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Rant: Certguard in Computerworld – Go and Register Your Disgust

5th September 2008 By 8 Comments

Certguard have been mentioned in a Computerworld article about exam cheats. Please go and leave a comment to show how disgusting that Certguard, who falsely accuse people of cheating, have been used for comment.

This post is copyright of Thropos Ltd ©2008-2011 at Etherealmind.com - contact | email: greg.ferro@packetpushers.net - twitter: @etherealmind | All rights reserved
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About Greg Ferro

Greg Ferro is a Network Engineer/Architect, mostly focussed on Data Centre, Security Infrastructure, and recently Virtualization. He has over 20 years in IT, in wide range of employers working as a freelance consultant including Finance, Service Providers and Online Companies. He is CCIE#6920 and has a few ideas about the world, but not enough to really count.

He is a host on the Packet Pushers Podcast, blogger at EtherealMind.com and on Twitter @etherealmind and Google Plus

  • http://www.certguard.com Taylor Ripley

    You’re doing more harm than good, Greg, and not for us. You should rethink your slander.

  • joe

    what a bunch of morons, calling out random people to make an example of when they have no factual basis to support their claims…. Slander? I think not.

  • http://www.cciepursuit.com cciepursuit

    @Taylor

    So CertGuard did NOT falsely accuse Ethan Banks of cheating? That whole NetworkWorld retraction and apology was just a dream?

    Also, the word you’re searching for is “libel”, not “slander”. Either way you’re absolutely out of your mind if you think that this constitutes libel.

    I won’t even touch the irony of you accusing someone of doing “more harm than good”.

  • http://www.certguard.com Robert Williams

    Excuse me Joe, but YOU and the rest of the bloodhound gang here need to get YOUR facts straight. It was ONE moron (me), the facts were all there, and they were confirmed with a phonecall to the individual. So all this BS that Greg Ferro is feeding you is exactly that…BS.

    Greg, what you’re doing here, as Taylor has said, is doing others more harm than it is us, but it’s up to you to do whatever you feel is best.

    Have a great day, and good luck on your certs!

  • http://www.certguard.com Robert Williams

    @cciepursuit

    I’m not going to debate semantics with you. But I do feel like ‘drumming up business’ so, here it is. The simple fact is that I didn’t *falsely* accuse anyone. If you don’t believe me, (which I know you don’t), contact the person we’re talking about and ask him. Now, if you’ll go back to that blog post (I do believe it is still on your site), you’ll see his statement. Trying to BS me or anyone else about it by saying isn’t him is false on your part, because I have talked to him personally and I know for a FACT that it was him that posted it. So yes, Greg’s comments are libelous, mine were not.

    I understand he made a mistake, people do that. But it was mistake he made by publicizing the fact that he reviewed TK, not me. My only mistake was giving in and apologizing when I did absolutely no wrong to begin with. Believe me when I tell you that will never happen again.

    We all agreed at the time of the phone call that this was over. So, anything else posted about this topic is doing nothing but damaging his name and drumming up more business for CertGuard. That’s on YOU, not me. From what I understand, he’s also asked every one of you to stop, this just proves that you can’t even honor the wishes of one of your supposed ‘best friends’.

    Oh, BTW, this may or may not be Robert Williams.

    Have a great day and good luck on your certs!

  • http://www.cciepursuit.com cciepursuit

    @ Robert Williams

    1) Where is the libel in this statement?

    “Certguard have been mentioned in a Computerworld article about exam cheats. Please go and leave a comment to show how disgusting that Certguard, who falsely accuse people of cheating, have been used for comment.”

    2) I’ve never questioned whether it was Ethan who left the comment (not a blog post) on my blog. I know who left the comment. I think that it was Darby Weaver who brought up the whole “was it really Ethan who left the comment?” issue – which was silly since Ethan verified that he made the comment. Your sarcasm (such that it is) is misplaced. Your ability to maintain facts is as sharp as ever though.

    3) I did communicate with Ethan and he certainly never gave me any impression other than that you falsely accused him of cheating and advocating the use of braindumps. Are you now saying that Ethan agrees with your accusations? If so, then I will advocate on your behalf with twice as much fervor as I ever did for Ethan.

    4) “My only mistake was giving in and apologizing when I did absolutely no wrong to begin with. Believe me when I tell you that will never happen again.” Priceless. I never put much stock in your apology because it only came after the backlash by the CCIE community, BUT I still thought that it was a classy – and probably very difficult – move on your part. It looks like I was wrong. Congratulations on your commitment to never again apologize regardless of the facts. You walk in that rarefied air reserved only for the greatest of douchenuggets*. I salute you.

    If you seriously want to publicly recant your apology, then post it on NetworkWorld.

    5) “We all agreed at the time of the phone call that this was over. So, anything else posted about this topic is doing nothing but damaging his name and drumming up more business for CertGuard. Thatís on YOU, not me. From what I understand, heís also asked every one of you to stop, this just proves that you canít even honor the wishes of one of your supposed ëbest friendsí.”

    Are you a 12-year old girl? “Supposed best friend”? Really? By pointing out your unethical behavior I’m really just stabbing my BFF in the back? Oh, well I will definitely stop then.

    Do you honestly think that it’s Ethan’s name that’s being damaged by pointing out how unethical (and obviously unrepentant) you (and by extension, CertGuard) are? Drumming up business for Certguard? I’m highly doubtful that any companies that have reviewed your behavior are whipping out their checkbooks.

    Your best course of action would have been to put this behind you and move on. At the end of the day I don’t think that there are many folks who don’t support what your company strives to accomplish. You’ll have to accept that there are going to be folks who were so turned off by your actions that it will be very difficult for them to ever take you seriously. Accusing someone of cheating, then apologizing for that accusation, THEN recanting your apology doesn’t seem like a particularly good business plan. But you’re the CEO and I’m just a blogger, so what do I know? :-)

    I wish you good luck with your company with exactly as much sincerity as you wish me luck with my certifications.

    * The term “douchenugget” is copyrighted by Greg Ferro, CEO of Etherealmind Industries. Any use of this term without his express written consent is prohibited as that would make you….well, a douchenugget.

  • http://www.certguard.com Robert Williams

    @cciepursuit

    1) You answered your own question. His statement clearly said “who **falsely** accuse people of cheating”. As i stated before, I never *falsely* accused anyone of doing anything they didn’t do, which makes that statement false, and therefore libelous.

    2) You’re correct, it was Darby; but other’s have also taken on that same position. If you didn’t, then I apologize for presuming so and also apologize for my misplaced sarcasm. ;)

    3) Ethan made statements which I and many others saw as advocating the use of TK. What I didn’t understand at the time is how anyone with that amount of “time in rate” would not know that TK is considered illegal. Even before I started CertGuard that information was plastered all over the internet. That’s where my accusation of cheating came in. Although my wording could have been improved, I knew from reading his comments and his blog that he was above that. It was the fact that he mentioned referencing them, and the other comments on the blog which got my attention.

    4) My apology was sincere, and very difficult. It actually took me 3 days to write that. I didn’t even spend 3 days writing my marriage vows. If that isn’t sincerity, I don’t know what is.

    I will never have any problems apologizing when I’m in the wrong. At the time of the apology I did feel like I was in the wrong; largely due to the CCIE community pointing that out to me. But once it all “blew over” and I had a chance to sit back and actually review the facts without the CCIE communities biased opinions, I saw that I could have done a few things better, but I certainly didn’t do anything illegal or immoral.

    5) a. How was my behavior unethical? A CCIE stated he used TK in the course of taking an exam and I’M being unethical? Had it been some CCIE from China, would this have all played out the same way?

    b. Not you, Greg. Everytime Greg picks up the cane and beats the dead horse, it brings Ethan’s name right to the top of our search results again. Believe it or not, there may be 200+ of you that are against me and what I have created, but for every one of you that feel I was in the wrong, there are 100+ others that feel I was right and justified in doing so (including many ‘elites’). So yes, everytime he raises his cane, it hurts Ethan. And yes, our stats have tripled since that day. So thanks Greg!

    You’re probably right, I’m sure it would have been; unfortunately for me, that’s not in my nature. As you can see, I’m not much of a business man, I’m simply a douchenugget with a dream.

    Best Regards (seriously),

    Robert Williams

  • Anon

    I found myself chuckling as I read the comments. Wasn’t this over months ago? CertGuard vilified Ethan. The company apologized, after pressure was put on them by many networking professionals. In the apology, CertGuard never changed their position about his comments that sparked this; they just apologized for picking on him specifically. Some of your are upset that CertGuard, even after the apology, still holds the line that he cheated. Did you expect anything else? A public admission that what they said was factually incorrect would be like begging for a law suit. My guess is that legal counsel reviewed that letter carefully.

    Let’s be realistic about this. If you mention TK ignorantly or otherwise, CertGuard will always hold the position that you’re a cheater, despite hundreds of other posts you might write documenting how hard you study. That’s their business. Everything CertGuard said about Ethan was built on a comment he made about TK, and in their mind, the logic is valid (and some agree with them). You’re not going to be able to convince the company otherwise. In the minds of many others who read what they had to say, the logic was *not* valid (and thus the hellstorm was unleashed).

    CertGuard is trying to get a business off the ground. You can’t expect CertGuard to change their stance about what they think a mention of TestKing actually indicates, as it wouldn’t logically follow for their business model. In the same sense, you don’t expect Microsoft to stop strong-arming PC manufacturers into contracts designed to sell more copies of Windows. The tactics employed might be repellent, but a company’s got to do what they got to do. This isn’t about what really happened or a fair and balanced view of the facts. It’s about perceptions. Can CertGuard build a business on the perceptions they create about themselves and others? So far, so good.