So, there's been quite a lot going on within our great community recently. I know I have received a lot of pm's, email's, calls and texts from members asking questions, etc.

It has been mentioned to me from the powers above (Admins & Mods) that we create a discussion thread for everyone's opinions about the current state of our community. What are you happy about, what are you unhappy about. If we don't voice our opinions and thoughts, nothing can be done to better this place, and I for one don't want the current atmosphere in here to continue, there's just too much tension on here.

We've done this type of thing in the past, and those have provided good results, but this one is really an open discussion, speak your mind, but please obey the site rules, no personal attacks.

I am forever grateful for the friendships I have created due to this great community, and it really needs to get back to the way it was several years ago, with everyone's input, we can hopefully get it back to what it once was.


No more bickering, here's your chance, speak up.

-Sam

 

I'll go first.

Since I joined S2KI almost 5 years ago, I came on here during its supposed "heyday" and since then, I've seen a constant decline in membership, activity within and outside the forum and too many unhappy members of this wonderful community. I don't like the current trend of where this community is headed, it is being dictated to us who our next representation will be, CO's should be voted in, not hand picked by one individual. This community should be able to vote and decide openly who it wants to represent the community, I stepped down last year due to an ongoing issue with the current leader, and for that I am sorry, I should have dug my feet in and stood up, but I couldn't put up with it any longer.

I'm all for changes within the community, but from what I can see, these changes haven't progressed since the old threads were dumped. I'm tired of continued promises that go by unresolved or unchanged, I've had enough.

I truly value each and every one of the friendships I've made due to this forum, without them I probably would never have kept this great little car, without this community, the S2000 would just be another car and I wouldn't have what I feel the extended family I have now.

-Sam

 

I have been on here for two years now, I love every meet I go to, I love the fun times I have with old and new faces and the only reason I even showed up to my second meet was Pete. The only guy without an s2k and the most welcoming person out of the group. He was a riot to listen to and is a fun guy to have around. I was extremely sad when he was not a CO anymore, I felt like the major "fun" factor of the co group was gone. The forum went from feeling like a random place to have goofy fun, to a serious place of business. Plus he gives real knowledge that most people who have had the car for 5-10 years don't even have.

While I am all for rules and regulations, it has gone from rules and regulations to almost a dictatorship. I do NOT agree with someone picking a CO for the community that is the ONLY single CO. I also would NOT submit myself for a nomination because I don't feel its fair for me to be something I wasn't voted into by the community. And people know I want to be CO, I've made it clear in the past.

There has always been spurts of things I felt were negative to the community. As example talking about theft of cars and property, we are not the police and its not our responsibility to act as such. While its good to make note of it, its not necessary, these posts made me fear losing my s2k last summer. I had a constant fear someone would steal something. This year we had KBAB and had NO issues and we haven't had an issue since last year, perhaps it is because people are more cautious, or perhaps it was just a fluke. None the less I don't believe that was necessary to discuss as a major issue.

Going back to the issue at hand, this forum has had a lot of drama in the past 6-8 months. Sam should have never felt like he had to step down because someone else didn't like something. I have never met another person who said something bad about Sam, my first meet with him, he instantly showed interest in talking to me and was genuinely interested to talk to me about anything. He never put me down or made me feel uncomfortable. He also enforced the rules very fairly and spent LOTS of money out of his OWN pocket to do things for the community, IE buy the shirts for the UMW with some people not paying him and making business cards for us to pass out onto other s2k's. He was a fantastic CO IMO and NEVER should have had to feel the need to step down. I was truly saddened the day that happened.

I also noticed a post previously about the new CO system and how'd we pick one, in response to this, Pete posted a question. Which IMO was valid, fact I was going to ask a similar question myself. But the response from the CO was very harsh and the thread was closed, leaving me to fear saying anything. Now that I know others are wondering the same thing, I feel the need to say that I wanted to ask almost the same question as Pete and would like an answer to that question, not an attack.

I am NOT trying to attack the current CO, however this is as much my community as anyone else's, we SHARE this space, this space should be growing not slowing or even declining. And I too agree the forum seems to be "slowing down" in the UMW section. I don't want that fun atmosphere to change, but unfortunately it has been changing in the absolute wrong direction.

I will leave my statement with this;
If anyone who I feel made this community great, is kicked out, or leaves, I am GONE myself and I wont ever tell anyone to support the community.

 

I'll go next.

Since I joined S2Ki, the CO's, for better or for worse, have been appointed; that included dlq04, WestSideBilly, and ruexp67.

The only ones voted in were sw05s2k and Chazzguitar. Both of which had very low voter turn-out; of which the people that did vote were only a VERY small representation of the owning community that happened to be active on the forums at the time of nomination and voting.

This has been unfair to the rest of the community that WANTS to participate, but chooses not to due to the charged environment. The really high points of the UMW community were in '02, '04, '05, and the beginning of '06.

What's changed since those years...the community going from a completely inclusive group of owners to a group of (mainly) Chicago based individuals (owners and not) making the forum exclusive. This had turned the UMW community in to such a high school clique scene that turns a lot of the more mature OWNERS off from participating, notice, I didn't say older.

As for where the current trend of where the community is headed, it was headed for a change that'd be new to current owners that have been around years and to all the new people signing on.

With Charlie stepping down, new CO's were being dictated because they stepped up and because they have leadership qualities. It hasn't been announced as of yet...but that's because I was in Mexico on vacation last week.

Here's who I identified that stepped up:
-Aquatic
-Scrapdog
-Mountainman

.....more to add later...

 

Uhm. I'm a relative newcomer here and I like all you guys (and gals). Can't we all just get along?

 

I vaguely remember voting ruexp67 in as a CO. Although the events of that evening are...blurry. I think there was a meet with many active members there including West Side Billy. IIRC WSB asked the lot of us who we thought should be CO. We all said ruexp67 since he was organizing a lot of meets anyway. WSB asked ruexp67 if he wanted to be CO. He said sure. So maybe he was appointed, maybe he was voted. Either way, we felt like we had a say.

I, for one, did not vote in the election where Chazzguitar was elected. I didn't vote because I thought the 2 people running would both make equally great CO's. I was going to be happy either way.

Of the 3 people that Luder94 mentioned, however, I would exercise what I feel is my right to vote. I have my own preference as to who I'd like to see be a CO although I think all 3 of them would do a good job. But beyond the 3 people listed, there are others that I would like to see as a CO as much if not more. And that's why I think there should be an election.

While appointing people might have been the way in the past, I don't know if that's the way it should be handled in the present and future.

 

From my laid back perspective, I think things are pretty civil (for now). nfty - despite being relatively new, you're part of this community too. And as someone who's started/moderated/ and organized forums in the past, I'd love to hear your opinion as well. I don't think Sam wants this thread to be an argument, but a forum for all memebers new and old to figure out the direction we want to community to go.

 

I'd like to think many of you guys know me (many after I no longer had my s2k), but not all do, so I'll start with some *my* back story.

I originally bought my s2k in May of '07. I then moved up to Chicago for school in the fall of '07, and started to become more active in the UMW forum. Pete (ruexp67, a Community Organizer at the time) was the member on the forum who encouraged me the most to make it out to my first meet, and I'm very glad he did because I soon became very active and attended as many meets as my schedule allowed. I even ended up buying a part from him on the spot at that very meet! I can honestly say that since moving to Chicago, I feel I have made more genuine friends in the UMW s2ki community than at college or anywhere else here. It is because of these friendships that when I was involved in an accident in May of '09, totaling my s2k, I still remained in the community as a non-owner (as Pete had been for quite some time, nearly as long as I had known him, selling his s2k and buying a C6 corvette).

Unfortunately, despite various CO changes in the UMW, Urmil (Luder94) has continued to hold his post and not only appear to isolate non-S2000 owners (which apparently has been used as a way to attack Pete directly, not non-S2000 owners in general [like myself], despite no such clarification in these posts), but begin a sort of totalitarian rule over the community. I know of other non-owners, but still S2000 enthusiasts (whom the site is equally for) who have felt alienated because of these posts. This alone will not stop me from remaining active in the community, but I fear others may not feel as committed as I.

Urmil and Charlie (chazzguitar), another member who has become a close friend of mine, were the two COs when several drastic changes started to be made to the UMW forum at the beginning this year, which many members (Pete, Sam (sw05s2k, also a former CO), myself, and others spoke out against, yet few, if any, of our suggestions seem to be enacted or even considered. However, the final icing in the cake was that after Charlie was in an accident recently and chose to step down from his CO position, Urmil decided to have the next CO (or COs) be chosen by him and him alone via private PMing and his own personal review. I feel this has become a downright dictatorship led solely by someone who does not have the community's best interest at heart, IN MY OPINION. I do NOT mean this to be a personal attack against Urmil or anyone, as he has helped me in the past and has made suggestions, hosted meets, and provided resources which furthered the community. I simply feel that the recent changes have taken a turn for the worse.

When members at the KBAB on Saturday started to discuss breaking off and forming their own site, I felt truly saddened, as I feel s2ki.com is a tremendously valuable resource, and I have given a lot of my own time, effort, and money back to the community, retaining my membership even without an s2k, hosting several meets (some more successful than others), attempting to help members in need in any way my time and resources allow, and helping encourage many new members or s2k-owning strangers on the street to join the forums.

I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be honored to even be nominated to become a CO. However, despite owning an S2000 for nearly two years (and likely still would had it not been for my accident), remaining active in the community, and still finding a great appreciation for these fine automobiles that brought us together in the first place, there is absolutely no chance that could even be a remote possibility with the current rules. That being said, despite still being a college student, I am trying very hard to obtain another S2000, largely in an effort to feel closer to this community that I truly love and perhaps obtain a CO position even with the current rules.

So in closing, I would greatly look forward to some sort of change to help maintain the great UMW community I have grown to love, preventing it from taking a turn for the worse with the current lone leadership.

 

I only have a few minutes to respond.

But first off I really think this discussion is going to be very toxic for our community.
As anyone and everyone who knows me, I am friends with everyone. Like Pushin9 its hard to really get on my bad side.
I agree this should be discussed by I think anyone new to our community will look at this on a negative side. I want to see the community grow and have more great days like last weekend. This is why I and I think the others stepped up and said we would try and fill Charlies spot. I didn't want things to be put off since there wasn't a CO.
I want what is best for us and to allow us to be who we are and beyond that.
How long would it take to set up nominations then get a vote. I can't give you that answer. But we need people to step in and help, that is what I did, and probably others.
I wanted to step in and help as soon as I could. Its my choice to help. If it goes down this time were there isn't a vote I don't want to feel like a scab crossing a picket line. So if you feel that either of us three aren't worthy then tell us. If this for now (for now) is just cause you feel like Urmil is being to dictatorship then, we need to get past that and focus on us, not Urmil.
And no I am not taking sides I have heard many sides and can agree with a lot of both sides.

Like I said at first this discussion is toxic for us. Discussion is good but this has started out bad already. I would rather see what people like and would like and go from there. The negative things above should be heard and addressed but lets not beat a dead head on two issues.
Keep the discussion going on other things.

I have to go, but maybe I'll post more later.
Keith

 

You're absolutely correct, this was not intended to start an argument on anyone's behalf.

I welcome everyone's input, we cannot grow this community without new members and we must do everything we can to retain the old ones.