This was the original email sent to members of FoMDRF.
Due to recent problems with one former Pyrates Royale Bandmember making my personal life a living HELL for no reason at all. I am deleting the board and the website effective this evening.
I cannot allow this thing called "Faire" to intrude on my "REAL life."
If anyone wants to pick up where I left off, please do so. . . I will not be a part of it.
I'm not sure if I'll be at MDRF this season as I've already received several emails that warn me not to go.
I'll miss you all and I really loved doing all this.
Steve
To which I replied...
And you know I'm not gonna let this die, but as you own the name and the boards I'm letting you know of my intent. I want you to not shut down the boards make me the administrator let me buy the domain name from you (all the art and effort are yours to donate or destroy as you see fit.)
Lumpy
To summarize the next reply, which was to me alone, there are other domains available and I cannot buy the site. And that is when everything disappeared. Now I have to say before anyone starts getting upset, the friends of site was owned by Steve and he had every right to close and erase it. The boards were started by Steve and he, again, had every right to close them; that doesn't mean he was right in doing it. There were almost 3000 posts from almost 300 people and they are all gone now.
When I started getting emails and ims from folks asking me what was going on because the boards were gone I went into action and for the next four hours made the new boards for the community.
When I was damn near done this email was sent out...
Thank you. . . my friends.
We'll be at faire tomorrow. We talked about everything that has gone on and I'm now determined to not let one "bad apple" spoil our fun. Several folks emailed and IM'd me saying what a shock this has been and how disappointed they are.
No one said they were disappointed in me, but I sure am. Sorry for all of this, but I got broadsided and am ashamed that I gave up so fast.
Site is coming back on line at present, I'll have a new bulletin board up by Monday.
However, I'd like your input on some new rules. I'll be approving who joins the group and everyone will need to provide the answers to the Black Fox's 20 Questions and a photo (A lot of you I have both from already, so don't worry about it). Folks will also have to post at least once every thirty days to stay an active member and must let us know in what capacity they serve the festival (whether castmember, mundane, entertainment, vendor, playtron, etc. . .) Let me know what you think of these new guidelines for membership. I think there's much better recognition if there's a face with a name.
More info to come, let's all talk more tomorrow. . . but we're back and will be better than ever. . . I promise!
I really do love my friends and as always, I can't do any of this without you all or my lovely Cynthia.
Steve
So what do you do at this point, well it's up to you. I didn't do this for me I did it for us, you know that whole group motto thing was "NOT FOR ME, NOT FOR YOU, BUT FOR US". Well I still believe in that. Steve is still my friend, his impulsiveness is one of the things I have come to expect but in my mind he crossed the line this time. It doesn't matter if you choose to join the boards I made or not, I just don't want the group to die...
Update
And so it continues, now I start getting emails from people telling me that I am trying to split the group and a continuation from Steve.
We're BACK! After a friday night of fretting, FoMDRF.org is back online and better than ever! so set your new bookmark at: http://fomdrforg.proboards54.com/index.cgi and remember the full site is at: http://www.friendsofmdrf.org! C'mon back and enjoy the fun - opening weekend pictures will be online by 5 this evening so check 'em out!
If you've already joined us on the new board. . . THANX!
(that's the bulk email I sent out) Can you do me a favor and dump your board? folks are really getting confused! LOL
I appreciate it,
Steve
So let us see, now Steve wants me to do everyone the way he did, well here is my response.
Just to let you know, everything is not back, you dumped almost 3000 posts because you got a bug up your ass. Again you didn't listen to your friends but just reacted. Trashing your site was one thing, but you trashed the work of over 200 people. It was your right but you werent right. I asked you to let me take it over, not for me, for the people who read and use the boards, and then you destroyed thier work not just your own.
This one was inexcusable and then to say that what you did on the boards like that. You make it seem like I tried to replace what you had done instantly, no that isnt what happend. I responded to your actions by doing what you said for someone to do. I told you I wasnt gonna let the group die, I did what I needed to.
They arent my boards, they are the communities boards and if they choose to use them or not it is up to them, I am not letting you destroy the things that I post again.
I think I stated my feeling pretty well here, but judging by the reply I got, I was wrong.
Sorry, I'm not buying that from someone who constantly complains about not wanting to be part of a group. I've not heard any complaints about losing the board from ANY of the 200 people except you.
Most are actually happy that the board has been restarted and don't have to file through 3000 posts just to get caught up.
Good luck with everything!
Steve
And my reply was as follows...
Thats fine Steve, you don't have to understand or believe what I say. I
consider you a friend, I just cant believe what you did, and you really
made me feel like an ass and to act like it was nothing then try to make
me look I was being the bad guy. You let me down this time.
Lumpy
And the simply reply I got back from that was a simple "k". At least until I recived the following email and was kicked out fo the group. Maybe to some it is childish but so is erasing 3000 posts on message board because you got your fellings hurt.
Putting up a private issue between us up at LJ is the same drama that Lynne pulled and I won't be dragged into that. Whether you actually type it into your LJ or make a link to your own site, I can't believe you'd drop to such a level as to pull such childish crap as cutting and posting responses.
Friends don't do this to each other in a public forum. Please don't call me your friend because that's a lie as you've just proven.
I will not have any drama from you or anyone else. If you need drama, please stay away from me as I'm really burnt out of it.
I find your opinions of what I told you twisted and innacurate and I can't allow you to ruin what I've worked so hard to put together over the past few years.
Now I don't what i posted that was twisted or inaccurate as this is exactly what was said and sent to me, and we are not even go to get into the simple fact that aparently everyone else in the group who worked towards making it great did nothing it seems, or what they did just wasn't important as he could destroy it with a mouse click. To make the point Steve dragged me out of the gate on Sunday to make the group photo and then Photoshoped me out of it (talk about childish). So it seems I must have been wrong trying to keep something alive that I cared in, now I replied to this but I supose I'm just wasting everyones time now.
Good luck to my friends, until we meet again, I bid you peace and safe journies...
And a final update I'm thinking this time. I got this email from The Black Fox today...
you are welcome to rejoin us at fomdrf.org
Uhmmm, let's see, no thank you. My friends know where I'm at and I wont be drawn into anyones quagmire of billshit again.
Yeah so you guessed it, I was wrong there was still more to come. There was some personal stuff as well and one of the parties involved asked that I keep it that way.
This was sent to my hosting company this past week.
------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
FriendsofMDRF.org is my intellectual property and was created and has been active since 2003. Earlier this year, 2005, a client of yours set up a website: friendsofMDRF.com which is in direct conflict with my intellectual property and copies much of the ideas and text of my site, thereby violating my copyright and property. I have already alerted the Domestic IP Enforcement of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. I intend to take it further to the Department of Justice or the FBI in order to protect said intellectual property. Please suspend FriendsofMDRF.com until such time as the entire site and associated sites no longer conflicts with my original site, established years ago. Below is information pulled from whois.net in which I got this administrative contact. Feel free to compare the site's ideas, themes and contents. The violation of my rights is obvious.
Thank you for this time in this matter,
Steve Kimball
founder and owner
friendsofmdrf.org
------------- End of forwarded message -------------
Now I clearly remember recieving these comments in emails a few months ago.
"If anyone wants to pick up where I left off, please do so. . . I will not be a part of it." Steve "friends of mdrf.net is free, I may have a change of heart next year when things die down again. . .who knows. . . I never put the names I own up for sale, sorry. I need to delete everything. . . you guys can rebuild from scratch."
Steve Kimball
Needless to say my hosting company has seen this and has not seen to validate this fools comments at all. Why wont this man leave me alone and stay out of my life? I have stayed clear of him and avoided him at all costs. LEAVE ME ALONE!!! You know Steve if you spent as much time trying to find a job as you do giving me grief you might be employed by now, hell you'd have several real jobs. Come to think of it one of your dozen or so websites might be finished and not lead you to a myriad of "Under Construction" pages.
Can anyone tell me which of Steve's rights I've violated??? Does this constitute harassment now???
Please email me with any questions or comments at MDRF.Lumpy@gmail.com, or just send me a private message through the boards.