Hi Mark!

Let me first state that I have great admiration for the well-known Jon Leger (Jonathan Leger) as a programmer and the creator of many clever pieces of internet marketing software. But when it comes to customer relations, he sucks majestically.

On August 15 or thereabout I signed up for the beta version of a new project of his. I will honor my promise not to prematurely divulge name and character of this project, so you’ll have to wait for these data until it comes out of beta and goes public. It’s somewhat like his 3-Way-Links program, and that’s all you’ll hear from me right now.

Anyway, I resigned from that program a few hours ago, because of Jon’s policy on rejecting postings and/or links to be promoted with it - or rather: to the total lack of policy. The beta forum shows many threads about the total arbitrariness with which Jon decides what is acceptable, and what not. Some famous examples of stuff that was rejected are postings containing words like “romantic”, “liposuction”, “meditation” or “yoga”, or links to websites about these or other subjects that are interpreted by Jon as “religious” or “sexual” in nature. I have no problem whatsoever with Jon wanting to avoid subjects like religion, sex and politics in this new system for indeed: those are subjects that often whip people into a great frenzy, and induce them to start the most remarkable and spectacular flame wars (wide grin)! But what I do have problems with, is Jon’s very personal, peculiar, unpredictable and ever widening interpretation of what’s politics, sex, or religion, and what’s not.

I also have problems with the way he treats his customers when they protest against his weird and unusual judgements. Jon Leger simply refuses to consider their position and arguments, and now he has even begun locking threads about the subject, not to mention his announcement that he’ll delete future threads about these issues.

What bothers me most, is his hypocrisy. He repeatedly states that words like “meditation” or “liposuction” are unacceptable because people who will see them posted on their donor blogs will object to them and start a row - but he fails or refuses to recognize that on the forum there are many people who beg him to allow these words… and not a single person who wants him to disallow them! Nobody on “the program” sees anything inappropriate in yoga or liposuction but Jon himself, yet he lets his own opinion prevail over those of the people who pay his bills, to wit us. So the problem is Jon - not the members.

Another posting was refused by him not because of a “bad word”, but because of the following sentence (I don’t remember the exact wording, but this comes very close): “This form of marriage counselling is not only suitable for married couples, but also for couples who are living together, and for same sex couples“.

Jonathon Leger will not tolerate anything which doesn’t conform to whichever sect he belongs to. He can’t ban everything else without banning Christianity too, so he pretends he has no choice but to ban all religion, or anything which could be construed as such.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… all these rejections together suggest to me that Jon Leger is a narrow minded bigot, and I do not want to pay money to the likes of those. So I’ll simply take my business elsewhere. Or nowhere: using such a program as his sure brings in money, but actually I care relatively little for the stuff. I can only squeeze one potato at a time into my mouth anyway. My peace of mind is much more valuable to me, and if something or somebody threatens it, I simply follow the advice Mr Miyagi gave when asked how to win a fight: “No be there” (wide grin)!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m retired now, but I have been a non-denominational chaplain (military and civilian) for several decades, and during my years of chaplaincy I’ve seen many people like Jon. I have always ministered and will always minister to them without any hesitation, I have always helped and will always help them wherever I can, I have always prayed and will always pray with them and for them - but I will not, repeat not, give them my money for any sort of bigoted business. Good grief: I may be a chaplain, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have principles (wide grin)!

Be well!

Rev. Dr. Jaap Verduijn, AKA Yahrp.