"It is the true believer's ability to shut his eyes and stop his ears to facts, which in his mind deserve never to be seen or heard, which is the source of his unequalled fortitude and consistency" -  Eric Hoffer

With the growth of the internet and its accompanying ease of use, we have created the vehicle by which anyone can say practically anything and have it appear as if it has some basis in fact or that the author is writing with some authority.  If anyone actually bothered to read what they wrote, they would quickly conclude that what is often posed as "fact" is likely to be "fiction", or at best, a twisted version of the facts.  More often than not, it is just the ramblings of a person upset with something and needing to vent.

Homeowner and Condominium Associations:

Over the past few years, there have appeared a number of web sites dealing with  condominium and homeowner associations, or community associations (CA's), to use one generic term.  They call themselves "publishing" sites, "advocacy" sites, or even "News" sites.  No matter what they call themselves, it is immediately apparent that they really don't like anything about this form of housing.  That in itself isn't a problem, a lot of people don't want to live in a neighborhood with rules and regulations.  It's the manner with which they impugn all people and organizations that have anything to do with CA's, and their mass, negative reaction towards anyone that disagrees, which are the factors that show their true extremism.  In their eyes, one flaw means everything is wrong, one bad or misguided board member condemns all volunteers, and a professional doing their job is nothing more than a greedy, avaricious, bloodsucker.   They are truly, "True Believers" in their desire to destroy that which they can't control.

The Problem With Google:

Google, as a search engine can find just about anything on the internet.  Its weakness is that it can find just about anything on the internet, and can only weigh their value by a measurement of "keyword content" and "links", not substance or accuracy.  The groups discussed in this site have learned to play Google's game and in fact, have become past masters at how to get their site's ranked highly in their index.  As a result, people who have an interest in CA's, possibly with an intent to purchase, often find themselves clicking to the sites that rarely, if ever, have anything good to say about them.  At best, these sites will give a visitor a skewed version of CA's and at worst, create an antagonistic outlook that wouldn't go over well in any neighborhood, much less a community association.

The Media:

The shame is that legitimate news organizations and other groups think that because these sites have a high ranking, they somehow have a legitimacy or actual knowledge of the subject.  They don't.  They have no data to support their rants.  They have no standing other than their own ability to use propaganda to spread fear and falsehoods.  However, facts are apparently no longer a requirement for a news article and so they pop up again and again as "spokespeople" for all the homeowners living in CA's.  They give themselves the mantle that they condemn others for.  To anyone in the media who is considering using representatives from one of these sites as a source, why don't you actually read what's on the site?  Do you really want to be associated with them?

Our Intent:

We're going to take a look at these sites, using their own words, to show how their intent is not to improve CA's, but to impose their own narrow beliefs on those who live in them; to replace an existing structure with one they can't even show how it would work; and to force their own tyranny in the form of anarchy on millions of unsuspecting home owners.

We don't know any of the individuals that run or contribute to the sites we look at.  Any statements regarding any individual are based on their own words, taken from their web sites or other published material.

Our problem with the sites isn't their stated desire to improve community associations (we do disagree with some of their statements about getting rid of them).  CA's are only about 25 years old in any quantities, and as such are still struggling to find their way.  It's with the heavy-handed and "everyone who's not with me is against me" attitude that the problems begin to arise.  They rant that other people or organizations don't speak for the homeowner, yet they appoint themselves as the spokespeople for millions.  No election, just self-annointment.

This is not a discussion site.  There will be no message board, nor even an e-mail address.  We're posting our views here for the world to see and evaluate, and you're welcome to post your views on your web site.  Yes, that makes us guilty of some of the things we are accusing them of, but frankly, it appears they don't have lives beyond HOA-bashing and we do, and we don't want to spend our time reading their vitriolic e-mails or posts.  That's one reason the site will only be updated periodically - their bilge isn't worth all that much of our time.

You will also notice the absence of links to any of these sites, or even the quotes.  We simply don't want to assist them with visits or higher search engine rankings.  We have printed the pages we quote from.

"The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership.  What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard for the opinion of others, the single-handed defiance of the world."

All of the quotes in large brown type are from the numerous publications of Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman, philosopher whose major work "The True Believer", a caustic analysis of the nature of mass movements and those who are driven to join them.  Somehow, his words just seemed appropriate.