Irishtornado

Same goes for me Mike a friend in need is a friend indeed..I'll always have your back bro.

Nightlife1970

+1

Anyone ever hear of Blake Driving 4.5 hours to help a friend put his stereo in?

Anchorman

**** I all but called him an ******* and left and havent been banned yet. I must have any friends. I have never gone back since the day I left. I know who my friends are and where they are and what their #'s are and well you all get the idea. I guess you guys will have to let me know if I have my name written on the chalk board too. Ive got wayyy to much other **** to worry about like how to properly run a fuggin business and keep clients happy.

CJPHIL

anchorman
Not A Registered User


Posts: 864
Join Date: Feb 2007

sorry will you are outta there!!!!

Nightlife1970

Yea for Will

Irishtornado

Damn Will that ASSHAT got your #...There must be NOTHING going on over there for him to have all this time to monitor this..Why does he monitor the Baja section here on OSO if he has the #1 "Self Proclaimed" Baja site

TEAMBAJA

Damn, I go to bed and you guys are still throwing logs on the fire!

Docks t-shirt contest has inspired me. Think about it. How many TBM t-shirts do you guys have left? Imagine the photo opportunitys. Using it to help your neighbor check his oil in the Bayliner, wiping your @SS, scrubbing the toilet, diaper for your kid with the sh*ts, etc etc etc etc..........................................

ship4brains

Such a shame..........

bmtbandit

Yep that was enough for a ban. Well Blake, I posted this half in jest not thinking you were as big of a cock sucker as everyone is saying. Guess you just proved everyone right. a$$hole.

emilsr

I suspect most Baja owners either don't care about these personal feuds or they're smart enough not to get involved. Since I'm not the latter I'll play along...

I don't know Blake personally, never met him, never talked to him on the phone and never even traded emails that I can think of other than to tell him what size and color shirt I wanted at renewal time. Like many people I haven't always agreed with the way he conducted himself or his actions. He isn't the reason I'm active on TBM; the information, camraderie and the general character of most of the members are the reasons I'm there and will continue to be active there unless/until I'm asked to leave or the site goes away. I do believe that some (but not all) deserved their bannings for what they posted. Seriously guys, you can't call someone an ******* without expecting him to get upset about it. For the ones that didn't let themselves get brought down to that level, I don't know why you were banned, wasn't consulted, and really don't care to get involved in personal feuds anyway. I've made that mistake before....won't do it again.

Even though I haven't always agreed with him, he's been right about some things and some people when most of those around him felt he was wrong. He also had the foresight to use the Baja name in his website, and somehow managed to facilitate a fairly strong community of like minded individuals. Probably most (if not all) of us here have met people through TBM that have enriched our lives. That's a good thing in my book. Those things I respect, so if the rules are that it's his sandbox, his rules, I'm okay with that as it's a sandbox I'd like to play in. Again, it's the people there that make me feel this way. It's his call how he conducts himself, not mine, and I don't feel qualified to pass judgement in public anyway....have my own problems to worry about.

What I have difficulty understanding and accepting is why so many feel the need for personal feuding, public bashing, name calling, etc. Who is at fault doesn't so much matter as there's plenty of blame to go around.....both in this case and in some of the other feuds (the Blake/Mark feud comes to mind). At some point in time, sooner rather than later, the right thing to do (IMO of course) is for both of the parties involved to simply let it go and get back to boating. Like Keith, boating is a much needed and appreciated diversion from the day to day grind and I'd prefer it to be a positive experience....both on the water, and on the online forums.

This sort of thing doesn't seem to be limited to boating forums either; my wife is active in several dog forums and she tells me the same things go on there. No matter how the forums are moderated, and no matter whether they're in the US or overseas, people seem to feud.....so we're not alone in this particular problem and I honestly have no idea what the solution is. The rampant bashing and feuding on OSO is the main reason I didn't renew my paid membership here a few years ago. Perhaps it's so rampant simply because it's a large forum....I don't know. I see more of it than I'd like on TBM. I don't see it as much on the regional forums (MWBP being the one I frequent), but I suspect that's because of a combination of things; many of the forum members boat together and wouldn't dream of acting that way towards each other, and the mods don't allow it. I wish that was the case elsewhere, but it isn't.

Why do I see it as a problem? First of all, we've got much bigger enemies in this world than each other. Government regulators, the financial woes of the marine industry and snake oil salesmen/crooks are a few that come to mind. Again, just my opinion here, but we'd all be much better off if disagreements were handled in private, at the end of the day we agreed to disagree if necessary, and we presented a unified front to the rest of the world. To fail to do so, to take sides and split the group over disagreements just makes us all weaker in the face of the REAL adversities we face. It also doesn't speak well for the group as a whole when we can't seem to get along and/or conduct ourselves appropriately....a guilty by association deal for those who are smart enough to keep their yaps shut.

I suppose I look at things differently than some of the forum regulars as I've been boating waaaaay longer than I've been on internet forums. Started boating with my dad in '66, bought my first boat in '80 (30 years this month), and over the years I've tended to look at ALL boaters as my friends. Us against them and us against the seas, versus us against us. That's just my way and I make no apologies for it. I also don't wish bad upon anyone, especially when they share my particular hobby, and it also concerns me when I see that happening with my fellow boaters. Again, there's plenty of blame to go around as we've seen all too often (including this particular thread). I don't care who started it, I just wish it would stop. Fat chance, I know, but a guy can dream can't he?