What members of the forum are interested, and capable, of possibly collaborating with me on a new mob research project? Please step up to the front and announce yourselves. Aside from making the occasional post or comment about a thread, who (if anyone here) has enough knowledge, background, and desire, about the American mafia to lend a helping hand for a few future projects I have in mind?

Abilities needed:
1) artistic design and layout with the ability to create a professional looking chart or graph of a particular family or crew
2) solid background on OC to be able to help research various aspects around the U.S., etc.
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I think it would be fun and very helpful, both to myself and the person involved, as well as the forum itself, to bring a fresh new "look" and expand the information provided on GBB

I'm positive all forum members would welcome it as well. It will expand the forum, provide knowledge about OC, as well as integrate various forum members to work with one another on these projects. Newbie's obviously would not have the background knowledge to be helpful with historical aspects of these projects. But even they could help if in fact they are proficient in web design and page layout. Charts, graphs, etc. These are all things that are needed.

Another valuable aspect he/she could bring to the table would be the steady weekly searching out for old photographs, old newspaper archives, court documents, etc., about organized crime figures and their related organizations.

Any, or all, of the above mentioned items would bring a significant 'richness' to GBB that it desperately needs, and certainly elevate the forum to a much better place than it is now.

PS: It would also help to make for a much more enjoyable reading/viewing experience for all members than GBB presently is. This note is directed to ALL forum members. I'm curious to see who, if anyone, steps up to the plate.

Sincerely, The Other Guy (OG)

I await your reply.

Also; do any forum members have the desire to form a 'panel' of sorts with other members, for lack or a better word, to maybe combine your collective talents and knowledge to start delving into "organized crime" history.

Similar to what I have accomplished with my ButtonGuys of The New York Mafia website, it would be fantastic for this forum if several members could collaborate toward making and creating various in-depth interesting projects such as:

Mob stories about different arrests, rackets, and/or other situations
Family/borgata, or individual "crew" stories in various cities around the country
biographies of mob figures
rare photographs of mobsters of both notorious, and especially little known, mostly anonymous mob figures
......and for that matter anything else underworld related so as to elevate the forum and create real interesting reading

Because right now most of the threads that are started I look at are rudimentary in content and depth. Many amount to nothing more than mindless bantering back and forth with useless chatter. I cannot imagine anyone here is enthralled with the present content.

Am I right or wrong here? Please speak your minds and let's have a dialogue.

I stand corrected if anyone here can really, REALLY, say that the majority of threads posted contain pertinent content relating to in-depth exposes, deep research about CN, or investigations about Cosa Nostra.
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There are so many interesting sub-categories to choose from:
the entire Untied States
Canada
Italy
Sicily
Australia
Cosa Nostra
N'drangheta
Camorra
past, present, and future
thousands upon thousands of guys to choose from
wars, gangland murders, etc.
etc

It's beyond me how nobody but nobody on here has any interest, or the wherewithal, to research any of it.....Why even come on a mob site if you have zero interest in it?

Other very useful (and interesting) assets could be if someone on the forum, anyone, would access and then post up various FOIA documents, or actual indictments of various cases brought against LCN over the years; mugshots, surveillance pics, police records, court papers, informant files, etc, etc, etc, ...... which aside from being ultra interesting on its own,
could then all be used at a later date to compile an interesting storyline as I have done over the past year to two. NOT a repost of another writers work from some other site, but new and singular info he/she composes.

Here's one idea which I think done correctly would be a show stopper!

Although we already have a very extensive collection of mob informants on our "ButtonGuys of TNYM" website under "The Rats Nest" link, I am considering creating a new website devoted exclusively to this subject.

Whether described as; Informants, police cooperators, confidential informers, witnesses, stool pigeons, rats, Benedict Arnolds, or however else you'd like to refer to them as, this subject and group of individuals has been at the very epicenter of the underworld for many years already. So I think done correctly, this particular sub-category of the underworld would garner great interest.

Whatya think fellas?? Any thoughts?

Sound very interesting, but unfortunately I can't really contribute much to the project, not being a real researcher. However, in case you are interested, I can post a list of known mafia members in Sicily, last updated in January 1990 (I ordered it from a local library). It's in Italian language though, and in later years some of its information was discovered to be outdated (for example, such as Toto' Minore still being listed as the boss of the Trapani family, even though he had already been killed by then, or the Rimi group from Alcamo being hostile towards the Greco group from the same city). However, hopefully it can be useful somehow, if you want to make charts of Sicilian families in the 80s or 90s.

I put all 13 pages in an archive in this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/91p0i96vf7h13vs/L%27organigramma%20della%20mafia.zip?dl=0

Thank you Dwalin. This is exactly the type of info I am speaking of. But you would be of great help if you'd convert the Italian into English and/or separate the names accordingly to town, position, borgata, etc. Compile all the info, categorize it, and then lets design a chart or a list.

I think readers would love that. I know I would enjoy seeing it. You just name the charts variously: Argrigento Cosa - circa 1985, Castellammare del Golfo Cosca 1990, Alcamo Cosca 1991, etc.

If you down with it, so am I.

By all means please start it. I think you'll love doing the project and even you will garner more knowledge as you research through it. If you had the tenacity to go to the Library for it to begin with, I know you'll pull it together well.

We gotta start somewhere right??

THANK YOU for stepping up as the first. I wanna see others voice the opinions and jump in also.

You are welcome, glad if I can help. Ok, I will try to translate it, however unfortunately I can't guarantee for the translation to be perfect, as neither Italian nor English are my mother languages, although I understand both (I am Russian, but live in Italy). It will take some time, as I will have to do it manually (unfortunately, the text on the images can't be edited directly in this case, as they are screenshots, not text files). I will try not to be too slow though.

Listen my friend, you are the first to step up. So kudos to you! Take your time, do it right, and If I can help, just ask. Photos can be added in later. So can thumbnail profiles on a few of the more interesting guys. It can be a killer!

Let's see if more will rise up to the occasion. It would be very refreshing to see some posters push the envelope here and start to really make this place what I know it can be.

More power to us! Lol

take a week. And then show me what you gather up. We can adjust it as we go.

Again, thanks for manning up and stepping up to the plate pal. It is GREATLY appreciated.

How would we monetize this and who would own the domain?

Sounds intriguing, who do I gotta whack?
I like the concept, why don't you elaborate on it , please. I've provided a lot of information ( docs, images, interviews and links) to the Darkness Underneath Podcast who is doing a series on the Gemini Crew and the Westies currently.
As far the website dedicated to Cooperators, you need to look only as far as YouTube to see how lucrative it turned out for several, most recently corrupt Brooklyn NYPD Ofc Michael Dowd who has been making the rounds most lately.
Let me know what you need

Monetization and domains are not even in the equation. We presently have zero. Nada! GBB is extremely flat as far as valuable or singular content. Not to sound pretentious but TNYM is the primary poster of extensively researched pieces about the American (and Italian) underworld that steadily elevates this forum. Gangsters Inc., also adds content on a semi-regular basis. But thats it.

Now what's wrong with this picture? You tell me? We should have at least several dozen posters who contribute solid content on a daily basis (good researchers, rare photo gatherers, guys who gather FOIA transcripts, FBI documents and surveillance pics and 302 reports), informer info, etc.

What does GBB have? Nothing, that's what. NOT one single poster here contributes anything close to what I just mentioned. Why is that? GBB is in some very sorry shape (in case you haven't noticed yet).

We can start generating a few nice pieces (for FUN and to benefit GBB). NO website. NO domain. NO money. It's about generating content for GBB to try and beef it up and make it much more than it presently is. This 'forum' needs serious help (in case you haven't noticed).

Done properly, maybe, just maybe, we can collectively do something nice for this forum and enjoy ourselves while doing it.

Thats what I'm talking about. Domain? Money? Thats the very last thing that anyone here should have on their mind.

Let's shake our asses and create some good content. Period!

I think that one of the limitations is that there is a finite amount of topics in relation to organized crime and it's all been discussed at some point or another so it can be intimidating to be redundant and look stupid. In fact on many occasions when I'm doing research on an interesting topic of organized crime, I am referred to this website. That's how I found it and that's why I signed up after following for five years, this is the definitive source for information on the history organized crime, period. For me it is the personal anecdotes that make a post interesting or not, I mean the history is all documented so we know what happened, it's those personal accounts of what transpired that make a story riveting, just saying.

Fellas, this is NOT about money. An informer website is just a passing thought that I would consider doing. NOT for money because there's NO money in it. Chump change at best.

I'm talking about here, right on GBB. I'd like to see you fellas step up and contribute. If we can get a bunch of guys to do this we can elevate this experience for us all.

Otherwise I tell you all now, GBB is dying a slow death. Or at best, it will always stay at a low content quality level. Why should that be? Why not all of you step up and start rocking and rolling and REALLY research some shit? In whatever category that floats your boat? I guarantee that if all of you here on GBB heed my advise and suggestion you will be thrilled at what can be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. Just look at what I've created on my ButtonGuys of The NY Mafia website?

You gotta admit it's one hellava mob website. So I do know what I'm talking about, what I'm doing, and what I'm trying to say here. WTF? Why? Why? is this forum so flat?

The only thing I see is posters starting childish threads about far-flung abstract mob related posts. It gets 1000 of views and comments too!

WTF is going on here? Is THAT what all of you REALLY wanna partake in? Nonsense?

Not to be insulting to anyone, but its high time that somebody, anybody, states the Gods honest truth around here. This place is like Romper Room for Mob Fanboys (or haters).

Am I the only one who sees this? Or am I the only one who has the balls to state the painfully obvious?

I suspect that that GBB has thousands of members. You mean to tell me that out of all of you nobody has the computer skills, background knowledge about LCN, research capabilities, "DESIRE", and drive to step up and contribute the right way here? I find that extremely hard to believe.

I do not agree with you. At all! Thats a copout

There Is SO much more content that could be researched, gleaned, and created, IF guys would step up and contribute. DO YOU NOT have the desire? Yet you are on a Mafia website constantly. Obviously there IS interest in the subject. So what's wrong here??

I'm not just directing my question to you. The question is for EVERYONE. WTF??

Let's get some dialogue going here. Hundreds of people have viewed and read this post (228 so far), yet only you and two others have commented. Why? What is happening to everyone now? The cats got your tongues?

"What does GBB have? Nothing, that's what. NOT one single poster here contributes anything close to what I just mentioned. Why is that? GBB is in some very sorry shape (in case you haven't noticed yet)."

I think this quote is a bit much personally. I don't have a problem with this forum at all. It serves it's purpose. If you want something else, perhaps you should look into starting your own thing.

Geoff.....R U really gonna let this guy get away this shit??...I used 2 like N.Y...but..c'mon ..he's trying 2 dominate ur shit....some of us posters enjoy ALL of the threds..(food, movies etc)..but who the hell is he 2 talk like that on YOUR domain????...Actually , I've come 2 the conclusion that N.Y. Mafia is now BORING...all he wants is just the 5 families talk..no inputs..& over & over already known bullshit..ever since Lisa left..he's desperate...I admit...I don't contribute much & alot of our stuff is redundant & these newbies are...well..assholes...but oldheads like myself do not ( & I think I can speak 4 a few other posters..ahem..Dues etc..) ..like any intruders or change..by way of dominating the screenspace w/ his Quizzical " I'm the shit" bullcrap...If SC was still alive..N.Y. would have been banned a while ago......Fuck him & this thread..I'm goin 2 bed..good nite Geoff.

Your response is par for the course, and exactly what I'm addressing.

"It serves its purpose"? Really? It is a mob forum. Correct. And it serves a purpose. (Obviously). But wouldn't you care to elevate it by having other posters contribute research content to make it even more enjoyable?

Thats all I'm saying here?

And as far as doing my own thing. I'm already doing my own thing. It's called "The New York Mafia" website. And it keeps my extremely busy. And I'm very content.

I am speaking about here on GBB. We can't more people, more posters, contribute solid content? THATS my question.

Hoodlum, WTF are you even talking about? Are you lost in space?

I was NOT attacking you, or anyone else on this site. I was only attempting to make an observation so as to possible light a fire under your ass to start to contribute since you readily admit you contribute next to nothing to this forum.

But thats alright. You do you as they say! Wallow in your meadow.

I sincerely hope that there aren't many other posters who have your skewed outlook and share your baseless attacks.

I am TRYING to help muster others to contribute content that will only HELP this site. Tell me Hoodlum, what is it that you contribute here? Except nasty attacks that is?

And as far as "dominating"? LOL ........ you can go blow that one out of your ass. Dominate what? I really think you're a bit way too paranoid. Because nothing could be further from the truth. "Intruders" you say? I've been here several years already and have added so much good content and interaction with friendly posters that I can hardly be considered a "Intruder" as you so rudely put it.

I have more posts than you, and I'm here 4 years less than you. So go figure, right?

If you choose to not take what I asked of everyone in the true vain of how I asked it, then that's all on you. My attempt is to help us, not hurt us!

While I am grateful for the contributions that Lisa and "The Other Guy" have made here to the Real Life forum, that is only one of the many forums here. This BB started as a forum for The Godfather in the 90s, with "Other Puzo" and "Scarface" added shortly thereafter. As relationships and membership grew, it became necessary to add general entertainment/sports/food/etc categories, and even General discussion which many of us would spend hours a day chatting away -- so having a section for Real Life Mafia seemed like a natural offshoot. Real Life was never the main focus, and never was intended to be the main focus. And since it seems to attract so many fake "tough guy" crazies, it never will be the main focus here. But if someone wants to create content of interest to many, I don't see anything inherently wrong with it. At least if it stays under control. The forums were very popular years ago -- but due to many factors (including the decrease in popularity of old-school forums in general, the influx of troublemakers and the exile of valued members, the physical loss of many members, and not to mention me becoming so busy with other things the past few years), it's gotten a little out of control and we lost a lot of people. And I'm sorry for that. Despite NYMafia's sometimes uncouth mannerisms, he does seem to spend a lot of time creating content for his site and sharing much of it here. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, nor is his plea to get more people involved. I wish I had the time to get more involved myself. But at this point, don't worry about any type of takeover....

Wow, I never thought NYMafia would try something like this. They do contribute and put in a lot of content for this section. I wonder, are you trying to compete with another site? GBB forums is not dying, it has many members who's interests are into different topics and subjects. There are many posters who have contributed to this section on different families and crews away from NYC, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Not all of them are still posting but there are still solid knowledgeable members here. Anyway, Geoff has the finale say and that is that.

To giacomos point I just posted couple days ago a chart on Chicago outfit 2021.
It is not the final say on the current outfit I admit was more an attempt to glean any further info on one of the most important and successful oc groups in history.
Since posting....crickets.
No interest,not ny related ??? Who knows don't matter.
I would like to see more current charts structures of active mafia families,crews,groups.
I think alot of members on here r done with rehashing info on families that don't exist or from 5-6 decades ago.
And why a chart or list on rats and informants?

This place had really high quality posters back in 2011,2012. Back then most of them left this place and went to 'real deal', now all of them are on that other forum(some of us are on both places).

Best poster we have here is Hollander,other high quality posters are m2w(didnt post in a long time),Dwalin2011,antimafia,TheKillingJoke. There are some more but i can't remember nicks right now, but that's about it.

Good luck in what you are trying to accomplish.

As Geoff said and I tried to explain, I am not attacking the forum or anybody on the forum. My focus was, and is, on possibly helping to develop more interest and participation to GBB's "real life organized crime" section. I do understand that this forum has many 'departments' and 'offshoots' focusing on food, entertainment, movies, etc., but if you guys really look at the numbers you'll quickly see that the entire GBB forum is top heavy with interest in "real organized crime" and not so much in those other subjects.

I back up my position by the sheer number of threads started for "real OC' which presently number over 15,400, and the next closest subject matter which I believe is "general life discussion' which is hovering less than 8,000 threads. Thats around 50% less interest. After that general subject all the other subjects and threads rank much, much lower. in the hundreds, or low thousands at best. Examples: sports has 1700 threads, food has 400 threads, and there are many more subject categories much lower than that. The numerical statistics don't lie do they? And these are not my numbers, they are the counting that GBB itself keeps track of. So its spot on accurate.

Nobody is trying to 'pull a fast one' as you suggest. What the heck is pulling a fast one all about anyway? I am attempting to muster up support from some warm bodies here to collaborate together on deeper research and mob threads. Deep expose sort of stuff. My thinking was that it would help beef up the viability of the entire site. But I'm seeing there is no interest in doing any of that.

And by the way, you don't have to do it with me. THAT is not my focus. In fact, I'm so busy that the thought of that doesn't appeal to me at all. I am kept busy enough as you all know by my own site. I only wanted to encourage you to jump in the water and start to create solid mob content on your own. I for one would love to see that for GBB.

But alas, as I suspected, this thread would fall on deaf ears. My post quickly deteriorated to where a few posters cursed me, accused me of some unknown but 'nefarious' purpose and 'scheme', or wanted to know who would own a domain and how to make money. Lol. As though any of that was ever on the table. My post was for you guys to post up here on GBB. Not start another site.

I do me. ButtonGuys of The New York Mafia. I contribute here as a total 'courtesy' to all of you. Period!
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I see that all of you are very happy with the level of real life mob content posted here, so I'll end this conversation now. "It is what it is" as the man once said.
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PS: If I've ever acted in a manner that could be considered "sometimes uncouth mannerisms" as Geoff said, it was only AFTER a given poster or two repeatedly verbally attacked me and got nasty and repeatedly cursed me. Am I NOT allowed to defend myself in the same manner? Would any of you allow such behavior toward yourselves? I think not.

I get along just fine with the overwhelming majority of posters here. But there are always a few troublemakers or nasty guys in the crowd. Thats only natural. Hoodlum just cursed me in a post above. You didn't see me respond in kind did you? ....... case in point.

This thread has garnered 400 views so far yet no one has expressed any interest in what I suggested... So be it.

As far as I'm concerned this thread has been derailed, and is not going in the direction that I intended. So for me the thread has devolved into something far from the altruistic purpose I had hoped for.

So I'm now done with the entire subject matter of this thread, or the suggestion of everybody trying to help the forum.

As I said, "It is what it is"

PS: please note for the record that I tried, but my efforts were clearly misinterpreted and not appreciated.

NYMafia, I’ve had a few back and forths with you in the past, having questioned your motives for suddenly becoming heavily involved in posting and, at times, displaying some level of fairly passive/aggressive behaviour…BUT I do genuinely think your research and content is top notch and I’ve said as much to you directly. However, you do tend to get your panties in a bunch very quickly….that’s perhaps why you’re naturally skilful at research and written work, rather than interactions with people and PR. Nothing wrong with that at all, but you need to reflect on things a bit and understand why situations sometimes occur, or at least become prolonged.

As Geoff alluded to, the BB website now includes a whole host of topics, including organised crime..it’s not just a “mob forum” as you seem to think. You can examine the traffic, posts and whatever else you like to prove a case for organised crime material but, at the end of the day, people want to read about various topics and most really enjoy the site as a leisurely pastime. Geoff obviously isn’t in this to make his fortune and, actually, just no doubt takes great satisfaction from having created a site thousands of people have loved for years and continue to.

Like you, people visit, read and post content - yours is great and people tell you so, but stop with this about creating other websites, panels etc etc. No one has expressed any interest in what you suggested, I guess, because they are not interested. You run a website and have a focus on different priorities than everyone on here. Your very quick to judge the site and all its members - its as if you've awarded yourself some authority because you post articles on a regular basis.

You’ve also just said you post on here as a “courtesy” to everyone, GBB “has nothing” (without you I assume) and in a “sorry shape”…well just leave then? Seriously, I read through your posts on this thread and can actually see the slide from extremely nice to then shooting in your pants and quickly becoming downright rude, disrespectful and offensive.. I see this happen a lot and I know you think your defending yourself, but your long winded defences (following overly nice and enthusiastic openings) are actually becoming a very tedious pattern to the eye - and a reason I mostly tend to avoid the organised crime threads you create these days. I’m really disappointed you’ve not avoided this tbh, I really am.

I think your at a crossroads, either continue posting great stuff for your own, and other’s enjoyment, or just leave and concentrate fully on your own projects..even create your own mob forum attached to your site (I’ll take the royalties for that idea 🤔)

Otherwise, you’ll gonna create more stress for yourself, honestly.

Also, I could be wrong, and please correct me if I am, but you’ve also got a semi permanent derogatory description under your avatar referencing a poster you’ve had ongoing disagreements with? If that’s the case, it’s tells me more about you than it does about them, and actually quite disappointing for a “serious” OC poster. If I’m wrong, it’s maybe worth changing to avoid confusion and ongoing issues

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I completely agree Fergie. Everyone has their own focus and I misjudged what most on GBB want as far as content. I thought it would have been good for you guys to work together collaborating on various mob research. I thought everyone would enjoy the added content and projects. But I stand corrected.

No harm. No foul.

Keep up the good work, and hopefully here 👍

So WELL SAID....ThankU Fergie...& FUCK YOU N.Y.Mafia...u fuckin thief..STAY OFF OUR SITE..!

There’s an old saying my grandfather used to tell me....

You can take a piece of shit and dress em up in a suit with a bottle of cologne on em but he will still stink like a motherfucker...

But the mob activity as far as the OC forum here has dissipated the last few years w Wiseguy and Pogo(who were eviscerated by yours truly) for they’re crazy theories that involve if you commit criminal activity you must be indicted for it or it didn’t happen nonsense and others who were here or originally on real deal migrating to the other place....

????????