[Mad Mike]

While verifying that the 2002 Valvoline SCCA RunOffs Formula Ford Champion was the same Justin Pritchard who rented and rallied the RealAutoSport, LLC SORT at the 100 Acre Wood last February I visited the Formula Ford Underground forum and found it shut down. The following explanation was available:

"Dear Formula Ford Underground Members

"We will try to make this as short as possible. Dave and I have decided to shut down the Formula Ford Underground permanently. We could go in to a long list of reasons why but the bottom line is that it's just not worth the personal aggravation anymore.

"In a nutshell, the FFU has lost it's way. It used to be the place to sell cars, buy cars, meet people, share information and help new racers get started in Formula Ford. This is not the case anymore, it has become a argumentive political cesspool full of misinformation rumors and innuendos, it's like a crowd gathering watching a house fire. Our intent was to bring the Formula Ford Community together, not divide it, which we are afraid is and was happening.

"For the time being it will be available as "read only" so you may copy anything you feel might be worthwhile. We have tried to recruit a couple of worthy individuals to set up a new board but neither Dave or I will be involved in any way. Should a new board materialize, a link to it will be provided here.

"Thank you
Jake Lamont
Dave Hopple"

Jim Konkler, Jeff Burmeister, George Plsek and Ben Bradley have shared "personal aggravation" stories both publicly and personally in the past but they (and others) continue to pour much of themselves into this information enterprise. Let's not send ss.com down the same dead end road FFU found itself. How you help the situation, of course, is up to you. I've adopted an attitude that paraphrases the oft-heard comment from my late Dad, "Think twice, post once."

BTW ...

[h1]Congratulations[/h1] to recent ClubRally newbie Justin Pritchard for claiming his second Valvoline RunOffs formula car National Championship! FC in 1996 and now FF in 2002! Folks in the Historic Class better watch out, Justin's sure to be hitting the ClubRally trails soon with the Mini Cooper he bought in the UK!

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[JB Niday]

Sure could!

Good point Mike... I count Jeff, Jim, George and Ben as friends and I often wonder why they bother to support SpecialStage... I am glad they do.

J.B. Niday
www.nidayrallysport.com

 

[dch]

RE: Sure could!

Uhm, I like all those guys, except Jeff.

-Doug

 

[Doug Woods]

Mike:

I am really glad that you posted this. It is all too easy to forget the tremendous efforts put in by the organizers/moderators of this forum. It is also too easy to forget why we are all on this forum - because of our interest in rallying.

In general, we are a reasonably well behaved group of people and our moderators conduct their duties exactly as they should.

Let us all try to maintain this status quo.

Doug Woods

PS - I have recently had to deal off-line with one of the moderators on rallyforum.com and, after this experience, I can personally vouch for the fact that our specialstage.com moderators are true gentlemen and conduct their duties appropriately.

 

[JB Niday]

RE: Sure could!

Truth be told; I don't like Jeff either... who does?

J.B. Niday
www.nidayrallysport.com

 

[JB Niday]

Rally who dot what?

You been chatting on another forum? How COULD you!?! Jeff won't like that!

J.B. Niday
www.nidayrallysport.com

 

[Foghorn]

Ban him, he's just an accident-monger. :7 }>

Kent Gardam

 

[tom grossmann]

RE: It could happen here ...tell it on the mountain

Mike I'm going to bring this up at the Las Vegas Region generel meeting.We use the SCCA forums to communicate , unfortunatly we have a couple of folk who don't get it. These folk see fit to post as many slams as possible. It will be good to let people know that this is a free service that could go away.

Tom Grossmann

 

[Jon Bogert]

Topics vs. Manners

I participate on several forums and the best ones, like SpecialStage, allow discussion of difficult issues by polite people. I don't know what went on with the FF forum, but the fastest way to kill a topic is with personal attacks. Good moderation deals with that sort of thing swiftly and impartially, without compromising the important content of the conversation.

That approach is even more important where the future direction of all of rally is at stake. There are (at least) two sides to this issue, and SpecialStage is the only place where the problems we all face can get a public airing. Although this is a privately owned board, I think the owners realize the burden of being the "rally forum of record" and they run it with scrupulous impartiality.

SpecialStage is thriving--not declining--and no matter how or where (or under what banner) we're all rallying in the future I don't see any reason why it wouldn't continue to do so!

 

[jeff burmeister]

that is it !!!Banned!!!

After a hard day of internal meetings here at SpecialStage.com, the dedicated staff, share holders, board of directors, oversite commitees, and the original investors have an offical announcement in regards to the continued usage of the forums.
Henceforth, it will be specialstage.com standard procedure and policy to disallow anyone to post on the specialstage.com forums who is a member of the Performance Rally Board, and who also male in gender, and who also is 35-50 years of age, and who also resides in the state of Minnesota, and who also uses an accronym for their first name instead of their real first name.

While we here at Specialstage.com would like to thank all of our devouted members and readers for their constant positive attitudes towards rally. (But not necessarily each other) And for those who have just been excluded from our warm little family ( ahhh that is you JB if you couldn't figure it out) we will miss you ( not really ) and will constantly think of you ( forgotten by the end of the hour ) for years and years to come...

Laugh.. okay, I feel better. So JB? are we meeting at the bar for drinks tonight as usual? Dixie's at 7:00

Jeff Burmeister

 

[Mad Mike]

RE: It could happen here ...tell it on the mountain

> Mike I'm going to bring this up at the Las Vegas Region
>generel meeting.We use the SCCA forums to communicate ,
>unfortunatly we have a couple of folk who don't get it.
>These folk see fit to post as many slams as possible. It
>will be good to let people know that this is a free service
>that could go away.
>
> Tom Grossmann

Thanks Tom. It was the sobering evidence of the FFU's demise that stirred me to share their plight and point out just that fact. SS.COM is here to help promote our sport thanks to the time, money, work, talent, passions and equipment of a handful of people. We have a forum in which we may discuss just about anything, being asked to conduct ourselves with a little decorum seems a very small price to pay.

Halley ...
http://www.realautosport.com

 

[Widget Codriver]

Jaybee

What many of us wonder is why did Jaybee Niday elect to use Jeff Burmeister's initials?

Or is this just another PRB secret left for the conspiracy theorists to ponder to keep us from worrying about real issues?!?!?

 

[JB Niday]

Intrigue? I think NOT!

I was "J.B." before Jeff was even a twinkle in his father's eye!

J.B. Niday
www.nidayrallysport.com

 

[B]

RE: Topics vs. Manners

It's a shame that the founders of FFU were scared off by their own creation. The thing about most online Forums is that you start it with the best intentions and visions of a small utopia filled with individuals who share your interest in the subject, even if not your opinion. Inevitably, however, as they grow, a more diverse sample of the population appears that may interact a little differently from the established group (all sounds a little elitist, doesn't it?...)

I lived through the evolution of the infamous I-Club and it is a demonstrative study of popularity hitting a small online community head-on (contrary to popular belief, that board was a VERY good resource in its earlier days).

I like this forum. We get in heated discussions sometimes, but they are just that: Discussions. We discuss, we share views, we move on (well, there may be 1 or 2 grudges )