Issues with GDATW

[Fuzz]

As i just told Beth via PM, if people feel that what Dawn has done is illegal (and it very well may be), then by all means, you guys should hold her responsible. I'm looking out for GDA and GDC, and all these things happened outside of our sites. I want to help the people affected because it's so unfair to them, but I don't want our sites to be the public grounds for people to play attorney.

[Mar]

I still never understood what GDATW actually was.

Is there a thread that explains it? I remember people here were talking about it, but I don't recall ever personally reading into it that much.

This GDA brief explains the May 28 event, and it explains the prizes/auctioned items that are apparently the concern right now.

I won't say anything more because I'm not involved and don't wanna stir shit, but I hope this gets sorted out soon.

[Desensitized09]

I'll admit, I haven't really kept up with Dawn, though I did meet her and talk to her quite a few times during my stay in New York back in February. She seemed to be a very nice, sweet person who just wanted to raise awareness for people to get involved in helping the environment with Green Day's work with NRDC as an inspiration. I remember her telling me how much she paid to rent the room for the party she was throwing and for drinks, and prizes, and a DJ, and trophies, etc. She worked really hard to pull that stuff together and it turned out to be a pretty amazing night for those of you who went and remember. I don't know her well enough to know if the charity was a scam, but from what I've witnessed when I've spoken with her, I don't think that was ever her intention. I won something for being a team leader for GDATW, and haven't gotten it, but to be honest I don't even really care. The fact that I was inspired to go and clean the environment was reward enough for me.

People make mistakes and sometimes people get confused on what's right and wrong.. I can't make excuses for why many people's purchases have yet to be delivered. I just tend to hope for the best and put too much trust in people. I hope I'm right in this case, and I hope that everyone gets what they paid for and we can all move on from this.

[Fuzz]

I guess it's only fair for people who want to share information and share facts about this to do so. i don't want us to facilitate a witch-hunt, but this community was involved with this and they do deserve to know what's going on. I've posted everything we know and GDA's involvement with it in the first post.

[captain peroxide]

Basically, post any factual information you know, but let's not turn this into a massive flamewar. If you have something constructive or informative to post about all this, please do. If not, just read.

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

I can't actually clarify anything, but wasn't it pointed out that there were two auctions for the same items in a lot of instances? One on ebay and one on amazon? (Ignoring the fact that the items were being resold, for the moment.)

But here's the thing. If anyone wants to discuss what they bought and where they bought it from, it might lead to some kind of explanation. Because if the same items was sold to multiple people, that could absolutely explain why so many haven't actually gotten their items. Just a thought.

[greendaytone]

Like most people here, i'm still trying to piece all this together as best i can. Some of the thoughts running through my head now are:

- The more this is unfolding, the more concerned i am about how serious it is. Whether that's due to everything blowing up at this time and an element of us all getting a bit ahead of ourselves, or, that in fact this whole thing was a complete scam from the very start.

- I believe the answer may lie somewhere in the middle. I've said before, and i do believe this, Dawn was trying to do some good with this and i believe there were good intentions.

- Was the motivation behind the whole project a way to get closer to the band personally, for Dawn? Quite possibly. Is that wrong? I'm not so sure. If it was all for a good cause and seen through properly to completion, i think it would have been a hugely good thing, regardless of the motivation behind it.

- I feel a high level of responsibility, because i actively promoted the project believing (early on) that it was for a good cause. I had some skepticism about it from the start, but this was outweighed by the promising early developments.

- The original thread for this project showed signs of skepticism from some quarters, very early on, and that put some doubt in my mind certainly, but i guess i wanted to believe, again, it was a good thing.

- I feel this could be an extreme example of the irrational lengths fans can go to, to try and get noticed by the band they love. It's something i think many, if not all of us, experience in some way with our love for this band. As i said, i think this could be an extreme example of that.

- I still tend to believe that Dawn's situation is unique and may deserve some sympathy. I saw a lot of her first hand, staying with her in trips to New York for the musical. She showed me shrapnel wounds in her head from her war injuries, i don't see right now how she could have gone to such lengths to make all this up. Having said that, it does appear quite likely that stories have been twisted/exaggerated.

- I also believe that Dawn is very ill at the moment, her recent disappearance from facebook (and here, but a longer time ago) leaves a lot of questions, unfortunately unanswered. I was surprised she didn't go to the texas show, but maybe her situation is worse than we all know.

- All of this could already be beyond what we are speculating. Her recent actions have made national news in the US, so it may already be taken up to a large extent.

- What can WE do now? I think we should focus mainly on trying to help the people that have been directly impacted by the collapse of the project. I feel i let that down to some extent with my involvement. My only excuse is it became more and more difficult to contact, and get answers from Dawn, until this point where i have practically zero contact with her.

With that said i want to help as much as i can from this point to get this to the best resolution possible. I think as a community, together we can all help to get to that end goal.

[Abbey.]

Since you promoted GDATW on the GDA front page you should post something on GDA as well now with links to paypal, ebay, and amazon dispute resolution procedures and a promise to keep folks updated if any information/clarification is gleaned.

[greendaytone]

Since you promoted GDATW on the GDA front page you should post something on GDA as well now with links to paypal, ebay, and amazon dispute resolution procedures and a promise to keep folks updated if any information/clarification is gleaned.

Yes, that is something i'll talk about with Andres today.

[Tripe]

Tony, I don't think you should feel a high level of responsibility for this whole thing going sideways. You weren't the only one taken in by any means. GDA/GDC wasn't even the first place to promote Dawn and GDATW, it was just the most frequented place.

You're only guilty of trying to be helpful with what you thought was an admirable and worthy cause and in the process, your involvement gave Dawn credibility she probably didn't deserve. But you're right - no one knows the whole story. I doubt we ever will hear the whole truth.

If she is ill, I hope she feels better soon and comes online to address all the questions.

[Overjoyed]

My ”concerns” regarding this are:

• If it was her own stuff she sold, where did she get all the signatures from? She said she’d sell off her collection to raise money for this charity. So it could be all her stuff, but there was a lot, at least 100 items I think, and almost all of them were signed either by Billie or all of Green Day. She met Billie the first time in her life last fall in NY at AI. She then said in January or February that she got to talk to Billie and Adrienne and could promote the charity. Is it possible that the times she went to the musical she took vinyl and stuff with her and got that many signatures? Or does someone know if she handed them to GD’s staff to get them signed for the charity?
  
• Or did she get stuff from GD’s management or people around GD that was already signed, just for this charity? But has she used it with the right purpose then?
  

So what I’m thinking is if she got the stuff from GD then it could be with original signatures. But in this case if she hasn’t sent some of the items to the buyers then she earned money on stuff that wasn't hers and misused the charity. If the items were her own then I’m concerned about the originality of the signatures. Maybe she got everything signed because she told GD that it was for charity and she also can have donated the money, we don’t know. It just seems so unlikely. But still, some people haven’t received their items and then it doesn’t matter where the stuff came from.

Maybe everything is alright and she just hasn’t had the time to send out the items? I want to believe that but it’s very hard under this circumstances.

[captain peroxide]

If she is ill, I hope she feels better soon and comes online to address all the questions.

I doubt that, to be honest. If you're seriously ill, you don't take the time to delete all your online profiles, you just go to hospital. Seems more like a cover-up than anything else.

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

She may have been/was seriously ill at some point, but seeing as she took a long flight recently and was able to give an interview to media, (and apparently also has time and resources to set up donation pages to pay a notary to get GDATW registered as a charity), I doubt she's still very ill right now.

• If it was her own stuff she sold, where did she get all the signatures from? She said she’d sell off her collection to raise money for this charity. So it could be all her stuff, but there was a lot, at least 100 items I think, and almost all of them were signed either by Billie or all of Green Day. She met Billie the first time in her life last fall in NY at AI. She then said in January or February that she got to talk to Billie and Adrienne and could promote the charity. Is it possible that the times she went to the musical she took vinyl and stuff with her and got that many signatures? Or does someone know if she handed them to GD’s staff to get them signed for the charity?
  
• Or did she get stuff from GD’s management or people around GD that was already signed, just for this charity? But has she used it with the right purpose then?

She said people and companies gave some of those items to her/to GDATW to sell for charity.

[Overjoyed]

She said people and companies gave some of those items to her/to GDATW to sell for charity.

Ah ok, I just remembered her saying that she sold off her collection.

But there was guitars, vinyl, screen silk and so on, how come that everything was signed? I don’t want to claim that the signatures aren’t original, they looked like they were original so maybe I should put my concerns about that aside.

It’s only important that she then donated the money and that all buyers receive what they bought.

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

Ah ok, I just remembered her saying that she sold off her collection.

But there was guitars, vinyl, screen silk and so on, how come that everything was signed? I don’t want to claim that the signatures aren’t original, they looked like they were original so maybe I should put my concerns about that aside.

It’s only important that she then donated the money and that all buyers receive what they bought.

Yeah, she did mention a lot that it was her own collection as well.

I do see and share your view about your concerns. (damn, badly constructed sentence right there).

Yes, I agree with that.

[mallorymaloney]

Wait, there's seriously still people on GDC who trust and believe everything that Dawn has told them, regardless of what she's done ...? Jesus, people. Actions speak louder than words, and if you're turning a blind eye to everything this ridiculous woman has done, then I pity you greatly. Open your eyes and wake up!

A very early example: One of the first threads Dawn ever made on GDC was filled with outright lies. She stole images of random eBay DIY artists' creations and claimed that they were her own. 'After many trials and errors I think I finally got the knack of it,' and, 'Here are some samples of items I have made,' she stated in the original thread.

The proof is fairly easy to find. Most of the items shown in the stolen images are no longer sold on eBay, aside from this one seller who continues to make them, and has been since 2006. Dawn's older stolen images don't match the seller's new images exactly, but you can clearly see that the mannequin and the necklace the mannequin is wearing is identical.

And in case anyone wants to argue this fact: The eBay seller most certainly didn't steal the images from Dawn, as they wouldn't have such excellent feedback on eBay if this was the case. There's also no way Dawn would have the identical mannequin and necklace as the eBay seller. And if Dawn's intention was to simply purchase these eBay items and then resell them, then why did she go to such great lengths to pretend she made them herself ...?

The worst part is that Dawn continued to do this to try and 'raise money for GDATW' on her Amazon store, which prompted me to post a comment about it on the GDA news post at the time.

[spark in the night]

When did Dawn go to NYC and get her picture taken with Billie? (along with those youtube videos of her talking to him?)

I'm asking because in those pictures/videos, she has really long hair.

In the news interview about the airplane, she had short hair.

Either she wanted a new hairstyle, or she WAS ill at one point in between these events, but her hair began to grow back

I don't know how useful this post is, but it was an observation I had.

[greendaytone]

When did Dawn go to NYC and get her picture taken with Billie? (along with those youtube videos of her talking to him?)

I'm asking because in those pictures/videos, she has really long hair.

In the news interview about the airplane, she had short hair.

Either she wanted a new hairstyle, or she WAS ill at one point in between these events, but her hair began to grow back

I don't know how useful this post is, but it was an observation I had.

Dawn got her profile photo with Billie Joe in October 2010 i believe, on the final day of Billie's first week. She told me she started having chemotherapy about 6 months ago, hence the hair loss. I believe that to be true.

[J'net]

I agree, Tony. Whether or not Dawn was intentionally deceiving anyone, there's no doubt that your intentions were 100% honorable. As I said to you earlier - people who are honest are easier to deceive than those who are devious themselves. Even the Armstrongs and a lot of the cast of AI believed in Dawn. And none of us really knows how much of what she said was untrue. I do believe a lot of her intentions were good, too. I personally ordered several items from her. Most of them arrived in good condition,though occasionally she seemed to get mixed up about what I'd ordered and sent me something different. When it all balances out, I have no complaints about that part of it.

If Dawn has been lying and manipulating people, then I'm very disappointed. But she will be the one who suffers the long-term consequences, if that's the case. I can't help but feel sorry for her. She's obviously quite ill and not a happy person.

But your behavior was above reproach, and I'm sorry you have to feel down about all this

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

In regards to a lot of the signed items, I don't think all of it was real. I had someone direct me towards a few pieces that are no longer up for auction that are blatantly counterfeit signatures. It looks as though the same person signed all 3 names. Especially Mike's signature. It looks like whoever signed it was trying to mimic his current signatures with the x's. Yet it's apparently signed by Al Sobrante? I don't think so.

Examples:

1

2

3

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

I find it very hard to take a stance on this. On the one hand Dawn's intentions really seemed good and were just badly executed and she fell sick at an unfortunate timing (I do believe she was sick) and I will not condemn her, but on the other hand the "badly executed" part doesn't seem simply badly executed, it seems wrong and, well, whatever you think about intentionally lying and all that.

I'd also like to say that I agree with what J'net said.

In regards to a lot of the signed items, I don't think all of it was real. I had someone direct me towards a few pieces that are no longer up for auction that are blatantly counterfeit signatures. It looks as though the same person signed all 3 names. Especially Mike's signature. It looks like whoever signed it was trying to mimic his current signatures with the x's. Yet it's apparently signed by Al Sobrante? I don't think so.

Examples:

1

2

3

the first and third ones almost look as if they were signed on Ms Paint, as in, they aren't signed at all but someone drew signatures on the digital picture.

[mallorymaloney]

the first and third ones almost look as if they were signed on Ms Paint, as in, they aren't signed at all but someone drew signatures on the digital picture.

You're 100% correct. All three have, indeed, been poorly 'signed' with Microsoft Paint and/or PhotoShop.

Another lie to add to the list: Dawn stating time and time again that 'Just like Billie Joe, I'm not a computer person!' Obviously if she knows how to use Paint and PhotoShop to create photo manipulations, she can't be that far in the dark.

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

the first and third ones almost look as if they were signed on Ms Paint, as in, they aren't signed at all but someone drew signatures on the digital picture.

Could be. I don't have the actual physical copies to look at, but I think the photo of them is enough to show that they're clearly fake signatures.

And they're advertised as having Al Sobrante's rare and hard to come by autograph. If it's so rare, how exactly did she obtain 3?

[Mary711]

I agree, that really looks like Paint.

[greendaytone]

Mallory, in fairness, you called BS on this from pretty much the beginning.

With the items sold, there's definitely something fishy. At the same time, i personally saw Dawn handing out those items as displayed on the mannequin for free to people in New York. People tried to offer her money and she refused to accept it. I saw that with my own eyes.

I'm not here to defend Dawn entirely, because there is a lot wrong here, but i'd like to add some perspective.