think its a platform that has so much potential. I personally promote windows phone around my friends and coworkers a lot. But this certification process is making really frustrated. I really hope these problems will be addressed soon.
Well, in this day and age "we" have to be careful who we might offend. Thing is you say these are "just jokes" but where's the line. Blionde jokes? Aggie jokes? Polish jokes? Blacks? Rural folk? Women? Asians? Whites? Jews or any other religious group?
You get the point. In some ways this is an unfortunate side-effect of the politically correct world we've all come to know. In other ways, this may be a microcosm of trying to build a more tolerant and less ignorant society. Who knows?
I'd suggest taking a moment to read the Application Certification Requirements and specially the Content Policies.
Put yourself in the tester's situation, that person probably tests hundreds of apps each day and is just following the guidelines to the best of his/her ability. It would be nice if they could list all the faults in the application, but there really shouldn't be that many things to find in the first place.
I'm sure the tester is a blonde hehe
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
There are not that many things.
First time, they said to remove the adult jokes, which I did. How come the second time they come back to me and say, you know what, remove this too.
Its not like the technical bugs. Those contents were always there. How many times do I have to go through the review to fix them all?
Nudua said:
I'd suggest taking a moment to read the Application Certification Requirements and specially the Content Policies.
Put yourself in the tester's situation, that person probably tests hundreds of apps each day and is just following the guidelines to the best of his/her ability. It would be nice if they could list all the faults in the application, but there really shouldn't be that many things to find in the first place.
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Since indiegogo apparently thought the best way to dodge accountability was to poof the entire campaign on their site, I figure a thread here is warranted. Please post if you never received your door as well. I'm rather curious what percentage of his orders actually did get filled.
As for myself I emailed indiegogo and PayPal and neither seem to be inclined to take much action to actually get anyone's money back. Perhaps if there's enough of us an action can be forced. I really don't like the idea of letting this slide
Having received the email explanation today about the doors, I made the thread title more hospitable. I already went and grabbed another door from Gruber which I'm happy with though, so will be requesting a refund myself. How that turns out will decide how I feel about this.
Yeah same boat here. Not exactly thrilled that my attempts to contact both through the indigogo site and to 0Mie himself on xda have gone unanswered. I contributed I think about the 8th of March, and not long after that would have been the last email update I received from him about progress and dispatch updates.
Wow - I came here just to post this thread...
Never received the battery door, and PayPal closed the dispute because the transaction was more than 45 days old... That'll teach you to give the benefit of the doubt to the person. Did ANYONE receive a door? The contribution level got up to ~$7,000... He had a website up for a few days, but it looks like the domain is no longer registered to him -- Who-Is registry.
Does anyone know who this guy is? I found that Indiegogo thread here on XDA...
Wow ...I guess he was on some news sites as well ...damn ..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Well - looks like we're SOL --
utcu said:
He took my $65 contribution for a battery cover and spare battery, as well as many others' contributions and disappeared. The last I heard from him was over a month ago. He sent out an email saying some of the covers were done and that he was working on others and if anyone needed to get a hold of him to contact him through his site. (andetch.com)
As of a week or so ago, the site is no longer active, indiegogo and paypal have pretty much told all of us we're SOL, and people who were told their doors "were shipped" never received them. Both of the sites he operates from have been taken down and no one can contact him on his Google+ page either. I would never talk negatively on someone without good reason and I'm not sure if maybe he had something come up and couldn't follow through with the project but any type of response or refund would be nice. Here's the original project page with comments from many other unhappy contributors. http://www.indiegogo.com/Galaxy-Nexus-Laser-Etched-Doors?c=comments
It's very awesome how Gruverdesigns is helping all of us out. Dealing with them has been a great pleasure thus far. They actually respond to messages.
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I hope this guy goes to hell, seriously... I was one of the first people that contributed when I saw his campaign and even helped promote it a little bit. I feel betrayed and it makes it even worse that I helped promote this liar.
And I'm in the same boat, haven't received any updates, emails, or battery door yet.
Still had his google plus page from early in the campaign. This is what convinced me he is dodging rather than just MIA for some real reason. The plus page has been unused a while, but there's a tweet a few days back, and we're adding stuff to our 'wish list' on april 10th...which is after my 2nd polite email inquiry about what the status of the campaign is...
https://plus.google.com/u/0/101578908305271892137/about
http://twitter.com/#!/0mie
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2C15TYE9IM063/ref=cm_sw_su_w
The whole thing seems so weird though, the guy has been active for 2 years with that name and done other stuff, no real reason to burn people now.
he was on all the big sites , someone tell these sites
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/02/14/interested-in-a-custom-laser-etched-galaxy-nexus-back-cover-check-out-this-kickstarter/
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/02/14/interested-in-a-custom-laser-etched-galaxy-nexus-back-cover-check-out-this-kickstarter/
Somebody file something with FBI. Worth a try. $7000 is probably a felony charge.
let it be.
Did anyone else receive this email on 4/9/2012?
[email protected] said:
Looks like my auto-reply away message didn’t get setup up properly, my family was in town from San Diego last week and I hadn’t seen them in almost a year. I was spending time with them. I am getting some orders ready to ship now, I have yours ready to be etched. That will probably happen tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, I now have to reply to about 100 new emails.
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My PM box was probably full, I will check it out when I get home. I am spending time with the family, I haven't seen them in almost a year. Which design did you get again?
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I had spoken to him about a month ago. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt but that was last email I received from him. I even got a stamp.com tracking email a week after he met the minimum requirement but never received anything number never even updated.
I donated back when the funding was only $30
I still haven't received my door....welp
I received mine. I ordered it on March 12th via his website (they day before I ordered the Google limited from ebay) and they both came in on the 31st. I had to contact him via an xda pm after a week of not hearing anything about the shipping though, but I eventually got it. I think he said he got swamped with orders plus was busy at work so he got delayed getting the orders out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
mattpacifico said:
I received mine. I ordered it on March 12th via his website (they day before I ordered the Google limited from ebay) and they both came in on the 31st. I had to contact him via an xda pm after a week of not hearing anything about the shipping though, but I eventually got it. I think he said he got swamped with orders plus was busy at work so he got delayed getting the orders out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
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Considering the amount of received vs not received, I doubt it's just a "I got really busy" scenario...
The lack of communication is also troubling...
Oh I totally agree. Especially when in the first pm I included my Google checkout order number and his reply back was "did you order GSM or cdma version". Ugh really? That's why I included the order number
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
I paid for my gsm door plus international shipping early on and got a couple emails early on but nothing for ages. No door yet. I have given up on ever getting it...
I would love to be able to take back the other post I made in the other thread. He was nothing less than great to speak with at the beginning of the campaign. I'm definitely frustrated at this point though. No responses to emails or inquiries just seems too suspicious. There's also the matter of his sites now being inactive. If I end up getting a response, a refund, or what I paid for I'll be more than happy to delete the posts I've made.
I think we'd all love to give the benefit of the doubt, but the ball is very much in his court to respond and he isn't at all.
His profile shows activity on xda after this thread began yesterday. If there's an explanation, we're listening.
utcu said:
I would love to be able to take back the other post I made in the other thread. He was nothing less than great to speak with at the beginning of the campaign. I'm definitely frustrated at this point though. No responses to emails or inquiries just seems too suspicious. There's also the matter of his sites now being inactive. If I end up getting a response, a refund, or what I paid for I'll be more than happy to delete the posts I've made.
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Exactly - I think the majority of us understand that life gets in the way, and it's not always possible to finish what you start -- but a refund is at least needed. As it stands now, he stole the money.
Found a google profile for his website but like everything else there hasn't been any activity since mid March.
https://plus.google.com/app/plus/mp/988/#~loop:a=g:-4726536214375572952&view=profile
Seems like this is the only site he's been "active" on.