CrazyJoe's Asylum

January 07, 2005

The Birth of GamersCharity.com

NOTICE

Do not be alarmed. I control the Horizontal, and the Vertical. I can deluge you with lots of fancy words and big honking paragraphs. I can show you one single hyperlink, or tons of spam. I am taking you to....a cheesy knock off of the Outer Limits introduction.

Anyway.

Due to legal issues, the Ultima Online Red Cross Donations are no longer hosted on this website - CrazyJoe.US.

Please go to it's new home, at Http://www.gamerscharity.com

It is still me folks, It's just Legal Issues now. Read all about it there.

That is all.

Keep watching the skies!

Posted by CrazyJoe at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2005

Ultima Online : Red Cross Donation Houses Update!

Feel Free to Use this Image!

Donate Directly!

A few days ago I established two Red Cross Donation Houses on two Ultima Online servers to raise virtual gold to sell on Ebay, and donate all proceeds to Red Cross. It's just a few days later and I am overwhelmed with the support I have received. I now have donation houses and vendors at 19 locations spread across 16 servers.

Who are you CrazyJoe ?	How can I donate?
Why were all your Ebay Auctions Pulled ?! Which are Yours now?
Where do I donate in game ?	What's the status?

First question to answer - "Who am I?". Better yet, "How do we know this isn't a scam?"
My real name is Joe, but people call me Crazy Joe - and have done so since I was a teenager. I am 30 years old, have two kids, 3 dogs, one wife, and proudly going bald. I am well known at Stratics , where I have been a Forum Administrator for over Four Years. It is thanks to the volunteer work I do at Stratics that my name is pretty well known in the Ultima Online Community. I honestly have Stratics to thank for the name recognition on the internet. I have personally played Ultima Online for a little over four years.

All my auctions are with my paypal verified account. That means anyone that buys from me finds out alot about me, so if this was a scam you can come get me. I love volunteering at Stratics, they will not doubt hang me if I was scamming. Electronic Arts/Origin Systems Inc. are very much aware of what I am doing, I personally spoke to Anthony "Sunsword" Castoro about it. I am positive if they caught wind this is a scam, all my accounts would be closed. Actually, I hereby give persmission to Sunsword to close my accounts for investigation if enough fishy evidence comes up. I understand everyone's fears and do my best to squash them.

Third, I am not some bastard that will exploit the Tsunami Disaster. I don't eat puppies nor run over baby ducks, take my word for it.

Forth, I put my money where my faith is. I have already donated $3,000, while sitting on a virtual nest egg of $1,500. Here is a scan of my printed receipt from Red Cross Website. In a month I can post the credit card bill. Click on the image to enlarge it if you like. If these auctions net more than $3,000 then I will make another donation. If we don't make $3,000 - the remainder is my personal donation.

What more can I say to gain your trust ? :)

Anyone that wishes to contact me, my Email is CrazyJoe@CrazyJoe.us. My ICQ is 442571. AIM CarnivorousJoe

How can you donate?
Well, this donation drive is in Ultima Online. You need to be a player of Ultima Online, otherwise you can donate by going to Red Cross Website. I have vendors on all Non-Asian servers of Ultima Online, you simply buy the 'junk' I am selling at crazy-high prices. You aren't 'buying' junk, you are making a donation. In some cases people have donated items to me that have actual value, and they will be on the vendors. Many houses also have piles of gold locked down - you simply need to drop your gold on the pile. Each pile can only hold 60,000 gold. If you just really want to trust me with your money, click the "Donate" Paypal button at the top.

You can also be totally sure to donate to me and not an imposter by contacting me. Email is CrazyJoe@CrazyJoe.us. My ICQ is 442571. AIM CarnivorousJoe. MSN CrazyJoe@Crazyjoe.us.

Next, to REALLY Donate you need to buy my auctions for the virtual gold and goods at Ebay --check my auctions!

What's the Status?

I have two threads that I post all updates to : UO Stratics UO Hall and at my personal website. You must register an account to post on either one.

I update my spreadsheet every time I add something to Ebay or when I get time to update the end of auctions, see it here.

Something that has caught me offguard is Press Coverage! RPGamer , TheComicFanatic, and MMORPG.Com . I was also seen on MSNBC TV-Channel. (Wow!)

Why were all your Ebay Auctions Pulled?

First off - let me be VERY CLEAR : I agree with Ebay, my auctions had to be pulled. Now the Explaination.

However, your listing(s) was in violation of eBay's listing policies. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know what part of your listing(s) is not allowed.

eBay encourages community members to be active in supporting charitable endeavors. Because charitable fundraising is a highly regulated area subject to numerous state and federal laws, eBay has partnered with MissionFish to make charitable listing easy and has created very specific guidelines for when charitable solicitations will be allowed on eBay.

Non-MissionFish listings

1. Sellers may only list items on behalf of a charity if the charity has provided advance written consent for the solicitation. To prove that you have obtained that consent, you must include a scanned copy of the consent in the listing.
2. Sellers may only solicit on behalf of recognized 501c3 or 501c4 charitable organizations.

MissionFish listings

1. Sellers may only list items via MissionFish on eBay that meet the MissionFish listing guidelines, including the guidelines designed to obtain advance consent from the charities.
2. Sellers may only solicit on behalf of recognized 501c3 or 501c4 charitable organizations.

That is NOT all :

Additionally, our Links and Credits guidelines state the following:

"eBay allows sellers to place the following types of links in your item's description:

- One link to a page that further describes the item being sold in that listing.
- One link to your email address that opens an email client for potential bidders to ask questions about the item in that listing
- Links to photos of the item for sale.
- Links to your eBay or Half.com listings.
- One link to your About Me page (in addition to the About Me icon already provided by eBay).
- Links that provide credits to third parties.
If you have a logo for any of these links, it may be no greater than 88x33 pixels. (Exception - links to your eBay or Half.com listings).

Translation : There are real scum of the earth out there that will lie and say their auctions are for Charity and they are not - we make sure they don't do that by having you verify this with the charity you donate to OR by letting US donate for you. Also, you can not mislead the buyer by linking off-site to the same information that we forbide on E-bay.

They have a very solid point. So, I am totally redoing my auction description to omit any reference to Red Cross or any Charity and I can NOT link to my homepage.

The FOLLOWING is the template of MY Auctions that are by "J-HARDEN"

Auction Titles : ## Gold on [SERVER] UO by Crazy Joe

Auction Subject :

I am Crazy Joe, Forum Administrator for Ultima Online Stratics and Stratics Administrative Coordinator.

I represent the many players of Ultima Online that were emotionally torn reading the news about the Tsunami that killed over 100,000 people as of December 31, 2004.

This auction is for "XXXX on [SERVER] shard".

For Verification if "J-Harden" is "Crazy Joe" and questions about this auction you may email me at CrazyJoe@CrazyJoe.us

Winner of Auction will receive a Password through the Email I am sent from Paypal when you make your payment. I MUST hear this password in-game to deliver your virtual goods. Please verify your email for Ebay and Paypal are valid otherwise you will not be able to claim the item.

Auctions have resumed. As always, follow this link to see MY auctions.

Where do we donate ?

To any that Play Ultima Online, these are the Legitimate Vendors run personally by me as listed below. You can buy the "Junk" they sell at various prices, or simply add gold to the piles locked down in the house. I also put 1 gold coin that cost 1,000 if there are no gold coins on the floor for those making new characters to donate!