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Post by GordyBrock on Feb 13, 2016 10:56:07 GMT
Hope that office roof is strong enough, there must be a ton of bikes up there.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2016 16:36:22 GMT
Fast forward to one hazy afternoon mid-October 2013. I recall the moment. Two months earlier, I'd started a work placement in Worcester as part of a degree course I was doing and used to get an hour for lunch - most of this involved kipping in my Fiesta after downing a sandwich at the nearby Tesco's. I logged into the forum on my Iphone every lunchtime to catch up on what was going on.
This particular afternoon, and for reasons which have now escaped me, the boss was having an absolute mad moment in the general section saying he'd had enough and was going to 'take it all back'. Within minutes the forum was being returned to how it was (in appearance from day one) the first thing being the Haynes CB400NC appearing back up top of the banner. Thinking I was having a bad dream I logged out.......rubbed my face with a wet wipe.......then logged in again. As I realized this was not in fact a dream, I quickly commented something like 'What are you going on about now?'........I looked at the clock on my dash and thought I really have not got the time for this now as I need to be back at my desk in five minutes. I went back to work - my mind heavily distracted by what was evolving in Superdream Cyberspaceville.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2016 17:42:14 GMT
So that was a bit of a shock. When I had more time that evening, I stated that I wanted to step down from admin. I'd done it for a few years and with this happening coupled with the public outburst and no private communication beforehand, I'd had enough.
I remember putting out my resignation on the general board in public view.....Loz being asked to quickly remove my post to the admin room where no-one could see it. As requested, I was removed as administrator....maybe even removed from Mod status - I really cannot remember. So from then on things were not the same. In a nutshell and after a week or two of bad feeling, I was banned from entering the forum - again I cannot recall why. Some other admin members also chose to resign around this time. It was a sad day not being able to enter the forum, trying to help people who had a genuine love for the bike.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 0:42:19 GMT
Never really been in any kind of scrap in my entire life. When Simon Wray turned around to me balling his (two) black eyes out in that playground in Reading in 1982 I was genuinely shocked....to the point that I felt sick.. Transpired that I swung my West Ham holdall over my shoulder and it caught him full on in the fizzog blacking his eyes out....totally by accident...but his 'mates' aka the 'hard gang' were now after me for it.
Why is this relevant now? Mainly because I do not like intentionally hurting people. But when people intentionally hurt you, it's probably a natural reaction to hit back.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 1:06:33 GMT
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Post by Harold on Mar 21, 2016 10:20:25 GMT
I remember it well Nick that did not go down well with the ruling regime  |
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Post by stevegbr on Mar 21, 2016 10:36:13 GMT
i would say he was spitting feathers.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2016 16:41:53 GMT
I remember this- every time you logged on there was another crisis or rant- the look of the forum seemed to change by the hour.
And members started to disappear.....
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Post by terryc on Mar 21, 2016 20:03:53 GMT
Yep whisked off to a secret location for interogation  |
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Post by grahamb on Mar 21, 2016 20:22:57 GMT
I remember those pictures , not sure what was going on . Seemed weird but went a bit over my head.
Nowt as strange as folk.
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Post by Loz on Mar 21, 2016 20:50:54 GMT
Come nick lets have the next page.i'm loving it.seems so long ago
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2016 4:51:38 GMT
As Graham said above.......nowt as strange as folk. One massive driving factor for me wanting to write this timeline was because a lot of members were totally in the dark about what was going on at that time - and still were when (our reincarnated forum) became two years old in January. It's only now after a few years that I have been able to go over it all again without feeling extreme anger and pain, rather than keep the whole awful period and its goings on locked away in a dark vault, never to be revisited but always nagging at me. I feel this has been a good way of telling the story from one man's perspective - someone who was there behind the scenes. No doubt some parts of this story would be seen differently by a certain individual - people like that only see things from one perspective - their own. Those who saw things happening have always deserved to know the truth behind what went on in an effort to reassure them and be able to trust again - a lot of years hard work and enjoyment was deleted with a press of a button in the end, this I still find unforgivable as there was no need for it.
Those of us that were strong and had the genuine interest for the bike found each other again. The bottom line is that we were trying to be sold down the river. It became apparent to me during this time that the forum we all loved and made the effort to be part of was simply being seen as business venture.....a cash cow...When I learned this via a text message I saw red. There was no way that I was going to let any of my content be sold off to line a bloke's pocket - a bloke that I realized (after the recent events) that I didn't even like and had zilch interest in our bike anyway. It was all falling into place - the reason the membership was grown so fast, the reason that as soon as bikes came up free he'd be in his van going to get them and break them for his own benefit....things were becoming clearer.
After being banned for a couple of weeks I recall I got a text from the admin out of the blue calling me a spoiled brat. This text conversation went on for a bit of time, the crux of it being that I was being allowed to come back to the forum with my ban lifted. One thing I set about doing was protecting what was mine, especially the Superdream History that I had written and had taken so much passion over when I wrote it a year or two before........but I was really glad to be back helping genuine members again. I had no idea that my 'copyright escapade' would p*ss someone off so much.....but it did and when it was finally noticed by him a few weeks later the text arrived......I could shove the pictures up my a*se and I was not welcome back ever again.
So this really was to be the end for Fungobat and the forum. Never would I set foot there again.......it was over.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2016 7:11:26 GMT
What was the money making scheme exactly? Do I remember members chipping in via PayPal to "help keep the forum running"- did he then publicly thank each contributor publicly? Might be getting this confused with something else......
Then was he planning to sell the forum and content to a third party?
There is still a lot of unanswered questions as to what was actually going on I suspect.......
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Post by stevegbr on Mar 22, 2016 13:49:01 GMT
does anybody have a different view of events, as nick says its one mans view?
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Post by greybeard on Mar 22, 2016 23:06:06 GMT
Nick has said it, very much as it happened to be honest.
A bit before the debacle with the copyrighted photos, the Gruppenfuhrer needed an engine picking up from near Dorchester. At the time, I lived near Stroud in Gloucestershire, but I knew the Dorchester area well so I said I would go and fetch it for him. Cheggy and I arranged to meet very early the next morning at the services on the M5 as his driving job took him past there on his way back up North, so he collected the engine from me and subsequently delivered it to Shane. I don't recall either of us getting any thanks or offer of recompense for our trouble, but at the time we both thought it was the 'normal' thing to do to help out a mate. A little later, we found out that this was yet another money-making venture he was on......rebuilding customers engines (not very well it turns out).
Once all the shenanigans with Nick started, the Forum went rapidly downhill. I would get calls and texts from Shane trying to play one friend off against another. In the end, after a few weeks of this, I told him a few home truths - and, boy, did that light the blue touch paper!! The texts got more abusive and personal - to the point that I gave up and put a block on his number in the end.
Paul mentions the Paypal button business. Yes, this was added to the Forum quite early on and I did contribute £20 here and there in the belief that it was helping in the running costs. I am damn sure quite a few other members also divvied up too. To this day I don't know how much it cost, but I am sure that the money just lined his pockets.
I fully believe that Shane was only out to build up the Forum to sell it on. Trouble is, he should have built it on a different platform to Proboards - it would have been a more saleable commodity. Plus, he should have waited longer - a saleable Forum needs many active members and to have been established for many years - ours was neither!!
Like Nick, and quite a few others, once Shane realised that I wasn't going to take his side in his arguments, I was banned!!!!
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