MetalMeet removes users

[Kerry Pinkerton]

I guess Larry has completed his takeover of MM after running Gator and me off. I quit logging on as Imperial last year after Larry ran me off and was diligent about not signing on to the Imperial account to keep the last activity date old. I had a couple aliases that I used to lurk with, both of which were widely known to be me. Last night both these aliases were removed and their posts merged into Imperial. Some PMs were lost along the way. Also one of my albums is now trashed and contains photos from other members.

So this morning, I registered again with one of the removed names and was able to get on. Shortly afterward I was removed again. I guess the moral of this story is that Larry wants only one name per user and if I want to participate I'll have to be Imperial.

Same thing happened to Joe Hartson.

I expect this is going to bite them as there will be considerable people who have multiple ids (especially infrequent posters) because they forgot their password or whatever and these folks won't know what happened to their 'current' account. Plus a bunch of folks don't logon daily and would have missed the passing reference to the change. All they'll know is they can't get in.

I'm not sure what the motivation for this. Frequently if a website is being 'bought', or ads are being sold, the buyer will request accurate membership and activity information rather than the gross number of registrations as shown on the bottom of the VBB screen. That info is readily available via a simple admin search however and I don't think that the MM BOD will allow a sale or banner ads.

[Joe Hartson]

Guess they don't want some of the information that was posted several years ago. Some of my pictures were removed but some of the links remained. Maybe I should help them out and delete the remainder of the pictures I posted.

[heidesign]

I really enjoy reading alot of the older threads over there from 03-05. I was trying to finish up a 40+ page thread last night and most was gone since WRay (and many others) are no longer active. Sure sucks I think, but what can be done? A friend that has not been on there for a while tried posting this morning and said to me he could not get on,and decided to keep to him self, and was not going to join back up.

Would be nice if anyone whom is here that has old (inactive) user names might move stuff over here if it does not cause to big of a stir.

I really enjoy these sites.

BH

[tdoty]

Not surprised. A lot of the old information is great, but the pics to explain things are long gone.

I'm surprised my buddy Chuck's acount still works, since Larry has referred to him as "Tim" at least once. I've logged in using his account a few times, just as he browses MM using my account. We used to work together and we were roommates for about 3 years, so, yeah, there is some overlap in IP addresses.

Not sure what is going on...........and ain't really worried about it. I still post over there, but I'm not super active.

Tim D.

[John Jordan]

So this begs the question, for me at least, will whatever problems, power issues etc affect MM at Oblong? Will crappy things on the internet ruin what has been a good, productive and friendly gathering?

While I know to some degree when things have gone on at MM, I've never really understood a lot of it, nor made any effort to do so since I never had anything to offer that would help. My loyalties would certainly lie with the folks that made MM what is is/was. Some have moved their efforts here, some have yet to make it here, and some are just gone.

I just hope we can continue to get together, and Oblong is something I look forward to. It would not be the same without the friends i have made.

Thanks to Johnny for getting this started, and for the other admins to sign on to make it so far, so good.

John

[slobitz]

I still visit MM every day a few times. Most who post here I have met there before. I do not post photos on either site only because I have lost all my stuff a few times and I don`t have enough extra time in my life to fool with photos any more. I enjoy seeing the photos and was pleased to see some of the stuff kerry put on about my shop. I would have liked to put on some of the stuff I did`nt get to show them, but I`m too lazy

I would hate to see the division hurt the Meet at Oblong but I`m sure you who go there would miss it dearly.

[jhnarial]

I still owe Metal Meet a lot of gratitude.That is how I met most of you guys. I also gained a lot of knowledge there.

I did not agree with some of the things that were going on over at Metal Meet.I was vocal on the things I did not agree with.What I saw happening was Metal Meet was losing the members that I really respected.

So I finally through in the towel.

I wanted a site that was just dedicated to metal shaping.

John, maybe we can start our own annual meet?

So will this hurt Metal Meet, I'm not sure, but if they lose one good member, I say yes it does.

[tdoty]

The biggest deal with our own annual meet, I would say, is location. Timing would count too. A spring meet was on the request list for MM, and some of the regional events covered that. Might be a good timeframe to aim for.

I was vocal about the things I saw happening too........sometimes way to vocal.

I had a couple of false starts with my own sites.....mostly trying to do much too soon and just ended up playing with mys........uh, I mean talking to myself.

The folks who taught what I know about metalshaping were the MetalMeet guys - Kerry and Dutch gave me a lot of help at the first 'meet I went too. Wray was inspirational. What can I say about Randy? Serious set of skills there. Stan ("Ya gonna stand there and watch? Or are ya gonna make a #$%^&*# flower?") Lobitz, Bob Baisden.............heck, I ain't even gonna try to name them all. I try to pass along whatever I can, because that's the way they did it.

The invite when AllMetalShaping came along was much appreciated! Being invited to join the Operations Team was totally unexpected. Though I don't get to do a lot of metalshaping these days, I do my best to contribute to this site by at least keeping things running and updating whatever needs it.

Tim D.

[Kerry Pinkerton]

The metal shaping community is what it is. The number of places that metal shapers hang out to talk shop (or chat) is something else and probably has little to do with the size of the community.

Politics aside, the existence of this site shouldn't impact the attendance at MM09. I'd think the economy will be the driving factor. Attendance was down a bit last year but the smaller headcount actually made it more fun. When there are so many people you don't have room to move, it cuts down on actual metal shaping, imo.

Personally, I'm still planning on attending. I'm not going to let a couple people keep me from seeing my friends.

[tdoty]

Unfortunately, MM09 falls on my long week again this year. I'm hoping to make an appearance sometime Wednesday or Thursday to pop in as a spectator to say hello to my friends again and give Kerry some electrical help.

The economy is likely to be a BIG factor this year.

Tim D.