Developer Dirty Tricks?
Geo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony,_Florida
On 4/25/2010 I took a snapshot of this page (see attachment 1 below).
On 4/26/2010 I posted about "Communicating with the Developer" (see
http://tinyurl.com/37qhrfh ). In that post I made a reference to Wikipedia:
Since that time the information posted online has been
steadily increasing and rising in popularity (ie. it
keeps getting easier to find on Google). For example,
this search term:
Harmony, FL
now finds the Wikipedia entry on Harmony in position
#3. Since Wikipedia is widely seen as an independent
credible source of information on any topic, this means
that anyone serious about Harmony will likely find the
information that I have posted over the years via
Wikipedia.
On 4/29/2010 this change description was written by someone pretending to be
affiliated with the British public relations firm, Garnett Keeler (see
http://garnett-keeler.com ):
Corrected a misrepresentation that a large group of
residents have issue with the developer, rather than
just one obsessive terrier of a man.
Here's the judgement that Wikipedia made yesterday on this:
Grossly insulting, degrading, or offensive material: No
evidence that the cited website is all the work of one
person - personal attack
As a result, a Wikipedia administrator removed the offending comment. But
you can still see it in attachment 2.
Here is the original paragraph added by me in 2008:
In 2005 the development of Harmony was purchased by
Starwood Capital Group. Since then several existing
amenities in Harmony have been removed and many others
promised by the original developer have either been
rescinded or remain unfulfilled. These actions on the
part of the new developers have created much
controversy and consternation on the part of long
standing Harmony residents. The marketing promises that
were apparently broken or remain unfulfilled by
Starwood / Harmony Development Company have been
documented in detail by a residents website with an
open newsgroup.[5]
Here is the same paragraph altered by the fake "GarnetKeeler" on 4/29/2010
(and unnoticed for a month, see attachment 3):
In 2005 the development of Harmony was purchased by
Starwood Capital Group. Since then several existing
amenities in Harmony have been removed and many others
promised by the original developer have either been
rescinded or remain unfulfilled. These actions on the
part of the new developers have created much
controversy and consternation on the part of one long
standing Harmony resident. The marketing promises that
were apparently broken or remain unfulfilled by
Starwood / Harmony Development Company have been
chronicled in obsessive detail by a resident on a
Google group.[5] This one resident has alienated
everyone who has tried to engage in civil discourse
with him.[6] [7]
More specifically, two changes of fact were made.
This:
on the part of long standing Harmony residents.
was changed to this:
on the part of one long standing Harmony resident.
This statement is false. I have signatures to prove this. There are at least
a half dozen long standing residents who live in my immediate vicinity who
completely agree with the paragraph as it was originally written in 2008.
And these are the folks who haven't moved yet.
And this:
have been documented in detail by a residents website
with an open newsgroup.[5]
was changed to this:
have been chronicled in obsessive detail by a resident
on a Google group.[5] This one resident has alienated
everyone who has tried to engage in civil discourse
with him.[6] [7]
This statement is false. Supporters of the developer have generally been
less than civil. They would also tend to be those who feel "alienated" by
me. I have had civil discourse with many residents of Harmony, some who
agree with me and some who don't.
Someone lied when they vandalized this Wikipedia page. They not only lied in
content, but they also lied about who they are. No employee or
representative of Garnett Keeler edited the Harmony Wikipedia page. This
fact has been verified by Garnett Keeler.
Such behavior is typical. Liars are often also cowards. They sneak around in
the dark where no one can see them do their dirty deeds. They rarely have
the courage to speak openly and honestly. This is why they often pretend to
be someone else online. They simply lack the courage of their own
convictions since they rarely have any.
When I added the original paragraph in 2008 about Starwood's acquisition of
Harmony I was not afraid to also add my real name. The same can't be said
for whoever made the recent false changes to the same paragraph.
Did someone who works for Harmony Development / Starwood vandalize the
Harmony Wikipedia page this way? We can't know for sure without subpoenaing
Wikipedia's IP address logs. But when Bob Geimer, VP of Starwood, was asked
about this, what do you suppose he had to say?
In response to:
I would assume that Starwood does not condone such
behavior.
From Bob Geimer, silence.
To this:
I am sure that you can imagine how damaging this
ham-handed act of vandalism may appear to a wider
audience, especially if it is determined that the
perpetrator is in some way connected to Starwood
Capitol.
Again silence.
Finally:
I am willing to cooperate with you in any way that I
can to get to the bottom of this. I seriously doubt
that Starwood is involved since this act is so
obviously the work of someone with very limited ability
to see the scope and potential repercussions of such an
underhanded misdeed.
Would you be willing to cooperate fully with Wikipedia
should they require your assistance with this matter?
Bob Geimer had nothing to say at all. Needless to say, as far as I know he
offered no assistance to Wikipedia whatever.
Does this mean that Starwood was behind this malicious change to Wikipedia?
No. Does this mean that Starwood condones such sneaky activities? Who knows.
On 4/16/2010 I sent an email to Jerome Silvey, a Starwood executive above
Bob Geimer. Here's one thing that I pointed out.
This was from Starwood's website at the time (
http://www.starwoodcapital.com/people.html ; This page no longer exists.):
Starwood Capital is driven first and foremost by the
quality of its people. Starwood's people are innovative
and have integrity, intellectual discipline, honesty
and a good deal of common sense.
This is from Starwood's website today (
http://www.starwoodcapital.com/TeamOverview.aspx ; Look before it changes
again!):
Starwood Capital is driven first and foremost by the
quality of our people. Starwood�s people have
integrity, are innovative, possess intellectual
discipline and a good deal of common sense.
Did you notice how the word "honesty" disappeared? Straight out of the
museum of the hard-to-believe, but all true.
I left Bob Geimer with one last thing to think about:
I would have approached Shad Tome with this, but he is
blocking my emails. Also, perhaps this is a
coincidence, but the day after I was queried by Bob
Evans at a CDD meeting about how the HarmonyFL google
group is moderated (I said that only spam gets deleted,
see http://tinyurl.com/2vhcmv5 ), for the first time
ever I received a spam report from google. It indicated
that several of my own posts were "classified as likely
spam messages" [the eye-opening multi-part posts here
http://tinyurl.com/327fk63 ]. FYI, anyone can attempt
to have a message deleted by using Google's "Report
this message" or the "Report spam" feature. This would
appear to be another ham-handed attempt to hide or
distort the truth.
As I wrote to Bob, I don't really think that Starwood had anything to do
with such dirty tricks. They're just too dumb. Don't you think?
IMHO, these recent goofy acts show the unmistakable tracks of Bozo, big
floppy footprints and all.
James Warren
floppy footprints and all.
Who is this "Bozo" George? Come on name names......