Reaching out.

So does anyone recognize the website page background?

Copyright Sam Bie?

It gets better...

rockclimbersonly.weebly.com/

"know that everybody on the site is there for the same reasons you are! To climb and brag about climbing."

"become a hero, idol..."

"This site is to give everyone a fair shot at becoming the first 100 users because the first 100 users get the first month of membership free! (see the rewards start already)"

for $5 a month can we break Guideline #1 on RCO?

Wayne wrote:So does anyone recognize the website page background? Copyright Sam Bie?

tineye.com does.

petzlcrew.petzlteam.com/pub…

If you toggle between the two photos, it is easy to see where Andrew Hohncke photoshopped Petzl's logo out of the image.

"whether your a beginner or a seasoned veteran; you need to be on rock climbers only"

Your vs You're dab

sounds more like a creative raffle for this guy's old worn out climbing gear

The Bobby wrote: tineye.com does. petzlcrew.petzlteam.com/pub… If you toggle between the two photos, it is easy to see where Andrew Hohncke photoshopped Petzl's logo out of the image.

Might as well add on copyright infringement to the rest of poor Andrew's woes.

I'm more offended by the bad photoshopping than the lame try to fool us promotion of the site. I mean really dude... there's a tool in photoshop called the heal tool... cut and paste... geez what an amateur.

Well, I guess Andrew is listening to the comments and he added an "About Us" and preview page... unfortunately, it is full of more lies.

"Don’t get us wrong, we know about and have long been apart of those major forums and still will be."

(ignoring the incorrect use of the word apart)

I call bullshit. Andrew has a profile on here but has never posted anything aside from this thread. He has been a member since May 2011. He also has a profile at rockclimbing.com (same name, same email, etc.)

rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/fo…;

Also registered May 2011.

That is a long time?

According to his profile there he does a little bouldering...Now, I'm not saying you need to be a professional rock climber to start up a web site that caters to climbers, but this guy is clearly trying to misrepresent himself.

Stealing a copyrighted picture for your front page also shows a lack of integrity. It would be one thing if this kid could claim ignorance, but the fact that he deliberately edited out the Petzl logo shows he knew what he was doing.

If you look at the preview page, it is obvious that he stole ALL of the pictures posted on the site:
rockclimbersonly.com/previe…

But perhaps what offends me the most is his lack of command of the English language. Semi-colons are not some special character that should just randomly be thrown into sentences. The preview pages are painful to read.
"And please know, that everybody should win something at least once unless they don’t try at all."

Why is there a comma there?!
languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/m…

Finally, you CANNOT create a legitimate contest page without disclosing how the contest is judged. Who decides who submitted the best video/photo? Is it you? A panel? How can users tell if their entries are being fairly judged or if you are just stealing their $5 membership fees and using the money to buy your friends and yourself climbing gear?

This is going so well.

"Don’t get us wrong, we know about and have long been apart of those major forums and still will be."

Apparently not so much any more. Andrew has been silent since the first page. Copyright infringement is a serious issue, and I would think that the owner of a site that asks subscribers to submit pics and videos would want to set the record straight regarding how he obtained the background images he is using on his site.

This thread and the Lone Peak graffiti thread have renewed my hope in mankind. If Congress turned the economy over to MP we'd have that crap fixed in 6 pages.

wow, this went from a very bad business plan to one that is in violation of copyright (and, perhaps other) laws.

I know that Black Diamond monitors the forums here. I wonder if Petzl does.

you might want to take that site down, Andrew, before the cease and desist e-mails crash your inbox.

...and the site is now down.

Huzzah! First round of victory beers is on me!

Uh, actually, I'm gonna have to think that one over...

Wow.

So how many people paid him $5 just out of curiosity?

Austin Baird wrote:This thread and the Lone Peak graffiti thread have renewed my hope in mankind. If Congress turned the economy over to MP we'd have that crap fixed in 6 pages.

It only takes one "you sold me a moldy tent" to bring down Lehman Brothers.

I'll take you up on that victory beer Jon!!

NC Rock Climber wrote:...and the site is now down.

AWESOME!