The Old MagicVideoDepot (MVD) Exposed
 

This thread is specifically about when someone named Andrew was in charge of Magic Video Depot. Andew is no longer the SiteAdmin of the board so things may very well have changed.

MagicVideoDepot.com once happened to be the second most popular magic board on the internet, after The Magic Café. It is where I started and where most of the hate towards me and my magic originally comes from. My very first hater on there (which also makes him my very first hater ever) happens to be.. wait for it.. our beloved JK, indeed. But no worries, he definitely wasn't the only one. Almost all higher ranked MVD magicians and the whole staff apart from one single guy hated on me. Most of them still do.

I make this thread cause I'm tired of seeing MVD popping up in threads about me all over the internet to function as some sort of evidence that I was a fake and fraud and have always been. Fact is that the majority of the staff manipulated a whole lot around me. Good thing that most of the regular members actually liked me being on board and saw what was going on, which resulted in a whole lot of people leaving the forums. More about this later in this post.

Signing up
Let's start at the very beginning. I did just start doing magic, googled for some magic video community to post my beginner videos on to see if these were any good, and found the MVD forums. I signed up and became a very active member on there.

A gap between lower and higher ranked members
This is where the first trouble started. I noticed how the forums had member ranks such as Magician, Conjuror, Sorcerer and Wizard, and staff members had titles such as Illusionist, Marvel and Mage. There was kind of a big gap between the lower and higher ranked members, the latter one also involving the staff.

As I looked up to some of the Wizards, I felt the need to submit posts just like theirs. Unfortunately, they didn't appreciate that because I was still a beginner. Who was I to leave big, constructive posts being a beginner? Though other members were thankful, these top members couldn't care less and got upset.

My performance videos
To unintentionally boost the hate, I started posting videos such as the 'Real Invisible Palm', 'Spray Through', all the other old videos that could still be found on my channel, and many other videos which aren't there anymore including street performances which only my first 300-400 YouTube subscribers and the people who know me from MVD may remember.

The higher ranked MVD members now started to question everything, if they had to deal with a more advanced magician instead of a beginner or if I was just very talented, or maybe that what I did wasn't quite as good as it looked like at first sight. I guess they couldn't figure me out (not that there was anything to figure out) and so they left me comments absolutely no one agreed with, like hateful ones and very weird, nonconstructive criticism. I think I lacked the 'know-all factor' because I think the only way that those top members would've respected me would be if I would've behaved like them.

Every now and then, some of the top and staff members would gather, hate on me altogether and manipulate comments and posts to make me look like the worst person in the world. Meanwhile, I did webcam sessions with regulars who would back me up anytime, also because I helped a lot of them with their magic. Whenever someone would post that I couldn't perform a trick the way I said I could, I performed it that way on MSN or Skype, often including exposure and extreme slow motion performances, getting a good amount of backup.

My experimental videos
Being a beginner, I was quite experimental too. Apart from pure performance videos, I also made project videos in which I performed tricks that were yet to be invented, using classic props and such to actually visualize my goals.

For example I made a video of the 'Force Impossible' when that effect didn't exist yet in which I used a stooge, being surrounded by about 15 people and fooling every single one of them big time. I wouldn't use a stooge if it wasn't to fool a whole lot of people with it live. In the video description I wrote that this was what I wanted the effect to look like rather than it being the actual trick. I then invented the methods for it to achieve a similar looking thing that would work on every single spectator, the methods I sold and still use today.

I also did tricks that would only work on camera (and whenever I did, I said it was too), but no video trickery during the tricks or anything I myself would consider to be cheating (I would only fade myself in and out of the frame with the basic Windows Movie Maker transition in the beginning and ending of my videos). But one of the higher leveled forumers thought it was necessary to download the 'Force Impossible' project video and to upload his edit of it to YouTube saying that I used a stooge and so was a fake, totally taking it out of its original context.

A respected forumer visiting me
As a result of my final 'Force Impossible' videos, a well respected forumer and hater of mine decided to hook up with me. Although living in a neighboring country, he apparently worked in the city next door and asked if he could come visit me and write a thread on me afterwards, telling everyone about the experience and me being fake or not.

Of course, I didn't have any problem with him visiting me (I love getting to meet people I know from the internet). He had looked up my address on the internet, came by, and I fooled him non-stop with his own deck of cards, both inside and outside as he thought there may have been some cameras involved. He got baffled, thanked me a bunch of times and left, but writing a thread on me? Never happened. And when I submitted a post asking why he didn't write the thread yet.. this got removed. The guy in question never hated on me ever again though, so I didn't care about it all that much.

Contest win
In April 2007, I won a contest hosted by The Magic Depot (Magic.org, not to be confused with Magic Video Depot. I'm sure that if the MVD staff would've hosted this contest.. I wouldn't have won at all). The Magic Depot sent MVD's main administrator my prize and a backup version of it for if anything would go wrong with my prize or to play with by himself after I would've received mine. I never received my prize from him though. He said that he mailed the first one, he said that he mailed the second one, but afterall The Magic Depot and I figured he never sent out any of them at all.

I complained and every single thread I made on this topic got removed by the staff in no time. The Magic Depot decided to mail me my prize themselves and I received it from them in only a few days, about 9 months after the actual contest win.

A hidden thread about me
The other day, there was a bug in the board which made the admin forums visible for everyone. In here there was a big thread in which all of the administrators flat out hated on me and made fun of me, in the same immature way all haters hate on me today. The one nice administrator tried to have them cool down but as he was a minority he didn't stand a chance.

At this time, my network on the website was kind of huge. I had over 100 forumers on MSN and regularly talked to many of them. Many had seen the thread themselves, and I linked it to the remaining ones too. 25-30 of them decided to leave the forums right away due to that thread, and so did I.

This is also one of the biggest reasons why the higher ranked MVD'ers and the staff hate on me today, because I had such a huge share in getting their website inactive. They don't want to realize it was their own stupid fault though.

Having my account closed
I sincerely asked the site admin to have my account closed or deleted. This took quite a while though, so I asked the only nice administrator to do it and he did it right away. I left the website for a week, almost two, and when I returned to check on my deleted account, it was back online with all of its related content. I once again asked for my account to be deleted and they did.

They never apologized for any of their actions too. It's fun that they would always tell people to check up with other staff members and higher levelled forumers because these apparently know that I'm a fake. I know better, and you do too now.

Good thing I never knew about MagicVideoDepot until the first time you told me about it. If it was back then in 2007-ish, I would've been a complete noob and not know who to believe :D But now I know! Magical gods always have haters because those haters are jealous human beings :awesome:

We always look for a figure above our own to look up to, and since those guys are technically the head of the forum, they'd want everything to be in their control( humans who have obtained a certain place always want to establish their position by all means possible), and thus they are repeating the reign of hierarchy all over again. We are the new system and we follow the will of the crowd for their good, not the higher-up's.

Phew, got that outta my system, simply put, i think they are being tyrants.

It's all because of rank and reputation. I mean, if Mark were a world-class champion magician, and he had entered, no one would say anything. But here it is, a brand new magician walking out of the blue, whose name appears nowhere on the internet. The so called upper class magicians need to keep their reputation, and since they cannot figure out your effects, of course they would call fake.

Hmm.. it's not that those effects were as mind-bloggling as the later ones I did. Well, most of them at least. C'mon, they even hated on my 'Real Invisible Palm' video... lol.

But hey, thanks to MVD (and all the other forums on the web that don't take care of this) we now have a great forum board where everyone is equal. ^_^

Got that right! But still, it's really interesting to see how far one goes just to try and justify the reality into being false. It really goes to show that sometimes, although effort = gets you where you want, effort + innate abilities = allows you to see hidden paths normally people don't see and gets you farther. That of course refers to Mark here.

So all in all, jealousy is a real big cause and those are ruled over it are just laughable. You can just see that by looking at JK and MVD people, etc.

By the way CopyCat, instead of "king-hood", maybe "hierarchy" is a better word then :)

Oh and Vocaloid ftw! :awesome:

The bastards. They should be ashamed of treating a MEMBER like that. Sick people....

Typical right?

@Albert: thanks, i edited my post. do you happens to know what vocaloids are?

@Littlelead: i believe that is so, cause i went around a Vietnamese magic forum and they said that all my posts were spams( actually only 3 of them are, i think that the rest were quite constructive), i may have been treated that way because my skills weren't that good( which i knew and was asking them if there was anyway i could improve, but all they said to me was that i shouldn't go around showing off with my level of skill... like i don't know already that)

Yup, I listen to the songs all the time! Especially Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka :D

lol, i think just quoting the bit would have been enough... i personally don't like Miku that much, i love the Kagamine twins and Luka more, if you wanna continue the talk, i think taking it to the front page chat would be more appropriate XD...

Care to name a few of these 'alter egos'?

I don't know the full story behind what you are saying, but seeing that Mark had given the winner (Cris) his prize, what you are saying has no merit.

So you are either saying:
1) This is ridiculous; or
2) This is bullshit
No offense, but so far, the 2 facts that I know for sure state otherwise and so it's extremely difficult for me to believe anything else you are saying.

Let's actually give a few facts, okay?

Actually, JK was the very first person to hate on me, which he did in the comment sections of my videos. He even apologized for this specifically in a phone call I have had with him. It's even the only thing he apologized for.

In fact, there were real live performance videos like 'Crazy Man's Handcuffs', an 'ACR', the 'Force Impossible' idea.

You are confused with the 'Casino Control'. The 'Force Impossible' release wasn't called fake on by anyone, ever. Your statement makes me believe that whatever you said in your post isn't based on what you witnessed yourself. Basically, everything you say can be found in and through posts by Mr. Musgrave on The Magic Café. I don't read anything original or anything actually checked (research rule #1: one source is no source). You should have known better, especially if you are who I think you are.

Absolutely false. The competition was, as I said earlier, hosted by The Magic Depot (by Aaron Smith with Magic.org to be exact). They sent the administrator of Magic Video Depot the prize to send to the winner, as well as a second copy to be sure the winner would receive one. The contest ran without me even realizing it (every video submitted that month automatically entered the contest, and those were quite a bunch). And I won.

The Admin then said he sent me my prize, didn't happen. He then was asked by Mr. Smith to send me the second copy, didn't happen. The way he said he sent the second copy was too ridiculous too. He first said he personally shipped it the same day, but the very next week he said that he had his girlfriend just bring it to the post office. I told and showed Mr. Smith everything, who then decided to send me the prize by himself (a third copy may I add, as the Admin made the original two disappear into thin air.. or into his own magic collection). I received it from him in no time. It wasn't a prize to die for, but I'm more about morals which someone was obviously lacking.

Actually, that winner got his money but has shown to be a liar who wanted more than just that money. Everyone who followed the situation could tell you that. He removed all the claims about not getting his money from his channel and videos too, which he wouldn't have if he wouldn't have gotten his money.

Also, I have had many more contests than just that one (although that one just happens to be by far the biggest one). In the 'Homebase Music Contest' I gave away microphones and stands worth over 650 euros in total (6 winners), in the 'Reveal Sandwitches' magic contest I gave away 100 bucks of cash, I sponsored some magic contests worth 200 bucks in total, and the winner of the 'YouTalent Contest' (the big one) ended up being paid too.. and yes, that was quite a lot of money. Indeed, everyone got their prizes. I have to add that most of the money came from sponsors, but it sure proves I'm a fake, doesn't it? (Yes, that last part is sarcastic.)

I've been a music producer far before I got into magic. And I take huge care of my artists (musicians and magicians). I'm willing to spend hundreds of bucks and hours on them, without there being quite as much in return.

The thread in question actually was started by someone who wanted to have me turned into a Wizard. That is when hell broke loose and a bunch of admins and moderators said I should be suspended instead. But in the end, even when I asked to be removed or suspended, they didn't do it for the fact a lot of the regulars liked me, I actually helped a whole lot of them with their magic, and not to forget the fact I won the contest and was mentioned in the Hall of Fame, which I really couldn't care less about.

Check your facts please. There is a reason so many people left when that thread about me got public. Fact is that I talked to almost a hundred members on MSN (including tens of inactive members at the time) and I shared the link with every single one of them. They saw it with their own eyes and plenty of the active ones made the decision of leaving independently.

Because my account wasn't actually deleted, and whenever it was disabled it would magically reappear a day later. For that, I had a couple of friends and an assistant of mine make accounts to communicate through, yes. These people actually used the accounts themselves too for what it was worth. It's not that it changes anything.

Did I mention that in the big anti-exposure petition that was started by MVD, some haters actually put my avatar and signature next to the most outrageous nicknames? My picture was in there more than anything, and only once with my own name. Real mature. And no wonder it didn't lead to anything.

Your words, the words of a true disbeliever who is just like any hater who doesn't want to be proven wrong. Everyone on here can beg to differ, and I would be a true wizard if each of them would be an alter ego of mine. Their own videos must involve some amazingly animated holograms then.

Also, I never said the problem is that "the great and good of magic" are insanely jealous of me. I don't even think so. I think the main problem is that these people were all taught by others, either in person or by magic products, thereby being limited to what they know and thus overlooking a whole lot of things and possibilities out there.

Thanks. :)

Hey Mark,

I am the NEW Owner of MVD and you can read more about how I came to be owner here: http://www.magicvideodepot.com/about-us/

I am very sorry to hear that this happened. There was a gap of many years after the initial owners of MVD that I worked with back in 2004-2007.... where many new owners behaved in ways that I do not agree with.

As you can imagine their behavior did not work for them as the site lost its hear and they all eventually gave up and sold to someone else.

I rebuilt the site completely brand new from the ground up and it is my hope the future of the site is completely shaped by what members want.

So the phrase "Under New Management" comes to mind, and hope that everyone can give MVD a chance to be the great site it was in the early 2000's where Members came first, and childish behaviors aren't allowed.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask me. I hope I can restore the reputation of MVD back to where it was before all of this happened.

Thanks again,
Marty

http://www.magicvideodepot.com

Dear Marty,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to sign up and leave this message. Much appreciated! It's rather unfortunate that I was on MVD at the time that you were inactive because at that time the site definitely was in need of an admin or owner like you, someone who truly cares and who can say sorry without even being guilty.

It's a pity that all the earlier forum data has disappeared though. I imagine a restart being a lot easier if you'd at least still have all the user data. However, I think it is of no doubt that the site will be running smooth as butter and will be doing fine under your wings.

Thanks again and I wish you the very best of luck with the new MVD.

With magical regards,

Mark

Mark,

I am happy to hear your response.

MVD is growing very quickly, we have already had to move to a new dedicated server! I am hoping the growth continues and it can be a place for Magicians to hang out and share their performances!

Hopefully everyone can stop by and join! It is free!

Marty