And I AM mad as hell!!
I've struggled with posting this for a while now, as I've seen this type of posts in the past and always scoffed at them, but well, here I am anyway.
I got my first Chevelle in March of 1997, and became a part of TC when it was still Hot Cars And Cold Beer, and when it was announced that 201 gold memberships were going to be available on a first come, first served basis, I left work early (no PC's at work then!) and came home to log on, and was able to become #32 Gold, something of which I was very proud for a long time. I was active on the site, and made many lifelong friends and attended Chevelle shows all over the country. The site was very active, with knowledgeable people to offer advice, and characters of all sorts to keep things interesting. Al was a committed site owner, and respected by all, as was the late Skip Cain.
As with many good things, one becomes comfortable, and assumes that it will remain the same forever, despite knowing that this is never true. Time passed, and Al and Dot sold the site to a company that does this as a business, and they bear no blame in this. I can't imagine the hassles they had with TC over the years, and I applaud them for being able to cash in on their hard work.
Here is where I veer into conjecture, but suspect that I am not far off the mark, and I know others will agree. The company that bought the site is a Canadian corporation, and as such, is subject to the rules and regulations of its parent country. This is not conjecture, nor is the fact that the Canadian government is of socialist leanings, with a strong desire to control every aspects of its citizens lives. Now the new owners have set forth rules of operation to the moderators as to how the site is to be run, as every business does, and must. We had rules before and we have rules now. But the rules have changed. Censorship is now the order of the day, no opinion or post that questions the party line can be allowed to stand. I will not comment on the closure of Current Events either way, other than to say it was set up as a no holds barred area and as such, should not have even had a moderator. Do't like what's in there? Don't go back.
I questioned the new rules, and mentioned what my have been handed down to the mods from above. If I had been told, "yes, the rules have changed, and we are just working within those guidelines to keep the sire going", I would have happily accepted that. But one mod vigorously denied that they'd been given any rules at all, which cannot be true. I was disparaged and gaslighted in that post, and when others questioned it, the post vanished. It was then that I saw the future of TC.
In closing, I feel as though something has been stolen from me, something that I've had and cherished for the last quarter century, AND I'M MAD AS HELL ABOUT IT! I place the blame on the mods more that I do the new site owners.
I realize that few will see this post, as such talk cannot be allowed to stand, and dissent cannot be condoned in any way, and it will be deleted as soon as the mods see it. No matter, as I am logging off for the first time in 25 years, and will not return.
Those of you still here that are my friends, I will still be contacting you via e-mail and phone as I have always done. And if you feel as I do, all that I will say is there is another place that you can go, where you can experience what we used to experience.
I've struggled with posting this for a while now, as I've seen this type of posts in the past and always scoffed at them, but well, here I am anyway.
I got my first Chevelle in March of 1997, and became a part of TC when it was still Hot Cars And Cold Beer, and when it was announced that 201 gold memberships were going to be available on a first come, first served basis, I left work early (no PC's at work then!) and came home to log on, and was able to become #32 Gold, something of which I was very proud for a long time. I was active on the site, and made many lifelong friends and attended Chevelle shows all over the country. The site was very active, with knowledgeable people to offer advice, and characters of all sorts to keep things interesting. Al was a committed site owner, and respected by all, as was the late Skip Cain.
As with many good things, one becomes comfortable, and assumes that it will remain the same forever, despite knowing that this is never true. Time passed, and Al and Dot sold the site to a company that does this as a business, and they bear no blame in this. I can't imagine the hassles they had with TC over the years, and I applaud them for being able to cash in on their hard work.
Here is where I veer into conjecture, but suspect that I am not far off the mark, and I know others will agree. The company that bought the site is a Canadian corporation, and as such, is subject to the rules and regulations of its parent country. This is not conjecture, nor is the fact that the Canadian government is of socialist leanings, with a strong desire to control every aspects of its citizens lives. Now the new owners have set forth rules of operation to the moderators as to how the site is to be run, as every business does, and must. We had rules before and we have rules now. But the rules have changed. Censorship is now the order of the day, no opinion or post that questions the party line can be allowed to stand. I will not comment on the closure of Current Events either way, other than to say it was set up as a no holds barred area and as such, should not have even had a moderator. Do't like what's in there? Don't go back.
I questioned the new rules, and mentioned what my have been handed down to the mods from above. If I had been told, "yes, the rules have changed, and we are just working within those guidelines to keep the sire going", I would have happily accepted that. But one mod vigorously denied that they'd been given any rules at all, which cannot be true. I was disparaged and gaslighted in that post, and when others questioned it, the post vanished. It was then that I saw the future of TC.
In closing, I feel as though something has been stolen from me, something that I've had and cherished for the last quarter century, AND I'M MAD AS HELL ABOUT IT! I place the blame on the mods more that I do the new site owners.
I realize that few will see this post, as such talk cannot be allowed to stand, and dissent cannot be condoned in any way, and it will be deleted as soon as the mods see it. No matter, as I am logging off for the first time in 25 years, and will not return.
Those of you still here that are my friends, I will still be contacting you via e-mail and phone as I have always done. And if you feel as I do, all that I will say is there is another place that you can go, where you can experience what we used to experience.
