When it comes to marketing your brand or even having its image represented there’s a certain level of professionalism one should seek from either the riders, reps, or even the owners. After all the point of making a product and selling it is to do just that. Sales are integral to the growth of your brand and marketing yourself so you can achieve that goal is immensely important. Last week I showcased a video with a guy representing a micro snowboard brand and how you don’t want this person representing your company.
Now much like anything I write about, the guy in the video (Dustin Amato) got overly butt hurt about it and started lashing out at me. Sure, fine I get it you’re pissed off I peed on your awesomeness and my golden shower of verbal excellence demeaned you. The funny thing is that this guy actually has a degree in Business Management, although it did take him almost a decade to achieve that expensive piece of paper. Then again I know people that went to school for 10 years for a degree, they’re called doctors. I wasn’t the first pit stop on his rage fueled romp through the interweb, he graced Snowboarding Forum with his presence as well and once again it didn’t go the way he would have liked. But all in all it seems that he might actually be the more intelligent one working at this shell of a company.
Now enter Big Badass Boss Man with some of the greatest hate comments to ever grace this site and suck up bandwidth. You see Dirty D as he is so affectionately known in his social circle (probably the same social circle that frequents the Blue Oyster Bar) is nothing more than the cuddly puppy watch dog of these guys. You see the real man behind them feels that the best way to spin negative publicity is by tyrannical brute force, which seems kind of fitting with their companies name right? I give you the best quotes of the week here:
you want thug? anytime anywhere. sack up, and send me an invitation. you can bet your fat ass i’ll use “due dilligence” in taking care of this problem. we’ll handle your bitchy attitude real f*cking quick. Weve been in this industry for 6 years and were not going anywhere, EVER so get used seeing us in the snowboarding community turnin heads. i would love to see your next 2 posts bitch, lets see your “destruction” You sound like the biggest f*cking geek in the world. and why is snowboarding the whitest sport around? you ignorant racist f*cking pig. i bet your about 5’5, 300lbs, and definately not getting annnyyy pussy. im right? whats your name? i bet i know you personally…which would mean your a fake f*cking loser who PROBABLY doesnt ride at all. any real snowboarder sure as f*ck wouldnt be runnin their mouth about that gangster shit that we rep with pride. Thats our style, ride or die and f*ck what you heard cause until you hear it from us, your just another broke ass jealous cock sucking paper pushin f*cking fag. and yes, that is the guy i want reppin my company, he obviously gets our point across to the real riders buying our boards.
Professionally, isnt that all that matters…..?
P.S. its CESSPOOL not cease pool. retard. and if its snowboard SHIT, then why are you talking about it? i could go on all day rippin your ass apart. go f*ck yourself ass jockey. i’ll reiterate this for the angry douche, i will meet you ANYWHERE face to face.
Hate on haters, we eat this shit up. infamy is still fame Tyrant fo life!!!!!!
Second Comment from their owner:
Jimster, I think you’re the one that doesn’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. In your sheltered fucking world, you might get away talking like that. If we ever met face to face, you’d be the one with his fucking brains spillin out. How do you know where we come from? I’d think about that first with anyone you encounter. It’s kind of an important life lesson, knowing when to shut your ignorant mouth. When you grow up and catch yourself a good old fasioned man ass beatin, you might change your tune a little.
And Zack thats awesome you’ve started riding over the last 6 years. This industry you speak of has been around for over 30 years at this point. And these well known brands, for which Tyrant Snowboards has the up most respect, were the forefathers of the sport we thug for today. Nothing BUT respect is due. These companies have been around a long time and have put in alot of hard work to get the recognition they have today. Thats why we started building our own snowboards, not just slapping some graphics on some chinese shit that so many of these so called “1st tier snowboard companies” have started doing. This shit takes time and intense dedication. I dont see you guys starting with next to nothing, building great snowboards with no more than snowboard techshop experience and staying around for six years in this economy? Back off the people trying to make their lives all about snowboarding and go enlighten yourself with something you truly love.I apologize to all for not getting the proper information on our boards. But I thank everyone for this uproar, since traffic on our website has increased 20% more this july than the same month in years previous. So at least the people are still getting the real story for Tyrant Snowboards.
Now lets look at this logically for a second. I posted a legible and coherent post for a site I own then I let it run its course with mild involvement from me in the comments section. These guys then went and took it to the next level all while I sat back and did nothing. In that time more comments from them were met with harsher criticism from what some might call “potential customers” a.k.a. you my readers. Along with that another post that was well written about this shot up over on Deserts Don’t Snow and Dirty D graced our Facebook Fan Page as well as the comments section a few more times.
So what is a Tyrant? Well according to the dictionary it’s, “Any person in a position of authority who exercises power oppressively or despotically”. Anyone think this pretty much fits the owner to a t?
I’m going to address a few simple points to the owner. Threatening me is one thing, but threatening readers of a site that’s another. You pretty much just killed your brands image with those that frequent this site. If you would use “due diligence” you would see that this site is one of the most viewed independent snowboard publications with a broad readership that spans the globe. Sure you can brag how your sites visits went up 20% and people are getting the truth about Tyrant. But that would be your lack of intelligence impeding you from realizing that if your site jumped 20% due to this that I must have some serious readership and that my readers actually will go to your site to see how cheesy of a brand you are. They’re also the type of person that does market research before they buy a snowboard and seeing that video just turned them off, they like product reviews (Dirty D you taking notes here since you attempted to call me out for writing reviews), they also like to know tech specs. But hey according to you,” infamy is still fame”. Man someone needs to learn basic logic when it comes to that idea.
Now I’d like to point out some irony here. Does anyone else find it funny that he said I hide behind my computer being a hater which makes me detached from the situation, yet he physically threatened me through his computer as well? Yeah I’m laughing at that one still as are a lot of other people. Also kind of ironic I get called a racist but you’re definitely homophobic. Plus I was just stating the truth look at the numbers it’s predominately white, sure it’s changing but I’m not about to debate that issue.
This is amusing to me they dropped the we’ve been in the industry 6 years, OK add another 8 to that and you have how many years I’ve been in. 6 years in and yet you still weren’t at the national on snow after SIA, I saw a few of your riders lurking about but no booth. Yeah that’s awesome maybe that’s part of your selling point we’re so small no one can try them before they buy em. That way the customer wouldn’t know they’re getting dated technology. Honestly who the fuck still uses sandwich construction on a board? Oh look traditional camber, guess you’re not able to make new cassettes and molds to build something reverse which is what the market actually dictates right now. Or perhaps you’re just catering to the niche camber market!
You guys really wanted to piss off myself and the readers here well you got it. There’s a reason it’s called The Angry Snowboarder! I hope you two dipshits realize the power of the internet and the online snowboard community. We do have the power to make and break brands. I’ve been at the forefront of that revolution for years and seen what it can do and right now you guys are repeating the steps of others. Good job isolating any form of a market share. Maybe you two should go back to school and this time instead of spending 10 years ripping bong hits and coming out with little more than an associates you actually fucking learn something you twats.
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34 Responses
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by angrysnowboard. angrysnowboard said: Check it out Brand Marketing with Tyrant Snowboards http://bit.ly/9c7tDT [...]
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 1:49 am
[...] travels even faster. I’m sure if you read my blog you read other, better, ones as well. ie Angry Snowboarder and Deserts Dont Snow. If so then I’m also sure you’ve read and discussed with fellow [...]
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 4:32 am
[...] Snowboards responded in the comments there and also on snowboardingforum.com, and Angry published a follow-up piece this morning (which Tyrant had not responded to at [...]
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Thats pretty good, he should recognize the extra 20% of hits werent good ones. Thats pretty much 20% buisness they will never see. This is one of those situations that im not sure to slow clap or face palm.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 10:43 am
well im never buying a tyrant board! these guys sound like a bunch of tools.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Avran LeFeber (i love how you edited out my last response) Still too afraid to show your own readers your real name?
Like I previously stated I never physically threatened you and I did you call you for sitting behind you CPU, it was your repeated verbal lashings against my person, the company I represent, and even my mother that even provoked my response in the first place. I never called you a “racist” or even mentioned homosexuality accept in the sense that you suck “corporate dick” while claiming to be from the underground.
I love how you continue to try and demean my intelligence and character even in this post. If I graduated in 6 years with 2 Full Degrees and a Minor, and I did this while living and studying in Spain and Chile for substantial periods of time and running one of the largest college snowboard clubs on the west Coast with over 350+ paid members, organizing weekend trips to tahoe, backyard rail jams, video premier parties, winter break trips to(Crested Butte, Breck, Whistler) Spring Break Trips to Soldiers Camp in South Lake, summer trips to Hood and everywhere in between.
Its obvious your intent was to spark a reaction of “violence” to try and prove some point you were trying to make and say look “we don’t need these kind of people in snowboarding”
While, I might not agree with the statements the owner made but it is obvious that is what you were trying to provoke. And if you are picking a fight you will get a fight its that simple.
I am not apologizing for their statements, but if read 40+ comments attacking something you have put your life and soul into just to have internet haters threaten to take that away from you. You would be pretty pissed off too. Boards we still make with our own hands in our own factories by real people, we still have that old fashion marksmanship and personal dedication that so many brands lack these days.
Now I am a lil older than the rest of the crew, so I did not react to your meaningless insults in the way you wanted by “typin all gangsta and threatening to bust cap” and that obviously infuriated you enough to call then the help from your other blog buddies and over emphasize the owners reaction when your obvious beef is with me.
As you stated in your quote you are the “Angry Snowboarder” which is basically the biggest hater in the snowboard world and a Hypocrite in his own right.
Support the Underground snowboard industry while trying to stomp the life blood out of small snowboard companies trying to succeed against all odds.
Great Job Buddy.
Your probably the same guy that preaches go eat at the health food store but instead shops at walmart. You probably oppose the legalization of Marijuana and are for the imprisonment of millions of americans arrested each year for simple possession of a plant while you drink tall tan’s all day and cheer for the war in Iraq shouting “kill the insurgents send are troops to death….”
All of the points that you brought up and links provided; I am not afraid to have my personal pages displayed in a public forum… But you yourself definitely are. There is not one contact for you personally, not a picture, not your name nothing. you hide behind the facade of the Angry Snowboarder. Avran LeFeber – For your own sake, I hope you can start living and be yourself one day. You will find that Hate is not the Answer.
I hope when I do see you at SIA you give this “cuddly puppy watch dog” a great big hug, in the hopes we can still be friends and you can re-garnish your soul from the pits of anger.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I’m pretty sure the basis of this blog post as well as the other’s featured on Desert’s Don’t Snow and Shred the Gnar Brah are all about how the owner of Tyrant Snowboards portrayed himself and his company and less about you, Dirty D.
The ramblings you gave about your experience and successes in the snowboard industry would not have been know without you telling us much like personal information about ‘Avran LeFeber’ wouldn’t be known unless he chose to tell you or you asked him.
The whole bitchfest that has occured as a result of hurt feelings is a little dramatic if you ask me. Sorry as a ‘snowboard community’ we have learned to tell the difference between people who give a shit about the industry and the people who are just looking to make a quick buck.
If Dirty D. actually has all the experience he claims to have, then their is absolutely NO REASON for him to speak the way he did in the Tyrant SIA video. No one in their right mind would buy a board from someone who can’t speak proper english and/or describe in detail the tech. spec. of the product they are trying to represent.
As a lesson learned, don’t piss off the wrong people. Word of mouth is a lot more detrimental to a product and brand than a simple threat of ass kicking.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
BRING IT ON
WE LOVE HATERS
AGAINST ALL ODDS
TYRANT FOR LIFE
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Avran said it himself he has a social anxiety disorder and cannot meet up with people in public. That is why he hides behind his angry snowboarder facade.
I will not stoop to his level and go about name calling;
I mean seriously;
“Mouth Breather” “dipshit” “Twat” that you portray as your “golden shower of verbal excellence”
I think you should probably “smoke some pot” u might chill out and be less self delusional about your “superiority” in this world, instead of being the thankless ego-centric hater you have become.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Well done AS – love the “Tommy Boy” reference to doctors. Secondly – This is for “Dirty D” I’m only commenting on your video / Sales pitch at SIA. That was a complete insult to anyone with any intelligence about snowboarding. Who was your demographic? The aged Run DMC crowd by saying “ill” all the time or little girls that only just buy stuff with the pretty colors. You must think we’re a bunch of idiots that will aimlessly buy anything. To close the deal you might as well offered free Ed Hardy T-shirts and a gold plated grill for ones teeth. How hard was the camera crew laughing while shooting that clip? Do us all a favor and leave the snowboarding community all together! No substance, but full of crap… You guys are like a disease!
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
It’s been interesting to watch some of the insanity spew forth on these threads. I can honestly say as a person who’s been in this industry for a long time, there is NO reason, absolutely NONE, that a company owner should EVER respond in such a manner in any public forum. It’s completely unprofessional, no matter how provoked, or irritated said owner may be. Avran is entitled to his opinion, and he’s well known for having one. The part I don’t think the Tyrant fellas understand is that no matter how pissy, or disgruntled Avran may seem, he’s been in this industry long enough to understand it, and the processes, scenes, and so much more that go along with snowboarding. Love him or hate him, he has his readers, and I’ll almost guarantee that Tyrant lost sales due to their inability to control their emotions. Dirty D. I honestly found your video a bit annoying. I’ll clarify why:
1.) Can you please elaborate on the technology in your boards
2.) Using terminology such as “illest,” “cop,” and “stuff” shows you didn’t really have any understanding of what you were trying to show. Please understand, I’m not trying to be mean here, but let you know, that in the future it may be prudent to actually use words and terminology that people understand and take serious.
So while I’m really nobody special, I do understand this industry really well, and can say, that Tyrant does fill a niche, however small it may be, and perhaps may just end up working out as a company. On the other hand, the reality factor says, they probably won’t make it in the long run, or will continue to be a very small company with a very small niche. Regardless, I’ve been turned off by the brand at this point.
Keep up the Rants Angry! Whether we love you or hate you, we’re reading!
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I just wanna know what the damn sidecut radii are, what the running length is and how you measure your “effective edge”. I just want to know are your board lengths the flat material length? Or the length after the board is finished? If flat material length, is it with edges or not? Same goes for widths, is that the width before or after the edge is applied?
Is your effective edge the straight line distance from inflection point to inflection point? or is it from widest point to widest point? Or is it an arc length? Are you running 4×4 inserts or are you running “machine gun” style? I have seen pictures of both. What weight glass are you using? Are you using triaxial E-glass, Biaxial e glass or s-glass?
Is your sidecut radial? Is it a couple arcs? Is it parabolic? A combination of a bunch of different stuff? Did you bevel the edges or are they 90 degrees?
You say you are building the boards, and I’ve seen a couple photos of people building boards, WHO is building them? You? “The Owner”? Neither of you (at first glance) appear to have ever built a board. If you have hired help and someone else is building them, that’s fine with me, I’d just like to see some answers to the questions above. I could care less about all the other crap and the name calling and the fighting. YOU CAN BE TOUGH AND BE A NERD AT THE SAME TIME, ITS OK TO DO THIS, AND CHICKS ACTUALLY DIG IT. Put some numbers together and post em up.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Im glad to see a brand that handles itself professionally, especially when responding to criticism! Instead of looking at criticism as a way to improve, you guys just lash out because apparently there is nothing wrong with your brand. You are doomed to fail.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
“MOUTH BREATHER” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
insult of the year!
runner up is “Mormon face”
but seriously, who the hell is buying snowboards for the illest graphics with no regard for any kind of tech? idiots, that’s who. the same people that buy bitchboards. trendy high school clowns with their parents credit cards and no purpose but to become “the illest” kid on the slopes.
i now present you with your theme song, “Bed Spread Hoodie” found at http://www.myspace.com/forumpodcast
suck it trebek.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Ill be honest man, when i saw dirty d in the first vid last week i thought, yeah, i get it, its not aimed at me or anyone like me, but theres 14 year old kids who are going to get on this. Its like boybands in a way, or suburban hiphop
The truth is, adults are going to be put off by e-thuggery, but kids who want to stick it to ‘the man’ are going to be HYPED by all this. Two weeks ago id never heard of them, now i have. I know its a cliche that all publicity is good publicity, but their brand recognition has pretty much gone through the roof right now. The ganster owner seems a little tongue in cheek in truth, but damn if its not perfect marketing for younger anti-establishment riders. And lets face it angry, dude youre part of the establishment… and getting you to bitch about them pretty much does their job.
If youre an adult, like me, you aint sucked in by this type of advertisng, but remember this, not every product is targeted at you, More power to those guys. I hope they do well, theyve created a bit of controversy and made a bit of a name for themselves, and even if its a little bit negative, its still jacked up their profile something rotten. Expect a lot of 14 year old kids getting the outline of this, not really getting what the grown up complaints are about (the decline in substance vis a vis identity) and just assuming that theyre doing things bad ass! haha! bless their little heats
Kids are daft, tyrant dont seem to be 
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
I just have a question. Is mouth breather an insult? I breath through my mouth. Should there be some other portal to get air from? Have I been doing this all wrong?? Please help. I’m having a mid-kid crisis.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
PS, If you guys were smart youd do exactly what doug said though. You can be gangsta and appeal to the kids, but the smart move is to remember its adults with the expendable income at the end of the day, so a little nod and a wink to us would go a long way in getting you sales. Hype the boards and lifestyle how you like in your promo videos, but try and balance themeat and potatoes of it for people looking for a bit more detail
If you get people even remotely interested its half the battle, but you need to make the sale as well.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
wow that was a full bukaki of shit out of the mouth of dirtyd. Tyrant for life lets see that worked well for hitler he shot himself. That is what i think he just did to the image of this company.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Jenise, you have been doing it wrong. you breath through your nose.. and exhale through the mouth.
unless you’re underwater. then you’re fucked.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Mouth breather, that’s up there with ass farter. By the way, checked your website, now you should be up 40%, anyways that site could use some love….doesn’t say anything about the brand, tech & just says you build your own boards…show something, otherwise literally everything that is known about you guys is off that clip.
Posted on July 15th, 2010 at 1:14 am
Going by the sizes on the boards, they are made for 12 year olds and small clogged elves, in which case, all the threats of physical violence are all the scarier- can’t ride so well when your shins are hurting!!
Posted on July 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
[...] from the trip.Nitro rocked out in 2 Alpes.WednesdayIn the US, it’s all-out war as the Angry Snowboarder takes offense at Tyrant’s sales banter (the post that kicked it all off is here), while down under things are warming up for the NZ [...]
Posted on July 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
Lizz,
Is it okay to breath through your mouth when you finish a long run and you can’t get enough air through your nose? Thinking about it, I now realize that I both inhale and exhale through my nose, but I want to make sure I know the mouth rules just to be safe. I wouldn’t want people to think ill of me because I breath incorrectly. Who knew a way of inducing oxygen into your body could be used as an insult…
Posted on July 16th, 2010 at 11:03 am
to make truly good snowboards, one must first step back and learn to breathe. There will be many many many times during the whole ordeal where you will need to learn this skill to keep from chucking boards across the shop, punching people, breaking objects which had no fault in the problems.
The owner needs to take a step back, and learn to breathe again, maybe even step down, if he never says another word in public, that might be Tyrant’s best bet. Like I said let the boards do the talking
Posted on July 16th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
but that would involve mouth breathing
Posted on July 16th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
from youtube comments:
“My bad your right, totally didnt cover any techs, I guess i mainly ride the boards and dont build em but here ya go!
Tip to Toe Alpine wood cores, 4000 sintered base, P-Tex Sidewalls, core metal edges. All Top of the line materials handmade in the USA by snowboarders for snowboarders.”
Alpine wood cores, and core metal edges, totally awesome.
Posted on July 16th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
i was actually slightly considering (but not really) perhaps investing in a tyrant snowboard before, but after seeing all the stupidity from the owners and reps of the company, I can honestly say now I will never support this company, and i will be sure to tell all my friends/people I ride with to do the same. they basically spit in the face of potential customers, what the hell are they thinking? worst image, worst marketing, and probably the worst board technology ever. and if this dirty d guy is even half as smart as he claims he is, then why does he portray himself as this big stoner idiot in those videos? either thats what he really is, or he’s created a fake image to sell product. either way, its lame as fuck and is costing them business.
Posted on July 18th, 2010 at 8:57 am
As a Las Vegas snowboarder I have seen this company grow from the ground up. The owners have put there blood sweat and tears into there product. I have seen their factory I know a couple of people that work for em making boards. Tryant has done a-lot for our local mountain. We almost have a legit park thanks to them and their work in the off season helping build rails and just investing time. I have known the owners for about 6 yrs and they really are solid nice guys. Now i agree the way they have handled this is not the way I would have done it but to each there own. I can tell you first hand I have ridden one of there boards and it rode just as good as my burton custom did. Let me ask you guys a question if you had invested everything you had into your company then somebody just starts trashing you without ever trying your product would you be pissed??? I agree Dirty d does look like a doosh in that video not knowing anything about the product. I mean look what smokin snowboards did with Buck Ferton at least Buck new the info on all the boards and new all specs!!!!!
Posted on July 18th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Alright, alright. Seriously. Let’s cool it. Dirty D’s target market ain’t a lot of us. We find Tyrant’s marketing silly. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. But enough with the dick waving, the “I will destroy you because I’m the most powerful website in the snowboarding world” and the similarly over the top “Your soul must be destroyed” or the “Let’s fight” stuff.
There is a funny sense, though, in which we are demanding “professionalism” in snowboard marketing. We’re talking the about the sport of weed, bros, yo dudes, high fives, working as a line cook to afford a couch and lift tickets. I do find it ironic.
I think Dirty D (granted, that’s an incredibly silly handle) has acquitted himself nicely in backing out the calls for violence or his other weird claims, including explaining his corny slang. It’s all target market, man. And it’s clear he just wants everyone to stop shitting on him. Can’t we grant him that wish, as he says, for sake of a small micro-board outfit?
Posted on July 18th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
How bout they provide a test board and we find out how the product actually rides? If your product is good it will sell.
I don’t know much about these guys other than the video post from SIA and the stuff thrown around on the fourms and blogs. But the way this was handled by both Dirty D and the owner is just not the right way to go about promoting your brand and products. Instead of threatening people they should have stfu and said you know what, the vid from SIA may have been a bad decision but here’s the product, test it and let that be the proof.
Posted on July 19th, 2010 at 11:42 am
find an unbiased tester after all of this…
Posted on July 19th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Just in from the Shop.
Yo, its all sintered 4000 bases. We are using screen print and diecut base graphics. The length and width are the raw distances before pressing with the edge accounted for. We are using the standard 4×4 pattern in all boards except the Tyrant which is a machine gun style to increase your stance options for the more technical park rider. All the boards exept the peril and the tyrant are using a heavy weight e glass. 23 oz bi axel on bottom and triaxl on the bottom. The Tyrant has a triaxl on the bottom with a tri carbon weave that we designed on the top layer of glass. There peril is a 21 oz biaxl on top and bottom. The edges are factory finished and detuned at 90 degrees so the rider can take it from the store to the park.
Sorry as the site kept getting updated more and more specs and technology were getting removed year after year and I’m not sure why? But next years will have a tech page again. I feel they are important
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
yo tyrant is wack, those fools are straight dummies.
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
speak for yourself drawler. tyrant is vegas. having been a rider for them, i speak from legit experience. tyrant4life
Posted on August 21st, 2010 at 10:06 pm
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