What's going on with Epik and Rob Monster?

[MapleDots]

I'm catching the tail end of this, seems to be some kind of controversy...

https://domaingang.com/domain-news/rob-monster-off-twitter-after-christchurch-massacre-controversy/

Must be something odd to evoke this type of a response from one of our members.

 

[Jv1999]

But that's the thing though... people think that Nz is this utopian society but here it is first hand... country willing to jail you for sharing facts and what happened.

Next thing we know they are going to to clean up history and remove every Hitler reference too?
He killed a HELL OF A LOT more people.

Erasing things from history is the first step to denying it happened.

Yes, this was a horrible incident, but jailing your own people over this?

So much for living in a free world, right?

I think in Europe you can be jailed for saying the holocaust didn't happen. I'm not sure but i think having neonazi symbols, like the swastika, is also illegal

So nz is just following this sort of thjng.

 

[maksimfa]

I think in Europe you can be jailed for saying the holocaust didn't happen. I'm not sure but i think having neonazi symbols, like the swastika, is also illegal

So nz is just following this sort of thjng.

But in this case, they are blocking out what DID happen.... which is unique.

 

[OmarVG]

Moving all my domains out of Epik

Come back to The PREMIUM REGISTRAR GODADDY, your domains Will be Safe and Free from Ignorant ´´CEO´´ opinions and twitter hate posts...

Another registrar getting out of business in the next months after this Massive Scandal! What a way to Ruin a small registrar reputation!!

ICANN should take Action ASAP and suspend their operation as registrar, if not, many clients Will leave them alone and with lack of profit, they Will shut down with a posible BANKRUPT!

 

[Haris]

I would appreciate if someone could paint a rough picture of how this would be a hoax, how a hoax could have been carried out here
Not really expecting anybody to, but I'm curious how insane minds think about this

Back when there were cinema shootings in America and people were calling for gun control, those who feel that if the government takes their guns away they are taking their liberty away got paranoid and started looking for clues about how all these incidents may be false flags which could be used as an excuse by the government to implement gun control. At least since then, every single mass shooting or terror attack either in Europe or America has been called a false flag operation. Earth being flat makes more sense than these gun control conspiracy theories.

Attacks like this one and the synagogue shooting makes it look like Christians are becoming terrorists and Christians like Rob Monster obviously won't want people to think that, so they try to make this idea popular that these kind of attacks may be false flags and what's more bizarre is that they feel these attacks are done by collaboration between muslims, jews and liberals.

https://www.ccn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/4Chan-is-a-mess.png

 

[eurorealtor]

the company is not just him, but a diverse number or investors, and employees, but his CEO title seems to get the medias attention.

Perhaps Epik should change the CEO and cut the ties to gab.

 

[wwwweb]

Perhaps Epik should change the CEO and cut the ties to gab.

Probably not an easy thing to do, as he is probably majority shareholder.

 

[Jv1999]

I would appreciate if someone could paint a rough picture of how this would be a hoax, how a hoax could have been carried out here
Not really expecting anybody to, but I'm curious how insane minds think about this

So tbh, because of Rob, I actually legit clicked his link just now and watched it. I can understand why ppl think it's a hoax. I started wondering it too. He would shoot them, but there's no blood. Repeatedly shot them, and there was just no blood. Not even when they were wearing white clothes lol. It's so different from videogames, tv movies and anime where as soon as sokmeone gets shot -- THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD RIG T AWAY.

And there was no police.. like he walked back in twice but no police.

That guy was legit psycho though. He shoots out his own windows, thinks the whole thing is a game. And doesn't show any emotion of fear of anticipation. Just the same calm, satire attitude that whole time.

 

[wwwweb]

So tbh, because of Rob, I actually legit clicked his link just now and watched it. I can understand why ppl think it's a hoax. I started wondering it too. He would shoot them, but there's no blood. Repeatedly shot them, and there was just no blood. Not even when they were wearing white clothes lol. It's so different from videogames, tv movies and anime where as soon as sokmeone gets shot -- THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD RIG T AWAY.

And there was no police.. like he walked back in twice but no police.

That guy was legit psycho though. He shoots out his own windows, thinks the whole thing is a game. And doesn't show any emotion of fear of anticipation. Just the same calm, satire attitude that whole time.

Well the reason they don’t want it shared because it desentisizes the situation, I’m sure the people and families all involved wish it was a hoax also, but we just hear about it, they have to live the rest of their lives with these thoughts, and images. Just personalize the situation, and what if that was one of your family members. I know the internet is meant to be open, and unfiltered, but some things go beyond such norms, which is another argument to say who decides that, but I think most of us can agree this might be one of them where this video is best kept offline so the person who did this is not given notoriety.

 

[Jv1999]

Well the reason they don’t want it shared because it desentisizes the situation, I’m sure the people and families all involved wish it was a hoax also, but we just hear about it, they have to live the rest of their lives with these thoughts, and images. Just personalize the situation, and what if that was one of your family members. I know the internet is meant to be open, and unfiltered, but some things go beyond such norms, which is another argument to say who decides that, but I think most of us can agree this might be one of them where this video is best kept offline so the person who did this is not given notoriety.

Tbh, nothing is meant to be unfiltered. Like, in real life, I can't just go around in crowded places shouting about the joys of semi-erotic art. Or go on some rant about how people should cut their wrists. It's just common sense that if these things are socially illegal in real life, they should be too on the internet.

But it's another thing entirely if I wanted to post about my personal beliefs on universal healthcare and have that deleted and suppressed all over the internet.

It's called the golden median. Not too little, not too much.

 

[Haris]

So tbh, because of Rob, I actually legit clicked his link just now and watched it. I can understand why ppl think it's a hoax. I started wondering it too. He would shoot them, but there's no blood. Repeatedly shot them, and there was just no blood. Not even when they were wearing white clothes lol. It's so different from videogames, tv movies and anime where as soon as sokmeone gets shot -- THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD RIG T AWAY.

And there was no police.. like he walked back in twice but no police.

That guy was legit psycho though. He shoots out his own windows, thinks the whole thing is a game. And doesn't show any emotion of fear of anticipation. Just the same calm, satire attitude that whole time.

Don't be ridiculous. This is nothing to 'lol' about!

It's different from TV, movies, games and anime because it's real. In the mosque maybe because of the carpet blood wasn't clear but outside the mosque he shot someone (i think it was a woman) and you can see blood right away..

Police have to be informed and then they arrive and it takes time for that to happen, that can't happen immediately like GTA.

Stuff like that can't be choreographed. Think about it, you are assuming that thousands of people are involved in creating this fake footage. If it's not real then what about the people who are supposedly dead, are their family members and colleagues and neighbors all have been paid millions of dollars to lie about this? The teens whose classmates are mourning are involved in this too? Thousands of people including police and prime minister and the whole government together creating this hoax..

 

[Ategy]

Keep in mind my responses are based on the fact I have not watched the NZ video(s) in question.

Stuff like that can't be choreographed. Think about it, you are assuming that thousands of people are involved in creating this fake footage. If it's not real then what about the people who are supposedly dead, are their family members and colleagues and neighbors all have been paid millions of dollars to lie about this? The teens whose classmates are mourning are involved in this too? Thousands of people including police and prime minister and the whole government together creating this hoax..

That beyond almost anything else is why the bigger conspiracy theories truly bug me. I work in a what is essentially a big government box .. and I think what many people don't realise is how colossally incompetent government can be on the large scale (not necessarily on everything, but definitely for something like 9/11). I can understand hesitation on small things involving a couple of people MAYBE .. but once we're talking involving anything more than a handful of people, there simply is too much human error and incompetence for conspiracies like 9/11 to ever hold. It's because of that it's a fact that the planes took down the buildings .. but .. did a very small group of people in the US government with extremist views want to instigate an extreme event like 9/11 in order to get certain policies in place so they actually helped the terrorists with things like money and intelligence? I'm personally 99.999% sure the answer to that is no, but I don't have that 100% proof needed to convince someone who thinks otherwise.

... He would shoot them, but there's no blood. Repeatedly shot them, and there was just no blood. Not even when they were wearing white clothes lol. It's so different from videogames, tv movies and anime where as soon as sokmeone gets shot -- THERE HAS TO BE BLOOD RIG T AWAY.
And there was no police.. like he walked back in twice but no police.

As someone who has stood between people carrying guns and their intended victim, let me tell you that such scenes are extremely random and unpredictable .. and it's extremely rare that police arrive after only a couple minutes. The majority of times you see immediate police intervention it's usually just dumb luck because the police was already there or very close.

Also .. not all bullet wounds draw lots of blood (or at least enough to see on some cameras). There are many factors involved including distance and point of entry and even angle of entry. People have been known to think they were just hit with incidental debris when it was actually a bullet ..

 

[Fancy.domains]

I am not a muslim, but that is irrelevant here. 50 people have been brutally murdered by a psycho, and the least we can do for their families is to show some respect. Like we did to the 9/11 victims and so on...

Freedom of speech - Great!
Freedom to choose your registrar - Great!

 

[Slanted]

I'm Epik's Director of Operations. Prior to taking that position in April 2017, I worked for 6 years as a full time domain investor, wrote approximately 150 articles at DNW, and was one of the most active commentators on every other domain blog: Joseph Peterson, in case my "Slanted" username is unfamiliar. Some of you know me, and I'm no stranger to NamePros.

During the past 2 years, I've stayed busy with projects and customers at Epik. As a result, I have disappeared from public discussions. In fact, my personal inbox has 6,477 unread emails with the label "DN Blogs". I pay no attention to social media. My only Facebook or Twitter accounts are unused place holders.

Monday I went to work and discovered that my boss, Rob Monster – and by extension Epik – are embroiled in a scandal as a result of tweets Rob had made via his personal Twitter account. That would be a "face-palm" moment, except that the nature of the controversy is much too serious to be treated with levity. In short, it's not something we can wish away with an emoticon. Dismissing this as a "tweet" gone awry minimizes Rob's action, which was to publish a link to footage of a massacre (after Twitter had banned that footage) and suggest that the footage wasn't real.

Mondays are always busy. Between scheduled meetings with outside parties, reviewing development projects, and assisting customers, I spoke privately to Rob about the incident, as well as to several of my coworkers, and to peers in the domain industry. It was midnight before I could survey the PR damage in blogs and forums.

Since I found this scandal being discussed at Shane Cultra's blog, I posted a response there. For various reasons, my post was not published until today (Wednesday). A second post by me remains in the moderation queue there. Realizing that many NamePros members will comment in this forum without clicking a link to read what I have written elsewhere, for convenience I will copy the text of those 2 posts here in this NamePros thread.

[more to follow]

 

[offthehandle]

.......

For various reasons, my post was not published until today (Wednesday).

Welcome Back! Your comment was visible yesterday on his blog and I read it yesterday. @JB Lions posted the link too. I believe today your comment it was “republished” as a post according to what I saw, but didnt re-read it.

Your detailed blog posts on DNW are missed and always enjoyed them in the past and admired. Thanks for posting.

 

[Slanted]

Many people are passing judgment on Epik or Rob Monster. Given my role at Epik and my daily communication with Rob, it seems reasonable for anyone interested in forming an opinion of Epik or Rob to listen to my perspective. Nobody needs to agree with me. But people who only skim or who deliberately ignore what I say are not serious about understanding the circumstances of this scandal.

I applaud this person for cleverness:

Rob is a monster and a monster will Rob you

Seriously, though, I hope that some of you will not pass judgment in a superficial way. It's very easy to condemn someone based on a superficial reading of a scandal, without taking the time to understand the context or motivation that led someone – Rob in this case – to act.

I see some people in this thread have written thoughtful posts, trying to understand Rob's action as perhaps Rob himself saw it, suspending judgment or being careful to criticize without hyperbole. Yet these people are being mocked simply for writing a few paragraphs:

Read a little more, write a little less?

Let me repeat: People who only skim or who deliberately ignore what I say – given that I work very closely with Rob at Epik – are not seriously interested in understanding the circumstances or facts. There will be people eager to gossip, jeer, sling mud. It's inevitable. But let's distinguish between people who are seriously trying to assess this scandal from those who are not.

NamePros threads have a tendency to avalanche. 100 people can post comments in time zones all around the world. Many of those comments will be directed at Epik or at Rob or at me. Let me say in advance that I am not going to be glued to this NamePros thread. Those of you who are professionals will understand that I have responsibilities at a domain registrar. Customers, coworkers, and colleagues at other companies depend on my time being spent at Epik.

Also, I have a personal life. And I refuse to neglect the people who are near and dear to me in order to argue online about a scandal caused by my boss during my weekend or after my workday should be over. Please respect that. I anticipate that some people will make remarks and demand instantaneous responses from me or Epik. But I may not notice you. It's not personal. During the past 2 years, I have only logged into NamePros once every few months.

Having said that in advance, I realize some people aren't going to read anything I write. And I realize that some people will try to pick fights.

[more to come]

 

[Slanted]

.......
Welcome Back! ... Your detailed blog posts on DNW are missed and always enjoyed them in the past and admired. Thanks for posting.

Thanks. I wish I were returning under better circumstances.

 

[maksimfa]

Thanks. I wish I were returning under better circumstances.

Honestly, stop wasting your time on this nonsense.

This is the watercooler and as an EPIK customer, I think you should focus on continuing to make it better.

In a few weeks people will be back to talking about how EPIK is a leader and an innovator in this space and what they will remember is that you guys defend the customers above all else.

Personal politics? Who cares. No need to agree with them... and if someone choses not to do business with a company based on CEO's personal opinion, well, do you really need them as a customer?

Believe me, as someone who values privacy and security... this is only making me move domains to EPIK faster.

 

[offthehandle]

Thanks. I wish I were returning under better circumstances.

I don’t believe this is as big a crisis as you do or others believe. Hyper sensitivity and swaying things way out of context is easy. I read the Huffington Post slam job they did on Rob and about Gab. It was b.s. Being controversial and taking a stand about free speech is really tough. Those that do take a stand are the ones who change the world.

 

[Slanted]

Let me add that nothing I say is me acting in my capacity as an Epik employee. This NamePros account has the user name "Slanted" because I purchased Slanted.com for use as a blog, which would have been my personal "slant" (i.e. perspective) on the domain industry and other topics. When I joined Epik, I added a clause to my contract stipulating that I would be allowed to work on that Slanted.com project and that it falls outside of my work at Epik.

When I wrote my comments at Shane Cultra's blog – or, for that matter, when I write any comments anywhere online – I am writing as an individual, expressing my own viewpoint. This can be confusing for people. Especially now, since I am writing about Epik ... but as myself, not as Epik. It's very easy to equate what I say (since I'm an Epik employee) with Epik's official position on some topic. In some contexts, that might be a reasonable assumption: for example, if I'm explaining an Epik policy or product. But on matters that don't concern Epik products and services, I express Joseph Peterson's opinions.

This may have the effect of damage control for Epik. But I'm not being asked by Rob or anybody else to air my views about this Epik scandal. In fact, I have said things that aren't very flattering about Rob in public. He and I have spoken about that, and he hasn't tried to influence what I might write in any way whatsoever.

In fact, this ambiguity between personal opinions and a corporate brand is at the core of this scandal. Rob was using his personal Twitter channel, but he referred to Epik. Even if he hadn't mentioned Epik, I think the general public has a double standard for CEOs and ordinary employees. A CEO is never really permitted to speak any controversial opinion without putting the company's brand at risk. Any other employee could. Is this double standard unfair? Not for me to say. It's real. And I'm very familiar with that double standard. As a Navy officer, I never had the same freedom to speak my personal opinions that I do now as a civilian. A uniformed officer is expressly prohibited from endorsing a political candidate, for example. The case of CEOs speaking through Twitter is not dissimilar. But it's fair to say that Rob expected to be seen as an individual, speaking his own mind – and not as Epik. Naïve perhaps, but so he told me.

[more to follow]

 

[maksimfa]

I don’t believe this is as big a crisis as you do or others believe. Hyper sensitivity and swaying things way out of context is easy. I read the Huffington Post slam job they did on Rob and about Gab. It was b.s. Being controversial and taking a stand about free speech is really tough. Those that do take a stand are the ones who change the world.

Of course, to them it is all about the page views.... the more controversial the better.

 

[Slanted]

@maksimfa and @offthehandle,

Thanks for the support. After giving my own perspective on this scandal, I'm hoping to get back to work. Epik has a lot going on.

 

[Fancy.domains]

I'm Epik's Director of Operations. Prior to taking that position in April 2017, I worked for 6 years as a full time domain investor, wrote approximately 150 articles at DNW, and was one of the most active commentators on every other domain blog: Joseph Peterson, in case my "Slanted" username is unfamiliar. Some of you know me, and I'm no stranger to NamePros.

During the past 2 years, I've stayed busy with projects and customers at Epik. As a result, I have disappeared from public discussions. In fact, my personal inbox has 6,477 unread emails with the label "DN Blogs". I pay no attention to social media. My only Facebook or Twitter accounts are unused place holders.

Monday I went to work and discovered that my boss, Rob Monster – and by extension Epik – are embroiled in a scandal as a result of tweets Rob had made via his personal Twitter account. That would be a "face-palm" moment, except that the nature of the controversy is much too serious to be treated with levity. In short, it's not something we can wish away with an emoticon. Dismissing this as a "tweet" gone awry minimizes Rob's action, which was to publish a link to footage of a massacre (after Twitter had banned that footage) and suggest that the footage wasn't real.

Mondays are always busy. Between scheduled meetings with outside parties, reviewing development projects, and assisting customers, I spoke privately to Rob about the incident, as well as to several of my coworkers, and to peers in the domain industry. It was midnight before I could survey the PR damage in blogs and forums.

Since I found this scandal being discussed at Shane Cultra's blog, I posted a response there. For various reasons, my post was not published until today (Wednesday). A second post by me remains in the moderation queue there. Realizing that many NamePros members will comment in this forum without clicking a link to read what I have written elsewhere, for convenience I will copy the text of those 2 posts here in this NamePros thread.

[more to follow]

Your response on Shane’s blog clarified a lot. At least for me.

Thank you!

 

[rh2000]

Many people are passing judgment on Epik or Rob Monster. Given my role at Epik and my daily communication with Rob, it seems reasonable for anyone interested in forming an opinion of Epik or Rob to listen to my perspective. Nobody needs to agree with me. But people who only skim or who deliberately ignore what I say are not serious about understanding the circumstances of this scandal.

I applaud this person for cleverness:



Seriously, though, I hope that some of you will not pass judgment in a superficial way. It's very easy to condemn someone based on a superficial reading of a scandal, without taking the time to understand the context or motivation that led someone – Rob in this case – to act.

I see some people in this thread have written thoughtful posts, trying to understand Rob's action as perhaps Rob himself saw it, suspending judgment or being careful to criticize without hyperbole. Yet these people are being mocked simply for writing a few paragraphs:



Let me repeat: People who only skim or who deliberately ignore what I say – given that I work very closely with Rob at Epik – are not seriously interested in understanding the circumstances or facts. There will be people eager to gossip, jeer, sling mud. It's inevitable. But let's distinguish between people who are seriously trying to assess this scandal from those who are not.

NamePros threads have a tendency to avalanche. 100 people can post comments in time zones all around the world. Many of those comments will be directed at Epik or at Rob or at me. Let me say in advance that I am not going to be glued to this NamePros thread. Those of you who are professionals will understand that I have responsibilities at a domain registrar. Customers, coworkers, and colleagues at other companies depend on my time being spent at Epik.

Also, I have a personal life. And I refuse to neglect the people who are near and dear to me in order to argue online about a scandal caused by my boss during my weekend or after my workday should be over. Please respect that. I anticipate that some people will make remarks and demand instantaneous responses from me or Epik. But I may not notice you. It's not personal. During the past 2 years, I have only logged into NamePros once every few months.

Having said that in advance, I realize some people aren't going to read anything I write. And I realize that some people will try to pick fights.

[more to come]

When somebody claims that a mass murder is a hoax when the evidence proves that its not, that person should expect people to be upset or pass judgement like you say.

 

[NameLlama]

Lol

I wonder who runs Epik twiter

 

[equity78]

@maksimfa and @offthehandle,

Thanks for the support. After giving my own perspective on this scandal, I'm hoping to get back to work. Epik has a lot going on.

Good to see you Joseph, hope you are well.