John, I appreciate that you're taking care of this, and it's truly unfortunate that it had to come to this point.

Bob, I never expected to get rich off this, I was just trying to help John out. It's not about the money, it's about what's right and what's wrong. And it's also not about one board's members against another's. I know it's easy to just brush it off as some kind of a grudge by lighthousing.net members against this board, but that's sadly shortsighted and just plain silly. This is about photographers from BOTH boards who feel that they've been taken advantage of and wanted it to stop. Is that really so unreasonable? And is it also unreasonable to post on a public forum after private attempts at communication were ignored for so long? What would you have us do, just sit back and wait forever?

I find it amazing that people are saying how inappropriate it was to post this publicly here, that I should just investigate and sue quietly. I can't imagine the uproar if that actually happened.... I'd be asked why I had to handle it in the courts, not one on one with John or at least a post on the board.

I've tried to handle this in a civil and professional manner and for that I get bashed. Yes, the response did make me mad, and my reply was very blunt after that. I never made any personal attacks against John and neither did anyone else, facts were stated regarding the present situation. In my post on lighthousing.net I intentionally left his name out of it because I didn't want it to turn into this. And in response I recieved comments like ...

I don't think I'm the one who should be ashamed about what's been posted here and I stand by everything I said. I can hold my head high knowing that I have taken the high road and the mud that has been slung is not on my hands.