Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Branstetter
I doubt if anyone here wants to rehash that business over again. If you are interested, you can go to the TB forums and search Miscellaneous [DB] for "Ken Smith". There are still some threads left there from around January 2007 that will give you an idea of what happened.
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The actual Thread that all this happened in was deleted by me. There are Threads before and after but the main one I deleted which was actually created to smooth things out but I got caught in the crossfire.
The whole thing in my view was Money motivated as their main advertiser was over protected to the degree that the Mods would close, edit and delete posts if they shined any light in a direction which they felt were taboo. Those include the advertiser that owned most of the banner space and the Mods themselves regardless of what they say or who they personally attack or insult.
When I first joined TB it was to defend claims against my product, company and myself. I did that fairly well and in a short time including rallying many supporters. One of the flame throwers then was a Mod and today he still is a Mod. In this latest instance a member started making insulting comments about me which were off topic and off color as well. I asked that same Mod of a few years past to delete his off topic insulting comments or I will leave TB and delete my threads. He thought it was OK to air things out in MY thread which he them deemed an Airing Thread which it wasn't but served his justifications well. I had no business at all with this guy but he felt he needed to take aim like a sniper from behind TBs womb.
What we all didn't know then was that the guy attacking me on-line was just about to become a MOD in a day or so which was decided behind the scenes. Paul of TB warned me after that I was NOT allowed to say things about the Mods because they are Immune from actions. What that person did was days before he became a Mod and nothing to do at all with being a Mod or even the thread topic itself!
Keeping my word and my back against the wall I proceeded to delete THAT Thread which had personal insults and then spent the rest of the evening and most of the next day deleting my Posts and Threads. What I left was the ones about the Historical Basses which had a lot of input from others as well as older ones that couldn't be deleted anymore. I deleted about 600 threads out of almost 3,800 I had posted.
A few days later the Mod started his own thread about 'don't look at me' kind of thing saying he didn't delete the thread but rather I did. This thread grew a bit in a few days but the Mod never said what led me to do what I did. I mentioned how I was attacked out of color there and the Mod would not 'moderate' it as he should like he has in the past in a controlling 'thought police' manner for a certain advertiser which there is another thread as well about this.
I then made a comment directed at Paul (TB owner) 'what a Fxxxxing dog and pony show' you have here meaning that for a big advertiser he can plant shills and have all the negative comments and those of discovery deleted or edited but for the rest of us, we must take the 'censored/controlled' Forum or leave it!
I didn't spell out that word above in my Post with the xxxx's. Actually, Paul deleted it 2x and I dared him in the first attempt to leave my comment for all to see and understand what actually did happen. After all the questions of what happened, he reposts my 'fight back' post as if that was the actual reason why I am off of TB. NO, it was my reaction to what actually happened and not what did happen. After that, I was not able to Post or PM or even edit my own Profile because I was Blocked or Banned. I could Log in, read and search but could not reply or participate in anyway. Paul went on to add that I was NOT Banned and was gone on my own accord which was an outright lie. Then he added later that I could come back if I agreed to abide by his Rules which in my mind, I never broke. It was his 'Mod to be' that broke the rules by attacking me on-line but he couldn't admit that or take action because another Mod just quit in the midst of this 'thought police' accusations which was started by Jeff Bollbach and was justified in doing so and he needed him to replace the other Mod.
TBs money policies and Mod actions have a big part in this as well as the Mods actually being participants. Sort of a conflict of interest in my eye but hey, it's a public Forum. Now I'm gone an started my own, much smaller and non-commercial party as far as monies go. I have talked with Paul since and he says the same thing about an agreement. I told him to let me on as-is because I never broke the agreement before. This is his actual living now and his Orchestra job a second as far as I can tell.
I don't at all mind talking about this and TB so if you have questions, then we can have them here. I don't want to start a new thread 'why ken left TB' and make it a bashing party.
I see very few of the older type more serious DB/Bow type questions we used to see there. We do get some here and they get some there but for the most part, there is just less of it all around. To help this along, if you see a thread on TB about DBs that needs professional help, feel free to PM the thread starter and give him the link over here. Just be sure to remind him to use his real/full name so we don't have to chase him down for it..lol
Thx guys and gals for hanging out here. It has been working out real good in my eyes regardless of the much smaller crowd we have.