Posted by decrepitude Wow.....a magic card joke. Is that crap supposed to be insulting? 1/10 for attempt. Try again jackass. http://www.smugmug.../M/i-4DRKLLX-M.gif

I thought it was pretty good. There was no need to resurrect this old thread just to remind us all to forget. If you don't like thread necromancy jokes, it's probably best to not necromance old threads.

Posted by Steed I thought it was pretty good. There was no need to resurrect this old thread just to remind us all to forget. If you don't like thread necromancy jokes, it's probably best to not necromance old threads.

I wasn't trying to resurrect anything but a bit of empathy....good luck with that on UER.

I appreciate what you said, but I laughed at the magic card. It's an old thread, you bumped it, there are memes for that. No one need be offended.

We need to resurrect this sacred holiday after all the shit he's pulled recently. He may have been misguided and annoying but otherwise decent back in 2014, but 9 years later and he's become actively malicious.

Posted by Aran We need to resurrect this sacred holiday after all the shit he's pulled recently. He may have been misguided and annoying but otherwise decent back in 2014, but 9 years later and he's become actively malicious.

What's he done recently?

He's become a complete hypocrite and bully. He runs the Discord of Misfit Explorers where all the losers who get banned from the better discords end up. They've been harassing people and trying to do everything they can to expose the locations better minds refuse to reveal. He also harbors people who excuse predatory and pedophilic views.

I apologize to everyone for ever saying anything good about the man over the years. He's truly become a menace. I was wrong.

Posted by Steed What's he done recently?

I'll provide some context for the specific catalyst here.

A few minutes after I posted my YIR thread, he pinged everyone in his 1,000+ person Discord server for a new contest. The game: try to identify as many of the spots I posted in that thread as possible, with different amounts of points for different spots. You even got extra points for finding locations I *didn't* post in that thread, but could prove I went to with screenshots from me or otherwise. Once the spots were identified they would be added to his public map.

Obviously I wasn't comfortable with this, at all. I found it extremely invasive, especially the fact that they were incentivized to look for stuff *not* in the thread. He's done similar contests with big YouTube channels, but I'm not a public figure in the slightest, and don't like attention. I immediately sent him a message asking him to stop the contest, but he refused at first. I had to haggle with him for a bit. At one point he even offered to take it down on the condition I give him a new power plant location to explore, which I refused.

Eventually he did agree to take the thread down, and I calmed down a little bit and exchanged a few more words with him, but after sitting and thinking about it for a while, and talking to a few friends about it, the more angry I got. I'm especially pissed he tried to shake me down for free pins with the threat of this contest continuing.

So, I ended up blocking him on all platforms. I've generally been friendly with him in the past but this whole thing was way over the line for me. I'm not trying to push him out of the community or anything, we're all adults and can make our own decisions, but for my part I just don't want to ever hear from him again.

He's also harassed both myself and several other friends for months because we refuse to sell him the pin to a specific mine he wants. It's not the first time he's done that either- he's been harassing, threatening, and (trying to) blackmail me since last April for pins, and recently threatened to track down and blow every spot I've ever posted to UER in retaliation for blocking him.

After hearing him on a Podcast in 2022 (he actually had a couple of good ideas) I had a chat with Bill.

The conclusion I came to is that Bill treats all locations the same as he thinks it's morally wrong to withhold locations from people.

So he will treat an abandoned space shuttle as he would a 4ft concrete storm sewer.

I told him about a glowworm tunnel that I'd found that also had a bat colony in it. There are so many glowworms that you can walk through it for over an hour without needing a torch/flash light. The tunnel is used for fresh water so the fine for getting caught is more extreme than a storm-drain. I figured he'd say he would keep it on the down-low (I didn't actually give him the location, just explained it to him) seeing as though people smoking, spray painting, letting off fireworks, lighting the tunnel with steel wool, etc would wipe out the bats & glowworms as well making it obvious people are entering the tunnel causing it to be locked down.

His response: "I would have to make it known to everyone. You have no right to keep the location from others".

He also went on to suggest I relocate the bats & glowworms to other tunnels 8/

So yeah, he lost me there. He's just too rigid in his ways - everyone should have access to everything at their fingertips - no exceptions.

I didn't block him or anything like that but just left his chat.

That's my 2 bob's worth.

Is he actually respected by new people who are hungry for more sites to explore, or do they see his toxicity immediately?

Posted by Interstitial I'll provide some context for the specific catalyst here. A few minutes after I posted my YIR thread, he pinged everyone in his 1,000+ person Discord server for a new contest. The game: try to identify as many of the spots I posted in that thread as possible, with different amounts of points for different spots. You even got extra points for finding locations I *didn't* post in that thread, but could prove I went to with screenshots from me or otherwise. Once the spots were identified they would be added to his public map. Obviously I wasn't comfortable with this, at all. I found it extremely invasive, especially the fact that they were incentivized to look for stuff *not* in the thread. He's done similar contests with big YouTube channels, but I'm not a public figure in the slightest, and don't like attention. I immediately sent him a message asking him to stop the contest, but he refused at first. I had to haggle with him for a bit. At one point he even offered to take it down on the condition I give him a new power plant location to explore, which I refused. Eventually he did agree to take the thread down, and I calmed down a little bit and exchanged a few more words with him, but after sitting and thinking about it for a while, and talking to a few friends about it, the more angry I got. I'm especially pissed he tried to shake me down for free pins with the threat of this contest continuing. So, I ended up blocking him on all platforms. I've generally been friendly with him in the past but this whole thing was way over the line for me. I'm not trying to push him out of the community or anything, we're all adults and can make our own decisions, but for my part I just don't want to ever hear from him again.

Wooww... i knew he had fucked up views and i never took time to really get deep trying to understand him cause i was never sure if he was really serious but that....that's some fucked up shit.

That's how it is now?! Fuck.

His whole view is so fucked, it's all about that everyone should know all the spots and everyone should hit them with disregard of them being trashed or wathever.

I hope they didn't found too much of the good stuff.

Posted by Steed Is he actually respected by new people who are hungry for more sites to explore, or do they see his toxicity immediately?

A little of both. He scatters business cards with a link to his Discord server inside well known locations across the eastern US. This means that he is the first introduction to the urbex community for many rookies (many of them kids) when they find these cards. He then ropes these rookies who don't know better into his Discord server, where he convinces them to follow his worldview and help him scatter more cards, creating a cascading reaction with exponential growth. He used to be just one man, but now he's found a way to gain a massive following.

Some eventually see his toxicity and break away, but given how young many of them are, most just don't know better.

I feel like many of us saw this coming a decade ago.

Posted by Aran A little of both. He scatters business cards with a link to his Discord server inside well known locations across the eastern US. This means that he is the first introduction to the urbex community for many rookies (many of them kids) when they find these cards. He then ropes these rookies who don't know better into his Discord server, where he convinces them to follow his worldview and help him scatter more cards, creating a cascading reaction with exponential growth. He used to be just one man, but now he's found a way to gain a massive following. Some eventually see his toxicity and break away, but given how young many of them are, most just don't know better.

It's almost a cult-like scenario when you explain it like that. Actively brainwashing young and impressionable explorers into his, and only his, worldview.

Posted by Steed I feel like many of us saw this coming a decade ago.

Which is why I’ve been saying for years about what a pos he is, but people don’t want to listen lol. I’ve had that dude basically blocked since he started all this nonsense and I know a few other friends have as well. He does all this because he gets attention from it.

Posted by Aran A little of both. He scatters business cards with a link to his Discord server inside well known locations across the eastern US. This means that he is the first introduction to the urbex community for many rookies (many of them kids) when they find these cards. He then ropes these rookies who don't know better into his Discord server, where he convinces them to follow his worldview and help him scatter more cards, creating a cascading reaction with exponential growth. He used to be just one man, but now he's found a way to gain a massive following. Some eventually see his toxicity and break away, but given how young many of them are, most just don't know better.

It's almost like a fucked up urbex pyramid scheme

He's like a DC villain.
Doctor Urbex.

To be honest, the new generation of social-media driven explorers is nailing the coffin of the Mainstream Urbex scene. It seems like the good old UE ethics were thrown out the window a few years ago. I now see on my IG feed many young'uns who are into hardcore exploring and heavy tagging altogether, and I think it's saddening.

Back when I started exploring there was a clear line between explorers, taggers and vandals; you didn't show POEs; you certainly didn't leave a tag behind after an explore; When I look at IG reels and YT videos, you will often see all of the above in one video. I still find it upsetting even though I rarely explore anymore.

Posted by Deconstrukt To be honest, the new generation of social-media driven explorers is nailing the coffin of the Mainstream Urbex scene. It seems like the good old UE ethics were thrown out the window a few years ago. I now see on my IG feed many young'uns who are into hardcore exploring and heavy tagging altogether, and I think it's saddening. Back when I started exploring there was a clear line between explorers, taggers and vandals; you didn't show POEs; you certainly didn't leave a tag behind after an explore; When I look at IG reels and YT videos, you will often see all of the above in one video. I still find it upsetting even though I rarely explore anymore.

Don't look at TikTok or you will need tissues, and not for the good reason either.

Posted by Doug Don't look at TikTok or you will need tissues, and not for the good reason either.

Nah I'm staying the Hell away from this, mayte. I'm too old for this!