Time to Name Drop and Protect Newbies
The goal of the Wild Hunt is to hunt wrongdoers until they can run no longer.
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| The Wild Hunt by Johann Wilhem Cordes (1824-1869) image changed by request |
Jeff Mach, of Jeff Mach Events, is being called out.
He is associated with and/or runs the following events (SEE PAGE).
Background information and older comments (pre-2018):
- Anon medical team comment, 2015, 3 screencaps
- SPWF panel, How to Get Geeks Laid, 1 screencap
- Wicked Fair 2018 Volunteer Application, 3 screencaps
- Performer Contract from 2013
My posts and information:
- My personal tales and other information I am aware of can be found here
- My personal FB post, 1/23/2018, screencaps
Facebook comments, Jan 2018:
- Tom L, Facebook comments, Jan 2018 in which JM propositions him
- Assorted FB comments, Jan 2018.
- Interesting Selections of Jeff's own words and a post from Jan 2
Violations, Bad Business, and more:
- Consent Violations by JM:
- The East Coast Predator, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author
- Sexual Currency, (Anon story #3), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author. UPDATED with second posting, 1/26.
- Flash, (Anon #7), Jan 2018, via email from author.
- Under 18 Sexual Currency, Teen Black Widow, Jan 2018, from FB with permission of author
- Anon #9, or "If we don't push limits, how can we measure growth?", Jan 2018, via PM, posted with permission of author,
- Anon #9 part two
- Anon #10, TW: Underage, posted with permission of author, via PM, 1/26/18
- "Who is this guy?", posted with permission of author, via FB, 1/27/18
- Pressure and JM, posted with permission of author, Jan 28
- The Time I Was Approached by JM, copied with permission
- "I should have known," link to FL per request
- Seventeen (under 18, anon), via email Feb 18
- Bad business, general feelings and other problems:
- GKE take from IPCookieMonster, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Former vendor, (Anon story #4), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Anon #6, or "No, I won't tell you why I banned you" emails, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- P.E. via email, published with permission, 1/27/18
- Money owed and bad practices, Mayfaire Moon, Jan 2018, copied with Nikki's permission.
- David E. Christman (DJ Dave Ghoul), posted with permission
- Accusations against JME staff and attendees:
- The "Blast Radius" or "People other than JM" (more)
- Threat from staff, (Anon story #2), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Volunteers and how JM handles consent, (Anon story #5), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- GKE violation, "My Experience" note from Fet, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Bad business AND consent problems, (Anon #8), Jan 2018, PM with permission of author
- GKE Serenity Space, Broken Safe Space, Jan 2018, note from Fet with permission of OP
- "Early Days of WF," Anon, via FB, Feb 28
- The Great Con Scandal: /http://www.charmedfinishingschool.com/the-great-con-scandal-of-new-jersey/
UPDATE Jan 27, JM/JME responses.
38 comments:
- Unknown1/24/18, 7:14 PMHello, I would like to note that Crucible is run by me, Arthur, not Jeff Mach. While he helped scout out a hotel in 2003 (and one or two others over the years since), he has not been involved in running the convention since 2003. I'm not involved with your complaints and not judging, just correcting facts. Please see http://www.crucibleconvention.com for proof of what I say. Thank you.Reply
- Thank you for clarifying. I am glad to hear that Jeff is no longer connected to your convention, and hasn't been in many years.
I would also like to go on record that while SalonCon is defunct, Jeff never had anything to do with SalonCon. I was the con head for SalonCon.Reply
- Thank you!
- I miss SalonCon. Could we bring that back as an alternative to the May JME event? A lot of vendors and performers want to leave JME but are out deposits and inventory if they can't get another show. :(
- It's a possibility currently.
- Hi Brenna,Reply
I saw your post on Facebook (shared by another friend of mine) and came here to let you know that I've always had a bad vibe feeling around Jeff Mach since the first day I met him. I vended at his very first event (which seems like a billion years ago at this point) and I could tell back then that he couldn't give 2 shits about his vendors (my wares were not a good fit for that event and I made ZERO sales, and oh well, it's just "part of doing business" to not even make the table fee), and based on losing money at the first event and his less than truthfulness about that event in the first place caused me to avoid with prejudice anything he was associated with. Reading what happened to you really validated my feelings about him. I am sorry that you (and others) have had to go through all this crap. - #metoo on the terrible JM experience. 2002 - the first event: the Cult Movie Overnight. I was his assistant/submissive, and he offered my services (that whole "she will do anything you want to make you happy') to others like it was nothing - and without prior discussion. He pushes stated boundaries on purpose. Not edges, but hard limits. Malignant narcissist and possible sociopath who presents as a Protector and advertises safety to pull in the most vulnerable and earm their trust before seeing how far he can push it - just because he can.Reply
I severed ties years ago and do not often look back, but I had to add my story. This is not new. Rather, it has been happening for a long time, and these kinds of things continue until the floodgates open and all of the former targets and survivors come forward.
To all who have shared their experiences I believe you. 
I am so glad everyone is coming out with these stories. Now everyone with evidence, texr or emails or anything that shows any legitimate cases of anything please go to the police. If we do not he will continue to do these actions to others. He will still be out there free to do what he has done to everyone again. So please support each other and do not let anyone bully you or try to force you to not come forward. Be safe, be strong, and help each other.Reply
- I can, if folks would like to email me.
- FYI, just because some people can say - oh I've never had a problem he's a good guy - or whatever, does not discredit or invalidate the stories of everyone coming forward. I don't live anywhere near where this is happening, but you can be sure that folks in communities here in ABQ will be warned to avoid events involved with this person and people who defend him when they're travelling.
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- Reading your comments about the hotel situation and they just sound SO familiar. How hard is it to tell people the FULL terms of reserving a room at the event hotel?Reply
- There was always some issue in communication with the hotel and JME.
- I'm not sure where to put this...Reply
"If JM feels threatened by someone, or an ex-girlfriend hurts his feelings, or someone has dirt on him, there's suddenly a mysterious anonymous assault or threat complaint that forces that person to be banned."
I've witnessed this second-hand (i.e., I know someone this happened to).
Which means that JME has *actual predators* they don't remove from events, but they will remove people based on false allegations.
ALL OF THIS.- ALL OF THIS.
It was common, and guilt by association is why I stopped being a part of these events. The "guilty party" was only guilty of standing up to jm. So, he was suddenly accused of harassing a young girl (who never materialized, nor was he present when it supposedly happened, and the girl was supposed to have been only 15, at an 18+only event) Security team found him, and banned him from all future events. I defended him, knowing he was not present at the time of the alleged offense-and after that my vendor app for the following year was lost, then i was asked not to return at all. All because my friend stood up for himself to jm.
I'm glad people are now coming forward.
- The age of consent in NJ is 16, not 17 as your note reads.Reply
https://www.thedailyjournal.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/22/state-police-issue-reminder-age-consent-laws/98250434/
- Your information is only partially accurate. The age of consent is 16 years, but only when the sexual partner is within 4 years of the same age, or not in a position of authority. JM was several decades older, so she was legally underage.
Ethical BDSM practitioners also do not play with anyone under the age of 18, so she was underage in that context as well.
https://www.facebook.com/shapeshifters.binders/posts/801164906751331Reply
Please feel free to link our statement. Thank you for all your work.
-Shapeshifters
If there are vendors that are pulling out of this event that aren't being refunded, The Robin Hood's Faire in MA would like to help! If you can get juried in (and we'll be as loose as possible to try to get you in), we would like to offer you FREE vending space for our 3 weekend run in May (12-28). We feel terribly about this and want to help even in some small way. Please reach out to me personally (I am the GM) and I will get you the info you need (brian@ctfaire.com)Reply- Just a point of clarity; in NJ the age on consent is 16, not 17, so your message next to the child abuse hotline number is a bit inaccurate. It is raised to 18 under certain special circumstances, but none that would apply here. Here is a good explanation: https://www.ageofconsent.net/states/new-jerseyReply
By the same token, the girl you marked in bold as underage was, legally, actually not underage. 16 is young, but the word "underage" has legal meaning.
Have a great day!
- "The Age of consent is raised to 18 if the older partner is a parent, guardian, sibling, a relative closer than a 4th cousin, **or an individual with some authority over the younger party**"
- I've been sharing this page with my friends. I've been posting it in several threads on JM's FB page.Reply
I believe you - Since a friend shared this page with me, I've shared it with all my friends and posted it several times in threads on JM's Facebook.Reply
I believe you. - BahReply
I (in my secret identity as mild-mannered nerd Spencer Blum) was having a chat with Deborah Thompson on JM's FB page. She didn't believe any of the accusations, called the whole thing a witch hunt, called me sad and hate-filled, and then deleted all her posts.
When my response to her last post got "this content has been removed" I saved the page as html as soon as I could. Partly because I felt she might make later false claims about what was said, and partly because I really liked the way I stuck to polite debating tactics and still won. - (Part II)Reply
Another account mentioned blatant transphobia from a GKE staff member. I believe that staffer was gone by the time we started vending and I never witnessed any blatant transphobia from the staff members I interacted with. However, all of the GKE's we'd been to had put signs over the bathrooms designating them as gender neutral for the weekend. When we got to GKE:NE at their new hotel last year, those signs weren't up. When my partner asked about it, we were told that it "made the hotel staff uncomfortable" and, since they'd been kicked out of their former hotel and this was a new hotel they'd never worked with before, they didn't want to step on any toes. Before the first day was even half over, someone (we gather an attendee, not someone official) had put handwritten signs up over the bathrooms to designate them as gender neutral. Those signs weren't even touched all weekend (except to make it more clear that they were bathrooms) -- I have to ask: If the hotel staff was really that upset about it that they wouldn't give Mach's staff the okay to tape up some paper signs, why didn't they take down the ones that were put up?
Regarding the messy handling of "banned" people getting into the event, again this is something I never witnessed (I never knew anyone who had been allegedly banned to know if they were allowed in while we attended). However, our first GKE, we had a third friend come in to watch our table for us while we went to a couple of panels. Come to find out after they'd been there for hours already, that they had apparently lost their ID before coming to the event. But they'd been let in despite the fact that staff was supposed to be checking ID's when they checked people in. Now, we consider this person family and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can trust them. But how many other people haven't been getting their ID's checked and just handed a badge and just waved on through into the event? I really regret not following up on that issue at the time.
