I have been friends with Guru since October 2004. I noticed right off the bat he was a cool kid and we were gonna become great friends. Last July, he told me he was gay. I wasn't disturbed by it, I didn't mock or judge him, and I encouraged him to tell others about it. Over the next few months, I noticed he seemed to be... I don't know, acting up. Whenever we'd talk on AIM, I would constantly find him getting caught in many lies, e.g., he told me he was in love with another UD member of the opposite sex and she was moving to Utah so they could get married, then said he never liked girls, never was was gonna get married to she-who's-name-will-not-be-mentioned, yadda yadda yadda. Also, when we first met on AIM he told me he had been homeschooled all his life, then made several posts here and on AIM that he was public schooled all his life. Then he couldn't remember which parent was in a mental institution. And I hate to admit this, but he offered me some pirated DVD's. I knew it was wrong, but sometimes my temptations get the best of me. I asked if he could buy me some. He ended up pulling the same crap with the pirated DVD's that he did with SS, making up excuses, stalling and such, til one day he had a 'revelation' that what he was doing was wrong and that he threw out all of his pirates and couldn't get mine(I'm glad I didn't send him any money, at one point I was dumb enough that I said I could pay $50 for a DVD of The Island ).
I think that Guru is almost as bad a liar as Tangela was, maybe worse. Once I found out he was banned from here, I severed all connections with him. I hate doing it, but he can't be trusted and I can't let myself get caught up in his lies.
I guess this has now become the In Memorium: Disney Guru thread, like Tangela's a couple years ago.
Anyways, might as well share my thoughts on Chris.
When I first joined UD I was warmly welcomed by everyone. Maybe because I didn't say anything to get anyone riled up or maybe because I had a kickass name. But anyways, I digress. It was easy for me to get along with everyone based simply on their posts. I enjoyed reading everything. Except Guru. Hate to say it, but in my early days...well for probably my first year on the site, his posts weren't always the greatest for me to read. I dreaded looking to the right column and seeing a stream of "Last Repy by...Disney Guru" in a long row. For me it meant a thread was bumped so he could say something like "Yes everything is fine. Race has been a problem" or "Hmm, sounds very nice!". Essentially, a post whore. I tried not to let it bother me, but it really got me ticked off. I couldn't exactly send a PM to him and say, "Could you give your posts a little more thought? General one-liners are annoying me". So I stuck it out, but eventually, one very bad day, I was in a bad mood and took it out on the Guru.
Yep, if any oldschool UDer's remember, there was a big argument that was DisneyChris and me versus Disney Guru and his "Coustom" DVD Covers. There were some nasty PM's sent both ways, and one paragraph that dealt with a girl who made bad lemonade and everyone faked liking it to spare her feelings. Anyways, after that, Guru seemed to realize he didn't like him much, and didn't really appreciate what he contributed to the forum. Some time after that he started doing those copy/paste posts, remember? He'd start a thread like, "Song of the South: Discussion" and quote paragraph upon paragraph of a movie critic, saying, "Here's what so-and-so thinks".
Well somewhere down the line, I must've said something or other, that somehow got me on DG's good side, and we were suddenly buddy-buddy on the forum. I stayed clear of his "Coustom DVD Covers" thread, he wrote more in his posts. It was a shaky friendship, and while at times I hesitated to click on a thread that had the last post by DG, his posts were a lot easier to read.
Anyways there was that month or so when he didn't post at all, and I hate to say it, but it was the easiest month for me to visit UD. It was like he never existed, which isn't a nice thing to say. Then he came back.
I think I first started to notice something different when I read the thread that Wondy linked. I must've forgotten about it later on, though, because during a chat on AIM it came as a shock to me when he said he was gay, as if it were a matter-of-factly thing in our discussion. But that didn't bother me one bit, because the majority of my male internet friends from my soap opera messageboard days were either gay or bi. So I was completely comfortable with it.
I think the first lie I caught him in was about Ruth Warrick. Around this time last year, Ruth Warrick, an exceptional actress, passed away. I started a thread about it and made it a point to mention that she was the last cast member from Song of the South and that she was Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children. Guru chimed in saying that he loved watching her on All My Children. I started a chat in the thread about it, talking about a lot of fake storylines, hoping to get him to confess, because NO ONE on UD could possibly know more about soaps than me. But he went along with every fake storyline I threw his way, even when I changed the names of characters on the show.
Our AIM chats usually consisted of discussing Bette Davis or old movies in general. God, he loved those old movies. Which is why it was a big shock to me when he announced he was selling off his DVD collection. His 600+ DVDs were whittled down to about 140 or so, and I was originally supposed to buy stuff from him, but I kept delaying sending my payment to him because I never had time to go and get a money order, and I don't like writing checks.
Anyways, I knew something was up when he, the big old-movie lover, was selling his collection, so maybe that was another reason I was holding off sending money. But afterwards, our conversations on UD and in AIM was few and far between, and the only posts I really saw from him since November was the one where he joined Secret Santa and the one where he got his gift.
His banning did come as a shock to me, simply because he didn't seem like the guy who'd do it. But if he stiffed someone out of a gift four times, he probably never was the Guru we really knew.
So, Chris Johnson, Disney Guru, Doris Day fan...have a good life.
Escapay
WIST #60:
AwallaceUNC: Would you prefer Substi-Blu-tiary Locomotion?
WIST #61:
TheSequelOfDisney: Damn, did Lin-Manuel Miranda go and murder all your families?
You know that now you mentioned it 2 things immediately stick out as being odd to me.
First of all the DVD collection sale thing again, I offered to buy some of his DVD and likewise my PMs went unanswered for a few weeks, even though he was active posting on the forum, when he did reply he told me he would be willing to ship them to the UK, butr never gave me a quote for prices (which i thought was odd) so i let it drop and forgot about the whole thing. I then got a PM a couple of weeks later from him saying "Where hasn't my money arrived" and i said, you never even told me how much you wanted for them, also you never even gave me an address, so how in the hell could I have sent it to you.
He then replied about a week later saying "I have sold them all on eBay anyway".
Pretty weird, but now I've remembered something even stranger which at the time didn't jump out at me as being odd.
I doubt many of you remember, but in this thread <a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 7">here</a> DG offered to buy my copy of Lilo and Stitch, the conversation was carried on though PM, but the money never arrived but DG insisted that he had sent me a money order through the post. I initially felt sorry for him, and because it was a spare dvd anyway, I told him that I'd send it him anyway as a gesture of good will if he sent me a receipt or some proof that he mailed the money order to me. Anyway as you can guess that was the end of that and a reply never came as far as that was concerned.
But now looking back, it does seem rather odd espescially in light of the recent stuff.
AwalleceUNC wrote:I'm most distressed by what this might mean for the appearance of any surviving Dancing Guruettes in this year's Forum Awards
I have a feeling that any surviving Guruettes (incase anyone has forgotten the bloodbath check <a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... 67&start=0"> here</a>) are probably to traumatised to ever perform again, however the Guruettes have nothing to fear it is not they who have been shunned!
Been away from the forum for a few weeks (way too busy with teaching and going to school) and this is the first thread I've stumbled upon in my return.
Let me just say this...DG was under watch long before this secret santa episode. Unfortunately, he failed to deliver on a purchase made by a new member to this forum last Fall, and I e-mailed him repeatedly to get his side and try and moderate the transaction.
I got nothing. And neither did the person who sent him money for goods never delivered. I suggested she pursue mail fraud charges against him and I have not heard any updates since.
Plain and simple, if you lie and cheat it's one thing. But if you steal, that's a line that shouldn't be tolerated face-to-face, much-less on an internet forum. I say good riddance to a person that obviously took advantage of many people here (the true number of which I'm sure we'll never know). We don't need people like that here, and Luke works too damn hard on this community to let crap like this go on.
Mr. Toad wrote:Well this is taking member survivor to a new level. Last person unbanned wins. Hey Icahbod - we ever going to get around to finishing it.
).
