Traton News

TRATON NEWS: TERMS AND CONDITIONS

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REVISED: 2008 JUNE 09

By clicking through to the articles posted on this Web site ("Traton News"), you are agreeing to the following Terms and Conditions.

1. Agreement Between You and the publishers of the articles for Traton News (hereafter "Operators"). The following terms and conditions (the "Terms and Conditions") apply to all visitors to, or users of, this Web site. By accessing this Web site, You acknowledge acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. In the case of any violation of these Terms and Conditions, the Operators reserve the right to seek all remedies available by law and in equity for such violations. The Operators acknowledge that there are other available Web sites that offer comparable products and services. In that regard, the Operators acknowledge that You have almost unlimited choices in selecting a Web site to accommodate Your needs, and that Your selection of this Web site is completely voluntary. In that regard, You agree, by entering into this Agreement, that You will be strictly bound to all of the terms and conditions set forth herein.

2. General Use Provisions and Copyright. You acknowledge that the Operators have spent valuable time and effort in developing this Web site. Thus, all materials provided on this Web site, including but not limited to all text, logos, designs, graphics, images, sounds, information, software, documents, products and services (collectively, the "Materials"), and the selection, arrangement and display thereof, are the copyrighted works of the Operators. All Materials herein and all software are proprietary to the Operators and protected by worldwide copyright and other intellectual property laws. Except as stated herein, none of the Materials may be modified, copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, sold, compiled, posted, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other means, without the prior express written permission of the Operators.

Additionally, none of these materials may be used for the benefit of Traton Corp. (Marietta, Georgia) and/or it affiliates for any reason whatsoever without the express written consent of the Operators. Such consent shall be provided at the discretion of the Operators. Any materials used for benefit of Traton Corp. and/or its affiliates which results in a loss and/or harm to the Operators or any of the directors, members, managers, employees, agents, vendors, or suppliers of the Operators (collectively "Operating Entities"), shall be a violation of this Agreement. As such, you agree to indemnify the Operators and/or any of the Operating Entities for any such harm and/or losses.

3. Limited License. The Operators appreciate the opportunity to enter into this Agreement with You. Thus, as part of the Agreement, the Operators hereby authorize You to view the materials available on this web site. Except as expressly provided above, nothing contained herein shall be construed as conferring, by implications, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right under any patent, trademark, or copyright of the Operators.

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6. Devices. You acknowledge that the Operators have spent considerable time and money in providing these Materials to You and various other individuals. Thus, you acknowledge that the Operators have an interest in maintaining a relatively responsive and reliable Web site. As such, You agree that You will not use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our Web pages or the content contained herein without the prior expressed written permission of the Operators. You agree that You will not use any device, software, or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of this Web site or any listing, offer, or transaction being conducted on this Web site. You agree that You will not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the infrastructure of this Web site.

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8. Links to Third-Party Web Sites. In an effort to provide better service to You, the Operators may provide links to Web sites operated by parties other than the Operators. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. You acknowledge that the Operators do not control such Web sites and are not responsible for their contents. The inclusion of hyperlinks to such Web sites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such Web sites or any association with their operators. If You decide to access any of the third-party sites linked to this Web site, You do so entirely at Your own risk.

9. General Disclaimer. Although the Operators have attempted to provide accurate information on the Web site, the Operators assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the information. All information provided on this Web site is provided "as is" with all faults without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. The Operators hereby disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement or arising from a course of dealing, usage or trade practice, except to the extent such disclaimers are held to be legally invalid.

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11. Opportunity to Cure. Despite the express Limitation on Liability, as set forth herein, the Operators seeks to maintain good relations with those who use the Materials. However, the Operators have limited assets and limited capacity to address certain issues. Thus, due to such limitations, the Operators set forth the following procedures for reporting any dissatisfaction. You acknowledge that these procedures are reasonable, and that You will strictly adhere to these procedures for reporting any dissatisfaction with this Web site. Should there be any dissatisfaction with any of the services offered by the Operators, You agree to provide express written notice to the Operators, and provide the Operators the opportunity to cure or accommodate the alleged dissatisfaction within a three (3) month period. The three (3) month period shall begin from the date that the written notice is received by the Operators. Such written notice shall be emailed to traton@gmail.com. The written notice shall begin with a subject line (or title), which recites, in all capital letters, "REPORTING OF DISSATISFACTION WITH TRATON NEWS." You agree to strictly follow these procedures for reporting any dissatisfaction, without any deviation, prior to commencing any other action, legal or equitable, against the Operators and/or any of the Operating Entities of Traton News. If You commence any action against the Operators and/or any of the Operating Entities prior to following these procedures, and prior to providing the Operators and/or the Operating Entities the opportunity to address any alleged dissatisfaction, then You agree to pay all costs associated with such action against the Operators and/or Operating Entities. Such costs shall include court fees, attorneys' fees, filing fees, incidental costs, travel costs, lodging expenses, and any other costs, both foreseeable and unforeseeable, that are incurred by the Operators and/or Operating Entities in defending against such action. In other words, You acknowledge that the Operators and/or Operating Entities have limited resources, and, as such, You agree to incur any and all costs that are associated with defending any actions against the Operators and/or Operating Entities, whether initiated by You or by the Operators and/or Operating Entities.

12. Modification of the Web Site. The Operators (and/or its suppliers) reserves the right in its sole discretion to improve, modify, or remove any information or content appearing on the Web site. The Operators may discontinue or revise any or all aspects of the Web site in its sole discretion and without prior notice.

13. Modification of These Terms and Conditions. The Operators reserve the right to change at any time the terms, conditions, and notices under which this Web site is offered and/or operated. Modification of this contract will be deemed effective upon publication on the Web site. It is Your responsibility to check terms and conditions of this Agreement at the time of each use.

14. Severability. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

15. Entire Agreement. This Agreement and all other agreements, exhibits, and schedules referred to in this Agreement constitute(s) the final, complete, and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement between You and the Operators pertaining to the subject matter of this Agreement and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous understandings or agreements between You and the Operators. This Agreement may not be contradicted by evidence of any prior or contemporaneous statements or agreements. No party has been induced to enter into this Agreement by, nor is any party relying on, any representation, understanding, agreement, commitment, or warranty outside those expressly set forth in this Agreement.

16. Choice of Law and Choice of Forum. The final contents of this Web site are reviewed and approved by legal counsel for the Operators prior to being published on the Web site. While the articles and information on this Web site are authored by one or more distinct individuals from different venues, the review and approval process, which accounts for a majority of the activities relating to the publishing of the articles or information on this Web site, takes place at the location of the legal counsel for the Operators. Currently, that location is in Dayton, Ohio. Insofar as the bulk of the activities relating to the publication of the Web site occur in Dayton, Ohio, You agree that this Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, without regard to its conflicts of laws principles. You hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in or nearest to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Web site. Use of this Web site is strictly prohibited in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms and conditions, including without limitation this paragraph.

17. Services Not Provided. In connection with Your use of this website and/or services, You acknowledge and agree as follows (a) the Operators are not responsible for the content of, nor do they endorse, the third-party websites to which You may link using this Web site; (b) the Operators do not guarantee the accuracy of any information available on this Web site, and are not responsible for any errors, omissions, or misrepresentations, and all information obtained on this Web site must be verified independently; (c) the Operators may make changes to its products and/or services and this Web site at any time and without notifying You or receiving Your consent; and (d) While the Operators comply with state and federal civil rights laws, the Operators do not monitor transmissions of information by others and thus assumes no liability for the failures of others to comply with such laws.

18. Contract Interpretation. Having fully read and understood this Agreement, You agree that any ambiguity in this Agreement shall be strictly construed in favor the Operators.

TRATON NEWS: WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY

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REVISED 2009 MAY 04

By visiting the Traton News website, you are accepting the practices described in this notice.

COOKIES

On some of our pages we may receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. For example, we may use "cookies" to obtain certain types of information when you visit our site. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide a more personalized experience. For example, one of our search pages uses cookies to store elements of your last search using that page so that you will not have to re-enter as much information on your next search. Most browsers allow you to control when cookies are written to your computer. However, cookies allow you to take full advantage of our personalization features and we therefore recommend that you leave them turned on. Check under "Help" in your browser for more information.

AGENTS

We sometimes contract with other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. For example, we may hire a company or individual to develop a computer program, help maintain our computer network, or process online transactions. These parties have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION

Traton News gives those who register online access to their registration information for the purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that information.

CONDITIONS OF USE, NOTICES, AND REVISIONS

If you choose to visit the website of Traton News, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY and our TERMS AND CONDITIONS, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the law of the state of Ohio. If you have any concern about privacy at the website for Traton News, please send us a thorough description in accordance with the TERMS AND CONDITIONS, and we will try to resolve it. This notice and the TERMS AND CONDITIONS may change, and use of information we gather now is subject to the WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY in effect at the time of use. You should check our website frequently for changes.

AUTOMATIC COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

We may collect and analyze certain information automatically: the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet; login; email address; password; computer and connection information such as browser type and version, operating system, and platform; registration history; the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our website, including date and time; cookie number; pages you viewed, or what you searched for.

TRATON HEADLINE: Traton Homes Loses Opportunity to Buy Valuable Domain Name

2009-06-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Traton News has, in a previous article, reported on how various companies are defensively registering domain names in an effort to prevent others from creating negative publicity for the company. As a follow-up article, Traton News also reported on how Traton Homes had lost its opportunity to register valuable domain names and had, instead, registered a host of useless domain names.

Recently, two domain names that had become a plague to Traton Homes had expired. Specifically, both IHateTraton.com and TratonSucks.com expired on March 29, 2009. While IHateTraton.com remains unregistered, the other domain, TratonSucks.com, was almost instantly picked up by a new owner.

Traton News contacted the previous owner of these sites, Mr. Christopher Moses, about why he let such valuable domain names expire. Specifically, TratonSucks.com was always a top-10 search result for any search engine, such as google, yahoo, msn, or ask.com. In other words, for anyone that searched for "Traton," not only would the search results show the site for Traton Homes, but it would always display TratonSucks.com in the top-5 hits.

Mr. Moses responded that he had purchased the domain names due to a conflict that he had with Traton Homes quite some time ago, but now that they had buried the proverbial hatchet, he no longer had any need for those sites. Additionally, he simply became tired of paying an annual fee to keep the sites registered. "Essentially, I was maintaining a defensive registration for another entity," stated Moses. Continuing, he stated:

No matter how you look at this, it made no sense for me to keep spending money to keep TratonSucks.com and IHateTraton.com alive when it would simply sit there with no content, especially since I have nothing to do with Traton Homes any more. So, I let the domain registrations lapse for those two domain names.

When asked if he had anything else to say, Moses indicated that he had no additional comment, either good or bad, about Traton Homes.

Insofar as TratonSucks.com had been the bane of Traton Homes' existence, we at Traton News are surprised that Traton Homes lost yet another opportunity to register a valuable domain name. While IHateTraton.com remains unregistered, it may not remain that way for long.

In the mean time, we at Traton News will keep our eyes on TratonSucks.com to see what the new owner plans to do with that site.

Reporting for Traton News,

Morley Moore.

TRATON HEADLINE: Traton Homes Shows Steady Decline Over Past Three Years

2009-05-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Builder Magazine Online recently released its 2008 Builder 100 list. According to the list, D.R. Horton, Pulte Homes, Centex Corp., Lennar Homes, and KB Home top the list.

As we have done in the past, we reviewed the performance of Traton Homes over the past 3 years to see how they performed. According to BuilderOnline, Traton Homes' closings were down by 37% and Traton Homes' revenue declined by 43%, as compared to its 2007 numbers. Tracing back to the 2007 numbers, Traton Homes declined 27% and 23% in closings and revenue, respectively, from its 2006 numbers.

A simple calculation shows that the decline of Traton Homes over the past three years is an incredible 54% for closings and an even-more-astonishing 56% for revenue.

Part of the reason for the decline may be the economic woes that every home builder faces. However, there are some who speculate that woefully deficient customer service by Traton Homes has resulted in negative impressions of Traton Homes, which has spread through various Internet sites, such as Traton Sucks, webgripesites.com, and Exposing New Home Builders.

For example, the comment from webgripesites.com shows Traton Homes documents as reciting "I was surprised to learn how much Traton truly did not care about their customers!"

Given the economic crisis facing home builders, Traton Homes has a long way to go to improve its image with customers.

Reporting for Traton News,

Morley Moore.

TRATON HOMES: Traton Homes Negatively Affected by Economy

2009-04-06T05:11:00.001-07:00

Recent news indicates that Traton Homes has been negatively impacted by the down-turn in the economy.

According to the article, Traton Homes has been forced to significantly reduce its staff. In fact, it appears that over the past two years Traton Homes has reduced its staff by almost 25% due to the negative impact that market forces have had on the company.

Scrutinizing "literally every dollar," the home builder has had to change some of its business practices to adapt to the new market. Clif Poston (Executive Vice President, 38) and Chris Poston (Senior Vice President, 34), who have taken over the operation of the company from Bill Poston and Milburn Poston (brothers who co-founded the company) have focused on the metro-Atlanta area.

When asked about the operation of Traton Homes and how the economy has affected the home builder, one individual indicated that Traton Homes' woes may be due more to horrible customer service than the economy. Citing to a now-removed gripe site, tratonsucks.com, the individual notes the struggle of one home-owner, Chris Moses, in his battle against Traton Homes. "When you hear about what they did to this guy, it really is atrocious," notes the individual, who has asked to remain anonymous.

While all of the contents of tratonsucks.com has been removed, a search of the archives reveals some of the cached contents that reveal the company's negative attitudes toward their own customers in an effort to maximize the company's profits.

In difficult economic times, such as this, scrutinizing "literally every dollar" will only go so far if the customer service is woefully deficient.

Reporting for Traton News,
Ingrid Ingram

TRATON HEADLINE: Privacy Concerns on Social Networking Sites - Part II

2009-03-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, we noted some of the information that was publicly available about Dale Bercher, an officer for Traton Homes. In closely examining his contacts, it was no surprise to see that Bercher's facebook profile links Chris Poston (another officer for Traton Homes) as a friend (or contact). Since Poston is the son of the founder (Bill Poston), we wondered whether his list of contacts would connect to the top brass of the company. Here is the list that we derived from the publicly available information.

Chris Poston

Larry Adkins
Atlanta, GA

Joanna Ford Alexander
Atlanta, GA

Shelli Strother Allen

Mary Kent Anderson
Atlanta, GA

Charles Andros
Bloomberg
Atlanta, GA

Julie Cantrell Austin
Atlanta, GA

Krista Fleming Baughan
Atlanta, GA

Dale Bercher
Atlanta, GA

Jenny Eberbaugh Berg
Atlanta, GA

Katie Wilson Berry

Vidal Bing
Jacksonville, FL

Shannon Holsomback Bohannon
Atlanta, GA

Stuart Bracey

David Brackett
Nashville, TN

Robyn Adams Brennaman
Atlanta, GA
GA Southern Alum '03

Ryan Breshears
Denver, CO
UGA Alum

Kerri Briant
Atlanta, GA

Carter Brown
Atlanta, GA

Sheri Turner Bruce

Ashley Selph Brumby
Atlanta, GA

John Bullington
Atlanta, GA

Sarah Meyer Bullington
Atlanta, GA

Debbie Butler
Atlanta, GA

Patti Ingram Camp
Atlanta, GA

Stephanie Donaldson Carden
Atlanta, GA

Cecily Carlay Hamilton
Atlanta, GA

Leigh Anne Cash Cooney
Atlanta, GA

Racheal Chance
Liberty
Atlanta, GA

Stuart Cheatham

Aric Chisum
Atlanta, GA

Dan Clark
Atlanta, GA

Geoff Clark
Atlanta, GA

Laurie Miller Clark
Coca-Cola
Atlanta, GA

Eric Clayton
Atlanta, GA

Nora Stewart Cobb
Nashville, TN

Shannon Simpson Cobb

Gavin Cole
Dallas / Fort Worth, TX

Phyllis Gingrey Collins

Stacey Liles Corn

Carolyn Haverly Corr

Christopher Corr
Richmond, VA

Jameka Crenshaw
Atlanta, GA

Ginger Cuttino
Charleston, SC

George Darden
Atlanta, GA
UGA Alum

Sidney McDougald David

Emily Dean
Atlanta, GA

Monique Deely
Atlanta, GA

Darius Dunson
Atlanta, GA

Holly Hunter Durham
Los Angeles, CA

Emily Buffington Embry
Atlanta, GA

Becky Dunning Engram
Atlanta, GA

Rob Estes
Atlanta, GA

Cissy Rickman Fleming
Memphis, TN

Jason Ford
Atlanta, GA

Richard Ford
Atlanta, GA

Jennifer Hess Foster
Atlanta, GA

Eric Gaines

Laura Billings Gardner
Atlanta, GA

Katie Snelson Gaudette
Atlanta, GA

Meredith Garrett Gay
Atlanta, GA

Beth Strother Gilland

Beth Briscoe Graham
Atlanta, GA

Nicole Capes Graham
Atlanta, GA

Erica Khan Graus
Atlanta, GA

Michael Greene
Atlanta, GA

Shannon Dorsey Grundmeyer
Atlanta, GA

Jason Hammer
Atlanta, GA

Glenn Harvin
Clemson Alum '03

Kelly King Hastings

Tracey Willoughby Howard
Atlanta, GA

Dana Garrett Huggins

Jeffrey Humphries
Atlanta, GA

John Hunter
Jacksonville, FL

Beth Clotfelter Hunter
Columbia, SC

Frasure Hunter
Atlanta, GA

Garrett Phillips Hunter

Jaillene Erickson Hunter
Atlanta, GA

Missy Hunter
Atlanta, GA
Kennesaw Grad Student '08

Jennifer Ingram
Atlanta, GA

Vanessa D. James
Atlanta, GA

Paula Jobson
New York, NY
Turner Broadcasting
CNN

Amy Ellerbee Johnson
Atlanta, GA

Brooke Jones
Atlanta, GA

Lindy Simpson Jones
Atlanta, GA

Malcolm Jones
Los Angeles, CA

Betsy Storey Kelley
Atlanta, GA

Elizabeth Kelley
Atlanta, GA
Auburn Alum '00

Cam Kersey
Atlanta, GA

Katie King

Bill King
Atlanta, GA

Emmy King

Cliff Kirbo
Southern Georgia, GA

Randy Kirk
Atlanta, GA
Auburn Alum

Clay Elliott Kirkland
UGA Alum '00
Athens, GA

Sean Kirkland
Atlanta, GA

Lori Simonton Kwilecki
Atlanta, GA

Allan Kyburz
Auburn Alum '05
Atlanta, GA

Melanie Loper Lauder
Atlanta, GA

Kelley Townson Lee
Atlanta, GA

Steve Lee
Atlanta, GA

Michael Leidel
Atlanta, GA

Lori Logan Leonard
Savannah, GA

Sterling Lester

Jon Lewis
Atlanta, GA

Curtiss Lindsey

Ryan F Lingold
Allentown, PA

Christina Waldrep Lowry
Atlanta, GA

Jennifer Williams Luongo
Daytona Beach, FL
Mary Kay

Sally Tanner Macaulay
Atlanta, GA

Gannon Gingrey Manning
Atlanta, GA

Shane Martin
Atlanta, GA

Tasha Mathis
Atlanta, GA

Doug Matthews

Kathryn Platt Mayfield

Kevin F. McCann
Dallas / Fort Worth, TX

Todd McCann
Nashville, TN

Cynthia Yen McIntyre
Chicago, IL
CareerBuilder.com
Northwestern Grad Student '09

Laura Lea McKinney
Atlanta, GA

Peggy Duncan McNeel
Atlanta, GA

Haley Hunter Meaders
Atlanta, GA

Rachel Keyes Michel
France

Matthew Thomas Montz
Southern Company
Birmingham, AL

Jay Moore
Atlanta, GA

Christie Barnes Morris
Atlanta, GA

Drew Morris
Atlanta, GA

Tyler Morris

Tim Murphy

Steve Newton

Gabrielle Nichols
Atlanta, GA

Bryan Nix
Atlanta, GA

Mike Nix
Ann Arbor, MI

Anna King Norris

Jamie Tumlin Patrick
UGA Alum '02
Atlanta, GA

Allison McPherson Penuel
Atlanta, GA

Wendy Sertel Pharr
Chattanooga, TN

Marti Glenn Phillips
Charleston, SC

Angela Poston
Atlanta, GA

Melissa Holland Poston
Atlanta, GA

Joseph Pressley
Atlanta, GA

Lee Alison Herndon Rable
Atlanta, GA

Meghan Burruss Respess
Atlanta, GA

Thomas Richardson
Nashville, TN

Casey Harris Riddle

Becca Romans

Antonio Rosser
Atlanta, GA

Emily Hope Ryals
Pratt '09
Atlanta, GA

Danny Ryan
Atlanta, GA

Natalie Smith Sams
Athens, GA

Catherine Milligan Sanders

Elizabeth Sanders

Allison Schnatmeier
Atlanta, GA

Anne Wiley Sellis
Houston, TX

Charles Shepard
Jackson, MS
UGA Alum '02

Pashia Fooster Shorter
Atlanta, GA

Victoria Slider Simitses
Atlanta, GA

Jacob Sims
USF

Whitney Slider
Athens, GA

Parker Smathers

Emilie Smith
UGA Alum '04
Atlanta, GA

Richard Smith
Macon / Warner Robins, GA

MaryAnsley Southerland
Atlanta, GA

Leslie McCann Stalcup
Atlanta, GA

Emmy King Staton
Atlanta, GA

Ami Pitts Stephens

Stephanie Sonnenfeld Stinn
Atlanta, GA

Kristi Elsberry Storey
Atlanta, GA

Sam Storey
Atlanta, GA

Ann Dunaway Teh
Atlanta, GA

Brad Thomas
UGA Alum '98
Panama City, FL

Ron Bam Thomas
Washington, DC

Jud Thompson
Atlanta, GA

Patrick Thompson
Atlanta, GA
Auburn Alum '94

Shay O'Dell Torbert
Southern Georgia, GA

Miki Thompson Townsend
Atlanta, GA

Amanda Dark Tucker

Brandi Crowe Tuggle
Atlanta, GA

Ty Tumlin
Ole Miss Alum '01
Atlanta, GA

Katharine Haverly Turner

Brandon Underwood
Atlanta, GA

Jason Van Note
Atlanta, GA

Mandy Waldrep
New York, NY

David Walker
Atlanta, GA

Dorothy T Walker
Atlanta, GA

Johnny Walker
Atlanta, GA

Walter Walls
Sarasota, FL

Kellie Ward
Kennesaw '09

Cameron Watson
Atlanta, GA

Travis Watson

Kip Watters
Atlanta, GA

Rachel Weber
Oregon Grad Student
Washington Alum '08
Seattle, WA

Elizabeth Rutland Weigle

Daniel White
Atlanta, GA
UGA Alum '01

Davis White
Athens, GA

Jeff White
Atlanta, GA

Mica Williams

Brad Willoughby

Brian Wilson
UNC Grad Student '10
Deloitte
Presbyterian Alum
Washington, DC

Leigh Ann Slappey Worden

While several Postons are listed (presumably family members), we were unable to find the founders' profiles for Bill Poston and Milburn Poston.

This limited example of "facebook stalking" (a term that has been coined by netizens) shows how one can determine information about individuals from publicly available sources. This type of unconventional investigative technique has been used by employers in conducting background checks on their potential employees, or to gather other potentially damaging information that may be detrimental to the company.

Of course, the lesson to be learned is this: one should be cautious with information that one does not want to make public. Especially since dissemination of electronic information is now almost instantaneous.

Reporting for Traton News,
Ingrid Ingram.

TRATON HEADLINE: Privacy Concerns on Social Networking Sites - Part I

2009-03-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Social networking sites, such as myspace.com and facebook.com, have a large following. For the most part, the users of facebook and myspace are given the option to keep certain information from prying eyes. However, the privacy controls are rather cumbersome to use. In fact, it almost seems as if these social networking sites make it difficult (if not almost impossible) for the users to designate their profiles as private.

Specifically, we examine facebook to see what information is available to those that are on facebook. While much of the information may be benign, one never knows what others consider to be private, and what others consider to be publishable to the world.

Recently, the google web-crawlers found the facebook profiles for several big names in the real-estate industry. We provide two of them here, along with some of the publicly-available information that was available, solely from their facebook profiles. In fact, the information was publicly available to everyone on facebook, irrespective of whether or not the visitor or user had an account on facebook.

Dale Bercher

Mr. Bercher is the chief operating officer for Traton Homes. According to the information on facebook, his friends (or contacts that he has chosen to designate as "friends") include:

Joey Achacoso
Austin, TX

Suna Adam
Baton Rouge, LA

Hal Bahlinger
Baton Rouge, LA

Regan Bercher
Atlanta, GA

Rebecca Bryant
Atlanta, GA

Bernie Calvaruso
Baton Rouge, LA

Christina Strickland Campbell
Atlanta, GA

Heidi Hartvigsen Carr
Atlanta, GA

Laura Chagnon
Atlanta, GA

Matthew Clark

Maurice J. Coleman
Raleigh / Durham, NC

Louis Colletti
Chicago, IL

Valerie Colletti
Roosevelt '09

Victoria Colletti
E. Illinois Alum '06

Lisa Cavalier Colomb
Atlanta, GA

Scott Colomb

Rose Plyler Daigle

Floyd DesOrmeaux
LSU
Baton Rouge, LA

Daniel Dupont
Los Angeles, CA

Stasia Eb
Colin Anthony Endres-bercher

Rory Endres-Bercher
Harrison High School '07
Michigan '11

Brock Fredette
Atlanta, GA

Kelly Newsome Fredette
Atlanta, GA

Chuck Gabriel
New Orleans, LA

Stewart Gordon
LSU

Duane Guidry
Dallas / Fort Worth, TX

Shana Boyd Hackworth
Atlanta, GA

Mark Herman

Karen Hansen Hershberger
Atlanta, GA

Kathleen Hess
Boston, MA

Steve Hess
Boston, MA
BEA Systems

Lisa Clausen Hill
Atlanta, GA

David Thomas Kotek
Chicago, IL

Tom Kotek
Chicago, IL

Christina Waldrep Lowry
Atlanta, GA

Audrey Loyd
Atlanta, GA

Melanie Bartlett Marsh
Atlanta, GA

Kristy Colomb McGovern
Baton Rouge, LA

April Morris
Atlanta, GA

Phil Muscarello
Baton Rouge, LA

Angie Page
Atlanta, GA

Stephen Parker

Henry Perkins
Murphy High School '09
Mobile, AL

Lucy Perkins
Murphy High School '10
Mobile, AL

Tracy Lisska Peterson
Atlanta, GA

David R Pfeiffer
Alexandria, LA

Chris Poston

Thomas Prochaska
Blessed Trinity Catholic High School

Paul Prusinski
Chicago, IL

Steven Ragusa
Atlanta, GA

Danny Ranzino

Tracy Reece
RE/MAX International
Atlanta, GA

Angi Sago

Paul Schouest
Atlanta, GA

Nick Simino
Baton Rouge, LA

Laura Vaughan

Following these links, one can readily discern the company that Mr. Bercher keeps, as well as the social circles with which Mr. Bercher associates.

While much of this information may not be of much relevance to many folks, Traton News speculates that there may be some on Mr. Bercher's list that would rather remain anonymous, or at least not have their associations broadcast to the world.

This example highlights some of the privacy concerns that abound with social networking sites.

In our follow-up to this article, we examine another publicly-available profile, namely that of Chris Poston, who is an officer of Traton Homes, and also the son of Bill Poston (a founder of Traton Homes).

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore

TRATON HOMES: Lakefield Manor Home Sells for 1/6 of Original Price

2009-03-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Charles M. Calhoun and Tammy B. Calhoun lived at 2566 Lakefield Way in Marietta, Georgia. Mr. Calhoun is a police officer and Tammy, his wife, is a real-estate agent. In fact, Tammy is a real estate agent for Traton Homes, and was involved in several of the sales of the Lakefield Manor subdivision. For some odd reason, the Calhouns sold their home in May of 2008 for almost 1/6 of the original purchase price.

In 2003, the home was purchased by the Calhouns for $283,300. Peculiarly, that same home was sold in 2008 for a pithy $50,000. What is even more odd about the transaction is that the home was sold (so it seems) to the Calhouns. Yes, you heard that right, the home owners sold the home to themselves for 1/6 of the original purchase price.

While we at Traton News are not sure why the Calhouns sold the home to themselves, one thing that is certain is that the apparent fire sale of the Calhoun home effectively reduced the home values for all of homes in the Lakefield Manor subdivision.

When asked about this odd transaction, one individual simply commented:

It baffles me why Tammy would sell her own home, in her own subdivision, for such a rock-bottom price. If I were one of the homeowners in Lakefield Manor, especially one that used Tammy Calhoun as a real-estate agent, then I would feel somewhat betrayed. Follow if you will. I buy a home in a subdivision that Tammy Calhoun recommended, and hope that the home will appreciate in value. And then I find out that the Calhouns torpedo the home prices in Lakefield Manor by selling their own home for 1/6 of the original purchase price. Of course, it may be understandable if it were a foreclosure sale in which the Calhouns lost their home. Then, I would have some sympathy for them. But, they sold it to themselves for a measly $50,000. All that does is depreciate the value of the homes in the neighborhood, since the "comps" are now set at a low bar.

While we at Traton News are still investigating the facts, we are currently hard-pressed to find a reasonable explanation for this sale.

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore and Ingrid Ingram.

TRATON HOMES: Traton Homes Recognized as Cheaper Homes by the Atlanta Journal Constitution

2009-01-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

A recent article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution ("AJC") noted that a metro-Atlanta-based developer, Traton Homes, is responsible for building cheaper homes that lower property values.

In the saga of Hays Farm, located in Cobb County, Georgia, Traton bought a number of foreclosed lots and began building cheap homes, thereby lowering the property value of the entire subdivision. The original residents were outraged due to Traton Homes' devaluing of the subdivision's property. However, according to the AJC, the residents of Hays Farm had little-to-no recourse against the new developer.

Two individuals, one in the legal profession and one in real estate, both indicated that the residents could have done something about the property, had they thought about the problem sufficiently. When asked about the potential solution, the attorney stated as follows:

Every homeowner in that subdivision is a member of the homeowners' association, or HOA. And, I bet that the subdivision covenants expressly recite that the purpose of the covenants is to protect the value of the homes and keep them from depreciating in value. Of course, the HOA would still be managed by the developer until the subdivision is completed. However, the officers of the HOA, who are likely the same as the developer, have a fiduciary obligation to look out for the best interest of the homeowners.

So, if all of the original homeowners went to the HOA and asked the HOA to amend its covenants to require all homes to be of a certain quality, then it is possible that the improved quality would translate into an increased home value. In other words, it would have been easy to set structural guidelines to prevent Traton Homes from building cheap homes.

The officers of the HOA would not have to amend the covenants at all, if they did not wish to amend them. However, if the HOA did not amend the covenants to prevent the depreciation of the current homes, then there would be a strong argument from the original homeowners that the officers were not acting in the best interest of the homeowners and therefore breached their fiduciary duty to the homeowners.

What is nice about this approach is that the officers themselves would be personally liable for the breach. So, in essence, the officers would need to "pick their own poison." On one hand, the they would need to "fix" the covenant so that better homes were built, thereby protecting the home value in that subdivision. On the other hand, they could be sued for breaching their fiduciary obligation to the homeowners, thereby requiring them to pay for the depreciated home value out of your own pockets. Weighing the greed of a developer against the plight of helpless homeowners makes for a great story in front of a jury.

Of course, being an attorney, I have to include the disclaimer that this approach may not have worked. But, it would have been a lot better than seeing my home depreciate in value to the point that the loss is unrecoverable.

When asked about this approach, another individual, speaking on conditions of anonymity, stated:

It may not be too late to take that approach at Hays Farm. The original homeowners that have the expensive homes have a great incentive to prevent additional cheap homes from being built, since those additional cheap homes would further depreciate the value of the neighborhood.

Even the new homeowners have an incentive to make Traton Homes build more expensive homes. If more expensive homes are built, then the owners of the cheap homes will see a corresponding increase in their own property values. It's in the best interest of all of the current homeowners. The only downside would be on the developer, who would be faced with the Hobson's choice of spending more money on building expensive homes, or being faced with a potential lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty.

In fact, even for Traton Homes, it may not be a bad thing, since they likely have a greater profit margin on more expensive homes.

Whether the homeowners of Hays Farm will let bygones be bygones, or whether they will re-open old wounds by considering this option is still up in the air.

Reporting for Traton News,

Moore Ingram

TRATON HUMOR: Georgia Court of Appeals Judges Find Their True Calling in Life

2008-12-05T12:57:00.001-08:00

It appears that the three judges, from the Georgia Court of Appeals, who wrote the following opinion have found their new calling in life.

OPINION Moses v Traton

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business Christianity moses apocrypha

Having read their opinion (above) and also seen their dancing skills (as shown in the video below), one wonders if these judges are more suited for dancing than they are for the judiciary.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The opinion effectively abrogates Georgia statutes dealing with trespass, as briefed by appellant in appellant's Petition for Certiorari to the Georgia Supreme Court.

MOSES Petition for Writ of Certiorari FINAL

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law war literature

We hope that you enjoy these dancing elves, since they seem to be showing off their true talents through dance, rather than through their intellectual acumen, their writing skills, or their sense of justice.

Reporting for Traton News,

Moore and Ingram.

TRATON HOMES: Traton Homes Turns Up a Big Zero at the 2008 OBIE Awards

2008-11-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Unlike Bowen Family Homes, which garnered quite a few honors at the 28th Annual OBIE Awards for 2008, Traton Homes walked away with no recognitions.

The fact that Traton Homes received no honors is not surprising, in view of some reports that Traton Homes provides deficient customer service.

As compared to Traton Homes, Traton News is not aware of any complaints relating to Bowen Family Homes' customer service. Not surprisingly, Bowen took high honors at this year's OBIE Awards.

Reporting for Traton News,

Moore and Ingram

TRATON HOMES: Bowen Family Homes Wins Four Gold and Two Silver OBIE Awards

2008-11-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

During the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association’s 28th Annual OBIE Awards Saturday, November 8, 2008, Bowen Family Homes won four Gold OBIE Awards and two Silver OBIE Awards.

Bowen's "Dollars for Dreams" home event received two Gold and one Silver OBIE Awards. The Bowen sales and marketing team received one Gold, and two of Bowen Family Homes' communities took Gold OBIE Awards for Best Building Design.

According to a press release by Bowen Family Homes:

Since 1969 the Bowen name has stood for excellence in new home construction and community development. Recognized as the 25th largest privately owned builder in the country by Builder Magazine for 2005, Bowen Family Homes is a dynamic homebuilder with operations in Georgia, Florida and Texas. The Atlanta Business Chronicle ranked Bowen Family Homes 4th among metro Atlanta builders in 2006 and 30th among Atlanta’s Top 100 Private Companies for 2006. Additionally, Builder Magazine named Bowen Family Homes the nation’s 43rd largest homebuilder in 2007. These successes have been achieved by simply offering the best new home value in all price ranges.

We extend our heartiest congratulations to Bowen Family Homes!

Reporting for Traton News,

Moore and Ingram

TRATON HEADLINE: Traton News Achieves Top Search Result on Google

2008-10-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

For the first time since the formation of the company, Traton News has hit the top of Google's search results for "traton." As shown from the printout of the search result, Traton News has displaced Traton Homes as the number one search result.

TRATON Google Search Result - Upload a Document to Scribd

Notes one of the owners of Traton News

We have spent a lot of time, energy, and financial resources to make sure that we are highly visible to the Internet audience. While we have been proud of our past performance, always landing on the front page of Google's search results, we are thrilled beyond words that we are now at the NUMBER ONE SPOT! I'm not sure how long that will last, but I'm going to bask in the moment for as long as it lasts.

As noted in an earlier article, if Traton News truly builds its stand-alone site, then it seems that it will be difficult to displace Traton News from the top spot.

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore and Ingrid Ingram.

TRATON HEADLINE: Traton News Hits Record High Readership for August

2008-10-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Traton News has achieved a new record of over 1000 unique visitors for the month of August, 2008. As reflected from its website statistics, courtesy of StatCounter, Traton News had 1340 page-loads and 1205 unique visitors. Of those unique visitors, 1183 of them were first-time visitors to the site.

According to the operators of Traton News, the increased web traffic is due to the owners' commitment to continually updating the readership with interesting stories and factoids.

"The owners are in the process of making the site a stand-alone site so that it will attract even more visitors and increase our readership base," notes the attorney for Traton News. "Of course, the owners will continue to keep the blog site up so that those who are already familiar with the current layout can have a choice as to which site they visit for their news. In fact, we want to be the first hit when someone searches for Traton, our trademark, on Google," notes one of the owners.

Reporting for Traton News,

Ingrid Ingram.

TRATON COURT NEWS: Eleventh Circuit Effectively Abolishes Excessive Force Claims Against Police Officers (Buckley v. Haddock)

2008-09-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

In a recent unpublished decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (Buckley v. Haddock, No. 07-10988 (11th Cir. 2008)), Judge Edmonson effectively abolished any claims against law-enforcement officers for the use of excessive force. The video footage of the arrest is shown below, in which the officer uses a taser at least three (3) times on Mr. Buckley, who is already handcuffed and sitting distraught on the grass beside the road. The taser shocks resulted in least sixteen (16) burn marks on Mr. Buckley's body.

Despite what the video shows, and despite the fact that the district court found that the officer used excessive force and was not entitled to qualified immunity, Judge Edmonson marshaled the facts to note that:

(a) it was night-time, on the side of a highway, with considerable passing traffic;
(b) Mr. Buckley was "resisting"; and
(c) the taser was used only after repeated warnings to Mr. Buckley.

In an effort to justify his holding, Judge Edmonson further notes that, even if he may be wrong and the force was excessive, the officer is neverthless entitled to qualified immunity. The reason being that there are no other cases similar to this one, which would give notice to the officer that his actions were improper.

In a one-paragraph concurring opinion, Chief Judge Dubina indicated that the force was excessive, but the officer was entitled to qualified immunity because of the lack of notice (i.e., other similar incidents that would have led the police officer to reasonably believe that his behavior was improper).

Judge Beverly Martin, who sat by designation as the third member of the panel, dissented. Specifically noting that Judge Edmonson's version of the facts was devoid of much of the relevant details, Judge Martin conveyed the facts as they are depicted in the video footage, above. In voicing her opinion that the officer should not be granted qualified immunity, Judge Martin quoted from a prior Eleventh Circuit case:

It would create perverse incentives indeed if a qualified immunity defense could succeed against those types of claims that have not previously arisen because the behavior alleged is so egregious that no like case is on the books.

Given the three separate opinions from the panel, Buckley appears to stand for the proposition that:

(a) repeatedly tasing a man in handcuffs, who is only passively resisting, is an excessive use of force (opinions by Dubina and Martin); and
(b) in this particular case, the officer is entitled to qualified immunity because he was never put on notice that such behavior would be unconstitutional.

If this is indeed the case, then any future conduct that is similar to the officer's conduct in this case will likely be held to be excessive use of force, and, since this particular case has already established that such force is excessive, the officer will not be able to state that he was not on notice that such force was excessive (i.e., he will not be entitled to qualified immunity in the future).

The full opinion, including the concurrence and the dissent, is reproduced in its entirety below.

Reporting for Traton News,
Moore, Ingram.

Jesse Daniel BUCKLEY v. Hon. Bobby HADDOCK and Jonathan RACKARD - Upload a Document to Scribd

TRATON HOMES: Sharp Residential Receives High Ratings for the Atlanta Housing Market

2008-09-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

On an annual basis, J.D. Power and Associates surveys numerous consumers and compiles an objective benchmark on various industries and the performance of companies within those industries. As reported in an earlier article by Traton News, for the Atlanta housing market, John Wieland Homes took top honors this year. A close second in the survey was Sharp Residential, who received one of the top three numerical scores in the 2008 New-Home Customer Satisfaction Study.

According to J.D. Power, the study is based on over fifty-thousand (50,000) total responses for the metro-Atlanta counties of Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Spalding and Walton. The measure takes into account the opinions of consumers who purchased a new home in 2007, whether the home be a single-family detached home or a single-family attached home.

In evaluating the satisfaction of the consumers, the study examines the entire home buying experience. Factors for that evaluation include customer service, sales staff, design center, price/value relationship, and a host of other factors. Other factors, such as input from the home buyer on resolution of various issues, plays a part in the final ratings.

Sharp Residential has offered exceptional homes with luxurious features in neighborhoods throughout metro Atlanta. Having been in business for almost two (2) decades, Sharp Residential has a reputation of integrity, earning to honors from the Atlanta Business Chronicle (list of the Top 25 Homebuilders since 2004) and Professional Builder magazine (top 200 on its list of the Top 400 Homebuilders in the country). Sharp Residential also ranks as one of Atlanta’s top 100 private companies.

Given the positive reviews and accolades for Sharp Residential, it is no wonder that they rate so highly in the J.D. Power survey.

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore.

TRATON NEWS: Traton News Establishes New Dedicated Site for Homes and Neighborhoods

2008-09-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Traton News announces today that it has created a new website that is dedicated to reporting news and stories relating to homes and neighborhoods.

The new site, aptly named "Traton Homes and Neighborhoods" seeks to report on various homes and home-builders, neighborhoods and subdivisions, fluctuations in the real-estate market, and other notes of interest in the area of real-estate.

One of the principals of Traton News notes:

We hope that the new site will attract a lot of Internet traffic. Our hope is to showcase some of the incredible homes in Atlanta, including those by John Wieland, Centex, Pulte, and a host of others. We want the home-buying consumers to be aware of what is available, and who provides superb customer service.

With such attention on the real-estate market, it seems as if such a dedicated site may be just what the home-buying public may need.

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore.

TRATON HOMES: John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods Ranks High in 2008 J.D. Power Survey

2008-09-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

In the recently-published 2008 J.D. Power & Associates Survey for Atlanta homes, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods ranks at the top of the survey. Including this year, John Wieland has taken the top spot (or near-top spot) for the past several years.

Given the evaluation criteria, the consistency of John Wieland's performance in the J.D. Power survey speaks volumes about the customer service and work quality by John Wieland.

More information on John Wieland can be found here, and a full copy of the J.D. Power survey on Atlanta homes is reproduced below.

Reporting for Traton News,
Moore & Ingram.

JD Power 2008 Atlanta Home Survey - Upload a Document to Scribd

TRATON HOMES: Traton Homes Rates Below Average for Fourth Consecutive Year

2008-09-15T02:41:00.000-07:00

For the fourth year in a row, Traton Homes shows a below-average performance for overall customer satisfaction, as shown by the 2008 J.D. Power and Associates survey on Atlanta homes. As reported in 2005, 2006, and 2007 by Traton News, Traton Homes consistently rated below average for each and every one of those years.

One reader of Traton News, in commenting on the article about how Traton Homes wasted its resources for useless domain names, noted:

This is rather funny. I always wondered what they were doing instead of making my experience better. :-)

If such a sentiment is reflective of home-buyers' experiences with Traton Homes, then it is no surprise that Traton Homes again ranks below average in the J.D. Power survey of Atlanta homes.

Reporting for Traton News,
Moore & Ingram.

TRATON HEADLINE: Analysis of Traton Homes and Gripe Domain Names

2008-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

In a former article, we noted that the case between Mr. Christopher Moses and Traton Corp. had settled on confidential terms.

With what we can discern from publicly-available information, we now analyze the status and future fate of Traton Sucks and I Hate Traton.

Prior to any analysis, we note that Traton News knows how difficult it is to attain a top-10 ranking on search engines, since we have spent countless hours and resources to make sure that we are visible on all major search engines. Thus, when Traton Sucks and I Hate Traton consistently appeared in the top-10 search-engine results, we had an appreciation of how much time, effort, and energy went into achieving that end result.

Since it seems that Mr. Moses can no longer post articles to Traton Sucks or I Hate Traton, it seems logical that he will simply let those domain names expire or sell them to someone else that has a use for the domain names.

We naturally presume that anyone who wishes to own Traton Sucks or I Hate Traton will be, either: (a) one of the Traton Homes entities, in a defensive effort; or (b) non-Traton-Homes entities that wish to speak out against Traton Homes.

Since Traton Homes is not the current owners of these sites, even after the settlement with Mr. Moses, we can only conclude that, either: (a) Traton Homes had no desire to own these sites; or (b) Mr. Moses refused to transfer the sites to Traton Homes.

In either event, the inevitable future seems to be that some other non-Traton-Homes entity will own the sites and start writing about Traton Homes.

From a business perspective, the two domain names "tratonsucks.com" and "ihatetraton.com" appear to be very easy-to-remember names. We speculate that their top-rankings in the search engines can be attributed to the simplicity of the domain names. Added to their simplicity, the domain names are also dot-coms, rather than a dot-net, dot-org, or dot-anything-else. Thus, even with the complete absence of any informative content, these sites still command a top-ranking on the search engines. For example, even today, when one searches for "traton" on Google, the "sucks" sites appear on the first page (today, it is 4th in rank).

At this point, it is unclear whether the domain names remain with Mr. Moses because Traton Homes simply placed no value on these domain names, or because Mr. Moses refused to transfer the domains to Traton Homes. If it is the former, then one must question the business judgment of Traton Homes, who has registered a host of useless domain names yet does nothing about a pair of domain names that detracts from their own search rankings.

To any future owners of "tratonsucks.com" and "ihatetraton.com," we prospectively convey a hearty congratulations on a pair of domain names that will result in instant notoriety and a good ranking with the search engines.

Reporting for Traton News,
Morley Moore.

TRATON UPDATE: Moses v. Traton Corp., et al., Settles on Undisclosed Terms

2008-06-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

In an article from January of 2008, Traton News reported on a case between Mr. Christopher Moses and Traton Corp.

Recently, we were informed that Mr. Moses has settled the case with Traton Homes. In an attempt to gather more information about the settlement, Traton News asked about the terms of the settlement between Moses and Traton Homes. In response to our request, we were informed only that the dispute was now settled, and that the settlement terms were confidential.

Since none of the parties of the settlement can disclose the settlement terms, we have attempted to gather as much information as we can from publicly-available sources in an effort to determine some of the conditions of the settlement. Here is what we could determine.

Contents of Traton Sucks Removed

As we previously reported, Mr. Moses owned and operated the sites for Traton Sucks and I Hate Traton. While those two sites are still active, it appears that all of the substantive content has been removed from those sites. In short, the sites used to tell the story of how Traton Homes terrorized the Moses family and showed bad business judgment by refusing to provide good customer service. Now, they simply display a notice that the contents of the site have been removed.

While the stories have been removed, the browse-wrap agreement on Traton Sucks and I Hate Traton still reflect that the site is owned and operated by Mr. Moses.

From this, we can deduce:
(1) one of the conditions of the settlement between Traton Homes and Mr. Moses is that Mr. Moses remove his account of Traton Homes' horrible customer service from both Traton Sucks and I Hate Traton.
(2) the conditions did not include any provisions for transferring either Traton Sucks or I Hate Traton to Traton Homes.

Confidentiality Provisions

Of course, we can naturally conclude from the settlement agreement that the conditions of settlement included a confidentiality provision, since Mr. Moses has expressly stated that he cannot share any of the settlement information with us.

Future Articles Relating to the Settlement

We did, in fact, request additional information on the settlement, but were disappointed with the response email message from Mr. J. Kevin Moore, counsel for Traton Homes. That email exchange and our plans, going forward, are the topic of a future article.

Knowing these two pieces of information, we plan to provide an analysis on the business decisions of both Mr. Moses and Traton Homes. Stay tuned for the update.

Updating for Traton News,
Morley Moore.

Traton News - Monthly Stats Report 1 Apr - 30 Apr 2008

2008-05-03T01:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

Monthly Stats Report: 1 Apr - 30 Apr 2008
Project: Traton News
URL: http://tratonnews.blogspot.com

	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Total	853	510	474	36
Average	28	17	16	1

Date	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Tue, 1 Apr	86	63	56	7
Wed, 2 Apr	42	24	23	1
Thu, 3 Apr	82	29	29	0
Fri, 4 Apr	38	13	10	3
Sat, 5 Apr	16	15	14	1
Sun, 6 Apr	11	9	8	1
Mon, 7 Apr	26	18	16	2
Tue, 8 Apr	26	19	16	3
Wed, 9 Apr	18	13	12	1
Thu, 10 Apr	33	6	6	0
Fri, 11 Apr	31	14	12	2
Sat, 12 Apr	25	18	17	1
Sun, 13 Apr	17	14	13	1
Mon, 14 Apr	49	19	19	0
Tue, 15 Apr	34	24	23	1
Wed, 16 Apr	31	14	12	2
Thu, 17 Apr	17	13	11	2
Fri, 18 Apr	22	15	15	0
Sat, 19 Apr	18	13	11	2
Sun, 20 Apr	13	11	11	0
Mon, 21 Apr	36	16	15	1
Tue, 22 Apr	30	15	15	0
Wed, 23 Apr	25	20	20	0
Thu, 24 Apr	25	17	16	1
Fri, 25 Apr	21	20	20	0
Sat, 26 Apr	9	7	7	0
Sun, 27 Apr	12	11	10	1
Mon, 28 Apr	26	16	14	2
Tue, 29 Apr	12	10	9	1
Wed, 30 Apr	22	14	14	0

TIP: Don't forget about the rest of stats we offer. The email report stats have just a fraction of the information that is available to you. To view your real-time stats reports you should ask Moore Ingram to give you access!

If you wish to disable email reports please click here.

Best regards,

StatCounter Team

TRATON HUMOR: Traton Prepares for Reorganization After Declaring Bankruptcy

2008-04-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

Upon careful review of this article, the Officers of Traton News have chosen to remove the contents of this article. Should you want a copy of the article, as it was originally posted, then please send an email message to:

traton@gmail.com

identifying the title of this article. The Officers of Traton News shall make every attempt to provide you with a copy of the article as it was originally posted.

ON 2008 MAY 30, WE BEGAN REVIEW OF THIS ARTICLE. AT THAT TIME, WE NOTED AS FOLLOWS.

This article is currently being reviewed in response to a request by one of our readers. Upon review, we will either re-publish the originally-posted article or post a revision of the originally-published article.

We expect to have the articles reviewed and published (either in its original form or revised) by June 6, 2008.

We thank you for your patience during our review process.

The Officers of Traton News, LLC

Traton News - Monthly Stats Report 1 Mar - 31 Mar 2008

2008-04-01T04:10:00.001-07:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

Monthly Stats Report: 1 Mar - 31 Mar 2008
Project: Traton News
URL: http://tratonnews.blogspot.com

	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Total	917	523	479	44
Average	31	17	16	1

Date	Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Sat, 1 Mar	39	16	12	4
Sun, 2 Mar	20	12	10	2
Mon, 3 Mar	43	25	22	3
Tue, 4 Mar	25	9	8	1
Wed, 5 Mar	17	13	13	0
Thu, 6 Mar	14	10	9	1
Fri, 7 Mar	26	20	17	3
Sat, 8 Mar	26	18	16	2
Sun, 9 Mar	35	18	15	3
Mon, 10 Mar	82	80	80	0
Tue, 11 Mar	37	17	16	1
Wed, 12 Mar	26	12	10	2
Thu, 13 Mar	27	23	20	3
Fri, 14 Mar	20	10	10	0
Sat, 15 Mar	24	12	12	0
Sun, 16 Mar	12	7	5	2
Mon, 17 Mar	25	16	13	3
Tue, 18 Mar	19	15	12	3
Wed, 19 Mar	25	18	18	0
Thu, 20 Mar	20	12	12	0
Fri, 21 Mar	93	28	27	1
Sat, 22 Mar	54	5	5	0
Sun, 23 Mar	8	6	4	2
Mon, 24 Mar	23	18	18	0
Tue, 25 Mar	56	17	14	3
Wed, 26 Mar	24	19	18	1
Thu, 27 Mar	37	20	17	3
Fri, 28 Mar	20	16	16	0
Sat, 29 Mar	22	18	18	0
Sun, 30 Mar	18	13	12	1

TRATON REPRINT: Traton Homes Ratings Sub-Standard for Three Consecutive Years

2008-03-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

For the third year in a row, Traton Homes has ranked well below average, as shown by the J.D. Power and Associates survey on Atlanta homes. As reported for 2005 and 2006 by Traton News, the performance by Traton Homes for those years was not far above pathetic.

In the 2007 report, John Wieland Homes makes a clean sweep of all categories, placing it in a very coveted position of being the highest-rated in terms of customer satisfaction.

Unlike John Wieland's stellar performance, Traton Homes ranked barely within the lowest 25th percentile for overall satisfaction, and dwindled around the 30th percentile for new home quality. In short, this translates to a relatively dissatisfied customer base for Traton Homes.

On hearing about the report, a former Traton Homes homeowner remarked:

It doesn't surprise me that John Wieland ranks so high. They have a great reputation and my friends that bought Wieland homes are pleased with their purchase. If I had known this information during my home-buying process, then I would definitely have avoided buying from Traton. The report accurately reflects my sentiments about Traton Homes.

According to Paula Sonkin, vice president of the real estate and construction industries practice at J.D. Power and Associates:

In times like these, as builders attempt to attract customers and close sales in the midst of tightening credit and weakening demand, differentiation through customer satisfaction, new-home quality, design and mortgage origination become especially important.

Keeping satisfaction levels high in these aspects, which are of primary importance to potential buyers, will be critical to remaining competitive.

Originally Reported for Traton News by Moore and Ingram.