HogWash
skinnnnnnnnfph.....hoike.......fluggie......heh heh heh
Warning: drama ahead...use an alternate route.
This is an open letter to all my friends. I'm really disappointed and fed up, so I am going to speak out. I left for 6 weeks, but have been offering to come back for the last 3 weeks now. I approached ibadmin (CAD's supervisor for Internet Brand owners) and CAD administrators about my wishes to return, with a condition that I be reinstated to the position I left with. I'm not welcome to come back to the "Moose Lodge" (CAD's administrative staff), but more so have been further insulted and bullied in the process, and treated with disrespect. Scoe was the only one who supported my return and who treated me with some dignity. Since I am no longer welcomed back to the Moose Lodge, then it's time to tell my story, as so many members here have wanted to know what happened, and I no longer feel any obligation to the Moose Lodge. I'll even share some of my opinions of whats been happening since I've been gone. So strap yourself in and brace for impact, if you are still with me.
First of all, I left because things got insane in the Moose Lodge, and I really needed a break in the end. From that point on, many people here have regularly sent me private messages, emails and phone calls, asking me to please return, and encouraging me with many very kind words. Thank you all for your kindness and support! I love CAD and it's members, and I miss being Roadhog, but wasn't sure when I left, if I'd want to return. I didn't think any of this out when I left, because I was reacting to my emotions and frustrations. Many of you immediately looked to support me and cheer me up, and believe me, it made a huge difference right away, thank you.
When our new owners Internet Brands bought CAD...initially they left us alone, and yet I always felt it would have been nice if they had atleast offered us a little Public Relations, and introduce themselves. When they started making changes with no notice, things got disrespectful to each and every member of CAD. Here is the catch; CAD does not sell a product, the site gains it's revenue through offering Industry advice, and Industry networking. The forum members are largely responsible for the success of CAD. You'd think we'd be indulged with better treatment. CAD is worth allot of money, and it is because of the members.
I never cared to be a forum moderator or administrator, just ask Gman or Rawlco. We had "The Driver's Lounge." It was a fun site made up of CAD members where we played games, had a chatroom, and we were planning a file sharing link as well. I got my belly full of admin work at Driver's Lounge, and thought I'd never make that mistake again. But when Twilight Flyer asked me to join the staff at CAD, I couldn't say no, even aware that it is a thankless crappy job, and potentially can ruin a good poster. Well, it turned out okay for me, and when Twilight decided he needed to take off for awhile because of a career change, he offered to pass the mantle to me, providing I'd accept, and if the other guys supported that idea. It was originally meant to be temoprary, or at the very least Twilight would swoop in occasionally, or answer to the Bat Signal in emergencies.
Here is when things got insane. We already weathered through that ugly botched migration, and been sick and tired of the new owners screwing up everything they did, giving us all no warning, and then leaving the mess for the staff to clean up. Within minutes of Twilight announcing his plans to step down, he had his admin powers revoked with no warning. This was a direct interference and act done deliberately, and again with no discussion or warning. Twilight, me, Ridge and Scoe all began asking the owners WTF. We were completely ignored for days. This was no way to treat a man who had served faithfully for the last 5 years, and in all rights was the very Heart & Soul of CAD. This stressed us all out, as Twilight did not have a whole lot of time to help with the transition. This stressed me even more, because I needed Twilights mentoring, and with him and I both without admin powers, there was nothing we could do, to move forward. Cripe sake...had Internet Brands just left us alone, the transition could have gone smoothly, and the whole staff could have easily worked out our day to day operations. They had pulled this same crap on me a month earlier, demoting me from admin to mod without discussion, or notice, right during the time I was trying to help members get back on CAD after being banned. I didn't make anything of it, because we all had enough stuff to do and accomplish. I didn't care if I was demoted, but the loss of admin ability compromised my job. I had to spend allot of time for about a week telling everyone, I can no longer help them with admin responsibilities, and had to refer them all to Twilight, which just placed all the work load on him entirely.
First we only had Keiante to talk to, then ibadmin (his supervisor) came along. If you look at the Forum Leaders...you'll see quite a few IB names now.
We tried during the next two weeks, having days go by without hearing back from the IB guys, and they offered us lame crap for excuses, empty words, and still not restoring Twilights powers or mine, so we could manage the business, and make the transition. Twilight originally wanted to leave with just the notion he could spend the first weekend mentoring the position, and be available on-call. He had limited time to do any of this, and that time passed, and another week went by, with still no apology, and lame excuses bordering on outright lies, and total lack of concern for our feelings. They treated us like we were dummies. Scoe asked them over and over...if they were going to take over the management, or what, and who would be in charge. He never got an answer. We all spelled out exactly what needed to be done, and were ignored. Ridge and I defended Twilight with passion. Twilight was more diplomatic and honorable, then I could ever be on my best day.
What did it for me was when after two weeks of me getting all caveman on ibadmin, he f-i-n-a-l-l-y gives me and Twilight our admin power back, and within just a few hours of that...he's telling us to get busy now taking care of handling the backlog of approvals, that had stacked up, because Twilight and I did not have the admin power to deal with that job. Twilight wanted all of us to wait until he could brief us on the job, because it was a very tricky procedure at that time. Many of you may remember we had hundreds of porn, spam and worse applying for membership accounts. One of our conditions, to ibadmin, was that he STOP interferring in our day to day business, unless we have a discussion first. Above all...STOP screwing things up, and let us run the message board as we know best...and obviously far better than these so-called Internet Brands experts. v.Bulletin is even their own software, and they don't have a clue how to run it. (remember the migration?)
Anyway, ibadmin is all of a sudden bossing us around, and at this point, we are all painfully aware this spacktard has NO CLUE. What nerve, but it gets better......he then also says he is going to interview members for mod positions. Oh for the love of God......he can't go 2 hours without interferring, and causing us more trouble, or further disrespecting and insulting us. Not to mention all the added stress and unnecessary extra work. That is when I made the "Spacktarded Baldmonkey Pisswimp Fuh-k-nuh-gets" thread and shortly after that, handed in my badge. I needed a break.
There is a little back-story to this concerning me, which Twilight and Ridge were aware of. (the three of us were pretty close) We all have had extra stress in our lives, off CAD. Actually all of the mods were going through lots of outside stress...right during this time. I have had trouble keeping jobs, because the companies keep going out of business. Northern Michigan was hit hard with the recession long before most of the country. Each job loss came with a job that paid me less the the last. On top of that, my property tax jumped to $8k/year. I've been living in pain for over a year. I won't go into allot of details, but to say, I'm forced to work part-time lately because of the pain I am in, and I've been trying to get some operations to fix things, which has taken me 10 months of back and forth with Specialists. I work flatbed loads of steel, so I refuse the heavy pain meds I should be taking...and try to manage the pain with tylenol. I will get two operations, with the first one middle of February, and the next 6 weeks after that, with 4 months of rehab/recouperation. I won't have any income for that time off, so that doesn't make my life any less stressful. I've been working way past what I should to make extra money to cover all this, and I come home everyday a train wreck. I go to bed in pain, and wake up in pain, and have bad days or worse. Hell, even the company I am with now, is teetering on the verge, so I doubt I'll even have this job to come back to.
Looking back, I am sorry I stepped down, because I didn't really think this through very well. I was appalled that they promoted Rev Vassago to admin. I immediately told ibadmin what a complete spacktard he was for doing this, and that this was going to drag CAD down even further. I told Twilight and the entire staff back about the time I banned Lebron James, that Rev was a troublemaker, and gameplayer, and we would have to rein him in. He likes to bait people, play his games and often ends up either angering people or even hurting them. He's tried many times on me, but he never wins, and I guess that is what threatens him most. I banned only one member...Lebron James, and that was discussed with the other mods first. All the other people who took issue with me, or vice versa, I ended up gaining their respect and friendship, and that to me is what a moderator should aspire to do. I even tried to keep the peace with Rev, but in my opinion, he has deep issues, and probably will never change. I respect him when he acts normal, and he can. He can also make some very good posts, and truely help people. But then he becomes Mr. Hyde. In the first month and a half of him being promoted, he's banned what? over 6 members? and run off over a dozen? He abuses his power, is hypocritical and continues to play his games with no one to have to answer to. He has stalked members onto other sites, where they went to get away from him, and shown he has absolutely no class by taunting and baiting, and disrupting yet more message boards.
I'll tell you what....Scoe welcomed me back without hesitation, without making me have to asnwer to him in anyway. Just as I'm sure he would welcome back Twilight and Ridge. You should know, Twilight and Ridge both did not care to return to CAD either, at the time I left. I'm being in effect punished for standing up for Twilight. What have I done really, other than turn in my badge? Had I simply kept my badge...what? that makes it all different? Well...it does make it possible for me to not have to come hat in hand to ibadmin and Rev, asking to be reinstated. What is my guilt? That I called ibadmin a spacktarded baldmonkey pisswimp fuh-k-nuh-get?
Rev has a BIG problem with me saying I will only come back to CAD, if I am reinstated to admin. (I wonder why) I've given that condition, but never said what my reasons were for that. Rev will want you to believe I am so shallow, all I want is the "title." Truth is, I really dispise the job, but I know if I were to come back to CAD right now as a regular member, Rev will start in on me worse than ever, and find some way to ban me within a month. If you notice, he bans everyone he doesn't like. My thinking was to make sure I was not subservient to Rev, and then basically ignore him and ibadmin, and go about being Roadhog again. I did promise I would resume as I was before, being Roadhog, but Rev wants to impose his will on me, and have me answer to him.
CAD is all about the members, and all the members are important. But...what is the deal with CAD allowing Rev to degrade CAD so badly, and just get away with it? Many of you hate seeing this crap go on, and you come here less, or you just ignore it. Some even really like Rev, ...but he is the worst admin I have ever seen. I actually had hopes he'd settle down and change for the better, but look...enough is enough. If I was the only one who felt this way, or say one of a few...fine...but the deal is, over a dozen people have voiced these concerns to me, and I've seen as many others do it openly on the message board, and some have been banned for it.
Sorry if this offends anyone, but I want to tell my story, and many have asked about this.
What I'm now doing shows no class, but I'm once again ticked off, and I don't care. Besides, I'm certain I will be banned for this post. Hahaha...so be it. 5........4..........3..........2........
Ban Voyage .................(quote Trukrswyfe)
Mark Twain, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Ralph Kramden, Sponge Bob Square Pants....
Originally Posted by Roadhog
You are sorely missed. 
This used to be a very interesting community with very diverse personalities and opinions which allowed people to make their own decisions. Sadly, that is no longer the case.
It's sad to see what CAD has become. 
And, that one too...
.......signed,,,,,Indy
