Dennis Leahy wrote:
Oh, I shouldn't bother, but for the sake of anyone that gloogles AFLNZ LMFAO or luthierforumaustralianewzealand, they should find this thread first.
Ironic that Kim (and I) caught Mario breaking into the private message system at Mario's forum - then he lied when confronted about it, then "banned us." So now he declares Kim to be "not truthful?" What a steaming pile of kangaroo turds. That dumbass doesn't know enough to admit a mistake, and is still adding lies to try to cover-up lies from 4 or 5 years ago? Pathetic.
Dennis
Thanks Dennis...for everyone's info this is 'NOT' simply speculation.
Back then I had been a member of Mario DeCosta's forum. In case you missed it, back on the first page of this thread, I had explained how I had repeated issues with the wood being sent to me by that vendor. As Dennis was my closest friend at that forum, I had sent him the occasional PM one of which was asking advice on how he thinks I should approach Mario in relation to my problem with his wood.
At that particular time I had 'not' made 'any' contact with Mario about the issue. So I was a little surprised when he had then contacted me about problems with my order...Remarkably perceptive I thought..But then, a few month later, the very same series of events repeated themselves...Just after I had sent a PM to Dennis suggesting that perhaps Mario has some kind of learning impairment as he continued to repeat the very same mistake in packing, again, and again, and again.. Mario contacted me out of the blue to inquire about the problem 'before' I had contacted him...I was impressed by his remarkable intuition...but in truth, had assumed that perhaps Dennis, being the helpful bloke he is, had been contacting Mario on my behalf, so I simply overlooked these strange coincidences.
But then...it happened 'again'. Only this time it had involved a mahogany neck blank I won in a Mario raffle, and a hardwood vendor by the name of Kent (I think?), with whom Mario had gone into cahoots with for his Saturday auctions..You see I sent Dennis a PM suggesting that Kent was less than up front because I had not heard a word from him since I won that neck billet which Kent had put up as a prize...Low and behold, shortly after I sent that PM to Dennis, both Mario and Kent had contacted me about the issue....I asked Dennis if he had contacted Mario about the matter? His reply...NO!.....by now I was pretty suspicious.
I knew that Mario ran his own server. I also knew he had access to the hard drive upon which his forum's software, and therefore members PM's were stored. Some month later Mario made a general announcement at his forum that there will be some changes. He wanted everyone to start posting builds using his wood or to go elsewhere. He also announced that 'anyone' who wants to sell wood of any kind on his forum, would now need to pay him an annual fee of $2000.
This bombshell sat wrong with both Dennis and myself. We both responded by pointing out to Mario that the content at his forum responsible for attracting people to his site was in fact generated by the members, and in particular, how his new rules were a direct attack on the member Grant Goltz, whom had been tireless in his production of many excellent pictorials to help other forum members, and the generator of some brilliant ideas..(but he knows jack about glue

) because he would be expected to pay 2K a year just to move a few back and side sets.
During this heated debate in which each of our posts where being immediately deleted by Mario, I had been in contact with Dennis on the form via PM, and also by our personal email addresses to which Mario had no access. In one of those emails I had explained to Dennis how I would soon be sending him a PM at the forum that should evoke a response from Mario if he is indeed hacking our PM exchange. I sent Dennis a PM containing very descriptive Aussie flavour and derogatory remarks about Mario and his behavior...
Very shortly after, in what was an attempt by him to cool things down, Mario had repeated some of the unique terminology contained in my PM to Dennis, on the open forum...verbatim..Not once, but on 2 or 3 occasions...To us it was clear that he WAS reading members PM's...
As Dennis said, we then confronted him about it, and he deleted our accounts...not just ours though, but Grant Goltz's and anyone else who cried foul play...including his head administrator at that time Eben Attwater..Mario also locked all topics to prevent ex-members from downloading copies of their own content..it did not help him much because a few days after his childish meltdown had set fire to his own forum, a new forum was up and running with assistance from Bob Connor for those of the exodus called (TLC) The Luthiers Community:
http://www.luthiercom.org/
So Mario, the bloke who has never even made a guitar, has hijacked all the ex-members input he had compiled over a number of years and claimed it as his own. But he could not stop the sole of that community from sprouting again, just as he cannot hide from the fact that whilst beauty may only be skin deep, ugliness goes all the way to the bone..eh Mario...do us all a favour and slide back under your rock you gelatinous sleazy cretin, cause you ain't fooling anyone here with your stupid leopard piss, curly wang, monkey nuts hyper marketing bullshit.
Fuck Off
Kim