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I finally understand why a lot of familiar names have vanished from my old vintage watch hang-outs:

Archer
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Faz Faz
In the same vein of moving on. I rarely go there anymore and I posed a question with regards to the sites set up. It seems only elegant and bright people need to apply...surprising how many members look down on the "other" forums. Some moderators are allergic to questions and criticism... not the first time I got "Schott" down by this warm and fuzzy moderator...for asking a legitimate question...

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&goto=7365306&rid=6370#msg_7365306

Cheers

Clicking on that took me back...I haven't been on TZ in years. This also reminded me why, when I was banned, I really didn't care about it, and never had a desire to go back...

"One more comment, how much has it cost you to be here? I'm just saying that TZ management provides us this extremely knowledgeable site at no charge."

Classic style of the mods at that place, and people who clearly don't understand that a forum needs users as much as users need the forum.
 
M'Bob
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
Oh steve that was our little secrete !

Bill, dare I ask what you were secreting?
 
M'Bob
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
I was getting all hot and bothered!

Hopefully not related to the previous post...
 
Archer
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U ulackfocus
If I ever meet Stan Sirody or Khalil in person I'd probably smack them upside the head (or worse).

I have met Stan in person, and spent a significant amount of time in his company. I think deep down he is not a bad guy...but that doesn't mean he's not annoying at times.

I know some other TZ mods personally, and aside from a few of the "good guys" there who were mods, many were/are trying to parlay their mod status into a job in the industry, like some have already.
 
Bill Sohne
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Hi Guys

Well this is a area I can post first hand knowledge...

For those who do not know my history...


I will give the quick list of where I was a moderator
Watchnet Omega forum Mod. in late 90s , then Watchnet aquired TZ. was Zenith forum mod and then Omega forum Moderator for almost 10 years, then was over at the Purist and now I hang my hat here..

and before the internet in the late 1970s and early 80s I had my own BBS called JOKE-80 ( it ran on a TRS-80 Mod I ,with a expansion interface and 48k ram !! watch out I had a very cool Dataphone 212a and was capable of 1200 bps! but that was the real joke.)

Basically I was not the typical moderator, was not looking for a full time industry job.. nor promoting any website etc....
I kept a few thoughts as a moderator
1) a moderator needs to be moderate ( that is hard for me ... as people who have met me knows I am not Moderate).
2) before I hit the "Post / reply " button I asking myself does my post ad value / content to the current thread".
( i do not post just to say nice watch.. ( unless I think it really is a nice watch ) or " sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

I know that does not make me a character on a board , but I think that is the right way to act...

I did a quick read of the TZ thread...

Now the questions of bumping and etc....

Liked one tz mod comment... about upgrading technology and certain limitations of bulletin board software... cant allow editing or bumping or whatever... that all cost $$ ....

Viewing in a threaded or liner view ..

all of the above comes down to the

"User Experience "or as I like to say , What I like about "X" it allows me to do what I want to do without me having to think about how do I do it....

X in this case can be Omega Forums . In the past I just to say that about the Macintosh operating system ...

Now the more feature rich a site , the more responsibility the mods are giving to each and every user not to abuse it.

How is that for a thought dump???

Well that is more then enough from me .... on a subject that hurts my head.

Let go back to talk about watches and the such

Good Hunting

Bill Sohne
 
U
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Archer Archer
I have met Stan in person, and spent a significant amount of time in his company. I think deep down he is not a bad guy...but that doesn't mean he's not annoying at times.

Maybe that's why we didn't get along - we were too much alike! 😜
 
U
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
I kept a few thoughts as a moderator
1) a moderator needs to be moderate ( that is hard for me ... as people who have met me knows I am not Moderate).
2) before I hit the "Post / reply " button I asking myself does my post ad value / content to the current thread".
( i do not post just to say nice watch.. ( unless I think it really is a nice watch ) or " sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

I know that does not make me a character on a board , but I think that is the right way to act...

I'm not moderate either, which is why I'm no longer a moderator. 😉 😜 I certainly am a character though! My thought before hitting the reply button was "will this post generate more posts". Good or bad, traffic (posting) is what drives a forum. 😉 Besides, I like mixing it up a bit. 😗 ::stirthepot::
 
Archer
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U ulackfocus
Maybe that's why we didn't get along - we were too much alike! 😜

If you only knew what I had originally typed! 😁
 
ConElPueblo
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U ulackfocus
Maybe that's why we didn't get along - we were too much alike! 😜

Well, there is one significant difference 😁
 
kyle L
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Welcome to OF and great example of a 30T2RG!
 
Faz
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Archer Archer
Clicking on that took me back...I haven't been on TZ in years. This also reminded me why, when I was banned, I really didn't care about it, and never had a desire to go back...

"One more comment, how much has it cost you to be here? I'm just saying that TZ management provides us this extremely knowledgeable site at no charge."

Classic style of the mods at that place, and people who clearly don't understand that a forum needs users as much as users need the forum.
You? Banned? I don't know if I should laugh or cry...make sure you piss off any form of pertinence.. then ban it...unbelievable..😲
 
U
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Faz Faz
You? Banned? I don't know if I should laugh or cry...

On the other hand, it isn't too hard to see why I was banned.

Twice.

Under two different screen names.

(Yes, only two.)
 
Archer
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Faz Faz
You? Banned? I don't know if I should laugh or cry...make sure you piss off any form of pertinence.. then ban it...unbelievable..😲

The thing is, if you think they treat regular members rather poorly, just wait until you are "in the business" in any capacity and refuse to pay their extortion level advertising fees to freely represent your business on the forum. I never openly advertised for business there (didn't need to then and don't need to now), but I could not use my business email in my contact information, and they forbid watermarking any photos with my business name. I complied with all that - their forum and their rules - that's fine with me. I understand they have to protect those who are willing to pay their fees, as it is the only way they can hope to justify what they charge if they keep it exclusive.

However, a customer of mine had posted that he was very happy with my work in a couple of relevant forums there, and he was sent an PM from "Jessica the lawyer" telling him that if he mentioned me again anywhere, he would be banned for shilling and I would also be banned. I was already spending so little time there, I didn't even know he had posted anything about the work I had done for him, and they certainly didn't tell me about these potential bans. My customer emailed me, pretty upset that he was going to be banned just for saying something nice and true about me, and frankly that pissed me off. I emailed "Jessica the lawyer" and said I don't care if you ban me, but I would appreciate it if she didn't threaten my customers, she dug in saying she was "sure" I was behind this, provided some statistics of my customer's posts that she thought backed up her feelings (miscalculated by a factor of 10), and when I pointed out a grade 5 math error she made, I suspect the ban button was pressed at that moment.

Unlike here, it is a for profit forum run by a corporation. It certainly now isn't a place run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts - those days are long gone at TZ if that was ever the case...

Cheers, Al
 
westmtn
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I've never been a member of TZ but I do have an account on watchuseek and I can say I prefer this site hands down. I think in general vintage watches attract a different breed of people and I think it shows in the quality of posts on this forum. There's a wonderful subtlety found in vintage watches that seems to have vanished in modern offerings.
 
Bill Sohne
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M'Bob M'Bob
Bill, dare I ask what you were secreting?


Shh... It was about .... WATCHES !
 
Bill Sohne
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M'Bob M'Bob
Hopefully not related to the previous post...


Wink Wink GRIN GRIN !
 
U
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westmtn westmtn
I've never been a member of TZ but I do have an account on watchuseek

WUS is the flip side of the same coin as TZ. It was all about the money from sponsors. At least now they're up front about it since the sale. A large group of mods and members left to start another site - that should say it all.
 
Bill Sohne
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U ulackfocus
I'm not moderate either, which is why I'm no longer a moderator. 😉 😜 I certainly am a character though! My thought before hitting the reply button was "will this post generate more posts". Good or bad, traffic (posting) is what drives a forum. 😉 Besides, I like mixing it up a bit. 😗 ::stirthepot::


Well Dennis

that is where you and I part.... I never think about traffic ... or generating more posts ( That kind of got me in trouble elsewhere !! hahaha) . It takes multiple things to create a global village... you are a BIG part of that, I know I am not.. ( I am ok with that.). Like I say I post when I can add content. Or when someone behaves badly .. or in poor form.

as someone else also posted in this thread.... "user needs a forum, but a forum needs users... " or something to that effect and it totally true.

Dennis , I hope we get a chance to meet and have a cup of coffee... etc..

Best regards

Bill
 
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