[kees]

To avoid any kind of gossip, mystic or other bull**** about this - I've banned member 415banker temporarily for consistently promoting other websites and forums without the express consent of m5board.

It's completely fine to have your own website and/or forum. And it's completely fine to be a member here at the same time. With the consent of m5board it's also completely fine to mention events from that website or forum here once in a while. However it's completely not fine to post here, promote your website/forum without consent and slander the administrators/moderators. In that case it's very simply exceeding a lot of lines.

I think you'll find that you would have been banned a long time ago if you'd tried to pull this kind of **** on other forums.

 

[plastique999]

kees I'm having trouble understanding this whole thing...I believe 415banker was providing links to pics from Mfest...that is all?

As a member of the M5boards and as one who has attended Mfest, I'm perplexed as to why there seems to be a dispute between the leaders of these 2 groups....there were hundreds of attendees at the Mfest and everyone had a great time...at the same time we are all enthusiasts of the M5boards....why can't we all just get along?

It would be unwise to separate these two groups as this would cause a division between us members who are enthusiasts....

Can the moderators please explain what is going on or issue a statement...this is very unsettling for those of us who love both groups, and don't understand what is exactly going on....but it would be a shame to pledge allegiance to one and not the other...

 

[kees]

No members are being asked to choose here. M-fest has been and will be most welcome here. I think that fact there is a dedicated M-fest forum here makes that very clear.

However I hardly think that it needs pointing out that setting up a messageboard dedicated to BMW 5-series and linking to images on that forum is going to be tolerated.

 

[plastique999]

ok ... thanks for the clarification

 

[Laidback]

415banker last post (not about other website) was last week and he get's temp ban today :dunno:and if he did mention another website it would have been an honest mistake...

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=2650273

anyway i think he already packed and left since his last post(last week)...so no more drama there

 

[kees]

415banker last post (not about other website) was last week and he get's temp ban today :dunno:and if he did mention another website it would have been an honest mistake...

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/search.php?searchid=2650273

anyway i think he already packed and left since his last post(last week)...so no more drama there

Deleted posts don't show up in searches.

 

[wilsodh]

As a member of the M5boards and as one who has attended Mfest, I'm perplexed as to why there seems to be a dispute between the leaders of these 2 groups....there were hundreds of attendees at the Mfest and everyone had a great time...at the same time we are all enthusiasts of the M5boards....why can't we all just get along?

I've been out of the loop on the M-fest this year (hopefully this won't be the case next year), but it is disappointing to hear that Chris had a negative experience when it came to the M5board. For whatever reason, he did not feel he got the support he was hoping for. The guy obviously worked his @ss off to bring this off, and one would hope that whatever commercial interests may be impeded the relationship, this does not occur next year.

It was also disappointing that this did not get main forum 'sticky' exposure. I'm a regular visitor to M5board, and it did seem that during the run up to the event and the week or so after the event, the visibility on the main forum was conspicuously lacking for such a remarkable occasion. If I didn't feel 'in touch' with what was going on, there is probably a large number of other more casual members who did not. Yes, I could easily search out the info... it was only a few clicks away. Yes, it DID get exposure via the M5Board. The point is that I didn't feel that the event got the support that it could have by M5Board. Something did seem to be missing.

I urge Gustav and Kees and other M5board 'management' to please consider this next year. It is good business to be visibly associated with a great event. Please, wake up and get M5board out there and actively behind Chris next year.

Chris: A hearty thanks for all you did to make this happen. You are the hero in all this. :goldcup:

Dave

 

[deknight]

I've been out of the loop on the M-fest this year (hopefully this won't be the case next year), but it is disappointing to hear that Chris had a negative experience when it came to the M5board. For whatever reason, he did not feel he got the support he was hoping for. The guy obviously worked his @ss off to bring this off, and one would hope that whatever commercial interests may be impeded the relationship, this does not occur next year.

It was also disappointing that this did not get main forum 'sticky' exposure. I'm a regular visitor to M5board, and it did seem that during the run up to the event and the week or so after the event, the visibility on the main forum was conspicuously lacking for such a remarkable occasion. If I didn't feel 'in touch' with what was going on, there is probably a large number of other more casual members who did not. Yes, I could easily search out the info... it was only a few clicks away. Yes, it DID get exposure via the M5Board. The point is that I didn't feel that the event got the support that it could have by M5Board. Something did seem to be missing.

I urge Gustav and Kees and other M5board 'management' to please consider this next year. It is good business to be visibly associated with a great event. Please, wake up and get M5board out there and actively behind Chris next year.

Chris: A hearty thanks for all you did to make this happen. You are the hero in all this. :goldcup:

Dave

+1

 

[kees]

I find it extremely interesting to see some of the newer members try so hard to continuously link from M5board threads to other websites, put M5board in a bad light and push M-fest into becoming associated with other forums. That when one of the main sites being used by newer members to publish M-fest pictures is called my5series.com and was registered January 8, 2008...so way before M-fest ever took place. Waddya mean no ulterior motives... hmmm

 

[Richard in NC]

I can't speak for other members, but because I had an M5, a 650i, and currently own a 550i and an X3, I am a member of several boards.

I did feel that M5board.com was "home base" for the M-Fest, but to make it a big success, and get the exposure it deserved, it was advertised on other boards, many of which do focus on other ///M models, not just the M5 & M6.

Also, in the heat of the battle, in the rush to get pictures online for all to see, cross linking is absolutely necessary. It took 1-2 hours to post the limited number of pictures that I did on M5board. I decided to not post the pictures elsewhere but to cross link them from the other boards to M5board.
It is likely that members from other boards did just the opposite, not for any "ulterior motives" but simply to save time and allow all viewers to see the pics regardless of board membership.

PS: I too am amazed and appreciate the time that Chris (and others) put into M-Fest, and the fact that Gustav and the board supported the effort.
I would hate to see continued ill-will among all parties.

 

[Gustav]

I just saw this thread and some others on Mfest and would like to make an “official statement” to clarify the issues.

The main issue with this particular thread is that the member is promoting his own competing 5-series community, which we obviously can’t allow at m5board. Despite sending a warning, which he didn’t reply to, he continued to use m5board to promote his own site. Promoting commercial or competing sites is not an acceptable practice and we will always act on this type of behavior on m5board.

We will of course not chase a member that does a casual reference to a company or a competing site. In this particular case, the member has systematically been promoting his site by posts, giving out stickers at Mfest and afterwards continued to promote despite a written warning. I am sure you understand that we can’t accept this behavior. This member is of course banned and his promotional spam/posts have been deleted since they are against our policy.

Regarding Las Vegas m5board meet / MFest: To give a little bit of background, it actualy started off as a thread “Big m5board meet in March 2008” on m5board before it “transformed” into a separate commercial event with a separate web site outside m5board.

No other forum on the Internet has helped promoting the Mfest event as m5board has done over the last couple of months with over 60 000 views and exposure in all forums. We have done this free of charge with no demand on participation in Mfest’s sponsor revenues. Please note that other promoters of commercial activities at m5board are supporting us by paying a monthly fee to finance our cost of software, servers, airfield events, editorial content, etc. We are very proud of helping Mfest take place (Chris, great job!) and to give this support for free.

As stated above regarding using m5board to promote other commercial or competing sites, we can never accept that the Mfest team suddenly launches their own web site weeks before the event and that the www.m5board.com/mfest page is automatically rerouted to this new external site (which was done without our prior knowledge!).

We have always been and will continue to be keen on promoting meetings for m5board members (even commercial ones actually!), but we can’t accept rerouting of our web pages nor support the creation of potentially competing web sites with/without commercial intent.

Please note that the parties with their own agendas, be commercial or not, but definitely not m5board’s, have all to win to try to find a controversy in this and polarize the discussion. It will only destroy the courteous and respectful tone of conversation that m5board members are known for.

If you have ANY question about this, please do not hesitate to email or PM me, I am happy to answer your questions ([email protected]).

Best regards Gustav

 

[Glock 32]

Well said, thank you for clarifying what has been going on here Gustav and Kees.

Without your response I feel that it was doing just that as I did not understand why all the drama...

Please note that the parties with their own agendas, be commercial or not, but definitely not m5board’s, have all to win to try to find a controversy in this and polarize the discussion. It will only destroy the courteous and respectful tone of conversation that m5board members are known for..

I also do not see what the big deal is about leaving this in the correct section under group meets or whatever.
-edit- (it is funny how it keeps poping up in different section(s) and then back during all of this)

I hope to make it next year if not surrounded by controversy. Although I totally agree with m5board's position here, I do think Laidback had no ill intention in all of this, but what do I know. Sorry to speak up when I didn't attend and do not know any of the details, but I think there are more of us here than those 'in the know' and this is how one of us who is not in the loop sees it.

Peace my brothers. Hope all is and/or gets resolved between Laidback and m5board and that the m-fest stays here. I mean I for one would like to have gone to meet other m5board members, not just anyone with an M car.

 

[plastique999]

Thanks for clarifying Gustav...there are a lot of us who did not understand exactly what the rift was....

If there is a competing entity, then this makes sense. On the other hand, I think Chris and many others have done a great job in organizing the event, and the hope is that Mfest does NOT compete with M5board....rather that they progress and grow symbiotically. (This is my own opinion not siding with either)

 

[415banker]

To avoid any kind of gossip, mystic or other bull**** about this - I've banned member 415banker temporarily for consistently promoting other websites and forums without the express consent of m5board.

i stopped posting a week before you banned me. i was warned once by gustav and stopped right after. i apologized to gustav a few days ago for not responding to his PM. hopefully he sees my side. as for promoting the "other" site, yes i admit i was promoting it during the mfest with vinyl stickers...but it actually is no where near to compete with the mighty m5board! =)...that site was to focus on 5's in general and mainly non-ms =)...plus, it's going to be non-commercial too!

It's completely fine to have your own website and/or forum. And it's completely fine to be a member here at the same time. With the consent of m5board it's also completely fine to mention events from that website or forum here once in a while. However it's completely not fine to post here, promote your website/forum without consent and slander the administrators/moderators. In that case it's very simply exceeding a lot of lines.

i apologize for the misunderstanding sir...i just had tons of pics and decided to use the ftp site of the aforementioned site as a tool to get the pics out quicker! =)...as for slander? i'm trying to look at all the posts i did, and never cursed at u or other admin at all....just very unprofessional to be cursing people around, u know what i mean? =)

I think you'll find that you would have been banned a long time ago if you'd tried to pull this kind of **** on other forums.

other forums? i would do cross promotions on forums left and right between bf.c, bfest, e46fanatics, e90post, vwvortex, mbworld, mymb, audizine, m3forum, and e60 to name a few with m5board related threads. not once was i given a suspension nor was i banned for doing so sir...since i guess the mods there saw that my intentions are to bring communities together! i do this for fun! not making money out of it! =) oh yeah, i even would post m5board watermarked pics on some of the mentioned forums especially of the e39 m5 touring (since that would be my dream car).

talking about cross promotion, one great example now is bimmerfest...its the talk of the town! =) but i don't see anyone getting banned for mentioning it any of the other forums or here...

i kind of feel bad that i was shot at the way u did sir. oh well...by gone's be by gone's =)...like i said before i packed up and left since i was weirded out with the whole politics of the mfest/m5board issue. i just wanted to say my piece now to let u know my side...i'm not trying to ruin the m5board by making this response...in fact, i used to sport an m5board.com sticker on my previous touring! =)...

 

[kees]

i just wanted to say my piece now to let u know my side...i'm not trying to ruin the m5board by making this response...in fact, i used to sport an m5board.com sticker on my previous touring! =)...

Thanks for posting your side of the story. Let's leave things be and see where it goes from here.