This was thrown at me today. What a rant.
You may not wish to read all of it. Seems an un happy place. Not been there since I found this forum. So pleased I did.
UAMF stands for Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum.
Dear Modeller,
You are receiving this email because I believe you to be a member of the current UAMF.
(A list of emails was drawn up, prior to us moving to the new site. This was to ensure that contact with the membership could still be possible, even if the Forum became unavailable).
I have been asked to give an explanation of my forced absence.
If you do not want further updates from myself, then please let me know, asap, and I will remove you from my Contact List. Please also accept my apologies for contacting you...it won’t happen again.
If you are not a current member of the UAMF, you may now wish to re-join, now that I have left.
Please feel free to pass this onto other members, who may not be aware of the circumstances surrounding my sudden departure.
So...are you sitting comfortably?
Well...Once Upon A Time...
Back in December, there was a brief discussion, wherein I discussed with MightyMikeD the removal of a link to another Forum. (The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum • View topic - Posting links to other Forums )
During this, MattBacon rightly chose to move this to the Admin Recycle Bin, pending further discussion with the rest of the Team. It was decided to clarify the issue regarding links and to edit of Terms & Conditions accordingly. All well and good.
However, during the discussion, Falcon waded in from out of the blue with a rant against myself for ‘acting alone’. It appeared that he specifically resented my prolific posting and modelling contributions. He launched a very abusive, personal attack against myself and the rest of the Team. Given that the only response at the time was a stunned “Good grief” from Softscience, I took the decision to quit the Admin Team. It was that or fight my corner, with likely unpleasant consequences for the Team. Besides, I had modelling to do.
After several weeks, I was still receiving Admin-related emails and, upon investigation, I found that I still had access to Admin-only areas. All of this was noted to Flakmonkey, who runs the site software. Following failed attempts to remove my Admin powers and access, he took the proper decision to temporarily suspend my account, whilst reviewing the Permissions-aspect of the Forum. So far, so good.
Whilst I was suspended, a very small number of Admin Team members took it upon themselves to delete ‘MerlinJones’ from the Forum. Whilst the loss of access to some 8000 posts by myself was irritating, the deletion of 300+ Private Messages was more than irritating. These included liasons with other modellers and agencies, transactions of instruction sheets and decals and parts and the like, as well as personally-orientated support to other Forum members.
Remember that the only action I had taken, to this point, was to quit the Admin Team.
Eventually, I managed to re-enlist as an ordinary Member and continued to post my modelling content as before.
During this time, I noticed that our Archive was unavailable and liased with the Forumer Support Team accordingly, using the Forumer Support Forums. As a consequence of my input, the archive was saved from deletion. I did receive communication from that Team, who were then curious as to why my UAMF peers were seemingly giving me such a ‘hard time’, when they should be congratulating me on my efforts.
Every time I posted, I noticed rapid interest by certain Admin members and, after a series of postings to the Gallery, wherein I missed posting Build links, I received notice from JamesPerrin, telling me that I should ‘very well know’ that link’s should be supplied and that my images will be deleted if they were not. This followed a mass of link-free postings from PaulBradley. I duly added appropriate links.
At this point, I freely admit to experiencing some frustrations with regards the Teams over-interest in myself and their imagining that I was ‘obviously up to no good’. I was also aware that, behind the apparent ‘United Front’, the Team was anything but.
I used the Report function, to note the little red boxes, amongst other broken posts and MattBacon took it upon himself to close all of my Reports, without acting upon any of them.
The Search Engine for our Archive did not work. I made a call and it was prioritised and recovered. Meanwhile, the Admin Team were trying to work out how best to block me from the Archive.
I complained and was deleted and banned, as ‘recognition and acknowledgement’ of my contributions over the last decade.
I held just short of 5Gb of images for the Forum, costing me some £200 a year in subscription fees. I had chosen to move to ImageShack, and then acquired no ability, whatsoever, to edit old posts.
To those of you who believe I acted in childish vandalism, no.
To those of you who believe I took my ball home, Flakmonkey has the ball. It is His ball and no-one else can play with it, unless He wants them to. The fact that someone else made the ball what it is, is irrelevant. It is now His.
Flakmonkey made a largely dishonest announcement to the Forum, which was quickly removed, following dissent from other Admin Team members. JRatz then announced a ‘Spring Clean’ and has begun his task of wiping me from Forum history. As a part of this Spring Clean, it appears that the Team has also deemed positive feedback, given by other people to other people, as pointless and worthy of deletion.
Expect a series of Forum downtimes and, upon return, an assurance that nothing has been lost. In actuality, you will find my threads and other works disappearing...even the ones without images.
I know what I’ve done and that some of the following worked, some didn’t;
So...The Future?
For the Forum, I’m a little pessimistic. It’s highly unlikely the current Admin Team will begin to contribute any new ideas and, whilst there maybe a brief spurt of presence, I don’t expect their modelling input to suddenly increase, either. I do know that many of the Team are actually somewhat apathetic towards modelling, so don’t expect much. Besides, as Matt Bacon believes, the purpose of the Admin team is to ensure that things run smoothly. What ‘things’ are to run smoothly is open to question.
As my input is wiped from the Forum, you will also notice some items becoming re-vamped, with someone else’s name attached to it.
So it’s down to you guys to come up with the fresh ideas, to keep the modelling going and the Forum fresh. Without, the Forum will simply wither and stagnate.
For myself, I’ve received enough interest to convince me to at least continue to upload my images to Imageshack. This is an extremely tedious task, but once I’ve done that, I will have more options available to me.
I might create an on-line Gallery, with illustrated How To’s and Tips. However, this will involve a load of typing that I’m not sure I can be bothered with at the moment and I’m doubtful is really required. I might create a blog, although this is, again, unlikely.
That said, I will continue with my modelling, because I enjoy it. That last point is important. Obviously, I am saddened by my treatment and surprised. With modelling, we indulge our inner child and so it makes a kind of sense that some will return to the childhood bullying behaviours of their past. C’est la vie.
Regards and thank you for reading.
Bruce
You may not wish to read all of it. Seems an un happy place. Not been there since I found this forum. So pleased I did.
UAMF stands for Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum.
Dear Modeller,
You are receiving this email because I believe you to be a member of the current UAMF.
(A list of emails was drawn up, prior to us moving to the new site. This was to ensure that contact with the membership could still be possible, even if the Forum became unavailable).
I have been asked to give an explanation of my forced absence.
If you do not want further updates from myself, then please let me know, asap, and I will remove you from my Contact List. Please also accept my apologies for contacting you...it won’t happen again.
If you are not a current member of the UAMF, you may now wish to re-join, now that I have left.
Please feel free to pass this onto other members, who may not be aware of the circumstances surrounding my sudden departure.
So...are you sitting comfortably?
Well...Once Upon A Time...
Back in December, there was a brief discussion, wherein I discussed with MightyMikeD the removal of a link to another Forum. (The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum • View topic - Posting links to other Forums )
During this, MattBacon rightly chose to move this to the Admin Recycle Bin, pending further discussion with the rest of the Team. It was decided to clarify the issue regarding links and to edit of Terms & Conditions accordingly. All well and good.
However, during the discussion, Falcon waded in from out of the blue with a rant against myself for ‘acting alone’. It appeared that he specifically resented my prolific posting and modelling contributions. He launched a very abusive, personal attack against myself and the rest of the Team. Given that the only response at the time was a stunned “Good grief” from Softscience, I took the decision to quit the Admin Team. It was that or fight my corner, with likely unpleasant consequences for the Team. Besides, I had modelling to do.
After several weeks, I was still receiving Admin-related emails and, upon investigation, I found that I still had access to Admin-only areas. All of this was noted to Flakmonkey, who runs the site software. Following failed attempts to remove my Admin powers and access, he took the proper decision to temporarily suspend my account, whilst reviewing the Permissions-aspect of the Forum. So far, so good.
Whilst I was suspended, a very small number of Admin Team members took it upon themselves to delete ‘MerlinJones’ from the Forum. Whilst the loss of access to some 8000 posts by myself was irritating, the deletion of 300+ Private Messages was more than irritating. These included liasons with other modellers and agencies, transactions of instruction sheets and decals and parts and the like, as well as personally-orientated support to other Forum members.
Remember that the only action I had taken, to this point, was to quit the Admin Team.
Eventually, I managed to re-enlist as an ordinary Member and continued to post my modelling content as before.
During this time, I noticed that our Archive was unavailable and liased with the Forumer Support Team accordingly, using the Forumer Support Forums. As a consequence of my input, the archive was saved from deletion. I did receive communication from that Team, who were then curious as to why my UAMF peers were seemingly giving me such a ‘hard time’, when they should be congratulating me on my efforts.
Every time I posted, I noticed rapid interest by certain Admin members and, after a series of postings to the Gallery, wherein I missed posting Build links, I received notice from JamesPerrin, telling me that I should ‘very well know’ that link’s should be supplied and that my images will be deleted if they were not. This followed a mass of link-free postings from PaulBradley. I duly added appropriate links.
At this point, I freely admit to experiencing some frustrations with regards the Teams over-interest in myself and their imagining that I was ‘obviously up to no good’. I was also aware that, behind the apparent ‘United Front’, the Team was anything but.
I used the Report function, to note the little red boxes, amongst other broken posts and MattBacon took it upon himself to close all of my Reports, without acting upon any of them.
The Search Engine for our Archive did not work. I made a call and it was prioritised and recovered. Meanwhile, the Admin Team were trying to work out how best to block me from the Archive.
I complained and was deleted and banned, as ‘recognition and acknowledgement’ of my contributions over the last decade.
I held just short of 5Gb of images for the Forum, costing me some £200 a year in subscription fees. I had chosen to move to ImageShack, and then acquired no ability, whatsoever, to edit old posts.
To those of you who believe I acted in childish vandalism, no.
To those of you who believe I took my ball home, Flakmonkey has the ball. It is His ball and no-one else can play with it, unless He wants them to. The fact that someone else made the ball what it is, is irrelevant. It is now His.
Flakmonkey made a largely dishonest announcement to the Forum, which was quickly removed, following dissent from other Admin Team members. JRatz then announced a ‘Spring Clean’ and has begun his task of wiping me from Forum history. As a part of this Spring Clean, it appears that the Team has also deemed positive feedback, given by other people to other people, as pointless and worthy of deletion.
Expect a series of Forum downtimes and, upon return, an assurance that nothing has been lost. In actuality, you will find my threads and other works disappearing...even the ones without images.
I know what I’ve done and that some of the following worked, some didn’t;
- The name “Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum”.
- Forum structure, concept and maintenance.
- Establishment of 24/7 Admin Cover.
- A commitment to one Forum and one Forum only.
- Concept of Step-by-Step builds...Solo Demo...
- Provision of Step-by-Step Builds
- Provision of clear How To’s
- Problem-solving and direct, personal assistance
- Group Builds, specifically, the Single Kit GB.
- Inspiration for Blitzbau
- Participation in Blitzbau’s
- Participation in 42 GB’s
- On the Go at the Mo’...
- I’ve Started So I’ll Finish...
- Acquired:Built ratio
- Modelling Glossary
- Tools You Might Need
- The Galleries
- Enhancing searchable content
- Shared builds
- Forum Attendance at SMW, before...
- Classic British Kits and SIG
- Coastal Command SIG
- Links with SAMI
- Support for Matchbox.org
- Establishment and maintenance of UAMF Archive
- Rescue of UAMF archive
- Establishment of UAMF ‘Lifeboat’
- Linking with SAMI
- All modelling experiences shared.: 9000 posts, 4Gb of images.
- New kits, old kits, different kits...many, many kits.
So...The Future?
For the Forum, I’m a little pessimistic. It’s highly unlikely the current Admin Team will begin to contribute any new ideas and, whilst there maybe a brief spurt of presence, I don’t expect their modelling input to suddenly increase, either. I do know that many of the Team are actually somewhat apathetic towards modelling, so don’t expect much. Besides, as Matt Bacon believes, the purpose of the Admin team is to ensure that things run smoothly. What ‘things’ are to run smoothly is open to question.
As my input is wiped from the Forum, you will also notice some items becoming re-vamped, with someone else’s name attached to it.
So it’s down to you guys to come up with the fresh ideas, to keep the modelling going and the Forum fresh. Without, the Forum will simply wither and stagnate.
For myself, I’ve received enough interest to convince me to at least continue to upload my images to Imageshack. This is an extremely tedious task, but once I’ve done that, I will have more options available to me.
I might create an on-line Gallery, with illustrated How To’s and Tips. However, this will involve a load of typing that I’m not sure I can be bothered with at the moment and I’m doubtful is really required. I might create a blog, although this is, again, unlikely.
That said, I will continue with my modelling, because I enjoy it. That last point is important. Obviously, I am saddened by my treatment and surprised. With modelling, we indulge our inner child and so it makes a kind of sense that some will return to the childhood bullying behaviours of their past. C’est la vie.
Regards and thank you for reading.
Bruce
(sorry Laurie, couldn't resist after the names thread).
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