This is a very nice forum and much needed and appreciated. Thank you whoever created it! I assume Dr. Bear created it but don't know for sure. This a very nice job. Jimmy Clifton ------------------ Jimmy Clifton
This forum was created by Chip White, with some advice from some others -- but not me. I'm just delighted that they did it, and that I can hang out here comfortably. John Bear
Originally posted by John Bear: This forum was created by Chip White, with some advice from some others -- but not me. I'm just delighted that they did it, and that I can hang out here comfortably. Okay, so maybe I'm not the sharpest knife in this drawer, but what with all of the psychotic factwatcher/johnbearscam spam at the AED, I'm not sure I understood correctly what the spammer's beef was in the first place. How about giving us (one more time, in a nutshell, for the record) the psycho-spammer's best case against you, Doc, and your defense. Thanks. ------------------ H. Piper http://harcourtbites.tripod.com
I believe that John is out of town for the next 5 days or so, so a response (if he decides to do so) may have to wait until then. Tom Nixon
No hurry. Actually, if someone else can wrap it up for me objectively (I know that's not easy, given how predictably WONDERFUL our beloved Doctor is, and how unabashedly ANNOYING the spammer is, but...), it would be "very much appreciated".
Now I can try and cover the beginning of factwatcher's spam campaign. I must admit though that for the first time in many years of using Usenet, I have used my killfile on his many aliases. However it appears that it is still much the same nonsense (based on some snips of factwatcher I've seen in other people's posts). IIRC (I'm not checking deja, this is all from memory.) In early Jan. a few aliases showed up and started climing that Dr. Bear was a liar and that he used his book and reputation to push his degree mills and put competing degree mills out of business. He also had some quote where Dr. Bear had stated that some degree mill started up business on or about 1997 (I'm not sure of this year.) Well factwatcher claimed he had magazines that advertized this degree mill years prior to John's date for the start-up. (This made me suspicious that factwatcher was the owner of that specific degree mill. Sorry I forget the name.) Factwatcher then tried to use Greenwich and another less-than wonderful school that Dr. Bear was originally associated with to say that Dr. Bear claimed his school was in the top 3% of distance learning schools in order to sucker students. I assume that factwatcher got all this info out of John's own book because I remember reading it in there (except for the 3% stuff which was just total fabrication). There was also a period where factwatcher had a copy of the book that had been done by a degree mill operator. It was mostly plagerized from Bear's Guide but the fraud had changed a few passages to say that his own degree mill was a great school and it also defamed Dr. Bear in another part. Factwatcher kept quoting the part that defamed John and spamming that it had a number from the Library of Congress. At the beginning of factwatcher spam, John wasn't posting. After a week or two John logged on and addressed all of factwatcher's issues. (BTW, they'd all been completely addressed by others but factwatcher totally ignored it when he was proven wrong and he just kept repeating the same old spam over and over again.) Factwatcher just started spewing more of the same old spam. He challenged John to answer his spam questions in front of the newsmedia. John agreed if factwatcher showed up in person himself and factwatcher said he would get it all set up. Note: There's some deal about John putting $100,000 in an escrow account and if there was anything embarassing uncovered during the interview then the $100,000 would go to a charity. By this time I'd stopped paying much attention. You should be able to get the details of that part of the story very easily by just going to deja and looking up John Bear's posts.
I just remembered another bit of spam partaken in by factwatcher. There was a post to some group like alt.massage by John where he asked what business was at a specific address or something. I forget the details but it looked like to me John was posting to try and track down a diploma mill or the owner of a diploma mill that either shared addresses with or owners with a massage parlor. Factwatcher was trying to make it look like some big deal.
Originally posted by me: How about giving us (one more time, in a nutshell, for the record) the psycho-spammer's best case against you, Doc, and your defense. Posted by John Bear in another thread: I am really disappointed to have the "factwatcher" libelous statements repeated here, even if, I assume, inadvertantly as part of a comment on that situation. Now I feel the need to respond to the charges here, so as to set the record straight here, as I have done at the alt.education.distance site. Claim: New participants beware of a "Dr John Bear" and his accomplices "Chip", "Thomas Nixon", "Kevin Stewart", "Bill" and lots of other aliases allegedly defending John Bear; most of them reincarnations of the same person. Reply: I have never used an alias in posting to any news group. The other folks named all have a clear and traceable independent existence. Claim: "Dr John Bear" holds a fake purchased Harvard doctorate. Reply: And I've been writing about it for 15 years, to show how easy it was to buy one from a counterfeiting service. My earned Ph.D. is from Michigan State University, 1966. Claim: "Dr John Bear" is the admitted founder and-or advisor of at least three blatant diploma mills; some illegal and some barely legal; labeled legitimate schools in his publications Reply: For more than 20 years, I have written clearly about my brief involvements with Columbia Pacific (1977-1980), Fairfax (1986) and Greenwich (1990-1991), which I have never identified as accredited, since they are not. Claim: "Dr John Bear" floods the scene when his legitimacy is questioned by several duped students in this very newsgroup. He starts his own "moderated board" at degreeinfo.com and filters all duped students' criticism away. Bear and his aliases use the forum as a promotional tool for Bears diploma mills and books Reply: I have no connection with any school whatsoever. None. And if I were in the business of censoring a forum, I surely would have removed this very annoying message from Mr. McMurry's post. Claim: "Dr John Bear" only allows people in his modereated forum agreeing with him and continues to denigrate competing schools that refuse to bribe him. Reply: I have not made any decisions about who can post or who cannot. I have never accepted a penny for a listing in Bears' Guide. And, once again, I have no ownership or involvement with any school whatsoever. Claim: This scam has been going on for over two decades. BEWARE! Reply: It was in 1979 that I became an official consultant to the FBI on degree mills and fake schools -- something I'm still doing for them... John Bear Box 7070, Berkeley, CA 94707 Okay, that works for me.
