Dan ... over the top... really? Have I gone off like assi in this thread? Go back and read what I posted... I ha vent ranted or gone off on a tangent I simply state my opinion.
Again if Iceman were to pop back up on here would everyone be so warm and fuzzy to him? All he did was post some bs about stopping a home invasion.
Funny thing I see SR say yup I did it and owning up to it.
Did he apologise to all of those that stood up for him when he lied to you?
I remember multiple people saying the charges were dropped.
Then his wife did it and set him up.
Mustaine being one of the big ones.
See where I am going with this?
Dan I am no where near abusive as the ranting SR deluged 200 with... wonder why that is.
Bronk, I don't know the Iceman story. Apparently I missed that one so I don't know what happened to him. I know how Voss was 'dealt with' by the community. While he may be here in shades or not, he sure got run out on a rail, but that was because he was taking things from people who took him at his word.
Ironically it was Fester who led the charge on Voss as he's quick to point out with his Voss Conspiracy thread. Fester recently informed us that when he fed us all a sob story about his broken marriage and lost job, it was just a joke and his way of getting out of a role of responsibility he'd accepted in a scenario. As one of those who felt the meltdowns over and over, and took him at his word and wished him well, that one is hard to forgive as it would have been just as easy to say, "I can't do it". He's still around.
Our old claimed to be an F-18 driver is still here and seems to be accepted by the crowd.
I'm sure there are other examples.
In terms of Skyrock. As I've said, I never had time for the in game persona. I thought it was a lousy way to go about things and he knew that. At no point did I nor do I connect that to the choices he made outside of AH.
I don't remember him 'lying' about his addictions.
Was I angry when all this went down? Absolutely, probably more angry then you. My reasons were probably different. I'd lost two kids through no fault of my own, and this guy chooses to lose his? Did he have any clue of what he gave up? I thought hard about what I wanted to do, and never did it come down to bashing him in this silly game. The game doesn't matter. How people treat each other does. He blew it big time as a Dad and that is the most important thing to me.
So I wrote him in prison. I don't think I held anything back in telling him exactly how I felt about it. I know there were a number of folks who did this. I believe Silat for one did a much better job of staying in contact then myself. Sounds like others did too. And understand, I don't know Mark well, and would be hard pressed to call him a friend for that reason. But I have this thing about parents doing their job, and he needs to do his right.
You have a choice. And all I could see was those two little kids in the pictures that were posted by Grizz I think. their parents, for better or worse are the only ones they've got. For their sake, getting Mark to get his act together, in whatever little way we can seems far more important then ripping him for whatever it is folks perceive he needs to be ripped for. I can't imagine anything we could say would feel worse then him knowing he gave up that time with his little ones. He can't get it back. If he doesn't understand that, then there is no hope.
I choose to believe that he may have figured that out. When he replied to my letter, I got no excuses, just acknowledgement of how much he'd screwed up and betrayed his kids trust. His goal seemed to be getting that back.
Helping someone is always a risk, as there is always a chance you can get burned. But I'd rather take the chance in hopes of helping, then not, and having someone fail.
Don't mistake that is me thinking we can make a huge difference, but I do believe knowing folks are willing to support you after you've made the dumbest decisions of your life, has to help a little.
We have nothing to lose by trying. And if as he says, he's made a change and parenting those two little ones is the most important thing, then everyone wins, in particular those little ones.