An Apology to the FTA Community

[phlatwound]

Thanks for sharing that, Brian.

Many of you know of my background is in Film and Video Production. Over the years I have been involved with the distribution of live of private events for Fortune 500 companies, worked seven years in production for a NBA franchise and hundreds of gigs on mobile trucks for concerts and sporting events. Up until now I have stayed on the sidelines of this debate but now I will share my personal observation, but choose not address the economics as a equipment reseller. This post is in no way is an endorsement of a site or to attack on another.

I have personally have required encryption on events based on the feed information posted in public and private forums....

During the analog days we usually would encrypt live event feeds if the content was of sensitive nature, the content owner required for contractual reasons or the content owner could experience economic loss with unauthorized viewing or distribution. Analog feeds were easily detected because there were only 24 C-band channels 32 full bandwidth KU-band channels per satellite and and tens of thousands of viewers could simply change channels on their receiver and "find" our private feed.

After the transition of the feeds from analog to digital there were few feed hunters with the ability to locate occasional use transmissions, limited sharing of the finds and very few compatible receivers. We understood that that there was a remote chance that a few folks might view our feeds, but there was a reasonable chance that with the variables of frequency, polarity and symbol rates the feed would remain undetected.

When Blind Scan receivers began showing up on the market we reviewed our policies and would not encrypt if the duration of the event was brief, on a unpopular satellite or if feed information was not posted. If we had a several day event or a pre-event test signal for site verification we would usually assign a staff person to monitor public and private forums where feed information was posted and would encrypt the feed if the information was posted. Usually we would try to avoid encryption as it would increase the number of site support calls, but if the feed was reported on a public forum we would contact the sites and enable the encryption. As previously pointed out, BISS is free, available and quickly implemented on most encoders and commercial decoders (receivers).

Blind Scanning for private use is not measurable and distributors assume that it will occur in limited instances. Sharing feed information in any forum is monitored by uplinkers. Sharing feed information in any public or private forum will promote awareness of the feed and possibly result in the encryption to secure the content. Content distributors are aware that people are receiving their feeds, but usually will not encrypt as long as the feed information does not go viral.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

Remember the World War II slogan, " Loose Lips Might Sink Ships".

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

His claim of being "blackmailed" I find funny, implies he has something to hide.

I haven't seen him say that, and I even searched for the word Blackmailed and came up empty.

But if he did say it he must not know what the word means.

From Websters dictionary it defined blackmale as...

Definition of BLACKMAIL

1: a tribute anciently exacted on the Scottish border by plundering chiefs in exchange for immunity from pillage

2a: extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution b: the payment that is extorted


— blackmailtransitive verb
— black·mail·ernoun

Wikipedia gives the following clearer definition of the word:

Blackmail is the act of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. This information is usually of an embarrassing, socially damaging, and/or incriminating nature.

Clearly I have not done that, what I have done is told the truth and explained the facts.

If you have been following this saga over the past week then you have seen the timeline and what happened and how Rick altered things at his site trying to change the timeline and the facts. Sorry Rick, too many people saw what you did you got your hands caught in the cookie jar... again.

He says he wants to talk about this privately but did not respond to the email I sent him on this matter.

And then to make matter worse for him, besides altering and destorting the facts he tried to throw God in the mix. I don't know about you but that don't sound very christian like to me. If wants to spout bible verses to me all day I can toss them right back at him.

Rick please don't let FACTs get in the way of your great rants.

I have not blackmailed, extorted or used God against Rick, I have just spoken the facts and my opinion on how to fix the matter to help save this hobby for all of us.

Rick, for the good of us all, please STOP THE BOTS!

 

[Lak7]

I am open to change, but I will not be black mailed, sabotaged or threatened into making changes. Those type of tactics have the exact opposite effect with me.

It's there.

 

[Lak7]

....throw God in the mix...

I'm not a religious person, but didn't Jesus take one for the team?
Rick, TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM!
Stop the Bots!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

It's there.

Ahh because he made it two words.

For the record beside not blackmailing him I also have not sabotaged or threatened him.

 

[turbosat]

Seems to me that fellow has a very stubborn streak. When it's apparent that several 'feeds' that used to be available have left recently, or encrypted suddenly, he still refuses to accept having a hand in that loss. He can cut off his own nose if he likes, but he's getting everybody else's too!
The first feed forum I joined only sent out emails, while it was cumbersome and slow, it was fairly private.

 

[Babadem]

Trommy, I don't want to get off the main discussion but Rick could be milking the flock. It's been done before. As a former pastor myself I could quote him chapter and verse all day to point out his errors....I'm not going to waste my time. I appreciate that fact that we openly talk about the pros and cons of posting feeds here. I'm just not real sure what Rick is so afraid of...maybe he doesn't like to be told he's wrong, or admit he's wrong either. At this point I really don't see him changing his point of view. He's got too many over there that support him 100%. Let's see the blind leading the blind and they both fall in the ditch....
Blind

@ the highlighted:
.................so what made you turn ya back on the pulpit? The desires of the world got the best of you?

 

[stogie5150]

@ the highlighted:
.................so what made you turn ya back on the pulpit? The desires of the world got the best of you?

You didn't ask me, but I'll tell you what stopped me from posting there.... I realized one day that it was 1985 all over again, but on a smaller scale. I remember how mad my Dad was that he spent 3k on a system and installation, only to have it go away because they had a monthly magazine and two or three weekly Sat TV guides detailing where all the feeds were. And Rick's internet site was a WHOLE lot more immediate than what we had back in the day. I decided I wasn't going to be part of it anymore. So I voiced my opinion on his site, and got it deleted and then banned after we exchanged some very heated emails. Some of you have seen them. This issue isn't new. Its just come to a head because what I told him was going to happen, actually happened.

 

[1ADAM12]

My Mistake?

I'm not a religious person, but didn't Jesus take one for the team?

Tim, too funny.

I posted something here about the show "Dog Whisperer" it went scrambled. My bad!

Maybe those kind of posts should be deleted if found here.

 

[freezy]

You can do it this way too. It's annoying but effective.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

You can do it this way too. It's annoying but effective.

Yup that is a very effective way! It stops bots dead.

Wonder how hard it would be to make a Feeds Posting application where you enter the feed information in and it spits out a graphic which can be posted.

 

[avg1joe]

Scott and Iceberg: I am more and more ashamed to be a member of this site. I am seeing more hostility and personal attacks all the time. Rick, Freedbs, that mountain dude, and techfizzle come to mind. I am not defending any of those peoples' actions but I'm sick of reading hostile personal attacks on people that just go on and on.

I accused the OP of being fake. That wasn't very nice. It was wrong. I apologized and moved on. Sometimes I lose my cool and when I start ranting, hope someone will call me on it.

I enjoy learning about satellite tv from you guys and occasionally try to help others. I thought that was what this site was about. If the site is really about ranting about other people for hundreds of posts please delete my account immediately. Thank you for everything I've learned here.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Avg1joe, why don't you want to see the feeds protected?

If you decide to leave then we are sorry to see you go.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Babadem, Well let's see last church it was at, was the very church I grew up in, and due to dwindling and aging membership it closed....neighborhood decline etc... A different line of work opened up with great pay and a state pension too. Now I have lots of time to devote to FTA stuff in the evenings too! My phone doesn't ring nearly as much either lol...Blind

 

[freezy]

Avg1joe, why don't you want to see the feeds protected?

If you decide to leave then we are sorry to see you go.

I think he desires more civility even if we disagree over issues.

 

[avg1joe]

A vote to stop ragging on Rick is a vote to kill cute little baby feeds?

You've had your say. You've made your point. I don't disagree. The post here that was a quote of what was posted there was well written and that is all that needed to be said about the subject ... but that isn't all that was said on the subject.

"Can you believe the nerve of that avg1joe. Telling a guy how to run his forum. How rude."

 

[b5ander]

I have not posted in ages but have been following this, I pretty much don't post feeds anymore because of all this.

The night before FSN scrambled their first CFB game there was a post at Rick's from someone who claimed to work at FSN and that starting this year the feeds would be encrypted and put the blame on Rick and Mike over there. You may not of seen the post because it was deleted within a hour. Now how many people would of known that FSN was going to encrypt the games before there was a actual game? Not many people! So the odds of that post being legit are very high, but in typical Rick fashion it was covered up and swept under the rug. If Rick cares about the hobby why would he do that? What the poster predicted became true the very next day! Yet Rick makes believe that post never happened and he has nothing to do with it.

Now I can't say for 100% sure if that post was from FSN or not, but either way it was from someone in the know! You don't ignore someone like that!!

In this 2nd example someone posted a feed list at his site, Rick thanked him. Week or so later they encrypted, OP comes back says he found out they encrypted because of his post/Rick's site. What does Rick do? Delete it, delete the thank you note, and BAN the OP.. Talk about Loyal! Sounds like a cover up to me!

How many times do you let your car get stolen by leaving the keys in it? Would think after awhile you would I dunno.. LOCK THE CAR AND TAKE THE KEYS WITH YOU!!

My thoughts on the subject!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Good post b5ander!

The saying goes, a little bit of provention goes a long way.

Why dosen't Rick want to protect the feeds we all love?

 

[Mr Tony]

very well put b5ander!

by the way...in regards to FSN the reason Rick and Mike give is "they dont want anyone to see the feeds for free" yet we had those feeds for years

 

[Skyscanner]

...I am more and more ashamed to be a member of this site. I am seeing more hostility and personal attacks all the time... I'm sick of reading hostile personal attacks on people that just go on and on...Sometimes I lose my cool and when I start ranting, hope someone will call me on it... please delete my account immediately...

Joe and all others who are "ashamed" of the "hostility". I don't think anyone wants to see you go, but if all the "hostility" bothers you as much as you say, why don't you just click on another topic? Why do you keep torturing yourself by reading this one? If it's so bad, why participate in it? Seems to me that all the folks who say they hate it keep reading and posting. It's the same with mudslinging political campaigns... everyone claims to hate it but in reality, they're entertaining, effective [even though those who protest them claim they're not], and everyone loves a good scrap. Oh, and stop the bots.
ss ><>