"If this were me, you'd have a baseball bat crammed up your a$$ yesterday."
"This dude is a [comment removed]"
" i cant wait to point out to all pinheads who attend these shows what a douche bag company they are."
"burn him in court for every penny you can get."
"Comet. Cheap & they have great LEDS and run by a pinsider whom isn't a piece of shit."
"California here we come! Boy is it gonna be a shitty Valentine's Day for you when we get there Nifty."
"This has been quite the roller coaster. 10/10 fantastic"
"U-Haul rental and a couple of thugs - get going!"
"I guess that happens when you see someone younger than you with a nicer home, a bulldog, two Porsches, a 70 inch 4k screen, three pinball machines, and whatever else you were drooling over."

sigh.

Some "community" this is. I don't know what it is about pinball but it seems like its always a matter of time before the "community" decides to eat another one of its own.

It is quite obvious that many of us are just here to watch someone get destroyed. We wont be happy until someone gets humiliated, and put to shame at the feet of the "community".

"Pass the popcorn" am I right?
I read post after post of how this is entertaining and how much fun this is, "1 THOUSAND posts by Christmas!". Embarrassing.

Some of these posts have been downright violent, malicious, hateful, and vindictive. Written by people who have nothing to do with this situation and met with no resistance or condemnation by this so-called "community". But hey, its entertaining right?

Yea, I get it. NiftyLED screwed the pooch here. Daniel had no right to put the machine up for sale. They made a mistake, a big one and while Sticky doesn't come across as a wonderful person himself only a fool would say he has no right to be angry. So, what should we do here? As the pinball community, how should we handle this? Is the answer really to destroy NiftyLED? To burn their business to the ground and label them as "scammers"? Are we really happy with completely throwing them out of the pinball world, excommunicating them from anything to do with the hobby? Should we ban them from expos? Destroy their business relationships? Is that what we do to people now just because they did not meet your standard of groveling after what is arguably their first real complaint? What about those they associate with like The Pinball Podcast and Chicago Gaming Company? Should we boycott and tear them down too?

NiftyLED has been a positive influence on the pinball community since the day they came on the scene. I have personally seen how much time they give to this hobby and how willing they are to help others. I know how much they volunteer at pinball events of all types. They have invited me on MANY occasions to join them in this volunteer work, prepping for Arcade Expo and other SoCal events. They sponsor a variety of events by providing things like high quality lanyards, wristbands and dedicate time to helping setup and tear down these same events. Nate and Daniel have helped others enter the hobby and have supported more pinball endeavors than you all know about and they have hundreds of satisfied customers. Even if you are not a fan of their product (which I admit was of questionable quality in the early years for sure), you cannot deny that by entering the market and competing with the company you choose to buy from, they have driven prices down and made LEDs more affordable and accessible then ever. If all of this buys them ZERO goodwill from this community then it is no wonder they have shut off their account and apparently left Pinside in a huff. I don't blame them and I don't blame those others who know what I am talking about for not speaking up out of fear that they will also be ostracized.

It is not a bad thing to lodge a legitimate complaint on a forum. It is a good way to suss out whether this is a fluke or a pattern of behavior and it SHOULD be a good way to get some sound advice about how to proceed in a reasonable and fair manner. I am NOT faulting Sticky for starting this thread. My frustration lies with the terrible comments, poor advice, and general savagery that has been shown to one of our own who has been a part of this group for years. Calling someone a "scammer" implies that this is their modus operandi and that they are actively looking to screw people. That is simply not the case with NiftyLED and in nearly 900 posts I have yet to see someone else come forward and say that Nifty has also ripped them off or scammed them or otherwise provided anything less than quality service.

Some of you may not like their product and that is fine. After all, not everyone is going to like the hamburger sold at every burger joint. But just because you don't like the burger doesn't mean you wish the restaurant burns to the ground. Not liking the product is not the same thing as running a scam and ripping people off. Some of you are knocking the quality of their work without acknowledging that what they were selling was "touch-up" NOT a high-end restoration. I get that its not perfect but you can see from the text messages Daniel only estimates a couple of hours of work on the touch-ups. Did you see the before pictures? How good could the touch-up possibly be with only a couple of hours of work on it? The art was worn to the wood in many places. Regardless of whether or not you think its perfect, its an improvement to me (that is my opinion on something that is very subjective). You can also see from the texts that Daniel offers or suggests a playfield swap down the road or the use of an overlay for better results. The customer responds that "touch up" work would suffice. Fine, seems fair to me. No mercy from the Pinside crowd though...nope, they should be "utterly disgraced". Way to go everyone.

Pinside prides itself on being a community of pinball enthusiasts. Here is the definition of "community":
"a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals."

We are supposed to be friends but we often don't act like it. Just because one of us has an issue with another doesn't mean we cannot offer advice in a kind and respectful way. A few people here did give good advice and were calm and fair about things. A few people did tell Sticky that this was uncharacteristic behavior of NiftyLED and encouraged a peaceful resolution without name calling and without demanding the destruction of an entire business that supports our hobby. A few people were able to offer stern advice to Nifty and let them know how this looked on the surface while acknowledging that we probably didn't have all the facts. Sadly, these are not posts that people find entertaining or fun and were quickly lost in the noise of the rabble.

I really hope that in the future we can try and remember that when there is a dispute, both parties are often upset, heated, and reactions can be irrational (and often stupid) especially when you feel that you are being ganged up on by people or that you have been wronged. It is our job as the community to calm people down, remind them that we are all just human and by virtue of fact that we all share this amazing hobby we should be willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt as to what our intentions are. That would be what fellowship looks like. That would be what friendship looks like and that would be what COMMUNITY looks like.

FULL DISCLOSURE (before someone attributes bad motives to me for hiding something): I do know Nate and Daniel both personally and consider them to be friends (I am the fat guy in the picture on page 1). I do not know Joseph but I am sure he is a nice enough guy when he doesn't feel like he's being screwed. There, now you can all throw out everything I said above and get back to your popcorn.