I just wonder when and if it will be back for real.
I just wonder when and if it will be back for real.
My other pen is a Montblanc.
And my other blog is a tumblr!
And my latest ebook, for spooky wintery reading:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CM2NGSSD
People often do not believe... until reality confronts them with unassailable evidence. Perhaps when you are banned...
Different boards appeal to different people, and that of course is just fine. People who don't have strong opinions should do fine at FPN. Those who wish to engage in serious chat and not to feel obligation to genuflect to the caprice and malice of a single owner, might do better at FPG or FPB, where far far greater room is given for disagreement, even for disagreeable posts.
Of course, that's just my opinion
regards
david
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
Visit my writing instrument buy/sell/trade community: Fountain Pen Classifieds
Simple to use and it's completely FREE!
I wanna be one of the "cool kids".
If only FPN would just stay up long enough so I could also get myself banned...OY!
I would have been glad to pay a general membership myself.
The issue for me is not about the $$ for advertising.
It's the hypocrisy of it and how it was handled, IMHO.
It is a big deal
because FPN Admins previously insisted they would be happy to have the classifieds go away, that FPN was not a commercial enterprise.
and so one day we wake up finally to a division of commercial memberships and the rest of us pen plebes?
and when we offer opinion, no thank you it is not wanted unless it's how the FPN admin wants you to frame it?
or concern is voiced than there may be conflicts of some interest between paid member accounts and moderation... these threads disappear from view, allegedly for “review?"
There has been no transparency or accountability for our “donations” to FPN. Only complains that we didn't give enough.
As I've over-pondered the recent debacle, I've come to the conclusion it was much easier to offer memberships to people who have something to sell. After all, if there was a general membership to us plebes, we might expect fair moderation, or to be able to offer dissenting opinions. We might expect something, ay?
And no offense intended here to all our wonderful friends who have stuff to sell. What would we do without pens and ink to buy/sell/trade, ay? Here on FPGeeks, they make it clear: they take in ads so they can fund the site (hey, look, they have an “ethics statement!” go figure, such radicalism! *applause*)
And no disrespect meant to you Shawn, as I've admired you for your tenacity, your sharing of what you've learned, and your good works with students.
I'm usually a polite guest in someone else's home, and apologize for my anger which I will leave confined here in this popcorn inducing thread. As a member of FPN for 5 years or so, I've seen a few things I didn't understand, heard about old dramas, and saw new dramas erupt and fizzle. I have felt the unspoken censorship on certain topics. I even thought that good outweighed the bad.
However....Why on earth anyone would ban reprieve or jbb even temporarily is beyond me. Or tandaina permanently? (Yes, I saw 'away' listed for all three.) Such gentle and thoughtful souls.
Honestly, if I could delete all my contributions from FPN I would. Alas, I am not allowed that control over my own content.
—Julie
Edited for clarity: I support advertisements & advertisers of forums I participate in. I'm anti-bullies, among other things. I'm for transparency, respect and kindness.
Last edited by jde; April 29th, 2013 at 12:25 PM.
geoduc (April 30th, 2013), gweddig (April 29th, 2013), jacksterp (April 30th, 2013), kaisnowbird (April 30th, 2013), klpeabody (May 3rd, 2013), Kudzu (June 3rd, 2013), nekosan (December 29th, 2013), reprieve (April 29th, 2013), Sailor Kenshin (April 29th, 2013), ThriveToScribe (April 29th, 2013)
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
I think I understand the reality, I'm just in partial denial. There really are still good people there, even those with strong opinions, so perhaps I am hoping that somehow Admin will get back to reality themselves and become more accepting, though from FPN's history this does not seem likely. I don't want to lose access to all the info on FPN. (Of course, that will be a moot point if FPN never goes back on line again. Three days and counting, and that after it seems it was down more than it was up all last week.) I really don't want to get banned just to prove that Admin is delusional...
As Julie and others have mentioned, I, too, am astonished that folks like Jill (jbb,) reprieve and tandaina were among the "fallen" at FPN. Astonishing, really.... Now as for you, David.... (j/k) I don't know the full story but it would appear that you were banned for equally unfounded, petty reasons - how dare any of us have opinions that don't mirror Admins! So, I may rethink my willingness to still participate at FPN but I will see if things improve or get worse first.
Holly
[QUOTE=OakIris;22972][QUOTE=david i;22915][QUOTE=OakIris;22912]Hi Holly,
In all fairness... I actually did the major banning-- of FPN in that incident. I gave 'em their most significant smack in the chops they've had (save perhaps if their current downtime in fact is d/t member-related intervention), when they declined to remove my content after they got a bit too much in my face. I did give them the chance, and they really had earned it. The line i received from them when I had made my requests was- more or less- "We do what we want. Who do you think you are?"
"Banning" me-- after that-- rather was like closing the barn doors after all the horses have escaped
Hope you have a good time there. Never would I wish anyone a bad experience. But, if you want to talk pen collecting without concern of the times Wim goes off his (perhaps metaphorical) meds, you will do better at this board or even over at my board (FPnuts, Fountain Pen Board).
regards
david
Last edited by david i; April 29th, 2013 at 11:39 AM.
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
[QUOTE=OakIris;22972][QUOTE=david i;22915][QUOTE=OakIris;22912]Hi again,
Note that membership at any of these boards is not necessary to have access to the information here. You would not lose that if you left FPN. You would lose merely posting rights. As to searches, Google site-specific searches are more powerful than the searches done within any of the boards.
regards
david
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
I think that an important point has been raised, and that is the danger of generalization. I personally know one of the FPN mods, and that person is a decent, kindly, and generous soul who would rather die than be involved in backroom politicking. I also think that people like Shawn are decent folks who simply hav invested a lot of themselves in FPN, and thus have a loyalty to it as an entity, rather than to any particular Admin.
So, there seems to be a disconnect between those who have generously contributed to the community, and those who have seized control of the administration and the financial interests of the board and are creating a bully culture within it.
On another thought...
It seems that these communities have something of a half-life. They are created by enthusiasts. They are cultivated by various people who join in and generously contribute. But after awhile they hit a critical mass of discussion (how many times can you address a new member's simply query, like "my ebay Parker 51 is leaking out of the top end, can anyone help?"), and the original enthusiasts stop contributing so much. After a while longer, there are more and more simple topics, and less and less new content, at which point things go very quiet, for a long time.
I am convinced that the one thing which can stave off this decay process is commerce. If people can make it profitable, they will be motivated to find or create new content. Is this in any way morally suspect, or sleazy? Not at all. Fountain pens themselves would not exist if someone had not decided to develop them commercially. Some of the most beautiful and influential examples of 20th century printing and typography were done specifically as advertising by companies selling type.
By quashing, or controlling, commerce, FPN has really "cut off it's nose to spite it's face." Fountain pen lovers want to buy pens, and need to buy ink and paper. They love it. To remove that from the equation limits the board's usefulness to it's members. And it cuts off some of the best sources of information out there: vendors and repairers.
And it's not that it is vastly expensive, because it isn't. But elsewhere is free. And elsewhere is friendly. So as a result, it simply pays better and is more satisfying to put the effort elsewhere.
David Armstrong
--
www.restorersart.com
Antiques for Readers & Writers
--
www.sevanti-letterpress.com
Guaranteed Fountain Pen Friendly
Jon Szanto (April 29th, 2013), rroossinck (May 2nd, 2013)
About this time last year, I had a handwritten post simply titled, "Good Words" on FPN.
It had received, I would say, mostly favorable comments, but because the post had a "religious" element, a few members took exception to it, and cited the "prohibited topics" clause in the Chatter Forum.
Now, I was never really contacted by anyone from FPN Admin regarding the post, but a couple of members who I guess considered themselves "the thought police" gave their opinion, and in MY opinion needlessly started arguing with those who defended me.
Anyway, I just got so annoyed by the whole thing, I took down ALL my handwritten posts from photobucket just for spite - which I sort of regretted. But after I got to cool down a bit, I started handwritten posts again - in earnest. Right now, I have over 1,400 images in photobucket I could just delete...blip...and all gone from FPN. But I won't, because others just might find them helpful - if FPN ever gets running again (and it would just just take too much of my time). I will not be doing any significant posting there anymore either, I feel like my work there is done..off to greener pastures.
Thanks for having me here.
Last edited by Manny; April 29th, 2013 at 12:17 PM.
Hmmm... FPN appears to be back.
I'll wait until 'fixed' really is.
My other pen is a Montblanc.
And my other blog is a tumblr!
And my latest ebook, for spooky wintery reading:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CM2NGSSD
Down again, this time for an indeterminate amount of time while they get a new server. Not trying to stir any pots, just posting what I just saw.
And it is offline again. *sigh*
So at first it was a DoS-attack, after that a DNS hack, and now a hardware problem...
David Armstrong
--
www.restorersart.com
Antiques for Readers & Writers
--
www.sevanti-letterpress.com
Guaranteed Fountain Pen Friendly
Well, I must say, with FPN crashing we have had quite the flood of vintage pen postings at The Fountain Pen Board, and this thread at FPG is one of the chunkiest to develop so fast I've ever seen. Will be curious if everyone playing more at these two boards will stick around if/when FPN actually manages to achieve a stable platform again.
regards
david
David R. Isaacson, MD
http://www.vacumania.com : Sales site for guaranteed, restored collectible pens.
The Fountain Pen Board /FPnuts : Archived Message Board with focus on vintage.
The Fountain Pen Journal: The new glossy full-color print magazine, published/edited by iconic fountain pen author Paul Erano.
Facebook pen group "Fountain Pens"/FPnuts: Davey's casual Facebook group for collectible pens.
31000 members and growing. World's heftiest daily vintage pen eye candy
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