Now that I've had time to cool down, I can reflect better.
Rich, I've never had a problem with Andy. In fact, he is still on my
Facebook (unless he removed me, but I never go to Facebook, so I
wouldn't know). When he started banning people left and right, I grit
my teeth a little, but I let it go. When he asked for money because
he was having trouble running his forum, I gladly sent him some, even
more than he was asking for. But when he had a disagreement with
Jeannie (whose only fault was to disagree with him) and then Jon
(Joneyy) about banner placement, I realized Enron had taken over and I
drew a personal line. So when Holiday came to me with the idea of a
new forum (which we had talked about many times before), I gladly
jumped on board. Everyone is in financial distress these days, and I
understand that, but when it all becomes about money, it feels really
uncomfortable. Now if you check MPF, you'll see a "Make a donation to
MPF" at the bottom, which again, should not be what a public forum is
about. Andy can steer his ship as he wishes, but this is the
reason(s) why I jumped out.
Now, I don't remember what prompted me to be so abrasive in the
original email that Andy so elegantly posted. It was not always the
case. As you can see below, this is the email that I originally sent
to my poster friends:
(name),
As you may know, Holiday and I have been utterly disappointed with MPF
as of late. Andy can manage his forum as he pleases, but the recent
banning spree has left us questioning his ulterior motives. Granted,
some abused the system, but many didn't, and were only ostracized for
disagreeing with the owner, among others Jeannie, and most recently
Joneyy. A lot of good people also left as a result of what we feel is
an abuse of power.
So we dreamt of a better forum, and have decided to unite forces to
create something that meets our aspirations. Now, don't be too
critical, this is only the beginning. Our newborn is only a few days
old, and his conception took 5 days. On top of being a top lawyer,
Holiday can now call himself web designer.
What we're trying to do here is create a forum about posters, but
unlike MPF and NS4, about all posters.
So please check it out, tell us what you think.
I want to emphasize the fact that we are not trying to "steal" you
from one forum to the other. This is not what this is about. We just
wanted a new playground. You are free to participate in all forums.
Thanks,
Holiday and Thierry
http://www.allposterforum.com/
Some of you received it, so you can attest to its authenticity.
When I sent the other email to a guy I don't even know, I was only
trying to help him sell some LOTR banners he was advertising on MPF.
Since he had never posted before, I honestly didn't care whether he
would join or not. We already had more than 100 true members on APF,
and the forum was doing great. My tone, however, was anything but,
and again, I feel sorry for that. I don't know if I got upset because
1) Andy was trying to get yet more money out of a new venture that
already existed (Jeannie's MPA - http://
movieposterauthenticating.com), or 2) because he was trying to bring
the cover back to him by posting fake membership numbers on MoPo -
whatever the reason at the time, I was pissed at him, and it does
reflect in my email. As you can see from above, it was not always the
case. I know I was wrong (really wrong for that matter), but so was
that guy for posting a private email on a public forum (a definite no-
no in my book), and so was the owner of that forum for posting it on
MoPo. I knew he would, though, because it goes with character. Like
Bruce said, he should have let it die. But now he started this "war"
and made me state in my earlier post why I was so angry at him:
Banning and turning a hobby into a personal financial endeavor.
Thierry
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