depleation of members

[sam22]

it is with great sadness that i see that we have lost some of our members,whom i have gotton to know through this site, especially one man in particular who has done more to keep the irish 131sport s on the road in ireland, without whose help i personally not be driving my car,i speak of brensports, it has to be said he is a true gentleman.obligeing, helpfull.and honest gentleman.
  the recent thread : warning or goodbye : not sure which one but whichever it was should have been deleted sooner, as i feel there is a little bit of consternation creeping into this site which if it continues will only serve to destroy the site, and i am sure none of us on here want that to happen,after all it is to keep legend of the 131 alive and to help fellow members our main aim not bitching and backbiting.
     regards
         seamus

[Thotos]

I am going to put my hand up here and say that it seems at least a few people here think it's all my fault but I don't understand why. I had a difference of opinion with Eugene and instead of agreeing to disagree, as I was prepared to do, he stopped posting (but has not left the forum). On the back of that I disagreed with Dave in the way he defended Eugene's statements without having a means of knowing if they were correct or not. I thought we agreed to disagree and our last couple of PM exchanges were friendly and civil but he decided to go a month after the dust had settled. brensports put the blame for Dave's departure squarely on me and when I claimed that I thought his accusations were unfair and unjustified, he deleted his forum account. I had no communication with brensports other than what was on the forum.

Please guys, let's not let this get out of hand, although I fear it might be too late for that. I am not posting here to start any discussions or arguments on the subject; if anyone wants to discuss this further, please send me a PM or an email.

[mirafioriman]

Well all I can say is I love this site. It is great to have such a good site dedicated to the 131 with a large number of members who have a great passion, knowledge and love of these cars.

If a few people have decided to leave then of course that is fair enough as we all have a free choice of which sites we wish to visit and contribute to.

I won't be leaving and I guess that many others won't be either.

[106usj]

Hello all.
Well i have been away from the site for the last 4 weeks or so and have only had 2 breif moments to have a quick scan on the forum.
 I dont know whats been going on to change so much and make members leave,but i will find out and make my own mind up !!
106

[kev131]

I agree that this is a very unfortunate development.

This 131 forum (which I believe is the most active and best supported of any like it in the world) is all about bringing like minded people together to celebrate and share their high regard for this great car. An unexpected consequence (at least for me) are the many new and strong friendships that have been formed.

It is certainly not about having public disagreements but regretfully they do happen from time to time. What I've learnt is that forum conversations require a great deal more thought and care than other communication mediums eg face to face.

Having seen both sides of the recent disagreements and knowing all of the parties involved for some years (both on & off forum), it's particularly sad to see things come to this state when no-one concerned, deliberately set out to cause offence. Each of the people involved called it as they saw it and everything after that is mis-understanding, an occasional lack of empathy, the absence of other communication aids (like voice tone, facial and body language, etc) and that strange and sometimes destructive male pride that prevents men from backing down in public.

I hope that given time, people will reflect that some of the reactions were disproportionate and that we are all friends here and only want to enjoy ourslves in this unique little community. I certainly can't imagine life without my regular, almost (hourly) checking in with what is happening on the forum. The forum is bigger than any individual and will go on to greater success, of that I am sure... but it would be nice to have as many of our friends here as possible. 

[djape1977]

look guys, this ain't the first forum/club that's having dificulties of this kind. in lada club serbia ( http://www.lada-klub.com/ ) we managed to come to threatening to beat each other up, banning people from forum, people avoiding club meetings in fear of threats coming true, so you guys haven't invented anything. way the issues were solved was relaxing control and censorship on the forum, as well as reducing moderators interventions. also, there several more members got limited moderator rights, each his own section.

i really like this forum and i find it very usefull and pleasant place with 95% of people being very nice, friendly and willing to help. with other 5% i try not to get into confrontation.

also, i'm pleasantly suprised to see a local (irish) club becoming globally known and appreciated.

please, preserve freedom of speech and thought, and have in mind that your forum has become something much bigger than any of founding members ever hoped it could be. here we have a wonderfull opportunity to exchange thoughts with people from all over the world! we're all different people, with our own shortcomings, and most of the time we manage to get along just fine. it's normal to get into disagreement and even fight sometimes. do not delete posts unless directly offensive and profane, let the troublemakers, if there are such people, ban themselves! after couple of such ocassions they'll simply leave. frankly, i don't remember eugene, red guy, and others who decided to leave the forum ever offending anyone.

[kev131]

Interesting thoughts as to how far things can develop on other forums Djape - There was a recent article on an Irish radio station called Newstalk discussing the new phenomena of internet fighting and compared it with an old fashioned pub fight. In the latter it was all over at closing time and/or a punch up but internet fights can drag on for months or even years....seemingly without ever being resolved.  

Your comment about the forum being Irish is not the first time this has been said and although it might be the case that there are many (possibly largest number...?) Irish contributors/members, the forum was set up in the UK by Theo and is owned by him...so if one wanted to identify what country the forum belongs to.... I'm not sure what the answer is....perhaps it's better just to say that it's global...

[italianxrays]

  I think we are all adult enough to know what we want to do, like I posted previously it seems to have got out of hand, the Fiat 131, preservation, sharing knowledge, spares etc etc is the most important aspect of this marvelous Forum.

Hope those departed is only temporary, I know in the old days of Fiat Twin Cam register there was much debate when it was decided to encompass the newer twin cams, in hindsight this was in theory a good idea but  not unlike Fiat Motor Club IMHO politics of the club played a part...............and so " you can please some of the people some of the time etc. etc. "

Much unseen hardwork goes on to keep the Forum running so we should try and respect views and not be too harsh, I just hope my 131's up and running for next years 3MA.

Theo, you were right to speak your mind,  its a free country , healthy debate is not such a bad thing until people take it too personally.

Keep up the good work moderators et all.

[Kennedy of Sixmilebridge]

Possibly in the best interests of serving the global 131 community do ye reckon there is room for another different 131 /  FIAT website ?

I'll throw another website together if ye want. It will be nothing like this place obviously but if that's what it takes, I'll do it.

[stathe174]

I agree with djape. It's a global forum and we must have different opinions because if we didn't it would be borring to watch... Keep the good work guys and please speak freely your minds...

[martyk]

DELETED - Too personalised - Please PM any individuals with thoughts such as these.

Two wrongs dont make a right as a wise man once said IT IS NICE TO BE IMPORTANT BUT IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO BE NICE .  .As for italianxrays  quoting Theo was right to speak his mind so has everyone else the same right . WHATS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE THE GANDER. I am not going to comment on this subject any more

[fiat131sport82]

 

[sid131]

why are posts being deleted here? i didnt see any difference between this & the other one (thread) that was eventually deleted?

[106usj]

Delete Delete Delete...!!!
Remember the old 80s Scotch VHF video advert with the skeleton  from tv (Re Record Not Fade Away !!) 

[paulcas]

Delete Delete Delete...!!!
Remember the old 80s Scotch VHF video advert with the skeleton  from tv (Re Record Not Fade Away !!) 

now that's going back some years. Remember it well as it was a great advert at the time.

All,
this is a great forum and it's a shame to see members leave for whatever reason. If anyone is in contact with brensports would you be so kind as to pass on my thanks once again for so generously donating free of charge the ratchet mechanism for my driver's seat - still owe him a beer.