Catholic School Boy ([info]keiohwai) wrote,
@ 2006-01-07 23:13:00
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A Warning for Philippines-based fandom groups
During the last quarter of 2005, MIKE ABUNDO bought the domain and created an online cosplay forum answering to the name "PINOYCOSPLAY.COM"

doing so, he has bypassed an already existing yahoo emailing list named PINOYCOSPLAY, which was already active and in existence in the year 2000, during the years following the first major anime conventions in the Philippines (ANIME EXPLOSION & ANIME QUEST of the years 2000 - 2002)

Members of pinoycosplay mailing list who are also active administrative members of FILCOSPLAY.TK, (a cosplay forum created during 2002, and thus older than pinoy cosplay) pointed this out to Mike Abundo.

Mike Abundo denies his knowledge of the existence of the pinoycosplay ML, saying if it existed it was an old and inactive group anyway, and it did not register highly in Google searches. When asked about pinoycosplay.com, he also blatantly stated that quite frankly, he didn't need pinoycosplay ml's permission.

When NOELLE DE GUZMAN, founder of the pinoycosplay ML, spoke with Mike Abundo, he admitted that he did not, in fact, make a google search for the keyword term "pinoycosplay" before buying the .com domain and creating the forum.

Mike Abundo, in the latter part of the conversation with Noelle de Guzman, proposed that the pinoycosplay ML merge with his pinoycosplay.com forum, saying the mailing list would benefit from the boost of traffic that would soon visit his pinoycosplay.com site, claiming that his .com site was far more accessible to people everywhere.

Noelle De Guzman rejected the offer and said the Pinoycosplay ML will not be affiliated with Pinoycosplay.com under any circumstance. Mike Abundo chose to keep the name of his .com site, saying that he has already invested his monetary resources into the creation of his forums which, in reality, uses the format given by the invision.net service providers on the creation of an online bulletin board/forum.

Mike Abundo bought the site domain name pinoycosplay.com to lead to the www.invisionfree.com/pinoycosplay forum.

Since then, Mike Abundo, who is also a member of Filcosplay forums, a cosplay oriented forum not unlike his own pinoycosplay forum, has frequently made various attempts to lead members of the Filcosplay forums to his own pinoycosplay forums by posting his site links within the threads of conversation in the Filcosplay forum, often times in a blatant manner thru hotlinking and making off-topic posts that pertain to his pinoycosplay forum site.

additionally, Mike Abundo has often criticized the Filcosplay forums by emphasizing the advantages of his Pinoycosplay forum - like accessibility.

Pinoycosplay forums do not require member registreation to enter, in contrast to Filcosplay forums which require this. Mike Abundo claims that this enables more user traffic to his pinoycosplay.com site as this registers higher on Google searches and has more memory recall than a long series of link names like filcosplay's "WWW.S7.INVISIONFREE.COM/FILCOSPLAY" link.

Also, as filcosplay uses the "WWW.FILCOSPLAY.TK" link as an alternative to its original "WWW.S7.INVISIONFREE.COM/FILCOSPLAY" link, Mike Abundo claims that some people would have difficulty going to filcosplay, as the filcosplay.tk link suffers from regular downtime, unlike his pinoycosplay.com site, which is a more direct connection to his own forums.

The filcosplay forum moderators have generally ignored Mike Abundo's actions, reprimanding him only when his actions were excessive, but allowed him to remain a member of the filcosplay forums.

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Early this january 2006, the Filcosplay forum moderators have found out that Mike Abundo has bought the domain name of "WWW.FILCOSPLAY.COM" and uses this as a link to his own pinoycosplay.com forums.


When first approached about the issue with filcosplay.com, he claimed that he allegedly purchased it with the intent of giving it to Filcosplay.tk, but that for them to be able to receive it, they would have to not only publicly announce the contribution, but also put an indelible link proclaiming his contribution and have it stickied in a very prominent place in the boards.

He has also made frequent references to the fact that Filcosplay.tk needed a change in leadership.

As of this writing, many filcosplay members have aired their concerns over Mike Abundo's actions.
Meanwhile, the Filcosplay forum moderators are making plans with how to act against Mike Abundo's virtual act of cyber terrorism.

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Other anime/manga/cosplay/fandom related groups should be warned against making future connections or working with Mike Abundo. Take utmost care against this person and his underhanded dealings.




pertinent links to this report:

http://s7.invisionfree.com/filcosplay or
http://www.filcosplay.tk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinoy_cosplay/

http://www.mikeabundo.blogspot.com
http://www.filcosplay.com
http://www.pinoycosplay.com



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[info]_ligaya_
2006-01-07 11:04 am UTC (link)
Dude! Sorry po and I couldn't resist posting this (and adding some stuff... don't worry you can see what I've added to this in my Livejournal) all over my groups. I just HAD to spread the news. Ok lang ba?

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[info]kitsune_jade
2006-01-07 11:50 am UTC (link)
This is so worthy of fandom_wank I swear. XD

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[info]cugami
2006-01-07 11:59 am UTC (link)
exactly what I told Scythe XD lol

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[info]keiohwai
2006-01-07 10:04 pm UTC (link)
what does fandom wank mean?

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[info]this_quiet
2006-01-08 07:20 am UTC (link)
This is fandom wank.

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[info]kitsune_jade
2006-01-08 09:56 am UTC (link)
Or this one from wikipedia.

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[info]keiohwai
2006-01-09 05:48 am UTC (link)
what is fandom wank? ... in your own words, for simple headed poli...please.

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[info]dreamlessness
2006-01-09 08:19 am UTC (link)
the way i understand it, it's a community for making fun of people who've made fools of themselves in fandom.

i seem to remember someone spoke of it as a community for "pointing and laughing"?

one of its purposes is to serve as a reminder not to take fandom too seriously, i think.

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[info]kitsune_jade
2006-01-09 01:24 pm UTC (link)
What Bhex said. And well it's a place in which one can laugh at one's own stupidity. In which case, it's also a place wherein one is reminded to get over it. It is but just a fandom thing. There are more important things to do in life than whine over trivial matters of fannishness like why Relena's limo should not be pink, etc. :P

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Dude....
[info]jabberwockyness
2006-02-16 08:32 am UTC (link)
You're a twit. :/

People would rather be concerned about the injustice of an iranian girl who is being sentenced to death by hanging, just because she defended herself from six rapists.

Or any other subject with more importance than this cosplay thing.

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Re: Dude....
[info]keiohwai
2006-02-17 03:04 pm UTC (link)
your concern might be true, citizen!

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[info]bathala
2006-01-08 09:44 pm UTC (link)
*snickers* filcosplay ml? huh? sino ba may-ari nun? hahahaha *ang bad* care ng pipol noh. XD XD XD

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[info]keiohwai
2006-01-09 05:03 am UTC (link)
i dont get it ....

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[info]kitsune_jade
2006-01-09 01:26 pm UTC (link)
*snickers* Ikaw talaga. Di ko malilimutan kung sino may-ari nun ano. LOL.

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[info]keiohwai
2006-01-10 05:55 am UTC (link)
sino nga ba?

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[info]dreamlessness
2006-01-07 11:39 pm UTC (link)
knew this guy back in UP. didn't think he could do worse than spread false information about anime events.

now he's up against an entire cosplay organization? does his anime ambition know no bounds?

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[info]kitsune_jade
2006-01-08 09:58 am UTC (link)
Wait, wait he was from UP? Really? I don't recall seeing him in any anime related event there in UP though.

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[info]dreamlessness
2006-01-08 05:54 pm UTC (link)
we were classmates. even then i knew he was an anime fan, gundam especially. i don't think he attended a lot of UP events, but maybe he wasn't into cosplay etc. back then.

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[info]uesugi_rin
2006-01-08 08:11 pm UTC (link)
Someone told me he didn't even graduate. That true?

And thanks poli, added your warning to my lj entry.

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[info]dreamlessness
2006-01-08 08:54 pm UTC (link)
ohh, that i don't know, sorry. we didn't keep in touch after college. i just heard of him here and there.

he's made quite a name for himself.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]noelledeg
2006-01-31 02:44 am UTC (link)
Since you're apparently the source of this text (which has been posted on countless journals and mailing lists), I thought you'd be interested in my position about the use of my name in it. Please check my livejournal. Thanks.

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