Glojo

[Alfie]

First off I do not want to fire up an old debate nor have this thread hijacked into one. I have read some of the event thread that seems to have caused some concerns and do not wish to comment on it except to say;

Whatever has happened, I personally would like to see glojo come back. I miss his comments and I know we wont all agree all of the time but John has made a lot of useful comments in his many postings over the years and to see him leave is, for me, a sad day in the forum.

John - please come back.

 

[Mr E]

Here, here

 

[flango]

And again from me, it is very sad to see John go and I know he had his reasons but I wish too he would reconsider and remain in the fold. I also found his posts very informative, helpful and thought provoking.

It is indeed a sad day when another long standing member feels the need to leave, there should be room for everyone in this community of ours.

Sorry to see you leave John but I wish you well and sincerely hope you will come back.

 

[PXW]

John is not a man I always agreed with (especially on matters related to law enforcement...), but it is sad to see someone who contributed so readily no longer being around. I've always maintained that there should be space on the boards for vigorous debate (it's what makes it lively and interesting), but that needs people who are prepared to stand toe to toe with their opponents and "slug it out" if necessary. Sometimes that inevitably gets a bit bruising (been on the receiving end myself occasionally), but I'm not sure many would be celebrating the retirement of such a good fighter as John. I'm certainly not.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

I for one (not one it is clear to see) hope John is only absent... and has not left for good

 

[flango]

I for one (not one it is clear to see) hope John is only absent... and has not left for good

See HERE Post #363 in particular, looks like its for good

 

[Seamster15]

I'm upset to see such things happending really quite often these days, a few regulars over the past couple of months have left and not come back.

Why has this happened?

Come back John, if anything it's nice to have the weather report from Down Devon....

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Thanks for the heads up Ian, looks like a sad day.

 

[BlackC55]

Indeed it is sad that John is not around anymore. He has sent be some great PM's supporting me in the past. We do need him here.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I've no wish to cause offence to anyone but surely I'm not alone in spotting that Glojo had been behaving in a particularly aggressive manner for most of this year?

I suppose that it became obvious during the great 'kettling' debate where he semed to be spoiling for a fight and refused to see any side of the debate but his own. The use of capitals, bold and large font could only be seen as aggressive.

This has ended in a thread where a fairly innocent comment by Graham was taken up in a most confrontational way.

As I said no offense intended but there's 2 sides to this and maybe more than meets the eye.

 

[flango]

I've no wish to cause offence to anyone but surely I'm not alone in spotting that Glojo had been behaving in a particularly aggressive manner for most of this year?

I suppose that it became obvious during the great 'kettling' debate where he semed to be spoiling for a fight and refused to see any side of the debate but his own. The use of capitals, bold and large font could only be seen as aggressive.

This has ended in a thread where a fairly innocent comment by Graham was taken up in a most confrontational way.

As I said no offense intended but there's 2 sides to this and maybe more than meets the eye.

I personally dont see any of Johns posts as agressive challenging yes, definitely but agressive never! Some people use large font and bold text to get a point accross but that doesn't mean its agressive. Thats the problem with the written word as opposed to a face to face conversation, the same applies to text and e mail, different people interpret the written word differently what is seen as confrontational by some is seen as the norm by others and nothing we do will ever change that. Me and John have sometimes had diametrically opposite views on a subject that we have aired quite verciferously but we have never fallen out over it.

What does change things is when people start getting personal and in the short time I have been on this forum things now appear to escalate to a personal level far quicker than they ever did. IMHO there is simply no need to ever get personal, if you cant come up with good constructive replies then simply do not post its as easy as that. It's the personal attacks and digs that make well respected members leave the forum John is not the first and unfortunately I'm sure he wont be the last

 

[Chattonmill]

I liked Glojo's postings, what you see is what you get with him, which can't be said for everyone.
I did take offence for him when a Mod had a go at him for calling his annual GTG a Pilgramage. Glojo did not call it a Pilgramage, that was the title of the thread that was started by IBW. To throw that at him after all the hard work that he and his familly put in every year is unacceptable, I for one can see why he is not here anymore, I dont blame him, but I will say that he will be missed greatly.
Whether you agreed with him or not his contribution to this forum was extremely valuable.
You only have to see how many threads there have been in the past asking after him when he has had down times due to ill health to realise that we have lost a valued and respected member.

 

[Sp!ke]

I did take offence for him when a Mod had a go at him for calling his annual GTG a Pilgramage.

Where exactly did I say this?

What I said was his 30 person max 'Pilgramage' was not oversubscribed.

In future, do not put words into my mouth.

 

[Meldrew2]

I too would like to see John (Glojo) back on the forum.

I haven't always agreed with everything he posted, but on one occasion in particular he was kind enough to take the time to explain the chain of thinking behind his post, and, yes, it made sense.

The forum is certainly poorer off without him.

 

[crammy69]

I dont proffess to know the ins and out of the tiffs and spats between members, and as they generally dont make enjoyable reading I tend not to. I was'nt pleased to see TV and Dieselman ( and where is lastminute? these days) dispappear as I had found them extrememly helpful.

A forum is a microcosm of the society in which we live, and like that society when people don't rub along they choose to part company. Its always a shame, but its a fact of life.

However, it would be cool if Glojo (and indeed any others who've got in spats) could choose to ignore what they feel is unfair comment and those that diagree with them choose to ignore thier views in turn.

This is just a forum, but to many its the equivalent of the 'Local', where we pop in regularly for a quick fix of chat and an exchange of views, we may not like all the regulars, but it shouldnt top us popping in. Lets face it every local has a grumpy old geezer on a stool in the corner, a group of rowdy teenagers, the pub know-it-all, the aging rocker, the town brass and so on, everyone has a place, even if you wouldnt take them all home for Sunday lunch afterwards!

All IMHO of course.

 

[Chattonmill]

OK If you want me to quote directly

'I'm not alone in thinking this and perhaps this is why your (30 person max) 'pilgrimage' (there's an oxymoron) is not oversubscribed.'

I'm sorry, but if you can't see that that comment is offensive when it was not him that called it a pilgramage in the first place, then it is not worth discussing.

I enjoy this forum hugely and love the differing opinions, but realistically if that is the tone that the administration sets, how can you expect the members to behave in a reasonable way?

I have great repect for all that the Mods and admin do behind the scenes and long may the forum continue, but a forum is only as good as it's contributors and if there are none of them........

 

[Beetnik]

I joined the Mercedes fold just over a year ago when I bought my first car with a three pointed star. I joined a few forums but kept coming back to this one due to the friendliness and helpfulness of members.

As on any forum there are posters who make you cringe, some who you enjoy reading and some where you look forward to reading their posts - John came very high up in the latter category for me. He's an entertaining and amusing guy, so much so that when his son was interested in a car reasonably local to me I was pleased to go have a look at it, take a test drive and report back.

I've never mentioned it before but a few days later a large, and I mean large, bunch of flowers arrived courtesy of John. It was unexpected and all the more touching for that (and the missus now had no excuse for telling me I spent too much time in front of the computer).

For me that sums up what the forum should be about.

I, for one, miss him and would be delighted to see him back.

 

[Alfie]

Please lets not rake up the content of the other thread. I had hoped this wouldnt be hijacked but it getting that way

John has been through some unimaginably horrific and sad event events in his life. Some that lesser people wouldnt or couldnt even begin to cope with let alone understand for others. If at times he has seemed irritable then perhaps you would too if you couldnt move freely and relied upon morphine as a pain killer. We should all make some allowances sometimes. John probably wont be happy for me saying this.

 

[Sp!ke]

OK If you want me to quote directly

'I'm not alone in thinking this and perhaps this is why your (30 person max) 'pilgrimage' (there's an oxymoron) is not oversubscribed.'

I'm sorry, but if you can't see that that comment is offensive when it was not him that called it a pilgramage in the first place, then it is not worth discussing.

The point being that it cannot be a pilgrimage when less than 30 people out of 20,000+ member forum attended. It is this fact that I was trying to spell out to highlight Grahams observation.

For the sake of the 19,970 other members can you not now understand Grahams point about the whole thing being a bit of a non event without a single picture or a single post describing the events of the day (other than thanks) following an 8 month build up.

It seems Glojo couldn't understand so he took it out on Graham, then me, same as he did with anyone else who didnt see eye to eye with him.

 

[GRAV888]

I was'nt pleased to see TV and Dieselman ( and where is lastminute? these days) dispappear as I had found them extrememly helpful.

With the exception of TV, the others you have mentioned have disappeared of their own free will.
I cannot comment on individual cases, as I know not the facts, but they are all welcome to continue to use the forums.
What we do object to though, is when a member throws their toys out of the pram, for one reason or another, and destroys many threads by the removal of posts and/or pictures.
It has taken the staff many hours so far to edit threads/posts to try and make them make some sort of sense again.
Before someone says it, we are not after thanks for doing this, but surely it can be seen that it was just mindless behaviour that should have never happened in the first place.
This was a relatively minor clean up so far, but what if we had given in to requests for the 'EDIT TIMEOUT' to be scrapped. That would have been a total nightmare.