OK, frankly, would we BE buffistas if we weren't cynical and skeptical and the-opposite-of-internet-newbies? I know if someone came on and told y'all I was dead, I'd hope for some cynicism.

What Nicole said, Trudes.

I have huge love for Gus, and would like to wake him and donate in his memory. Finding out later that it was all a sham would piss me off and make me feel as though I'd been made a fool of, even if the charity was a worthy cause.

My newfound doubts about all this does not change my love for him. If he turns out to have been real, and really dead, then I'm all for this.

If it's a sham, well.... I'd rather not think about that just yet, but I want to know if it's a sham, and we've been played for heels.

I didn't even know the stuff Cindy posted about the book. His scanner didn't work and he couldn't share the art? Uh...I get my book cover art via email as a jpeg. His book won't come out now? Man. That's such the classic pseud dynamic.

"I did this great thing! Praise me!"

"Oh I wish I could show you the cover art."

"Huh, now I'm having a fight with the publisher and it won't come out. Oh well, I got to keep the money."

I can contribute several more things to the "this sounds fishy" theory, if people want.

Please share. Patterns count.

Has anybody had contact with Gus except by email?

That's what I want to hear. Not that phone necessarily proves anything, but Not!Phone is kind of indicative.

I know that nobody has met him.

I didn't mean it to be unfair. We're all adults here. We all know how the world and the internet work. We can make our decisions and act on them. Sometimes we can chip in and sometimes we can't for whatever reason.

I think we should err on the side of caution toward not hurting vulnerable people. I think we can act with discretion to that end. I can't believe we can't wait more than a day before we start picking stories apart. I know people have been burned internet-wise plenty, but I think the potential harm to their feelings is far less grave than the potential harm to his family's.

Gus certainly existed. Brenda's company worked with him.

I'm not having this conversation anymore. Well, I'm going to try.

What Nicole said.

I for one would like to know what is or isn't true about Gus, and I would like the discussion to be held here, rather than backchannel, since I think it impacts the whole board. Maybe having that info public would help people in drawing their own conclusions.

Ugh, I feel shitty even now thinking about any kind of doubt, because I liked the man.

But I've now read waaaay too many Internet kerfuffles about fake people and fake deaths, and I have great concern about this causing strife between any of us, most of whom involved in this discussion I know personally as being real, and good people.

I'm with Sean, especially because in recent months, I discovered pretty hard proof that someone in another online community of mine was lying about a great many things, including horrible accidents and diseases and deaths.

And I didn't want to say anything because I assumed people here knew more about Gus than I did and that people knew kimi, that she had not just appeared. The lack of Google-ability is troubling. Regardless of what turns up, Gus's posts and the work he did for this board were important to many of us. But some sort of...proof-type things would make me feel better.

I can contribute several more things to the "this sounds fishy" theory, if people want.

Please.

Trudy, I appreciate that you have strong feelings about it, and concerns about the feelings of others, but there is more than one way to look at this, and this...

I know people have been burned internet-wise plenty, but I think the potential harm to their feelings is far less grave than the potential harm to his family's.

....doesn't mean the rest of us think that, nor does it automatically make us bad people for not thinking exactly the same way you do.

Edited to be less inflamatory.

I'm glad other people have brought up their concerns, because I was skeptical from the moment I saw that post, and I thought I was being so cynical that I was going to hell.

Then I Googled, pretty much the same searches Steph did, and I was even more skeptical, but I didn't want to say anything. I didn't really have a relationship with Gus, and I wasn't sure if anyone had ever met him or not, and I didn't really want to bring up those questions while people were grieving, but I'm glad someone did.

Please share. Patterns count.

OK:

Gus was on the Midwest Buffista mailing list. He expressed an interest in attending our mini-f2f in June '04. But then his spam filter blocked the mailing list emails, so he found out about it too late. OK, that one's actually really plausible.

Gus invited area Buffistas to a party. I posted that I wanted to go, but Gus didn't see my post as he had logged off just before, so I never got the address from him. OK, that's pretty plausible too.

Gus invited area Buffistas to "Weremonkeyfest" in summer of '05. But he was in Switzerland prior to this and forgot all about it.

When Gus was in Switzerland, I asked for his address so I could mail him a book. He gave me his Wisconsin address, telling me that someone regularly forwarded his mail to his place in Switzerland.

OK, those are all pretty innocuous. On to the car stuff (which makes me look like an idiot, I'm afraid).

Gus offered to give me his '88 or so Mercedes 300E. He said he couldn't drive anymore and that it wasn't running, but I could have it if I was willing to try to have it fixed. I agreed. (I'm guessing that it would have cost $500-$1000 to fix, and if it was fixed it might be worth $4000.) What followed was a long, drawn out affair of Gus trying to get pictures of the car for me, trying to work out how he'd get the car to me, etc. Much of the delay was my fault, as I was dragging my feet on it due to depression, etc. But there were delays and delays because he couldn't get a picture (he eventually sent me one) and he couldn't get a hold of his mechanic who was going to do the shipping (his mechanic was a drinker and was unreliable) and then he was in the hospital several times when he had scheduled the mechanic to pick up the car. (The price his mechanic quoted him for shipping the car to Chicago was $200, which is very very cheap for the distance and for a non-running car.) Finally, he told me that his mechanic would pick the car up and that I should call the mechanic directly. The # that he gave me for the mechanic is the same as the WHOIS # for his site. And like I said, the # led to a difficult to understand voicemail, and none of my calls were returned.