regards,

a disappointed atheist hip hop fan

Though I think an equally valid reading is that Brian manufactured ‘dispute’.

It makes no odds really, except to point out that a ‘dispute’ means Brian considers Greydon’s request unfair, whereas is wasn’t, it was a legitimate request which Brian should not have disputed but should have accepted the offer of arbitration on.

If it was my work/reputation on the line and an agent of mine screwed up like that, and then started trying to get funny with me when I sacked them, I’d be laughing all the way to the bank via the courtroom.

In fact, no reputable agent would find themselves in such a position in the first place – generally people swap agents all of the time, that’s the nature of the beast – there is always an option to discuss things if ‘the relationship has soured’ or some such, but essentially agents stop working for you the moment you tell them to, pending the outcome of any other discussions/contractual wranglings as may be appropriate.

The moment your agent starts getting in your face and telling you how it’s going to be, they are usually an ex-agent pretty swiftly.

And this is my point, anyone worth their salt – that is anyone with a brain larger than their stupid ego – would have agreed with Greydon’s request pending arbitration, especially if they had known what had gone on; Brian should have been as embarrassed and penitent as Greydon was outraged, but Brian Sapient is a divot.

Ummm… they met publicly at the convention AFAIK. At the table, where the table hit someone according to what I read. I presume it was were Sapient was selling Greydon CDs. But there is a point, you don’t conduct business publicly. It’s bad form. From what I’ve read, Sapient wanted to settle it then and there, where Greydon wanted to use a neutral arbitrator.
What I know for a fact is Brian grandstanded this dispute publicly on his form, and just about any blog talking about it, as did Kelly. I’ll have to review what Rook wrote to say if he did the same thing.

Greydon and Brian conducted business publicly at the convention. Foofoo on both of them. Not sure why Greydon did this, but I can presume that Brian was dodging Greydon’s calls. Brian made a private business matter VERY public. I can see that on his website, and any blog talking about the event. Double foofoo on him.

“It seems that Brian has created a myth about dispute where one does not exist. Greydon told Brian, Brian disputed and had no right to.”

There was a dispute. Greydon wanted Brian to stop selling CDs. Brian felt that since he still had “hundreds” invested. That’s a dispute. I know this because on Brian’s form he was talking about offering Greydon CDs at 10 for $50 to help pay his medical bills. Fair enough… but again it’s brining a private matter… accountability for medical bills, into the public.

No matter what way you look at it, there was a dispute. If there was no dispute, there would be one party with a request, and another that agrees. There wasn’t, it’s fair to call it a dispute.

Why does it matter? Well it shows us two reasons not to do business with the RRS. They lack follow through, and if the deal goes south Brian will do his best to humiliate you, and accuse you of being mentally ill.

My point is on why BS had to settle the dispute at the convention instead of in private elsewhere.

How is that relevant?
They met in private at the convention. What would ‘elsewhere’ have brought into the equation?

What dispute? Brian had no dispute, all he had to do was take the money and post the CDs. He only did half of that, Greydon had the issue, and nobody was disputing anything: Brian accepted the facts that the CDs hadn’t been sent.

It seems that Brian has created a myth about dispute where one does not exist. Greydon told Brian, Brian disputed and had no right to. Le fin.

I don’t post at RRS. Evolved Rationalist is the pseudonym I use to post on my blog.

Thank you.

Well, unfortunately people are, I presume, still giving him cash, without knowing what the RRS does and where it goes. We see this situation he can’t take money and ship out products, not without screwing the pouch for two months.

They do. Sapient already got $208,000 for his house out of the deal (see your blog for ED link), and they’ve got 4 people to handle the rest of the mortgage (last time I crunched the numbers $400each/month should cover it including property tax IIRC). That’s damn spiffy for less than 2 years of operation. Doesn’t pay the bills, but it sure pays.

As far as the business goes… nothing wrong with starting a nitch webhosting firm. Proactive atheists and freethinkers under Drupal…. plenty of people willing to shell out cash for hosting… but given you can get hosting for free, or for trivial amounts like $7/month… Sapient is wanting top dollar for, respectfully, a mickey mouse operation. If he was a Drupal specialist… I could see hosting on his site… and even paying for it… if I didn’t know jack about computers or html. But he doesn’t seem to know Drupal, let alone some of the fundamentals of hosting, not to speak of the business end.

Nothing wrong with earning a salary in activism. But what does the guy do?

He needs to stop presenting himself as a business man and an activist when he’s in fact just an idiot who can’t figure out how to ship out a few CD’s a week.

Brian claims he cares deeply about the Atheist community…if this were true he would slip into obscurity because it appears that most of us would REALLY like him to. He should be honest and state that he cares only about Brian…and a little bit about his RRS cult followers…and those are the only people he cares about.

What, the RRS isn’t a hobby now?

The only reason I’m critical of your statement is because the level of business Brian is doing is hobby level stuff. I presume… based on 1000-1500% profit that Sapient bought a production run of 1000 @ $1000. He would only need sell 67 CDs to break even, over a period of 4 months that he actually brothered to sell them. That would be less than 4 CDs per week. If double the cost to make, 8/week would break even. Presuming Brian was honest about having hundreds of dollars still invested, presuming he could use Google and find CD duplication.

I’m sorry but work you can do once a week… I call that hobby. He couldn’t be bothered to do the hobby.

The RRS stuff… I have NO clue what Sapient does other than run a website, and do his little show. The t-shirt and thong sales are, near as I’m aware, through a 3rd party. Near as I’m aware the only commercial aspect is the site. There is a claim of working 20 hour days… but on what I have no idea. I know they spend much time “on” the website, but they don’t seem to invest much time “in” the website. I could be mistaken, I don’t know what Sapient does 20 hours a day.

To me the RRS is a hobby. It’s three people who beg for money to run a website and jabber in stickam.

Bottom line, everything Brian says is bullshit. It’s not very hard to see that…if a person rational and not brain-washed.

Now Brian claims that he and Lori are going to ship out the CD’s…was she the mysterious “volunteer” in charge of the CD’s?…if so…she lives in same house with Brian…you think he may have noticed that CD’s were not being shipped…and that MAYBE if business was a priority in their lives they have discussed it from time to time.

Even IF, and that’s a huge IF, there was someone living outside the treehouse who had agreed to ship CD’s…it was Brian’s responsibility to make sure it was being done. As pointed out by Panda…Brian is incompetent, (or a criminal), and should not be in charge of doing laundry…much less running a business.

It’s my opinion he was pulling a scam and got caught….but even if he truly was just utterly incompetent…he should still stop trying to play in the bigboy pool and go back to the kiddie pool. Shut the RRS down and go get a real job….or go get a real job and make the RRS what it should have been…a hobby. People can still makes some extra bucks from a hobby…but if you aren’t competent enough to run a full scale business…don’t try to.