Fred J & others banned from mbcanada.com, no reason give

[TFM 0]

To all of you who may not have heard, I have been given a One Year Suspension by mbcanada.com

They have given no reason, but it is fair to assume that they are so scared that members may think for themselves, that they took offence to the notice, which was sent in as personal emails, advising that a discussion forum is now on line to fill a void that they did not want to see filled.

While I am the target of the suspension for a year, it is more of a message to every single member to "don't you dare think or speak freely on matters relating to having fun with your smart car", unless we say it is OK!

Will I miss reading your posts? Of course I will.

Will I disappear, never to be seen again? Not a chance!

If any of you take this as a personal attack on your own freedom or are offended by mbcanada's tactics and want to express your feelings by emailing the information to a few members, be my guest.

If any of you want to suggest that they too forward it to other members, be my guest.

If you were to include the URLs for the new discussion group so the recipients can see how innocuous they are and participate if they would like to, be my guest.

We have had some good times and they will continue.

Thanks and good luck to all of you.

Fred Joyce,

Kamloops, BC

P.S. Sorry guys, but the Fuel Derby has to be cancelled as well.

[TFM 0]

Well I was just banned! My wife too!

No reason given of course. :roll:

I invite everyone to tell everyone about alternate message boards and ways of meeting each other without the oppressive yoke of the mbcanada dictators.

They go against everything the smart stands for, are you going to get them profit from it?

See http://clubsmartcar.ca/forums for more info.

I hope to see my friends again soon!

[Xandria 4]

reiteration from another thread that definitely brings things into sharper relief

Its a shame that this discussion couldn't take place at smart.mbcanada.com, because it forced you to create this redundant forum, but there is an understandable viewpoint there as well.

Forums are extremely easy to create, so that's not a big deal. I don't mind creating a forum for the interim... except...

I personally hope you can work with them, and avoid creating a competitive environment (ie. no forum). Ideally I would like to see their forum being the place for interactive and general discussion, and your website being the place for more static information and specific local discussion.

- Steven

That's EXACTLY what I was hoping until we were banned. I guess now we have no choice but to do our own thing. If people wish to join us and our fun, then that's great. If they don't, then that's fine too. There are lots of smart car owners out there, and I have many plans with how to reach them. I have a lot of passion and drive, and it will not be put to rest simply because I was banned from one community. If other people wish to benefit from my enthusiasm and energy, then great. I look forward to hanging out with all the wonderful, positive and joyful smart car owners (and would-be owners :-) ).

[TFM 0]

That "Cooper" mbcanada guy came in and banned us from the chat system too.

[Xandria 4]

Well, you know how it's just so wrong to want to all be happy together and create a fun place for other smart car lovers. Because... that's so threatening.

Um... riiiiight.

[smartsally 0]

Is there a chat thing on here?

[TFM 0]

Is there a chat thing on here?

There CAN be Sally. If that's what people want. :twisted:

Pretty much anything you guys want can be done... Though I will say that some software does cost money to buy and is a little out of my contribution commitment, :oops: but we can discuss it.

As an example: the chat system on mbcanada cost about $600 dollars. There are free ones and there is IRC as well.

Edit: Clarified it. I portrayed it incorrectly in my haste to get stuff done. :!:

[RoySkyBell 0]

The MB chat room is up again

[TFM 0]

The MB chat room is up again

Only for the unbanned amongst us... :roll:

[MikeT 744]

Andres (bsmart) in Calgary used to have his own chat system; maybe we can use his for now.

[spinner 0]

Crazy... In case you didn't know, mbcanada.com was setup with redundancy to prevent ANY downtime. This morning I wanted to see if there was an announcement, but it seems to be arbitrarily down.

We'll see what happens. I'm here on contingency. We'll see where things go from here.

EDIT: Announcement:

http://www.mbcanada.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9128

[Xandria 4]

Hey, Spinner. Welcome. There's nothing arbitrary about it. Sorry for inadvertently causing trouble. It appears someone got their knickers in a twist despite my efforts to be sincere, kind and friendly. That was some explosion last night. In any event, stay as you like.

Cheers.

X.

[MikeT 744]

Feel free to participate here and remain a member at mbcanada, Brian. It's not a zero-sum game so far as I know

[Xandria 4]

Thanks, Mike. Anyone is welcome here as long as they love smart cars. I repeat -- this forum is NOT intended to take away from other, established boards, but to provide another place to hang out for those who wish it.

[Guest Blonde et smart]

Hi everybody,

I am from the ex french part of MBCanada (mini-moi) and I think what they made there is disgusting for Fred J and the others. I thought I'll be the next because we're also starting a smart club in Qu?bec.

I wish our two clubs will give each others some tips to help to make it real and provide a lot of fun to our members. Maybe some other club will appear in Canada ? It could be fun !

I wish you the best and promise I'll come to read you very often.

If you want to, you are welcome to our website forum at www.smartclub.qc.ca

[MikeT 744]

It's so nice to see you here! Please come often!

We will be in touch about forum links in the future...

All the best from us!

Mike and Sandy

[spinner 0]

Feel free to participate here and remain a member at mbcanada, Brian. It's not a zero-sum game so far as I know

Thanks, but I did tell them enough is enough. I was working up to this moment for a few months anyways. There were two factors:

[*]Issues related to fairness and policy, including things disappearing and paranoia

[*]I was spending way too much time

[smartdawg 0]

hey spinner. I got an auto reply from the nasty forum thread saying you had posted but when I when clicked the link, the thread was there but all entries had vanished save for the supermod's original post. And it's now locked.I, for one, was curious what you had to say. Looks like it was too hot for the site.

[smartzuuk 167]

Let's take the momentum we have and put it into a positive direction...

Open your mind...

[fortwo 0]

I agree. Enough of the crap.

[smartsally 0]

Ok and I think it is time to stop rehashing what happened at MB and start a "new life" thing on here. This is a whole new start for all on here.

[Guest WoodchuckCanuck]

Well, now you all know why I wasn't near the other site...and why I went off to create my own little space on the web for Cdn smart talk. Congrats on your new forum. I'll add this link to my site. So who's running the show here ?!?!

All the best guys and gals! I'll swing in regularly to see what's up.

[MikeT 744]

Welcome to clubsmartcar!

TFM and Xandria are hosting the forum and website here!

[smartsally 0]

woodchuck ! you are from Gander ! I lived there for three years when I was about 15. Have you lived ther long?

[Guest WoodchuckCanuck]

Hi smartsally,

I've been here since June 1994. We currently have our house on the market, moving back to Nova Scotia. I'm originally from Stephenville (west coast of NL).