Why I'm not here steady as I was before as part of this community
All this CRAP too, like Ramjet has bothered me! It sucks, it just plain sucks. We were a merry band, but that is over. Now there exists a few (merry ?)bands. To think it could last is/was silly. People engaged in marriage, where one would hope more commitment to getting along would exist, can't always make it work out. To think it would last in my mind was a pipe dream...just blowing up smoke. People have stress, are busy, have conflicting opinions, personal characteristics and moral values. How would a bunch of guys, many who have never met in reality, only over the web, have the maturity, and consideration for one another to get along. Some of you think we are a special breed us Odyssey/Pilot owners, we should be able to rise above the average Joe and put aside our petty feelings and moral indifferences. What a LOAD of crap, we can't do it in society, why would anyone think this sport of us would make it any different. I thought we were but we're not. I think we should be, because we are few in numbers, our machines are rare, there is a way smaller technical knowledge base for these ATV's than many others. But alas, it is what it is.
Why I'm not here at P-O.com:
First it was shut down, so I like everyone else had 2 choices, wait or go somewhere else, I choose the later. Now I don't pretend to know all what transpired to bring about the great demise. But what I do know I will share, and these are my reasons. I in no way intend to try and make them yours, I just want to let you all know why.
First off what was seen by everyone. The board was getting very hostile, a lot of bashing was going on. Bumpers used CV's, political and moral issues were getting beat to death, resurrected just to be beat to death again. Some complaints were made to KiowA about certain threads, and KiowA pulled the plug and stated it was for self-preservation, had to protect himself FROM lawsuits. Remember that this is my account and may not be entirely accurate...but this is what my decision and feelings were based on.
What was going on behind the scenes that a lot of people were not/are not aware of. KiowA was getting fed up with hoser's harshness. Hoser was getting fed up with KiowA's controlling the site, and it not being what he wanted. The group/community was set up before KiowA was in the picture, hoser had a site, but hoser's expertise does not lie in web page building. KiowA was looking for a site/reason/project to test software and offered to help. As things progressed the board became more KiowA's and less hoser's. KiowA was looking for a reason to pull the plug, and when it came, he did so.
Hoser set up his old style post board again, but again had troubles, and believes he was being hacked. He was interested in trying out the phpBB format board and I offered to try it and see if I could get one going to help out in the interim. We then proceeded to get hoser's up and running on his server. I was enjoying the learning of building the site, I wanted more options and different looks than hoser, so I kept playing on my site. I had quite a few requests to keep my site open. At this time I was also getting 45th Parallel ATV Products off the ground and HAVING my own site was a necessity in my eyes. I pulled all my stuff FROM KiowA's server and host all my own now.
Hoser was in chat and had discussed registering P-O.org. Less than 2 days later (I believe) KiowA registers pretty much all combinations of P-O.com. After stating that the Internet was big enough for a bunch of pilot sites, it seemed like a low blow.
KiowA signed up on my site and we PM'd back and forth a few times. I asked why he registered all the combinations. He stated P-O.com was up for renewal and got a good deal on all of them and though it best to keep them in the community. He offered to point P-O.info to my site, I accepted, but to date it has not been done.
I at first thought hoser was the bad guy...but it was a cleverly painted scheme by KiowA, IMO. That just plain pissed me off. So I decided to keep my site. Since I have a side business I'm trying to run I need my own site, and was/am not ready to join forces (and hoser I doubt would agree, and rightfully so) with hoser.
Hoser is no angel in my books. He knows how I feel about him, too harsh, and he has tried to tone it down when posting on my site, and I thank him for that. I help him when I can with his site if he could use a hand, and I still go to him for technical advise. I do not have the technical knowledge of 2-strokes/Pilots to have a technical site...although I do have a knowledgeable guy on site. But I need my site to advertise my products and to have a space to converse with customers, and friends who are not happy to be committed to hoser or KiowA's sites. I like the options the phpBB format has over KiowA's current site. I like being able to log in FROM various computers and being able to see at a glance what's new since my last visit to the board. I like HAVING pictures resized to thumbnails when they're loaded within messages. It loads a lot faster for us on dial-up. Larger versions can still be seen with a click on the actual photo. I like the ability to split and merge threads if they get off topic and should have a new heading. I enjoy the photo gallery where pictures are in one central area and can be sorted INTO categories. I like that users can have and maintain they own personal photo galleries. I like the ability to send private messages within the site to members, the ability to be notified by email when new private messages come in, or new posts are added to a thread you're interested in. You can send blind emails (you don't see their email address) to any member, and they can reply if they wish, they see your email address as listed on your profile on site. I added an onsite chat, mainly for those who like me at work behind firewalls can not access an IRC network. I like the ability to be able to mark topics as favorites so they can be stored in one central spot, it's .great for saving technical tidbits.
So, you'll see me pop in at P-O.com, and you'll see me at PO.com, but my home is
www.45thparallel.net click on the bulletin board link and that's my board. Got any ideas for a new GROUP buy, let me know. I've done rims, GPSs, and Power Bloc Clutches. Can get deals on WORKS shocks, Teamtech harnesses, Power Pros Pipes, and Digatron Gauges. Got something else I should pursue, let me know, and I'll CHECK it out.
I'm posting this thread on my site too so you can ensure it was not edited, or incase it gets deleted...
As I stated before, these are my opinions and what I believe to be true. Everyone is entitled to think what they want...this is why I feel the way I do, hope you all understand.
