Apologies...this is a LONG post:
First: Jerry IS NOT Banned. He has been placed in Read-Only mode, if you have been told otherwise, you have been misinformed. He is able to login and read any and all discussions. For that status to change he has to agree to meet the following criteria:
- Accept that the forums are not owned or run by Brian, that Gregg and I own them 50/50. (See our philosophy on 'ownership' below please, its important)
- Commit, via a phone call to me (or Gregg works too) that you will try to do better. Explain your posts better, the 'one-liners' often come off as rude/insulting/degrading which result in PM's, phone calls & texts with a myriad of complaints. Explain that in 'your opinion' vs. the outright claim that your way is the only way...(Gregg - is that an accurate summary of your email?)
THAT"S IT FOLKS...that is all it takes...they were laid forth by a number of folks...not just me. The response to that request was: "I'm not changing for you or anybody!" So, Jerry chose, by his own actions & words, this result.
Second: You have all the emails now Jason...enjoy.
Third: This is absolutely not personal, despite the assertion that it is; that I hate him because he's a Democrat, and I'm a Republican (I'm a Democrat btw)... If ANY member received the emails I have from another member, over a long period, this would be the result. Brian founded this forum on mutual respect for everyone. We (meaning all of us members) are not here to be degraded and insulted, regardless of whether you have 1 post or 5000...mutual respect is a requirement that everyone here does a tremendous job of maintaining.
Finally, I realize that my post about 'it bothered Me' came off as incredibly poorly worded and sure, dictatorish...so for that I apologize. You may believe, or have been told, that that was the cause of the action taken. However, it was not.
As I stated earlier, there is a long, extended history here of consistent and chronic poor behavior and forum membership violations that prompted this action. It was not taken without forwarding the email exchange to multiple folks. They are welcome to step forward, but I won't do so without their permission...there were more who reviewed the exchange besides Gregg and myself. There were also multiple phone calls to discuss this as I didn't want to (and didn't) make this decision alone, and not without their full support.
Having said all of that...Jim B had an excellent point tonight, that it is our fault (Gregg and I) for doing so much behind the scenes to manage situations, instead of pushing folks that they need to be on the forum for discussion...(believe that was Doug's point as well). I accept that..that's true. So, yes, things will be changing on that front.
There is a lot more to this..a lot more. For example...did you know that its my fault that the meet at Red Wing is called the '8th Annual'? According to Jerry it is...despite the fact that I didn't organize 1-6...it is my fault that the meets when Jesse ran the club, weren't counted and that it wasn't started at 6 when Brian started them...its my fault. (For the record, it started at 1st b/c it was the 1st year at Red Wing...NOT b/c Brian was attempting to discredit any prior meet.) Yep, I get the nastiest emails about that...and have for a while...I need to 'Grow Up' and I have 'been told over and over' that its not the 8th meet.
How much more would you like to know? There's a lot...and I'm tired of getting consistently berated by 1 individual...b/c I 'won't just do what he says'...out of some supposed slight that occurred years and years ago, that has nothing to do with me.
OK, enough, I'm tired.
'Ownership'...what does that mean:
Someone's name ultimately goes on the domain name account, and a credit card has to back that up. When Brian needed someone to step in and help, it was apparent that having 1 individual only, know the site passwords & account information has inherent risks. That means that 1 person can control everything right? Not good. When I took over 2+ years ago, I immediately passed on ALL passwords and accounts, including the 1&1 hosting info to ALL Moderators to insure that no one person could control the site. Gregg, Jason and Brian were all given this information.
Ownership does not equal 'power' over members here, it never has, and never will...we made a decision that has caught folks off guard, however, that decision was not made in a vacuum. I purposefully distributed that info to prevent 1 person from bringing this great forum & website down like what happened at Carlson Speed & the Nat forums. This site can live for as long as folks want it to.
Last year, I asked Gregg to pay for 1/2 the website hosting fees in exchange for being a 'co-owner' because at that time, I again, didn't want full control over it and NO, despite his post, and email's from Jerry, Gregg has not quit. Time to come out of the closet Gregg...I've outed you! LOL.
As for Jerry...The choice has always been his...it was his choice to continue to send me vitriolic filled emails after asking him to not, it was his choice to leave the forums when I asked him to work on his posts. It is STILL his choice to come back...but that ball is in his court and always has been...but he has to agree to the (very easy) conditions posted above. I'm simply not here to be consistently blamed for everything wrong with the forums in his opinion. I work very hard to keep this forums safe & stable and hacker free...to be abused & slammed as I have been.
I'm not sure if that will help explain anything to anyone, but this is not just about David's thread, or Brandon's oil filter post...there is so, so much more, more than I'm going to post here.
In the end, I agree that my post on David's thread came off as being a dictator...I get that, but hopefully, given the history above, folks will understand that the straw that broke the camel's back happened, and no, I didn't post or word that correctly. I'll take that as a 'need to do better' reminder.
Any other questions? (Like I said, long history here...but, there you go folks...)
Once Jerry stops his antics behind the scenes...the email's to members, the phone calls, the accusations, the name calling, etc, trying to stir up trouble, agrees to try to do better, he will sit in Read Only for 2 weeks and then he'll be back, and can stay back provided he behaves. Jim B thought that was fair, and I agree.
As always, feel free to add your 2 cents!
