Online Windmills

Such is the nature of internet 'journalism'. As someone who hardly ever use PM and doesn't care to be 'in the know', I have only two rules:

1. Cite your sources.
2. Disclose your affiliations.

In addition there is one corollary:

1. I don't care to know that you know, that you know who else knows, or who you talked to about what you know, even though I don't know what you know etc.

Sadly, several online 'opinionators' and 'journalists' seems to be so mesmerized being privy to 'the inside scoop' that it isn't even about having an agenda; rather it's developing some addictive traits as not to be cut off from the excitement. An honest to God bias, that's what editorials are for, is way better than a lack of critical judgment…

 

I find the fact that the previous owner of this forum was reading private messages/discussions plain disgusting (if it's true..)
Don't want to derail this thread but is it even legal?

 

Just want to make sure with all you guys: we do not read PMs members send to each others. It would be against everything we believe in if we were do so.

 

The current staff has been very nice to me, after I blew up at Rys, there was no reason for them not to ban me and they didn't, which is something to be respected.

 

Well, what's the fun of having power when you only show restraint?

 

Mod 1 -- "I thought you were supposed to ban Razor1."
Mod 2 -- "Aw, ****. I thought you were going to do it!"
Mod 1 -- "Well, crap, too late now!"





j/k

 

Lol

 

With regards to Johns comment as to PM's, I am unsure where he has got this from. I've commented in the past that I can see the AEG usernames PM statistics showing they sent more than one PM, however that is a function of vBulliten's Admin panel as anyone with vBulliten can attest to. Once Pete forwarded me the PM that he was approached with I could tell from that who the AEG username was and you can also find the other from the email domain.

Secondly, I was not aware of this through any other industry sources than those that contacted me through the forum at the time - one, some year prior to this coming out (asking for my advice on whether to go for it) and from Pete's forwarded PM. The first I was aware of anyone else knowing about it that (evidently) wasn't directly involved was after it came out.

 

Then tell you me Dave and Inc. why were you talking shit behind my back a month or two ago? I don't care how you think you are, or who you work for, I'm coming out now, and you better have a damn good reason. Is that the way its done, with you, since you can't talk to me directly you talk to the mods of a site to make me change my posts? This happend after the ordeal where you were abosolutely wrong about the nV finacial numbers just to refresh your memory. And the posts that "AMD rep" was complaining about was a 3dmark score which seems to be very much correct now.

 

Watch it, Razor.

 

I understand, I want to see the explination , its better to get it off my chest here in a dignified manner, then holding a grudge.

 

Nothing about that post was dignified. Last warning.

 

Re the very limited point of what one can or cannot see in the vBulletin control panel, there are per user storage statistics of PMs by folder. So, for instance, number currently in the Sent folder and currently in the Inbox for any user. This is pretty typical management stuff, and is not privacy invasive (i.e. we can't read the PM or know who you sent/received from) There is also the ability to search for users by a wildcarded email address. So, if one knows an email address of one user, one can search for any other users who have email addresses at the same domain. Doing so re AEG's email domain produces two accounts with no forum posts. Looking at their PM statistics (not the PMs themselves, which vBulletin's tools gives no method for doing; tho presumably database tools like SQL could be employed on any vBulletin database) shows one of them sent two PMs and received none, and the other sent four PMs and received two. Which actually presumes they didn't delete any themselves, as again, this is just a summary report of PM storage in use by user.

 

Its much more dignified then going behind someones back and trying to discredit them amongest his peers obviously this ATi rep didn't want to confront me in public or private in pm's so I must say that is not very dignified, more so underhanded.

 

Less aggressivity, more dignity.

If you absolutely want to discuss private matters, you have to remember that you're threading through winding courses and thus you have coat your words with all the subtlety required not for you argument to pass as an aggressive rant.

Note that usually, we do not condone, nor even let populate the board, personal enqueries. But seeing that this thread very purpose forces us to alter this rule a bit, we can accept some broad discussion concerning some folks behavior, only if they're most correctly expressed.

Note that we will prune the replies that we would consider as being direct attacks, from now on in this thread. In other words, thread carefully, gents.

edit: oh well, it seems that my post arrived after the ban stick...

 

I think this thread serves no useful purpose now (or at the beginning, at least for the current B3D), so unless JR has something legit to add or clarify I'll be stopping it here. Take side issues via private channels if you must, and anyone who thinks I closed this thing unjustly can contact me directly.

 

I found this thread late in its first page, but wanted to wait for Dave and others to weigh in before I did, mainly b/c I still feel like a spectator rather than a participant in this whole mess (though I seem to have provided the snowball that was started down the mountain). I obviously waited too long. It's a bit unfair to add to a closed and emotional thread, but maybe my perspective will soothe some nerves/suspicions. My view of how this whole mess unfolded:

I PM'ed Dave with what I thought was spam. He apparently put two and two together and recognized it from the advice he gave "some year [sic, as usual--JR, I feel your editing pain ] prior." He got JR to look into it, and eventually Geo spilled the known-at-the-time beans. I don't know if Dave knew about AEG by name before my PM, but it wasn't hard to find them given the PM I received, and I don't think he needed to read anyone else's PMs to find AEG and the services they advertised. Thus the PM I willingly forwarded to Dave may be the only one he read and all that JR (apparently erroneously) thinks Dave read surreptitously. The clandestine nature of the group seems to have led everyone to suspect the worst initially, myself included. Much of this turned out to be overblown, knowing the B3D members involved.

This may be the naive sucker in me talking, but I think no less of all the people involved, or even AEG (once again, I involved Dave b/c I thought their offer was spam, not b/c it was obviously underhanded, and Ail and CR think it has merit and they seem like good guys). In that sense, I agree with Rys that leaving this thread open would just (apparently continue to) invite a nightmare of recrimination, to borrow a phrase. I hope that my perspective has helped dispell some of the ill will that clearly lingers and this new fear of PMs being read (though I haven't spoken with Dave or anyone else about it, I'll take Geo's word for it that it's sufficiently hard to do that it's not done on a whim, and Dave's word for it that he didn't do it b/c I think I provided him with the biggest dot he or JR or Geo needed to connect). I think this whole thing started innocently, was driven by perhaps cynical but not malicious curiosity, and exploded onto the community at large with exaggerated light and heat the internets are so good at producing. I'm left knowing more but not necessarily wiser for it. I continue to value the contributions of all those B3Ders caught in the middle of it.

Sorry to squeeze in this last word, so to speak, but I figured I'm due a final (relative to this thread and maybe this topic) and this time witting comment, and I (forced myself--again, this wasn't a happy episode--to) offer it in the spirit of peace. I hope it'll be accepted as an attempt to mediate (though I'm venting a bit, but only 'cause JR did! ;P). If it's seen as more meddling, kindly disregard and let's all move on.

 

Well, Rollo deleted his voluntarily upstream, but if you consider that his opportunity consciously declined, then we've got JR (his blog entry), me, Wavey, Ail, Chris, and now you, Pete, saying what they felt the need to say on this thread. So unless Chal or JR want a comment on what anyone else has said, that's all the major players dipping their oar in and onlookers can come to whatever conclusions they think are warranted.