BurstNet getting back into the game with SmartHost?

[WSWD]

I know where he got my address...he stole it from Burst!  I used one of their Windows VPS as a remote desktop to check server connectivity issues and such.  Had it for a couple years.  I reported the spam as well, since that's exactly what the email was.

You should be ashamed of yourself, and you are very deservingly getting grilled like a cheeseburger over on WHT for your spamming.  And to be perfectly honest, nobody gives a shit about you or your family, whether you can/can't put food on the table or not.  I don't care to be spammed your sob story.  Think of all the other businesses you guys ruined with the Burst.net fiasco.  Sorry!  Just don't give a shit.  DrMike is absolutely right on.  You're not going to convince anybody that your hands were clean of all that.  You're out of your mind if you think people are going to fall for that...

 

[drmike]

@SmartHost welcome.  Glad to see you emerge after all these months.

Normally I am slappy, because someone needs to be such and customers shouldn't be beaten, kicked, stolen from, deprived of their services, have their gear left in some random shuttered datacenter, etc. What happened at Burst to customers was HORRENDOUS.

But, in your posts you seem genuinely repentant.  So you get a free pass from me big picture.  I can be compelled to believe you received the short end of the deal with proper facts, and such goes a long way in cleaning the stink left in the air by JW Ray / DigiPlus.

I could circle you with timelines and all sorts of gotcha stingers, but big picture, what good is that at this point?

Let's get some answers to a tough questions lots of folks have been wondering everywhere... 

0.  Are you currently under NDA or other mouth shut legally binding agreement with JW Ray, any of his financial entities, etc. that prevents you now or did in the  takeover period from speaking about Burst?

1. Why was Burstnet.eu suddenly back in public and the previous buyer dumping both the name as well as customers under that brand?  Was that brand really sold in 2013 or was there something else going on?

2. What was the reason JW Ray and his capital firm were able to takeover Burst.net?  Did they literally fashion a legal agreement that was deceptive / fraudulent with you / Burst?

3. When JW Ray and his band of business minded retards skewered your business and proceeded to destroy what you had built, ruin your reputation, beat your customers, why were you utterly silent?

 

[SmartHost]

You should be ashamed of yourself, and you are very deservingly getting grilled like a cheeseburger over on WHT for your spamming.  And to be perfectly honest, nobody gives a shit about you or your family, whether you can/can't put food on the table or not.  I don't care to be spammed your sob story.  Think of all the other businesses you guys ruined with the Burst.net fiasco.  Sorry!  Just don't give a shit.  DrMike is absolutely right on.  You're not going to convince anybody that your hands were clean of all that.  You're out of your mind if you think people are going to fall for that...

Nice post. Very classy. You sound like a wonderful human being.

If you think I was behind what happened to BurstNET, well...to be blunt, and to quote you, you're out of your mind.

Sounds like you are quite angry over what happened at BurstNET, and rightfully so, but your anger is misdirected. Do you realize that I have had nothing to do with the management of the company for the last 8 months? I had absolutely nothing to do with the clients getting screwed over, and the final outcome of the company. Sorry, but you could not be more wrong.

The only thing I am guilty of is possibly expanding too quickly, and choosing the wrong investment partners. Anything else was not my doing whatsoever, regardless of what you believe.

Think about it...why would I have done anything like that? What did I gain in any of this? When you realize I gained nothing and am in a horrendous situation now, you should have your answer as to whether I was involved in what occured, and whether my hands are clean or not. Shame on you for your off base accusations and misdirected blame.

Direct your anger where it should go: the management team that took over after I stepped down.

 

[SmartHost]

@SmartHost welcome.  Glad to see you emerge after all these months.

Normally I am slappy, because someone needs to be such and customers shouldn't be beaten, kicked, stolen from, deprived of their services, have their gear left in some random shuttered datacenter, etc. What happened at Burst to customers was HORRENDOUS.

But, in your posts you seem genuinely repentant.  So you get a free pass from me big picture.  I can be compelled to believe you received the short end of the deal with proper facts, and such goes a long way in cleaning the stink left in the air by JW Ray / DigiPlus.

I could circle you with timelines and all sorts of gotcha stingers, but big picture, what good is that at this point?

Let's get some answers to a tough questions lots of folks have been wondering everywhere... 

0.  Are you currently under NDA or other mouth shut legally binding agreement with JW Ray, any of his financial entities, etc. that prevents you now or did in the  takeover period from speaking about Burst?

1. Why was Burstnet.eu suddenly back in public and the previous buyer dumping both the name as well as customers under that brand?  Was that brand really sold in 2013 or was there something else going on?

2. What was the reason JW Ray and his capital firm were able to takeover Burst.net?  Did they literally fashion a legal agreement that was deceptive / fraudulent with you / Burst?

3. When JW Ray and his band of business minded retards skewered your business and proceeded to destroy what you had built, ruin your reputation, beat your customers, why were you utterly silent?

0. NDA, no...threats, you could say that. It was in my best legal interests to stay out of it after I was terminated, or I could have found myself facing even more issues than I already am. After I stepped down as CEO, I was still there handling sales for three months, but completely in the dark about management of the company. I did not find out about the relocation to North Carolina until just before it actually happened, as they attempted to do it behind my back...as with everything else, probably so I did not get in their way and try and stop them. Long story short, for the three months after I stepped down, I still believed that they were going to inject funds and help grow the company, and I played ball, and tried to do anything I could to help the company operate. After that, I was terminated, and it was too late for me to do anything about it.

1. I have no idea. It was legitimately sold off to UKFast, to raise funds for BurstNET in the US, once we had a capital raise fail, to bridge us to another attempt to close on new capital. From what I hear these days, their intent was only to run it a small while, transfer whoever they could to their own platform/pricing, and for the IP address blocks BurstNET EU had. This is only rumours, but makes sense to me. Regardless, this was their legitimate purchase of the EU division, and they can do what they want with it, for better or worse. They struck me as good people though, there at UKFast, so I am sure they had their reasons.

2. Default on payments, and they were a secured creditor. Because of failed capital raises, we were never able to take out our debt with their company, and get rid of them. I am pretty sure some of the things that happened were done behind the scenes, and intentionally made to put us in such a situation. So rather than go thru a whole battle with them to take over the company in a hostile takeover scenario, I simply stepped down, with the understanding they would inject additional capital in the company, and handle a capital raise or sale process of the company thereafter. I honestly thought it was in the best interests of the company, clients, and vendors at the time to go that route, rather than to fight them. Obviously they had other plans, proved to be quite incompetant in running a company in this industry, and they gutted the company for their own benefit at the expense of everyone else involved. They basically killed the golden goose, assuming they were smarter than the people that grew the company to the size it was, and didn't listen to anything prior management had to say, and what advice they had to give.

3. There was not much I could do about it. I was getting sued left and right, and due to the financial situation I was placed in, could not afford to due anything legally at the time against them. I am sure they counted on that. There was also some threats made, that I preferred to avoid consequences of those as well. That is not something I really want to discuss now, as you never know what the future could bring there. Obviously the manner in which they did things is quite questionable, and I know they are being sued for that by other parties already from what I have seen, both their company and personally.

If I knew then, what the outcome woud be now, I probably would have acted differently, but at the time, I thought I was acting in the best interests of everyone involved. Only when it was too late did I find out what type of people I was actually dealing with.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

Taking refuge in failure is never a solid defense.  All it does is hilight poor decisions - not prove innocence of action.  Of course you didn't plan to be put in a bad situation - but that doesn't mean you gambled with the hopes of winning and things simply didn't go your way.

The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.

No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.

 

[WSWD]

Nope, not angry at all about Burst.  Never used you guys for anything mission critical.  I knew better.    Like I said, I used a Windows VPS for a few years to check connectivity issues with our servers, etc.

I'm angry because you spam me out of nowhere, with the sob story about you and your family.  It's the whole "Kids in Ethiopia are starving, and for $10/mo. you can help feed them" story, only with this, you get a VPS too!  Go away!

You have yet to answer here or anywhere else (WHT in particular) why you are spamming people who have absolutely no desire to hear from you.  That's exactly what this is.  You can write whatever you want, and you can try to turn this around and somehow try to shame me all you want, but at the end of the day, you are a spammer.  You're starting this new company by spamming the hell out of people, using a list and personal information you shouldn't have in the first place. 

 

[SmartHost]

Taking refuge in failure is never a solid defense.  All it does is hilight poor decisions - not prove innocence of action.  Of course you didn't plan to be put in a bad situation - but that doesn't mean you gambled with the hopes of winning and things simply didn't go your way.

The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.

No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.

I've disclosed enough information for people that honestly want the truth to realize that I was not involved in how this played out, and that this was not my doing. I'm really not interested in additional legal troubles, and have stated enough details here already to clear the air. There will always be people that just want to stir up trouble, take revenge on anyone within their line of site, try and benefit their own agendas, or try and stifle competition before it grows. Not much I can do about that. Anyone with enough common sense, and no alternative agenda, knows the truth here. The fact that I am around speaking a bit about things, while new management has remained silient since the moment they pulled all this, speaks volumes about who is to blame.

I have no interest in getting into arguments regarding the situation, and prefer to just move forward in my life. Hater will be haters, and supporters will be supporters, and that is all there is to it. I've given all the information I care to to prove my position, and additional posting won't accomplish anything further. You guys have what you need to know from me, so make you own judgement calls, I'm just not going to be hear arguing about it, it accomplishes nothing. Back in the day, I probably would have sat here all day and been more combative with people attacking me, but I've mellowed a bit with the outcome of this situation, and just honestly burnt out a bit from it all. I just have no interest in even interacting with people in such ways. Good luck to you all on your ventures...I wish you all well wherever life may take you.

 

[Leyton]

@SmartHost - You're still dodging the question of where you gained individuals' email addresses and information, which you went on to use as a sales channel for your new brand.

It is easy to speculate, maybe rightly so, that this comes direct from the BurstNET database. If that is the case, it is concerning to think that your company has ( a ) "stolen" the data from BurstNET, given I highly doubt you have permission to hold it - and ( b ) that you'd go ahead and breach the privacy rights of said people by not only having a copy, but utilising it.

Given that your new brand has only just surfaced, I don't see anywhere legitimate this mailing list could have risen from.

So, without dodging it further, why don't you simply answer where you gained the data from, and how you have a right to utilise it in any manor?

You're hardly making the innately poor brand image you immediately hold through the BurstNET fiasco (rightly or wrongly) any better by mass mailing people from the off without their permission (read: subscription) to do so.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

You read my post, but not for content.  Maybe I can simplify it a bit for you:

You're a known entity from a company that a lot of people are very unhappy with, for good reason.  Your actual connection and involvement is irrelevant.  People are going to distrust you, and it takes more than "just your word" to fix that - after all, anyone can tell a lie and pass it off as truth when there's nobody to speak against it.

And absolutely no amount of fingerpointing at "people that just want to stir up trouble" can justify that you're still ignoring the inquiries from the people that have received spam from you. @Kris and @WSWD are known, respected members of the community.  Why would anyone trust what you have to say, when you can't even comment on the spam they've received from you?

 

[Kris]

You're still dodging the question of where you gained individuals' email addresses and information, which you went on to use as a sales channel for your new brand.

It is easy to speculate, maybe rightly so, that this comes direct from the BurstNET database. If that is the case, it is concerning to think that your company has ( a ) "stolen" the data from BurstNET, given I highly doubt you have permission to hold it - and ( b ) that you'd go ahead and breach the privacy rights of said people by not only having a copy, but utilising it.

Given that your new brand has only just surfaced, I don't see anywhere legitimate this mailing list could have risen from.

So, without dodging it further, why don't you simply answer where you gained the data from, and how you have a right to utilise it in any manor?

Ding ding ding. Way to dodge my question Arcus, again - where'd you get this database if it "100% didn't have anything to do with BurstNet" 

Remember, you signed those contracts, and you were laughing / dancing over VolumeDrive's grave to be on WHT, then used them as a reason you went cash deficit. 

That whole Karma comment you made in the first page, a lot would say it came, and hit the right person. 

 

[Kris]

You read my post, but not for content.  Maybe I can simplify it a bit for you:

You're a known entity from a company that a lot of people are very unhappy with, for good reason.  Your actual connection and involvement is irrelevant.  People are going to distrust you, and it takes more than "just your word" to fix that - after all, anyone can tell a lie and pass it off as truth when there's nobody to speak against it.

And absolutely no amount of fingerpointing at "people that just want to stir up trouble" can justify that you're still ignoring the inquiries from the people that have received spam from you. @Kris and @WSWD are known, respected members of the community.  Why would anyone trust what you have to say, when you can't even comment on the spam they've received from you?

Because think of the children! 

E-Mail was sent 13 hours before it hit my email box. Kid definetely just loaded up a BurstNet DB on one machine and let it queue, but doesn't know the legalese to somehow explain how he did... legally.

 

[lunanode]

Obviously, he has a dump of the Burst.net client's information from the database.

Also obvious that these emails that were sent were unsolicited and is in fact spam.

And, provided that the above are in fact true, why would he respond to any questions that could complicate him legally? More than likely that it was Friday night, and he that brain farted and decided to send spam using client information stolen from Burst.Net. 

If the law enforcement agencies are doing what they are supposed to be doing, Then if one desires to take action regarding his/her personal information being illegally obtained without consent, then subsequently mis-used / distributed ( or whatever). Simply file a complaint with relevant agencies and be done with.

Because, unless he brain farts again i doubt he would comment more on this matter.

 

[Kris]

The little mailing campaign was shot off on the 23rd, and I actually got the email the 25th to give you an idea of the sheer bulk of UCE sent out.

The only brain fart he had was coming here to answer questions leaving out his little campaign. Two days to process that newsletter queue.

I'm sure if JW and his friends aren't too happy with the financials so far, they might want to look into such. I'm not looking to file any complaints, but he sure did open himself to some liability here. 

Subject: SmartHost Cloud Servers - Intelligent Hosting - 7/23/14, 11:05 PM

Delivery-date: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 13:47:20 -0400


Received: from mailer.smarthost.net ([207.66.193.13]:34576)

 

[MannDude]

Just a reminder and quick request to keep things civil.

 

[drmike]

The market has simply seen too much corruption, too many lies.  Speculation and mistrust are simply part of the game now.  Honestly, rather than insisting that drmike (or anyone else) is a paranoid tinhatter - you should be prepared to work with people and give them the information they need to trust you.  You said yoruself you aren't under an NDA - so there's really no reason you can privately disclose facts to someone whose voice carries weight, and will vouch for you.

No, you're not *obliged* to share information, nor required to.  But neither are others simply required to believe your side of the story without verification.

The market is FUCKED.  Has been for years.  Too little free liquid free flowing cash people can write off as losses or overpay to underqualified consultants for some buzzword rodeo fashion.  Lean times.  So the swindlers, thieves, white collar perps, resort of very questionable, and often illegal activity.

If Mr. Arcus wants to continue clearing the air, I am always glad to review public documents and other materials that aren't confidential or prohibited on disclosure.  Plenty out there still that we haven't seen.

Fact is, Burst.net was a bad netizen over the years for whatever reason, but I am not going to let that get in the way.  Hopefully this Smarthost.net venture doesn't attract more abuse, spammers, etc.

What Mr. Ray pulled off here and what I've seen of his pompous high fluting ass, yeah I have no doubt the financial deal was half assed, and ill intentioned.

I am wondering who the legal counsel Mr. Arcus had during the negotiations and why they rubberstamped the deal with Mr. Ray's company.   The nature of what happened sounds like Burst.net was to get money from Backlog and Backlog was going to raise an investment fund, from which Backlog would be repaid and that later part failed to materialize.

I stopped doinking around in the venture world a decade ago, but the deal sounds at face value like one that could be easily abused to hijack a company (like we saw happen - as Mr. Arcus told us).

FYI, I get a kick out of the tinfoil paranoid dig.   Big picture, if someone with my sensibilities was on Burst's side prior to this dealing, this most certainly would have never happened with Mr. Ray's firm. 

Sometimes I give the hot missile a little heavy to folks, but it isn't because their company has been behaving and customers are thrilled.  Folks tend to earn my attention with lots of bad behavior.  To me, that dig is a compliment

 

[DomainBop]

Obviously, he has a dump of the Burst.net client's information from the database.

Also obvious that these emails that were sent were unsolicited and is in fact spam.

Why should it surprise anyone that he kept a dump of his old company's database and used it to spam the hell out of people solicit sales?  After all if you recall, this is the same person who somehow had a dump of his CUSTOMER VolumeDrive's database last summer and used it to spam email VolumeDrive customers (remember the people on WHT who complained about receiving a "VD is doomed, here's our refugee offer" email from Burst).

 

[drmike]

I also neglected to throw my cheap velvet fedora in on the email spamming by Smarthost.net of former Burst.net customers.

It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.  Now whether or not his "paperwork" and various signed agreements prohibit such,  that's something we aren't privileged to know and potential ramifications for Mr. Arcus.

But, legally possessing the customer database or not, equating that to a personal rolodex is a stretch.   Building that bridge no doubt is to fend off the spam relationship.

I hate spam more than most folks.  However, I am semi realistic about sales being necessary for commercial viability and long term stability of a company.   Believe me, fine, ugly, often people griping about it -  gray line 

I think the email blast to Burst customers is poetic justice along with Smarthost showing up on the scene as Burst.net is shuttered.  I kind of grinned about that gut twisting jab at the new Burst.net owners and flippers.

ONE OTHER POINT

Mr. Arcus, update Smarthost.net.  Put on your site who you folks are.  Say you were the founder of Burst.net.  Why?  Because people will find out later and some subset will be bitter/deceived.  Plus it's a real achievement, something you should be proud of, and which people know.  The whole closing saga, no one until now knew what happened and who was doing what.  You can overcome that issue if you are being honest and people will respect you for that honesty.

Most of us fail quite a few times before finding the winning combination in business.  Don't let the fail bump send you off course.

 

[drmike]

Why should it surprise anyone that he kept a dump of his old company's database and used it to spam the hell out of people solicit sales?  After all if you recall, this is the same person who somehow had a dump of his CUSTOMER VolumeDrive's database last summer and used it to spam email VolumeDrive customers (remember the people on WHT who complained about receiving a "VD is doomed, here's our refugee offer" email from Burst).

The vD fiasco is another golden gem.  At the time, Burst.net seemed right and well intentioned in what was going on.

It does feel funny in this time and place though about that database in light of the recent use of Burst customer database to solicit their customers.

Mr. Arcus, what became of the volumeDrive debt to Burst?  Is there litigation involving Burst against volumeDrive?

 

[Kris]

I also neglected to throw my cheap velvet fedora in on the email spamming by Smarthost.net of former Burst.net customers.

It's a tad odd questioning why the former owner of Burst has said databases.  It's kind of expected he would have copies of such for a multitude of legal reasons.  Now whether or not his "paperwork" and various signed agreements prohibit such,  that's something we aren't privileged to know and potential ramifications for Mr. Arcus.

But, legally possessing the customer database or not, equating that to a personal rolodex is a stretch.   Building that bridge no doubt is to fend off the spam relationship.

I hate spam more than most folks.  However, I am semi realistic about sales being necessary for commercial viability and long term stability of a company.   Believe me, fine, ugly, often people griping about it -  gray line 

I think the email blast to Burst customers is poetic justice along with Smarthost showing up on the scene as Burst.net is shuttered.  I kind of grinned about that gut twisting jab at the new Burst.net owners and flippers.

ONE OTHER POINT

Mr. Arcus, update Smarthost.net.  Put on your site who you folks are.  Say you were the founder of Burst.net.  Why?  Because people will find out later and some subset will be bitter/deceived.  Plus it's a real achievement, something you should be proud of, and which people know.  The whole closing saga, no one until now knew what happened and who was doing what.  You can overcome that issue if you are being honest and people will respect you for that honesty.

Most of us fail quite a few times before finding the winning combination in business.  Don't let the fail bump send you off course.

When you throw it everywhere else, you should have seen the spam issue here from the start, or at least the source of the emails.  :lol:

More the fact he was thrown out of BurstNET and took a database dump on his way out. Sob story or not, that's sleazy.  This was no 'personal' rolodex, it's billing email addresses. No personal correspondence with anyone he spammed. 

Arcus is just hoping that JW Ray and co. doesn't care about the client-base he spammed, since they dropped them as of.... just around the time of the spamming. Weird, innit? 

If this were any other ex-employee or company, there would be hell to pay for this stunt / spamming on this level. Add a sob story and 'how I lost mah baby' and it's all OK.  B) 

 

[drmike]

When you throw it everywhere else, you should have seen the spam issue here from the start, or at least the source of the emails.  :lol:

More the fact he was thrown out of BurstNET and took a database dump on his way out. Sob story or not, that's sleazy.  This was no 'personal' rolodex, it's billing email addresses. No personal correspondence with anyone he spammed. 

Arcus is just hoping that JW Ray and co. doesn't care about the client-base he spammed, since they dropped them as of.... just around the time of the spamming. Weird, innit? 

If this were any other ex-employee or company, there would be hell to pay for this stunt / spamming on this level. Add a sob story and 'how I lost mah baby' and it's all OK.  B) 

As the company owner, he probably had a semi recent copy (this year or end of last copy of such) per se legitimately.    It doesn't make it a rolodex like @Kris pointed out.

I am kind of laughing about the whole thing.  If Arcus was screwed like he said and is after Burst.net customers it's definitely malicious and delightful in my book.   IF, I was in his shoes and screwed like he said, I'd probably be considering a lot of the shadier options fair game.  BUT!!!!

The problem is JW Ray and his circus clowns already allegedly flipped the customers to Hostwinds.   So none of this is going to impact the vulture capital whores or dent their plantinum card.

The timing on this is way too odd.  We are just shy of 4 months since the North Carolina move and Mr. Arcus being let go by JW Ray.   Three of those months, I would have cheered Mr. Arcus re-entering the market and taking back his former customers.  Doing this at the very last 2 days before Burst closure, so many levels of stink on this onion....

Timeline:

June 24, 2014 - Public announcement that Burst.net was closing and move or offline

July 20, 2014 - Mr. Arcus' Smarthost.net launches website

July 23, 2014 - Smarthost.net spams former Burst.net customers

July 25, 2014 - Burst.net officially closes / some customers flipped/sold to HostWinds

                      - Various threads about Smarthost spamming and who is Smarthost.net

July 26, 2014 - some revelations about the Burst.net finance deal .... Ongoing threads.