Guess I didn't see the stipulation where it has to be at least two drives a year. Your right, He certainly does not deserve a badge...

 

Edit: Adding more to this post for fear of it being mistaken for spam.

 

I wasnt involved in the debadging, but here's the gist of it:

He was badged
He sold his S
He stopped being active on the forum for several years, SO he got his badge removed.

The badge he designed was replaced about 2.5 years ago with a temporary badge. I know because I designed "the damn thing"


That temporary badge was replaced with the current badge 2 years ago on New Years Day. I designed that one too.

The old PDX badge was left on the main forum until recently due to an oversight by the admins. I never noticed because my forum shortcut comes straight to the Oregon forum. So the very recent redesign you mention (if you are referring to the main forum icon) was actually not very recent.

We have the bading requirements of 2 events in place for new people so we have a chance to get to know them and also so we dont go and start badging fly-by-night people who attend one event never to be seen again. This is to help keep the web-based roster clean. We've had MANY one-timers in the past few years.

The debadging is after people have not been active for a long time, though no set timeframe is in place. Just when it's a passing thought of "oh, wow, we havent seen XXXX in over a year"

And since we dont play favorites, you will notice that Brandon (Bz2005s2k), a former CO, and Huy (S2k_RN) are no longer badged. They both got busy with life so we rarely saw them on the forum anymore, both had sold their S's and so their badges were removed.

Now that he is a proud S owner again, once Huy comes on a drive or two, he'll be rebadged. I know it's a very demanding procedure to get done.

You or Gavin can come on a drive and you'll be rebadged like everyone else, if you're interested. Heck, come on the drive this weekend.

Simple.

 

[QUOTE=VintageMac,Sep 7 2010, 12:42 PM]If driving sensibly is not your style, then YOU plan a drive. It can have no rules and it be a free-for-all.

 

1. I vote to keep Aaron, Larry, current rules, current organization, etc. They are wonderful COs. I can't say enough about them.

2. I like the rules for the drives because it keeps the "stupids" away. To be honest, I am thankful that the rules seem to deter some specific individuals away from the drives and organized events. Previously, certain individuals nearly caused major problems (i.e. motor vehicle accidents, reckless driving in parking decks nearly injuring pedestrians, and unsafe passing on the way back from volcanoes, etc). These were very serious "misses." If the rules help keep our drives safe, then keep them coming.

3. I have no opinion on rules for buying and selling in this forum.
One personal thought...I think spending large amounts of money on modifications rather than saving is just dumb. Instead of mods, trying putting away $5 here and there. For example, this will allow you to have money saved up for hotel fare rather than trying to bum off of others.

4. Finally, I question the definition of "this forum has the people and the potential to be much more active." Throughout the drive season, we have regular wonderfully planned and orchestrated drives and events. During the off season, we regularly get together for dinner and drinks as well as private drives. I am looking forward to my 3rd annual Christmas light drive which sadly is not a public forum event anymore because I don't have the balls to deal with the "stupids." (See #2)

5. Finally, a big thank you to Larry and Aaron again...as well as our volunteer drive leaders and other organizers Amy, Doug, Dave, Ken. Paul and I have stated many times how much fun we have on S2kiOregon drives. But more than that we are thankful for all the friendships we have made. There are some really great people that make up S2kiOregon. I appreciate all that is done to make this forum's activities run so smoothly.

 

I think that is natural when someone comes in and starts blasting all the things that make the group function.

You have moved far beyond constructive criticism and moved into the land of personal attacks.

As for the “more active” past you refer to was it actual content, or was it a bunch of











back and forth between 2-3 people? There is a huge difference in content that added to the conversation and 10 consecutive posts of

 

 

Oh and IBTL. This will get out of hand.

 

I'm going to post a lot of inline replies in one shot here, which will probably be my last on this thread.

I do not actually think it's as much of a generational gap as an interest gap. Doug, Huy, Pauleron, *ahem* Amy, and myself could all be considered middle aged??

The meets/food/mod talk is all well and good. We know there is a contingent that is very interested in those types of events. Do Larry and I plan them? No, we really dont. Larry's already got a full plate with planning the drives. Besides that, Larry really has done all the mods he wants to his car. He probably isnt going to be changing/adding much more. As for me, I'm just logistically too far away for it to make sense for me to attend every single event. I also don't know Portland as well as others so I have no forehand knowledge of what/where to go. I'm not that mod-savvy nor am I baller enough.

I still make the effort to attend some "non official" events like the lunch gathering earlier this year because I enjoy getting together with everyone, not just the drive fans. I've learned a lot from people like Hiep, Brian, Huy 2, Eric, John Grant, etc. That is the precise reason we encourage you guys to put them on. We know we arent "all inclusive" in our events. Technically, we don't have to be ANY but we like people to know they can do things without our oversight.

As COs of the forum, we DO have the obligation to step in and try to mediate when some members come with concerns about an event (i.e. the garage photoshoot) and unfortunately, when that happens, people get their feelings hurt and then they get disgruntled. The same thing happens when we have members get pulled over by police on our return from a drive because there were reports of "S2000s doing 100+ and passing on solid yellow lines" even when we weren't anywhere near the area at the time. We have to look out for those who are innocent and make sure those types of things dont keep happening. If it were isolated to the people doing the act, that's one thing, but when it affects other people, we (Larry and I) dont have a choice but to step in to try and enforce some protection for the majority.

Yes, Evan - O RLY

This brings me to the next point:

Those who do not speak up have no chance of being heard.

When Larry and I made some administrative decisions regarding the events above...We got no counter point. We got no argument of "that isnt true". It was just accepted. If there was fear in providing a counter point, it was a missed opportunity because it leaves me thinking that maybe it *was* true. On other events where I've gone out and gotten all Gestapo on people, I've gotten PMs, phonecalls and whatnot telling me that I didn't have the whole story and I needed to listen to the other side...and so I did. They got their point across and things settled out. It passed like any argument.

Even now
Then how are they expecting things to be different? If they have a problem, they need to speak to us about it. They need to take that risk. I dont think Larry or I have ever gone totally off the deep end at anybody. We've been firm about some things, but I just dont understand why *anyone* would be afraid to post? It's an internet forum. It's the internet itself! How on earth do people survive on any forum without growing some thick skin. Like Justin posted about vwvortex being unkind and full of jerks.

As a whole, the Oregon forum is a tremendously generous, kind, understanding, and reasonable place. All the members are gracious and willing to share their opinion and most of the time to accept counter points even if they dont agree. I can count on one hand the times I've had to lock a thread because an argument got out of hand.

As Garret posted, when you come in after a 3 year absence critiquing the "rules" and labeling them ridiculous, rather than commenting/asking why, it's human nature to go on the defensive.

I could go on the offensive if you and the others would prefer?

Really?
When?
Where?

Which was it?
I actually took the time to go back through old posts back from the start of the old forum to find any info about these huge drives. I didn't find any. I admit I may have overlooked them, but I'm curious.
I've heard from several members who were around back then that there were no big drives. 6 cars usually, maybe 7?

I'm not trying to discredit Gavin. He gave his time to help build up the PDX group from what was basically nothing. You could call him "God" in a sense because he got the group started. None of this would have existed if it wasnt for his efforts. I'm sure he's a great guy, but I've never had the chance to meet him. Same goes for you.

I just want to know if there are rose-colored glasses involved here. It was all before my time, but the forum still has all the old posts and I'm not seeing anything. Lots of talk of "we should".

The same goes for PacNW. They have much the same mentality you guys have talked about the Oregon group formerly having - "We'd rather just get together and hang out". That's all well and good, but just a couple months ago the PacNW guys had a thread complaining that we closed our drives to non Oregon members because no one puts on many drives there. WestSideBilly posted how many tried (and failed) because they werent organized enough, desicive enough and not willing to put out the effort.

From 2006 when Gavin was being replaced
It was a big deal that Brandon set up A drive?

Now again, we have two totally different perspectives:


Now to comment on Garret (and indirectly, Evan and P2's posts)
When this forum started to turn into The Oregon Corner, at first it was cute and funny, and even Larry and I joined in a little. When it didn't stop, we were losing out on people not posting because it was TOO busy and too full of junk (post after post of emote).
Since they're having fun making sure we know that they're not spamming right now I'll say this:
The thing that makes me laugh the most is the fact that when we restricted random posts to the random thread, and no more post whoring, the posts stopped entirely. They did not move to the random thread where pictures kept popping up or random messages with no purpose. They just stopped.

If Evan's PPD were any indication, our Random Talk thread should be 200 pages long by now. Even if the postwhoring (6 posts in a row of a single smiley - to Evan and P2 for their posts in this thread just recently) was not accounted for, there should be TONS of pages. So how important was it that the grudge is still held when it apparently really wasnt that big of a deal that it was given up ENTIRELY. Not even an occasional random photo?

I don't get it.

And dont give me the "I'm afraid I'll get in trouble for spamming" because you both know exactly what the postwhoring was/is that we were referring to when we said it was time to stop.

Gavin, Larry shared with me your PM complaining about the FS rules, so yes, I got the idea that you are quite unhappy with what has happened to your "legacy".
So the question is (in regards to the FS)...why do you get special treatment over someone who just joined? You were a former CO, sure, but like I posted before, you were debadged and now you need to be badged to post a FS. Brian (Red_5) just got badged. Should he have been allowed to post prior to that in direct opposition to the rule in place? Brandon is debadged now too, I'd tell him the same thing. I dont think anyone should get preferential treatment because of past status. If/When I stepdown/get replaced/get forced out, I wouldnt expect or want any special treatment. I can stand on my own merits as an S2000 enthusiast. I'll still go on drives when I have a car because I enjoy them.

But now, you're a proud S owner. Come on a drive, have some fun. We'll get to know eachother, and you'll get badged. Then you can sell your Voodoo and sit back with a beer over how difficult it was.

In reference to me calling you out for CO replacement, you're one of the very few vocal opponents to the things Larry and I have set in place, so yes, I volunteered to to the spot to voice your opinion if you wanted to see a replacement. You're an Oregon S owner on this forum after all.

So my question to you is, why are you not interested in being a part of it?
Because it isnt how it used to be?
Maybe you should give it a shot.
You, 05sdeuce, Harpoon...Any of the previous era members.
Take part in something more than a long list of arguments and point/counterpoint.
Those with an S, come on one of the offical drives
Those who dont...plan a non official drive and open it to all comers. Then you have exactly what you wanted.

The problem I see is that there are so many ways to take this into a positive direction, but those few upset people simply dont *want* to or don't want to take the time/effort I guess?



I think I'm done now.

 

It sooo hard to gauge a conversation via simple words. I suppose im confused as to what the big deal is. its not like anyone is forcing anyone to participate on this site. I mean if these rules cause people such a hassle why not go somewhere else? Not trying to be a d-bag but it doesn't seem like people have had not had much of an issue before all this craziness. I thought this was a place for like minded people who share a common love for a car to enjoy the car. Not have a pissing match about stupid petty stuff. Not knocking either side because both have valid points but if its such a big deal why not just vote about important issues? Although i can totally see that going crazy I'll just sit back here and enjoy the show