I just wanted to add publicly that I will be the first to defend you Dave if you can provide evidence that what all these other websites are saying is wrong. I'm not much for ganging up on the little guy so I will help you defend yourself in any way I can if these allegations are not true. That seems fair to me.
I was always curious why Dave never contacted me if he believes his reputation is being wrongfully impugned. Just for the record... I used the word "other" when I started this thread. I think theres a bit of a difference there from the word "fake".
I originally started this thread, because his using the name felt a little bit plagiaristic to me. Still... when no one seemed to have a problem with it, I joined his facebook group, and his forum. He said he wanted to promote diving in the Philippines. I love diving in the Philippines, so this was something that we seemed to share.
He was quite happy with the material that I contributed to his website. He liked one of my trip reports that I had previously posted here on SB so much that he started a new thread with a link to that trip report. He called the thread "Trip Reports of Distinction" or something like that. I also posted original material and photos not previously posted elsewhere on diving here in Japan.
Only
after I ran across a discussion about him on another forum that I post on did I resign from his group. That board had the link to the discussion on wetpixel. I initally posted that link on facebook, but then deleted it, because I didn't see any reason to inflame the situation there. Many people on facebook are members of both groups. It wasn't about them, it was about his reputation. I saw no reason to put them in the middle. All I said on the post with that link was I had resigned from his group, but everyone else could read the material and make up their own mind.
Posting here on scubaboard is a different thing entirely. We're not dealing with people who are going to be placed in the middle of a controversy. This has just been about letting people know that there are things to look at before they make a decision. What they decide is up to them.
It seems that now people know about this other information that is on the web they do care that he uses the name. It's still up to them what they choose to do about it.
A web search, which maybe I should have done prior to joining his group revealed a lot of negative things about Dave and iDiveChick. I tend to believe that where there is smoke, there is fire. Dave without a doubt has a very bad reputation in some circles. This is simple fact. No one need take my word for it. Just google "iDiveChick" and see what comes back. Dave should do this and see what he gets. Maybe that would help him understand why people here aren't to happy. And that is "people" in the plural form. There are plenty of people including filipinos who are not happy with Dave's use of the name now. It seems that it wasn't much of an issue before word of Dave's reputation on the web became known.
If Dave would like to provide evidence to counter these allegations, I'd be happy to hear it. He could start by showing that "iDiveChick" is a real person. This shouldn't be very hard to do. Innocent people are usually happy to present evidence to prove they're innocent. Considering his reputation and the potential impact on his business, I would think that he would want to defend himself.
If Dave can show credible evidence that he is innocent, not only will I publicly apologize to him, but I will do everything that I can to help him clear his name, including posting about it on all the boards that I'm a member of.
If Dave has something to say I want to hear it. If he doesn't want to post here he can pm me. Or he can email me. He has my email since I was a member of his board before. Easy to do.... Dave if you're as innocent as you claim, then I want to hear from you. If you don't want a private discussion you can make it a public one if you like... your choice.