Hi Josh,

I am sorry for you, but I am afraid we are unable to help. There are not so many people around here knowing Josh very well.
This same topic has been brought up on pixelation, see here

However, Josh seems quite unfindable at the moment.

Good luck with your search,
Daniel

Ah yes, because every library loves to have homeless people come and draw on their computers every day.

Edited by Pragz - 29 December 2009 at 4:03pm

Greenraven = seriously, I brought this over to pixelation like a month ago, in which the guy himself even replied saying he was gonna pay people, but from what it seems, he's just taking money and taking money and not taking care of sh*t... seriously, I don't buy his story, I gave him the benefit on the doubt back then, but I don't play that game.

I can understand if he has done this to one or two persons, but that's enough, nearly every guy lately he ever works with, gets scammed and never get works done by him, seriously, if he doesn't have internet, then he shouldn't take on jobs, it's that simple.

Me being harsh? I'm not being harsh, just being realistic, and honestly, I think my "benefit of doubt" has a limit, as I'm sure many of the people affected here has already gone past that limit. the dude doesn't deliver the work promised, and he always seem to ask for money in advance... I think he's an scammer... I hope all of you respect my opinion, just the same as I respect yours which is thinking that he's this super nice guy who will one day eventually pay or deliver your work down.

Once again, you cannot be online? don't have a computer at home? then don't freaking ask for pay jobs online. Go get a job at walmart or burger king, but don't bother asking people to pay you money in advance for something you cannot do anymore.

EDIT: And look, I didn't lose 1000 bucks, that's why this is more or less me throwing my 2 cents on the situation... but if you guys are soo eager to defend him to death, then you should be able to give the affected person his 1000 bucks back, cause after all he's your friend isn't it? if you pay those 1000 dollars to the victim, then he should be able to pay you back... right? right? I'm gone I don't want to talk about this anymore.


Edited by Antifarea - 29 December 2009 at 5:05pm

"he's taken money from like 20 of you, doesn't that give you a hint?"

 how do they know that though? If he contacts them via email and they aren't familiar with the forum how would they know?

I do agree with your sentiment that dishonest behavior should be condemned. But if you say what you think is true and not "everyone is nice there are no problems i'm a fluffy carebear love me" then you will have to be prepared to look harsh.

There is no easy solution to this problem imo. Unless someone is willing to offer Josh to stay at their place and use their computer, how can he get the work done?

 A less specific solution you encourage everyone to use that thing where a third party holds the money until the project is finished.

The other thing would be to have reference when you apply (and hope this trend catches on and it becomes expected by people hiring). Like suppose 'thereisnocure' is the referee, when you apply for a job you say thereisnocure is my reference here is his special email. Then the hirer sends an email saying anteferea is going to get this job. Thereisnocure recieves the email and says:

"its cool"

"no no no the last 3 projects he didn't finish"

problem solved.  Could anyone be an agent (thereby making it useless) and or could you fake thereisnocures email? thereisnocure would have to put a page on a forum which says what his email is so hirers can verify it. also hirers could post saying thereisnocure is a good agent or not.

But why would thereisnocure agree to do this work? You'd probably have to give him a cut of the payment. Would people be willing to give a cut?
(I think I proposed solutions like this years ago at pixelation and people were like "you're just trying to make money" so let me be clear im not. I'm just proposing an improvement)


The other solution would be moderators of boards take responcibility without trying to take a cut. They already propose a "standard rate" of 15$ - 30 $ per hour why not go further?

Another solution is if there is a thread "i'm not dodgy". Whenever someone doesn't honor an agreement the hirer posts "damn sharprm cut and ran with 20$ US". So when you apply for a job you say check out this thread im not there. Problem though, what if someone pretends to be a hirer? How do you prove you didn't accept the job?

The problem with the I'm not dodgy thread is because its not retrospective. It would need to be up and running for a few months before it would actually be able to warn people.

When u accept a job the artist would have to post (i accepted this job). But i think this would have to be in a seperate thread ("im not dodgy thread cross reference thread"). It shoudln't be "im good at completing work" only "im not dodgy" because how do you stop artists from posting fake jobs they accepted to make them seem prolific and good at completing them.

edit: it still wouldn't work unless both the hirer and the artist agreed to post in the cross reference thread. Another issue is what if the work is done but isn't satisfactory could the hirer hold the employee to ransom. Like on ebay if you don't give 5 stars for everything they give you a low rating until you agree to change it back to 5 stars. I'll start another thread in case jharris doesn't want to hear about this only about his particular project and artist.


Edited by sharprm - 03 January 2010 at 11:35pm

If you devoured his heart, you'd be some sort of all powerful 'uber' artist.
Or you'd have heartburn.

Glad to know you're still alive and working to solve all this. Sorry to hear things are still pretty sh*tty for you, hope it gets better.

...and I was kidding about the organs



Edited by ThereIsNoCure - 06 January 2010 at 6:14pm

Well then he'd still need a house with electricity and internet.

Just hide it in a pizza box. No one will steal your pizza box.

Sorry for the necro-bump, but I was wondering how this all worked out and couldn't find anything in it.

:) I was cheated too, damn I wish he gets caught by someone soon.
I paid him 100$ :( as advance and no response after that. He cheated saying all lies like he is starving and has to feed his kid etc and he made me transfer immediately.

Yes, you are ripping off people, otherwise the forum thread like this (and there are plenty of those) wouldn't exist.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/joshua-astorian/work-at-home/collinsville-illinois-63145.htm

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=8561.0

Now you're just playing people for fools. You're quite readily online when you feel the need to scam someone, but conveniently disappear when they email you about the progress of the work.

And you immediately remove people from Skype as soon as you receive money. Explain that one Josh.

Why would you even commit to more work if you can't finish what you already have? It really makes absolutely no sense. I gave you weeks to complete the task, yet you ignored all my warnings. Your explanation and justifications hold absolutely no weight.

Stop trying to buy more time for yourself. It's not working.