Jon David @ Wetlands

[Nickatilynx]

I am hearing from people that my old friend Jon David of Thewetlands has sucumbed to Lou Gehrigs.

We talked a lot back in the day.... a good guy , smart as hell

He will be missed by me if this is true.

If this is confirmed I wish to pass on my deepest condolences to his family.

[TheEnforcer]

Wow, I hope that's not the case. If so though my condolences to his family.

[Raven]

If so, a great loss.

[corvett]

a great shame, jon was a great guy, relatively young, always had a smile on his face and a great attitude

very sad, happened Monday afternoon

[*KK*]

Definitely sad, I always like chatting with JD.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by corvett@Apr 7 2005, 03:04 PM
a great shame, jon was a great guy, relatively young, always had a smile on his face and a great attitude

very sad, happened last Sun

Awww shit

so many memories...

The police car thing..lol
late night calls over Galaxynet people jumping planes and him saying "I'll alert the media" LOL
Nick become a "pornlord" ..lol
He had CONDOM's website in the background during the Dateline show , and the phone call as it was being shown telling mr how much bandwidth was being burned.

Good good guy....I really liked the guy.


Please pass on my very very deepest condolences.

[corvett]

who can forget him hacking al Qaeda...

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/08/08/porn...riot/index.html

[gonzo]

This has been one shitty month.

[Peaches]

Originally posted by gonzo@Apr 7 2005, 08:26 PM
This has been one shitty month.

Last month was pretty shitty too.

[cj]

Had to look this one up:

> ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease is a fatal neuromuscular disease

Sounds like a horrible way to go
I hope he didn't suffer too much and that his family is doing ok

[Winetalk.com]

fuck, this si very sad....I knew the guy and he was the big part of the Internet History.

[eroswebmaster]

I did not know him, but my condolences to friends and family.

[Evil Chris]

There was a time when I was on the phone almost daily with John David.
Back in the day, he and I exchanged a ton of amateur traffic.

Sad news.

[nlphoto]

definitely one of the pioneers of amateur along with Janie and Carol... RIP

[sharky]

RIP.

I was just looking through wetlands today:-(

[ThrobX]

Wow. I know how you feel, Sharky, I was just thinking about Jon the other day. I remember at the first(?) Montreal show hanging out with the two of them and having a blast. Great people, he'll be missed. And what a terrible way to go, too.

Many people are dying too young lately.

[StreetRacer]

i remember the 20/20 episode on him and his porn stuff

that really sucks, him and his wife seemed pretty cool on tv

[SykkBoy]

he always had the biggest balls of anyone in this industry...
I was only able to meet him once but remembered admiring him from afar....for him, there was never a such thing as taking it too far
he will definitely be missed

my condolences to his friends and family

[Dravyk]

Oprano (and the industry) has been an emotional roller coaster lately. I just got perked up at the good news with Dokk in the other thread ... now this. Shit!

So sorry to hear. My condolences.

JD was one in a million. Totally unique individual. Definitely one of the early industry celebs. A fun guy to talk with. Always full of energy and brimming with new ideas. The guy just emanated a glow and a magnetism. He'll be sorely missed.

[Red]

I heard this from a friend yesterday and my heart just dropped. JD was one of a kind and a great person to talk to. My condolences to CBaby and the rest of his family.

[sarettah]

http://www.oceancity.md/octoday/headline.cfm?PubID=2798

Entrepreneurial porn site master Messner dies
Nancy Powell
Associate Editor

(April 8, 2005) The man who sent flowers anonymously to every resident in the Berlin Nursing Home for Christmas died this week. That gesture was just one of several that Jon David Messner made without the recipients knowing the name of the giver.

He did not want his gifts or money turned down because of possible prejudice against him. He was best known as a pornographer, but he also used his computer savvy to work on national security issues and to hijack a militant Islamic website promoting the terror organization, al-Qaida.

His ability to use the Internet to investigate and to capture the site led to an invitation to speak at the country’s war college, the National Defense University. It was a highlight of his life.

Although he started spending most of his time monitoring several websites he set up to search for terrorist activity, he maintained the site that made him and his wife known around the world. Started from a corner in their Ocean Pines house, the website featured amateurs posing nude.

The site gained notoriety and the Messners were featured in national magazines and on many television shows, including Dateline NBS, plus shows in Europe. A film about them and their site was promoted at the Cannes Film Festival.

Messner branched out into more mainstream endeavors and owned an Internet Service Provider for a few years.

His success earned him millions and he was generous with his money. In 2001, he gave a limousine to charity and although that gift was written about, he said he usually liked to make donations anonymously. He just liked to do nice things for people, he said. He particularly enjoying sending flowers to people in the nursing home so they would know someone cared about them, he said.

He bought an Ocean City condominium and then his dream home in Lighthouse Sound in 2001. An accomplished artist and photographer, he put decorative finishes on many of the walls and then filled the home with his photographs. He loved the home, but it was that home, he would say, that led to his illness.

In a lawsuit filed against Monogram Building and Design and other firms last summer, Messner contended water got into the house and caused a mold infestation problem. He had photographs showing himself sitting in the living room holding an umbrella because of water entering the house.

Messner became ill, was hospitalized a number of times and had varying diagnoses. Eventually, he was told that the mold had made him sick.

In December 2003, the Messners left their dream home, which had become a nightmare and moved to an Ocean City apartment. He was too ill to run his pornographic website and the income was reduced to what he said was a moderate level.

He had respiratory and memory problems and did not expect to recover.

One benefit, he said, of the changes in his life since becoming ill was that his family had become closer. He cherished being with them, he said.

Messner seldom left his apartment, not wanting to be seen and not wanting to be pitied.

He ended his life on Monday. He was 46 years old. He is survived by his wife, Cherie, a son and a daughter.

Funeral services were to be private.

[BillPMB]

Damn, this sucks. We lost a close personal friend of ours this week as well here locally.
She was young too.

Jon had THE biggest balls. Didn't give a rats ass who knew what he did for a living either. He pioneered alot of the streaming stuff we take for granted now, he was doing it long ago.

I loved it when he got that Sybian and started filming women riding that thing. Amazing footage of women losing it. With him smiling at the controls.

Amazingly confident, intelligent, honest, and a media magnet. He was definately with the philosophy of any publicity is good publicity.

He'll be missed. CBaby is a strong woman, and I'm sure she is well taken care of.

Our sincere condolences.

[grimm]

Originally posted by cj@Apr 7 2005, 04:45 PM
Had to look this one up:

> ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease is a fatal neuromuscular disease

Sounds like a horrible way to go
I hope he didn't suffer too much and that his family is doing ok

another disease that has shown positive results in using stem cells in lab animals. probably curable.


my deepest sympathies to the family.

[Far-L]

Very sad news.

Jon was an incredible guy who helped so many people. He was full of love and blessed with a divine sense of the Cosmic Joke.

My condolences to his family.

[sextoyking]

Jon was an amazing person and great busines man.

Jeese I just sent him an email a few days ago we have done lots of biz over the years.

Rest in peace

[Hell Puppy]

Damn...

He was the undisputed king of publicity there for a long time.

And I still get a pretty decent sized check from Wetlands recurring every week, although I haven't sent big traffic there in ages. I'm sure I'm still sending some from hard links of that goofy java applet on pages I've long since forgotten I have.

He was one of a kind and an original. He'll be missed.

We've had our bad news quota for 2005 already....no more please.

[Wicked1]

It's shattering news for me , JD got me started in this biz as an affiliate over 3 years ago.

I knew nothing about the industry and one night after a few too many drinkies I types up a poorly written (Drunken) e-mail to him asking him why I should trust him and if his story was even real. You gotta ask yourself that question when you read about how he got started in adult

I expected either no relpy or maybe a quick "get fucked" e-mail the next day and did not really care either way at the time.

What I recieved was a long very polite letter explaining his story about how "The Wetlands" began and that if I would like to try promoting it he'd like to have me onboard as an affiliate !.

The letter ended stating that his webmaster (Zeph) will set up access to the site for me to grab any content I required for promotion and also give me free hosting.

I sat in front of my PC at the time in total awe, shocked into a state of disbelief that this guy had opened his site up his world renowned porn site to some fucking nobody half a world away that questioned his honesty and then gave me the tools I required to make money.

Looking back I now think it was his way of placing the "put up or shut up" ball squarely back in my court

I knew nothing about making a web page or making traffic so it worked ! I was now responsible for making $$$ with everything he gave me , my sucess or failure was in the hands of one person , me !.

I began to think to myself " Oh shit what has my big mouth got me into !"

The Wetlands has been the most consistant program I've ever promoted and I remember thinking to myself that all I need is another 9 sponsors as good as this and I'm set.

To date I'm still looking for those 9 sponsors BTW which certainly proves to me that JD was a one of a kind guy

As I walk around my house I'm surrounded by posessions that I would never have been able to afford if we had not exchanged e-mails over 3 years ago.

Even this laptop I'm typing this on was once a dream of mine that The Wetlands made a reality.

Without his realising he gave me so much, the extra income I was earning online meant I could finally make ends meet financially and have enough money left over to spend quality time with my family.

Some of the memories I now have such as having my sons watch in amazement at a Sea World Helicopter come in for landing ,they turned to me and said look those people are getting out now.

I looked at them and said "Thats because they have to make room for us to get in" I'll never forget the look on thier faces once they realised I was serious

And when he returned to kindy a few days later his play buddies asked what he did on the weekend he told them and his teacher that he went up in a helicopter,naturally they did not believe him so a few days later I printed out the digital pictures and sent them with him for show and tell And no prizes for guessing how I paid for that camera

It's the little things in life that make it all worthwile, These are just a few reasons why I will always have fond memories of JDwetlands and his anything is possible attitude.

He gave me the ability improve my life in so many ways I could talk about it for days.

I simply could not ever thank him enough.

Our Thoughts go out to Cherie (Cbaby) and the family , As well as Zeph,Hunter,Mercedes and the rest of the Wetlands team.

RIP Mate.

Wicked1

[tuffruff]

JD helped get me started in this biz as I worked for him for about 3 years. Good guy though often missunderstood by many. He will surely be missed..

[dokk]

Another soul lost....
How many more.....

;-(

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by Wicked1@Apr 11 2005, 02:51 AM
It's shattering news for me , JD got me started in this biz as an affiliate over 3 years ago.

I knew nothing about the industry and one night after a few too many drinkies I types up a poorly written (Drunken) e-mail to him asking him why I should trust him and if his story was even real. You gotta ask yourself that question when you read about how he got started in adult

I expected either no relpy or maybe a quick "get fucked" e-mail the next day and did not really care either way at the time.

What I recieved was a long very polite letter explaining his story about how "The Wetlands" began and that if I would like to try promoting it he'd like to have me onboard as an affiliate !.

The letter ended stating that his webmaster (Zeph) will set up access to the site for me to grab any content I required for promotion and also give me free hosting.

I sat in front of my PC at the time in total awe, shocked into a state of disbelief that this guy had opened his site up his world renowned porn site to some fucking nobody half a world away that questioned his honesty and then gave me the tools I required to make money.

Looking back I now think it was his way of placing the "put up or shut up" ball squarely back in my court

I knew nothing about making a web page or making traffic so it worked ! I was now responsible for making $$$ with everything he gave me , my sucess or failure was in the hands of one person , me !.

I began to think to myself " Oh shit what has my big mouth got me into !"

The Wetlands has been the most consistant program I've ever promoted and I remember thinking to myself that all I need is another 9 sponsors as good as this and I'm set.

To date I'm still looking for those 9 sponsors BTW which certainly proves to me that JD was a one of a kind guy

As I walk around my house I'm surrounded by posessions that I would never have been able to afford if we had not exchanged e-mails over 3 years ago.

Even this laptop I'm typing this on was once a dream of mine that The Wetlands made a reality.

Without his realising he gave me so much, the extra income I was earning online meant I could finally make ends meet financially and have enough money left over to spend quality time with my family.

Some of the memories I now have such as having my sons watch in amazement at a Sea World Helicopter come in for landing ,they turned to me and said look those people are getting out now.

I looked at them and said "Thats because they have to make room for us to get in" I'll never forget the look on thier faces once they realised I was serious

And when he returned to kindy a few days later his play buddies asked what he did on the weekend he told them and his teacher that he went up in a helicopter,naturally they did not believe him so a few days later I printed out the digital pictures and sent them with him for show and tell And no prizes for guessing how I paid for that camera

It's the little things in life that make it all worthwile, These are just a few reasons why I will always have fond memories of JDwetlands and his anything is possible attitude.

He gave me the ability improve my life in so many ways I could talk about it for days.

I simply could not ever thank him enough.

Our Thoughts go out to Cherie (Cbaby) and the family , As well as Zeph,Hunter,Mercedes and the rest of the Wetlands team.

RIP Mate.

Wicked1

Nice post...

[Black Dog]

I've never met Jon but it was his segment on Dateline that inspired me to join this industry. I always wanted to meet him and tell him that.

B