This is all so convoluted and incestuous someone needs to draw a diagram...
I signed up to FPN and just thought it was a nice friendly place where people talked about pens, paper and inks in detail that family members and partners wouldn't tolerate. And then this seething underbelly reveals itself. A bubbling mire that rivals anything seen in the House of Commons!
To a newcomer to FPN, it must all be a bit of a mystery to see all this dirty washing strewn out over a couple of other pen boards!
My own experiences with the details of the FPN CS Forum date back to late 2007 so you can see this has all been going on for some time, while others have issues that go back much earlier. You can read about all the CS related problems in the pinned topic at the head of the FPB Europe forum - a topic originally started by me with a humerous intention rapidly turned into the place where several of those shafted by FPN mods and admins related their own particular experiences after raising their queries about CS. If you have followed the various more recent threads you will see that similar issues are widespread throughout FPN and seem to apply to anybody who dares to query any admin policy such as their method of charging for sales posts.
Despite the apparent complexity of the minutiae, all these issues seem to boil down to one thing - FPN is run by moderators and admins with short tempers, poor judgement, a love of secrecy and intrigue, a lack of respect for other people's views and, most importantly, a complete lack of people skills. As a result, many of those who have real knowledge about brand history, repair skills or whatever can no longer be bothered to post there. A few have come over to FPG or FPB but others I know just don't bother to get involved online at all.
I think I have seen it written elsewhere that FPN is the 'elevator music' of online pen discussion and this sums it up perfectly. There are no doubt thousands of FPN members who hold no strong opinions and will never fall foul of the admins - accordingly, they will be happy with their experience. Personally, I hate elevator music.......
Jon & Hugh (especially) despite their experiences have generously expressed the opinion that they hope FPN recovers from all this. I'm not so sure - though I have personally been affected less, and a long time ago, I obviously feel a very much greater sense of indignation. As I said above, I hate elevator music - to me, complete silence is preferable!
Andy
Edited by AndyR, 05 May 2013 - 08:17 AM.