Jeff R.

In The Rooms is a platform that helps a lot of people and has great potential, but is full of sick people and run by greedy control freaks. I had several bad experiences with the platform.

1). GSAA (Global Steps AA) is a profit generating organization and they are the main contributor. There are several chair people and the organization has horrible conflict resolution policies, no transparency and practices favoritism, discrimination and cronyism.

2). I was personally cross talked by several GSAA members. Two of them were chair people and they were way out of line. Scottissobernow and ArtistGirl were abusive towards me and Karen14 gave me a massive runaround when I asked for reassurance that they would leave me alone. What I was given is one-sided restrictions saying I had to avoid meetings they were chairing, but they could continue to do whatever they wanted.

3) Intherooms.com charges high rates for their meeting hosting and they also make money off paid advertising. I asked several people, both owners, a few chair people and and their support department how much it would cost to run a meeting of my own on the platform and they were extremely evasive. I heard from one person $150 per meeting per week, which comes to something like $15,000 a month at a guess, but whatever it is it is far more than they need to run the platform especially because all of the workers are volunteers.

4). With high profits, zero transparency and free service workers, they are taking advantage of people on all levels.

5) I confronted Karen14 and eventually one of the owners Kenny (Mr_Clean) about how I was abused by ArtistGirl and Scottisobernow and the final response was they banned me from the platform, without notice, explanation or discussion.

6). The issue that I was banned over was of a religious nature. Scottissobernow brought up the topic of religion and how AA is not a religion in a meeting. I am a self-taught Omnist Reverend and I agreed with him and gave a brief explanation in support. ArtistGirl was chairing the meeting and decided to discredit me, saying "Don't let that confuse you, AA is not a religion". I messaged her directly and she was rude and dismissive telling me I need to talk to my sponsor and that we are not allow to teach people in our shares.

7). I have severe abuse traumas and the next morning I warned her that if she spoke to me that way again I would get her tossed off the platform. Scottissobernow retaliated, shaming me in a meeting and although he did not mention my name I knew he was talking about me front of hundreds of people instead of talking to me in private and it traumatized me, adding to my issues.

8). I took a long break from AA meetings on ITR and after a few months I spoke to Karen14 for over 3 days trying to gain assurance that the conflict was over. She was completely indifferent and insisted that I had to bring up my issue in front of a committee and supply evidence, which does not exist because ITR does not store any chat messages. I was told not to contact anyone directly, but was not told what would happen if I did even though I asked.

9). Ultimately, 4 people got away with discrimination and abuse, I was told by another member that I was accused of trying to create a cult, of trying to profit off the members and for practicing bullying for speaking up for myself, and told these were cyber crimes on the platform.

Ultimately, I still feel the platform helps a lot of people, but they are also very cult like and are taking advantage of the suffering with huge profits, horrible conflict resolution practices and zero transparency.

Sincerely,

Reverend Jeff Rounds